agoraphobic_dragon
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Godfather's System 81
🕑 Added 2023-06-15 17:45:37 +0000 UTC“Wow, that was harder than I expected,” I said as I let the mana around my eyes dissipate as I rushed between the roofs for a while to make sure no one followed me. Of course, being hard didn’t refer to convincing my target … but maintaining that glow during the discussion.
Though the result was worth the effort.
Initially, I had only tried that fake glow because I had some problems hiding my eye color in a world that didn’t have convenient contact lenses, but the results had been similarly impressive. The glow intimidated him even better than I expected while concealing my true identity.
And I didn’t want to talk to the same people in different disguises, only for every single one of them to have the exact same eye color. My target didn’t look to be the most attentive person with a blade in his throat, but underestimating people could backfire rather badly.
I slowed down only after reaching the other half of the town, getting rid of my dark clothes, and changing into the outfit of a rich merchant. Then, I turned my attention to my newest stat, focusing slightly to suppress its constant effect.
Concealment.
It was a nice Stat, worth spending some of the dwindling supply of stats -- frustrating that I discovered the trick of awakening my stats only after I hit a wall in terms of spending — but the fact that it was active constantly without my suppression was a little inconvenient.
Luckily, my constant practice of suppressing the effects of other Stats helped me to control it easily.
I had a feeling that its constantly active nature contributed greatly to its rarity. Either people learned to suppress it … or they made themselves a target. Regardless of the world, people didn’t like others going around with semi-functional invisibility.
Most likely, it was the reason the young man I had met earlier was working hard to hide earlier, to the point of he had found himself forced to ask the help of a complete unknown to help. But the possible social impacts of my newest stat were not something I wanted to focus on.
Not when I had the actual objective of my visit in front of me.
I didn’t need the small sample of items he promised me. They would be nice to have, of course, but I really cared about them, I wouldn’t have asked him for another small range of samples but threatened and tricked him to work for a much bigger delivery.
No, my request had a different objective, one that required me to slip into his inn like a customer, which had been easy. Ordinarily, slipping backstage would have been more difficult, with the bartender watching with his high Perception, but he was absent, replaced by a weaker person.
“Anything I can serve you, sir,” the replacement said.
“Just a beer,” I said as I passed the necessary silver. “The travel is killing me.”
He chuckled as he passed me the beer, while I sat on the bar, toward the far end that an exhausted traveler might travel. And if that seat gave me a good view of the corridor through a cracked door, it was a complete coincidence.
Just as it was a complete coincidence to notice the leader moving down the stairs, accompanied by two of his subordinates — trusted lieutenants, one of them the missing bartender — but rather than using one of the exits, he went toward the basement.
The first step was complete, I thought even as I focused on my Charisma, and targeted the people at the table farthest from me, focusing on them with a dash of anger.
There were limitations to emotional manipulation, especially in a world where people were used to receiving magical orders. My experimentations showed that using it to calm and collected targets didn’t work very well.
But other uses, like enhancing emotions that they were already feeling — like, a completely hypothetical example, boosting the fear of a man who had just woken up with a blade in his throat even further to make him commit to a hasty strategic decision — were much more tenable.
And, an armed man, already frustrated after losing a lot of money, was an excellent target. I just needed a push, and he exploded in anger. “You cheater!” he growled as he draw his mace, attacking the most recent winner … and making everyone turn toward there.
Just then, I loosened my control over Concealment, the effect making it even easier for me to slip into the corridor, Speed allowing me to cover the distance.
My Stats made infiltration work almost trivial … when I was targeting people without matching stats. I had a feeling that, trying the same against noble houses or other notable organizations wouldn’t work just as easily.
Still, I followed, not wanting to miss what I had been searching for.
When I slipped through the basement door, the boss was in the process of removing a stone, followed by pulling a lever, and a secret entrance opened, its direction suggesting that it went under the walls of the inner city.
That didn’t surprise me in the slightest. From the beginning, the location of the inn implied the presence of an easy smuggling path, and when I had seen the boss walk down with two of his most loyal subordinates, it further confirmed it.
After all, why ask for help if he was just going to open a safe.
I decided to add a touch of emotional push, increasing their urgency, and they rushed forward, leaving the door to close behind them. I rushed forward and slipped inside before they could react, the Concealment making my job even easier.
The other end of the tunnel was a large warehouse, filled with lumber, iron ingots, and grains. in other words, the perfect front for a smuggling ring, constant flow of low-value items concealing the occasional high-value contraband.
Nice to know, but hardly the reason for my efforts. I had already been suspecting the existence of a secret tunnel, and following them only made it identified easier.
No, I had a different reason. As I followed them out of the warehouse, I maintained my merchant look, and more importantly, I avoided the roofs. Unlike the outer town, there weren’t any runners that treated them as an express highway, suggesting that the guards were more careful when it came to that.
With my Speed and Concealment, I could probably avoid their attention … but why take the risk, when I easily followed them on the streets. First, they arrived at another inn. This time, I didn’t follow them, but stayed outside, comparing the two towns.
The most glaring difference was the level of prosperity. Even at this hour, the town was moving with surprising vitality, stalls, and stores filled with customers, more gold than silver changing hands, along with many sealed boxes.
An impressive number of skills were already being sold, many different arts of combat and non-combat… but two, in particular, had grabbed my attention. One was a supplemental forging skill for blacksmiths, and the other was archery.
The former, I decided to ignore it for now. My little smithy was still in an experimental stage, and the support I provided them to level up was more than sufficient as they experimented. Any more help would only spoil them, and I needed them to prove themselves worthy of further investment.
I was not running a charity.
The archery skill, on the other hand, grabbed my attention. From its price, half a drum, it was clear that it was not a highly-valued skill, though I didn’t know whether it was about its limitations, or it was about the dungeon having two types of archery skill — another one being sold for five derums — but either way, I wanted to buy some.
Too bad that every purchase had to be accompanied by some kind of identity registration. People displayed their identity badges — similar to what I had as the Quartermaster — before receiving the skills.
And, the mention of quotas meant that I couldn’t just buy a bunch. However, before I could get busy, my target left the inn, with a silver box in the hands of his lieutenant, and they moved to their next target.
Three locations were visited, and for each, I committed the layout to my memory as the potential location for some black-market dealings, each visit bringing us closer to the dungeon. Surrounded by thick walls, the dungeon itself was not visible, but I was more interested in the huge warehouse outside the walls, tall and surrounded by a blue glow…
A blue glow that was filled with a red mist.
A familiar mana, I thought, identifying the place as the location they used to destroy the mana crystals filled with destruction mana, ignoring the temptation to rush forward to see if I could absorb it to trigger my promotion.
The number of guards that surrounded the warehouse was dangerous enough, but I was confident that, if I struggled enough, I might find a solution to that. The problem, I had no idea just how much mana that was locked in the warehouse.
I didn’t want to be accidentally possessed.
Instead, I had stayed away, watching my unfortunate victim as he gestured to one of the guards from a distance … and the guard reacted to his presence rather unfavorably. Still, five minutes later, he had slipped away from the main guards and followed them into a secluded corner away from the gazes of his fellow guards.
I stayed far away, but that was enough to read their general expression. The guard, who was clearly their contact, was furious about the sudden intrusion, but with every pouch the boss passed to him, his expression softened, soon turning into a smile.
He walked away, and the three stayed in place. This time, I watched the guard for the next half an hour as he went back to the guards, continuing his task, but whispering to some select people. Three other guards, and a sergeant, each discussion accompanied bypassing some of the pouches he acquired.
However, I noticed an interesting little detail. One of the guards that received the pouch had reached into his pocket after he walked away, and a very soft flare of magic accompanied it, the blue glow easily mistaken for a soft glow.
He was subtle, I had to admit, just not subtle enough to avoid my Perception, especially since I knew exactly what to look for. I couldn’t help but wonder who had been alerted, the guards, or a rival organization.
Luckily, I wasn’t in a hurry to identify that. Instead, I waited until another guard finally separated from the group, and brought a small silver box to the boss, who turned and left.
I followed them from a distance, curious who else would join my little espionage mission.
Comments
Stephen Pearson
Thanks for the chapter! :-)
