Changing Faces (New Game Minus Book 1)

by Sarah Lin

  They'd stripped off their armor to train, and he wasn't sure if that was actually necessary, or if Danniah just wanted to stare at him while they worked. He didn't mind how as she sweated, her light clothes started to cling to her. In the past he might have averted his gaze and wasted time and mental energy on ignoring it - now he just enjoyed the sight and moved on. Just having sex instead of prolonging sexual tension had been one of his best decisions since coming to Cresthaven.

  Danniah distracted him from watching the percentages slowly increase, and they chose that moment to finally slide over the edge. Every muscle in his body twitched at once and his practice sword hacked through the training dummy he had been striking. The force of it sent a rush of air across the training ground, hard enough that Danniah had to brace herself against it.

  [Two-Handed Weapons skill reached level 10!

  Damage dealt with all two-handed weapons is increased by 10%!

  Development of physical stats boosted!]

  That raised a great many questions the boxes refused to answer. Clearly, the box gods liked round numbers, and so this was some sort of reward for fulfilling that arbitrary condition. But what did it actually mean? If his attributes measured his strength and his skills measured his ability with the greatsword, then how could damage dealt simply increase aside from that? Might it be just a description of the progress he had made so far? All that seemed clear was that the final line meant that the percentages on his Might, Vitality, and Quickness jumped sharply, enough to grant him another point in the first two.

  There were no answers to such questions, but he was prevented from wasting too much time contemplating them by Danniah. She was staring at him, eyes wide, and took a step closer. "Did you just get stronger? I know that's how the boxes work, but I'd swear I actually saw it this time..."

  "This one was bigger than normal improvements." Bloodwraith glanced down at himself but couldn't see the difference - he'd just looked like a musclebound adventurer to himself ever since his Might had neared 20 points. "The box gods were very happy about the number 10, it seems. Hopefully they'll feel the same way about overall levels."

  "Hopefully." Danniah wasn't really listening, though. She reached out and ran her fingers over the lines of the muscles in his abdomen. They'd always looked foolish to Bloodwraith, but Danniah clearly disagreed. When she saw him watching she blushed and pulled back, then realized she was being foolish and put her hand back on his chest. "Were those the thresholds you were aiming for? Because I don't feel like training anymore."

  "That's good enough for tonight. Do you want to clean up in the saunas?"

  "We can start there, anyway." Danniah collected her things hurriedly, still staring at him over her shoulder.

  Though he was looking forward to relaxing with her, in more ways than one, this time Bloodwraith found his thoughts turning darker. They needed to take these moments together when they could, because he wasn't sure how much longer they had.

  Chapter 26

  "So, how does it actually work?" Danniah peered up at Meara as they walked. "Wait, am I bothering you? I won't ask questions if you need to concentrate."

  "No, it's fine." Meara still had her eyes closed, yet kept pace with them without difficulty. "But it's difficult to explain. I know we're getting closer to the breastplate, but I'm uncertain about its exact location."

  "I've always imagined it's like you have a special compass inside your head that points toward important things."

  "That would be easier, but it's nothing like that. I couldn't tell you which direction it is. Every time we shift in a new direction, I get a little more information, but I'm still uncertain if we're going in the right direction. Though speaking of that, let's head west next."

  Danniah nodded and shifted to lead from that direction. "Then is it like that children's game, the one where you tell them whether they're getting closer or further from the goal?"

  "Not quite like that either. Maybe... more like I'm looking at something through a tiny pinhole. The more I see of it, the closer I come to knowing what it actually is. But right now, it's just random pieces that I can't put together, not a whole object."

  Bloodwraith said nothing and let the two of them talk, since they seemed to be enjoying it and they were covering interesting information. Apparently Meara had been more open with Danniah about her nature than he'd thought, though he was also fairly certain that she'd held back some of the details. Regardless, the three of them had agreed they wouldn't let the day end without getting their hands on the Breastplate of the Tyrant.

  They had made more marginal progress over the past few days, but it simply wasn't enough. The quest to establish the healers at the pool had at least been successful, but though construction had begun, it wouldn't end in time to benefit them. Since Meara finally felt confident enough to at least guess at the armor's location, he'd made the judgment call that it was the highest priority.

  Letting them talk allowed him to focus on defending the group. Most likely they'd be attacked by nothing more dangerous than wolves, which would not be much of a threat. But he tried to stay focused on the area behind them, uncertain if he had caught sight of anyone. His sense that something was wrong had been increasing, another reason he'd suggested they venture out that day.

  "Wait." Meara abruptly cut off the conversation, opening her eyes for the first time in a while. "I think we're close."

  They shifted to her side, but she didn't move. Bloodwraith folded his arms. "How can we help narrow it down?"

  "What I'm getting... is the sense that someone else had the breastplate. They were wearing it, but... it wasn't enough to protect them. I'm not sure how long ago this was, but the body hasn't been found."

  "Oh, could it be there?" Danniah pointed to the side, and for a moment Bloodwraith saw nothing, then he realized that the bushes obscured a crevice in the earth.

  Meara frowned and shifted her head without nodding or shaking it, but she began to wander closer to the crevice. They followed, on guard for anything dangerous, but for once they weren't attacked by anyone. The crevice was narrow but much deeper than it looked, a product of the ancient rocks of the terrain around Cresthaven.

  "Yes... I think this might be it." Meara hesitated near the crevice, however, looking for a way in.

  Bloodwraith didn't try, since his body wasn't going to fit between those rocks. Instead he followed the top of the crevice, noting how remarkably hidden it was in the undergrowth. That explained how something inside it might have remained hidden for so long. Even if someone noticed it, there was no reason to believe that it might contain anything useful, if not for Meara's senses.

  Though Danniah ran ahead to check the other end, Bloodwraith spotted it first: dark metal at the bottom of the crevice. When he bent down to look further, he saw that the breastplate was still on the chest of a skeleton. Judging from the bones, the adventurer had fallen in and broken their leg. Monsters must have set upon them after that - while the breastplate looked completely undamaged, the same could not be said for their legs and neck.

  "You found it!" Danniah peered down into the crevice beside him. "You're definitely not fitting in there, though. There was a larger part earlier on that I thought I could climb down, let me try!"

  "Be careful. We don't want you to get stuck in there like he did."

  "I have rope! Always bring rope!"

  They tied the rope around Danniah's waist and she climbed down into the crevice to retrieve the breastplate. Though Bloodwraith was ready to be attacked at any moment, a spell of force prepared for the first sight of a monster, none attacked. Danniah reached the breastplate, detached it from the skeleton, and lugged it back up with help from him.

  Meara stood nearby, gaze unfocused. He didn't expect her to contribute much in the way of raw strength, but he'd expected her to be more interested. Then again, this had been a different sort of test of her abilities, so maybe she needed time to reflect on it.

  "We got it!" Danniah flopped up t
o the surface again, pulling the armor after her once she had a secure grip. "Here ya go!"

  He helped her climb fully out of the crevice first, but then he gladly took the breastplate.

  [Breastplate of the Tyrant

  Armor: 24

  Might +1, Vitality +1

  Durability: 41/50

  Rarity: Rare

  NOTE: This item is part of a unique set.]

  [Quest Complete!

  Locate the lost breastplate from the armor set.

  EXP + 500]

  A mediocre EXP reward, but perhaps that was to be expected given how relatively easy it had been to acquire this one. The more important thing was that he now possessed four of the five pieces. Though the boxes called it a breastplate, it included spiked shoulder plates and armor for the arms as well. If he wore all the equipment now, he would actually be well-protected, but apparently the boxes required boots as well to complete the set.

  "We need to go." Meara spoke in a low voice and he looked up, but it was too late.

  There were people shifting in the woods around them. Bloodwraith dropped the armor to draw his greatsword and Danniah hefted her shield, but he wasn't sure that it would matter. While they had been focused on the breastplate, they'd been completely surrounded. And it wasn't as if he had been negligent: their opponents practically vanished in the foliage.

  Then the branches rustled and Daek the Knife walked out to stand opposite them.

  "You... I've been waiting for a chance at you..." His eyes gleamed with something that hadn't been present before, locked onto Bloodwraith alone. "Now, surrender quietly and this will go easier for all of us."

  Surrendering was obviously a foolish choice, but Bloodwraith checked the levels of the greencloaks around them and didn't like their odds. There were no novices this time, most were around Level 6-10. Breaking through the circle and fleeing would be risky, but they at least had a chance there. But most importantly, he'd already taken the risk of encountering Daek, so he needed to learn what he could.

  "Why are you attacking me?" Bloodwraith asked. "I helped you clear the crypt like you wanted."

  "Don't play stupid!" Daek's voice held a manic edge and his fingers twitched on the hilts of two of his knives. "You only escaped me last time because your friends showed up. Well, they're not here now. I made sure to catch you without them."

  He hadn't expected that tactic to work, just wanted to see how Daek would react. Given his behavior, best to shift gears. "Why were you getting adventurers killed in your crypt?"

  "Don't play stupid!" This time Daek's words became a shriek. Bloodwraith saw Danniah wince and Meara narrow her eyes at the outburst. More importantly, some of the greencloaks shifted uncomfortably as well. "You went there just to sabotage me, and you stole it all! Give the power back!"

  "Why should you concern yourself with a tiny bit of energy?" If Daek was convinced he understood the situation, Bloodwraith decided he might as well play along. "That's what I don't understand. Why antagonize the Adventurers Guild and draw in trained fighters when it would be easier to sacrifice your own men?"

  "Shut up and tell me where it is! All that power I'd gathered - gone! Yet... yet can it be here? Did you absorb it? I don't understand..." Daek's gaze drifted toward the ground and his hands slipped further from his knives. That was little comfort, given how wildly his eyes darted. He had seemed entirely under control before - where had the underworld mastermind gone?

  His words implied the reason why he'd been coming after Bloodwraith: apparently the power he'd been gathering in the blood ritual had been drained. Bloodwraith considered theories as to who else might have done it until he remembered the strange box that had appeared at the heart of the crypt. Perhaps the system within him had drained the energy there. That raised more questions, though.

  One of the greencloaks stepped closer. "Boss, what are y-"

  "Get the sacrificial stone!" Daek snapped. When the greencloak flinched, he turned on him. "Didn't you hear me?"

  That was over the line for Bloodwraith - the time for gathering information had passed. He wasn't sure what Daek meant by the "sacrificial stone" since he didn't think blood rituals could be made portable, but it didn't matter. The man seemed unstable enough that he might do anything. Poor as their chances were, this was the best they were likely to get.

  Bloodwraith let out a roar and his new spell exploded from him. The "Shout of Rage" wasn't good at dealing damage, but the burst of force had a huge radius. Greencloaks went stumbling in every direction, some of them actually falling to the ground. Even Daek staggered, and in that moment, Bloodwraith decided to try to end him with a surprise attack.

  He lunged forward, greatsword flying in a direct thrust... and Daek flowed around it like water. Even though Bloodwraith had been increasing his Quickness alongside brute force, it was nothing compared to his opponent's raw speed.

  Before he could react, Daek had swept past his blade and reached his arm, knives lashing out. Bloodwraith barely pulled back in time, still receiving two cuts to his arm - his leather armor might as well not have existed. He reached for a spell of force, but in the time it took him to summon the mana, Daek had already closed the distance and stabbed into his chest.

  His armor barely blunted the blow and he felt the pain shoot through his chest, but Bloodwraith didn't let it stop him from finishing his spell. The force hit Daek in the face and pushed him back a step. Only one step. If Bloodwraith had really been a brute fighter, he would have died the next instant.

  But when he had seen how fast Daek reacted, he had planned to throw everything he had into his attack. Before Daek even finished staggering, Bloodwraith hit him with a second burst, then a third while he pulled back his sword and swung.

  Daek recovered faster than he'd anticipated and ducked underneath the broad horizontal swing, rushing forward again. Bloodwraith cursed and tried to counter, but there just wasn't time. He was going to take another series of direct hits.

  Except Danniah stepped up beside him and attacked. Her movement took Daek completely off guard, yet he still managed to dodge the blow from her mace on pure instinct. He wasn't able to dodge her shield as it smashed straight into his forward charge. The blow sent him sprawling backward over the ground.

  Bloodwraith swept his sword down the next second, with all of his strength behind it and releasing a charge of mana from the blade. The force flattened Daek into the ground, preventing him from dodging, and the blade struck true.

  And Daek's armor held.

  The sword bit into his shoulder and scraped the side of his head, but it wasn't able to break through and kill him. That actually made Bloodwraith hesitate for a moment, though he shouldn't have been surprised: of course Daek would have equipment beyond anything he'd seen so far.

  In his moment of hesitation, Daek struck the greatsword aside and spun to his feet, knives ready again. Bloodwraith managed to throw another spell at him before he could get his footing fully, though as expected, Daek managed to dodge to the side.

  His only goal was delay Daek long enough to drink a potion. Yet when Bloodwraith brought the bottle to his lips, steel flashed past him and the glass shattered. A moment later he realized that Daek had thrown one of his knives to stop him, and the other man was already drawing another knife and closing on him.

  It just wasn't enough. His strategy had been solid and Danniah had landed an effective surprise attack, but it hadn't been enough to overcome the gap between them. Bloodwraith felt himself growing distant from the combat, even as Danniah moved to flank Daek and they tried to attack him from both sides. He already knew it wouldn't work, even assuming that the greencloaks didn't get involved.

  Though his body kept moving, his mind focused on Daek, trying to summon a box for him.

  [Name: Daek the Knife

  Race: Human

  Class: Rogue

  Health: 233/271

  Mana: 24/24

  Stamina: 127/182

  Level: 19

 
EXP: ???]

  The rest of the box told him nothing, but the first sections were enough. All the blows they had landed amounted to only a fraction of Daek's health. Worse, his stamina was still rather high, suggesting that this was how fast he could move normally, not an exhausting level of speed.

  If Bloodwraith had more allies and a series of traps, he could imagine a path to victory. But here, with greencloaks recovering and getting ready to join in the fight, it just wasn't possible. Seeing it laid out in raw numbers made it impossible to ignore the stark reality.

  Alone, he might have fought on anyway. But Meara had been seized by greencloaks, and at that moment he saw Daek knock Danniah down and then step on her shield. Soon, he'd kick it aside and then descend with those knives...

  "Enough!" Bloodwraith raised his sword over his head. "We surrender."

  "Surrender?" Daek wheeled on him, eyes bright. "You surrender? Then give me the power! If not, give me your blood! Tell me what you know!"

  "I'll cooperate, and you can take me if you want. Just don't harm my friends." Bloodwraith had absolutely no intention of following through with such a foolishly selfless agreement, of course. But it made him sound calm and reasonable in front of Daek, who was growing increasingly unhinged.

  As he'd hoped, one of the greencloaks spoke up. "Boss, we have the girl. Maybe we should tie them up so you can interrogate them."

  "I... yes." Daek shook his head at nothing in particular, then sheathed his knives again. "Take their weapons and move out. Set up the sacrifice stone. Didn't I already ask you to do that?"

  The greencloaks rushed to obey and Bloodwraith didn't resist as they stripped him of his weapons. His situation was worsening, especially when the greencloaks clapped iron manacles on their hands and legs, but if the battle had continued, he was certain that Daek would have murdered them all right then, regardless of this "sacrifice stone." At least this way they still lived and his body could begin healing.