Jack walked calmly through the large crowd, slinking past the angry people there. He’d been pretty busy since joining the Organisation and accepting the class: The Reaper.
Diako was a slave driver, but he liked that. He wasn’t the type to enjoy relaxation. The god had offered him power and he was willing to work for it.
Though he hadn’t worked outside of Britania yet, his work had been quite varied. Mostly it involved quests to take out major players in Britanian politics.
He’d assassinated mayors, business owners, nobles and even received a quest to infiltrate the high society and report on their activities.
As part of his new class he’d received the Faceless Man skill. It had come in handy during the infiltration as it quite literally allowed him to change his facial appearance.
He hoped that with time and practice he’d even be able to change his race eventually. It would be useful to be able to change into an elf or an orc or something.
No doubt, he’d one day be assassinating them as well. So far though, his targets had been exclusively limited to humans.
It was whilst wearing another person’s face that he found himself slinking ominously through a large crowd. Diako’s end goal, as far as Jack could tell, was to destabilise the city and incite a revolution.
Jack had no idea why, but he didn’t care for politics anyway. He was a tool to be used and he was happy with that.
It had been a month since he’d first met Diako and in that month the city’s people had turned from placid, subservient workers, to angry and violent protestors.
That was the crowd he found himself slinking through: a protest. They were crowded outside the main government building in their thousands. It was truly a sight to behold.
It was the perfect cover to aid his infiltration.
New Quest:
Gunpowder Plot
The sparks of revolution have ignited the flame of the people’s will. Now it’s time to stoke that flame into a full-blown slaughter fest.
During the Russian revolution in your world, the people dragged the Romanov royal family out of the winter palace and executed them all… the women and the children too.
It was a truly gruesome reaction to years of poverty and a failure of leadership.
Right now the leaders of Britania are holed up in the government building with the big clock on it. Let’s make their deaths a little more palatable.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to blow the building sky high and end their reign.
Objectives:
Blow up the government building 0/1
Reward: You get to blow up a building, isn’t that enough? Oh fine, I guess you can have a weapon upgrade token as well.
*Upon the successful completion of your mission, report to The Organisation to claim your reward*
Though it wouldn’t be his first time using explosives for a mission, it wasn’t exactly his area of expertise either. He was more of a long-distance killer.
Still, he had a propensity for violence and he understood the basic principles behind explosives. That was why he carried a large box in his inventory.
He was quite pleased with the design if he did say so himself. Using his knowledge of industrial explosives he’d created a metal box with a V shape inside of it.
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The V shape acted as a thick cone that would channel the blast in a single direction. Without this, the explosion would be omnidirectional which would waste a large amount of the explosive energy.
He’d filled the box with mana infused explosive material. He’d likened it to a plastic explosive in that the material itself wasn’t inherently dangerous.
But, run a current – or in this case concentrated mana – through it and it’d kick out a big old boom.
He was very satisfied with his creation and he felt oddly superior as he reached the edge of the crowd and dropped down into the sewer system.
His previous infiltration mission had gleaned him some useful information which was vital for the completion of his new quest.
The sewer was made of rusty coloured bricks and he had to crouch to get through. It was a tight fit, but not the tightest sewer he’d ever been in. There was this one time in Columbia where he’d… actually, never mind. It wasn’t important.
He made his way through the sewer which ran directly under the crowd and, of course, under the government building.
The crowd roared with outrage above as Jack worked his way under them. He soon came out into a wider, but squat, cistern.
The crowd was muffled in this area and he knew from the intelligence he’d gathered that this was the right place.
There was a single column in the middle of the cistern. It was made of similar bricks to the sewer itself but it had the feel of strong magic enchantments surrounding it.
It’s a good job I designed a mana infused bomb. He snickered in his own head as he pulled out the large crate he’d designed.
He placed the crate on its side so that the direction of the blast would, in theory, punch straight through the column. Next came the risky part.
In order to set off the explosive, he needed to channel mana into it, but if he did that he’d be stood right next to it when it went kaboom.
That obviously wasn’t a good idea.
Jack had realised this flaw in his design early on and had worked on a potential work around. It was risky though.
As he worked his way back through the sewer to reach the entry point he’d dropped down earlier, his heart was bouncing around in his chest.
He was nervous. He never got nervous.
When he was crouched directly under the entrance to the sewer system, he turned around and took his sniper rifle out of his inventory. He faced the cistern and activated his sight skill that allowed him to see through the dark for a long distance.
He could just about make out the crate bomb he’d planted. It was the size of a peanut in his vision. This wasn’t going to be easy.
He trained his rifle’s sights on the bomb and concentrated on filling the barrel with as much mana as possible. Theoretically, as long as the mana hit the charge, it should react similarly to channelling mana into it by hand.
It was still his mana after all.
Jack was a good shot, but hitting a peanut sized target was never easy. The distance alone wasn’t that big of a deal, but the size of the target only shrank the further away he’d gotten.
He took aim, let out his breath part way, concentrated on lowering his heart rate and then, between heartbeats, he squeezed the trigger.
The magic bullet punched into the crate bomb and Jack jumped.
As he flew into the air and back out onto the street, the excess explosive force blasted through the tight sewer system, following him in a mass of flame.
It pushed him even higher into the air and just as he was above the crowd, many of whom had been blow onto the floor by the sudden explosion, he saw it.
The government building seemed to implode as walls collapsed and the roof began caving it. The entire thing fell inwards and plumes of smoke and dust covered the shocked crowd in the square.
He’d planted his bomb on the underground structural support and now his mission was complete.
***
Jack appeared in the dark temple where he had first met Diako. It was his first time being transported there since he’d joined The Organisation.
He was slightly disoriented, but only for a moment. One minute he’d been soaring through the air as he got the best seat in the house to admire his handywork.
The next he was stood before his new god in a calm and foreboding place. He had expected to have to exfiltrate the area and meet his handler at a predetermined location.
That’s how it usually went. He completed the mission, he left the area, met his handler, and received his reward and new instructions.
He was fast at adapting to new situations, so as he faced his new god, he dropped to one knee in reverence. He’d never been a religious man, but Diako had been good to him and he held the upmost respect for him.
“You have completed your mission Reaper?” Diako asked, though Jack was certain he already knew.
“Yes, My Lord.” He replied.
Part of his induction into The Organisation included a crash course in correct etiquette when speaking to the god.
Most gods didn’t speak with their subordinates often, but Diako was an exception to that. He was even known to speak directly into minds and share senses with some of his more trusted and prominent people.
“Good. I’m taking you off this project for a while, something has come up and I want you to handle it.” Diako said, he sounded different from the last time they’d spoken. He seemed… distracted.
“Of course My Lord.” Jack replied. “What is it you would have me do.”
“In a few months’ time another god is holding a tournament to decide who his new high priest will be.” Diako began, rage poked at his well-controlled aura, Jack could feel it like a ticking time bomb. “That god has issued me a challenge that I simply cannot refuse. I need you to win that tournament.”
“You… want me to become someone else’s high priest My Lord?” Jack asked, confusion clouding his mind.
“No. I want you to win because Chrysus has the audacity to threaten to oust my agents!” Diako roared and Jack fell backwards. He wasn’t exactly scared, but he got the inescapable feeling that Diako’s aura might kill him by accident in its unruly state.
“That impertinent upstart has issued me a direct challenge.” Diako continued, reigning his aura in slightly, but still seething. “He has claimed that my activities of late have destabilised the economy of Britania, he says that as the god of wealth anything pertaining to economy is his domain.
“As I have taken action to change the economy of Britania, I have spat in his face. The little brat has threatened to leak the information of Organisation members worldwide if I don’t send someone specific to attend his little tournament.
“I’ve already arranged for that, but I’m sending you as well. I won’t let that insolent cur get away with insulting me. If I win, he won’t take further action. So, you must win Reaper, or die trying.”