Disclaimer: This chapter gets super dark and violent in the same vein as GOT; violence, rape, cannibalism, slavery, gang rape, poisoning, treachery, subterfuge, necrophilia, mass murder, mayhem and some old fashioned Faustian pacts.
Chapter 29: Bandits
I woke up to a cold steel blade pressed against my neck, its sharp edge uncomfortably close to my carotid artery. What made it worse was that it was my blade, that I had left within easy reach the night before in case of wild monster attack.
I looked up to see a man that looked to be in his late thirties, dressed in loose fitting shirt and pants, all brown, even his boots to match the barren land around us. A quick [Identify] gave me this information.
Gyros Warrior: Level 40, Swordsman 20, Class?
Title: Bandit Leader
"Don't move." Gyros, the sword wielding bandit leader said, looming over me menacingly.
I glanced behind me, Kered's naked body still pressed up against me. There was another bandit behind him, kneeling down, with a dagger tip against the small of Kered's back, locking him in place, preventing Kered from escaping or resisting.
To make matters worse, it wasn't just the two of them, we were surrounded by bandits, at least a dozen of them, armed with various weapons, all of them dressed in varying shades of brown and greeen, they wouldn't look out of place in the slums. I noted three of them with ranged weapons pointed towards us in case of resistance.
Some of them were clustered around Penrith, my recently purchased horse, blocking our potential escape.
We were truly fucked; naked, unarmed and surrounded by bandits.
"Don't kill us." I pleaded as Kered remained silent.
"And waste such a perfect prize, it's rare to find a couple of young men so slim and supple and so broken in and you came with your own horse. I could barely believe it when I got word that a couple of horny cock suckers were heading my way with a horse. A thief and an alchemist venturing alone when there are dangerous bandits afoot. I don't know if you're brave or just dumb." He slid the tip of the blade down, over my neck and leaving a shallow cut from my neck to the middle of my chest.
I let out a brief "uh". It hurt as it sliced through skin but the open wound stung and itched and yet...
"Well that's something I don't see very often. I think we've found a very interesting prize today. A glutton for pain." His eyes glanced over my naked body, lingering on my very hard cock. What can I say, Furtado is fucked up bitch. "I think he's going to sell well. He'll make an excellent pleasure slave. Don't you think men?"
They laughed viciously. A cruel mocking laughter. The sound echoed in my ears and sent a shiver down my spine and yet...
My heart beat increased, my throat tightening up as I thought about how close I was to death. I could feel Kered trembling wordlessly behind me. I pressed myself closer to his body, taking comfort in his warm naked body close to mine.
I could feel him hardening up against me as fear and lust competed against each other within him. His grip tightened on my thigh as I backed my ass up onto his hard cock. He slid inside easily. He had fucked me to sleep the night before, we had gotten a little carried away last night forgetting entirely about the threat of bandits as Kered had attempted to distract himself from the pain of riding and I tried to distract myself from the thoughts of Felix and another world. My hole opened up for him again, squeezing him tightly, if we were to die, we'd die happy...
The bandit leader laughed. "Looks like they need a real man's cock in them. How about we help them out?"
They laughed and shouted their agreement gleefully.
The second in command pushed his cock into Kered's backside, kneeling there with knife in one hand while holding Kered's hip with the other. "Slides in easy boys, going to be a good night tonight."
The other men, whooped and hollered as they cheered their sub commander as he fucked Kered's butt.
Gyros held his blade to my throat as he said "Bite or use your teeth in any way on my cock and lose your head."
Of course I wouldn't do anything against the 9 inch cock that pushed into my throat. Cocks were sacred, they were the staffs of creation, they were life itself.
The noise of the cheers served as background noise as I closed my eyes and pretended everything was fine and normal and that it was just another day with a hard cock in my mouth and butt.
I lost myself to pleasure as Kered fucked me while the commander fucked my face with increasing violence. It paled in comparison's to Arnie's meat-tenderising face fuck but it was suitably domineering enough to get me thoroughly horny.
Once he came down my throat, I felt a heady rush of warmth and got another notification [Tireless has been absorbed] [Tireless: Reduced stamina costs for feats and skills, 20% per milestone]
A welcome addition to my collection, stamina was of great concern to me, one of the reasons I chose an indoor & low activity Class like Alchemist.
"Can we have a shot boss?" One of the other bandits asked as Gyro's pulled his hard saliva coated cock out of my mouth.
"You can work them over as much as you like back at base. Till then, I'll take this one and the horse." Gyros said.
There was some mumbled grumbling as I was dragged over the bandit leader's shoulder and carried over to Penrith.
Kered was picked up by a couple of the men and carried along between them like a sack of potatoes. All the time leaking cum from his recently ravaged backside. The sub commander had already fastened his pants and looked quite pleased with himself.
As for me I was put on the back of Penrith and I whispered to him "Calm, settle down." Penrith resisted my mental prompting, his fear of all the men with weapons stronger than my amateurish attempts at controlling the beast. The extra weight on his back probably didn't help matters, Gyros was far bulkier and heavier than Kered.
Penrith was surrounded by armed bandits, keeping a careful watch on the agitated horse and me. The Bandit leader Gyros got up behind me and pressed himself against me. He was hard all over, I could feel the heat of his erection against my bare flesh. He pressed one hand on my chest keeping me in place while still holding onto my sword while his legs clamped onto Penrith's back. His skill and the ease of his actions, spoke of long experience on horse back and yet by his actions, it was unlikely he was a knight.
It didn't take more than a minute for him to get his cock back inside me, this time inside my butt, his cock felt good but the horse beneath me felt good too as I ground my hard cock against it's back, warm and soft and firm and solid and Gyros kept fucking me. Anything to distract myself from the increasingly bad situation. Sex had become the only form of protection against fear, worry and a multitude of emotions running through me.
He spurred the horse onwards, with a kick of his foot and he steered the horse by pressing on one side, all the while still fucking me, the steady canter of Penrith and Gyro's cock made it hard to pay too much attention to the scenery as we rode the horse towards a recessed canyon.
About twenty minutes later we stopped at a patch of land with overgrown plants near a rivulet. It looked like many other places in the area, dirt and worthless plants everywhere, nothing of any particular note, rocks, dirt and plants and yet we had stopped there.
One of the bandits pushed aside some foliage around one of the larger rocks (shoulder height) to reveal an opening about chest high into a dark twisting underground passage. I couldn't see that far into the hole but I could sense more people beneath my feet if I focused.
"Come on boys, the sooner we're home, the sooner we get to play with our new toys without worries." Gyros said.
"You've already taken a shot at his mouth and ass, I wanna go." Another bandit with a sword pleading rubbing at his obvious bulge while looking at me with longing as I rode the man riding the horse, just because we stopped didn't mean I had to stop riding Gyro's hard cock. Maybe if I made Gyros happy enough he'd let us go?
"Well have at him." He threw me onto the ground and two men descended on me, revealing hard pricks that they jammed into both holes.
Kered got the same treatment, he struggled more than I did, not that it helped him as he just got cuffed over the head by one impatient bandit who shoved his hard cock in Kered's mouth, while holding a knife to his throat.
Three new bandits showed up, one of whom was dressed in a Mage's robe to find out what was up with all the noise outside their secret entrance only to find four bandits with their pants down, ramming their dicks into us from both ends while several other members of our bandit escort had their cocks in hand waiting impatiently for their own turns at us. They were crowded around us, shouting at the ones inside us to fuck us harder, faster so they could get off too.
"We brought home some serious bounty this time, the horse alone will get us a small fortune, for these two horny lads, we'll get even more. Some of those nobles have such weird tastes, that boy loves it rough, he might even enjoy it. Not sure about the other one though. Not that it matters." The bandit leader said to the man dressed like a Mage.
I used [Identify] on him.
Mage Level 20 Water Mage level 10.
The Bandit leader was a level 40 Warrior.
The men surrounding us ranged from level 10 to level 30. That was only including their main class, their total levels could be much higher. Some of them, I could see their main class, while others I could see their main and a subclass. I didn't usually have much need for [Identify] most of the time, so I didn't really understand the logic behind it. Either way, the results weren't good, we were outnumbered, out levelled and fucked.
So fucked.
Speaking of being fucked, I was being seriously hammered from behind by one bandit and he was squealing like a stuck pig. A moment later a rush of liquid pumped into my backside along a rush of warmth, signalling the absorption of a portion of his life force.
That was now my only weapon, I had to fuck them into complacency and unconsciousness then we could run away...
He was quickly replaced by another horny bandit, who shoved his stiff cock into my wet hole. Another two bandits dropped their pants and took up positions on either side and my hands went to work on them.
I couldn't see Kered any more but judging by the heavy breathing, rhythmic pounding and grunting, I assumed that he was still getting fucked.
Every time one of them cum, they added their life force to mine and made me stronger.
I channelled my rage at being captured deeper, focusing solely on my desire to take more from them and turn it into strength.
After several more of the bandits took their turns on me, we were carried deeper inside, into a large cavern with even more men. Whereas before there were the dozen men we came with plus the three that showed up to investigate the noise, now we were in a cavern with about fifty men in it. That didn't include the two guys that had already cum in me and had been assigned as sentries and to look after the horse outside.
The new guys were eager to get into the action and we were thrown to the proverbial pack of wolves to continue on with what happened above ground. Namely getting `broken in'.
All I could see on my hands and knees were hard cocks and hairy legs as they surrounded and sodomised me. As the minutes and the hours went by I got glimpses of Kered, he was not holding up as well as me.
After a few hours, he passed out and yet they continued to use him to get off.
It enraged me but there was little I could do to stop them, surrounded as I was, I was not built or trained for combating multiple opponents unarmed. My skills and abilities were of little value in a direct fight.
Still they weren't worthless, I used [Demonic Whisper] every time my mouth was empty to moan "Fuck me, fuck me". While they fucked my mouth I hummed out a weak [Siren's Call] trying to drive them to thoughtless lust in my direction so they'd leave Kered alone. There were simply too many of them, they got bored waiting and continued using Kered, until he was left too bloody to use any more.
Not because they cared that they left him bleeding but because they didn't like blood on their dicks. They even had the gall to have me clean their dicks of his blood with my mouth. Kered's blood awoke the demon within me. I wanted to kill them, rip them limb from limb but I couldn't show it, I had to bury it within me to feed the fire within my soul. I had to play my part, act like a horny slut, it wasn't difficult, it was a role I was born to play after all. I poured my rage and helplessness and mana into myself, making my bones tougher, subtly adding mass to my arms and legs.
It wasn't a quick process.
Hours and hours went by as they took turns using and abusing me. The sex had long stopped being entertaining and had simply become a tiresome thing to endure. Their goal wasn't to fuck me and get off, their goal was to hurt me with their hands and their cocks and enjoy my suffering. I could taste their desires in the air and in my veins and on my body. Their satisfaction seemed to come mostly from inflicting marks upon my flesh, striking me as they shoved their cocks into me with greater frenzy. They were wild dogs, worse, goblins, piling on and gang raping my body. Their cruel laughter as they casually tortured us with their hard cocks infuriated me, the fact that the ones not involved were watching, waiting or eating didn't help my frustration at all.
I disconnected from my flesh, diving into my mind to distract from what was happening to my body. I made use of the time to customise my system to distract myself from frustration, fear and fury.
I modified the display settings so that I had a more accurate and useful representation of the difference of my stats post Dungeon Paul.
I changed vitality to constitution, stamina to endurance, added agility to the list and had my status show health, mana and mana regeneration, along with my various magical affinities.
Previous attributes as a level 10 Alchemist;
Strength: 12, Vitality: 30, Dexterity: 22, Stamina: 16, Charisma: 8, Intelligence: 30, Wisdom: 11, Luck: 6.
Current attributes as a level 16 Demonic+Alchemist
Strength: 17, Constitution: 20 Dexterity 33, Agility 16, Endurance: 13, Charisma: 13, Intelligence: 41, Wisdom 11, Luck: 6.
Health: 130 Health regeneration 1.3 health a minute(multiplied by Rapid Regeneration to 3.9) Mana: 4100. Mana Regeneration: 11 per minute. Magical affinities: Fire, Water & Mind The God of Order tended to default each individual's settings to those of their parents or guardians, where different it would align to that of the highest levelled parent or Guardian. Prevailing theories postulated it was so that your parents or guardian would have an easier time of leading if your baseline didn't vary much from theirs. Or at least that's one of the theories written in one of Maximus Bellos books.
Dad as my last surviving `parent or guardian' (unclear which) as a Warrior had his own set up tuned for a Warrior that didn't care too much for magical affinities or health notifications.
Sadly my fiddling around with the settings in my head/soul didn't take up nearly enough time or distract from the situation for long.
Kered remained limp as a rag doll on the cold stone floor yards away.
There was about fifty of the bastards and they treated us like toys, casually using and discarding us during their day without any regard for our well being. They didn't even feed us.
During the night, the following day and into the late hours of the next night, I served as the bandit's cum dump.
They just kept fucking me with one horny fucker after another coming to use me for their own sick satisfaction. There was barely a gap between them, the only peace I got lasted only seconds when one pulled out and there was a brief pause until another took his place. Even that was rare as events progressed rapidly out of control, with them double teaming my mouth and ass.
My mouth stretched to accommodate, which seemed to escalate their need to make use of my mouth for their pleasure. As for my ass, for several hours Gyros remained beneath me, with his cock up my ass, making me ride his cock over and over again as other bandits drove in and out of me too.
I was a filthy mess after thirty or more hours on the ground getting fucked over and over again.
Covered in dirt and drying cum but it hadn't been all in vain.
After that many hours, I had drained all of them of their loads and life force and while it was more useful when they came inside me as it drained them and fuelled me. It still lowered their stamina when they sprayed their seed on my back, face or backside.
My hours swallowing and getting pounded led me to gaining multiple traits and improving other abilities.
I had gained water affinity, [Ambidexterity] and [Arcane sight]. My Ability [Hawk Eye] and [Rapid Regeneration] also improved through near constant use. [Hawk Eye] improved as my eyes struggled to adjust to the low light of the fucking cave system. Rapid Regeneration improved from the constant and brutal manhandling I was subjected to.
I was surrounded by unconscious bandits, they had fucked themselves into oblivion. Lured in by a combination of [Sweet damnation], [Siren call] and [Demonic Whisper] into fucking me till they were too tired to move.
The primary attribute that my sexual based energy drain targets first is stamina, then mana, then health... though often it took a little bit of all of it, demonic abilities were erratic and unpredictable like that. Prolonged exposure can be deadly. A single session is thoroughly enjoyable and quite addictive but repeated engagements with little rest and no restraint on my part on the energy drain while not deadly it was definitely draining.
The bandit chief was under me, completely naked, stiff as a board, even without any stamina, his cock was still hard enough to ride and ride I did.
He had been the last to fall asleep, the others exhausting themselves hours before.
There were a few sentries outside but they were a problem for later.
I did the thing that I had been avoiding for my entire life, assigning free stat points to my attributes. It was something that you were supposed to do only if your life was in immediate danger and it would help or when you chose your life path at your `prime' (typically around 18-25 when reaching full physical maturity). Or you were simply too poor to afford to wait (like Kered and many others).
I had forty eight free stat points from my life time of levelling. Assigning free stats from level ups was considered a bad idea as it would reduce your ability to gain stats naturally from working out. After you hit the age of twenty five it was considered pointless to hold onto free stats as it was highly unlikely you'd get any more stats from your efforts unless you undertake truly extreme measures.
I pumped sixteen points into strength, sixteen into intelligence and sixteen into wisdom.
My new stats increased to
Strength: 33, Constitution: 20 Dexterity 33, Agility 16 Endurance: 13, Charisma: 13, Intelligence: 57, Wisdom 27, Luck: 6.
The massive boost to my stats made me feel much stronger and my thoughts clearer and sharper. My mana pool & mana regeneration increased in response to the greater intelligence and wisdom. Spell casting would be a lot easier.
I placed my right hand over Gyro's mouth and my left around his neck and while I rode his cock, I stole his life...
I cranked up [Energy Drain] to max and pulled on his everything, acquiring a new specialisation [Soul Drain]. As he slept, memories of his dishonourable discharge flooded through me, he had been caught raping a mother and daughter during a military campaign, along with a handful of like minded buddies. Instead of sticking around for more serious punishment than a mere discharge they went on a rampage of looting through war torn lands, taking whatever they wanted and collecting useful idiots along the way until they ended up here, fucking me and my friend up.
He woke mid way through but he was already too weak to resist me as I pushed down with my entire weight as I continued riding his stiff prick. Between drowsiness, pleasure and an inferior position, he found it hard to concentrate his remaining strength into a meaningful resistance. My use of [Dispropotionate Strength] along with my increased Strength stats made it even easier to hold him down.
I watched his face pale and fade as he struggled and kicked futilely as he died. Watching him die filled me with a dark satisfaction and I unleashed a day's worth of pent up cum onto his stomach. His death was intensely pleasurable as the level ups jolted through me.
I eased myself up slowly, my joints stiff from being stuck in the same position for over a day. My knees were red from kneeling on the ground for so long. Bruises decorated the length and breadth of my body.
I was so hungry, ravenous in fact, I hadn't had anything to eat other than cum for over a day and I had been channelling my mana into strengthening my bones, muscles and tendons for the entire time. All of which burnt energy.
All I wanted to do was eat then sleep. I looked over his naked body, while he had been a terrible person, he had a nice thick cock and a muscular body. His cock was still hard even after death. He looked delicious.
I didn't know where proper food was hidden and I didn't want to wander the dark tunnels alone to look for it when there was meat on the ground to be devoured. There was no telling how long they'd be asleep for.
I pounced on the former Gyros and tore out his neck with my teeth, feasting on the fresh blood and meat. He tasted foul. I spat him out, I needed fresher meat to fuel my transformation.
I had received multiple notifications during his death that I had ignored but looked through now that the moment was over.
I had a new Class available and a new Title.
Magical Assassin and the title Man Eater.
[Man Eater: Resorting to cannibalism after a mere day without food, you've proven yourself more beast than man. Deal double damage when unarmed.]
I also gained five levels from killing a man at least 30 levels higher than me. I felt like there was something bubbling up from beneath, inside of me, ready to come out and drown this world in blood and pain. My urges are inherently demonic and tend towards violence and insanity. Usually it's not that hard to resist the worst of the impulses when I feed it by having lots of sex but there was something dark that had come to the surface that would not subside so easily.
I needed fresher meat and there was plenty around. I picked up a sword and searched out for the Water Mage. From the conversations I had overheard during my day long fucking marathon, he was responsible for using water magic, specifically scrying magic to find us. He needed to be killed, to make sure we could escape without being chased down and recaptured/killed.
I picked Magical Assassin as my new class, it was an advanced class and a rare variation on the assassin class. It came with stat boosts to Strength, Agility, Dexterity and Intelligence with each level. The Class gained extra experience for every death caused by magical means, at least according to the description. It had a useful mix of useful Perks, Skills and Stat gains. It seemed like the natural choice considering the nature of an incubi. No use fighting my nature any longer. Surrendering to the demon within was the easiest option.
I picked [Shadow Blade] as my Skill and [Critical Strike] as my Perk. [Shadow Blade] infused darkness into a blade, allowing it to be more easily hidden in the dark and adding a little darkness damage to a strike. [Critical strike], inflicted extra damage when striking a vital spot.
I picked up a discarded sword, the bandits had long stopped worrying about me fighting back, lulled into a false sense of security by my active participation and submission to their lusts and sadism. The bandits lay about the ground in varying levels of nudity, a lot of them not bothering to put clothes back on after fucking me. Kered remained unconscious and limp from the constant abuse on the floor.
The Mage had re-clothed himself in his mage robe before passing out on the ground, his 7 inch dick had been bland but I had appreciated his gift of water affinity.
I used [Shadow Blade] & [Infusion] on my borrowed blade to increase it's damage output and stabbed him in the heart and he died with a whimper. [Disproportionate Strength] & [Critical Strike] helping to make the attack fatal. Mages had notoriously low health in exchange for their powerful magics.
Some Mages chose Warrior as a sub class to offset that obvious weakness. Most did not, choosing to dig deeper into the Mage path to make the most of their magic and rely on other methods to cover that failing. Methods varied from using [Mana shield] to counter magical or physical attacks. Others relied on healing magic to recover health faster or used magic to summon defenders or their wealth to hire Warrior escorts or pay for custom golem bodyguards to protect them.
This one had chosen Mage as his main class, followed by Water Mage the advanced specialised Class after that... He hadn't gotten that far along that path before I ended him.
I carved out his damaged Mana Heart and ate it. It tasted fruity, it was an interesting taste, very refreshing, helping to recover my mana somewhat.
I was still hungry, I had improved my insides to improve my natural defences but I needed MORE to be truly powerful. Dungeon Paul had started the process but only I could really optimise myself for combat.
I lengthened and strengthened my teeth and claws as I continued tearing into the Mage's body. He had voided himself making a mess of his lower half and I lost interest in him as a meal. My mana was flowing through my veins rapidly thanks to the increase of mana regeneration from my boosted stats and the meal of a Mage's heart.
I needed to be faster and stronger, some of the bandits were making noises in their sleep, rousing from their slumber as the reek of blood and shit spread slowly through the air.
I grabbed another sword and stabbed with both swords into my next target, one of the handful of archers in the bandit horde. One sword cut through the neck while the other pierced through the heart for an instant fatality. I pulled out the sword in his heart and used it to chop off his arm and nibbled on it. They weren't human to me any more, just fuel for the fire.
I ate my meal quickly as I walked over to my next victim and bashed him in the head with the severed and chewed on arm bone (humerus). It wasn't very effective and the man opened his eyes blearily at the repeated strikes.
I discarded the bone, it was a useless weapon, instead I used my bare hand to wrap around the next man's throat and leech the life from him with [Energy Drain]. I used the extra life energy to fuel my transformation from an object of lust to a weapon of horror.
One after another I eliminated the bandits that posed the greatest threats to Kered and me. Mostly the archers and the high levelled bandits, making the most of the time I had, to capitalise on their sleep to kill them. I fell into a rhythm of slaughter, stab one, bite one, drain one.
The stabbing helps to increase my levels as a Magical Assassin as I use [Shadow Blade] & [Critical Strike] to kill those with arguably higher levels and stats than me. The deaths caused by my sharpened teeth provides fuel for the fire within, to reshape my body, granting little experience to either Class but helping to reforge my body into a weapon. The iron in their blood flowing into and onto my bones to make me more durable and their flesh feeding my growth. The kills from the demon's touch grants me their essence, the mana trapped within their body and soul, helping to recover the high mana costs of constantly using [ShapeShifting] & [Shadow Blade].
More and more bandits were rousing from their slumber, it would have been easier if they weren't all sleeping in one large chamber and I could just kill them without the sounds and smells waking the others up. Then again their deaths were coming faster and faster as I moved faster and faster, making the use of my increased stats gained from my new subclass to kill even faster.
I only needed to stab them with a shadow infused blade once in the heart and they ceased breathing.
The additional levels to Alchemist, increased the accuracy of my strikes and the levels to Magical Assassin increased the effectiveness of my murder spree.
Before I even knew it I had killed twenty out of the fifty bandits and I had reached level 20 as an Alchemist and level 19 as a Magical Assassin. My stats had grown a lot from my little murder feast raised to; Strength: 52, Constitution: 20 Dexterity 52, Agility: 35, Endurance: 13, Charisma: 13, Intelligence: 57, Wisdom 27, Luck: 6.
I picked a second free skill and perk, [Stealth] and [Born to the shadows]. [Stealth], a fairly obvious Skill, granting an awareness of how to evade detection and [Born to the Shadows], provided multiple bonuses, reduction of cost to shadow magic, increased dark vision and a minor boost to stealth in darkness.
I needed another 5 levels to Alchemist to get another milestone perk and skill from that Class and 6 more levels to get more from Magical Assassin. Not even factoring the sub class restrictions involved.
There was a bigger problem namely that the remaining bandits had gathered together for safety, arming themselves so that the monster I had become couldn't kill and eat them. They were holding back for the moment, time was on their side after all, the longer they waited, the better prepared they would be, as the effects of lost stamina, interrupted sleep and fear faded.
As for me, I hovered near a barely conscious Kered, armed with three blades. I had become a living weapon, a monster, a demon from the bowels of the abyss, I had become truly monstrous; mind, body and soul. I had reshaped my body for maximum damage output, my fingernails had been lengthened and toughened into vicious claws, my eyes glowed faintly blue with arcane sight, I had grown a dexterous tail that had a pointed tip which could and did wrap around a sword hilt. I smelled awful, stewed in day old cum, fresh and drying blood and sweat. I had reinforced my ribs with iron, the iron coming from a mixture of iron cultivation and cannibalism.
The truth was simply that I would do anything to survive, regardless of what that was.
I kicked Kered in the ribs roughly, I didn't have the time for him to rouse out of his stupor on his own time, he needed to be up and helping immediately.
"Wake up."
"Wake up" I whispered more urgently using [Demonic whisper] and I got something odd back. Whispering into Kered's mind leaves an impression of emptiness, of Kered curled up into a ball onto the floor.
My demonic nature is more instinctual than rational and linear, unlike my more `normal' Skills and abilities, it doesn't level up so much as become more natural and easier. It's hard to explain.
Kered jolts into a more seated position but he kind of just stares at me blankly, not with fear or recognition for my new form but a disquieting emptiness.
I just don't have the time to coddle him, so I kick him again, this time in the legs, "follow me" I commanded using [Commanding Voice], dominating his weak fragile mind. I don't have the time to worry about his mental stability right now, I could be re-spawned in a lesser form, he would not, his life is a higher priority than mine and I could not let anything get in the way even Kered himself.
He follows me into the darkness and twisting tunnels wordlessly, silently, like my shadow, old instincts doing the job where intellect failed.
There's a shout from behind as the bandits gather themselves to chase and attack us. Our retreat had emboldened them. Previously my slaughter of their leader and the strongest members of their cohort had frightened them but seeing us run away from them had made them think they had the upper hand.
They did, sort of... but that wouldn't help them in the long run.
I led the way through winding twisting tunnels, the whole place was a labyrinthine nightmare, probably made that way by the bandits so that they could easily elude pursuers if they found their base. Instead it was being used by us to escape them. The upside was that if I didn't know where I was going, they would be unlikely to find us. The downside was that I didn't have my compass and there was a high probability of getting lost down there.
I handed Kered one of my swords, having to command him to take it. His blankness was getting on my nerves. I needed help and he was not really there, mentally, retreating inside his own head and leaving me to pick up the pieces. It was seriously unhelpful.
While I waited for a target to appear, I whispered into his ear and got the sense of my words echoing in a large empty room.
I kept it simple. I'll be bait, he attack from behind, like with the bunnies. He nodded and I thought I saw a hint of him there but I didn't have the time to follow that thread and see if I could pull him out as the sound of footsteps got louder.
I raced forward a dozen steps into the darkness and sang "The wolf may howl, the lamb may bleat but the farmer shall win the day, with hook or crook he'll gut the bastard and roast it's entrails for chicken feed."
Minos had some interesting songs to share, the combination of Siren's Call and my loud singing voice echoing off the walls distracted the five bandits that showed up for long enough that Kered could sneak up behind them without notice.
"Not so dangerous when your back is up against the wall are you?" A bandit said brandishing his sword in front of him angrily, he was fully dressed.
Before I could comment, Kered had made use of my distraction to stab one of the bastards in the back using [Backstab], the assassin skill, taking him out of the fight leaving us with four more to deal with.
"What?" One of the bandits shouted before I surged forth and stabbed him in the back while he was looking behind him to find out who had stabbed his buddy in the back. It was a fatal mistake as [Infusion], [Critical Strike], [Back Stab], [Shadow Blade] all worked together to pierce through his back and into his heart to kill him with a single stab. Three to go.
While I was pulling out the sword from his chest, another bandit sliced at me, my heightened reflexes allowed me to dodge the worst of it but I still ended up with a nasty gash on my back. It wouldn't kill me, but it would slow me down a little.
As for Kered he was waving his sword wildly while yelling incoherently all "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" at the two bandits focused on him.
The third bandit was trying to finish the job and kill me. I ducked his horizontal strike and disembowelled him. A frankly disgusting effort but it drew attention away from Kered for a moment so that I could pounce on the back of another bandit and bite him on the neck. His scream of pain as I ripped out his throat was so entertaining, so much richer and more exciting than than the gurgled gasping dying grunt and groans of the meals previously. It made for an interesting counter point to my memories of his moans as he slapped my face and fucked it, or when he'd spank my ass as he fucked it... He had a thick cock, the size of my wrist and he had used it with malicious intent, it made him memorable where the others blurred into a frenzied mob of horny and hard pricks.
The last remaining able bodied bandit facing off against Kered, chose that moment to run straight past Kered, knocking him down. I guess he didn't want to try and face the both of us alone. No idea why.
I finished off my latest victim, wrapping my legs around his waist tightly as I drew my blade across his throat, ending his life quickly instead of watching him bleed out as he tried to buck me off. As I rode his dying body to the ground, I wiped off the gore from my face.
I moved over to the disemboweled guy on the ground who was still alive and trying to shove his entrails back into his body frantically. I placed my hand on the back of his neck and drained the last bits of mana out of his body to repair my wounds. I needed every advantage I could get, killing twenty people when they're mostly naked and asleep isn't that difficult, killing twenty five when they're awake, armed and out for your head is a lot harder.
I sidled up to Kered and whispered into his ear "help me kill them all" using [Commanding Voice] and he nodded. Normally controlling someone's mind is difficult but when they're not aware and it's not opposed to their core values then it's like pushing someone into eating cake when they're on a diet. All that's needed is a little push and they crumble.
I used [Identify] and Kered's status showed up as Level 16 Thief, Level 15 Assassin.
He gained more experience from a single murder than I had with the last five, then again alchemy isn't really oriented around combat as it is around crafting. I also had a ten percent drain on my experience gain as a contracted monster. Assassin is considered a relatively basic class so it levels faster than my advanced class, still annoying.
Magical assassin while giving more stats per level had more involved levelling requirements, that last battle didn't use enough Magic to gain full amounts of Class experience.
I had only gained a single level to my Alchemist and Magical Assassin class. As my second class, I couldn't level my magical Assassin class more than my alchemist class. The nature of levelling was weird, with very odd rules, sub-classes couldn't exceed main classes and the requirements for levelling varied drastically between Classes.
Combat experience still was applicable to any class but it was more useful for those of the martial classes, warriors and the like.
It was frustrating to say the least, I needed to find my bag, then I could make use of my own potions in order to speed up the levelling process, especially if I could infuse my potions with some shadows or even some poisonous mushrooms. There were some growing freely along the walls of the tunnel.
Even knowing they were poisonous, I still wanted to eat them. So I did. I grabbed one and nibbled on it. It burned a little on the way down. I was still hungry and human flesh while filling was becoming repetitive. Something I never thought I'd think before this cluster fuck of a situation.
"Loot them for their clothes, strip them naked." I whispered to Kered. Kered was a professional looter after all, even if his mind was gone.
It might take them anywhere from minutes to hours to find our trail and it'd be best to make the most of the time to cover our naked bodies.
I took the shirt and pants of the guy that Kered stabbed, a level 20 bastard if I remembered correctly. He was broad shouldered and quite muscular, with a thick cock, it was a shame he had a face as ugly as sin, bulbous nose, too wide face, a mouth that smelled almost as bad as the sewers, I suspected that he had some kind of infection of the mouth. His clothes better fitted the body I now had, which was more like Badrick's body, large and muscular, though still retaining some of my original wiriness. I hadn't enough food or mana for a full transformation.
My cock throbbed, I was tempted to drive my stiff prick into one of their assholes but despite my hard cock, I was kind of disgusted with sex. They had ruined it, I felt dirty inside and out from them and even though I had the urge to defile the corpses of my enemies with my hard cock up their asses, I couldn't be bothered following through with it. Riding Gyro's cock as he died to orgasm was already more than fucked up enough.
Kered looked better with clothes on, now I didn't have to look at his bloody red knees and all his bruises and remember that I had been too careless with our lives and hadn't been able to protect him or my new horse from bandits.
I had used the other clothes looted from the dead bodies to scrape off the filth off my body before putting on my new clothes. It still wasn't great as it was still stained with blood and my tail chafed at it's new cage.
I ended up ripping a hole in the seat of my pants so that my tail could wag free. I picked up another weapon along with a spare for Kered.
We left that place, the reek of death soaking the area, with the smell of piss, shit and decay.
We kept walking for what felt like hours but was probably only ten to twenty minutes. Time loses meaning when you're underground and you have no idea where you're going and you're just aimlessly wandering through tunnels while anxiously on alert for people that want to kill you.
After the interminable walk we find ourselves in a largish open chamber with twenty mental cages, all of them occupied.
The prisoners, shrieked, cried, whimpered and shouted in a cacophony of noise. Well that screws up the element of surprise somewhat. "SHUT UP!" I shouted at them, triggering a new notification.
[You have moved from whispering damnation into the ears of the gullible to demanding the submission of the weak. Congratulations, you're one step closer to becoming a Demon Lord.] [You've gained the Skill - Demonic Command]
I got the feeling that the God of Order/system was mocking me but at this point I'd take anything that would help my survival.
[Demonic Command – Command those with weaker wills and minds to obey your orders.*]
There was an asterix as always with my demonic abilities. The catch was that I had to be a higher level than the target, with higher mental stats than them and they had to be amenable to the command.
Still they had turned quiet for the moment, my new demonic like form probably wasn't engendering much trust in my new acquaintances. It probably didn't help that my skin was leathery, my face and body reeking of blood, sweat and cum.
"You. Do you know the way out?" I asked
"Yes. Please don't kill me, I'll do whatever you want." The trapped man pleaded.
I smiled evilly, I did need more minions and a vanguard would be very useful as Felix wasn't nearby or available.
"Would you swear to that?" I asked.
"Yes, I'll do anything, just free me and I'll pledge myself body and soul to you."
"What weapon do you wield?"
"The sword."
I passed him a sword, "Take this, cut yourself and swear that you'll be mine and do whatever I say."
He did so. "I pledge my fealty to you forever in exchange for my freedom."
A new notification appeared.
[You've struck a devilish bargain, exchanging the illusion of freedom in exchange for eternal slavery, congratulations on bedevilling your first minion.]
[Devil's pact: using the invocation of blood and an oath of fealty, you can bind those willing to serve you.]
A moment later I felt an unnatural compulsion to honour my side of the deal. Devils may be evil, but they honour their words to the letter if not the spirit.
I stabbed the point of my sword into the lock hole and levered upwards, using the full power of my strength to put excessive pressure on the lock.
It snapped open with a groan of metal.
He was naked except for his soiled undergarments. "Thank you so much for freeing me, what about the others?"
We didn't have much time, I could already sense the energy of my enemies approach. "Later, they're coming, assign any free attributes to strength and constitution and pick swordsman as your secondary class."
He opened his mouth to protest but the combination of our new pact silenced him, his eyes opened in shock as he realised what it meant to pledge your body and soul to a demon. He didn't have too much time to pity his choices as six fresh bandits, fully dressed and armed arrived then brandishing swords, one of them even carried a cross bow in his offhand.
I quickly identified him as a level 20 Warrior, Swordsman. He didn't have any perks or skills from the archer class but anyone could use a crossbow. I pounced on him as my main target. "KILL them." I shouted and it caused a moment of shock and confusion within the bandits ranks, just enough time for me to tear out the throat of the wannabe archer and for Kered and my new slave (Edward) to attack.
While I was busy with tearing out the throat of the amateur crossbowman, I got attacked from both sides by bandits armed with swords, slicing through the thin fabric of my stolen shirt and digging bloody furrows into my back. The pain enraged and excited me into further viciousness. I whipped out with my tail slicing into the leg of the bandit on my right while veering to the left to jump on the bandit on my left with both swords crossed to block his overhead strike. Then I was on him and using a triple shadow blade on his body, to stab him twice in the chest and once in the femoral artery (tail sword).
The other bandit limped over to attack but I merely slashed out with three swords into a whirling attack that sliced into him from multiple angles and led to me crashing into the tunnel wall face first. The iron reinforcement of my skull proving itself invaluable addition against bone headed stupidity. That move had been a little too ambitious, still I was quick to stand up and stretch and look over to see the result of the battle on the other two combatants.
It hadn't gone great. I had deep wounds on my back and a few shallow cuts on my arms and chest from the scuffle. As for Kered and Edward, Edward had been impaled on the enemy bandit's sword, a sword through his guts though he did manage to stab his enemy in the heart and Kered had his right arm nearly hacked off. He had a deep gash on his arm, where the sword had bit into his bone, sinking deep before being pulled out.
On the upside, they were alive and one of the bandits had helpfully brought along my spatial bag, so I could apply some potions to them. Presumably he had wanted to pilfer my stuff as soon as I was dead and the blood binding had broken on the bag. Kered had taken out two of them, while Edward had barely taken out one. Kered had gained another level to his Thief and Assassin classes while Edward had gained two levels to Warrior and Swordsman, making him a level 12 Warrior and a Level 3 Swordsman.
The battle had gained me another class option – Berserker, which I immediately dismissed from consideration. It had some useful Perks but the price was you had to take damage and there were a lot of blood lust perks, which exchanged intelligence for greater physical strength.
I ended up having to pour multiple potions down their throats, bandage them as best as I could considering the lack of relevant supplies.
I made similar bargains with half of the remaining prisoners, they were practically skin and bones, dressed only in soiled clothes. Half of them remained within their cages for the moment, their minds too out of reach for a deal to be reached, three of those women with haunted eyes. I couldn't force them into pledging their life away.
I gained another nine men on my side, all of them pledged to me. I had them collect the mushrooms and armed them with the recently dead bandit's weapons, allowing me to arm seven of them.
I gave the unarmed pair quickly stirred up bottles of poisons, reusing the emptied bottles of recovery potion I had fed to Ed and Kered, to make a deadly mushroom mixture.
I gave my new minions recovery and stamina potions to boost their health and used the food stored in my bag to feed them some monster meat to help them recover their power faster. It would take a little while to take effect.
I looked at Ed and Kered and neither were in the state to fight another battle any time soon.
I used [Identify] to determine the current levels and classes of my new fighting force and tasked them into acquiring new Classes and using up any free stats.
I took my own advice and poured my remaining free stats into constitution, raising it from 20 to 89. My stats were all over the place, a Class Scholar would cry about the waste of god given free stats but needs must when the devil drives. There was no point in optimising for a long term build when short term survival was not guaranteed.
My force looked a little better by the time the next wave of bandits arrived, this time there were only five of them but even with a numbers advantage we still lost a man and three others were critically wounded.
The simple fact was that the bandits were better fed and were more skilled in violence than my ragtag group of fighters.
Still the defeat of the latest bandit group had helped to increase my levels, albeit indirectly as I used my skills with alchemy to mix up more poisons and recovery potions.
I reached level 25 as an Alchemist and level 23 as a Magical Assassin.
I picked a third class, Mage.
I picked a third free Perk and Skill for my Alchemist Class, the Skill was [Extraction], the Perk was [Improvisation]. [Extraction] allowed me to use a low form of magic to extract specific ingredients from a substance, like ore from a rock or an active ingredient from a plant. [Improvisation] was a perk that allowed for substituted ingredients to be twice as effective as they normally would be.
For my Mage Skill I picked [Meditation] and the Perk I chose was [Mana Efficiency]. [Meditation] was a skill that allowed you to achieve a mental state where mana regeneration was twice as fast as normal at the cost of sitting still. It is said that if you reach enough Milestones as a Mage, you can Meditate on your feet and even while fighting. [Mana efficiency] was a perk that simply provided a ten percent bonus to all spells and magical abilities, allowing for it to cost less to activate/use.
The bandits didn't seem in a rush to attack us any more, they probably realised we outnumbered them. From my rough count, there were nineteen of us in total and only fourteen of them. Only five of us were in any shape to actually fight though, the others too wounded or broken to be of help. They could afford to wait us out, they had food and an arguably superior position to which to fortify themselves.
Then again I could simply have my new minions eat the dead, but they'd probably not enjoy that much and it wouldn't help much in the short term. Staying in this area was dangerous, they knew where we were while I only suspected that they were in the main chamber as it was the logical place for them to fortify to block our escape.
From what I remembered of the tunnels there wasn't enough space for us to spread out. The tunnels ranged in size from one man wide to two man wide, with only a few openings into larger areas.
I took a couple of minutes to make use of my new Skill Meditation and sunk into myself and became more aware of the mana around me, where before I simply passively absorbed mana over time, now I could focus my attention on it and increase my mana gain by double. I became an amorphous blob, with tentacles grabbing at mana, I became a black hole of need, drawing all the mana around us into me. Then there was a lack of available mana within range and I exited the state. From what I read, Meditation was supposed to be more spiritual and relaxing and yet I felt hungrier and more worked up than before. Maybe it was the situation, maybe it was just me.
So much still to do, time to make more use of the Mage Class in order to survive the gang of bandits. Magic inherently has an advantage over warriors, though it's easier to learn how to stab someone with something pointy than it is to learn how to channel the forces of creation to your will and use it to kill. Probably why there's so many more warriors than Mages around the Adventurer's Guild. Most Mages prefer to study in quiet and safety.
I looked through my Mother's Grimoire, I could have picked Sorcerer to improve my inbuilt magic but my natural Abilities would be little use in this situation. Seduction works far less well on those who are alert and have reason to fear or hate you like Felix and or the bandits did.
I found what I looked for, basic fire magic, [Spark], a low level fire spell, the very weakest of all fire spells, creating a single spark of flame upon a finger.
The grimoire had detailed instructions on proper breathing techniques and the necessary chants for each level of spell. Each spell having increasingly longer and more pretentious chants. It also detailed the costs associated with each spell.
Spell – Size of effect – mana cost with low fire affinity per second.
Spark - fingernail -1 mana per second Lesser flame – two finger joints – 10 mana per second Fireball – fist size – 100 mana per second
Fire blast – length of arm – 1000 mana per second Meteor – height of average human (5'6) – 10000 mana per second
Incantations
Spark: Spark of creation, heed my call, come to me, alight on my fingertip and burn. Lesser Flame: fire, most pure, obey my will and heed me, bring forth heat and light upon the palm of my hand and burn those that I strike, without burning me. Fireball: I call upon the powers of heat and flame, come to me, form a fist of fire upon my palm and heed my direction and my will and burst forth upon my enemies and scorch their tender flesh. Fire-blast: Fire I beckon thee, become the instrument of destruction to those who I deem worthy of contempt, use me as a conduit to your purifying flame and spring forth to incinerate those that do not embrace your glory. Meteor: earth I call to thee, rise up into a ball and spring forth into the air, be bathed in flame and fury and heed the call of your humble acolyte of the cleansing flames and bring utter devastation and ruin to those who would seek to bind you to the mundane tasks of heating their homes and lighting their way and forging their tools and unleash your purest rage upon this target. Heed me earth and fire, combine your might and bring upon the world a darkness they cannot escape.
It had several other spells like [Flame Shield], [Flame Wall], [Flame Wave] and [Flame whip] but I didn't really have the time to go into those.
The Grimoire went into the three stages of spell casting.
First stage is the chant, an exercise used to focus the mind on something simple and repetitive while channelling arcane forces through the body. (Entirely ridiculous and stupid.)
Second stage is the focus word/activation: eg a culmination of previous chanting directed into a single word that resonates with the caster, usually the name of the spell since it serves as a useful way of alerting allies to the spell you're going to cast so they can make sure to be out of the way of some of the more explosive and dangerous spells.
Third stage: Direct casting – simply designate a target in your mind and cast, no chants, no words, no pointing or gesturing, just thought, mana and will it to be.
Magic comes easily to me, though that might be because I was born a sorcerer and have been casting magic instinctively since birth, (even earlier than that perhaps, it's unclear).
My progression through the three stages of magic is simplified as well by my fire affinity, making fire magic inherently easier than if I didn't have the affinity.
Suffice to say, the combination of over a decade of instinctive casting, fire affinity, high intelligence and single minded practice and I progressed rapidly in fire magic. At least with the most basic of the spells available.
I learned how to cast [Spark] at will within half an hour.
I had tried on occasion throughout my childhood during long boring winters to channel fire using the grimoire before but I had never succeeded before. Probably because all my mana was being used to keep myself alive, the past is murky and best not explored.
I used my new spell to burn Edward and Kered, or more accurately cauterise their ghastly wounds, bandaging them up in the torn up clothes of filthy bandits was not ideal to prevent infection. This way, they'd have some nasty scars but they'd be less likely to bleed out or get a deadly infection, probably, my medical knowledge had a few holes in it thanks to the greedy Dungeon Paul.
It was very time consuming but their wounds were cauterised, I did have to gag the both of them to shut them up. It might have made the bandits more wary of what we were up to since fucking Edward had a surprisingly high pitched scream of agony and the sound carried through the echoing passageways.
I applied analgesics to the wounds and looked over my new minions.
Only five of which were fighting fit, which wasn't ideal and because of the greedy nature of Dungeon Paul, my skills at creating and commanding Golem fighters had dropped dramatically. Without Michael I could only create crude golem grenades that would only produce a stationary target. Golems work better on goblins who can't out think a road block rather than Bandits who would know better.
Ten of my potential minions were in a state similar to Kered, withdrawn so deep I could not help them with my whispers or commands into returning to the world. It might not have helped that I still reeked of blood shed. Still I made use of the time to have my fighting troops busy themselves by tearing up the shirts of our attackers and fashion them into new small clothes for the men and women. They did after all stink.
Vincent one of my new swordsmen, (swordsman is a super common class) was tasked as the leader of the defence. He was level 15 Warrior, level 5 Swordsman, he was a survivor of the second wave of attacks on this makeshift prison and seemed the most capable of the bunch. I'd leave him to try and cajole the other prisoners out of their stupors and into helping. He had a much more pleasing face after all. I suggested he had the others carry the bodies deeper into the tunnels to serve as early warnings of sorts and also help with the stench of decay.
While we were locked in this painful war of attrition, I could scout ahead and see about levelling up my Magical Assassin class some more. The battles recently hadn't been as useful for progressing Magical Assassin as I had been just stabbing people a lot. Not super useful to levelling up my secondary class.
At that point, Alchemist was 25, Magical assassin was 23 and Mage was level 2.
I only kept a single dagger and left behind several empty bottles behind so that the others could fill them with mushroom poison. It wasn't super effective, as it took time to take full effect but any advantage was worth pursuing.
As I travelled further into the tunnel, I collected more mushrooms and placed them into my mother's spatial bag. I kept all my senses including hearing, sight and energy perception on high alert in order to spot any potential scouts from the other side and I was rewarded for my efforts when I found one guy skulking towards us.
I drove my shadow blade into his skull, then I ate his heart, then I set him on fire and returned back to my makeshift base.
Another bandit dead was good news, as was the gain of a level to my Mage class. Nothing like using magic constantly under very stressful situations to advance the Mage Class. Each new level of the Mage class gave me an extra point of Wisdom & Intelligence and 3 more free points.
I returned to find my minions holding down a screaming guy, one of the broken who must have awoken out of his stupor into an even less helpful form of coping; screaming.
I had him gagged. I didn't have the patience to deal with the psychologically broken at that moment, I had a war of attrition to win, which was hard because my troops were hungry and thirsty and varying levels of traumatised.
I had a small canteen of water that was shared around the group. Unfortunately all the other supplies had been taken with Penrith along with the unbound spatial bag that Uffron provided me with. The simple fact was we couldn't last long without getting some more food and water but the bandits were in the way of that, so we were fucked.
We couldn't win in a confrontation with the rest of their group. For all I knew, they could be getting reinforcements elsewhere. Time was not on our side. We had to strike soon or lose all chance of escape and or survival. The problem was that most of my troops such as they were, were either injured, malnourished or unable to fight.
I couldn't rely on us winning a straight up defensive or offensive fight. It would have to be me using all my skills and abilities to sneak over and win the day or die trying. I just wasn't sure what I could do to tip the odds in our favour. So I tested out my new skills and abilities and came up with a potential method. I used [Extraction] to collect the purified version of the poison from the mushrooms that grew freely in the damp dark conditions and infused my mana into the resulting poisons to amplify its effects. I tested it on myself, using just a little on my hands and tongue, relying on my Resistance perk and poison resistance to keep me safe.
My eyes twitched, my throat closed, breathing became difficult for a couple of minutes and my heart beat erratically. That was with poison resistance, for those without it, their suffering should be quite intense.
A new class opened up; Poisoner, a sub branch of Alchemy. I ignored it as a poor candidate for an additional class. I wouldn't even be able to pick a new class until I was a level 50 Alchemist anyway, so it was irrelevant.
I also gained another useless title Self Medicator.
Self Medicator: You're a strange person, who uses potions and poisons to relieve the boredom of existence. 10% Increased effect to imbibed substances.
The effects of the poison faded after ten minutes as my body adjusted to the poison and developed a stronger resistance to the effects.
It would do.
I took my bag filled with enhanced mushroom poison and a shadow blade and with my free hand I practised [Spark]. On the way there it evolved into [Lesser Flame] as I pumped more and more mana into the Spark spell. It wasn't much of a spell, it would only cause a small burn on an enemy but it was still three times as powerful as [Spark].
I followed the sounds of shouting, they were arguing about the merits of storming our position and killing us all or just waiting it out until they got reinforcements from the Thief's guild in Derby.
The group had split up into two factions, around two new potential leaders. They both had the Title of bandit leader. I guess you just need five or more bandits to follow you to become a bandit leader. You learn something new and pointless every day.
Each leader had five men on their side, with only one arguing for unity in the middle...
Part of me was interested in watching the drama play out but the rest of me was hungry for something other than human hearts to gnaw on.
I used [Stealth] to sneak around behind the group that wanted to wait for reinforcements and or our eventual starvation and I threw my bottle of poison at the leader of the other group.
It threw them into chaos, with the aggressive group thinking this was a coup from the other side and the patient group denying responsibility.
I took advantage of the chaos to use [Shadow Blade] to reap the lives of two members of the patient side while the aggressive side used their last moments to attack their comrades in their death throes.
It was a blood bath, with both sides utterly dead. The aggressive bandits dead from the poison and or injuries sustained in their suicidal death charge and the patient ones dead by my hand or the weapons of their stupid cohorts.
I stood over the blood soaked battlefield for a moment too long admiring my victory. It was a costly mistake, as the now gaseous poison entered my blood stream and wreaked havoc on my insides. I spasmed on the ground as the poison spread and diffused through the tunnels.
After an hour of hellish torment as the poison worked to kill me while my body resisted the poison with everything it had.
I bled, I retched, I even shat myself.
It was not a feat of epic cunning. It would have been if I had simply thrown the bottles and raced back deeper into the tunnels before it could take effect on me but I had been too curious to see the results and I had paid for that curiosity.
Still whatever doesn't kill you, makes you a lot more tired.
The internal battle left me lying on the ground weak as a baby, so I used the rest of my strength to sing out to my forces...
"OH mighty day, of death and glory, I beckon thee, my troops, my glorious troops come to me."
I sang it with [Siren's call] and [Demonic Command] and with all the charm a twitching tired demi demon could muster.
My voice echoed off the tunnel walls seemingly forever and I passed out.
I awoke to find myself outside surrounded by my new Devil Pact bound minions, who were squabbling over the food they had taken from the bandit's camp. A couple of dead bandits nearby told the tale of the unlucky sentries. Still missing one if my count was right. Someone had taken the initiative to clean me up and get me fresh pants, probably from one of the naked bloodied sentries. I didn't ask about it, it was probably better not to ask about why that man had looked like a pin cushion.
On the upside, none of them had died from the poison, some had felt a little ill and thrown up, but they were so far away from the initial poison that they only got a heavily diffused dose of it.
"We need to leave now."
I had Kered and Edward ride Penrith at an amble, while the other wounded and walking wounded fended for themselves.
I used my compass to lead the way back to the Derby Adventurer's Guild.
On our way there we ran into a group of twenty Thieves. Their leader shouted "Halt there".
A quick Identify pointed him out as Regnauld, a Level 30 Thief, Level 10 Warrior, Title: King of Thieves.
"Hello, I'd like to inform you that the bandits are dead and you are now going to escort us back to town." I said, maybe a little crazy from all the stuff that had happened in the last few days/weeks.
"What are you?"
"I am death, the eater of human hearts and your new boss."
"We won't follow a demon and we outnumber you so don't think we're afraid of you." Regnauld said and yet he didn't move to attack, eyeing up our motley crew with curiosity and interest.
"Yeah so did the last group, they were better armed too, now we have all their stuff, do you really want to try your luck?"
"It'd cost you, for an escort."
"You think to-" I cut off Vincent before he escalated things unnecessarily.
While we'd probably win a confrontation, it'd be costly, a couple of meals did not make a group of prisoners an effective army against a small army of thieves all armed with easily concealed daggers. I had more than enough of bloodshed for one day.
"That's fine, I was planning on hiring you guys before all this unpleasantness anyway."
"You were? What for?" Regnauld asked in mounting confusion.
"I've found a dungeon and I need people to help feed it."
"You want us to die in a dungeon to line your pockets. Think again thing." He said.
"No, not what I meant, sorry, it's been a long day/night. It has been claimed by a spatial mage and we're looking for people to um uh stay overnight and feed it their mana. Figured that people that stole for a living might be up for free food and accommodation and a chance to level up other classes against quasi friendly goblins." I glanced at my skin, it had become leathery again sometime during the battles and dirty too. I looked and felt horrible.
"Why shouldn't we just take the dungeon from you?" he said his hands on the guard of hilt of his daggers.
"One you don't know where it is. Secondly you'd have to get past a dozen Guards and god knows how many goblins and goblin shamans and even some hobgoblins." (I may have embellished a little). "Then you'd have to face a spatial mage who has claimed the core. I was just the messenger to inform the guild and do some recruiting and I ended up being captured by some bandits and then I killed most of them myself. I wouldn't recommend it but I suppose you could try it if you really want to die."
"Fine, we can talk about it more in town, you look like you're going to fall over anyway."
I let the thieves lead the way back to town while I hid the more noticeable demonic upgrades one way or another. I shortened and blackened my nails so they simply looked dirty and overgrown, then I hid my tail down a pant's leg and softened the outer layers of skin to be more presentable.
Civilisation here I come again, this time, in even less pleasant circumstances than before. Perhaps being an Alchemist Adventurer was a bad idea, despite all the leveling I've done in the last day?
My total levels are Level 28 Alchemist, level 26 Magical Assassin, level 5 Mage.
I had gained and spent a lot of stats. I've become a lot stronger but was it worth it ? My stats now were Strength: 59, Constitution: 90 Dexterity 67, Agility 40, Endurance: 13, Charisma: 13, Intelligence: 88, Wisdom 37, Luck: 8.
I had gained 1 random point to constitution and 2 to luck from surviving my own poison.
Bandits are a lot more trouble than the stories claim. Never again, unless I bring my own army.
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Author's Note: Yikes this chapter was brutal. Things can only get better right after that cluster fuck? Right?
Lucius's Class Skills and Perks after this chapter.
Alchemist Skills M 1 Multimixing - Mix multiple potions at once with less risk of error 10% correction at each level. M 2 Infusion – infuse mana into items/materials M 3 Extraction - Extract an essential element from a material
Alchemist Perks M 1 Resistance – resistance to negative status - 20% (20% additional resistance each new milestone) M 2 Fusion – combine materials together (20% reduction of mana cost per milestone) M 3 Improvisations – substitutions twice as effective as normal (+100% effectiveness per milestone)
Magical Assassin Skills M 1 Shadow Blade - coat a blade weapon with shadow to deal additional darkness damage M 2 Stealth – evade detection easier M 3 Unselected...
Magical Assassin Perks Critical strike – Extra damage when striking vital spots Born to shadows - 10% cost reduction to shadow magic, 10% boost to night vision & stealth while in darkness Born to shadows - 10% cost reduction to shadow magic, 10% boost to night vision & stealth while in darkness M 3 Unselected...
Mage Skill M 1 Meditation
Perk M 1 Mana efficiency
Next Chapter: Double Dealing... where Lucius is left dealing with the after effects of such a bloody and brutal misadventure. Time doesn't wait for the MC to get therapy, partly because therapy isn't a thing in this world, unless you count spiritual counsel by Priests of one denomination or another as therapy and Lucius can't really attend most Churches what with being forsaken. (Probably be a little while until the next chapter, due to my multiple injuries)
There were more stats involved than normal in this chapter due to all the levelling involved. One could call this a bad case of power leveling. Stats won't mean much for a few chapters after this. Might post an appendix chapter at some point with all the characters and their relevant stats, classes and main skills. This chapter took seven drafts to finish and I'm still not 100% on it, but I'll work on it when I do the rewrite, once I'm done with it, instead of obsessing about it like some kind of OCD loon.
Anyway feel free to send me your hate on waynewriteswords@outlook.com
Obligatory note: Donate to Nifty if you can/want to.