*Thoughts*
~Sound effects~
+”Whispers”+
+++++
Chapter 37: Kyle PoV
While Kyle was walking to the door he remembered something, and thus sent Neuron a whisper: +”Hey Neuron, how did your appointment go?”+
+”Easy, there weren’t any cavities”+
*Wow, he really sounds relieved*
+”That’s great”+
+”It is!”+
While Kyle was approaching the gate, which was still open, one of the guards left his duty station and came running right toward him.
*What did I do wrong?*
As soon as the guard was in range to be heard he asked loudly: ”Are you Kyle?”
“Yes I am, what can I do for you?”, Kyle responded.
*What happened, Michael couldn`t know, that I am back already, or did the bandit rat me out?*
“Deltaio wants to see you right away”
*Oh god, what is going to happen?* he thought, while he followed the guard through the city gate.
* You have completed the quest: Come back alive
You have leveled up!
While following the guard to the barracks Kyle thought up several theories about what could have happened, and what would happen from now on, and so without him realizing he was already standing in front of Deltaios office. Deltaio signaled him to come inside, while telling the guard that he was dismissed.
“Ähm, may I ask what’s the matter?” Kyle asked, but Deltaio only told him to wait for a moment, and left his office.
He returned shortly after, but for Kyle it seemed like an eternity in which he pictured many cruel fates that could await him. But Deltaio returned with another guy, who Kyle recognized to be the one who gave him the quest.
“Wait, I can explain…”, Kyle tried to begin justifying himself, but Deltaio only motioned him to stay silent.
”Now, tell him everything you told me.”, Deltaio told the other man.
“Hello, we haven`t introduced ourselves yet, I am Ardesti.”, the frightened looking man began, “You don`t have to introduce yourself, I already know your name”, he added, because Deltaio seemed to want him to go on with his story. ”While I was on my patrol within the city a man approached me and instructed me to give someone named Kyle, who he stated was easy to recognize because of his tattered armor, a quest, of course with a reward. As soon as he showed me the quest I realized that it could only be a fraud. When I refused to deliver the quest, he threatened me using my wife who works within the castle as a maid, so I had no choice. I felt really bad about it, so the next day I turned myself in.”
“That he did”, Deltaio interrupted his monologue, “But I knew that you are a capable young man, so I told him to wait with going to the court to take responsibility until two days have elapsed, and if you hadn't returned by then he would be tried and sentenced.”
“Ähm, just a question, what would the sentence have been?” Kyle asked.
“Well, probably the death penalty”
“What, why?”
“Well he tricked one of his peers.” And because Kyle showed a questioning look he added: “I already decided to take you into the army after I saw you fight. I have already filled in all the paperwork and because you really wanted to join I left out your signature.” The one in question didn`t say a word, because he already knew what would await him.
“So what would be his sentence now?”, Kyle asked.
“This is entirely your choice”, Deltaio responded. After hearing this Ardesti's head jerked up and he started watching Kyle attentively, who thus began thinking aloud.
“Well, my friend has already forgiven you, and he is a really unforgiving person, so I guess I’ll do the same.”
“Your friends, I thought they already left for good?”, Deltaio asked, and when he saw Ardesti going completely white, cold sweat appearing on his face, he asked the man: ”Do you know who he meant?”
*Shit, I should have thought quietly*
“Yes, I met him after I received the money, he just appeared in front me and looked at me with some really scary eyes, which felt like he was judging whether he should kill me or not, those eyes where the scariest thing I have ever seen in my whole life. I begged him to forgive me, even offering him the money I received, but he simply refused.”
“So Kyle, could you explain who that fellow is?”
“Ah, I already told you how we managed to infiltrate the bandit’s hideout, right? Well, he was the one who killed their leader and caused a panic among them. After our first meeting inside the city he sent me a message, telling me that he decided to stay the night inside Saramas, so I asked him for help since I also anticipated this quest to be a fraud. By the way: You are a really bad liar.” he added towards Ardesti.
“But his eyes, they can`t be those of a human!”, Ardesti cried.
“Well he isn`t the only one who has those eyes, everyone from our party has them” Kyle replied while activating his “Eyes of the Judge” for a moment and gazed at the two others, who shuddered. Deltaio even dropped from his seat.
“Before you can ask, we got them because we made an oath, actually the bandits poisoned a lake in their hideout while escaping, and one of us drunk it. He was, well, old, and so the poison had a really big effect on him. So Neuron - this is the guy you met-”, Kyle added while looking at Ardesti, ”He is a really impulsive guy, so he and I performed a oath to bring every bandit to justice, and because of this oath we received the eyes of the judge, which you have seen right now.”
*I better keep the thing about it being a blood oath secret, it must be something really strong if even a god came to see who performed it.*
“Ah, I see”, Deltaio said while seating himself again, ”So would you show them to me again?”
“Really? You already experienced their effect”, Kyle inquired.
“True, but I want to examine them, they could come in handy later”, Deltaio responded, so Kyle used the eyes on him again. But not even twenty seconds later Deltaio said ”alright, you can dispel them.”
“And what do you think of them?”
“They are scary”, Deltaio answered, his voice wavering, but then he began mumbling to himself: ”But this is a godsend, he could actually judge all my subordinates, no, even the army. For a long time now I have had a hunch that there is a traitor among the ranks, and with this we can not only find him but maybe even sentence him!”
“Who do you mean with him?”, Kyle inquired.
“Oh, what, did I think aloud?”, Deltaio asked, a bit surprised, and after Kyle and Ardesti had nodded he scratched his head and explained: ”I was talking about Lucro. He is something like the counterpart of our king, he rules the city from the shadows. Everyone knows about it, but he is just too slick, I already tried to capture him many times, but he either escaped, or bribed the right guys. I’m convinced that all of the guards that are in charge of the slum are bribed by him, he even has friends within the highest ranks”
“And the King isn`t aware of it?”
“He’s an idiot”, Ardesti shot out, before going green and looking toward Deltaio with fear in his eyes.
“Don’t worry Ardesti”, Deltaio calmed him, “You’re right, he is a complete idiot, and idiocy together with great power is madness, so if it weren`t for his advisors, the kingdom Agakyos would have fallen long time ago.”
“Ähm, sorry to disturb you captain, but what shall I do from now on”, Ardesti asked shyly.
“Two weeks of kitchen duty, then you may resume your work”
“What about the money I received?”
“That is your decision, Kyle” Deltaio addressed Kyle.
Kyle shrugged: “Hmm, just keep it, I don’t need it anyway.”
Seconds later, while nearly crying from happiness that he got out of that mess with so little punishment, Ardesti exited the room while muttering many thanks.
“Good, so before you show me your skills I have to ask you something else.”
*Shit what now, he suddenly turned serious*
“The scouts I sent after you reported having seen a battlefield, and in the forest a man was bound tightly to a tree. Well, let’s be honest, he was being tortured. While this wasn’t surprising in itself, his identity was. One of the scouts recognized him, and I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard his report. So could you tell me what happened?”
*This sounds like he was some big shot*
“Hmm, well, he and his accomplices ambushed us during our travel. Luckily for us, Neuron had followed Ardesti, so we knew that would happen. We fought and defeated them, managing to capture their leader. We began interrogating him about who it was that hired him and so on, but he didn’t reveal anything. Thus we, well Neuron, decided to, well, torture him over a long time, but when we returned he was already gone.”, Kyle attempted an explanation.
Deltaio, looking puzzled, asked: “Where did you go?”
“Ähm, well, that is difficult to answer, could you tell me who this guy was instead?”
*I hope the AI will do something about this, I can’t explain to an NPC that this is all just a game*
And indeed Deltaio halted with a open mouth probably to give a retort, closed it and suddenly opened it again only to answer Kyle’s question:”He was a well known thief who managed to defeat many of the soldiers we sent after him. Apparently he is quite the formidable leader who is able to recognize a situation instantly, only to find the best way out of it. This has earned him quite a lot of Infamy and even a bounty. And you said you defeated him with only two men! What monsters are you and Neuron?”
*I see*
“No, we had a hard time dealing with him as well, because he separated us from the start, but we somehow managed to join forces again. That changed the flow of the battle and we were able to win at the end. Anyway, could you tell me what level he and his men were?”
“Their levels were not that high, only between 60 and 70, but combined with that leader they were quite the formidable foes.”, was the response of a rather impressed looking Deltaio.
“And so, where is he now?”
“Well he is out of my reach; he is imprisoned inside the castle, and there he will rot!”
*Shit, how can we question him then?*
“Ah, it is late, so let’s go to sleep. I’ll await your arrival at 10 o’clock tomorrow.”
“Yes, Sir”, Kyle said, saluting. ”Ah, sir, what happened to the horse and the carriage?”
“They are where they belong.”
“Good to hear.”
“Before you leave, could you tell me why you chose such an old horse?”
“I can understand the language of horses, and he knew the route to where I had to go.”, Kyle shrugged.
Again slightly astonished, Deltaio just managed to say: “I see, dismissed, soldier!”
“Yes, Sir!”, Kyle saluted again.
_______________________________________________________________
10 o’clock the next day in the barracks:
“Hello Captain” Kyle said, as soon as he opened the door to his office, and when he motioned him to come inside Kyle asked:”What shall I do?”
“For starters I would like to see your skill window so that I can decide which unit you should join, I know it isn’t comfortable letting someone else read it, but please bear with me and I promise to keep everything secret.”
” Oh, you are quite good, but I seriously never heard of neither these skills nor the class Defender, how did you get this class?” Deltaio asked after Kyle had shown him his skill window.
“I trained with my master, but I never attacked, I only defended, so he gave this class to me”, Kyle said while looking slightly embarrassed
“I see, I see, but you do have some really weird skills here, like “Trap triggering”, shouldn’t this normally be Disable traps?”
*Weird skills? You should see Neurons!* , Kyle thought rather angrily, but when he answered his tone of voice was normal: ”Well, some time ago Neuron and I entered a dungeon full of traps, but neither him nor me had a skill to disable or recognize traps. Thus, the only option we had was to trigger them, and since I was the one with the most Health points, this became my job. Long story short, that way I got that skill.”
“Ah, I see. Seems like it is one of your lowest skills. In the future, you probably won’t encounter many traps to level it up smoothly, since you got it a long time ago and it’s still that low, it might be a good idea to train you in it. Coincidentally, it would also be good training for our scouts and rangers to set traps for you.” Deltaio thought aloud. ”Kyle, you will trigger traps our scouts and rangers make. While doing so, you and them can give each other pointers as to how to improve your skills. For that purpose you will be assigned a empty house to train in.”
“Yes, Sir! Understood, Sir!”
“Wait here”, Deltaio told Kyle after they had left the barracks. Kyle didn’t know how long whatever he had to do would take, so he decided to give a little briefing to Neuron.
K: +”Neuron, are you busy right now?”+
N: +”No, what’s the matter?”+
K: +”Nothing much. I just heard that the bandits we killed were quite famous and powerful. Ah, yeah, the leader was captured by Deltaios scouts, now he is going to moulder in prison.”+
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
N: +”Nice, do you know which prison? Maybe I can take a look and interrogate him again?”+
K: +”That won’t be possible, the prison is located beneath the castle. Anyway, what are you doing?”+
N: +”Nothing much, I just went on a big haul”+
K: +”Come on Neuron, search for clues instead of chasing after every shiny object!”+
N: +”I do, I do! I stole a bunch of documents as well, so calm down!”+
K: +”And, did you find anything?”+
Right at this moment someone bumped into him so hard that he was pushed to the ground. When he looked up to see who the culprit was he saw a familiar face. The man had a blond ponytail, the only difference to the appearance he knew was that he had shaved his beard.
*What the heck, he shaved it, o come on, is he still a kid?*
N: +”Absolutely nothing. Hey Kyle, what happened!”+
K: +”Nothing, nothing. I just met an old acquaintance. Anyway, I have something to do, so later”+
N: +”Later”+
“Hello Michael”, Kyle said while rising, and without looking at his face he mockingly added: ”I see, you shaved yourself”, while brushing of some dust.
“You, you, how…?!”, Michael stuttered.
“Hey, I can’t teach you how to articulate your words properly, come on try one more time.”, he was encouraged by Kyle, who snickered evilly.
“You Damn Bastard, I will get my revenge!”, he hissed right into Kyle’s ear before marching on.
*Wow, look at him stomping the ground like a kid that didn’t get the toy it wanted* Kyle thought, grinning to himself. But then he received a smack on his head.
“I know you hate each other, but just try to be a little more polite or at least being more concerned about your future!”, Deltaio berated him in a strict voice, but his eyes told a different story.
“Yes, Sir!”, Kyle responded with a salute. Looking around, he saw a group of people gathered behind Deltaio. “Are these rogues and archers, Sir?”
“Yeah, as well as some thieves. Anyone I found who can set traps, really. Alright, so you will follow this guy here”, Deltaio ordered while pointing toward an man behind him. The man was about 1.70m tall and looked thoroughly fit. He also wore an extremely annoyed expression which was complimented by his hairdo.
*Is this guy a Emo?!*
“He will show you to the house in which you will train. Try not destroying it too much, it is scheduled to be demolished but we don’t want to do all the work ourselves do we!” he stated, while shouting the last part.
“No, Sir!”, the gathered bellowed in unison while saluting.
“Dismissed!”, the captain of the guard bellowed, turned around and stalked away.
As soon as the captain turned his back, the man he had pointed out approached Kyle: “Ähm, good, my name is Doran, I will take you to the mansion if you will.”, the guy said in a tone that was void of any and all enthusiasm.
*Great, and this guy is in charge*, Kyle grumbled to himself. He and the rest of the training unit followed Doran through the rich part of the city until the figure leading them halted and began to drone on again in the same tone as before: ”This is where you will train. Everyone enter and lay your traps. As for you, I guess Kyle is your name, you will stay in the foyer with me.”
The troops hurried inside promptly. Since they had never seen the interior of a rich people’s house before, shouts of surprise could be heard outside soon.
“Why do they need so much room?”
“What the heck? This room is as big as my whole house!”
“Look at that bath! Now this is how you take a dump!”
“Hrm, so Doran, what are you here for?”, Kyle asked when they were alone.
“I am here to train you in fist fighting. Deltaio ordered me to instruct you, he said you throw some serious punches. At first I didn’t want to, but that guy dug out a really old debt….”, was the angry response. ”Anyway, come on inside.”
*Wow, never guessed he could put some emotion inside his speech, but fist fighting, he has the body for it, but… I doubt he can be serious.*
The sight that greeted him inside the house made Kyle look around as astonished as the ones that entered before he did. The mansion was just that huge. In fact, the foyer alone used two stories of the house. In the middle of the foyer there was a big staircase which divided itself halfway up, one flight of stairs leading to the right and the other one to the left.
*Wow, this is really big. I can still see the splendor even though the owners removed everything of value*
While Kyle turned on the spot, taking in the view, he could see some of the troops diligently setting traps on the stairs and on the balustrades upstairs. Suddenly, he received a smack on the back of his head, and when he turned around Doran looked different: Instead of what he had worn before, he now wore a light outfit, kind of like a training suit for boxers and he was also skipping around on his feet.
“Hey Kyle, remove everything you’re wearing, and dress yourself in that” Doran said while pulling a jersey out of his bag.
* Simple training jersey
Durability: 50/50
Defense: 0
Restrictions: None
After equipping the Jersey, Kyle positioned himself in front of Doran, awaiting further orders. ”Good, I will now attack you in order to evaluate your strength.”, Doran said, and began moving. Well, it was more like he was sliding on the ground with his feet, but suddenly he was right in front of Kyle and attempted to punch him in the abdomen. Kyle crossed his arms to block, only to be hit on the cheek by a clenched fist.
Doran continued to shower Kyle with blows that he could barely block and began to drone on: “Don’t go full force while blocking, always have a hand free, and if you can’t block evade.”
*evading good joke, how can I evade if I am fully armored* Kyle thought.
Out of desperation he threw a punch, but Doran evaded it and hit him in the abdomen really hard.
Kyle slowly fell to his knees clutching his hands around the point of impact, spitting saliva, only to be hit on the back of his head, causing him to crash onto the floor head-first.
“Don’t throw punches with all your force, if it is evaded your enemy has an easy time hitting you, now rise!”
And like this the training went on and on: Kyle was always on the receiving end of Doran’s punches while not even being able to graze his opponent himself.
“Ähm, Sir, we have finished laying the traps!”
“Alright. Kyle, you have to evade more, so go and trigger all the traps while only wearing this jersey. For each point of HP you lose, you will have to do one sit up.”
Grumbling, Kyle began to move towards the stairs, only to be hit by a fist on the back of his head again. When he tried to sidestep so as to not fall down, his leg was blocked and so he again crashed to the floor.
“Where is the “Yes, Sir”?”
“Yes, Sir!”
*Oh, just wait I will beat you, I definitely will!*
Kyle diligently triggered every trap within the mansion. All of them were just crudely made wire traps, either the obligatory tripwire or snares. He could easily trigger those or render them ineffective by stepping dead on the wire the trap was made of. Only one trap was more resourceful: This trap was a trip wire connected to a desk that was pushed from the alcove the moment that force was transmitted to the wire. The falling desk cleanly hit Kyle and dragged him to the handrail of the stairs. The handrail was weakened and so Kyle crashed through it and fell all the way to the bottom floor. He crashed on the ground and was hit by the desk that fell after him.
* Trap Triggering has leveled up!
* You have received a heavy blow! -30% HP
*damn, this trap was really well made.* Kyle thought, while he crawled out from the debris which once was a desk.
*Shit -30% that means,……. how many sit ups?*
And as if it had read his thoughts a system message appeared.
* Sit ups to perform: 2643
*What the hell?!*
“Hey, who made that trap?”, he demanded from the trappers standing around him to have their skills reviewed by him.
“Me, it was me”, a shy looking Girl murmured while raising her hand, “Are you angry with me?”
“No, no, look at this trap, this is what Deltaio was talking about, your trap making skill is crap, just this girl managed to make a very impressive one, so where you able to make more?”
“No, sir, this is the only one I managed to make in this time.”
“Alright, how about you take more time while making the traps, I will then trigger all of them tomorrow, you know, if the trap is well made it will give more experience after its completion, and I will also mention those who impressed me with their traps to Deltaio”
*I sure hope that is true, I completely pulled that out from my ass*
“Yes, Sir!”
“Good, back to training then. You can do the sit-ups after we have finished”
And again Kyle was on the receiving end of his heavy blows while getting lectures about evading. Then, Doran stopped beating him and said: “Well, all you have is a strong fist. That isn’t enough though, you need technique as well. To throw a strong but fast punch you need to…….”
And thus the lesson continued till close to sunset, whence he waved his goodbyes to a completely exhausted Kyle, saying: ”Now do all the sit-ups while wearing this backpack.” He pointed to a backpack laying closeby. When Kyle tried lifting it he was surprised by its weight, so he looked inside, and unsurprisingly it was filled with stones. When shouldered it a system message appeared:
* You are overloaded
Moving speed is reduced by 30%
Stamina consumption is doubled.
*Back to grinding again I guess*
After an hour the whole floor around Kyle was wet from the sweat that was flowing out of his pores and dripping to the ground. While Kyle was diligently performing the sit-ups Neuron sent him a whisper:
N: +”Are you free right now?”+
K: +”Not really, ~pant~ but I’ll manage ~pant so tell me.”+
N: +”I just wanted to ask what you were doing, and where you are.”+
K: +”Does that really matter ~pant~?”+
N: +”Huh!”+
After this shout of surprise Kyle heard many different sounds: First was a thunk, as if something soft had crashed into something hard, then another, heavier, one followed.
K: +”Neuron, what’s the matter!?”+
N: +”Nothing, nothing, don’t worry. Anyway, have fun with whatever you are doing.”+
K: +”Thanks, you too.”+
*I wonder what happened.*
But he decided to ask Neuron later, for right now he had to concentrate on doing sit-ups.
* Your satiety has fallen, if you don’t eat something soon you may die
*Wow, this never happened to me before*
* Your stamina has fallen to 10%
* Sit ups to perform: 1462
*Shit, not even halfway through* Kyle thought depressed while looking at the counter.
Exhausted, he prepared a quick meal, but as soon as he recovered both his satiety and stamina he continued his task. At the end he was in a complete daze, only thinking about the next move. He didn’t even notice how everyone else left the house and night fell on the city.
End Chapter 37
Credit goes to Cwatrat for his Proofreading