41
Sam did not like the implications of that last message, but a slew of new notifications soon had his mind concentrating elsewhere.
HIDDEN QUEST COMPLETE
Congratulations! You have completed the hidden quest: Gnomes, and thugs, and corruption, oh my.
After confronting Sirus outside the city, you discovered that you were the target of a ruse. Millicent, the blue siren, wanted revenge for your involvement in the death of her sister. Speak to the new Guildmaster to claim your rewards.
Rewards: 45,000 XP, 1 Legendary Item Set, 1 Legendary Weapon, 1 Spell Scroll, 20 Electrum Coins
(X8) LEVEL UP!
Congratulations! You have reached level 18! You have 40 new attribute points to distribute.
Would you like to distribute them now?
Yes/No
CONGRATULATIONS!
You have reached a level threshold! As such, you can now choose from 1 of 3 new abilities!
Corrosive Cloud: Summon a cloud of corrosive mana in a targeted area.
Damage: 25-31
Duration: 10 Seconds
Cost: 100 MP
AOE Range: 25 FT (Sphere)
Cast Time: 6 Seconds
Cooldown: 10 Minutes
Sonic Mana Blast: Infuse mana into your hands and clap to disorient.
Effect: Disoriented debuff
Duration: 60 Seconds
Cost: 100 MP
AOE Range: 30 FT (Cone)
Cast Time: Instant
Cooldown: 5 Minutes
Mage Shield: Coat your skin in mana, to protect yourself from all mana based attacks
Effect: All mana based attacks nullified
Duration: 8 Seconds
Cost: 100 MP
Cast Time: 1 Second
Cooldown: 5 Minutes
SKILL RANK UP!
Congratulations! Your Critical Strike skill has advanced from Novice to Beginner!
Critical Strike: If you know where to aim, no one is safe from you
Level: Beginner 13 (81%)
Effect: +200% Increased damage when hitting a vulnerable area, +1% Chance to land a ‘Massive Critical’ when hitting a vulnerable area
SKILL RANK UP!
Congratulations! Your Sucker Punch skill has advanced from Novice to Beginner!
Sucker Punch: If you attack first, you’ll probably come out on top
Level: Beginner 12 (23%)
Effect: +100% Increased damage when attacking an unprepared foe, +5% Chance to cause ‘Stunned’ debuff for 5 seconds
Sam quickly closed the notifications, feeling more than a bit overwhelmed, and allowed his wobbly legs to collapse out from under him. It hadn’t escaped his notice that the amount of XP he’d received for completing the quest was quite a bit higher than it had been the last time he’d checked.
He figured that the difficulty must have increased due to Millicent’s interference. He was actually surprised to have escaped the encounter with his life, let alone so many rewards.
Emma had pulled herself into a sitting position and she scooted over to him as soon as he slumped to the ground.
“Are you okay?” she asked, laying a hand on one of his.
Sam shook his head, not really sure how he was feeling at the moment.
“Holy fucking shit! You’re nuts! Calling an Inquirer? You’re a hardcore badass and you’ve got my respect!”
Sam’s lips quirked up in a grin at the bird, who was now prancing around and puffing out his feathers.
“While I do not condone that bird’s use of profanity,” Gordon said, “I must applaud your intelligence, Samuel. It did not even occur to me that the siren had yet to fulfill her promise. Well done indeed.”
“Thanks, Gordon,” Sam said, too exhausted to bother yelling at him for the use of his full name.
“So, being a virgin actually saved your life. Who knew?” Emma said, giving him a sly grin.
“Yeah, who could have guessed,” Sam answered dryly, but Emma wasn’t done though.
“I mean, with an esteemed name like Samuel Edward Silvers the Third, you should be getting some every day! Tell me, how is it possible that you haven’t slept your way through half the country by now?”
Sam glared at Emma, whose face was turning red as she attempted to hold back her laughter.
“Yes. Haha, you’re a full-blown fucking comedian. Someone should pay you to do standup,” Sam said, rolling his eyes.
Emma burst out laughing then, and began rolling on the ground, clutching at her stomach. Grumbling to himself, Sam used Inspect on her, to see if she had a long and idiotic name like his own.
HUMAN
Name: Emelia Grace Loquin
Gender: Female
Class: Warrior
Level: 15 - HP: 190/190 - MP: 50/50 - STA: 340/340
Status: Joyful
Greatest Threat: Five-Fold Slash (Ability)
Humans are one of the most common races in Somerset and have no bonuses to any of their attributes.
Of course, she’d have a pretty name like that, he thought in annoyance, though he’d never heard the last name Loquin before. Something else had grabbed his attention though, and he was quick to inquire about that.
“Hey, you’re already level 15?” Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah,” Emma said, finally calming down. “I completed the quest, same as you, so I got a bunch of XP. ”
“When did you get the quest?” Sam asked, surprised by this bit of news.
“As soon as you told me about it. Didn’t I tell you?”
Sam shook his head, then turned to Gordon.
“Exactly how will this work? If we both completed the same quest, will we have to share items?”
“No. Whenever someone accepts a quest, they will receive whatever items were promised upon completion, regardless of how many people are involved.”
Sam nodded, then rose from the ground, holding out a hand for Emma and helping her up. He then turned his attention to Sirus, who was kneeling on the ground, clutching the headless corpse of his dead sister, and weeping silently.
He wasn’t really sure what to say to the man and stood there awkwardly for a few moments before attempting to say something comforting. But as soon as he opened his mouth, Sirus’ head whipped up, and a look of pure hatred entered his eyes.
“This is all your fault!”
“How the hell is this my fault?!” Sam yelled back, now feeling a lot less guilty about getting Aoife killed.
They’d both stolen from him and had both attempted to kill him. Aoife herself had tried to do so twice, and was the main reason for his being tortured by that psycho bondage lady. In fact, they were as much to blame as Millicent was! They could have left at any point in the last year. He was sure that there were times when she wasn’t around, so they had no excuses. They’d both been greedy and Aoife had paid the price.
He had no remorse whatsoever.
“If it wasn’t for you, my sister would still be alive.” Sirus got slowly to his feet, eyes burning with madness and hate. “I will be back for you one day, Samuel. Mark my words!” Then he turned and slunk away into the night.
Sam debated killing the man, just to avoid a potentially dangerous future enemy, but in the end decided that he didn’t have the heart to shoot a broken man in the back, no matter what he thought of him.
“You sure you wanna let him go?” Emma asked. “I can still easily kill him.”
For just a moment, Sam debated saying yes, but shook his head.
He couldn’t ask other people to do what he wasn’t willing to do himself.
“Is the fight over? Is it safe to come out now?”
They all turned when the voice of the Princess sounded from behind the upturned wagon and Sam rolled his eyes.
“Yes, Princess, you can come out now.”
After a few moments, Willow’s head poked out from behind the wagon, as though to make sure that they weren’t lying to her and the enemy really was gone. As soon as she saw the coast was clear, she emerged from behind the wagon, straightening to her full height, and sticking her nose impetuously in the air.
Oh boy, not this again.
“As your Princess, I demand…”
“Nope,” Sam cut her off right away. “We’re not your vassals, and you can’t tell us what to do. So, you either speak nicely, or we’ll just leave you here.”
Willow bristled in indignation.
“Now see here…!”
“Come on,” he said, completely ignoring the Princess. “We should head into the city to collect our rewards from whoever has taken over for that gnome.”
Emma nodded, likewise ignoring the Princess and moving to follow him.
“Wait! I’m sorry! Please just hear me out!” Willow shouted when she realized that they would indeed leave her.
Sam turned back to her with a cold glare.
“I don’t know who you are, or what you’re doing here. If I’m being honest, I really don’t care. I have had a very long few days and right now, I just want to get some sleep. So unless you have a real explanation as to who you are, and what you’re doing here, then you can just fuck off!”
Willow looked shocked at his outburst and bit her lip in indecision as Sam impatiently tapped his foot. Finally, her shoulders sagged, and she nodded.
“Fine, I’ll tell you everything, but not out here. Do you have somewhere we can talk in private?”
Sam thought about that for a second, before nodding, and an almost manic grin stretched across his face.
“I think there’s somewhere we can stay. Besides, I have some payback to dish out.”
***
“You bastard!” Quentin cried out when Sam’s fist crashed into his nose, sending the man to the ground.
“No, I believe it is you who are the illegitimate child,” Gordon said, earning him a snort from Sam, and a laugh from Emma.
Gordon definitely had an interesting way of insulting people.
They were standing in the entryway of The Classy and had garnered the attention of all the patrons currently seated inside.
“What is going on out here?!” The small, purple gremlin practically exploded out the doors of the kitchen, waving around a ladle and glaring around at everyone.
When he spotted Sam and his group, as well as Quentin, his face paled slightly and he quickly rushed over.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?!” he exclaimed, looking in horror from Quentin, who was pinching the bridge of his nose, to Sam, who was standing over him with arms folded over his chest.
“I’ll tell you what they’ve done!” Quentin exclaimed, rising to his feet and glaring at all of them. “They have sealed your fate. You and everyone here will pay for the assault on my person! Sirus will raze this place to the ground, starting with you!” His face was flushed with anger, and his voice sounded quite nasally due to his swollen nose.
“No, I don’t think they will,” Sam replied, then, pulled his foot back and kicked the man right in the family jewels.
Quentin went down with a high pitched howl of pain and all the gathered patrons winced in sympathy.
“You see, Quentin,” Sam said, crouching down next to the man. “We had a little run-in with Sirus and his pet elf. Suffice it to say, that you can no longer count on their protection.”
“Wait, are you serious?!”
Sam looked up to the gremlin, who was looking both shocked and relieved at the same time.
“Yes. Quite serious. I know that they’ve been a plague in this city for quite some time, but I can assure you that they are gone for good. Now I know that you’ve probably got a lot of payback planned, but would you happen to have a few rooms we could use for the night?”
Class Cee nodded dumbly, reaching into his pocket and handing him three slim keys.
Sam thanked him and motioned the rest of the group to follow. Even as he was walking up the stairs, he could hear the sound of the small gremlin’s ladle impacting something soft and the cries of pain that followed soon after.