We’d spent quite a few days looking for Arzak by the time we’d actually got a real lead on her whereabouts, and none of it had been particularly conducive to making full use of my Legacy of Sisyphus effect.
Active Effect: Legacy of Sisyphus
Days remaining: 956 / 1,000
XP gain increased by +400%
Mostly we’d been wandering from town to town, looking for people who’d seen someone matching Arzak’s description, and no part of this actually required a skill of any sort. I’d entertained myself by portal slicing through tree branches—at least as much as my mana reserves allowed—but I was getting to the point in Worldbending progression where these small amounts of experience didn’t amount to much. In fact, I was still just where I’d been before: at Worldbending level 10.
So, as it was, I was itching for a fight.
Fortunately, that was just where our journey would lead us. The first tip we had on Arzak’s whereabouts came from one of Corminar’s “contacts”—this being the term Corminar consistently used for people who were, in fact, his lovers. The man in question, who I thought surprisingly short considering Corminar’s usual taste, pointed us to the coastal town of Ironview, a good few days to our southeast. It took me two days of that to realise that Ironview was in fact called Ironview because it looked out onto the Iron Sea. I made the mistake of realising this aloud, and Val killed the next few hours mocking me for it.
Getting sick of Val and her incessant mocking of me—she didn’t do that to anyone else!—I dropped back in our walking party and made an effort to strike up a conversation with Tokas. Tokas, I had come to realise, was not a reserved person; she was only reserved around me. I thought maybe that striking up some small talk might help tear those walls down.
She twitched her arm away from me as I got close. Not a great start, and very reminiscent of most times I’ve approached women in taverns.
‘Hey Tokas,’ I tried. ‘We haven’t got to speak much. Thought I could get to know you.’ And then, because that felt all incredibly artificial and forced, I added, ‘Tell me about your kids.’ As soon as the words left my mouth, I realised that wasn’t any less forced-sounding.
‘Why?’ Tokas replied. ‘What do you intend to do with them?’
I blinked. ‘I… OK, sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it. Was just getting to know you.’
Tokas considered me for a moment. ‘With the greatest respect… is there any point?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean: we do this… job. You get your revenge, or justice, or whatever you want to label it, and then you’re done, right?’
We hadn’t even finished forming the team and already people couldn’t wait to get rid of me; it wasn’t a great feeling, I won’t lie. ‘Well, until then, I thought—’
‘And that’s if we succeed, of course. If this Player is as great and powerful as you’ve been telling everyone, there’s a good chance we’ll die in the process.’
‘Cheery thought.’
‘Either way, there’s no need for us to build up some long-term friendship.’ Tokas paused, looking at me. ‘Do you agree?’
I pointed to the front of the group. ‘I’m going to talk to Val.’ Suddenly her insults didn’t seem so bad; at least I wasn’t necessarily sure if she meant them.
Val smiled at me for a moment when I approached, then blinked, confused, and wiped it from her face. ‘Miss me?’ she asked.
‘Tokas is a laugh, isn’t she?’ I replied, ignoring the question.
‘She’s just direct; you’ll get used to it. What did she tell you? That your hairstyle doesn’t suit you? Because it doesn’t. There, I can be direct, too.’
‘She told me we didn’t need to be friends.’
Val threw back her head and almost laughed it off. ‘Ha! Very on brand for her. Both technically true and horrifically insulting. Love it. Real top drawer stuff.’
‘I’m not—’
‘Look,’ Val said, for a moment her tone switching to strangely serious. ‘She’s a tiefling. You know what some people think about them. Can you blame her if she’s learned to put up a rough exterior?’
I sighed, considering this fact. ‘I suppose I can’t. But I don’t feel like I’m gonna get used to it.’
‘You will, I promise. And if you don’t, that’ll be really funny for me. It’s win-win.’
‘For you.’
‘And that’s what counts!’
* * *
When we reached the Iron Sea, with the large, sprawling town of Ironview before us, I remembered why I’d never rushed to set foot in it before. Ironview was a questing town, the largest in this part of the world—at least this side of the Bladerocks—and my line of work… hadn’t been the sort of work you put on the questing registers.
Working off-register meant that there was no guarantee anyone would pay up, of course. All the work that was registered in a questing hub, like Ironview, was recorded for the questing ledgers, and those who collated these records would made certain questers would pay up to questees. Or was that the other way around? I was never clear on those labels.
That Val and Corminar had nodded to one another, sharing some unspoken understanding, upon learning of Arzak’s whereabouts now made sense to me. They knew what she was up to: she was Slaying. She just wasn’t necessarily slaying Players.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Questing records were open, but only in the sense that in theory anyone could read them. In practice, there were ample layers of bureaucracy in the way, as we soon discovered.
‘Arzak,’ Val said again to the questing assistant, having just spent literal hours in the queue with me while Corminar, Lore and Tokas got some downtime. To clarify, we hadn’t volunteered, only drawn the short straws; both of us would have much rather been downing an ale.
‘I’ve got an Alsack?’ the questing assistant replied.
‘You know we just went through exactly the same conversation with your colleague, right?’
‘Subordinate,’ the assistant corrected her.
‘Arzak Blorg,’ I tried, before the riled up Val could say whatever insulting thing had come to mind. ‘An orc.’
‘Alsack is a goblin.’
‘That’s because they’re an entirely different person!’ Val said, voice strained, literally pulling at her hair.
I tried to calm her by gesturing at her with my palm, though this seemed to only redirect her anger onto me. I hurriedly turned back to the questing assistant. ‘Would it help if I spelled it out for you?’ Before the employee could say anything, I pulled out some scraps of paper which I quickly flipped over to hide my shoddy mathematical abilities from when I was working out my Worldbending progression.
‘Oh, Arzak!’ the office worker said. ‘Why didn’t you just say that?’
‘We did bloody well—’ Val started, until I glared at her to make her stop.
Then, moments later, I realised she was absolutely right. ‘Wait, we did say that!’
The questing assistant only shrugged, murmuring something about human pronunciation—even though he himself was a human—and delved into the back.
Turning back, I saw a pair of elves in the queue behind us giving us the dirtiest expression I’d ever seen an elf give anyone, both of them tapping one foot irritably on the floor. I smiled politely at them. ‘We’ll just be a moment.’
‘Blame the—’ Val started, and then this time managed to stop herself. She looked up at me. ‘You know, slaying monsters, climbing mountains, hanging out with you lot… all that I can handle. The only thing I can’t handle is—’
‘Bureaucracy?’
‘—jobsworths like these people seem to be.’ Fortunately, she kept her voice quiet for that bit. ‘I’m gonna need a drink after all this, I can tell you. Arzak—sorry, “Alsack”—can wait.’
‘I’m feeling an amber.’
‘Ooh, yeah,’ Val said, simply the thought of beer seeming to soothe her. ‘Or a ruby.’
I shrugged. ‘Sure. Keep that image in your mind, and I’ll handle this.’
Val smiled, her eyes glazing over. My plan to calm her down had worked. And surely the task before me—overcoming bureaucracy—was far simpler than that.
I leant over the counter, my eyes looking this way and that in the backroom that was filled with tall bookcases. Satisfied that nobody was there, I… hopped it. I kept low in the backroom, knowing full well that I absolutely was not supposed to be here—but then, I’d spent most of my life being places I wasn’t supposed to be. I knew the drill, even if I didn’t yet have the skill tree to back it up: tread lightly, keep to the shadows. Who needed passive bonuses anyway?
I glanced up at the bookcase next to me, a giant ‘G’ emblazoned on a brass plate and mounted to its end. Would Arzak Blorg be under A or B? I wondered, and then set about hurrying down the A end of the room anyway, considering as she’d be up that end either way.
As I got to row F or so, footsteps echoed on the stone floor in front of me, and I dived down the row, keeping to the bookshelf to stay out of the way as a questing assistant—not the one who’d been “helping” us, I noticed—meandered past me, humming to herself and reading a book about caring for dustcats.
Clearly these people had no intention of actually doing any work, and my decision to get it done myself was definitely the correct one. Once the woman had long since passed, I pressed on, having to quickly hurry between bookshelves when I suddenly noticed that another employee was in the D row.
I blinked, coming to an abrupt stop. That was our one! In row D! What was he doing there? These people really were useless.
When I got to B, I tried my luck there, first—and it paid off. There, nestled between Blorfenley and Bloss, was a thick wad of papers labelled “Blorg, Arzak”. I thought about leafing through them and finding the latest quest, but considering there were footsteps quickly approaching—from the D row, if I wasn’t mistaken—I chose instead to get out of there, looping back around on the other side of the bookcases to avoid our irritating questing assistant.
The pair of elves looked disapprovingly at me as I hopped the counter, caught the tip of my right foot on the side, and fell to the floor.
Stealth — +1,200xp
Stealth increased to level 3!
Stealth increased to level 4!
Stealth increased to level 5!
Base Points gained — +3 DEX, +3 WIS, +3 Free Points (DEX/WIS)
Ability selection unlocked
Select an ability from the list below…
Level up!
You increased to level 8!
Hah, and even an ability. I hadn’t expected that much success from my spur-of-the-moment vault over the counter. Take that, bureaucracy!
‘What was that?’ Val asked, souring the mood slightly with her raised eyebrow.
I shrugged. ‘It was taking too long. Besides, I needed some more stealth xp.’
‘Did you get it?’
I thrusted the wad of papers up in the air. ‘Oh yes.’
‘Great. Let’s drink four beers, and then let’s go find Arzak.’
I nodded, then looked at the documents once more. ‘You don’t think they’ll miss these, do you?’
Val shrugged. ‘Who cares? Beer, beer, beer, beer, Arzak—got it?’
"Styk"
Level 7 Novice Bladespinner
Base Stats:
Vitality — 14
Intelligence — 41
Dexterity — 19
Strength — 35
Wisdom — 21
Charisma — 0
Skills:
Knifework — Level 14
Worldbending — Level 10
Identification — Level 7
Stealth — Level 5
Abilities:
Slice — Slice the enemy for physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].
Stab — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through tougher hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR].
Closed Reach — Bend reality to narrow the gap between blade and target by up to 8 inches. Uses mana.
Local Portal II — Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a ten yard radius. Uses mana/second.
Portal Slice — Passive. Portals can now be spawned within non-sentient objects. Doing so slices through all objects that are not reinforced by magic.
Basic Stealth Attack — Passive. 10% boost to damage when unnoticed by enemy.
Basic Identification — Discover basic attributes for a particular object or person. Ability scales with [WIS] + [INT].
Active Effects:
Legacy of Sisyphus:
XP gain increased by +400%