Ruthless (The Completionist Chronicles Book 5)

by Dakota Krout

  Joe had planned on being the one to fight against Sam, but a chunk of ice flying at his head made Joe focus on a man who was clearly a Mage. Bard stepped forward and engaged Sam in Joe’s stead, using his double axes to fend off the flashing blade that Sam was using, and using his Skaldic chants to boost his resistance to the odd spells the man would intermittently send flying from books that floated around him.

  Poppy had set himself up to fight the heavily armored woman, and his attacks were already creating fountains of blood that erupted from the joints of her armor. The woman was strong; even so, Poppy was able to hold her off with minimal effort. Each time she had a chance to step out of the waves, Poppy was there with a fresh wound for her. Finally, it seemed that she had enough, “Devastating blow!”

  As the head of the hammer came toward him, Poppy calmly sidestepped and drew his weapon backward until his right hand was level with his right shoulder, his left hand was a flat Palm pointing at his target, and he lunged with a shout of, “Hard Counter!”

  Eyes wide with shock, the woman tried to swallow the cold, wet feeling in her throat. She choked, and the muscles refused to obey her until Poppy had finished pulling his Rapier out of her trachea. She collapsed into the water, and Poppy moved to help Alexis with the Assassin.

  Targets slain: 1/5.

  “Solidified Shadows!” Joe finished his spell, and a dark ball and chain wrapped around the ankles of the Mage he was fighting. Already off balance, his opponent stumbled as a wave hit him from behind. The spell on his lips fizzled away to nothing and the congregated shadows began pulling him down into one of the tidal pools. The Mage was doing everything he could to pull himself out of the water, but Joe felt it clearly when something latched onto the chain and helped pull the man downward.

  “Sam!” the Mage shouted in fear. Something in his voice made Joe pause. He had never seen someone react so violently to a little player-versus-player.

  Bard went flying across the surface of the sand, tumbling and picking up muck as he went. Joe was uncertain what he had been hit with; as far as he could tell, it was some form of pure concussive force. Sam started running to the struggling Mage that was being pulled into the depths. When he realized what was happening, Sam turned to Joe and held his hands in the air. “Stop! You win! Let him go! Please!”

  Fearing a trick or a trap, Joe blurted out the first thing that came to his mind. “Swear to me that you will give us all of the stolen items and leave without trying to harm us, and I will let him go.”

  “Fine! I swear it! Let him go now!” The sword in Sam's hand was shaking, and Joe knew he was about to get stabbed if he did not follow through immediately. The shadows wrapped around the ankles of the Mage vanished, and he crawled his way onto dry land as fast as possible. “Everybody, stop! We lost this one. You, why didn't you get a player killer aura? You attacked us.”

  “Prolly because we have a quest to kill you all.” The other fighters slowly and carefully disengaged with each other. A double scream of primal reptilian joy made some of them flinch, and everyone looked over to see Jaxon's hands trumpeting to the sky before lunging downward to feast on the fallen Monk. Joe's face clouded, and he shouted at Jaxon, “Enough! You beat him, and they surrendered! Stop!”

  Targets slain: 2/5.

  Jaxon nodded, looked down at his fallen foe, and scoffed, “Fish feet indeed.”

  Joe did a head count, and found that Bard and Poppy had both fallen in the last few moments of combat. He turned and eyed the heaving Mage. “That's a non-player character, isn't it? Why? Why would you endanger the only life he has?”

  “If you try to use this against us in the future, I will devote everything I have into hunting you down,” Sam coldly stated as he pulled his friend up into a standing position.

  “Listen here, you jerk.” Joe coldly stared at the overly-ostentatious swordsman. “It took the slowest, weakest, single-target spell that I have to put that guy in a position where you had to surrender or lose him forever. Almost everything that I use has a massive area-of-effect and is deadly to everyone within seconds. If you come after us again, and he is with you, I cannot guarantee that he will survive... but I promise that you won't. Hand over the stolen goods, and get out of here.”

  The Mage coughed and looked at his leader frantically, “Sam! You can't give him the-!”

  “Enough! We made a deal, and these aren’t worth your life.” Sam declared, getting a snort from Joe in return. He handed over two items; a stone tablet and a platinum ring. Both were glowing with a faint red Aura, and as Joe accepted them, he understood why.

  Cursed Quest item. Cannot be stored in any container until the curse is removed.

  There was no other information available, and there was no update from his quest, so Joe could only nod and stand aside as the defeated team walked away. He planned on returning to the dungeon immediately with the surviving members of his team, but just before they got on the glowing glass platform, a notification appeared in Joe’s vision. “Son of a…!”

  Sam_King has broken an oath sworn to you and gained a title of Warlock II!

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “He broke his oath?” Joe’s bald head furrowed as he worked to understand what that message meant. His eyes flew open, then narrowed in rage as it became clear. “That overly hair-conditioned peacock took one of the dungeon items with him! Come on, everyone; use whatever you have to utterly destroy him as soon as we find him!”

  “Calm down, Joe.” Jess walked into the area with a smile on her face. She winked at him teasingly. “I think I have what you are looking for.”

  Moonlight was reflecting from the top of Joe's head, seeming to match the light of his eyes as he debated whether or not to hunt down Sam anyway. Before he could give the order to set out, a snake slithered up, its tail coiled around a crystal orb that was glowing a soft red.

  Cursed Quest item. Cannot be stored in any container until the curse is removed.

  “You used your thievery skill?” Joe sighed as he tossed the crystal in the air a few times. He came to a decision; if he were to set out now, there was a high likelihood that he could end up losing the fight that he would race into. Joe was going to have to let this go… for now.

  “Sure did!” Jess cheerfully admitted. “I saw your entire fight, and I figured I would be more useful to you by stealing this item back from him than by joining into a fight that it looked like you were winning. Apparently, it is pretty difficult to notice a snake swimming through the water toward you when you are swinging around a sword and chucking spells at people.”

  “Thank you, Jess. Please let me know if there is a suitable reward that I can give you for this.” Joe turned back to the other two surviving members of his party and motioned at the glowing platform. “Are you guys ready to go and turn this quest in?”

  “We are just going to go back there without the rest of our team?” Alexis shook her head. “That seems like a pretty terrible thing to do to Bard.”

  “He should get the quest completion rewards!” Joe defensively rebutted. “Besides, there is no way for us to put these things somewhere safe. If we have to wait a long time for Bard to come back to life and travel to us, there is a good chance that someone else will come along, or that other group will come back and try to take these. We need to go now.”

  With clear reluctance from Alexis, and only excitement about getting back on the glowing platform from Jaxon, they were soon sailing across the sea at speed. The platform started to descend, and soon they were back in a watertight cube. A few moments later they were sinking into the water, passing through the swarms of monsters, and approaching the underwater dungeon. As the glass elevator settled into place and the door opened, a small platform rose from the ground. On the platform were three outlines, one for a sphere, one for a rectangular block, and one for a ring.

  Beyond being happy that he would be completing the quest, Joe was cheerful about denying any of the items back from the other team. He slotted the item
s in their spaces, and watched as the plinth sunk back into the floor.

  Quest complete: Destroy Them. Objects retrieved: 3/3. Enemies slain: 2/5. Objectives completed: 5/8. Calculating… the objects retrieved were of far greater importance than slaying the thieves who stole them in the first place. Rewards shall be granted based on performance and suitability. Due to the circumstances of the quest, and damage to the dungeon, this dungeon will be considered 100% completed.

  Experience gained: 6,000. Item received: Enhanced Class Advancement Tablet (Can be used by anyone with the base class of Energetic Bibliophile, Bibliomancer, Ritualist, or Urban Druid.) The standard class advancement tablet offers three choices, the enhanced version will offer a fourth option upon use.

  Seeing all of the different classes that could use his newly-acquired tablet, Joe decided to waste no time and activated it on the spot.

  Scanning… Base Class found: Ritualist. First prerequisite for usage met.

  Scanning… Specialized class found: Rituarchitect. Second prerequisite for usage met.

  Generating class selection options one through four… generated.

  Scanning… Caution! Third prerequisite for usage not met. Base class ‘Ritualist’ requires that Characteristics ‘intelligence’ and ‘wisdom’ be at the Mortal characteristic limit before second Specialization can be applied. please try again after you have raised at a minimum these two characteristics to the Mortal limit of one hundred and fifty.

  Enhanced Class Advancement Tablet (Soulbound). This tablet has been bound to you! You may now safely store it with the full knowledge that it will work for no one but you!

  Joe stared at the message, full of conflicting emotions. On one hand, he now knew that he could safely work to achieve the new goal that had been set for him. It was good to have a set goal. On the other hand… he had a long way to go. He pulled up his character sheet and looked at it despairingly.

  Name: Joe ‘Tatum’s Chosen Legend’ Class: Mage (Actual: Rituarchitect)

  Profession I: Tenured Scholar (Actual: Arcanologist)

  Profession II: Ritualistic Alchemist

  Character Level: 16 Exp: 150,343 Exp to next level: 2,657

  Rituarchitect Level: 5 Exp: 10,456 Exp to next level: 4,544

  Hit Points: 534/534

  Mana: 1,381/1,650 (115 Reserved)

  Mana regen: 33.89/sec

  Stamina: 528.5/528.5

  Stamina regen: 5.84/sec

  Characteristic: Raw score (Modifier)

  Strength: 53 (2.03)

  Dexterity: 54 (2.04)

  Constitution: 54 (2.04)

  Intelligence: 110 (3.1)

  Wisdom: 85 (2.35)

  Charisma: 52 (2.02)

  Perception: 63 (2.13)

  Luck: 38 (1.38)

  Karmic Luck: +6

  His stats had not changed during his time in the dungeon, but that was not unexpected. What was unexpected… was that he would need nearly another seventy points of wisdom in order to reach the next class advancement. Also, a lesser but still difficult challenge was going to be getting forty points in his intelligence. Remembering the Injection he had swallowed that had given him a full fifteen points in his intelligence characteristic, Joe now really understood why items such as that were so highly sought-after and expensive. He had understood intellectually that they were going to be hard to get, but when information on getting to the second Specialization got out, it was going to be absolutely impossible to get his hands on anything similar.

  “The dungeon is considered as complete, should we just… head home?” Joe wanted to go curl into a corner and fall asleep for a week, but he knew that was an impossible dream at this point. Between the probing attacks on the guild and the deep-seated need to improve enough to get to the next area, Joe knew that he would be spending every waking moment on becoming more powerful or knowledgeable. As they rode in the glass elevator for the third time, Joe asked, “Would anyone like some coffee?”

  He solidified a few small espresso cups out of the Shadows in the area as Mate appeared in his hand. The elemental bubbled and whistled cheerfully, putting a smile on Alexis's face and widening the ever-present grin on Jaxon's. They took turns giving Mate a gentle petting on his surprisingly dry - if somewhat squishy - head. Just as they returned to land, Joe got a notification he hadn’t expected.

  Your care and attention to your pet has increased its loyalty and affection toward you! ‘Mate’ has taken on some of the characteristics of the mana you have been feeding it with. Abilities removed: light roast blend. Abilities enhanced: medium roast blend, dark roast blend, espresso blend. Ability gained: Over-caffeinate.

  Over-caffeinate: Similar to a traditional Haste spell, Over-caffeinate increases all effects of physical and mental characteristics by 10% for 10 minutes. After the spell ends, all physical and mental characteristics are reduced by 30% for 5 minutes and the user will suffer the effects of debuff ‘Hammerwords’ for 2 minutes or until the resultant headache debuff has cleared.

  “That is some excellent coffee, Mate,” Joe crooned to the small Elemental as he allowed it to return to his sleeve as a large stain. He was already thinking about how he could use this buff to its maximum effect, and he hoped that the effects of his Neutrality Aura would mitigate the detriments of using it.

  In just a few minutes, the small party rejoined Jess and began walking toward the shrine that would bring them home. Contrary to Joe’s expectations, the group began a lively debate. They were talking about the best ways to increase their characteristics, and Joe was pleased to be able to offer the knowledge he had acquired about the impact of future growth based on the effect of the method used to gain characteristics.

  When they heard that there were tanks that had trained their constitution purely by taking damage, and realized that it gave double or more of a bonus to the total health pool, each of them revised their training plans at least a little. Joe was completely fine with the flat bonuses he would get for training his body with the daily characteristic allotment, but he needed to find the most effective ways to train his mind if he wanted to unlock powerful options in the future.

  Jess interrupted his thoughts by clearing her throat and shyly looking at the three surviving members of the party. “I just wanted to say thank you for whatever you did in there. For some reason, after you went back out, I was able to get a class level up. I also got a new ability, and it is all because you were able to explore the dungeon to one hundred percent with my map. I know that my map was not actually that good, so there must be something else at play, but still. I know it sucked to lose Bard, so thank you for trusting me.”

  “It wasn't the intent, but I am glad you got something out of it. Your skills are lacking, and you have no decent combat skills to speak of.” Jaxon nodded knowingly, folding his arms behind his back like a mysterious elderly master. “I know that you took the path of an assassin because you do not like to hear things beg for their life, and you did not want to give them the option. I think the path of a cartographer was a good choice for you, and-”

  Jaxon dodged two throwing knives and a chucked snake, shaking his head sadly. “Meager skills, indeed. I already know this, Jess! You don't need to embarrass yourself by showcasing them!”

  “First off, that is not why I became an assassin!” Jess retorted heatedly. They stepped into the shrine, and Joe activated the fast travel option. The distance that they needed to travel was so great, and the cost in mana and stamina so high, that all of them collapsed to the floor of the Temple in Towny McTownface upon arrival. Jess wheezed as she attempted to finish her statement, “Secondly… I can… take you anytime, old man! You have no idea who I am-”

  “I am sorry to break up this lively debate… but I do need to speak with you, young man.” Joe had heard the voice before, but it had been a very long time. He craned his head up to face the wizened old man wearing white robes with black arcane symbols stitched all along the hems.

  Joe forced himself into a seated position,
and closed his eyes as the world spun. “What in the world could I have done to bring the Mage College’s most powerful Master Enchanter all this way?”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Joe and the Master enchanter walked out of the temple and over to a small restaurant that had recently started up. They opened the door, but when Joe saw who was sitting at a table waiting for them, he stopped cold and started to turn around. The old man at his side gripped his arm firmly. “Please allow me to have a chance to explain my actions.”

  “You are going to tell me that you are the one who ordered her to spy on me. I understand that.” Joe’s mouth was a firm line, and he gripped the weathered hand on his arm for a moment before throwing it off. “I am not particularly interested in letting you explain this away. Friends do not spy on their friends; usually, that is reserved for people they see as enemies. As for you, Terra, why didn't you just come to me directly and discuss this? Why did you bring him along? Am I so frightening that you need a third person just to have a conversation with me? I don’t deserve this kind of treatment.”

  The Enchanter held up a hand to stop him. “Joe, you have to understand; you know how oaths work. Not only was she risking a title, she would have automatically lost her apprenticeship with me. The reason I am here now is that there are still things she cannot reveal, and I needed to offer the explanation for her. Now, here is the truth of what was happening. I was attempting to scout out an extremely talented individual without alerting my own enemies to my interest.”