Isabelle reeled back as Stelas’ headless body leapt on top of her and stabbed her in the chest three times with two daggers.
[-1 hp]
Isabelle was on death’s door. Surely she only had a point or two of hp left. How Stelas had only managed to deal 1 hp of damage to her was a mystery.
[Clarification: the enemy, while not dead, has been greatly weakened after being beheaded.]
That made enough sense. Still, Stelas’ body looked about ready to stab her again, and Isabelle knew that if the hit landed at all she was as good as dead. What could she do?
Stelas raised his daggers. Isabelle could hear his severed head laughing in the distance. Then, she had an idea. Isabelle thought,‘Activate special ability.’
[Special Ability: Become Invisible activated]
[Become Invisible duration remaining: 5:00]
[Current visibility: 0/300]
“What the fuck? Where’d she go?” said Stelas’ head from afar.
Isabelle found it quite funny that Stelas apparently didn’t notice that she was still there, even though his body was pinning her to the ground.
[Clarification: Visibility is a system-oriented trait, and is not based on what your eyes actually see. Therefore, since you are invisible, he cannot see you.]
Isabelle wouldn’t argue against that. Now, she just had to act. Isabelle had another idea. She raised her empty left hand and thought ‘Cast Ice Blast.’
[Mana 74%]
[106 damage dealt]
[4 frost damage dealt]
“Ack!” cried Stelas’ severed head. His body staggered back, releasing Isabelle from its grasp.
Nice! Since Stelas was weak, he seemed a little more vulnerable to her magic. He’d even taken some frost damage. If Isabelle wanted to really try and execute her plan, though, she needed more mana and casting ability. She opened her inventory.
Inventory: Isabelle
Carrying capacity: 86.5/91
Item
Traits
Necromancer Robes
+10 mana, +3 confuse, +3 enchant, +1 destroy, +4 carry weight
Ring of Improved Destroy
+3 destroy
Staff of the Undead
+5 mana, +2 carry weight
Abbreviated list based on prior use. Focus to see more items…
[Necromancer robes equipped]
[+10 mana]
[+3 confuse]
[+3 enchant]
[+1 destroy]
[Ring of Improved Destroy equipped]
[+3 destroy]
[Staff of the Undead equipped]
[+5 mana]
[Become Invisible duration remaining: 4:32]
[Current visibility: 0/300]
Still more than four minutes of invisibility. This was tough, sure, but Isabelle was finally feeling like she had a chance to escape Stelas. Even though she also felt like she was going to fall over and pass out at any moment. She raised her right hand and thought ‘Cast Ice Blast,’ but Isabelle also focused on the thought of the spell, intending to expend as much mana as possible with it as opposed to using the standard small amount of mana the spell usually used.
[Mana 11%]
A chilling blast of ice exploded out of her hand, engulfing Stelas’ body in a white, frosty cold. As the chilled air cleared, Isabelle saw that Stelas’ body was frozen in place.
[2225 damage dealt]
[568 frost damage dealt]
[‘Stelas’ is frozen]
[Destroy increased to level 5]
[Achievement Unlocked: Power up a spell with extra mana]
Fuck yes. Isabelle felt like a badass.
“What the fuck have you done to my body?! Oh my gods, I feel so numb!!” screamed Stelas.
[Become Invisible duration remaining: 3:44]
Looking around, Isabelle noticed that Stelas’ severed head was not covered in ice. She walked over to him and chuckled. He was a weird looking guy. He had long, pointy ears and gray-green skin. He looked fairly young, but he had bright white hair.
“Why do you look like that?” asked Isabelle.
“Why do I look like what?!” said Stelas, his eyes darting around.
“Why are you green?” asked Isabelle.
“Are you five years old or something? I’m a dark elf!” said Stelas with a scowl. “Also, where in the hell are you, you sadist?”
“I’m right here,” said Isabelle. “I’m just invisible. It’s my special ability.”
“Why the hell would you tell me that?” asked Stelas. “Also, why aren’t you running away? Shouldn’t you take this opportunity and run away? I’m sure my body will thaw out, eventually. Oh, and when it does, you’ll be sorry. Very sorry.”
“Yea, sure, whatever,” said Isabelle. She rolled her eyes. Then, Isabelle had an idea. She focused on Stelas’ disembodied head.
[Loot ‘Stelas Stelford’?]
“Hey, why’d you stop talking? What are you doing?” asked Stelas with suspicion and anxiousness.
[Loot ‘Stelas Stelford’?]
Isabelle thought yes.
Inventory: Stelas Stelford
Carrying Capacity: 85.5/100
Item
Traits
Leather Armor
+2 damage, +20 carry weight
Shrouded Cowl
+1 sneak level, +1.5 carry weight
Poisoning Dagger x2
+1 poison, +6 damage, +1 sneak level, +1 carry weight
Scimitar (poisoned)
+1 poison, +8 damage, +2 dx, +4 carry weight
Leather Boots
+2 str, +1 dx, +8 carry weight
Amulet of Lesser Confusion
+3 confuse
Ring of Increased Mana
+5 mana
Flask of Whiskey
n/a
Gold (4576)
n/a
Abbreviated list based on prior use. Focus to see more items…
Holy shit. Stelas had so much stuff! Isabelle went ahead and took his poisoning daggers, his flask of whiskey, his ring of increased mana, his amulet of lesser confusion, his shrouded cowl, and all of Stelas’ gold.
Inventory: Stelas Stelford
Carrying Capacity: 82/100
Item
Traits
Leather Armor
+2 damage, +20 carry weight
Scimitar (poisoned)
+1 poison, +8 damage, +2 d, +4 carry weight
Leather Boots
+2 str, +1 dx, +8 carry weight
Abbreviated list based on prior use. Focus to see more items…
Damn. There was still so much in Stelas’ inventory that Isabelle hadn’t seen! What a shame that she couldn’t take everything. Was it even worth looking through the rest, when her own inventory was so full?
“What the fuck did you just do? Did you just fucking loot me? You just fucking looted me, didn’t you?!” said Stelas.
Isabelle got another idea. An absolutely devious idea. Maybe, she could take Stelas’ inventory with her. She knelt down and picked Stelas’ head up by the hair.
“Ow! Ow ow ow owww!” said Stelas, his face scrunching in agony. “What the fuck are you doing to me now?!”
Ignoring Stelas’ cries of agony and pain, Isabelle walked through the woods towards her party members. After a while, she finally made it fifty feet away from Stelas’ frozen body.
[Combat mode deactivated]
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
Damn right Isabelle was ready to level up. Still, she had business to attend to. She walked onward, soon approaching Sir Jingles. She could also see Tahsi slowly standing up to his feet.
“Oh my gods!” said Tahsi. “Watch out, Sir Jingles! There’s a severed head floating towards us! Surely it’s here to kill us!”
Before Isabelle could say anything, Tahsi tried to draw his longsword, only to notice it missing from his inventory.
“Shit! Sir Jingles, you’re going to have to go attack it! My longsword’s been taken!” said Tahsi.
“Wait!” said Isabelle. She thought ‘Deactivate Special Ability.’
[Current Visibility: 300/300]
Sir Jingles and Tahsi gasped as Isabelle became visible.
“Holy shit! Isabelle! Whose head is that you’re carrying?” asked Tahsi.
“My name is Stelas Stelford,” said Stelas. “And I’m going to make all of you pay for what your insolent player has done to me. I’m a member of the Overlord’s party, you know.”
“Oh gods, that’s frightening,” said Tahsi. He equipped some bread and chomped on it nervously.
“We’re fine, he can’t do anything to us,” said Isabelle. “I froze his body, so while he might be alive, he’s also pretty much useless as far as attacking us goes.”
“Oh yeah?” said Stelas. “I can still bite you!” He chomped his jaws with menace.
Isabelle giggled. “See? He’s hilarious.”
“Isabelle, can you please explain to us why in the hell you’re carrying his head around?” asked Sir Jingles. “I mean, I get that he can’t really attack us, but why didn’t you just leave his severed head alone?”
“He’s got so much loot, though, Sir Jingles, and I’m almost over encumbered!” said Isabelle. “Plus, if he really is a member of the Overlord’s party, I was thinking that maybe it would be a good idea to keep him under our control. If he can’t die, and I just left him there, he’d just seek us out again once his body thawed out. If we hold on to his head, his body will probably be pretty useless once it thaws as long as we keep his head far enough away from it.”
“I mean, you had me at loot,” said Sir Jingles. “But that does sound like an interesting idea. What do you think, Tahsi?”
“I think it’s a bad idea,” said Tahsi through a mouthful of bread. “I don’t like this head guy. He scares me. But if you two wanna lug him around with us, sure, what the hell.”
“Great!” said Isabelle. “Now we just need somewhere to put him.”
“Somewhere to put me?!” said Stelas with wide eyes.
“How about the burlap sack I was wearing while I was imprisoned?” said Tahsi. “I don’t really want to be staring at his creepy face, and it’s not like he’ll suffocate or anything.”
“I like that idea,” said Sir Jingles.
“I don’t! What the hell!” said Stelas.
“It’s settled,” said Isabelle. “Give me the sack, Tahsi.”
Tahsi equipped the burlap sack into his hand and then passed it to Isabelle. She tied the holes for Tahsi’s head and hands in knots, preparing the sack for use.
“Hey! Wait a second!” said Stelas. “Please don’t do this!”
Isabelle didn’t respond to Stelas. Instead, she just lifted his head up and plopped it into the sack, which she then promptly tied shut.
“Ugh! It’s so warm and itchy in here!” said Stelas. “And it smells like kobold sweat!”
“Do kobolds even sweat?” Isabelle asked Tahsi. “Aren’t you lizards, or reptiles, or whatever?”
Tahsi shrugged. “Ah shit! My character sheet popped up!”
“Speaking of character sheets, I think it’s about damn time to level up. I feel like shit, I swear I must have, like, two hp left,” said Isabelle. She coughed up some blood.
[Clarification: You have 1 hp left.]
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
Shit. That was even worse than she thought. Isabelle shrugged.
[Notice: You’ve reached level 15!]
[hp restored to 46]
Holy shit, Isabelle felt so much better.
[Notice: You have attribute and skill points to spend]
[Would you like to spend your points now?]
[Y/N]
Isabelle thought yes.
Attribute Points to Spend: 9
Hp:
46
H-Regen:
3/50sec
Mana:
35
M-Regen:
2/min
Stm:
36
S-Regen:
0.5/sec
Isabelle felt like doing an even spread was the easiest move. So, she put three points to hp, three to mana, and three to stm.
Skill Points to Spend: 9
Str:
20
Int:
22
Dx:
20
Wis:
21
Const:
20
Char:
21
Okay, Isabelle needed to think about this. She definitely wanted some more strength, so Isabelle decided to put three points to str. She noticed her int had increased by one on its own, that was nice. Isabelle decided to throw two more points to int. That left her with four points to spend. Did she really need any more char with all the char-boosting items she’d gotten from the prince? Isabelle didn’t think so. Isabelle decided two points could go to her dx, and the other two could go to her wis.
[Congratulations, you’ve finished leveling up!]
What a good feeling.
Character Status
Name:
Isabelle
Gender:
Female
Level:
15
Class:
Undefined
Race:
Human
Alignment:
Neutral-Neutral
Attributes
Hp:
49
H-Regen:
3/50sec
Mana:
38
M-Regen:
2/min
Stm:
39
S-Regen:
0.5/sec
Skill Points
Str:
23
Int:
24
Dx:
22
Wis:
23
Const:
20
Char:
21
Magic Ability Levels
Enchant:
0
Summon:
0
Heal:
0
Destroy:
5
Transmute:
0
Confuse:
0
Normal Ability Levels
Crafting:
4
Sneak:
6
Archery:
5
Lockpick:
0
Armed Combat:
6
Melee Combat:
4
Speechcraft:
6
Sleight Of Hand:
3
There really was nothing like a freshly leveled character sheet. Especially when Isabelle had just come from the brink of death!
“Well, now that that’s all settled, does anybody know where our horses are? Or where the prince is?”
“I think our camp was back that way,” said Sir Jingles, pointing aimlessly into the woods. “And I’m pretty sure the prince is slung over Stefano the horse’s back.”
Isabelle figured the easiest thing would be to command all the horses with her mind. So, Isabelle thought, ‘Come here, horses.’
In a cacophony of gallops, whinnies and snorts, the three horses presented themselves to Isabelle and her party. Everyone mounted their horses. Isabelle tied Stelas’ head to the side of her saddle.
“Tahsi—” Isabelle said, “—what direction do we need to go to reach Wheatstar?”
“Northeast,” said Tahsi. He pointed in the direction of a nearby trail. “Which, by my estimation, is that way. We can’t be too far from town, either. I think I can smell the hay and horse dung of rural Thres.”
“Uh, Tahsi, that might just be the smell of our horses you’re picking up,” said Sir Jingles. “As someone with a highly developed nose, I’m just saying. It’s fairly plausible.”
Tahsi sighed. “Yea, maybe it was just wishful thinking.”
----------------------------------------
For three hours they trekked through the woods, with no signs of civilization in sight. The sun had once again passed the middle of the sky. The prince started moaning in what sounded like agony.
“Oh my gods,” said Sir Jingles. “Can we just cut this guy loose? He’s annoying the hell out of me.”
“No, that’s too risky,” said Isabelle. “Why don’t we stop and take out his gag so we can figure out what he’s moaning for?”
“Fine,” said Sir Jingles, cursing under his breath as he dismounted his horse and pulled the prince off his horse’s back. The prince groaned in agony as he flopped onto the root-covered forest floor.
“Hey, be careful with him, he’s delicate,” said Isabelle.
Sir Jingles pulled the prince up with force and mocked Isabelle’s voice. “Alright, what the hell do you want from us?” Jingles asked the prince, grabbing and yanking the cloth gag out of his mouth.
“Ack!” said the prince, rasping with built up saliva dribbling from his lips. “I need to take a leak, if you would please.”
“Oh,” said Sir Jingles. “Oh gods. Why didn’t you just piss yourself?”
“And soil my noble undergarments?” said the prince. “Why, I would never.”
Isabelle looked in admiration at the prince’s long, flowing locks of hair. She found herself almost getting a little jealous of how nice his hair looked. Not even to mention his eyes. Apparently elf princes just had all sorts of good-look traits.
The prince slowly shuffled behind a tree.
“Okay, I’m ready to go,” said the prince. “Could, um, could someone please lower my noble undergarments for me?”
Sir Jingles and Tahsi put their fingers on their noses faster than Isabelle could blink. The prince looked to her with hope.
“Oh, fine,” said Isabelle. She rolled her eyes and walked over to the prince. “I’ll just look away while I do it.”
“Thanks, I appreciate this,” said the prince. “These undergarments are made out of the finest spun dragon’s underbelly, and if they were soiled, they might never regain their proper shape and softness.”
“You’re welcome,” said Isabelle with a sigh as she looked up and grasped either end of the prince’s undergarments. She yanked them down quickly and stepped to the side.
Isabelle waited what felt like a thousand minutes before the prince was finally finished. She stepped back over to him, grasped his undergarments, and puled them back up. As she was doing so, her thumbs glided against the skin of the prince’s outer thighs, and Isabelle was frustrated to realize that the prince’s skin felt far softer than her own. It just wasn’t fair!
“Thank you kindly for your help,” said the prince. “I’d say I owe you one, but you are keeping me prisoner, so that kind of cancels it out.”
Isabelle frowned and lead the prince back over to Sir Jingles’ horse.
“Alright,” said Isabelle. “The deed is done. Gag him and put him on the horse.”
“Wait a second,” said Sir Jingles. “Where is he?”
“What do you mean?” asked Isabelle. “The prince is right here!”
Isabelle gestured beside her, realizing immediately that she pointing to open air. “What in the fuck?!” said Isabelle. “He was right there a minute ago!”
A deep growling shook the ground. Isabelle turned around to see standing behind her an enormous, hulking puma with eight legs and three eyes. Dark blue goo was dripping from its mouth.
“Holy fucking shit!” said Isabelle. “What the fuck is that thing?!”
“It’s me, the prince of Sharithlond,” said the beast in a deep, grating voice. “I’m a member of the Overlord’s party, and shapeshifting is my special ability. Of course, I can only use it once every seventy two hours. Fortunately, my seventy second hour of waiting just ended.”
[Combat mode activated]
Fuck’s sake. Out of one battle, just to start another. Yet, still, this was a three on one fight. Plus, Isabelle had horses at the ready. They could probably do some damage to this puma-monster-prince, couldn’t they? There was no way this one monster would be too much to handle.
Then again, if he really was in the Overlord’s party, that meant he couldn’t be killed.
“Are you going to do anything, or are you just going to stand there?” asked the prince monster with a cackle. Before Isabelle, Tahsi or Sir Jingles had a chance to react, the beast gargled some of the blue liquid in its throat and spat it onto Tahsi.
[Tahsi -5 hp]
[Party member Tahsi has been confused]
Confused? What exactly did that mean?
Tahsi drew a loaf of bread as a blade, hopped off his horse, and dashed towards Isabelle.
“Don’t worry, Isabelle, I’ll fight this guy for us! I’ll take him down in a second!” Tahsi said. Then, he whacked Isabelle in the face with the bread three times.
[-3 hp]
[-4 hp]
[-3 hp]
“Tahsi! What the fuck! Why are you hitting me?” said Isabelle.
“Don’t worry, Isabelle, I’ve almost killed this monster of a prince, I’m sure of it!” said Tahsi. He took another four swings at Isabelle.
[-2 hp]
[-4 hp]
[-4 hp]
[-3 hp]
Isabelle was taken aback. Tahsi was actually kind of beating her up! Before Isabelle could respond, the prince monster gargled more blue goo and spat it at all three horses. They immediately charged forward and started stamping on Isabelle with their hooves.
[-3 hp]
[-2 hp]
[-2 hp]
[-3 hp]
[-2 hp]
Isabelle had to do something before she ended up dead by the hands and hooves of her own party!