007 - PLAYING THE OTHER MAN’S GAME

Conrad opened his eyes to the shouts of the band and red flashes of fiery magic.

“Keep ‘em off me, Joy!” Buck was shouting as he charged up a fireball attack, the ball of energy growing in his cupped hands like he was shaping a snowball.

Joy banged a large one handed battle ax on his circular shield and gave a shout that sent a wave of palpable energy outward, drawing the attention of every lizardkin it touched. There were more than a dozen of them, mostly lesser types but a couple of Maulers were visible as well, towering over their lesser comrades.

Jumping to his feet and brandishing the club he had been given, Conrad looked around for the closest threat. Off by herself Karina was whirling, laughing maniacally as she slashed in every direction with her two handed blade. Lizardkin darted in at her at every opportunity but came away almost every time with fresh wounds or fewer limbs, but it did nothing to dim their fervor. They just kept coming.

“What should I do!?” Conrad shouted, looking for someplace he might fit into the fight. Joy and Buck made a two man team of tank and spell slinger, Karina was too out of control with her swinging for Conrad to back her up at all and so he found himself alone.

No direction came back, all of his bandmates simply too focused on their own fights. Buck unleashed the fireball he had been powering up and Joy hunkered down behind his shield as the blast went off only a few meters in front of where the man was fighting. It blasted to pieces the lizard it impacted and burned the backs of the one’s Joy was working on.

As they screeched in pain, Joy began hacking and chopping at them, pain keeping them from putting up much of a fight.

He would be getting no advice, no input, and so it seemed that among the lessons learned only through experience, this would be one of them.

“Good a time as any,” Conrad said to himself, feeling his adrenaline spike as he launched himself into the fray alongside Joy.

He brought his club up, sore muscles in agony at having had no real chance to recover from his entire day of hard labor. Then with a bellow he brought it down on what he meant to be the head of one of the lesser lizardkin, but instead struck the shoulder. Its knees buckled and it swiped at him, tearing a gash in his leg.

Conrad barely had time to register the pain though as he brought his club up, and down again, this time cracking the beast right over the top of its head. It went down on all fours and Conrad hit it again, precipitating a popup to enter his vision:

Killed Lizardkin (lesser)

Level: 18

XP: 90

The rush of the XP entering him was glorious, but his grandfather’s admonition to keep his head was still with him. He pushed aside the sensation and dismissed the prompt with a thought, setting all further prompts to auto minimize. The XP gain over his usual activities was impressive, but he couldn’t afford the distraction.

“Good!” Joy yelled off to his left, showing Conrad an awkward thumbs up as he shield bashed aside the defenses of one of the wounded Maulers and slashed down across its chest, opening a wide wound.

The creature leapt back and an unharmed lesser lizardkin rushed in to fill the gap, grasping at Joy’s weapons, trying to tangle the man.

Conrad swung at another incoming creature, but it dodged under the heavy weapon and clamped razor sharp teeth around his thigh. At this range he could barely touch it with his club, and spinning it around, he tried thrusting it downward into the top of the monster’s skull but the repeated blows seemed only to cause it to clamp down harder.

Behind him the orange glow of another charged fire spell lit the carnage of the fight. Joy dismembered the attacking monster and was finishing others around him. Karina was still off fighting by herself, the dead beginning to litter the area around which she darted and spun, swinging and slashing.

The creature biting Conrad dug in harder, claws sinking into the meat of his legs as it ripped backward, taking with it a chunk of flesh. Blood sprayed and Conrad, in agony and screaming, dropped his weapon and simply grabbed at the thing that was eating him.

His thumbs found the lizard’s eyes and he drove them in with all of his paltry eleven points of strength. To eyes, it transpired, eleven was more than enough. His thumbs sank all they way to their limit and the thing’s jaw snapped open as it gurgled out its death.

Conrad scrambled away, new pain lancing through his mangled leg as horror welled up inside him at the immense amount of blood, red and distinct in contrast to the blue blood of the creatures dying all around him.

His asevere bleeding status pulsed warningly in the corner of his vision, vision that closed around at the edges with blackness as unconsciousness threatened to take over. He had no healing potions, no bandages or tourniquets, no medical equipment of any kind. It seemed like such an insane oversight, to focus so intently on the types of weapons and equipment they brought in but not equip each of them with some basic emergency supplies?

He searched frantically through his available skills and abilities, something along his path that he could invest his accumulated XP into in order to keep himself around long enough to see the end of the fight and for his bandmates to help him.

He invoked Silver Tongue, the slight shift in his mood and ability to think giving him clarity enough to form a single thought, coalesced into a need so palpable he could sense it pulsing on his inner path of progression, the constellation of skills that all of Order’s children had the ability to invest into.

He needed to be harder to kill.

A constellation, representative of a new class, burst into existence on the field of stars that was all possible skills for a human to attain. It took the shape of a clenched fist and without any further thought, Conrad mentally funneled five hundred of his pooled XP into that constellation, filling it with light and, to his consciousness, he heard the sound of breaking glass.

The knowledge of what every star making up that sword represented filled Conrad’s mind immediately, and with it came the answer he was seeking.

He dumped an additional 250XP into a new ability, allowing the meaning of the prompt to pass into him automatically rather than taking the time to read the full text:

Name: Toughness

Classification: Class/General/Passive/Advanced Attribute

Description: It is only through repeated physical strain that the flesh can be tempered into something harder. Acquire the ability to turn the lessons learned in physical injury into enduring power and become truly hard to kill. Advanced Attribute - Toughness is not limited to five levels of proficiency and can be trained to level 100 as an attribute.

Note: Due to your breakthrough attainment of the Fighter class in a moment of severe physical stress, Toughness has automatically adjusted to a starting level of 19.

As the advanced attribute adjusted his body Conrad felt the bizarre sensation of blood flow out of wounded leg slowing down. Wounds, while still there, tightened somehow and the stiffness and soreness of the hours of swinging a pickaxe, the fighting, and his wounds resolved into a more manageable ache.

And with all of this Conrad spoke aloud in reassurance to himself and in new knowledge of his limits growing limits.

“This is nothing.”

He tore a wide strip from his tunic and began binding his leg, grimacing only slightly at the pain of the pressure caused by tightening the knot holding it all in place.

His toughness rose to level twenty.

Around him the battle began to dwindle, the assault of the patrol of lizardkin reduced to just a few of the creatures. The wounded Mauler, seeming to decide the fight was over, tried to retreat into the nearby city ruins. An arc of fiery light followed it as Buck sent a final fireball in its wake. It dove for cover inside a stone house, but the fireball continued in through the window, exploding in a holocaust of magical fury.

It was an impressive display of power, but Conrad couldn’t help but be annoyed. In the entire fight Buck had fired two of the things, and granted he had done more damage than Conrad, but his contribution paled in comparison to Joy’s or Karina’s. Both of whom had taken down half a dozen of the creatures.

Were it not for the lingering effects off Silver Tongue he would have said something, but thought better of it. Healing and notifications first:

Class Earned

Name: Fighter

Stat Bonus: Strength + 2 , Agility +1, Dexterity + 1, Endurance +2

Advanced Attribute Earned

Name: Toughness

Stat Bonus: Endurance + 2

He pulled up his stats to see the cumulative effect of the single most productive day, in terms of stats, he had ever had:

Conrad Dren

Race: Human

Level: 5

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Class(s): Merchant, Fighter

Stats:

Agility: 8

Dexterity: 14

Endurance: 16

Intelligence: 22

Strength: 13

Karina made her way over, looking grizzly with blue blood matting her dark hair and spattering her clothing and armor.

“Now,” Conrad said, gritting his teeth through the pain and looking over his leg, “You think I can have that potion?”

Buck looked over from where he was rifling through the various pouches and pockets of the dead, “Looking for handouts alre-”

“Yeah, Buck, a little handout for the Merchant beggar, if you please,” Conrad said irritably. What the hell was this guy’s deal? He had thought the attitude would disappear once he signed the contract. And probationary member or not he had fought, he had done his piece and, if he was any judge of it, he’d done a fair amount given the circumstances. You didn’t leave a bandmate bleeding after a fight, and Conrad didn’t need to be a seasoned adventurer to know it.

“Exactly how many times do I need to risk my neck before we revisit the contract, anyway? I took down two of these lizardkin, not to mention stuffing your inventories with all that ore I mined.”

Karina and Buck shared a look. In the gloomy light of the dungeon the shadows cast over them menacingly.

“He did get a couple of them,” Buck mused, “And the ore. Useful.”

Karina seemed to think it over a few moments before shrugging and tossing him a recovery potion. With some extra food and enough time, it could restore the chunk of flesh missing from his leg in addition to dealing with his other wounds and tired muscles. Not cheap, but definitely worth it.

“Let’s not revisit the deal just yet,” she said, “And what would you do with the loot from the mining or fighting anyway? Just hoof it on out of here? You’re a tier one non-combat, you don’t even have the Inventory ability.”

She was right, but now that Conrad was a Fighter… yep, he saw the new star showing up, bright and available on his path of progression. He could learn the inventory ability. He was still a bit shy on the XP requirements though.

“You sure about that?” Conrad said, downing the potion and taking the ration pack Karina offered him.

Her eyes lit with magical energy as she invoked Assess on him and took in his new class.

“Son of a…” she said, and bizarrely she looked annoyed, “Buck, he broke through to Fighter.”

“Whoa ho!” Joy said, clapping enthusiastically.

“Shut up, Joy,” Buck said, “A breakthrough in your first real fight? That’s some good luck.”

“Envy much?” Conrad said, getting sick of Buck’s attitude, “Is there some place I neglected to read in the contract that says I can’t improve?”

To his surprise, Buck laughed.

“I think we forgot to include that, ” he said, “But there are a few bits you might’ve missed in your excitement to join up.”

“What?” Conrad said, halting the jerky he had been about to eat part way toward his mouth, “What are you talking about?”

He had read the entire thing. Sure he hadn’t given it the full attention he might have under other circumstances but the scroll hadn’t been overly long and the language was straight forward for anybody with a reasonable grasp of such things, which he had.

“It’s a good idea though, Buck,” Karina said, “We should probably add it next time. Save us a fair bit of headache I expect.”

Conrad just stared. A sinking feeling was spreading through him like poison, and he feared if he made a wrong move, it would reach his heart and end him.

“Oh, Buck! Would you look at him? Do you see it?” Karina laughed joyously, clapping her hands.

“So cruel!” Buck mocked, “Don’t mess with him, Karina, can’t you see he’s trying to eat? Here now, Conrad, give that jerky to me before you choke.”

What the hell was going on? What were they talking about? Conrad looked down at the dried meat in his hand. He was wounded, he needed this food, and what was more, he was a man, not a child. To have somebody patronize him this way, as if he couldn’t even manage to eat properly on his own was insulting.

But it would be childish to eat it. And Buck had asked him for it. And Buck was just looking out for him.

And like Joy had said, Buck was good.

And those thoughts were so much weightier and more important than his personal need for the jerky.

Conrad thought all of these things, not even realizing he was already moving toward Buck with his hand extended.

Karina and Buck howled with laughter as Buck accepted the dried meat and patted Conrad on the head, “Good lad! Good lad!”

“Order preserve me,” Conrad said. The full measure of what was happening to him slamming down like a load of bricks.

“I do believe he’s coming to understand, Karina, don’t you think?” Buck mused.

Karina took up a relaxed posture, clearly enjoying herself as she explained, “You’ll find yourself compelled to need our permission to go anywhere, do anything, and when we find loot down here, or come into possession of basically anything… like that jerky there. You’ll give it all up to us.”

Conrad’s injured leg threatened to collapse under him, “I read the contract, that’s not what it said! That’s not it!”

“Remember when we talked about information?” Buck asked, “I think you’re discovering now that, when you understand the same thing as the person you’re dealing with, you can make different choices.”

“Mother dearest kept all the cards to her chest when she dealt with me,” Karina said, “So we kept ‘em to ours while dealing with you.”

Seeing the look on his face Karina continued, “The second sheet of paper, Conrad! We don’t have a copy of the contract, we have the original! And there’s a few lines in it that are quite a bit different from the one you thought you were signing. I swear, it’s the smart ones who’re easiest to fool sometimes.”

Dread and something close to panic threatened to burst out of Conrad as he yelled, “You’re saying I’m a slave? You signed me into slavery?”

“You did. But it’s not so bad as that,” Karina said, “We just want to make sure we get our money's worth. You know, kind of how your mother did with me.”

Joy laughed stupidly at that, “She got you good didn’t she, Karina?”

She gave him a sympathetic smile, “No man ever had his way with me as thoroughly as that woman. And I intend to take full payment in return. Plus interest. You can appreciate interest, right, swindler’s son?”

“Let me see that contract,” Conrad said, moving toward Buck.

“Sit down,” Buck ordered, shoving the still shaky Conrad hard in the chest. Overbalanced, he managed to ease himself to the ground slightly, just barely avoiding collapsing entirely.

“The contract stays with me,” Buck said.

The whole dungeon eased into silence, the Seekers all around Conrad, staring at him with faces of impassive solemnity while the world to his eyes seemed to be spinning out of control.

“Why the first contract? Why make it something I’d argue with at all? Why not just promise me the greatest contract possible instead of going through the whole show of selling me?”

And he had been sold. Conrad could see it all now in hindsight. The push pull of Buck’s attitude, Karina playing the role of his ally and partner in the whole business of selling himself into bondage.

“Contractor made it that way,” Karina said, “Something about the compulsion magic on these contracts - people gotta want to be in and they gotta know on some level what they’re signing. You had to believe what you were signing was unreasonable, and signed anyway, or the magic wouldn’t have taken.”

In the back of his mind Conrad heard his mother, voice quiet and sad, “Never work for free, Conrad.”

“My turn!” Buck said, “Bet I can guess your next question - you want to know how you can get out of it. That about the shape of it?”

Conrad nodded, numb with horror.

“We figure you help us with one big task and we’ll let you go. It’s honestly a good thing you got that class, should serve you well, cause what we’re after is the biggest payday this dungeon has to offer,” Buck said.

“The Lizard King,” Karina said, “We gave you the short version up top but the slightly longer one is that he’s special. Doesn’t stay in one place like most dungeon bosses, and seems capable of a whole lot more.”

“See,” she continued, “Adventurers like dungeons because they give us the chance to learn. When we know what each room has to offer, we have a better chance of getting out of it and surviving. But here in the Warren, that all has changed. This place just got a whole lot more dangerous with the King refusing to play by the rules. Plenty of rumors are flying around about where he likes to show up and what brings him out - got more’n a few adventurers killed already. So we needed a little something to even the odds, and then there you were. A way for us to get the King to play by our rules.”

Conrad listened as if the information held the key to his escape, and it might well be exactly that. He began to piece together the last couple of days with the new perspective he had on the situation. Karina had invited him out to the dungeon, not for this, but simply to put a hook in him. She wanted some way of taking out her frustration on his mother and that was her shot in the dark.

The Seekers travelled to edge, they learned about the King and the Warren, and when Conrad had arrived, they saw a way to use him to their advantage.

“Why like this? Why not just train me up and make me useful to you in a fight?” Conrad asked.

“Training is hard, Conrad,” Karina said, “And it takes a long time. You think we’ve got the patience to gently nudge you up the ladder?”

So they had never intended to train him. Never intended through the mining to boost his stats or for him to learn combat skills, and come to think of it, they had even disarmed him of his better equipment.

All that was true, so then the only purpose they might have had for him was…

“Bait?” Conrad said, unable to believe it, “You were using me as bait?”

“He is a smart one,” Buck said approvingly.

The Seekers had probably heard a rumor that the King could be drawn by noise, or was hanging around mineral deposits or something, anything that made their mean little minds come to the conclusion that a good trap would be having somebody chip away at minerals while they watched and waited for the King. A crude attempt to make him play by their rules.

“But here’s the deal, Conrad. We take the King,” Karina said, “We keep all the loot. And you get your freedom. And I better get a discount at that shop of yours for getting you back safe and skilled. Now how about that for a deal? It don’t get no sweeter than that, huh?”

Conrad considered his options, what few he had. He could try to fight, but the contract would likely prevent him from intentionally harming the Seekers. That seemed plainly obvious, and the Seekers seemed to take it for granted that he wasn’t a threat. Karina had said he would need permission “to go anywhere, do anything” but was that the truth or just a mind game to keep him in the dark?

Truth or not, he stood no chance against the three of them in a fight. And with his leg still on the mend he wouldn’t be running anywhere. In a few hours though, once it healed up, he would need to see how serious Karina had been.

But for now he needed information. They had it all and he had none. It was like Buck said, stupid as it was and as much as he hated to admit it was good sense - when you knew what the other guy knew, you made different decisions. He needed to understand the predicament he found himself in.

That left only one option open to him for now. He picked up the ration pack and began shoving the food into his mouth, chewing furiously and swallowing in opposition to a stomach that was so sick it wanted nothing to do with food at the moment.

If he was stuck for now, then for now it seemed his only choice was to get stronger.