‘He’s here.’

I grabbed Raelas by the arm, my grasp firm but not tight. ‘Get back to the temple,’ I told her. ‘Fetch Corminar and Lore, bring them to the house. I’ll get the others ready. Understand?’

The tiefling nodded. No smiles, no batting of her eyelashes, just a nod.

‘Good.’ I turned away and began sprinting through the sea of orange robes, resisting the urge to portal my way through. That would surely get me noticed, and even if it didn’t, it could plant a seed in the back of the Player’s mind—one that might have him expecting a portal. My feet hit the hard cobbled streets as I slid between flocking pilgrims and unimpressed locals, working my way across the city and back towards the house that Tokas and Lambkin had rented for the duration of their work here.

As I approached the front door, I spotted Lambkin coming from the other direction. He raised a hand to get my attention, but before he could say anything, I shouted, ‘Inside. Now.’ A serious expression crossed his face in a flash.

When I bombed through the door, four faces looked up at me. Tokas, Ama, Carle and Punnas—Lopas nowhere in sight—stood and crouched around piles of the equipment commandeered from the mercenaries.

‘What—’ Ama started, but Tokas caught on quick.

‘He’s here,’ the tiefling said.

‘Yes.’

‘And the others?’

‘On the way. They’ll be here soon.’ I looked around at the piles of equipment. From what I could tell of the piles, they’d organised them into weapons, armour, artifacts, and… a mix. Possibly those items not useful to anyone in this makeshift team, to be sold to pay for hired help. But there wasn’t time for that, now. Yusef was here for a reason, and the longer we waited to strike, the more chance we’d have of finding out what that reason was. I really didn’t want to find out. ‘What do we got?’

Tokas stood from her crouched positions, stretching her back as she did so. ‘Weapons were the easiest. We’re looking for damaging-boosting equipment, and that usually happens on the weapon side rather than the armour. But that doesn’t mean the armour was a complete bust.’ The tiefling strolled across the room to the pile of weapons, and pulled a thin dagger from the pile. She brought it up towards me fast.

I flinched.

Tokas’s face paled, and as she gulped, an awkward silence swept over the room. After a second, she flipped the blade around, facing the handle towards me for me to take. Neither of us made eye contact with one another; we didn’t want to talk about the reasons I’d flinched—that I could never really trust her—but at the same time that meant we couldn’t resolve it.

I kept my eyes on the blade as I took it from Tokas’s hands, and I saw sigils on the dagger glow gently, the glow taking on the purple hue of Worldbending to my touch.

Item Equipped — Sorcerer’s Friend

Sorcerer’s Friend — +100% to damage when user has magicks active.

‘We figured this was ideal for you,’ Tokas said, looking at nobody in particular. ‘I know it says “sorcerer”, but the description says it works for all magicks. Worldbending, we figured, would be included.’

I held up my other arm, and activated my Ash Husk ability. As my skin rippled and reformed into fire magick-repelling ash, the sigils on the blade glowed purple once more. ‘Looks like you were right,’ I said.

And wasn’t this handy? If I went unnoticed by my target, then I could use my Stealth Attack ability for +200% damage, and the Execution Knifework ability for another +300%. Now that I had this weapon equipped too, that was seven times the usual rate of damage—assuming its added its bonus rather than multiplying, which was how these things usually worked.

I forced myself to look up at Tokas. ‘Thanks,’ I said.

The tiefling met my eye for just a second. She nodded, before turning away once more. This time, she went to the armour pile, and pulled a pair of bracers. This time, she handed the equipment over to me slowly.

I began pulling the armour on.

Item Equipped — Whirlwind Bracers

Whirlwind Bracers (Rare) — Knifework attacks required 30% less stamina.

Warning: you do not meet level requirements to wield this item effectively! Requirement: Knifework — Level 50

I wrenched the straps tight as the warning message flashed before me, and the bracers themselves seemed to start humming with energy. ‘Ah,’ I said. ‘I don’t meet the—’

One bracer shot off my right arm, shooting across the room into the wall, creating another dent in it. Then, just as the front door opened, the other bracer shot off me, repelled by the missing level requirements.

Lore stepped inside just in time to get hit in the head by a flying bracer. ‘Ow?’ he said, looking at the bracer and then around the room with a very confused expression on his face.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

‘Sorry,’ I said through clenched teeth. ‘My bad.’

‘Don’t have the level requirement?’ Raelas asked as she stepped inside behind Corminar. ‘We can do something about that.’

‘You can—’ Lambkin started to ask.

‘You got any belts there?’ Raelas asked Carle. ‘Without any level requirements.’

The barbarian immediately whipped his hand up, four leather belts therein; he’d been on the same page.

Raelas took the bracer that had hit Lore from the floor, and grabbed the belts with her other hand. ‘Alright,’ she said, handing me the bracer. ‘Put this on, and hold it in place.’

I hesitated.

‘Don’t you trust me?’ she asked.

‘No.’

Raelas looked up at me, apparently genuinely upset by this answer.

‘Alright, fine,’ I said, then wrenched the bracer on once more, pulling the straps tight. Already I could feel the energy building up within it, about to spring off me once more.

But the tiefling moved in with the belts, and using two of them, she wrapped the bracer tight, fixing it to my arm. When Raelas was done, she stepped back hesitantly.

Though the bracer wanted to spring off—I could feel it pulling away from my arm—the belts held it in place. ‘...Huh.’

‘And this… works?’ Corminar asked.

‘I’d say about seven times in ten,’ the tiefling replied.

This answer didn’t fill me with confidence, but I allowed Raelas to do the same with the other bracer.

‘OK,’ she said. ‘Now, don’t fidget.’

I slowly began to move my arms around, making sure I could use my full range of motion without dislodging the armour. I couldn’t live my life like this, but I could bear with it for the time it took to assassinate a Player.

Tokas, Ama and Carle distributed the rest of the useful items to the team, Tokas hurrying to cover off Raelas rather than risking a repeat of the earlier incident. Lore and Carle took new armour that gave them good resistance to melee attacks. Ama had already taken her equipment, namely a quiver full of arrows made entirely from metal. Corminar rejected the bow he was offered, apparently happy with the bow Elandor had left him, so this bow was given to Lambkin instead, who was much more happy about it. Instead, the elf took bracers—why were there suddenly so many bracers in the world?—which improved the potency of his alchemical creations. And finally, Raelas was given an obscurem, to hide any glows from her magicks and help her retain the element of surprise.

‘Hey!’ I protested. ‘I want one of those! Why give that to her and not me?’

‘Your portals are fainter,’ Ama said.

I shrugged. ‘So I got Tamed Portals, and what? I—’

Lore placed his hand gently on my shoulder. He didn’t need to say anything to communicate that he thought this wasn’t a battle worth fighting. And so my quest for an obscurem would continue.

‘What about you, Tokas?’ Raelas asked the tiefling. ‘What are you taking?’

Tokas went oddly still. ‘Me? Oh, I… I don’t need anything.’

‘Why not? You’re coming with us, aren’t you?’

The tiefling’s eyes darted to Corminar, lingering for half a second. ‘No. No, I have to stay with the kids. Besides, I wouldn’t want to… to get in the way.’ She glanced at Corminar again.

‘You won’t get in the way,’ Lore said. ‘And the kids will be—’

‘She’s right,’ Corminar interrupted him. ‘It’s best she stays here. It’s best she… watches the children.’

The room went quiet. Everyone here knew something had just happened, but the Trio didn’t know quite what that was. Still, the atmosphere was awkward enough that nobody—not even Ama—worked up the courage to ask.

Lambkin stood from a chair, slapping his knees. ‘Right, then,’ he said. ‘If that’s everything… I suppose it’s time to kill a Player?’

Once again, the occupants and visitors of this house looked to me. I nodded.

‘Remember,’ I told them. ‘We hit him hard and fast.’

"Styk"

Level 19 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 50

Intelligence — 212

Dexterity — 125

Strength — 78

Wisdom — 74

Charisma — 49

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 57

Knifework — Level 41

Stealth — Level 25

Identification — Level 18

Needlework — Level 18

Abilities:

Stab III — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through tougher hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR], increased by an additional 50%.

Execution III — Attack a target while undetected for +300% damage.

Closed Reach — Bend reality to narrow the gap between blade and target by up to 8 inches. Uses mana.

Mana-Fuelled — Passive. Optionally, use mana in place of stamina to activate Knifework abilities.

Knifestorm — Lash out at all surrounding enemies in a tornado of blades, using either one or two daggers. All enemies with arm’s reach receive physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].

Enhanced Portals — Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a thirty yard radius. Support up to two pairs of portals at once. Uses mana to open portals only.

Portal Slice — Passive. Portals can now be spawned within non-sentient objects. Doing so slices through all objects that are not reinforced by magic.

Tamed Portals — Passive. Increased efficiency of portal magicks means that your portal glow is reduced by 50%, making them less likely to be detected by enemies.

Ash Husk — Convert your flesh to ash, strengthening it against flame for ten minutes. Gain 50% resistance to fire attacks.

Shrill Perimeter — Create a perimeter wall of 20 foot radius, invisible to all but those adept in magicks. If an enemy crosses this perimeter, this spell releases the shriek of a banshee.

Warped Shield — Passive. If an enemy strikes you with a low-level melee weapon, Warp Shield automatically activates to open a portal that deflects this attack. You must not have any portals currently active. Uses mana on activation.

Pocket Worlds — Open and access pocket dimensions. Storage capacity of summoned pocket worlds scales with [INT] of creator.

Silence III — Create a bubble of 20 yard radius in which sound is eradicated. Uses mana to cast, zero mana to maintain. You may only have one bubble active at any one time.

Saved Portals II — Select a location to “save” for future portals. Until your save point is moved, you may always open a portal here, even if it is beyond your current Local Portal range. Mana is used only upon opening the portal.

Stealth Attack III — Passive. 200% boost to damage when unnoticed by enemy.

In Plain Sight — When activated, you have a heightened abilitiy to hide in plain sight, and are able to spot opportunities to break from combat at a higher rate. Scales on [WIS].

Gentle Step — Passive. Your footsteps are dampened on even the hardest of surfaces. Reduce noise of movement by 80%.

Stitch — Create a basic stitch in common fabrics. Ability scales on [CHA].

Improved Cloth Armour — Craft a cloth armour of significantly higher quality, dependent on materials, time and skill level.

Active Effects:

Legacy of Sisyphus:

XP gain increased by +1,400%