Chp.4 Unskilled fools.
POV Old Man
r-0 is ready for infiltration and assasination now but he’s still 6, I would want to train him until he’s 14 but he would just stagnate. I refer to Charles by my side, “Charles do you think we should send r-0 on an active mission?” Charles is a portly scholar and my right hand decision maker, he dabs his head then says “That would be a good Idea…” he pauses for a moment “6 is here, we should assign her to watch him” I give a small nod and pull up local contracts from our contacts, then write 2 letters and seal them then I slide them down a small red chute. They are marked appropriately on the back. in 5 to 6 minutes, the orders will be given
POV r-0
While going through my daily morning meal, a courier approaches. a white letter with a red wax seal with an unmarked stamp, on the back it has r-0 and the words assasination/auxiliary. Opening the letter it has instructions
Time limit 2 months, instructions, A merchant of middling richness by the name Devon has warranted assasination, through any means necessary kill Devon {special request; castrate him then hang him up on the city wall}
Location Yugasforst.
Yugasforst is a small city of about 150,000 and ½ or so weeks by foot at my speed from my current location.
The first part of a good job is the right tools. I finish up my meal, and head to the armory, showing the letter for the mission, I’m granted access there's a few sorted rooms, clothing/armor, melee weapons, range weapons, substances, gadgetry, and misc. Keep in mind that each of the rooms are quite large and organised with the equipment being a range of qualities. I pick out a stiletto dagger switchblade style, 3 small throwing daggers, Mottled grey clothing, regular commoners clothing, a full 20 ft of ⅔ cm rope, a foldable grappling attachment for said rope, 1 oz sheepsbane (A sleeping draught) a syringe a map and a small satchel to hold them. I conceal the daggers on my person and wrap the rope around the bag
I then gather the basic necessities (2 days food/water, shoes, clothes, blade oil) , present my letter to the gate and leave. I make sure to leave my letter with the gate on the way out. Heading in the general direction of the city I make sure to leave no tracks. Continuing further for 3 hours or so
I came upon a large dirt road, Walking further down the road towards Yugasforst I set a steady and calm pace, sure I was going the speed of a jog for a full grown man but still, An hour later I found the smoldering wreckage of a wagon, bandits most likely.
‘Bingo’
Using [Changeling glamour]
[Changeling glamour] (active) by reserving an amount of your mana pool you can change your body and even gear to something different, change dependent on amount of mana reserved 32/36 mana currently reserved
I remold myself to look like a 6 year old girl of my features just longer hair and slightly more feminime in classic tunic and pants, and covered is dirt and soot, I sit down and wait, 2 or so more days of stakeout and I begin to feel and hear light unusual vibrations in the air. 15 minutes later I can ascertain the contents 1 cart 5 men metal clinking, Bandits, Perfect.
Sinking down to my knees I begin to cry softly, using my mastery over deception I wait.
Eventually a cart with rowdy men pulled by 2 mules appears rising from the trees, out of the corner of my eye I see 2 of them gain a perverted look on their face and the other 3 gain a greedy one, They start to chatter “Murtz look at that! We found a girl, She’ll give us a pretty penny” The one named murtz replies “I haven't had much fun can I play with her? ``says murtz. A third one Most likely the leader goes “No, keep your hands off the merchandise, they pay more when they get to break them themselves.” in that weird accent that all the commoners have.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
When they get closer “Well hey little girl what are you doing all the way out here?” A fourth one inquires. In my best mantally scarred child voice I go “sniff, my mommy… sniff… and daddy left with the bad men… sniff… are you the bad men… sniff… cause I should stay away from bad… sniff… men”
“No no, we're not bad men, we’ll find you a nice new home” the one called murtz is trying very hard to stifle giggles and failing miserably.
What most people think about combat in this world is to win you need to be more skilled or have a better situation to win, That's not necessarily true, with a little ingenuity you can turn the tides.
It also helped that my current targets were unskilled idiots.
As I walk closer to the cart In a single smooth motion, I lunge-step onto the cart’s wheel, drop the glamour, fish the stiletto blade out of a pocket sewn on the inside of the neck area with my right hand, switch the blade open and drive the blade through the bottom of the mouth of the driver/leader at a harsh angle through the top most vertebrae into the medulla and twist, shattering the vertebrae and pulping the medulla and sending shards of bone further into the brain.
Continuing my momentum I flick a throwing dagger into my palm, and send it into the throat of the 5th bandit furthest in the back.
At this point a look of shock fills the face of the last 3 bandits, still balancing on the wheel I slide my blade out of the now dead leader.
Murtz, who was closest to me swiftly changes his expression from shock to outrage and tries to chop down on my head with his sword in a 2 handed grip, side stepping to dodge, I now straddle the leaders thigh with my feet, I twist to the side and down bending my knees and grabbing the now dead leader’s sword from its scabbard with my empty left hand.
Using the wind up gained by twisting my torso I explosively remove the chipped sword from its sheath in a curved angle and plant the edge halfway into Murtz’s femur, again in one smooth motion.
As Murtz falls forward from the pain draping himself over the drivers bench next to the leader's body I grab a basic knife from his belt. Not well made but the inconsistency of it makes it better for its purpose.
The guy in the back is unconscious, the leader is dead and murtz is unable to stand let alone fight.
The remaining two stand side by side softly shaking with pale faces with their even more rusty swords drawn. Walking with calm measured steps I’m a ghost, if not for their eyes, I am undetectable.
It is at these moments that the cowards are separated from the people you want by your side.
As I move closer I switch the grip on my stiletto from forward to reverse grip. The bandit on the left begins to turn in order to run, and the bandit on the right steels himself and charges at me with his sword set against his body.
Taking another step I lunge deeply and simultaneously raise the stolen dagger in my left hand and carve a 10 cm line into his thigh artery with the stiletto one in my right, as I’m raising the dagger it screeches down the sword, replacing its trajectory from one that would break my clavicle to one where the sword stabs the air above my head. Using his momentum I grab his thigh and stand, due to my 3 ft stature it was less effective, but he still went down face first. The last man is 2 steps from the edge of the cart and closing, As I don’t want bloodstains on the ground I rush to him, planting the stolen dagger into his kidney from the back, slamming my knee against the back of his, he goes down, landing face up with his lower legs folded under his body.
I slam my foot down on his throat crushing his trachea and cutting off his death rattle.
I like keeping my face perfectly calm. Because emotions are sloppy and liable to fail you a mission.
Pulling up the system notification I kept out of the way during the battle
You have killed 3x slavers (3, 4, 7) 2x bandits (4, 5)
66 + 88 + 156 + 133 + 167
Total: 610 exp!
Lvl Up! Lvl 4 ⟶ 5, Agility 27 ⟶ 28 Dexterity 26 ⟶ 27 Strength 25 ⟶ 26
Attribute points 5 ⟶ 7 Skill points 1 ⟶ 2
Satisfied with my gains I survey the remains of my battle. Pulling off my blood soaked tunic I retrieve my throwing knife and discard the rough knife I used to incapacitate the last man, then salvage the gear still left in the cart, finding a surprisingly good quality hatchet and a poor quality bow that could do some fixing up, A unsurprising amount of shackles, basic provisions and some clothes, sliding an oversized tunic on I free the worse looking mule and gave it a kick in the direction of the city, that way I’m not wasting resources.
Moving the cart a further 10 or so feet I position it over the burnt remains of an identified cart, grab a flint from the cart and burn the cart like an express funeral pyre.