“Sure,” Dale answered. He’d wanted to talk to Smith about women, but maybe it would be better if he kept things to himself. He had no idea what had happened with Amy, but perhaps she had an important mission from command. There was no reason to jump to conclusions.
“Where’s Amy?” Sanjay hit Dale in the shoulder. “You dog.”
“Ummm. She had something to do. I can’t talk about it.” Dale hoped he’d drop the subject.
“A secret mission. Wow, cool. I need stronger armor and upgraded spear tips if I can find them.”
“We’re headed to look for armor first,” Dale said. “But I suspect you can find anything here.”
They looked inside shops and compared prices and styles of armor.
“You have good taste, master soldier,” a tall handsome elf with a friendly voice said.
“What’s the material?” Dale liked the look and feel of the armor he was holding.
“Tanned dragonling hide. It’s the strongest material in this price range. Would you like to try it on?”
...........................
Dragonling Hide Armor
Level 10, light armor.
Resilience: Medium.
Wiki: Lore Strengths Weaknesses Range
...........................
Dale changed into his Zuharah avatar and put on the armor. He looked into a full-length mirror and decided he liked how it looked and felt. It was the highest ranked armor he was able to use at Level 5, and while it was expensive, he decided that a good offense required a good defense. Besides, he wanted to avoid as much pain as he could.
After Dale purchased everything he needed to upgrade his armor, he remembered that his shield had been splintered by the Leshy shape shifter.
“I really need a new shield,” he said to Smith and Sanjay.
“Okay,” Sanjay said, “Me too.”
Smith found armor he liked, a complete set that Dale thought made him look indestructible.
Transferring back into their humant avatars, they went to find an armory. After they browsed in several, they settled on one that was run by an elfin hunter who was willing to take animal pelts in trade.
Dale and Smith unloaded the pelts they’d obtained the day before on their Nojus Quest.
“These are fine pelts and snake skins,” the hunter said. They negotiated a fair value and began to look at shields, swords, bows, arrows, and knives.
...........................
Dark Adder Scale Shield
Level 10, light shield.
Defensive weaponry.
Offensive weaponry.
Resilience: Medium.
Magic: Low.
Wiki: Lore Strengths Weaknesses Range
...........................
“How does this Dark Adder shield work on offense?” Dale inspected the shield, it was round, black, and appeared to be a slightly flattened snake in a coil.
“Nice choice, master soldier,” the hunter said. “With a bit of spelling power, the coils of the adder, which makes the shield, will uncoil. The adder becomes a battle pet. You can, if you’re good, throw the shield like a disc, and once behind your enemy, the snake will uncoil and attack.”
“Wow, nice,” Sanjay said. “I think I want one, too.”
“Don’t be a Dale clone,” Smith said.
“I’ll take it,” Dale said. “I don’t care if you get one too, Sanjay.”
After agreeing on a price for the shield, they went to the sword section. Dale couldn’t do much better than the long sword he had already, so he moved on to the bows.
It was smart to get a long bow and he found a medium duty one that he was ranked high enough to use. He also picked up a few dozen arrows, selecting several different varieties because each type of creature had weaknesses to particular arrow tips.
“Shall we find a magic shop?” Dale looked at his friends.
...........................
The magic shop they found had items that were mostly out of Dale’s skill range and level. He was, however, able to buy a few healing potions and one Earth Magic Book. There were four elemental magic skills available, Fire, Ice, Water, and Earth. While he couldn’t afford to get more than a couple of items, he did find a scroll that listed the five abilities available in each elemental magic area.
In order to open each subtree, it was necessary to have knowledge of the branch, so he bought the scroll and had Erin upload the information for future use.
...........................
Scroll of Elemental Magic Powers
Fire
Verbti:Fiery torch spells, throwing fire, starting a fire.
Lori:Fireballs, a thrown weapon.
Amok-Moloch:Dragon’s Breath, a high-level torch that can burn buildings.
Jowang Sin:Dwarf Smelter, a fire magic that defeats ice spells.
Chaac Agni:Rain of Fire.
Ice
Daji-Yuki:Snowballs that caused damage.
Hu-shen:Hail that breaks down magical defenses.
Tork-Buzlaq:A glacier spell that causes the enemy’s movements to slow.
Kura-Okami:A snonado that causes damage to gear, buildings, and defenses.
Li-Ami:Rain of sleet.
Water
Libyan:A healing potion for drinks.
Logan:Baptism, as a healing enchantment to counteract poison and venom.
Mazu:Wave of Wisdom, an enchantment to increase knowledge and learning.
Talaloc:Lake of Clarity, an enchantment to expose spies, liars, and frauds.
Nuying:Rain of Peace.
Earth
Sobek:Soothing mud, a healing enchantment.
Genii:Clay Figure, an enchantment that removes curses.
Lana:Sands of Time, an enchantment that defeats an enemy’s time spells.
Gavida:Rock Statue, an enchantment that provides a defense against ice spells.
Kalki:Chasm of Peace.
...........................
After another hour of shopping, Dale was worn out.
“Shopping is harder than fighting lions, tigers, and bears,” he said.
“Oh, my!” Sanjay thought he was funny.
“We are due at the reception soon, let’s find a lodge or boarding house so we can clean up.” Smith was the practical one, but Dale and Sanjay agreed that it would be refreshing to clean the dust of the city streets off and to rest their feet before having to attend an official function.
Dale missed Amy. He wondered where she was and what she was doing and wished she’d been along to help him pick out items during the day. Maybe she’d show up at the reception?
...........................
The reception hall was huge. Bigger than Dale had imagined, and after being on the ship, and the training facilities back on earth, he was used to huge auditoriums. The royal hall of King Talargo was not only massive, it was ornate but not in an old European church with ancient paintings on the ceiling kind of way; instead the walls and ceilings of the hall were scenes of Almaach that seemed to be alive as if they were paintings that were also windows into the world.
The ceiling was a painted sky, but the clouds actually moved. The rivers seemed as if they were flowing. Herds of animals would appear in a twinkling of an eye, but minutes later would be gone.
The food was, of course, what would be expected in a royal feast, only it was bigger and more varied than Dale had thought possible. It wasn’t only roasted razordillo, but wildebai steaks, turkey, goose, pheasant, sausages, and pates. The royal kitchen had seemingly studied their visitors.
Dale saw peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (which he found odd) and orange chicken (which he found comforting).
Who were these hosts?
He ate so much he thought he’d be sick, then, as the speeches started, he began to feel sleepy. He looked around and realized he wasn’t the only one, in fact, a couple of members of his platoon were actually asleep. He kicked Sanjay under
the table.
“Wake up.”
Sanjay jumped. “I was asleep?”
“Yes, stay awake, you’ll make us look bad.”
Dale was wondering if magic was at play, perhaps a potion.
Then all hell broke loose as King Talargo introduced Princess Jara. He had explained her long captivity and how he was grateful to the platoon that had rescued her, when an imbued arrow hit the Princess. She was driven backward, and fell to her knees, apparently the arrow was poisoned and it didn’t help that she was wearing an evening gown and not armor.
As pandemonium broke out, a battle axe went sailing through the air, end over end, towards the fallen Princess. At the last moment possible, the Princess raised a chair, and the make-shift shield deflected the axe.
Dale jumped to his feet and ran in the direction of the first arrow.
People were screaming, yelling and shouting orders, and pointing in every direction. The King’s guards surrounded the Royal Party and escorted them off the dais.
“Dale, where are you going?” Smith yelled. He was behind Dale running to catch up.
“I’m going to try and stop the assassin!”
Dale ran to the point he was certain the arrow had come from when he realized that there were actually some real windows in the wall. The view to the gardens out of the window had blended in perfectly with the murals that were painted so realistically. Through the window, he saw a figure running down a garden path and into a maze of flowering bushes and shrubs. He jumped out of the window and pursued the assassin.
He ran into the maze and immediately had to decide whether to go left or right. He paused. He only had moments to decide, or he’d be too late regardless of the direction he picked. The ground was disturbed to the left, so he decided to go that direction. He ran. Dale picked up tracks, small ones, but reliable. The assassin was trying to escape at full speed, so they’d left footprints in the ground at each turn in the maze.
Dale turned a corner, past a statue of a dragon and a figure of a man, and an arrow flew past his head and slammed into the statue behind him. The assassin had fired the arrow, jumped onto a trellis, and climbed out of the maze. Dale followed up the trellis, popped his head above the roof, and nearly got an arrow in the face. It slammed into the roof instead, causing clay tiles to explode. The assassin leaped to a neighboring building and ran along the roof’s ridge, Dale could see the running figure faintly silhouetted against the night sky.
He, or she, was small, fast, and light. Dale jumped to his feet and ran in pursuit.
Because he was not wearing armor, nor carrying a weapon, he was fast enough to keep up. He sprinted across the stable roof and watched as the assassin jumped into a tree and climb to the ground.
When Dale made it to the tree, another arrow slammed into the branch he was climbing on, and he fell to the ground. He returned to his feet and continued his pursuit down an alley between buildings and stables, everyone, it seemed, had been at the reception as the grounds were empty of people. Only horses, sheep, and other farm animals witnessed his pursuit. However, he soon found out another set of eyes had been watching him.
The assassin was climbing a drain spout when Dale finally caught up and grabbed the assassin’s leg mid-way up, but as he did, someone below him grabbed his leg and he fell to the ground. A second assassin stood above him with a long rapier, shaped like a giant needle. He mentally prepared to die, and wondered if it would hurt as bad as the last time. He also wondered where in the hell Smith and Sanjay were, as he’d hoped that they’d be right behind him.
“NO!” Don’t hurt him.” It was Amy shouting.
Dale’s thoughts became a confusing mess.
“We cannot allow him to pursue us,” the second assassin said.
It was Emi, the Japanese soldier who had seemed to have disregard for his girlfriend. She stood above him with her rapier pointed at his heart; he was without armor, ending his life would have been quick and easy.
In the next moment a lone figure, dressed entirely in black, silently approached Amy and opened her throat in one quick motion.
“NO!” Dale screamed.
Emi turned to see what had made Dale scream, and a bright red imbued arrow slammed into her chest. She dropped the rapier, spun, and fell next to Dale, dead. He looked up, not knowing what to expect, and Amy’s body rolled off the roof. Her corpse landed next to him, her eyes frozen, and her bloody throat exposed.
“Never trust a Korean, Dale. Or the Japanese,” the figure in black said. It was Yingtai. “They were assassins sent to kill the Princess.”
“No.” Dale couldn’t believe that Amy was a betrayer or that she’d try to kill a noble at a peaceful function. His head hurt. His heart hurt. He felt like crying.
“Believe it,” Yingtai said. “Now, we’d better get back to the platoon.”
With some reluctance, Dale stood.
Amy and Emi were gone. He wondered if they’d changed their Res Points. They must have, he thought at first, but then again, it’s not like they’d expected to fail. They hadn’t been expecting to be ambushed by an even cleverer killer, and the truth was, if Amy hadn’t been trying to convince Emi to spare him, she might have heard Yingtai approach.
“Come on, we’ll be expected,” Yingtai said. “You can cry over your betrayal later.”
“But she…”
“Dale, grow up.” Yingtai walked away.
Dale started to follow her, but he noticed that Emi’s rapier had been left behind. Soldiers didn’t lose items when they died, but in this case, Emi had dropped the item before she perished, so he picked it up.
You have retrieved: Rapier, Thuban Guild Assassin Special, Level 10
CHAPTER FIFTY
The aim of a joke is not to degrade the human being but to remind him that he is already degraded.
~ George Orwell
I do not worship gods that degrade themselves by committing acts of anger like petulant children. A secure and confident god never displays his power through acts of random or meaningless unprovoked violence.
~ Iyam Amak
...........................
“My Lord,” the Admiral said as he handed a report to Iyam Amak, Lord Commander of the 14th Declan Division. “Two assassins failed to kill Princess Jara.”
“Interesting,” she said. “Is there more?”
“The Princess lives and continues her quest. The assassins were discovered, which may complicate any number of plans, my lady.”
“Indeed.” The Commander stood and walked to the window of her office. She always looked to the sea when she was forced to think deeply about a complex problem. The vast expanse and apparent emptiness of the ocean reminded her that for everything in life that seemed plainly visible, there was a complex world underneath it all. An ocean surface might not show any signs of life at all, but to the careful observer, it is apparent that billions and trillions of zooplankton live right below the surface. There were vast rivers of tiny, seemingly insignificant, life forms. Yet, in spite of their individual meaninglessness, together they kept the oceans alive.
Little fish ate the tiny creatures.
Bigger fish ate the little fish and in turn, larger predators ate them. At the top of a food chain giants surfaced, great whales, for instance. Yet even the great whales were eaten by orcas. Above them all, depending upon the sea, serpents, kraken, dragons, and pirates all fight for dominance.
But the fact remained: If the tiniest of creatures did not thrive, even the mightiest of kingdoms would fall, perhaps even the Gods would die.
Iyam saw sea birds floating high above the surface of the water.
“The seabirds, Admiral. Watch them.” She motioned for him to join her at the window. “Do you see how they are small and fragile?”
“Yes, my Lord,” he said.
“And yet they fear neither the shark, the dragon, nor pirates,” she said. “I imagine they don’t even consider the Gods.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
/>
“Do you consider their ignorance a blessing or a curse?”
“I imagine their freedom, my Lord, but I live to serve.”
“As do I.” The Commander turned from the window. “Continue as planned, Admiral. Locate Princess Talargo and secure the Jewel of Sartozel.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
Loneliness becomes an acid that eats away at you.
~ Haruki Murakami
I was too young to fall in love.
~ Virginia Dewey, the fifteen-year-old that broke Dale’s heart
...........................
Dale was stunned.
He felt dull pain and disbelief.
Smith sat next to him and attempted to be comforting. Sanjay had the good sense to be quiet. The rest of the platoon chatted about the latest developments and praised Yingtai for being quick, cunning, and ruthless.
Dale couldn’t bear to hear them praise her for killing Amy, but he accepted that Yingtai had acted bravely and with honor. Princess Jara also spoke of Yingtai’s bravery and skill, and she reminded everyone that it was Yingtai who had saved her from the dungeon.
“I owe you two lives now,” Jara said to her. “I vow to follow you on your mission and protect you to the best of my ability.”
“I don’t know if—”
Captain Brinkmann interrupted Yingtai. “You don’t have to worry, Yingtai. The Princess is not only welcome to accompany us, the King has requested it.”
“He has?” Princess Jara sounded incredulous.
“Attention platoon!” The Lieutenant shouted with his official military voice.
Dale knew that meant he would have to put his feelings in a box and serve his… Country? Planet? He didn’t know. He had been fighting for Smith, then for Amy, and even for Sanjay and Dyfrig. Now he felt lost.
“Gather around,” Sergeant Dyfrig said. He took over the platoon meeting. “We’ve been given a new quest.”
Nagant Wars: A LitRPG Novel (Nagant Wars Series Book 1) Page 29
