Tinker, Tailor, Giant, Dwarf ( LitRPG Series): Difficulty:Legendary Book 2

by Gregg Horlock

  No. There couldn’t be. The giant and the dwarf had done nothing but help me all this time, and they had never given me a reason to doubt them.

  All the same, I looked at Smoglar with a strong concentration. As he described how deep he would stab his axe into Red Leroy’s back, I used Appraiser of Men on him. For a second the dwarf looked at me, and I wondered if he knew that I was breaking the agreement we had made. Then he turned back to Brian and continued his fantasies. As I focussed on him, I saw not just Smoglar’s character level, but something else.

  I closed my eyes. For a second, I wasn’t in the cave anymore but in another place. It was a temple made of marble. A group of men walked through it with their swords unsheathed. A couple of them carried torches that cast yellow glows in the darkness. Smoglar was there, but he wasn’t a dwarf. He was six feet tall, and he had a sickle in his left hand, and his right hand glowed red with magic.

  Before I could see more, the image scrambled in my mind and the colours blended together. When they refocussed I saw the same marble room, but this time Smoglar was dying on the floor. Blood seeped out underneath him, and he made choking sounds as his last seconds of life ebbed away. Finally, he perished, and a clatter disturbed the stillness as his sickle fell from his hand.

  Appraiser of Men increased by 25%

  Level up!

  Your ability is now Level 2 – Appraiser of Everything

  Smoglar stopped talking to Brian and stared at me. There was a look in his eyes, but it wasn’t his usual anger. This was different.

  “Everyone has a past, Janus. Sometimes it’s best to leave it there,” he said.

  I couldn’t process what he had said to me because I was focussed on my new ability. If my Appraiser skill had upgraded to Appraiser of Everything, did that extend to items now? In my book, ‘everything’ meant, well, everything. But in Re:Fuze, things were rarely what they seemed.

  I had to try it out. I had sold all my herbs to the merchant, so I needed something to identify. I looked in my inventory and then saw it. Of course! The item that the viewer had sent me. I took it out and looked at it.

  Rare Item [Unidentified] x1

  I held it in my hands. I could feel its weight, but in its current state it seemed to be shapeless, as though it wouldn’t fully take form until I identified it. An insatiable curiosity took hold of me, and for a second every cell in my body ached to know what it was. At the same time, something held me back, like hands trying to drag me away and stop what I was doing.

  I shook the feeling away. I looked at the item and focussed on it, feeling its weight and letting its shape slowly take form. Gradually it started to shift. I saw the gleam of metal, and it transformed before my eyes. It was a dagger.

  The Old Serpent’s Sting

  Damage: 500

  Drains 25HP on use

  Reveals user’s location to all Serpents on the map until dagger is no longer in possession

  When Brian saw the dagger in my hands, he stared at it for a few seconds. A look of recognition crossed his face, and the colour drained from his cheeks. He stood up out of his seat, bumping his head on the low cave roof.

  “Where did you get that?” he said, his voice grave.

  “I’ve had it with me all along, remember? The viewer gave it to me.”

  “You need to get rid of that, Janus.”

  Smoglar looked at me. “What’s all the fuss about?” he said.

  Then, when he saw the dagger, he almost fell over. “What the hell are you playing at? Are you crazy?”

  I looked at my friends. I was confused. The damage of the dagger dwarfed anything I was ever likely to find. Yes, it drained HP from me if I used it, and I obviously didn’t want to have my location revealed to every Serpent on the map. Surely this was still a good thing to have?

  “It’s just a dagger,” I said, holding it out toward Brian. “Here, take a look.”

  The giant backed away from me. “Keep that thing to yourself,” he said. “Put it away, and for God’s sake don’t use it. Not until I figure out what to do.”

  “You’ve brought a whole load of trouble our way, boy,” said Smoglar. “More than you will ever realise.”

  “I don’t get it, guys,” I said.

  Brian walked over to the mouth of the cave and looked out. Certain that nobody was around, he turned to face me.

  “That’s not just a rare item, Janus. That’s a legendary item. It’s the Old Serpent’s Sting. You know who this belonged to?”

  “I got it from a viewer, so I guess it was theirs.”

  The giant shook his head. “That was Necrolor’s blade. The Serpents have been looking for this for years, ever since he died. Do you know why?”

  “They really don’t like losing their stuff?” I said, hoping to lighten the mood.

  “That dagger, boy,” said Smoglar, “will glow when you’re near one of Necrolor’s death shards. There are five shards left to gather before he can be resurrected. As I’m sure you’ll understand, the Serpents would dearly love to have this back. That makes it the deadliest weapon in the game.”

  The realisation hit me full force. This was not a gift, nor was it good. I had come into possession of one of the most dangerous items it was possible to own.

  “We need to destroy it,” I said.

  Brian and Smoglar both nodded. “I’m glad you’re catching on,” said the dwarf.

  Quest added: Destroy the Dagger

  You’ve found yourself in possession of one of the most dangerous items in the game. Lucky you! Let the Serpents find the dagger, and it will eventually guide them to the death shards of their overlord, Necrolor. You must destroy the dagger.

  Optional: Give the dagger to the Serpents and welcome the Fire Lord back into Re:Fuze

  Do you accept?

  Chapter Six

  It seemed like it was a lot of trouble for such a small dagger to cause. On the face of it, the weapon looked like a throwaway piece of loot you might find after smashing a barrel. I already had a standard dagger in my inventory. The two would have been indistinguishable were it not for the slightly darker tint on the handle of the Old Serpent’s Sting.

  The quest message screen, upset at being ignored, started to vibrate, and the words ‘Do you accept?’ glowed. There was nothing to think about, really. What was I going to do, ignore it? Just go and hand the dagger to Herelius Rouge and let him bring back Necrolor who, by all accounts, was quite a nasty man?

  “I take it you got the quest too?” I said, looking at my friends.

  Brian still hadn’t settled down, and he paced back and forth in the cave. Smoglar sat on a rock and he leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. He stared at the dagger.

  “Let’s just melt it down,” he said. “Find a forge and throw it in. Job done. We could turn the metal into a pretty bracelet, and then I’ll wear it to the next Serpent Christmas ball.”

  Brian didn’t even crack a smile. “Here’s what we’ll do. We travel to the West Coast, to the Silent Port, and then we row a boat into the middle of the sea and sink it with a weight.”

  “Or,” said Smoglar, standing up, “We find a piece of string and an eagle. We tie the dagger to the eagle’s talons and then release it into the sky.”

  I twisted the dagger in my hand. I knew Smoglar was being stupid now, but maybe his first plan was right. We could try destroying it with fire. Brian’s idea made some sense, but I didn’t think it would work. Throwing it in the sea meant hiding it, and that meant that it could be found again one day. If I was to take on this quest, then I’d have to finish things for good.

  “So we’re all agreed that we’re going to destroy it?” I said.

  Smoglar looked up at the giant. “Stop pacing, lad. You’re making me anxious. Settle down, will you?”

  Brian lowered himself to the ground. “I agree, Janus. The last thing Re:Fuze needs is Necrolor coming back. I’m with you, and I can speak for my dwarf friend here too. Our paths cross Herelius’ just as much as yours do
es.”

  I held the dagger firm in my hand and looked at the fire. When I thought about throwing it in, I expected something to stop me, as if the dagger would resist me somehow.

  “If we’re agreed then, I’ll just destroy it.”

  I threw the dagger into the flames, where it fell to the centre amongst the burnt wood and ash. The yellow heat licked over it and I saw a black scorch mark spread across the wooden handle.

  “How long does it take metal to melt?” asked Brian.

  “The flame has to be a lot hotter than this,” I said. “It’d take at least 1400 degrees. We need a fire mage or something.”

  “I doubt that will work,” said Smoglar. “Take the dagger out.”

  With my other, non-legendary, dagger, I dragged the Old Serpent’s Sting out of the fire. Careful not to touch it, I pushed it on the floor so that we could all see it. The scorch mark on the hilt had disappeared, and the metal showed not even the slightest indication that it had been in a fire.

  After the Sting had cooled I picked it up again. I hadn’t really expected the fire to melt it, but I wanted to see if it would do any damage at all. Far from that, the Sting looked just as it had before meeting the flames.

  I twisted it in my hands and focussed on it. This time, while I used Appraiser of Everything, I turned the weapon over so that I could look at every inch of it, from the tip of the blade all the way down to the handle. It was on the handle that I finally saw some words carved into the wood. They were invisible to the eye, but they were there all the same. I didn’t read them; it was more like I felt them.

  “Wrought by the men whom the shadows obey,” I said aloud. The words seemed strange, as though they shouldn’t have been spoken. Brian gave Smoglar a grim look.

  “Any idea what that means?” I said.

  “That’s the Greyes,” said Smoglar. “The men the shadows obey. That’s something the Greye guild say.”

  Brian nodded. “Which means that the dagger was made by them and given to Necrolor, but why? In the battle of the Plains of Jordan, the Greyes helped the Halons and Mercs defeat the Serpents.”

  “In that case, we need to find the Greyes,” I said. “If they made it, they can destroy it.”

  “Simple, when you put it like that,” said Smoglar, forcing a heavy dose of sarcasm into his voice.

  Quest Updated – Destroy the Dagger

  Good news -You have a lead. You know who made the dagger, and now all you need to do is to travel to the home of the most secretive clan in Re:Fuze. Unfortunately, nobody knows where their homeland is or how to get there, but that’s your problem now, buddy!

  “Before we do anything else,” said Brian, “We need to deal with Dracol and Red Leroy. We can hardly travel the world map knowing they could pop up at any time.”

  I put the dagger in my inventory bag. “Not only that,” I said. “If we manage to find where the Greyes are, I doubt they’ll be happy with me leading a couple of brigands to them.”

  “You said you had a plan?” said Brian.

  I nodded. “I do.”

  Smoglar leaned forward. “I’m all ears, boy.”

  “I need to be able to sneak effectively,” I said. “But we don’t have time for me to level up. That’s the first problem we need to solve.”

  ***

  We left the cave and travelled to a hamlet nearby. On the way there Smoglar complained of a rock in his shoe, and progress was halted as we stood and watched him fish it out. I couldn’t help grinning as the stone evaded him and his face grew redder and redder.

  When we finally reached the hamlet, I saw that even the word ‘hamlet’ was an exaggerated term for it. It consisted of two buildings with a small, square courtyard in the middle. One of the buildings was a trade shop, and the other was the trader’s house. I wondered how he could afford to live in such a small place in a remote part of the map, but then I saw the vegetables growing in his garden. He was most likely self-sufficient and only relied on passing trade to make a side income.

  We found that the shop was closed, but a bell hung off the front door. I pulled it and made it ring. The sound disturbed a group of birds who were foraging in the trader’s garden, and they flapped off into the sky. A few seconds later the trader came running out of the house next to us. He was a skinny man, and his clothes were so baggy they looked like they could fall right off him. It looked like he’d lost a lot of weight recently.

  He stood in front of us and looked us up and down, craning his neck when he stared at Brian.

  “You’re not a travelling circus are you?” he said.

  The movement was slight, but I saw Smoglar grip the handle of his axe tighter.

  “We need to buy something from you,” I said. “I’m looking for something that will help me sneak. Some boots or something like that.”

  “You’re not a thief, I hope?”

  “Do we look like thieves?” said Smoglar.

  The trader put his hands on his hips. He didn’t show even a trace of intimidation at the three strangers on his doorstep.

  “You look like a giant, a dwarf and a man travelling together. You’re holding weapons and trying to increase your sneak skills. It doesn’t seem proper to me.”

  “If we’ve got the coin, what do you care?” I said.

  The trader looked around. Apart from the birds perched on the wall near his garden, there wasn’t any sign of life for miles around.

  “True enough,” he said. “Give me a minute.”

  He unlocked the door of his store and went inside. We heard lots of clanging as he rummaged through his stock and finally, he came out. He wasn’t holding boots or enchanted armour or anything like that, but instead had a glass vial with a silver liquid inside it.

  “One potion of sneak. I bought it from a thief who was hanging up his boots, so to speak. Yours for the pretty sum of CR30.”

  I only had CR20 on me after buying bomb supplies, but I had other things in my inventory that I could add to the trade. The problem was that I needed something that gave me a lasting sneak boost, rather than just the temporary gain a potion would offer me.

  “Don’t you have anything else?” I asked.

  “Just this. Yours for only CR35.”

  “You just said 30 only a second ago.”

  “Did I?” said the trader. “So I did. CR40 it is.”

  I sighed. I stared him in the eyes and spoke clearly, feeling my Snake Tongue wrap my words with confidence.

  “You’ll sell it me for CR20,” I said.

  “Sold! To the man in the dirty leather armour. It’s a pleasure doing business.”

  Snake Tongue increased by 25%!

  Level Up to Level 2!

  Snake Tongue ability changed to Animal Whisperer:

  As well as persuading those who speak the common tongue, you can now convince creatures and animals to stop fighting you. In some cases you can even get them to join your side in a battle. This will not work each time, but higher intelligence and charisma increases your odds.

  This was a skill worth having! Battles in Re:Fuze were so hard-fought that even the slightest advantage could turn the odds. If we were fighting, say, a herd of Blood Steer and I was able to turn one of them against their own, that would help tremendously.

  I still had 2 skill points from my last level up, so I added them to my intelligence and charisma to improve my Bomb Making and Animal Whispering.

  Intelligence increased to 10!

  Charisma increased to 9!

  The trader leaned in close to me. “Tell you what,” he said, “I’ll do better than selling it to you for CR20. I’ll give it to you for free, and I’ll throw in some healing and mana potions. You look like you spend a lot of time on the road, and it’s always handy to have grog.”

  “Why do I get the feeling there’s a catch?” I said.

  “Because there is,” answered the trader.

  Brian looked at me and nodded. “Potions are expensive, Janus. It might be worth listening to him.”


  “Especially if you insist on loading your potions into bombs,” said Smoglar.

  I crossed my arms. “Okay, go on.”

  “Here’s the thing,” said the trader. “This place is hardly the commercial centre of the land, and not many suppliers come here. For the last twenty years, I’ve been getting my stock from a guy called Bear Kiele. I’m running out of supplies, and it’s been months since Bear came by.

  “I started wondering why that was, when a note was delivered to me attached to the claw of an eagle. It was from Bear, and he said that to get to me he has to travel through Raven Gully. Apparently, people have been killed in Raven Gully by some kind of creature. Bear is refusing to travel through until it’s safe.”