***
All the way ba Ardville, where the cover of darkness over its many streets had not yet been pushed back by the arrival of the m sun, two spicuous figures skulked their way around an alley.
One was rge, broad-shouldered, and built like a se of brick wall. The other was small, sy, ao the first, could almost pass for a child. A very vishly dressed child.
The bigger man was holding a manhole cover open with one hand, and using the other to reach down into the sewer, while his patron provided vital ands.
“Be careful pulling him up, Bruce! I would be livid if your brutish hands harmed his wrists just because you ’t trol yourself.”
The hired muscle groaned with annoyance, but chose to say nothing, as he usually did. His job required few words from him, and so long as it got him paid, he k best to keep his thoughts to himself.
A different kind of groan came from ihe sewer hole, as Bruce pulled his hand up and brought a third man out of the dark depths.
He wore not fand brightly colored clothing made of silk, but instead a dingy set of burp rags. No expe with a feather stig out of it sat upon his head, leaving his greasy, matted down hair on show. There was no cloud of expensive and overwhelming perfume surrounding him either, only the stench of sewer waste and ck of bathing.
Only nizable trait of his still remained, despite its more u appearance: a pencil mustache under his stuck up witg with disgust as he climbed out of Ardville’s waste-filled waterways.
“Mr. Antoihe other nobleman cried out in a loud and exaggerated greeting. “I ot express how great it is to finally see you out of that cell!”
“Keep your voice down, you imbecile,” spat the escapee, in a bitter whisper between grindih. “Do you want someoo hear you and find us?”
“No, no, please, my apologies, sir! I didn’t mean it,” the small man said, throwing his head down in an apologetihat revealed more fear than respect.
Antoine eyed the bodyguard t above them.
“Are you sure the guard will n the arm?”
Bruce smirked. “Trust me, I knocked him out good. He won’t be scious anytime soon.”
“Good. That means we should have at least a couple of hours until they find him during the ge of the watch.” He turo the nobleman again. “You. Did y me what I instructed?”
The other man scrambled to untangle a rge satchel from under his vestment’s mantles. “Of course, my lord! Here, it was exactly where you said and I brought it right over.”
The fuildmaster took the bag unceremoniously and quickly looked inside, partially pulling out a set of clothes and looking uhem for something else.
“And you didn’t even look i?”
“No! Of course not, sir,” answered the noble. “I would never!”
Antoine shook his head disapprovingly before muttering under his breath. “Gullible fool.”
“Mr. Antoine, if I may…” the sheepish ckey started. “Where do you io go now? Not to question your pns, of course, but with the eown soon to be out looking for you, going back to your old life will not really be an option.”
The disgraced mert turned with a snap, his face twisted into an expression that matched his foul odor.
“This town rot in hell for all I care,” he said bitterly, spite shooting out of his eyes like daggers, making the other man shrink down in his expensive ce-up shoes. “After all I’ve done for it, they’ve turned on me for… for that creature? They don’t deserve me!”
Antoiuro the rger man still t over them, who was keeping an eye on the alley’s exit for any movement.
“Are the horses saddled and ready?”
Bruced down at the still seething mert, showing no signs of being too intimidated by the temperature of his temper.
“Yeah, two horses waiting outside the town walls, like you said.”
“T-two horses?” stuttered the c nobleman, slowly returning to an upright position. “But s-sir… I have my own business here in town, my entire life. I’m not sure whether I would be of much help if I were to go with you.” His eyes jumped suddenly. “As honored as I would be, of course!”
With a gre that oozed pt, Antoine eyed the noble up and down before scoffing.
“You’re right, you would be useless to me. What would make you think that I’m taking you with me?”
“B-but… I thought… I did everything you asked of me,” said the fused man. “I got every parcel, went to every hidden stash, arranged everything for your escape. I followed your every instru to the letter!”
“Yes you did,” said Antoine, a shade falling over his face as he stared at his nervous ckey. “And now you know far too much about me, my pns, and my secrets. I just ’t have that.”
“W-what?”
“Look at you. You’d fold and tell everything you know if a guardsman so much as breathed harder on you.”
“But, sir… No! I would neve—”
“You,” Antoine barked, turning suddenly to Bruce. “Does he still pay you the same as you told me st time?”
The bodyguard looked at the man in rags with a cocked eyebrow.
“Yeah. Why?”
The mert reached into his satchel and pulled out a fat purse from uhe ge of clothes within.
“That’s triple of what he pays you,” he said, tossing the sack of gold at the rger man, who caught it with one hand. “There’s plenty more where that came from stashed all across the nd if you choose to work for me from now on.”
Bruce peeked into the bag, a golden shine refleg on his face as he smiled.
“Sounds like a good deal to me.”
“Excellent,” said Antoine. “Your first task is to rid me of any loose ends. Make it quick, I need you to take me outside to my horse before the guards sound the arm.”
The newly hired merary pocketed his payment before rolling his shoulders.
“You got it, boss.”
The trembling nobleman looked bad forth betweeher two as his back pressed against the grimy alley wall.
“Y-you work for me, Bruce!” he pleaded, his voice crag with a high-pitch. “I hired you! You ’t do this!”
Bruce smirked with malicious i, crag his huge knuckles as he approached his former patron.
“Shoulda paid me more.”
Antoiepped out of the alley and onto the deserted street just as the first rays of sunlight breached through the maze of rooftops above.
As a muffled whimper and the dry sound of a quiap came from the alley behind him, the once great guildmaster of Ardville looked upoown’s streets with s as he muttered between grindih.
“You will all pay in time. Especially you, crab.”
***
“Dang it, why are my antennae feeling sain?” Balthazar asked himself as he skittered down the road through the pins, his focus split betweeh ahead and the system text in his sight. “Bah, must be nothing.”
After having added Druma and Blue to his party as the system suggested, the crab had found himself able to access his two friends’ stat ss like he could see his own.
Alright, let’s see what we’ve got here…
[Name: Druma]
[Race: Goblin]
[Level: 3]
[Css: None]
[Health: 60/60]
[Stamina: 90/90]
[Mana: 0/0]
[Attributes:]
[Strength: 2]
[Endurance: 3]
[Agility: 4]
[Perception: 3]
[Intellect: 2+2]
[Charisma: 1]
[Traits]
[Eager Learner]
[Skills:]
[None]
The mert read through his assistant’s sheet carefully as he tinued navigating through the road, effortlessly swerving and avoiding every stone and hole in his path with the expertise of someone already used to doing things while reading strange glowis burned into his retinas.
Big yikes on that Charisma, buddy, but otherwise, this all seems abht. Even the +2 Intellect bonus from that old hat. I wonder what this trait is, though.
[Eager Learner]
[Trait]
[Goblins don’t usually like learning things, but this one is different. Whether because he hit his head, or precisely because he didn’t, this creature has a knack for pig up new skills if taught. Able to gain up to one patible skill if given an active Scroll of Potential or trained by a tutor.]
Huh… Isn’t that something?
vihat was certainly an iing trait to sider ter, but one he had no real use for yet, given how he had not found any of those scrolls or tutors for himself yet, Balthazar moved on to the s of his other panion.
[name: Blue]
[Race: Drake]
[Level: 16]
[Css: None]
[Health: 350/350]
[Stamina: 120/120]
[Mana: 80/80]
[Attributes:]
[Strength: 12]
[Endurance: 12]
[Agility: 22]
[Perception: 20]
[Intellect: 12]
[Charisma: 20]
[Traits]
[Mind Scales]
[Skills:]
[Firebreath]
The crab’s eyestalks frowned as he read through the attributes once more.
Those seem way higher than I would expect. And how does such a petunt creature have so much Charisma?
Oblivious to the irony of his owion, Balthazar shrugged.
Teenagers. Whatever.
Curious, he pressed the only skill listed, already having a pretty det idea of what it was given the name, but still w what it would look like.
[Firebreath]
[Skill]
[Cost: 30 Mana]
[As a draic creature, drakes have the natural ability to unleash a torrent of fire through their mouths. The fmes deal an average amount of magical fire damage to everything that fails to resist it. Not suitable for meal cooking.]
Alright then. At least I learned she uses mana to shoot those blue fmes. Not sure how I’d get her to ever drink a mana potion if hough.
Pulling back to the previous s, the crusta selected her only trait, [Mind Scales], which, uhe skill, he felt much more clueless as to what it could be.
[Mind Scales]
[Trait]
[Owners of strong personalities, sturdy wills, and well-banced minds, draic creatures show great resistao all manner of illusion or mind-altering magic. Has the ability to resist most psychic effects.]
Balthazar cocked aalk at the text.
Oh, I get it. Well-banced… Scales… This system is all clever now.
Despite his quips, the crab reized that such a trait could be quite handy, and deep down, he wished he could have it too if he ever entered a certain bck-cd witch again.
With a sigh, Balthazar dismissed the system s and focused solely on the road again.
“Well, I guess it’s a party.”
A few paces away, his goblin assistant perked up. “Boss say something?”
“No, no, don’t mind me, Druma,” replied the crab. “Just talking to myself and reminisg.”
With a little less pep to his step, the mert remembered the old days when his party had not two, but three panions.
Reag bato his Backpack of Holding, Balthazar touched the rough surface of the broken orb he brought from home with the tip of his pincer.
He k was there, he had hat it would have actally fallen out at some point during his journey, he simply liked to touch it now and then for fort, to remember his friend, and to remind himself of one of the reasons why he was out there on the road.
“Soon, Bouldy. I’ll find a way t you back, I promise,” the crab whispered.
After what felt like the lorip of his life—because it likely was thus far—Balthazar found himself stepping out into a clearing, past some rown bushes and a few hanging vines, where he found his destination.
[You have discovered Tudor’s Hall]
The crab grimaced as he looked past the system text and saw what was behind it.
“What is wrong with this pce?”
