Chapter 019: Deal with the Devil

I woke up in a Gore Altar to a familiar feeling of flesh surrounding me.

That‘s weird. Part of it is less firm and much more squishy than I remember.

I bent my arm enough to touch it. Yes, squishy, soft and…

OH SHIT IT’S SIMEA.

***

“You know that if we were back at real world this would be enough for me to accuse you of sexual harassment?” Simea commented when we managed to get out of Gore Altar and she got her clothing back.

“I get a feeling that when we get out the judiciary systems of all countries connected to Infinity will be flooded with sexual harassment accusations.” I responded. “Considering the ways of DFI… well, sorry for that, I really thought it was going to resurrect us one by one.”

She sighed loudly.

“Well, it would be pretty stupid for me to be shocked and appalled by this.” She shrugged. “I mean, accidental groping is less than we usually do.” She chuckled seeing my face. I didn‘t expect her to have such an approach. She must have overcome her… problems. “To be honest, if I were to be groped then let it be done by you. You of all people I can tolerate.”

“... Thank you for the compliment. If that was one.” She laughed.

“It probably was. Probably.” She smiled.

I’m happy for her. Lena managed to overcome her trauma after Radakar‘s treatment, but I kept being afraid of Simea. It seemed to be over though, at least to a point.

“I still think I will visit you.” She cleared her throat. “This whole… clinging was a bit too much.”

Go figure.

“Ahem.” We looked at the sound of the noise. Kytar. He stood in the doorway to the corridor. “Dinner is waiting.”

HOW THE FUCK DOES HE DO IT.

***

Turned out that there was no magic in Kytar preparedness. He received a message from Leria via Nexus that we we were going to die and he should prepare something tasty to raise our spirits.

Damn. Maybe she really is my sister? The long-lost sister I never knew that I could never meet because Robinson kidnapped her and hid her in Gates of Eternity? That would explain a lot.

Avhar Khan [P]: Thank you for writing to Kytar xD I didn’t expect all my favourite dishes waiting for me after resurrecting. But I need to ask you an important question.

Leria Khan [N]: ?

Oh, so she could answer me. Well, I guess that the natives of Black Woods still steer clear of her.

Avhar Khan [P]: Are you my long-lost sister I never knew that I could never meet because you were hiding in this world all this time? <3

Leria Khan [N]: … are you drunk?

Awww, how quickly she understood how to use Nexus.

Avhar Khan [P]: No, just happy xD From now I’m officially calling you sister, sis.

Avhar Khan [P]: Uhm… can I do that?

Leria Khan [N]: Yes. How was the dungeon?

Avhar Khan [P]: Absolutely terrible. Tbh it wasn’t that bad but then we ran into Silver V Unique and it… uh. I’ll tell you the details when you get back to Hold.

Leria Khan [N]: Ok.

We spoke during the meal of course. I like speaking.

“That’s... terrifying.” Kytar said when we finished. “I’m beginning to think that life of a cook and part-time miner is much better than all this weird shit going on around.”

I looked at him and squinted my eyes.

“Now that I think about it… there were many corridors collapsed, so how about…” Seeing his terrified expression I laughed. “I’m just kidding. Sending a non combatant there would be a horrible id…”

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: I need to meet you. In person. Can you be at the plaza where we meet? This evening?

… What now?

“What happened?” Simea asked.

“A person I’m acquainted with wants to meet. This evening. Kytar, what hour is it?”

“Should be morning.” I see.

“I guess we’ll go to Ambryxis in the meantime.” I sighed. Another visit to this damnable city.

Avhar Khan [N]: K. I’ll be there.

***

There were things, however, that I had to do before meeting. And a few more to do before leaving Hold.

Right after I finished the meal I visited the quarters, chose one of the still empty rooms and then unloaded the an automaton we found. Sure, it seemed immobilized and damaged, but I wouldn‘t pick any chances. I closed the door, they were tough so they should hold it if it woke up. For a while.

I also inspected Vila (she hadn’t moved from Leria’s room in the meantime) and the last collapsed corridor. When we weren‘t around, Kytar uncovered few meters. Wow. I was amazed. I asked him to show me how he works and... it explained everything. He was an aura manipulator. Sure, of aura conductivity level 9, but he knew how to put even this basic level of enhancement into his pickaxe swings.

Stone in the area wasn‘t the toughest. If it was granite, it might have been troublesome. Here? Limestone.

The funniest thing was that Kytar didn‘t know he used aura. It sometimes happened to people that worked strength-related jobs. They learned how to ‘focus' on their tools or how to use their ‘whole strength’ from their older co-workers. He was surprised when I told him. I also suggested asking Leria for some tips about how to strike things even better. He said he would consider it.

I thought he still harboured doubts about me and wasn‘t sure if this ‘training' wouldn‘t be an introduction to going on expeditions.

Well, suit yourself.

“Anything else we will do before departing?” Simea asked me, still panting after our relief session.

At least it was brief since she was pent up. Uh.

“Actually... let me show you a magic trick.” She looked at me curiously. I summoned Sunstone. “Familiar, devour Magic Shield, Arcane Bolt and Arcane Magic.”

SPELL SACRIFICED

Arcane Bolt

Type: Thaumaturgy

School: Arcane Magic

Grade: Copper

Most basic spell of Arcane Magic. Caster conjures a bolt of raw magic power that is then fired at designated target. It isn’t guided and is easily repelled by magic shields. Causes blunt damage on contact.

7

SPELL SACRIFICED

Magic Shield

Type: Thaumaturgy

School: Arcane Magic

Grade: Copper

Most basic defense spell. Caster surrounds himself with a invisible magical shield that can repel all incoming projectiles and attacks. It has a set number of Shield Points that are lost when an attack is stopped or as time progresses. What’s more, it can be used to defend only from an attacks coming from one direction.

5

SKILL SACRIFICED

Arcane Magic

Rarity: Uncommon

Arcane Magic is a spatial magic subschool that deals with manipulating raw magic power. The most common school of magic, since it includes basic magic skills and can be learned by every magic user.

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7

FAMILIAR EVOLVES

Sunstone → Greater Sunstone

Familiar of Avhar Khan

Category: Eldritch/Doom [Whitesun]

Type: Daemon/Spirit

Threat Grade: Copper VI → Iron I

A spirit-grade daemon connected to mysterious being (or event) called White Sun. While its cult is considered a proscribed one in Imperium, it is hostile to Pentagram and because of that is mostly ignored by authorities as long as doesn’t grow too strong.

Knows following spells and hexes:

Purifying Light

Whitesun Flare

It grew. The uneven ball was now almost twice as big. All its hexes grew stronger. Much stronger. Good.

I dismissed it and turned towards surprised Simea.

“What was that?!”

“A magic trick.” I grinned. “Sorcerers can ‘feed’ their familiars with their knowledge. It is rarely done, because few people have useless skills they want to get rid off, but since I leveled up Arcane Magic only to summon familiars for us... the best part is that I can still use it because it is more dependent on Mana Manipulation.” It might only get more tricky.

“Can I do it as well?” ...she wants to get rid of Lust Magic hexes, doen’t she?

“Theoretically yes, practically no. You have no skills or spells to sacrifice. No need to force it, familiars will still grow overtime.” She sighed loudly.

After that we packed our things and departed to Ambryxis.

***

When we reached the city it was early afternoon. The adventurer guild building (or a whole complex, to be honest) wasn‘t far from the plaza, so we paid it a visit. I had to learn new hexes.

There was no pressure to fill all slots. After reaching high levels people would have much more slots for hexes and spells than they could ever need or use. The limit was important only at beginning. Later on people focused on leveling few magics that fit their play style the best. Plus, a few more if they could be useful for escaping certain predicaments (like being bound/paralyzed or attacked by beings resistant to your normal tactics), but that was optional.

First hex I took was Inhuman Resilience. Doom Magic version of Magic Shield. It allowed me to fill my body with eldritch powers, strengthening it to superhuman levels. A side-effect was that it lowered my sanity... and sanity of every person who saw me. There was also a low chance of causing self-debuffs of a random nature… and extremely low chance (1/1 000 000) for causing random mutation.

... DAFUQ?! SINCE WHEN DOES USING DOOM MAGIC ON YOURSELF CAN CAUSE MUTATIONS?! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.

DFI. I hate you.

At this point I had no alternative. I had to be as strong as possible, and this was the strongest defensive spell available. 1/1 000 000 is very little, right? Right?

Another hex I took was Localized Distortion. It was a variant of shielding spells that had to be used together with a catalyst (wand, staff or something similar). It was a very strong version of Lesser Bend Reality that allowed you to use your catalyst to repel incoming attacks. While very strong, it was also very limited in width.

What should I take next... hmm... oh right. Something strong for the offensive. I had to get a hex that packed a punch. Something costly but also something that could strongly weaken magic shields. I took two - Havoc Bolt and Destroyer Lance. Both of Destruction Magic. First exploded and rained literal death upon weaker enemies (while hitting a magic user that only defended himself from the front), the second was hex made with dealing a lot of damage to a single enemy in mind.

Niiiccceee. Let’s not stop there. I also took Ominous Chant from Doom Magic and Touch of Entropy from Destruction Magic. The first one was like Eldritch Incantation only it also strengthened allies (especially summoned daemons of Eldritch nature), while causing increased sanity damage. Touch of Entropy weakened enemy equipment, lowering both their defense and attack.

What next… ah, right. Death Magic. I decided to unlock it. It rendered Life Magic obsolete as a means of attacking. Life Magic was better at defense and buffing or debuffing.

I got two starting spells - Greater Life Tap and Cripple. The first one was a much stronger version of Life Tap… I think I’ll feed familiar with the offensive Life Magic hexes... while the other was a localized curse that could temporarily weaken target limb.

Maybe I’ll go into summoning? Hmmm. That was certainly an option, just not for now.

Simea picked Mighty Blow - most basic aura technique she for some reason lacked - and Sudden Disappearance. It was a technique that could be used together with her Evacuate (a dash backward) to avoid getting smashed by something. It was a strengthened version of Suppress Presence that allowed her to disappear even in the middle of melee - but it worked only for a very short duration. Great, if you wanted to confuse your opponent and escape.

She refused to proceed with Lust Magic. Also in case of warriors your techniques were secondary to your weapon proficiences, so she decided she wasn‘t going to spend money uselessly. Sigh. After a long struggle I persuaded her to take Lightning Strikes, which made her fire a flurry of blows against a single opponent. Weak, individually, but a lot of them.

We spent most of our money. Sure, teams had their equipment shared... but the system divided the shared equipment into segments belonging to every member. Normally it was shared throughout them all, but when one was too far from the rest, they could no longer access his equipment - and vice versa. It was done mostly to avoid stuff like having one person in your team stay in a pawn shop and then teleport all loot straight to merchant via shared equipment. Because of that, we could only sell what the two of us had. And since I emptied most of my equipment to fit the automaton in...

We decided that it was the time and went towards the plaza. Much earlier than we had to, so we could go there slowly, while eating ice creams (damn they were good) and chatting happily.

It was almost like a date. Almost. The surroundings didn‘t fit. We would feel much better running while throwing Molotov cocktails at everything. I also visited the enchanting shop on the way and picked up the mana crystals for our toilet. which... kinda killed the mood. Uh, I’m bad in this.

We waited in the plaza for maybe half an hour before Vasyr showed up. Surprisingly, a dark elven sorceress from his team accompanied him. Vhera Versatyr. Damn it, what is with locals and their love of the letter V?!

Vasyr waved from the distance. Hmm, doesn‘t look like a trap. So it‘s probably a good one.

I let Vasyr choose the restaurant. There were a lot in the area. Not as much as in our world, but still much better than expected from quasi-medieval world. We kept small talking while we waited for the food to came. I picked some weird fish from a local river (plus some vegetables for company) with some random sweet for dessert.

I pretended to not notice the fact that waitresses were all slaves. And were included in the menu. Ugh. Fucking Doomplace.

“So... you probably wonder why I wanted to meet you." Vasyr stopped beating around the bush when we sated most of our hunger.

“A bit. You didn‘t like the photo?” I‘ve sent it to him right after we got out of the city.

“Oh, I loved it. One bastard less. And you were rather creative in the means of ... execution. But it’s something else. You see…” He looked at me with an ultra-serious look. “I have plans. Great ones.”

“Sounds ominous.” Simea commented. He grinned.

“I want to make a guild.” Vasyr said. “Or, to be precise, I’m making one as we speak.”

“Interesting.” If he wants to invite me, he will be surprised by my answer. Last thing we wanted was getting associated with a group in the city that would make us more... visible. “What‘s the platform?”

DFI had few weird quirks in their games. One of them was the fact they abandoned the old MMORPG guild system. There was no game mechanic for creation of player communities other than teams (like mine). The name persisted, but described something else. Every organization that included a sizeable number of players was considered a guild. They weren‘t limited in players - you could recruit NPCs to your ‘guild‘, or be recruited to a pre-existing NPC organization that would be called guild as well.

The problem was that the ability to recruit NPCs relied on building a political (or not) platform that could draw them in. You could make an unofficial organization dedicated to leveling up together, but you‘d get a few NPCs max and you would end as a small and unremarkable group, prone to desertion. But if you worked in a country that was undergoing an internal strife, and you put a political agenda in your platform... risks grew, but it made more people consider joining you.

“Survival.” I looked at him strangely. This wasn’t a good platform. “Against a new version of the Seventh December Treaty.”

“This could work.” I admitted reluctantly. “At least in case of players. NPCs know nothing about the Treaty, and from their point of view the Imperium failed to conquer them for past few hundred years.”

“I’m well aware of that.” Vasyr smiled. “That’s why for now I will create a core of players and their teammates, while spreading prophecies that the crusade will happen. And when it will happen…” He paused and grinned.

Oh.

“That… is a good idea. But if you will invite me, then…” He shook his head.

“No, no. That would be a horrible idea.” What? “I have a much better one. I think you weren‘t honest when you asked me for an interesting target. I don‘t think there was a quest demanding it from you.” Oh shit. I desperately tried to keep my face calm. “But that’s alright. If you want to go around murdering people like him, I’m fine with that. Don‘t worry, I will not report you anywhere.”

“I see. What do you plan to do with me, then?”

“I’m a pragmatist.” Blackmail? “And a rather careful one. Let’s think about what Robinson said. Many days passed and we are still here. What if there is no way out? What if we will spend our lives here?” And what if this was a real world? “Think about this. Do you want to spend your life in a place where people like that pedophile you dealt with are considered a good citizens even if they indulge in their sick perversions in public?”

“Well, speaking hypothetically if I was the person you picture me to be... then no.” Simea nodded in approval. “What do you propose?”

“I will establish my guild, the Crimson Blades. Don‘t smirk like that, I know this isn‘t the best name but my naming sense suck. We will accept everyone… with exception of the worst perverts. With our player-centrism we are going to soon ascend into an important position in the city.” He had a point. Players would grow strong in no time (by local standards). “We will be a cornerstone of public order and decency. “

While still accepting owning people (as long as they were NPCs) as sex slaves and all other ‘lesser' perversions. Sigh.

“Let me guess.” I interrupted him. “You will be in the middle of perversion scale. Extreme perverts you speak of will be on the far end. And I’m supposed to make a group that will accept people low on the scale, to eliminate the weirdos while Crimson Blades will be surprisingly incompetent in fighting us.”

Everyone went silent for a short while. Then Vasyr looked at Vhera.

“See? I told you he will be great.” She nodded, and he turned towards me. “Yes, something like that. But I will also provide you information. I used to serve as an information broker for several large internet communities. I kinda like it.” He grinned. “Crimson Blades have a growing Nexus encyclopedia with descriptions of important NPCs and places in Ambryxis, informations about local anomalies and lore, stuff like that. I can send you all updates, free of charges. I can redirect interesting recruits towards you. All I will want in return is your guild doing certain… assignments for me.”

“You will pay quite a lot for your own guild of assassins.” I chuckled. “Sounds good. Almost too good to be true. I hope that those assignments aren‘t going to be... morally questionable, right?” He nodded.

“In fact you might enjoy them, just like you did the first one.” I contemplated the deal for a while.

“I see. Simea, you have anything against it?" She shook her head. I also had to ask others, but I doubt they would oppose it. “Then I think we’ll accept it.”

I wondered who was going to backstab who. After all, we wanted Ambryxis to die and the city to fall to the new Treaty. Our goals were opposite even if he didn’t know that. This cooperation would be useful to us, but there would be a moment when we would have to fight each other to the death.

Overtyrant didn’t forbid lying in the name of Good. Lying for my benefit - for example if I had a great ambition of usurping power in Ambryxis and lied to get Vasyr’s help to achieve this - was an impurity of character. Lying to better prosecute the holy war against evil was a realization of the Pillar of Zealotry.

AI in the game could differentiate it, at least to a point. It was easy to lose good graces Above as long as you were stupid enough to work for a god that was incompatible with your character.

Besides, if I tried to commit Anathema or some major impurity, Leria would have stopped me. Probably lethally.

We spent the rest of the evening working over details of the agreement. While also receiving some interesting information we could use straight away, for example, a way of leaving the city unnoticed. There was a tunnel in one slum area next to city walls, dug by a gang that ruled over this shanty town. You had to pay them 30 ambries per person and you could leave or enter the city unnoticed. They didn’t allow just anyone to use their passage; you had to be referred by one person already accepted by them.

We got a letter signed by a Crimson Blades member that ran into the tunnel gang during a minor sidequest and got accepted by them. Which should be enough for us to get through. I decided to use it when we returned to Hold, to test how reliable the knowledge from Vasyr was.

When we left the restaurant, it was almost dark. We said goodbye to Vasyr and his sidekick and departed in search of a tavern to spend the night in.