Ah. That… changes things, doesn’t it? As it turns out, while I thought I had all the pieces to the puzzle, I was still missing one or two.
“Not a gang leader, then,” I mutter.
What does the role of baron entail here? Relevant political information travels through my mind, reminding me of what the powers vested in them generally include. My knowledge isn’t localized to the Crowned Islands or anywhere in particular, though, so I’m not sure if it fits for these circumstances specifically.
“Evelyn, did you grow up here?” Sierra asks urgently. She looks up and tosses a couple of silver coins at the barkeep, gesturing for him to give us some privacy. Given the early hour, nobody else is here to overhear us. “I apologize for the rudeness, but with some of your actions… I’ve been wondering.”
I already have a pre-prepared lie for this. Acting helps me sell the delivery of it, bland and matter-of-fact with a hint of “I don’t want to talk about it” applied to the side.
“Until quite recently, I was held captive in a facility,” I recite. “I know a lot less of the world around me than I should.”
The Blue Mage’s face falls instantly, her expression changing from politely inquisitive to ashamed in a second. “I am truly sorry, Evelyn.”
I wave her concerns aside, stopping her from falling into a long-winded apology before she can even start. “No worries. I wasn’t exactly up front with it.”
“Come to think of it, that does explain why you appeared so weirdly,” Adrian says, downing another gulp from his drink. “Gods, this place knows how to serve a drink. Killing a fucking baron…”
“You’ll need to be filled in, then,” Sierra sighs, cradling her head in her hands. “Barons in the Crowned Islands take a similar role to those in the outside world, though their individual power is dwarfed by even the Whitestar Kingdom’s.”
I give her my best blank stare. This one’s genuine—the names mean nothing to me, though I do have a general idea of a baron’s role.
“She’s from these islands,” Adrian says, lightly punching Sierra’s shoulder. “You need to explain more.”
“And you let her threaten you into submission,” she fires back. “Let me talk.”
“You’re never going to let me live that one down, are you,” the Warrior mutters into his drink.
“I will not!” Sierra replies brightly. “As I was saying. Barons typically hold power over a minor to major city and the surrounding villages, and the Raven Baron is—was, sorry—no exception. He controlled Ravendale, and he differed from many others in that he also had a long-standing agreement with the undercity.”
The undercity. That, at least, is a name I recognize. My memory bank tells me that undercities are present in most major metropolises, built on the ancient ruins of what came before them. Given that it’s knowledge that the researchers wanted me to know, I assume that means that it’s commonplace elsewhere, not just in the islands.
From Sierra’s statement, I can infer that there’s a criminal element in Ravendale’s undercity, one that I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting yet.
“And now he’s dead,” I say. “That throws a wrench into things, doesn’t it?”
“Congratulations,” Adrian says, swirling his cup around. “You’ve pissed off both halves of the city.”
“I remained hidden. Whatever allies he has, they won’t know who to follow.”
“Fuck,” the Warrior curses, apparently ignoring my words. “Do we need to cut and run?”
“I do wonder,” I say, ignoring him right back, “Why didn’t you do something similar? He wasn’t terribly hard to take down, and my level was significantly lower than his.”
“You’re hurt,” Sierra points out, indicating my neck.
Right. That’s still bruised. I’m sure I don’t look any prettier than I did before I got into this scuffle.
“And I’m alive,” I reply. “The two of you combined should’ve been able to deal with him easily.”
“If you haven’t guessed already,” Adrian says, pausing to take yet another swig from his glass, “It’s not that fucking simple.”
“There are… complications,” Sierra says, massaging her temples. “This was supposed to be a temporary thing. Our instr—er, we were planning on laying low. If that means—meant—rolling over for a weak noble that wished to play king, that was acceptable. With his death, the city will be thrown into disarray. The undercity will rise to fill the vacuum, and the effects of that will be rather inconvenient.”
“Cut and run, then,” Adrian suggests. “Come on, we’ll—“
“Aunt Marie,” Sierra replies simply, and the Warrior stops. “She wants us here, and she wants this city clean.”
“Fuck.” Adrian adores that word, doesn’t he?
“I sincerely apologize,” Sierra says again. “I should not have gotten you involved.”
“Well, she’s damn well involved now, isn’t she?” Adrian grumbles. “Only difference is she can run if she wants.”
“I will not be running,” I tell him. “There’s too much potential in this city. If they’re going to come, let them come. If they seek to feed my advancement, then I’m happy to oblige them.”
Adrian rolls his eyes. “Happy to have you, Evelyn.”
“It’s fine,” Sierra says. “We will deal with it. We always have.”
Neither of them sound particularly scared of the ramifications. Even Adrian, who last I checked was level 7, appears more irritated than anything else. Are they hiding a reason to be more confident, or do they just genuinely not care?
“What do we do next?” I ask.
“Adrian and I now have business to attend to,” Sierra says apologetically. “While a lady of your stature would usually be invited to join us…”
I wave her off. “I don’t mind. Some secrets need to stay secret.”
She’s probably going to meet with Marie Jade or one of the latter’s representatives. While I’d like to eavesdrop on that, I have a few other purposes in this city. Marie isn’t the only one I can gain information about my creation from, too—according to the dream-vision, which I’m assuming is accurate, Saph is more than a little aware of my origins.
“Don’t make more problems for us,” Adrian says dryly, emptying the last of his glass. “Stay out of trouble.”
“This coming from you is pretty rich,” Sierra sniffs. “Do try to keep yourself safe, Evelyn.”
“Of course,” I reply. “You’re leaving now?”
“Aunt Marie’s been using a skill to keep in touch with me this whole time,” Sierra says with a sigh. “We’re leaving now, yes. Feel free to have the rest, if you’d like.”
She indicates her barely-touched drink, then gets to her feet.
“If you’re not drinking it,” Adrian starts, reaching out for the glass. “I’ll—“
“No,” she replies sharply, slapping his hand away. “Evelyn, we’ll regroup at the Enchanted Rose—our inn, in case you forgot—in a few hours. We will wait for you.”
“You’ll wait for—“
“Goodbye,” Sierra says, giving me a small wave as the two of them start making their way outside.
As soon as they’re gone, I activate Locate Person, tracking Adrian. I still don’t want to reveal that I have this skill, and I think it’s reasonable to assume that Sierra has a way to find that I possess it, so I focus on the weaker part of the pair. The two should be traveling together
They round a corner, then another. Soon enough, the burning dot in my mind that represents Adrian is a solid hundred feet from me—and then it vanishes, exiting the range of Locate Person completely. Adrian might as well not exist to my senses.
Interesting. I assume that Locate Person stops functioning under two circumstances: either the target is dead or they’ve left the five-hundred-foot radius that the skill now covers.
I haven’t heard any screaming or any sounds of fighting, so it’s probably the latter. That’s a teleportation skill of some kind, I suppose. I’m not sure whether it’s Adrian (unlikely), Sierra (more likely), or Marie (also likely) that’s activated it, but it’s useful information to have in case I ever need to attack them for XP.
The barkeep, a fairly unassuming man just a little older than Adrian, returns after another few minutes to the sight of me drinking from Sierra’s glass.
The beverage is sweet and heady, which pleasures my taste buds. If it’s alcohol, none of the detrimental effects truly settle in thanks to a combination of my Demonic Heritage and Poison Resistance. I haven’t had much to drink other than blood and river water, so this is a welcome diversion.
“Can I get you anything, miss…”
He trails off as he looks at me and I look at him.
Ah, right. I still have the Soulless thing going on, and I didn’t bother reestablishing Disguise Self after killing Baron Austin Raven.
“My compliments,” I say, downing the rest of the glass.
The barkeep looks visibly uncomfortable. He opens his mouth, then closes it again.
For a moment, I consider killing him. There’s nobody around to see, after all, and free XP is free XP. A quick Appraise reveals that he’s got a non-combat class and is only level 4 in it.
It’s pointless. Killing him here will make even more of a mess and potentially alienate the people I’m currently allied with. All of that for a measly few handfuls of XP just isn’t worth it.
I turn around and exit, leaving a stunned young man behind me.
There’s other things for me to do. It probably isn’t safe to re-enter the in-betweens, especially since the one entrance I know of leads into a fragment that was actively falling apart the last time I saw it, so I’m not going to be able to complete the baby-eating objective yet.
My other objective, however, is absolutely achievable. I cast out my web of Locate Person, careful to manage how much magic I’m using. While Locate Person doesn’t cost that much to just use, it does take a bit out of me when it lands on a hit, and I don’t want to be caught unawares by someone and not have my skills to deal with them.
Sapphire isn’t in the radius of Locate Person yet, so I start moving, walking through the streets of Ravendale. It’s mid-afternoon, so I encounter more and more human activity as I make my way through the city. It’s not terribly unpleasant, though more than a few of them move to avoid me when they make eye contact with my soulless vision. I haven’t been able to use Disguise Self again thanks to its once-per-day restriction, and Shape Self doesn’t seem to be able to remove the effect.
I decide on practicing Stealth while I walk, not content on just wasting time without progressing. Good things come to those who act, and I will use every open second to do exactly that.
At first, I get a few weird looks for actively seeking out the areas where the shadows grow long, sticking close to walls and stepping in and out of seedy alleyways, but soon enough I’m not getting looks at all.
Stealth advanced to level 9!
You are now 40% harder to see when obscured.
I wonder if Stealth is going to evolve like Knifefighting did. It’s getting close.
My displaced memories feed me a partial answer. Not every skill can evolve, and every skill has a limit at which it can no longer progress to the next rank. Stealth could be one of the ones that are capped at Bronze-tier, but even if it is, there’s the possibility of a skill fusion achieved while training similar powers, which means that every weapon in my arsenal is something that could potentially be taken all the way to Sapphire.
I continue dipping into Locate Person as I make my way around the cityscape, fishing for the enigmatic Saph while I walk through dirty slums and around too-clean villas that remind me of the lab.
While I walk, I also train up Blood Surge, which to this point has been a pretty pathetic level 1. Leveling that skill up has to be done in quick bursts, because I can feel the blood draining away from my body every time I use it, leaving me short of breath and light-headed if I leave it on for too long.
Blood Surge advanced to level 2!
Blood Surge advanced to level 3!
Blood Surge advanced to level 4!
You may now use this skill up to twenty minutes per hour. The boost to speed and strength increases to 70%. Consumes slightly less blood.
By the time I’ve gotten it to level 4, I’m fairly sure I’ve consumed enough blood to make myself significantly paler. It’ll return with time thanks to Demonic Heritage, but that in combination with its time limit means that I’d rather avoid overusing it.
Interestingly enough, leveling skills still works. When I advanced to level 9, the system told me that due to my soul damage, I wouldn’t be gaining any new skills. That is, plainly speaking, unacceptable. Thankfully, it evidently hasn’t spread all the way through it.
Still, I’d much prefer to fix my soul sooner than later, no matter how handy Soulless may prove to be. Sapphire and possibly Marie are the only people I know of that might be able to fix me, and I’m not confident in my ability to find the latter, given that I’ve never met her in person.
Locate Person advanced to level 6!
Your range is now 600 feet, and you can penetrate slightly greater psychic defenses.
The sun has noticeably shifted in the sky by the time I’ve traversed the entire radius of the city. I’m not tired, which I can thank Sapphire, Marie, and all the other researchers who worked to make me a body for, but I do think I’ve exhausted the search area.
I sigh. The half-elf is every bit as inscrutable as she is beautiful. She told me to find her in Ravendale. Hells, I even have an objective to find her. Despite that, I’ve scoured a huge chunk of the city and haven’t found her.
Either she’s hiding deep beneath the city or she’s choosing not to be found. Locate Person isn’t infallible—the wording of the level increase tells me that it can be defended against, and Saph is definitely powerful enough to block my skills.
With over half my magic depleted, I decide to make my way back to the Enchanted Rose. If I’m lucky, Sierra and Adrian will be there. If they’re not, then I’ll walk out into the city and get into some trouble. Even as I walk back, I can feel the shift in the atmosphere. People are getting restless, and I hear whispers passing from person to person. Rumors.
“…heard Rob say Ashton told him it was a spider,” one construction worker tells another, the pair of them on break leaning against a wall. He’s just loud enough for me to hear. “A big ol’ demon spider, escaped from one of them secret castle dungeons, you hear?”
I resist the urge to smile and carry on, sticking to the shadows. Staying cloaked will be more important now, I’m sure. Once Disguise Self comes off cooldown, I’m going to have to use it near-immediately. When word gets around that a pale red-eyed woman was the last person seen near the site of the Baron’s demise, it’s going to be nigh-impossible for me to show my face.
It might already be.
Pushing those thoughts aside, I slink my way back to the Enchanted Rose. My memory is perfect—I can identify where the window to the room we were staying in is. The guards here are competent, I’m sure but the buildings around it are significantly more lenient—lax enough, at the very least, that when I Stealth into the shadows and slip into the crack between buildings, the bored cashier at the general store next door doesn’t pay attention.
As soon as I’m sure I’m out of sight, I Bloodstep up the wall, clambering up to the partially-open window. I doubt anyone notices me, but if they do, I can trust Sierra to deal with them. She seems to value me in ways beyond what I can bring to the table as a fighter, which I can exploit.
My lines of thought grind to a halt as I reform, taking my humanoid form once more.
The room is pristine, everything in its place. Sierra’s wardrobe-armory closet has one door slightly ajar, and it reveals stacks of perfectly folded clothes and a rack of well-oiled blades.
Which makes it all the more disconcerting that both the Blue Mage and the Warrior lie unmoving on the ground, their open eyes glazed over. Blank, glossy black orbs stare up at nothing.
On instinct, I use Locate Person once more, and a location sears itself into my mind.
In front of me, appearing from thin air as if it was a door, a familiar white-haired half-elf daintily steps over my unconscious companions.
Objective updated: Find Sapphire in Ravendale [COMPLETE]
You have located Sapphire.
Reward: [ERROR] Severe soul damage detected. Adjusting compensation…
Reward: Soulknife (Bronze)
“Let us speak,” Sapphire says.
Slifer274 Read 15 chapters ahead on the Patreon
Ah. That… changes things, doesn’t it? As it turns out, while I thought I had all the pieces to the puzzle, I was still missing one or two.
“Not a gang leader, then,” I mutter.
What does the role of baron entail here? Relevant political information travels through my mind, reminding me of what the powers vested in them generally include. My knowledge isn’t localized to the Crowned Islands or anywhere in particular, though, so I’m not sure if it fits for these circumstances specifically.
“Evelyn, did you grow up here?” Sierra asks urgently. She looks up and tosses a couple of silver coins at the barkeep, gesturing for him to give us some privacy. Given the early hour, nobody else is here to overhear us. “I apologize for the rudeness, but with some of your actions… I’ve been wondering.”
I already have a pre-prepared lie for this. Acting helps me sell the delivery of it, bland and matter-of-fact with a hint of “I don’t want to talk about it” applied to the side.
“Until quite recently, I was held captive in a facility,” I recite. “I know a lot less of the world around me than I should.”
The Blue Mage’s face falls instantly, her expression changing from politely inquisitive to ashamed in a second. “I am truly sorry, Evelyn.”
I wave her concerns aside, stopping her from falling into a long-winded apology before she can even start. “No worries. I wasn’t exactly up front with it.”
“Come to think of it, that does explain why you appeared so weirdly,” Adrian says, downing another gulp from his drink. “Gods, this place knows how to serve a drink. Killing a fucking baron…”
“You’ll need to be filled in, then,” Sierra sighs, cradling her head in her hands. “Barons in the Crowned Islands take a similar role to those in the outside world, though their individual power is dwarfed by even the Whitestar Kingdom’s.”
I give her my best blank stare. This one’s genuine—the names mean nothing to me, though I do have a general idea of a baron’s role.
“She’s from these islands,” Adrian says, lightly punching Sierra’s shoulder. “You need to explain more.”
“And you let her threaten you into submission,” she fires back. “Let me talk.”
“You’re never going to let me live that one down, are you,” the Warrior mutters into his drink.
“I will not!” Sierra replies brightly. “As I was saying. Barons typically hold power over a minor to major city and the surrounding villages, and the Raven Baron is—was, sorry—no exception. He controlled Ravendale, and he differed from many others in that he also had a long-standing agreement with the undercity.”
The undercity. That, at least, is a name I recognize. My memory bank tells me that undercities are present in most major metropolises, built on the ancient ruins of what came before them. Given that it’s knowledge that the researchers wanted me to know, I assume that means that it’s commonplace elsewhere, not just in the islands.
From Sierra’s statement, I can infer that there’s a criminal element in Ravendale’s undercity, one that I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting yet.
“And now he’s dead,” I say. “That throws a wrench into things, doesn’t it?”
“Congratulations,” Adrian says, swirling his cup around. “You’ve pissed off both halves of the city.”
“I remained hidden. Whatever allies he has, they won’t know who to follow.”
“Fuck,” the Warrior curses, apparently ignoring my words. “Do we need to cut and run?”
“I do wonder,” I say, ignoring him right back, “Why didn’t you do something similar? He wasn’t terribly hard to take down, and my level was significantly lower than his.”
“You’re hurt,” Sierra points out, indicating my neck.
Right. That’s still bruised. I’m sure I don’t look any prettier than I did before I got into this scuffle.
“And I’m alive,” I reply. “The two of you combined should’ve been able to deal with him easily.”
“If you haven’t guessed already,” Adrian says, pausing to take yet another swig from his glass, “It’s not that fucking simple.”
“There are… complications,” Sierra says, massaging her temples. “This was supposed to be a temporary thing. Our instr—er, we were planning on laying low. If that means—meant—rolling over for a weak noble that wished to play king, that was acceptable. With his death, the city will be thrown into disarray. The undercity will rise to fill the vacuum, and the effects of that will be rather inconvenient.”
“Cut and run, then,” Adrian suggests. “Come on, we’ll—“
“Aunt Marie,” Sierra replies simply, and the Warrior stops. “She wants us here, and she wants this city clean.”
“Fuck.” Adrian adores that word, doesn’t he?
“I sincerely apologize,” Sierra says again. “I should not have gotten you involved.”
“Well, she’s damn well involved now, isn’t she?” Adrian grumbles. “Only difference is she can run if she wants.”
“I will not be running,” I tell him. “There’s too much potential in this city. If they’re going to come, let them come. If they seek to feed my advancement, then I’m happy to oblige them.”
Adrian rolls his eyes. “Happy to have you, Evelyn.”
“It’s fine,” Sierra says. “We will deal with it. We always have.”
Neither of them sound particularly scared of the ramifications. Even Adrian, who last I checked was level 7, appears more irritated than anything else. Are they hiding a reason to be more confident, or do they just genuinely not care?
“What do we do next?” I ask.
“Adrian and I now have business to attend to,” Sierra says apologetically. “While a lady of your stature would usually be invited to join us…”
I wave her off. “I don’t mind. Some secrets need to stay secret.”
She’s probably going to meet with Marie Jade or one of the latter’s representatives. While I’d like to eavesdrop on that, I have a few other purposes in this city. Marie isn’t the only one I can gain information about my creation from, too—according to the dream-vision, which I’m assuming is accurate, Saph is more than a little aware of my origins.
“Don’t make more problems for us,” Adrian says dryly, emptying the last of his glass. “Stay out of trouble.”
“This coming from you is pretty rich,” Sierra sniffs. “Do try to keep yourself safe, Evelyn.”
“Of course,” I reply. “You’re leaving now?”
“Aunt Marie’s been using a skill to keep in touch with me this whole time,” Sierra says with a sigh. “We’re leaving now, yes. Feel free to have the rest, if you’d like.”
She indicates her barely-touched drink, then gets to her feet.
“If you’re not drinking it,” Adrian starts, reaching out for the glass. “I’ll—“
“No,” she replies sharply, slapping his hand away. “Evelyn, we’ll regroup at the Enchanted Rose—our inn, in case you forgot—in a few hours. We will wait for you.”
“You’ll wait for—“
“Goodbye,” Sierra says, giving me a small wave as the two of them start making their way outside.
As soon as they’re gone, I activate Locate Person, tracking Adrian. I still don’t want to reveal that I have this skill, and I think it’s reasonable to assume that Sierra has a way to find that I possess it, so I focus on the weaker part of the pair. The two should be traveling together
They round a corner, then another. Soon enough, the burning dot in my mind that represents Adrian is a solid hundred feet from me—and then it vanishes, exiting the range of Locate Person completely. Adrian might as well not exist to my senses.
Interesting. I assume that Locate Person stops functioning under two circumstances: either the target is dead or they’ve left the five-hundred-foot radius that the skill now covers.
I haven’t heard any screaming or any sounds of fighting, so it’s probably the latter. That’s a teleportation skill of some kind, I suppose. I’m not sure whether it’s Adrian (unlikely), Sierra (more likely), or Marie (also likely) that’s activated it, but it’s useful information to have in case I ever need to attack them for XP.
The barkeep, a fairly unassuming man just a little older than Adrian, returns after another few minutes to the sight of me drinking from Sierra’s glass.
The beverage is sweet and heady, which pleasures my taste buds. If it’s alcohol, none of the detrimental effects truly settle in thanks to a combination of my Demonic Heritage and Poison Resistance. I haven’t had much to drink other than blood and river water, so this is a welcome diversion.
“Can I get you anything, miss…”
He trails off as he looks at me and I look at him.
Ah, right. I still have the Soulless thing going on, and I didn’t bother reestablishing Disguise Self after killing Baron Austin Raven.
“My compliments,” I say, downing the rest of the glass.
The barkeep looks visibly uncomfortable. He opens his mouth, then closes it again.
For a moment, I consider killing him. There’s nobody around to see, after all, and free XP is free XP. A quick Appraise reveals that he’s got a non-combat class and is only level 4 in it.
It’s pointless. Killing him here will make even more of a mess and potentially alienate the people I’m currently allied with. All of that for a measly few handfuls of XP just isn’t worth it.
I turn around and exit, leaving a stunned young man behind me.
There’s other things for me to do. It probably isn’t safe to re-enter the in-betweens, especially since the one entrance I know of leads into a fragment that was actively falling apart the last time I saw it, so I’m not going to be able to complete the baby-eating objective yet.
My other objective, however, is absolutely achievable. I cast out my web of Locate Person, careful to manage how much magic I’m using. While Locate Person doesn’t cost that much to just use, it does take a bit out of me when it lands on a hit, and I don’t want to be caught unawares by someone and not have my skills to deal with them.
Sapphire isn’t in the radius of Locate Person yet, so I start moving, walking through the streets of Ravendale. It’s mid-afternoon, so I encounter more and more human activity as I make my way through the city. It’s not terribly unpleasant, though more than a few of them move to avoid me when they make eye contact with my soulless vision. I haven’t been able to use Disguise Self again thanks to its once-per-day restriction, and Shape Self doesn’t seem to be able to remove the effect.
I decide on practicing Stealth while I walk, not content on just wasting time without progressing. Good things come to those who act, and I will use every open second to do exactly that.
At first, I get a few weird looks for actively seeking out the areas where the shadows grow long, sticking close to walls and stepping in and out of seedy alleyways, but soon enough I’m not getting looks at all.
Stealth advanced to level 9!
You are now 40% harder to see when obscured.
I wonder if Stealth is going to evolve like Knifefighting did. It’s getting close.
My displaced memories feed me a partial answer. Not every skill can evolve, and every skill has a limit at which it can no longer progress to the next rank. Stealth could be one of the ones that are capped at Bronze-tier, but even if it is, there’s the possibility of a skill fusion achieved while training similar powers, which means that every weapon in my arsenal is something that could potentially be taken all the way to Sapphire.
I continue dipping into Locate Person as I make my way around the cityscape, fishing for the enigmatic Saph while I walk through dirty slums and around too-clean villas that remind me of the lab.
While I walk, I also train up Blood Surge, which to this point has been a pretty pathetic level 1. Leveling that skill up has to be done in quick bursts, because I can feel the blood draining away from my body every time I use it, leaving me short of breath and light-headed if I leave it on for too long.
Blood Surge advanced to level 2!
Blood Surge advanced to level 3!
Blood Surge advanced to level 4!
You may now use this skill up to twenty minutes per hour. The boost to speed and strength increases to 70%. Consumes slightly less blood.
By the time I’ve gotten it to level 4, I’m fairly sure I’ve consumed enough blood to make myself significantly paler. It’ll return with time thanks to Demonic Heritage, but that in combination with its time limit means that I’d rather avoid overusing it.
Interestingly enough, leveling skills still works. When I advanced to level 9, the system told me that due to my soul damage, I wouldn’t be gaining any new skills. That is, plainly speaking, unacceptable. Thankfully, it evidently hasn’t spread all the way through it.
Still, I’d much prefer to fix my soul sooner than later, no matter how handy Soulless may prove to be. Sapphire and possibly Marie are the only people I know of that might be able to fix me, and I’m not confident in my ability to find the latter, given that I’ve never met her in person.
Locate Person advanced to level 6!
Your range is now 600 feet, and you can penetrate slightly greater psychic defenses.
The sun has noticeably shifted in the sky by the time I’ve traversed the entire radius of the city. I’m not tired, which I can thank Sapphire, Marie, and all the other researchers who worked to make me a body for, but I do think I’ve exhausted the search area.
I sigh. The half-elf is every bit as inscrutable as she is beautiful. She told me to find her in Ravendale. Hells, I even have an objective to find her. Despite that, I’ve scoured a huge chunk of the city and haven’t found her.
Either she’s hiding deep beneath the city or she’s choosing not to be found. Locate Person isn’t infallible—the wording of the level increase tells me that it can be defended against, and Saph is definitely powerful enough to block my skills.
With over half my magic depleted, I decide to make my way back to the Enchanted Rose. If I’m lucky, Sierra and Adrian will be there. If they’re not, then I’ll walk out into the city and get into some trouble. Even as I walk back, I can feel the shift in the atmosphere. People are getting restless, and I hear whispers passing from person to person. Rumors.
“…heard Rob say Ashton told him it was a spider,” one construction worker tells another, the pair of them on break leaning against a wall. He’s just loud enough for me to hear. “A big ol’ demon spider, escaped from one of them secret castle dungeons, you hear?”
I resist the urge to smile and carry on, sticking to the shadows. Staying cloaked will be more important now, I’m sure. Once Disguise Self comes off cooldown, I’m going to have to use it near-immediately. When word gets around that a pale red-eyed woman was the last person seen near the site of the Baron’s demise, it’s going to be nigh-impossible for me to show my face.
It might already be.
Pushing those thoughts aside, I slink my way back to the Enchanted Rose. My memory is perfect—I can identify where the window to the room we were staying in is. The guards here are competent, I’m sure but the buildings around it are significantly more lenient—lax enough, at the very least, that when I Stealth into the shadows and slip into the crack between buildings, the bored cashier at the general store next door doesn’t pay attention.
As soon as I’m sure I’m out of sight, I Bloodstep up the wall, clambering up to the partially-open window. I doubt anyone notices me, but if they do, I can trust Sierra to deal with them. She seems to value me in ways beyond what I can bring to the table as a fighter, which I can exploit.
My lines of thought grind to a halt as I reform, taking my humanoid form once more.
The room is pristine, everything in its place. Sierra’s wardrobe-armory closet has one door slightly ajar, and it reveals stacks of perfectly folded clothes and a rack of well-oiled blades.
Which makes it all the more disconcerting that both the Blue Mage and the Warrior lie unmoving on the ground, their open eyes glazed over. Blank, glossy black orbs stare up at nothing.
On instinct, I use Locate Person once more, and a location sears itself into my mind.
In front of me, appearing from thin air as if it was a door, a familiar white-haired half-elf daintily steps over my unconscious companions.
Objective updated: Find Sapphire in Ravendale [COMPLETE]
You have located Sapphire.
Reward: [ERROR] Severe soul damage detected. Adjusting compensation…
Reward: Soulknife (Bronze)
“Let us speak,” Sapphire says.
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