Guilds at War: The LitRPG Saga Continues Read online

  Bonuses: +9 to Riding Skill, +15% to any tasks involving maintaining control over the riding beast, +15% to any tasks and spells performed while on the saddle.

  Special Abilities:

  Self-Repairing: Will regain 20 Durability per hour while not in use. If the Saddle is destroyed, however, it will not reassemble itself.

  Defensive Shield: Once per day, can summon an energy shield with a Damage Absorb value of 20, a Resistance of 50% against all Elements or Forces, and Durability of 800. Any attack or damaging spell striking at the mount or its rider and passengers must deplete the Durability of the energy shield before it can reach the target. Once summoned, the shield lasts for one hour or until destroyed. It cannot be summoned again until after sunrise the next day.

  Weight: 50 pounds. Durability: 1,000/1,000. Resistance Values (All): 80%.

  Price: 1,500 gold.

  He really wanted the Master’s Saddle, but spending the equivalent of a gold ingot on the damn thing was too much, and purchasing two was out of the question. He ended up getting two Enhanced Saddles; they were more than good enough and he’d still have plenty of money left. He paid using little gold cylinders that the Dwarves made for high-ticket purchases; each cylinder looked like a roll of dimes and proclaimed to hold the weight of fifty gold denars. Piling eighteen cylinders on the counter was a lot easier than counting out nine hundred coins. The Sterns said that large transactions often used letters of credit, sealed with wax and enchanted to guarantee their worth. Maybe he should have taken some of those as payment, he thought as he grabbed another handful of cylinders out of his inventory.

  “Do you have any Potion Dispensers by any chance?” he asked after the saleswoman came back with the saddles, carrying the eighty pounds of equipment over her shoulder with surprising ease.

  Saturnyx had told him about Dispensers, devices that were similar to Holding containers, except they could only carry potions – and would deliver them directly to your bloodstream, without having to summon the bottles, pop their corks, and drink them, which was fine during normal circumstances but a total pain when in the middle of a fight. Being able to ‘point and click’ to activate a potion could make a huge difference; he’d come close to dying a few times because he was too busy to grab a bottle from his inventory. The sword had warned him that Potion Dispensers were rare in the Common Realm. If the Emporium didn’t have them, nobody else would.

  “You are in luck; we just received a shipment of them. I have three Common Dispensers, able to hold four doses, and two six-dose ones. The price for each of them is four hundred and eight hundred gold denars, respectively.”

  “I’ll take all the four-dose ones,” Hawke said, ruefully grabbing more gold cylinders out of his inventory. Another twelve hundred gold gone, but he and Tava would get one of the devices, and he would sell the last one in the Domain. There weren’t many exotic mounts around, but they could be gained as loot drops in Dungeons and Labyrinths. And some Arachnoid tribes bred giant spiders to use as cargo haulers or fighting pets. Maybe someone could learn to ride them. He wouldn’t charge them any more than he had been. His fiancée got one for free; everyone else would have to cough up the dough.

  “Do you know how to use a Dispenser, young master?” the woman asked him after she returned with four leather pouches.

  “Yes, thank you,” Hawke said.

  Saturnyx had explained the process. He blood-bound one of the Dispensers by reaching in and pricking his finger on a metal needle attached to the inside of the pouch. That forged a magical link being forged between him and the device. After putting three Mana and one Rejuvenation potions (all Major) into the pouch, he placed it inside his inventory. Four icons for the potions appeared in the air, floating on the lower part of his field of vision. From now on, he could mentally ‘click’ on any of the potions and it would be delivered directly into his body. No fuss, no muss. He had spent an enormous amount of gold, but he thought it’d been worth it.

  Now, it was time to make it to the Temple District without getting his head blown off. And, if he had the chance, to teach the Nerf Herders not to mess with him.

  Sixteen

  Time for some recon.

  Hawke found a quiet spot on the edge of the Crafter’s Market, a market stall that had been abandoned for some time. The reason why seemed obvious: it was a little too close to a public latrine, an open building with individual partitions, where people could do their business, using stone benches with holes leading to the sewers. The smell was strong enough to make his eyes water, and the only people around were there to answer nature’s call and get out as soon as possible. He stepped behind the stall and summoned his flying Nature’s Guardian. The wood-and-mud elemental would only pass for a real bird from a distance, but he’d seen plenty of summoned pets over the skies above Akila. It shouldn’t attract too much attention, or so he hoped.

  The critter obediently took wing and began flying in a spiral pattern over the paths leading to the Temple District, about half a mile away from the Market. Hawke looked through its eyes. It was a lot of space to cover, but Hawke was only looking for good spots for a sniper team. Most buildings in the area were three or four stories tall, so he had his pet fly concentrate on the few structures that stood above them. There weren’t many; from what he had heard your rent went down the more flights of stairs you had to climb to get there, so until someone invented elevators, five stories were the usual limit.

  There was a City Watch outpost in the Market, with a hundred-foot tall tower that loomed over the entire area, but the people manning it were all red-clad Watchmen, and a close pass by the bird showed nothing resembling a gun among the bored-looking guards. The next tallest building was a public bathhouse; the steam plumes rising from chimneys on the roof, along with the massive cisterns around them, were unmistakable, as was the open-air Olympic-sized swimming pool in the central atrium. There was nobody on the roof, but the sixth floor had several large windows that provided a good field of fire along the straight and broad avenues that led to the Temple District.

  Having his flying construct take a closer look would be risky. Hawke decided to take a look on his own. He dismissed the bird and started walking toward the bathhouse.

 

  Yes, but I can turn invisible, teleport, and do all kinds of amazing crap, Hawke told the sword as he strolled through the streets, doing his best to look like a bored mercenary.

  The large building seemed like the best place to put a sniper team, and it would be easy to bribe the administrator to rent out an upper floor and look the other way. Easier and cheaper than paying off the Watch. If his scouting mission didn’t pan out, he’d check a couple of five-story apartment building that had almost as clear a view of the roads as the bathhouse.

  He could probably sneak his way past any snipers, but the temptation to get some payback from the Herders was too strong. Kaiser was probably counting on that, though. He might be using the sniper teams as bait, trying to lure him into a trap to kill him again, or, more likely, take him alive, so he could be delivered to Kaiser personally. Hawke mentally shuddered at the thought of what the Nerf Herder top guy would do to pay him back for that little stunt he had pulled during their first meeting.

 

  Sure, but where is the fun in that?

 

  I’ll just take a look. If it’s too dangerous, I’ll back off. Happy?

 

  So I’ll use my new tricks instead. Or improved versions of the old ones.

  The sword fell silent, although the implied ‘dumbass’ was pretty much in evidence. Hawke shrugged. The safest thing to do would be to hunker down in Dwarven Hills, send out his merchants to risk their lives while
they conducted their business, and skedaddle back to Orom with his tail between his legs, hoping the caravan could get there without being ambushed by the Herders on ground of their choosing. Or he could even teleport to the nearest Node under his control and abandon his friends. None of that was going to happen. Safety could be a trap as well.

  Worst case… He did some mental rearranging of his inventory and replaced one of the Mana potions in the Dispensary with a vial of the nastiest poison he had found in the Necromancer’s Vault. A full dose injected into his bloodstream would send him off to respawn.

  No way am I going to let them take me alive.

 

  I know.

  Prepared for the worst, he walked past the bathhouse, carefully staying on a narrow street with no clear shot from the upper floors. Things looked normal from the back; there were a couple of small doors on the first floor, probably the servants’ entrances, but no windows. Copper pipes ran up along the wall; they would be easy to climb, although they would be carrying steam for the baths and be hot as hell. Hawke ducked into an alley across the street and found a hiding hole behind a pile of refuse. Time to get to work.

  Hawke summoned his good armor, including all the Thanatos set pieces, accepting the -29% Stealth penalty in return for the protection and stat bonuses. If things went south, he would need every bit of protection he could get. He left the Lesser Shield of Order in his inventory for the time being, however. He wouldn’t need it for a while.

  There were two options he could think of. One was to use Astral Projection and send his mind off to scout. The problem was that there were countermeasures and wards against astral travelers, and wizards and some magical devices had a chance to detect them. He bet that at least some of the Herders would be magic users. He decided to go the tried and true way instead:

  Twilight Shroud

  Time to Cast: Instant. Cooldown: 6 seconds. Cost: 3 Mana. Effect: The caster is rendered invisible, producing only a vague shimmering outline if moving. Chances to spot are reduced by 95% if standing still, by 65% if moving slowly, and 40% if moving rapidly.

  A Celestial-enhanced Shroud costs 10 Mana and reduces the chance to be spotted by 5% against mortals and 10% against Undead and Infernal entities.

  A Chaos-enhanced version of the spell costs 10 Mana and reduces the chance to be spotted by an additional 1% per level; this is caused by random distractions affecting anyone in a position to see the user.

  A Mind-enhanced Shroud costs 10 Mana and reduces the chance to be spotted by 2% per level by sending a mental signal that causes anybody in sight to unconsciously look away from the caster.

  Any two Forces can be used to enhance the spell, at the cost of 24 Mana. All three can be used at the cost of 45 Mana. Effects are cumulative and can exceed 100%, making it impossible to spot the caster unless he purposely attracts attention to himself.

  Hawke splurged and used all three Forces, spending the full 45 Mana (after his 40% energy discount was factored in) on the spell. When his Fae Stealth Perk was added in, he pretty much was impossible to see. Noise was still a problem, but his Amulet of Stealth would reduce any sounds he made for thirty minutes. He added an icon for the device to his spell rotation, waiting to activate it until he needed it, and looked for a good place to climb to the roof. He would have liked to teleport there, but even though Twilight Step had the range, the spell created a cloud of darkness that the guards on the nearby watchtower would easily spot.

  Most of his defensive auras were a no-go, unfortunately, since they would destroy the invisibility spells, so he went in with only In Extremis, Mana Shield, and Transference. He felt naked without all his regular protections, but he would have to rely on his armor until he had a chance to cast them. Besides, there was a good chance that he would find nothing. Just in case there was something to find, however, he also cast Enlightenment, which along with Detect Traps should help if the Herders had set up a surprise for him.

  He could handle the heat of the copper pipes, but worried that his weight in full armor might be too much for them. Instead, he picked one of the building’s corners, which had protrusions at every floor that he could use for hand- and footholds. After waiting for an ebb in foot traffic, Hawke stepped out of the alley, reached the corner, and began climbing. He didn’t worry too much about any sounds his climb made; it was early afternoon and pedestrians and street vendors were making plenty of noise to mask his ascent.

  Congratulations! Your Climbing Skill has been raised to level 3!

  He probably should practice his wall-crawling more often, but was grateful for the skill increase. His inhuman Strength and Dexterity allowed him to move up the side of the building with ease. He soon reached the tiled roof – which was glowing bright red for traps.

  Bingo. Nobody would trap the entire roof of a public bathhouse. To catch who, towel thieves? Somebody in there was waiting for one Hawke Lightseeker, or his friends.

  He held onto the wall and took a peek at traps. There were several ordinary tripwires and a few magical ones, all attached to a dozen spells. He was able to identify only a few of them, but it looked like they were set up to hit anybody who stepped onto the roof with something big – 600 Mana big – which would probably incapacitate rather than kill him; the other spells were meant to notify the sniper team that they had company.

  Looks like I can disarm all of them, he thought after examining the traps.

  His regular rogue abilities wouldn’t have been enough to do the job, but when combined with his Advanced Mana Vision and other Channeling bennies, it would be no problem. Even better, he would learn a few more trap schematics. In fact, he might be able to set up a couple of surprises for the Herders.

  First, he needed to know what he was up against. Keeping well away from the roof, Hawke pressed his ear against the outside wall and listened. A normal human wouldn’t have heard much of anything unless someone was playing a concert in there, but a normal human didn’t have a Perception of 34. After a few seconds of concentration, he began to hear words through the wall. Words in English.

  “… was a nice sword, is all I’m saying. And I could have used it.”

  “You know the rules,” someone else replied. “Just let it go, Artos.”

  “Okay, I hear you.”

  “Can’t wait until the shift is over,” someone else said. “I’ve got a…”

  “A date!” three or four other people chorused as one. “With Nona the waitress. We know!”

  “Hey, I’m just happy, okay?”

  “Dating an NPC,” a new voice commented. “Stupid.”

  “They’re people, too. And the Herders are a freaking sausage factory!”

  An argument broke out; the pro-‘NPC’ voices were clearly outnumbered by the antis.

  Freaking racists. Or maybe speciesist? Bigoted, in any case.

 

  Yep.

  He had to take a look. It sounded like there were at least five of them, maybe six or seven. He needed to see their level and gear to figure out if he had a chance to take them out. He used his once-a-day Necklace of Farsight ability and peeked into the room where he heard the voices. If they had a countermeasure against remote viewings, he would have been screwed, but they didn’t.

  The room looked like it had been used for storage purposes, which must have sucked for anyone who had to carry stuff up or down five flights of stairs. It had been converted into temporary living quarters for six Nerf Herders. Two of them were looking out the windows overlooking the road leading to the Temple District. The other four were sitting around a table, playing cards. Everybody was clearly bored and miserable; people used to spending most of their waking hours with their noses stuck on a mobile device screen could find life in the Realms unbearable.

  The guys at the windows were Shade (Level 16 Huma
n Rogue-Scout) and Glorificus (Level 14 Elven Archer-Scout); he’d met the latter during his last run-in with the Herders, back at the Gates of Tartarus. The nameplates over the other players’ heads identified them as Gorat (Level 17 Orc Archer-Warrior), Fraggo (Level 13 Human Master Sorcerer), Master Blaster (Level 15 Archer-Wizard), and Artos Dunford (Level 17 Rogue-Wizard). They had a decent assortment of weapons, armor, and gear for their level, most of Masterwork Quality. And they had two guns.

  One was a long-barreled weapon mounted on a shooting stand, which would improve its accuracy but make it useless in close quarters. The design was familiar enough – barrel, stock, bolt action – but it had no trigger and was made of a variety of metal alloys, including mithril and adamant; the barrel and receiver were covered in runes and other enchantments and inscriptions. It was also trapped; the Herders didn’t want outsiders playing with their toys, so the trap was probably set to go off if any non-member touched it.

  The second weapon was much more compact, although it was also designed to be fired from the shoulder, like a submachine gun or carbine. The magical setup on its barrel and action were almost the same. An assault weapon, meant to be used to fight rather than assassinate from a distance. Useful even in the confined space of the room. Hawke shut off the viewing spell and considered his options.

  Six Eternals, none at my level but high enough to be dangerous, especially since they are in a Party that raises their effective level by two. This is going to be tricky.

 

  Hawke smiled.

  First, I’m going to come up with a plan. My brother said that a well-planned attack had more in common with a murder than with a fight.

  In other words, no. I’m not going to fight them. I’m going to murder them.

  Interlude: Gunfight at the Eagle’s Bath