Unfortunately for him, he only had a second to look at me before the idiot Rhinoman finally took his shot to join the fight. Gofi charged in, his armored shoulders knocking both Rose and I aside as his horn struck, driving through and trampling the Slave Trainer but not killing him. Still, I would take the ‘Dazed’ and ‘Stunned’ status affects that it gave the Slaver.
“What was that?” Rose asked, shaking her head as she stood up again.
“He put a status effect on you called ‘Muddled’. You looked confused or something,” I answered. “Maybe some kind of poison on the whip?”
“Well that was just rude,” Rose said, attacking the Slave Trainer again, first with the edge of her left shield then with the right, then left, then right, and left again, all in quick succession, also causing the ‘Dazed’ and ‘Stunned’ effects to refresh.
This time, I was able to nail him with ‘Holy Blast’, firing the cone of Holy damage at point blank, getting a very nice -1,234-HP from the critical strike and the highlighted weakness where I shot the spell into his side and just below the ribs. With that one attack, he was already down to 63%, but for most civilians, the damage we had dealt would usually have been enough to kill him.
“Coming back!” Gofi bellowed, barely giving Rose and I a chance to jump out of Gofi’s wrecking ball charge plowing over the Slave Trainer again. But dodge we did. I couldn’t help but wince when I saw this second charge sucked away 45% of Möngke’s health, the largest chunk of HP falling away when the Slave Trainer’s head was trampled under one of Gofi’s feet.
When Möngke climbed back to his feet, he tried to strike with the whip, but Rose closed the distance in an instant. “Panther, bind that arm,” Rose ordered with a hiss. Her snake familiar didn’t hesitate, fading into existence and emerging from the now visible dark tattoo on her neck and surging forward, over the shields and wrapping tightly around the arm holding the whip. Panther didn’t stop at just binding the arm, he started to squeeze and wrap tighter until there was a cracking sound. Möngke tried to bash panther with his shield but Rose did a pretty good job intercepting the blows with her shields.
After that, it was a pretty easy fight. Rose and I just attacked, doing everything we could to keep our opponent unable to fight. Draining the last one of his HP.
When the fight ended, Panther vanished back into Rose’s tattoo after a few hissed praises from Rose. I still found that snake creepy, maybe creepier now that it lived inside of Rose’s skin. I didn’t like the idea of it popping out whenever it wanted.
“That was a good fight!” Gofi cheered loudly, punching his armored fists together.
“Shh,” I hissed at him. We were inside the Slaver’s fortress where we were probably outnumbered. I didn’t want to draw unnecessary attention and this big oaf was being carelessly noisy.
“I say let them come,” Gofi said in a normal voice. I supposed it was better than him yelling.
“No one was able to send a warning,” Tikka said, rejoining us.
“Guards at the top of the stairs, one is sound asleep,” Sooty said, appearing next to me. “Want me to take them out?”
“Only if you can do it without alerting anyone,” I said.
“Nahid and I can handle this,” Sooty said, vanishing from view again.
With that handled, I knelt next to Möngke’s corpse and started going through pockets, looking for the key to set my friends free.
I frowned when I couldn’t find it. Then I heard the click of a lock and the clanking of metal on stone. I turned swiftly to find . . . Heath? “Heath?”
“Hey mate, sorry I’m late,” Heath said.
“Heath? What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Funny story, that,” Heath answered, grinning.
“I don’t care what he’s doing here,” Micaela said. “I’m just glad he’s back with us,” she said, hugging the thief and lifting him from his feet.
“No really, what are you doing here? For that matter, how did you know we were here?” I asked.
Heath grinned. “So, it’s like this,” Heath began.
Chapter 27 – Heath
It took a few minutes for my brain to process Heath’s presence. Heath who we hadn’t seen since the beginning of the month. Heath, our resident Thief who was off doing who knows what. “Where? How? What?”
“All good questions mate,” Heath said, unlocking Olaf’s chains and helping to lower him to the floor. After that, he removed the muzzles from Olaf and Micaela both. “And I’ll be happy to tell the story. But first, we should probably help these people.”
Heath was right.
“Tikka, can you have one of your people run to Twill’s group? Let them know we need everyone we can get. We need to get these people out of here and there are a lot more of them than I would have thought,” I asked, focusing on everything going on around me.
“I will see to it,” Tikka said, before turning to one of the Cheetahmen Warriors. “Sala, please go, quickly now.”
“At once Chief,” Sala said, running back into the sewers.
“Anyone, if you have a healing spell or skill, please use it. Focus on the most injured first,” Baby said, fishing through her bag for a moment before she pulled out several small vials filled with liquid. “If you don’t have a healing spell, please use one of these potions.”
“Tell me the story while we work,” I said, looking back to Heath who had actually pulled out his guitar of all things and moved to the center of the dungeon.
Heath hit a chord and started playing. I was confused for a moment until I saw my SP and MP tick up slightly and again a second later. Heath spoke over his guitar, “Alright, basically, after I split up from you guys, it took me a couple days to find my contact in the Thieves Guild. Once I did, he set me a quest to learn Bard magic, like this little tune which gives a ‘Regeneration’ effect. It’s still pretty weak, but it’s something. Anyway, I ended up finding this bar, the ‘Jaeger Bard Bar’ and found a teacher. Slow learning due to a time limitation per day for the classes. Anyway, it was basically on my last day of class that things got interesting.”
* * *
“Chuck,” Heath said cheerfully, exchanging finger guns with one of the thugs that tended to hangout in the alley that the ‘Jaeger Bard Bar’ called home. “How goes the thuggery?”
“Heath, not bad. Business has been a bit slow lately. Good show last night, by the way,” Chuck the thug replied, smiling and showing a few missing teeth.
“Mike, how’s the family?” Heath continued, greeting the next thug.
“Good, Heath. My son is really grateful for the introduction to the Thieves Guild,” Mike replied. “Master Fence has been tough on him, but he says he has been learning a lot.”
“Good to hear,” Heath replied, spotting the next thug. “Eugene, how are you awake already? I thought that ‘Dragon’s Milk’ was supposed to leave you out cold for a week?”
“I am Bertrand,” Bertrand said, looking a little put out.
Heath winced. “Right, sorry, Bertrand. You were facing the wrong way so I couldn’t see the scar,” Heath apologized. The ‘Scar’ was the only way Heath was able to tell the twin thugs apart. And given what Heath knew about Eugene’s drinking from the previous night, he should have known it was Bertrand.
“Ah, it is alright,” Bertrand said. “Think you can slip me a free pass tonight?”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Heath said in passing.
Without stopping to speak with any of the other thugs he’d gotten to know over the last 10-days, Heath entered the ‘Jaeger Bard Bar’. Inside was exactly the same as the first time Heath had seen it . . . well mostly the same. Many of the stools and chairs had been replaced as inevitably they would get broken in the occasional brawl.
“Heath,” Kimm said, coldly upon seeing him.
“Kimm,” Heath said, smiling roguishly. “What’s with the cold look?”
“You’re leaving after today, right?” Kimm asked.
“Yeah, b
ack to adventuring,” Heath said. “You going to miss me?”
“No,” Kimm replied.
Heath just grinned wider as he sauntered closer to the young woman. “Liar,” he said, pulling her into a rough kiss, making her body melt into his. “You left awfully early this morning,” Heath commented when the kiss broke.
“I had work to do,” Kimm defended, not looking Heath in the eyes.
Heath looked around at the generally filthy bar and wondered what work Kimm was talking about. After so many years of being married prior to the incident with his ex, he knew well enough not to point that out. He got punched in the gut anyway.
“What was that for?” Heath asked.
“I saw you look around the bar,” Kimm accused, then turning with a huff and walking into the back room.
Heath rolled his eyes.
“If you two are done flirting, I would appreciate it if you would stop wasting my time,” Stone said, sitting on his favorite stool up on the stage.
“You just got here,” Heath pointed out.
“Wasting more of my time,” Stone said.
Heath rolled his eyes and sighed this time. “Fine, fine, I’ll stop stalling. Let’s get to it. Last tempo,” he said, feeling slightly reluctant to end the lessons. Once this was done, that was it. No more lessons to be taught unless he was looking to increase his skill level. Unfortunately, he had probably already spent far too much time with these lessons. Too much time with Kimm.
Heath learned quite a bit about how the ‘Guitar’ skill worked over the last ten days. He learned that every instrument had slightly different effects, like that flute back in Hammerton causing ‘Demoralization’ instead of a ‘Sleep’ when ‘Largo’ was played. More importantly, he learned that every skill had some kind of counter beat. The ‘Largo’ ‘Sleep’ effect could counter the ‘Prestissimo’ ‘Vigilance’ effect and vice versa. Similarly, for the entire range of Beats per Minute. Except for ‘Allegro’ which had no counter. Or no counter that he’d been informed of. Hopefully, he would finally learn what ‘Allegro’ did with today’s lesson.
Skill: Guitar
Rank: III
Level: 7
Experience: 61.11%
Description: The ability to play the 5-String and 6-String Guitar
Skill Range: 20.00 yards
Subskills:
Largo
You play a very slow-paced melody at 40-76 Beats per Minute. Playing a song infused with Mana grants you a 20.70% chance to apply 'Sleep' effect to any beast or humanoid within 20-yards at a cost of -5-SP and -5-MP per second. Effect lasts 30-seconds once applied.
Andonte
You play a slow-paced melody at 79-108 Beats per Minute. Playing a song infused with Mana grants you a 20.70% chance to apply 'Slow' effect to any beast or humanoid within 20-yards at a cost of -10-SP and -10-MP per second. Effect lasts 30-seconds once applied.
Moderato
You play a moderately-paced melody at 108-120 Beats per Minute. Playing a song infused with Mana grants you a 20.70% chance to apply 'Decreased Damage' effect to any beast or humanoid within 20-yards at a cost of -15-SP and -15-MP per second. Effect lasts 30-seconds once applied.
Allegro
You play a fast-paced melody at 120-156 Beats per Minute. Playing a song infused with Mana grants you a 20.70% chance to apply '?' effect to any beast or humanoid within 20-yards at a cost of -20-SP and -20-MP per second. Effect lasts 30-seconds once applied.
Vivace
You play a very fast-paced melody at 156-176 Beats per Minute. Playing a song infused with Mana grants you a 20.70% chance to apply 'Increased Damage' effect to any beast or humanoid within 20-yards at a cost of -25-SP and -25-MP per second. Effect lasts 30-seconds once applied.
Presto
You play a very, very fast-paced melody at 176-200 Beats per Minute. Playing a song infused with Mana grants you a 20.70% chance to apply 'Haste' effect to any beast or humanoid within 20-yards at a cost of -30-SP and -30-MP per second. Effect lasts 30-seconds once applied.
Prestissimo
You play an extremely fast-paced melody at more than 200 Beats per Minute. Playing a song infused with Mana grants you a 20.70% chance to apply 'Vigilance' effect to any beast or humanoid within 20-yards at a cost of -35-SP and -35-MP per second. Effect lasts 30-seconds once applied.
“So, down to just ‘Allegro’,” Stone said.
Heath nodded.
“Got a song ready?” Stone asked.
“I do, one of my favorites,” Heath answered, just itching to start strumming.
“Good,” Stone said, starting to strum his own guitar, the strings gaining a faint blue glow as the mana filtered in. He picked up the speed of his strumming until he was playing to a beat of about 130 BPM. “How do you feel?”
“Fine,” Heath answered, not sure if he was supposed to be feeling something. His ‘Tone Deaf’ skill wasn’t nearly high enough to always negate the negative effects of magically enhanced music, but he supposed he might have gotten lucky.
Skill: Tone Deaf
Rank: I
Level: 21
Experience: 33.52%
Description: The ability to tune out musical effects.
Skill Range: Self
Skill Effect (Passive): You have a 16.80% chance to ignore the negative effects of magical music.
“Okay, cut your hand, cast a spell, or use a skill,” Stone instructed.
Heath shrugged and pulled out a dagger and cut his palm, a -15-HP floated away from the cut which closed a second later with a +15-HP floating away.
“It heals?” Heath asked.
“Do something that uses SP or MP,” Stone ordered.
Heath used his weakest Illusion spell, ‘False Title’, not be confused with ‘False Name’. He bought a copy of the spell for himself after he’d seen Rose use it the previous month to tease Baby. Anyway, it was far and away his cheapest spell at the exorbitant cost of -56-MP for the Rank I Level 3 spell.
Once again, Heath saw his mana dip a sliver and refill within seconds, faster than even his own Mana Regeneration per 10-seconds.
“It is a ‘Regeneration’ effect. It can restore MP, SP, and HP. At your current ‘Guitar’ skill of Rank III, you will restore between +3-6-HP per second. There is a bonus to this subskill. At higher levels, it can even remove negative status effects,” Stone explained. “Now, your turn.”
Heath didn’t care much for the slowness of the lessons. Stone would never teach Heath more than one of the subskills per day. And every third day, he made Heath work on his ‘Magical Music’ and ‘Tone Deaf’ skills instead of teaching him. At least he had the chance to learn the last subskill and move on with his ‘Jack of All’ quest. But what a subskill it was. Regeneration! And with the ability to remove negative status effects at a higher level. Heath couldn’t wait to get this learned and level properly.
Speaking of ‘Magical Music’, Heath had gained a few levels to the skill. Not enough to add a third target, but still, progress.
Skill: Magical Music
Rank: I
Level: 68
Experience: 17.22%
Description: The ability to manipulate the mana you apply to music and direct how it moves.
Skill Range: 20.00 yards
Skill Effect (Active): You have a 16.80% chance to direct mana within music toward a maximum of two targets. Doubles mana cost of Instrument subskill.
But back to the task at hand, Heath started by tuning his guitar to the key of E, plucking the strings a few times to make sure the sound was just right. He placed his index finger on the second fret of the ‘A’ string and plucked it once to test the sound one more time. Then hit the chord hard, causing the sound to reverberate. A double tap to the ‘A’ on the second fret then shifting to the fourth then fifth for three strums then back to the fourth. Starting the basics of the opening chorus, then repeating three times. From there he moved into the main verse of the song with an ‘E-major’ for a few beats before shifting into ‘A-
major’ for a few beats and back again until he changed slightly, going from the ‘E-major’ to a ‘B’ and hitting it with a power chord. Heath played back to ‘E-major’ and down to ‘B’ again. Then it was back to the opening chorus.
“Good, good,” Stone said, stopping Heath’s play. “Now, start feeding it mana.”
Heath started again, slowly feeding his MP into the guitar until he hit the -20-MP per second mark.
You’ve learned the ‘Guitar’ subskill ‘Allegro’
Skill: Guitar
Rank: III
Level: 7
Experience: 61.11%
Description: The ability to play the 5-String and 6-String Guitar
Skill Range: 20.00 yards
Subskills:
Allegro
You play a fast-paced melody at 120-156 Beats per Minute. Playing a song infused with Mana grants you a 20.70% chance to apply 'Regeneration' effect to any beast or humanoid within 20-yards at a cost of -20-SP and -20-MP per second. Effect lasts 30-seconds once applied.
Heath continued playing until his MP bar was just about empty, despite having learned the effect of the subskill. He even gained a level to his ‘Guitar’ skill.
“And that is the end of the lessons, kid,” Stone said as Heath stopped playing. “Not much else I can teach you about being a Bard.”
“Thanks, Stone, I appreciate it,” Heath said, not in any rush to move on.
“If you want more lessons, the most I will be able to do to help you, is to improve your ‘Guitar’ skill,” Stone added.
World Tree Online- the Endless Savanna- 3rd Dive Page 47
