That didn’t make sense. Hermes was the god of thieves in Io, and he wasn’t a ‘dark one’. Still, Henry was talking, so he played along. “Now I get it. You took over a guild of light priests and healers by betraying your friend, and you’ve been working to corrupt them. Ok. Dick move, and a shitty way to play, but I get it. So why spend so much time on me?”
“You made PWP look foolish. If you had just killed my brother and his men, we probably would have let it go. I’d have punished him for being incompetent. But you spawn camped him, then turned him in, making his toon useless. Then you published that video-”
“Just to be clear, I did not publish that, or any other, video,” Alexander interrupted. Which was technically true.
“Fucking liar. Who else would?” Henry threw at him.
“Think about it genius. I was IN most of the shots from the video. As in somebody else was recording me from a distance. If it was my video, it would be from my perspective.”
“Whatever.” Thinking was not Henry’s strong suit. “The videos slowed our recruiting down. The raid took out most of my roster. This made the Dark One angry. The only way to redeem myself is to bring him your head. Which I WILL do, noob.”
Alexander stepped back and opened the roof of the pit. He raised Henry up so that he was once again at ground level. Then, without warning, he cast the mass teleport spell.
They found themselves standing in the guild compound’s inner bailey. Alexander was between Henry and the outer ward. While Henry took a moment to absorb what happened, Alexander touched his medallion and set the outer ward to kill. He stood within a short step of it. The captain and the others, including Thea and the dwarven crafters, all stood just inside the inner ward. The captain began to approach at Henry’s back. Once he’d entered the bailey tunnel, Alexander motioned him to stop. He drew his sword.
“No, Henry, you won’t have my head. You just aren’t capable of killing me. Anytime in the last hour you could have stuck a knife in my face from stealth. Instead, you followed me out here, then revealed yourself by speaking. You were focused on getting back your armor. Which, if you’d thought it through, you had no hope of accomplishing. Even if I’d had it in my bag, which I don’t, you couldn’t take it out even if you killed me. Bags can only be removed voluntarily. Like you did when you dropped yours, which gave me full access to your inventory. So thank you for that.”
Henry’s face grew red with rage.
“You just don’t think critically. You’ve got to plan better. How do you think a noob like me keeps beating you? Even now, Henry. I’ve formally placed you under arrest. As Knight-Advisor to the king, I have the power to place your bind point at the prison. Which I now do.”
The captain took the hint and waved his hand behind. A flash of light washed over Henry.
“So the next time you die, wherever you are, you’ll respawn in the prison and serve your year.”
“You fucking liar!” Henry screamed. “You said you’d let me go!”
“No, Henry, I said I’d teleport you. I didn’t say where. Now, look at you. You’re getting all angry. Stop and think, Henry. You can surrender peacefully, and the captain there will take you to a nice cell. They’ll even restore your hand so you can work. Or you can try to get past me, and make a run for it. But I wouldn’t recommend it. That didn’t go well for you last time.”
Henry snarled. His bright red face twisted in a mask of rage, actual saliva spraying from his mouth as he breathed. He took a step closer to Alexander, then another, growling “I. Will. Kill. YOU!” He leapt at Alexander, who cast wizard fire on him in mid-air. The man screamed as he slammed into Alexander, biting at his neck. Alexander simply fell to the ground, not having time to dodge the flaming PWP. Henry landed on top of him, and rolled forward, just enough to touch the ward. It didn’t quite kill him. The life enchantment kept him alive long enough for the next tic of wizard fire to finish him.
Chapter Sixteen
Money for Nothin’, and Yer Pints for Free
Alexander felt the cool tingle of a heal wash over him, eliminating the minor damage he’d taken from his own wizard’s fire.
Level up! You are now level 24!
Your wisdom has increased by +1. Your intelligence has increased by +1
You have 11 free attribute points available
Level up! …
Level up! …
Level up! You are now level 27!
Your wisdom has increased by +1. Your intelligence has increased by +1
You have 16 free attribute points available
It worked! Alexander learned his lesson last time. He’d gotten no xp from killing Henry the first time. He suspected it was because Henry never attacked. He simply let the man hit the ward. This time he’d made sure to provoke Henry into attacking him, in front of witnesses. Then he hit him with wizard’s fire, which was enough to give him credit for the kill. Killing a level 80 brought some serious xp, even with a large group.
He walked toward the group in the compound, patting the captain on the shoulder as he reached him and paused to ask very quietly, “Please tell me that flash meant you really did bind him to the prison.”
“Aye. It did. And he’ll be there shortly.” The captain looked at him with a grim face. “Listen lad. I’m no fool. I see how you set this up. He is a murderer, no doubt. And he did attack you, more than once. But you set him up, bringing him here, purposely sending him into a rage. You stacked the deck against him. While there was nothing illegal in what you did… well, it’s damn close to the line.”
Alexander looked the captain in the eye. “I respect you, Captain. I consider you a friend, and I understand your feelings. There are some things you don’t know. Like the fact that he confessed to working for a god called ‘The Dark One’, who claims to be the god of thieves. And that this god of his was going to send him after the village just to spite me. He’s going to send others, and we’ve got to get stronger to stop them. Killing a top level adventurer, with all of us here, gave us several levels worth of experience. I think maybe you even got a level yourself.”
The captain nodded at this.
“We both know that it wasn’t a permanent death. Everyone who did not witness this will think he was simply teleported. He’ll rave like a madman. If things go the way I expect, his access to Io will be revoked.”
Alexander stuck out his hand. “So, I hope that you will see the necessity behind what I did, and know that it was not just done on a whim. No mercy.”
The captain looked at him for several moments. Finally, he shook Alexander’s hand. “No mercy.”
Alexander heard a resounding “BWAHAHAHA! before he was hit by a running tackle from Brick. And further crushed a second later by Max. Then Sasha and Lainey piled on. The others were a bit more reserved, standing close by with smiles on their faces, especially the dwarves. The young ones had been invited to the party, and had each just leveled up more than a dozen times. Thea looked like she wanted to join in the dogpile, but was maintaining her reserve, but just barely.
“That was BRILLIANT!” Brick was ruffling Alexander’s hair.
“Thank you. Can you get off me now, please? I’m gonna need a heal after that crushing tackle!”
The group untangled themselves and got up. Max went to loot the body, as usual. Lainey and Sasha didn’t seem mad at him for taking some damage, but they were certainly mad about other things.
“Idiot! Why would you take him on alone? We were standing around with nothing to do but worry that you’d get your fool throat cut!” Lainey smacked the back of his head. She was wearing a gauntlet. It hurt.
Sasha, who’d been about to say the same thing, had to satisfy herself with an indignant, “Yeah! Idiot!”
“Listen, guys. He was stealthed, and had been following me through the woods. I was an hour away from you. By the time you could have gathered and teleported, I already had him trapped in a pit. I couldn’t let it come to a battle. He’s much stronger than we are. I controll
ed the situation. The only time he even touched me was there at the end. I’m sure you all saw that from the group UI.”
He motioned for them to move toward the house. “Once I had him in the pit, he mentioned this ‘dark one’ character who commands his people to murder and torture. I thought about what Fibble said about a hooded man delivering the orb. I needed him to talk, and he wouldn’t have done it with all of you there. Especially since the captain would have been bound to arrest him and take him away before I could get answers. So, I’m sorry, but it had to be that way.”
In guild chat, he said, “You can all watch the video later. I was fine.”
“And as for the fight at the end, well, he had no weapons, and only one hand. I was inches from the ward, and it was set to kill. The only doubt I had was whether the captain could bind him or not. I decided the levels were worth the risk. Besides, I tricked him into dropping this,” he produced Henry’s inventory bag. “A level 80 guild leader. Any bets on what kind of goodies are in here?” Before he forgot, he reset the outer ward to teleport.
Max grabbed him in a bear hug and lifted him right up off the ground. Reaching for the bag, he said, “Gimme gimme!” Max rushed ahead of them into the house and began to empty the bag out onto one of the tables in the lounge. The dining room table was already groaning with all the loot from Kibble’s hole. They’d have to deal with that soon.
Max didn’t even notice the pile in his glee over looting Henry’s bag. Even on their old toons, they hadn’t reached level 80 yet. If the armor that he’d dropped the first time he died was any indicator, Henry’s bag should hold some really good stuff.
He must have been looting the guild vault.
The first thing Max did was check the gold. Acting casual, he said, “Meh. He was only carrying SIXTY THOUSAND gold!” He grinned as the party loot system automatically split that up equally between everyone. With the 5 guild members, the four dwarves, Fitz, Lydia, and the captain, that was 5,000 gold each.
Then he was going through the items. “There’s a whole kit with different poisons here.” He handed it to Lydia. She’d want to analyze them. “About 20 teleport scrolls…” those would go in the guild vault.
“There’s a lot of high level priest and paladin gear in here. Light based stuff. I think maybe he was planning to auction this stuff?”
Alexander spoke up. “You guys all heard what Amelia said about the original PWP. Henry confirmed that he betrayed the original guild leader, his friend Martin, to earn his way into the dark one’s favor. He was corrupting what had been a light guild for the same reason. I think we should set aside that gear. We can wait and see if Martin really does re-establish PWP as a light guild, or create a new one. If they live up to expectations, this gear could help them purge the guild and defend themselves against Henry when he gets out.”
Everyone agreed. Max added, “There are keys here. Presumably to their guild keep and vault. Maybe we’ll get lucky and Henry didn’t trust anyone else with keys? In which case whatever’s left in there is safe.”
“Here’s a complete armor set, and he was wearing another one when he died. Both leather. Good agility stats!” he looked at them both for a moment, then handed one to Lainey.
Looking sad, he said, “That’s about it. Some health, stamina, and agility potions. Guess he was focused on filling his bag with sellable items.” Something about the loot was bothering Alexander, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
“Okay folks. Let’s take an hour and transfer all that dungeon loot to the guild vault. You guys get started sorting it. I’m gonna clear a whole section of the vault just for this so we can keep track. We want to make sure everybody gets their share. I want to set some aside for the village, in case they waste or lose the 5000 we already gave them.”
They spent closer to two hours before they were done sorting and storing all the loot. Even setting aside dozens of items they thought they might use in the future, they had more than a hundred epic or higher rated pieces to sell, each of which would earn at least several thousand gold at auction. Many were worth tens of thousands or more, just on their own. Max had made a list and his best estimate was that they had somewhere north of three million worth of weapons and gear. There was more than a hundred fifty thousand in actual gold pieces. About half that in silver. There were items that they couldn’t identify or put a value to. Those were simply stored in the vault. The guild kept 10% of everything. The rest was divided up among the members, though Alexander didn’t take part in the selling of loot for cash. He had no need, so he left it to the others to divide the proceeds. In any case, there was no doubt that Brick would be able to pay off his house in a year, maybe less. It would take them a while to sell all the items without flooding the market.
With the immense windfall of loot and the money it would bring to the guild and the individual members, they had no need to sell common dungeon loot. So they agreed to donate half the weapons to the village (there were only about 60 residents, and many of them had already been armed) and sell the rest to the king’s guard to help equip recruits. The captain was kind enough to take charge of those. He also offered them the 100 gold reward for Henry. They asked that he give it, and the proceeds from the weapons, to the families of those who lost people in the PWP raid.
Having gotten that out of the way, Fitz teleported them all back to village. It was nearing dusk, and they needed to finish preparations for the consecration of the chapel. They all grabbed a quick bite of dinner. Afterward, Fitz and Brick headed to the chapel to find the priest. Alexander pulled the mayor aside, and explained to him what they intended. He encouraged as many people as possible to attend.
As the light faded further, Alexander climbed to the wall. Looking out at the lamp posts he and Brick had installed earlier, he noted that the light was a bit brighter than he expected. He called over the nearest guard. “What do you think? Is the light too bright? Will it hurt your night vision? The guard shook his head “I’ve been watching small critters scurry around at the treeline since the sun set below the ridge. They’re coming out to investigate the light. And I think that if anything wanders in closer than the posts, we’ll be able to see them backlit. It’ll do just fine. Thank you, sir.”
As they spoke, Alexander noticed a guard walking out toward a light post. Drawing near, the guard began bending down and plucking what looked like arrows from the ground. “Kayla, sir. She’s one of our archers. She got it in her head to use the lights as distance markers. Been practicing to get the feel for the range.”
That was actually a brilliant idea. He would commend her to the captain when he got to the chapel. After making a round of the entire wall to look for gaps in the light, he did.
By this time, full dark had fallen. Most everyone in the village except for the guards on duty were gathered around the chapel. The doorway was wide open, as they’d not built doors yet, so the view inside was clear.
Max and Father Ignatius stood in front of the doors. The priest raised his hands and said, “We are here to consecrate this land in the names of Asclepius, God of Healing, and Durin, God of the Dwarves. Let all who enter here find understanding, strength, comfort and healing!”
The priest knelt on both knees, while Brick took a knee and slammed his shield into the ground. He raised his hammer in the air, and both men began to pray.
Within moments, two beams of holy light shone down upon the center of the chapel, like twin spotlights on a theater stage. There was a sound of waves, breaking on a shoreline. Then a boom of thunder that rolled through the village. Then a twin fork of lightning struck the chapel roof with a flash of light so bright it nearly blinded all those present. The chapel structure seemed to absorb the light, and then there was a concussive
it met the ring of light posts.
As it had spread through the village, there was one cry of dismay, as a rogue was unstealthed and rendered unconscious by the holy spell. Since that would only happen to one who was a servant of darkness, the rogue was immediately seized and taken to the captain, who confirmed that he was PWP. He was stripped of his weapons and bound, and Fitz teleported him to the prison. The captain and Fitz looked meaningfully at each other, then at Alexander. They needed to find out more about this ‘dark one’.
The priest invited everyone into the chapel for a short service to thank both deities for their blessing. As they filed in, there were more gasps and cries of astonishment. The entire cathedral roof had turned into clear crystal. The stars above could be seen almost as if there were no roof at all. The chapel glowed with a soft light. A crystal altar had grown at the back of the chapel. Most amazingly to Alexander, his simple stone benches had been transformed into full pews of what looked like alabaster.
The priest noticed the direction of his gaze and laughed, “I guess one of them decided to save us some work!”
The Greystone Chronicles: Book One: Io Online Page 40
