[20]

I awoke past dawn, rising slowly out of bed because every movement sent ripples of pain through my sore muscles. Mental strain hit me after I got out of bed, rocking me on my feet. It was unexpected, but I reasoned it had to do with the list of notifications that assaulted my awareness.

My soul ledger likely had a lot to say after yesterday’s events. It was weird that it strained my head though, and I felt a little alarmed for a reason I could not put my finger on. I was just about to summon the ledger to see if I could figure out the mystery, but another thought intruded.

Where was Ugz? Why did the ornery monster not wake me up at dawn?

Something clicked in my head, the mental exhaustion was not my own, it was a message from Ugz! He was on the verge of collapse.

I grabbed the dagger next to my bed and ran out of the bedroom.

Ugz stood in the middle of the living area, green-yellow eyes wide open and trembling. Before him was a red barbed insect with half a razor sharp wheel blade sticking out of the top of its exoskeleton. The monster was the size of a medium dog, towering over Ugz’s little body. Black ichor dripped from a proboscis on a head that looked like a bald old man. Its sickening mouth was only inches away from my familiars’ head.

Demon! I realized in startlement. There was a hell-spawned demon in my house!

How had Ugz stopped it?

My brain snapped out of the fog it had been in. Ugz was using my Hypnotize on it. I could feel the power of my evil eye was in use, and I also knew that poor Ugz could not hold the creature for much longer.

Without wasting time, I reached over to the basket I dropped yesterday’s robe in, and pulled out the filthy outfit. I roughly wrapped it around my dagger arm, then positioned myself next to the monster.

A demonic monster was way above my ability to tackle, and chance was both my familiar and I would be dead if I messed this up. From experience, I knew a wound would break hypnotize.

I only had one shot at this.

As I got near the monster, I felt the hair on the back of my neck raise at the sheer wrongness of the horror. It felt like something was crawling along my skin, trying to find some way to gain purchase into my body.

I raised the dagger over its head, watching as its skinny barbed legs trembled under Ugz’s failing focus. With all the strength that I had, I rammed the dagger directly down on the creature's skull.

For a horrible second, I thought the attack did nothing, as I felt the blade simply stick into its thickly armored head. Both of my arms and body weight pushed its head down, clearing it from Ugz’s gaze. The monster scrambled backward, its six awful legs clawing at the wooden floors of my house.

As we wrestled for dominance, I realized my blade had made it deeper into its skull than I believed. Using everything I had, I dragged the angled dagger like a lever in the opposite direction it was trying to escape until I felt something give.

A nauseating crunching sound followed, as my dagger sunk to the hilt into the screeching insect's head. I scrambled back on my hands and knees, releasing the blade and picking up Ugz’s limp body with one hand.

Leaping over my dining table, I held Ugz to my chest and watched the terrible beast thrash and crash into my furniture, spewing its foul black blood along the way. It felt like at any moment the demon would come to its senses and pursue me.

After a minute of watching it uselessly thrash, I discovered the blood spouting out of its head had blinded it. Still, I dared not move in case it had some other sense that might detect me. Ugz looked to be in terrible shape, and I feared even a glancing blow from the monster would slay him.

I need not have worried.

Eventually, enough of the thing's putrid blood had coated my floor and walls to let the monster finally expire.

I got a mental notification soon after for slaying it.

+100 Essence - [Assassin Hellbug]

“Hah heh,” I said, borderline hysterical, sliding up against the wall of my kitchen, and cradling Ugz like a baby. Tears streamed down my face, and an insane sounding chuckle found its way to my lips.

A noble tried to maim or kill me yesterday, a sadistic dwarf nearly broke me, both the training in my classes were pure torture, and what was probably an assassin waited at my house to ambush me.

On my first fucking day!

Here, not even recovered from those events, was a hell-spawned demon! Why had I hit that stupid Godstone? I did not want any of this. Spending my life fighting monsters like this was too much to ask of a lonely boy.

Maybe I should run?

Or maybe I did not have to stay. The quest only said I had to reach Ashmere. There was nothing making me stay, and I have a lot of money. Would Vascora care?

I just sat there on the floor thinking things through for a time.

No, ten thousand silver is a fortune, but it is not enough to protect me from the Kestev’s, I decided. If I could keep them pointed at me, they might not go after my father. I knew that going to him would only make him a direct target, but that they would still go after him, eventually. My only genuine option was to get stronger and find someone to protect me. Powerful and rich enough to make them think twice about messing with me. I needed a noble who might shield my family, and I needed to remove myself as a threat for the affection of Lady Elaine Highrow.

There was only one solution that came to mind. I needed Angelina. Her gentle heart wanted to possess me for just my looks. And who am I to stand in the way of romance?

The beginnings of a plan formed in my head.

I opened up my Soul Ledger and began running through the notifications.

+1 Constitution

+1 Perception

+1 Strength

Hypnotize (Rank 2): Cause someone who is looking you in the eye to enter a trance. May not work on someone with a higher will than you. Will break three seconds after losing eye contact.

Skill Learned: Poleaxe F

Skill Learned: Wilderness Traversal: F

Rank Up!

+2 Attribute Points

Skill Learned: Enchantment Curses: F

+1 Skill Point

Learning two skills in one day was a bit of a surprise for me, as was the bonus to perception. I remembered Saewulf said that some skills have synergies; so it was entirely plausible that existing footwork and know-how with a knife translated to learning the skill faster than normal. Or, I just had a latent natural talent that I was not aware of. For the bonus to perception, experimenting with Ugz was all that I could come up with. Well, that and looking over my shoulder frequently.

With no hesitation at all, I dumped both points into my constitution. I planned on doing exactly that for the foreseeable future. It was just too important for what Ashmere had planned for me.

Next, I looked at my new magic skill. On the surface, creating cursed items did not sound too useful, but I thought through some of the new recipes that were in my head and decided that my gut reaction was wrong. Besides, Vascora would not give me something for which I had no use, I had enough faith in her to believe that.

Finally, I decided that the events of the morning made my skill point choice for me. I needed to purchase and get good with a poleaxe, fast. I would hold the point until my skill increased from training, then use it for a much bigger skill increase. Probably from D to C, which I have heard can take years.

Satisfied, I looked over my new sheet:

Name: Harald Horste

Ascended Class: Hexcaller

Rank: 3

Essence: 300/600

Attributes

Strength: 2

Agility: 1

Constitution: 6

Intelligence: 2

Perception: 2

Willpower: 3

Presence: 3

Boons

Flawless Face: Your face is unforgettably perfect. Your looks will draw the opposite sex in, however you can never wear a disguise or hide in a crowd.

Know thy Enemy: Those that hold spite toward you cannot hide it from you with deceit.

Abilities

Fate Shielded: You are immune to curses.

Evil Eye: You can inflict Hexes with your eyes and can see in perfect darkness.

Summon Familiar: Call a beast to permanently aid you.

Hexes

Haunt (Rank 1): Curse a person with minor auditory and visual hallucinations for 24 hours. This will make it difficult for the person to get restful sleep. Usable on one person at a time.

Hypnotize (Rank 2): Cause someone who is looking you in the eye to enter a trance. May not work on someone with a higher will than you. Will break three seconds after losing eye contact.

Spells

Detect Magic (Rank 1)

Detect Poison (Rank 1)

Darkness (Rank 1)

Skills (1)

(Class) Herbalism: F

(Class) Alchemy: F

(Class) Enchantment Curses: F

Reading and Writing: A

Contracts: D

Math: C

Knife Fighting: E

Cooking: E

Skinning: E

Tracking: E

Poleaxe: F

Wilderness Traversal: F

With that settled, I cleaned myself up in my kitchen, and tucked the resting Ugz into a backpack. A kitchen towel I stuffed at the bottom of the bag worked perfectly as a bed for him to rest on. I had no time to waste on my plan, so I climbed out my back window and ran around my house.

Joy was halfway across the street to my place when she saw me burst around the corner at a sprint.

I stopped to yell at her. “Joy! Go get an instructor! A demon attacked me in my house. I need to go take care of something, I’ll be back soon.”

Joy looked confused, but I was off again before she had time to ask a question.

Just a few hundred yards from the Snelling residence, I stopped running, marveling at my improved constitution. It was unfortunate that I did not have enough time to shave, but I was only meeting with the help after all.

I knocked on the front door, and a servant answered a few moments later.

“Greetings. Harald Horste here to speak with Cornelious.” I said, giving a bright smile that made the poor maid blush.