Chapter 73 – The Barracks Job Pt. 1
Jack was in a foul mood. He looked up from his spot beneath the tree and exchanged another dirty glance with the object of his ire. Onem was joining him on the assassination mission.
Jack was positive that Onem was definitely going to somehow betray him and/or leave him for dead. Despite his many complaints, no one seemed to care. The strike team was small. It was Jack, Hannah, Onem, and the Queen and her small contingent of Valkyrie.
Jack and Onem would be doing most of the heavy lifting for the job, the sneaking in and killing of Authun. Hannah and the Queen would be somewhere nearby waiting to provide support in case they needed to make a hurried escape. Jack assured everyone that it would be fine – Hannah made sure to let everyone know that was code for shit was definitely going to hit the fan and everyone needed to be ready for Jack doing something stupid.
Jack resented that. He was more than ready to take this mission seriously. He wanted to get the hell out of this dungeon more than anyone. It sucked in here. Also, he even took his last mission seriously to assassinate the werebear village chief. It’s not his fault the Tower literally changed the phases of the moon in order to fuck with him. He had to pointedly remind everyone that things going wrong weren’t exactly his fault every time.
“Why are you sweating so much?” Onem asked, arms crossed, eyes fixed on Jack with a look of disdain.
Jack ignored the draugr, pulling his focus back to his core.
Three mana drops were static inside his core, holding a triangular formation. Now that Jack had the ability to use his mana drops again, he felt safe pulling in a third one.
It was much more difficult to control than just two. With just two drops, he didn’t even have to pay attention to them anymore. Whatever portion of his mind he dedicated to maintaining the two drops of condensed mana had zero problem keeping them in check. The third drop upped the difficulty with what felt like a significant amount. He was worried he was reaching the upper limits of what his core could contain. Technically his core was by no means filled, but three drops still represented six days of continuously pulled mana, which seemed like a lot for his core, which was only uncommon at this point in time.
He was having a bit of trouble keeping it all under control and was desperately holding out for a mastery upgrade in Willpower that might assist with helping control even more drops inside his core. He was even eyeing a fourth drop which he kept on the precipice of forming. Ideally, he would use that one for backup ammo and fully form it after expending his already formed drops. However, mastery levels seemed to only upgrade when you pushed things to the extreme, and he might see an upgrade if he added a fourth drop. He also might lose control, self implode, and die.
The middle of an assassination mission seemed like the wrong time to experiment, so he held off for now.
He had hoped adding a couple of skill points to his Willpower would help increase his control. Or at least do something. Once Hannah found out, she quickly dubbed him the king of idiots and spent the better part of an hour berating him for his point expenditure.
Points in Willpower seemed to only increase core size and how fast you could draw in mana, mastery is what determined your ability to further control and manipulate mana she informed him. He honestly couldn’t tell if he was drawing in mana any faster thanks to the additional two points in Willpower, but the unique nature of his core seemed to really muddy the waters. It definitely didn’t grow any bigger. Jack pulled up his stat page, still desperate for anything to distract him from having to have a conversation with Onem.
Statistics / Quests / Tower Store / Achievements / Blessings
Name: Jack Atlas
Race: Human [Common]
Floor: 1st Floor
Level: 7
Class: Hitman [Rare] [+1 Str +3 Dex +1 Foc per level]
Core Type: [Modified Lightning Mana Core] [Uncommon]
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Stats —
Strength: 14 - [Apprentice-High]
Endurance: 12 (1) - [Adept-Intermediate]
Vitality: 5 (2) - [Novice-High]
Dexterity: 45 – [Adept - Low]
Focus: 14 - [Apprentice-Intermediate]
Willpower: 3 - [Adept-Intermediate]
Free Skill Points: 0
Achievement Points [AP]: 584,500
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Abilities [2/5] —
Lightning Centipedes Bite [Uncommon, Novice - Low]
Storm Step [Rare, Novice - Low]
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Passives —
Multiverse Common Tongue [Non-Upgradable]
Storm Stance of the Lightning Centipede [Rare, Apprentice - Low]
Sneak [Uncommon, Novice-Low]
Mana Condenser [Rare] [Incomplete]
Jack grimaced at his stat page. He had been stuck in here for weeks now and it felt like not a lot had changed. He had gained one natural point in Strength, and two points in Endurance during his time in the mines, but aside from the Mastery upgrades to his Storm Stance and Dexterity, there honestly wasn’t that much to get excited about. Jack reminded himself that should he make it out of the Dungeon alive there would be massive levels gained, but it still felt like if he wasn’t stronger now, making it out alive was nothing but a pipe dream. The only real plus side is that his AP amount was starting to feel absurd. The lesser draugr amounted to roughly 2000 AP a kill and the higher level berserkers earned him 10,000 AP. Other types he had come across averaged around 5000 AP. If there was one thing he had done since coming to the dungeon, it was kill a lot of draugr.
“Are you ready?” Onem asked, interrupting Jack from his thoughts.
Jack glanced around; the sun had finally set, which meant it was time to put their plan into motion. As far as plans went, the odds felt pretty stacked against them. The plan hinged on a secret passage on the far side of the valley. The passage would lead them into the barracks, bypassing the literal army camped outside of it.
Jack and Onem just had to sneak through the heavily guarded forest laced with high alert draugr patrol units. Then they had to sneak through a heavily guarded entrance that was protected by what Onem referred to as “Shadowstalkers”, a rogue-like draugr designed by Halldis for stealth. Their timing also had to be perfect, as the only time the secret entrance opened up was for a shift change. The door would be open for however long it took new guards to file out and back in. Brute forcing the door wasn’t an option, as apparently it had magical wards that would alert the entirety of the barracks should anyone start tampering with it.
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After that, they just had to clear through what was likely to be a heavily guarded passageway, make it into the barracks, which Onem assured had draugr elite of every variety stuffed inside. Make it past the elites undetected and they could sneak into the chambers of Authun, the frost mage. The queen warned Jack a dozen times over that Authun was an incredibly powerful frost wizard, but Jack had a hard time taking anyone seriously who was referred to as a Wizard.
Provided they kill Authun, the escape should be relatively easy, and was the primary reason for the addition of Onem. With Authun dead, he would be able to seize control of the draugr by some means still yet revealed to Jack.
Jack was thoroughly annoyed that no one saw the potential threat of just handing Onem an army and hoping he wouldn’t betray his soul oath. He had been chewing on half a dozen plans to “accidentally” kill Onem when taking out Authun.
All in all, this was shaping up to be his favorite sort of mission. An impossible mission.
“Tom Cruise, give me strength,” Jack whispered to himself, pulling something out of his void sack.
“Is he one of the Gods from where you hail?”
“It depends on who you ask.” Jack shrugged.
Jack pulled his centipede cloak out of his void sack and wrapped it around his neck, pulling it up over his mouth. The slender cape whirred to life behind him, zigging and zagging in an erratic fashion with each step he took. Onem’s eyes flashed panic for the briefest of seconds before he began to squint at Jack.
“That thing is disgusting.” He said, staring at Jack’s cape.
“I thought so too at first, but it’s really grown on me. It’s my emotional support creepy centipede cape.”
Onem fixed Jack with his black draugr eyes, staring at him with a gaze that seemed to be somewhere between regret and annoyance. Jack would make sure the draugr regretted inserting himself into the mission.
He glanced around as the sun completely fell, drawing the surrounding forest into a dark twilight. Under the cover of darkness, the two men pushed off into the forest.
Much to Jack’s annoyance, Onem was actually incredibly helpful.
“The darkness is my domain.” Onem had told him when Jack interrogated him about his usefulness for an assassination mission.
Jack had thought the draugr was being his usual dramatic self. As it turns out, the evil draugr boss with shadow powers was extremely well suited to killing everything that fell within the shadows. Jack was even starting to get a little annoyed at the fact Onem was silently slaughtering every patrol pack they came across before Jack even had a chance to draw his daggers.
Jack watched the draugr intently as they sprinted through the dark forest, trying to get a gauge of his skill set. In his previous exchanges, Onem had struck him as a patient warrior, slow moving even. Now, though, he was a dexterous rogue, launching black beams of silent energy from unseen shadows that disintegrated draugr heads before they realized what hit them.
They spent the better part of an hour pushing through the forest, silently dispatching every patrol unit they came across. Despite Jack’s feelings about the draugr, the two of them together made an incredibly effective team. Jack diving in so fast that no other draugr had time to react. Onem ensuring no noise escaped as he wrapped them in his shadowy domain while the two mercilessly slaughtered the draugr.
Onem held up a staying hand as they approached the far side of the valley, roughly a hundred yards away from the mountainside wall. Jack paused, glancing around the darkness to see what Onem had stopped their advance for.
“The Shadowstalkers.” He said in a quiet whisper.
Jack couldn’t see a single thing in the darkness, but that was apparently by design. The Shadowstalkers were a group of draugr Halldis had experimented on, injecting them with shadow mana and morphing the undead to her will. They weren’t necessarily meant for direct combat. Their specialty lay in their ability to hinder movement and alert nearby draugr units of enemy forces. Onem advised Jack that should he get caught by one, they would cast an ensnaring ability and emit an insanely loud shrieking noise alerting any nearby forces.
The shadowstalkers made the perfect guard for secret tunnels. You couldn’t exactly have a bunch of armed forces guarding your secret tunnel exit. Kinda defeated the purpose of keeping it a secret at that point. What you could have were dozens of units designed for stealth hiding in the trees while you kept several draugr patrols in the immediate area.
They entertained the idea of dispatching all the patrols and shadowstalkers, but that would likely take a serious amount of time, as well as raise a lot of suspicion if all of their patrols around the secret tunnel kept disappearing. It was bad enough they already slaughtered half a dozen patrolling units on their way over here.
Two hours after dark, the secret passage would open and the shadowstalkers who served the day shift would swap out with another group for the night shift. Onem advised the swap was incredibly fast, and they would have maybe thirty seconds as the draugr filed in and out of the secret tunnel.
This was where Jack felt the plan got fun. In that brief window, Jack and Onem were going to make a mad dash for it. Onem had been insistent that he could hitch a ride in Jack’s shadows while manipulating the surrounding darkness to keep them unseen. The shadowstalkers had specially attuned dark vision but Onem was positive that with Jack’s unreal speed combined with Onem’s ability for manipulating the darkness, they would make it through undetected.
Once inside, Onem would create some sort of shadow domain, ensnaring the shadowstalker inside the tunnel and they would slaughter, well, everything that was unlucky to get trapped between the two of them.
As far as plans went, Hannah had been the first to object. But the only other alternative was sneaking through an encampment of soldiers surrounding the barrack and somehow scaling the walls unseen. Jack was honestly fine with either option. The queen made the final choice of taking the secret tunnel.
Jack looked upwards towards the sky, unsure if he had heard the flapping of Valkyrie wings or if it was just his imagination.
“Are you ready?” Onem whispered.
“No. I don’t even know where I’m supposed to be running.”
“I’ve placed us directly in front of the entrance. Keep your eyes trained on the mountain wall. It’s designed to blend into the surroundings, but once open, it will be fairly obvious.”
“Also, what exactly did you mean you're going to hitch a ride in my shadows? It’s pitch black. Are their shadows in the darkness?” Jack asked, a little confused about what Onem’s plans were. He saw the draugr teleporting around several times on their journey over here, but there seemed to be some degree of limitations on it in terms of range and how rapidly it could be done.
“I can hide in wherever the darkness touches,” Onem said, disappearing into the darkness in melodramatic fashion. “When I say run. Run.” Onem said, almost whispering it in Jack’s ears.
Jack shivered slightly at the thought of Onem hiding somewhere in his shadow. So fucking creepy.
Apparently, the two of them had made exceedingly good time, because Jack was starting to wonder if they were even doing a shift change. It took forever before there was a sign that anything was going to happen at all.
“Ready yourself. I sense movement among the shadowstalkers.”
Jack felt his body go tight as he began to store tension in his legs, leaning forward slightly in preparation. Jack stared dead ahead. It was mostly trees and uneven forest terrain, as far as he could tell. Which wasn’t much, since everything was in complete darkness. His night vision was ok, but it was nothing like Hannah’s or Onem’s. He was curious to see just what the upper limits of his dexterity were in terms of running. This would be a nice test for his new adept mastery level as well. Cumberlin had told him that the more he improved his mastery, the better his balance would become on whatever terrain he was on. Unpredictable forest terrain that he couldn’t even see seemed like a pretty good test.
“Now.” Onem said in a hurried whisper.
Jack pushed off the ground with an explosive burst of speed. He heard his cape whipping in the wind behind him and his hair blowing back as he ran faster and faster. The first thing he noticed after his initial sprint was everything grew quiet. Onem was manipulating the surrounding darkness to muffle any noises he made. Jack narrowly avoided trees that seemed to suddenly appear out of nowhere. He stumbled occasionally over the wayward unseen tree root, but never tripped outright . It felt impossible to trip himself even. He was always able to recover in an instant and convert his momentum into another step that propelled him forward.
By the time he cleared half the distance, he found what he was looking for. Just beyond the trees was a rectangular cutout in the mountainside. It was hard to make out, but Jack got the impression of lines of shadows moving in and out of the passageway. He pushed harder off the ground, covering the rest of the distance in what felt like seconds.
He slowed briefly as they approached. This would be the tricky part. To manipulate the door required some sort of ward key. If they ran in now, the door would just stay open until they could find which draugr inside had the key. Which would likely mean that at least one of the draugr would be able to alert someone on the outside, who would, in turn, alert everyone. Jack had to wait until all the draugr filed inside, and then push in before they sealed off the entrance.
He watched as the last draugr stepped inside. Jack pushed off the ground in another explosive burst of speed, pulling out his daggers as he launched into the pitch-black tunnel behind the unsuspecting shadowstalker.
He couldn’t see anything, but his daggers landed in the back of something as he heard the entrance reseal itself behind him.
He listened to the shuffling of feet, looking upward at the shadowstalkers that had stopped to turn and see what the commotion was. At least that’s what he imagined was happening. It was still mostly pitch black.
Then the screeching started, loud painful screeching that felt as though it might rupture his ears, he felt something tight start to wrap around his ankles, only to disappear a moment later.
Then he heard Onem start to laugh, silencing everything.
“Go ahead… Make as much noise as you want. Not even your screams will escape my domain.” He said with a low, menacing chuckle.
Jack rolled his eyes, standing up to join Onem who had cut him free of whatever bindings the shadowstalker cast on him. His partner was such an edge lord.
The two men launched themselves at the shadowstalkers, completely unbiased as they slaughtered everything.