Chapter 24 – Oath-Binding

“Who the hell are you?” Kevin says, squinting his eyes.

Winded from my run, I stop and gasp for breath.

“Sorry, the name’s Ryan.” I smile, extending my hand. Frowning, Kevin eyes my hand but doesn’t meet my greeting.

“Hey… Do we know you?” He eyes me suspiciously.

“No, no. I just heard you guys talking earlier and I had a few questions.” I smile at the two. “I was wondering where you were heading. I’m fairly new to this game you see, and I was hoping for a few tips to gain some experience fast.”

“Sorry, we don’t have any.” Kevin says. “So just fu-”

“What my companion here is trying to say…” Greg cuts in, elbowing Kevin in his side. “Is that we are rather busy. If you want to gain some experience, I recommend you head north out of town and grind wolves in the forest like everyone else, or head into the residential district and do a few social quests.”

“There aren’t any mobs here..?” I ask them, raising an eyebrow.

“No, so beat it.” Kevin says.

“So what are you guys doing here?” I ask.

“Guild business, so fuck off.” He takes a step forward, raising his two-handed mace threateningly.

“Kevin, for fuck’s sake. Shut up…” Greg winces. “Listen, kid. We’re members of the Dark Pegasus guild, and we’ve been sent here to tend to some sensitive guild matters and don’t have time for this. If you head back the way you came, there are a few good taverns that offer some easy social quests by the docks.”

“Guild business?” I feign ignorance. “Listen, I know you probably don’t want some random person partying up with you, but I overheard you guys talking earlier. You said you were going to grind in some secret zone. I just wondered where it was. I’ve been looking all over the place for somewhere to gain levels that aren’t infested by other players. I’m sure the place is big enough for the three of us.”

At my words, Greg’s face reddens with embarrassment. Kevin, on the other hand, turns to his friend with a smug grin plastered on his face.

“Oh, you heard that, did you?” Kevin smiles, not taking his eyes off Greg who has the shame to keep his eyes on the ground. “Tell me, Greg. Who among us is the one to repeatedly tell the other to keep his mouth shut, hmm? Who is it that keeps causing trouble for us?”

“Not now, Kev. Fuck... Uhm, Ryan, was it? I don’t know what you heard, but-”

“I think you know exactly what I heard.”

Greg clicks his tongue. “Okay, shit. Can you keep this between us? I’ll make it worth your while?”

I cross my arms, raising an eyebrow. “I’m listening.”

“There’s a secret grinding zone beneath us in the sewers. Mobs ranging in packs of one to three, ranging from level four to nine. Most people don’t know about it, and the guild would like to keep it that way. If they found out that you heard about it from us, then we might lose our places in the guild. We are on thin enough ice as it is. How about this. We let you join our party and we help you reach level nine, and we’ll call it even?” Greg asks hopefully.

“Listen. I neither want nor need to party up with you guys. Let’s just say that you owe me a small favor and show me where the entrance is. I can find my own party to explore the place. Okay?”

“No!” Greg shouts. “You can’t tell anyone, period. We’ll pay you to keep quiet. How much?”

“Pay me?” I chuckle. “I don’t think so. A couple of gold coins won’t help me reach level nine within the week.”

“Name your price.” The dwarf insists.

I laugh. “Oh sure, how about a thousand gold?” I chuckle.

The dwarf winces. “We can do three hundred. How does that sound?”

“Cous, what the hell! That’s our entire stipend. If Aria finds out we spent it on this-” Kevin hisses.

“Shut the fuck up Kevin!” Greg shouts. “If she finds out we let slip one of the closest guarded secrets of the guild, she’ll shovel so much shit down our throats, your kid’s kids will taste it.” Greg snaps back. “Now, do we have a deal?”

I just stand there gaping. Three hundred gold!? For keeping some low-level sewers a secret? Are they fucking serious? Who the hell is this Aria person, and why are the sewers this important to her?

“Well?” Greg asks impatiently.

“Oh…” I mutter. “Uhm, sorry. I-... I really didn’t expect…” I clear my throat. “If you throw in that small favor, I’ll say we have a deal.”

“Excellent.” Greg says, exhaling in relief.

“Woah, hold up here. How do we know he won’t just take our money and go tell people anyway?” Kevin says, scowling at me.

“Naturally, he’ll agree to do an Oath-Binding for it. Right?” Greg says.

“Naturally.” I smile.

Oath-Binding is a neat feature that came with deep-dive technology. Since our body and mind are nearly fully connected to a machine, a lot of features become available to us. The machine monitors everything, from your heartbeat to your brain activity. Because of this, the game has an easy way of telling whenever a body is lying.

Since the feature of practically being constantly hooked up to a lie detector could lead to severe breaches of personal privacy, the feature to perform an Oath-Binding is by law required for both parties to willingly accept to. Both parties must beforehand agree to the contract before they perform the binding, and both parties must first swear that the binding is under no circumstance coerced or influenced by any of them or a third party in a manner outside the law. If any of those rules are not upheld, the Oath-Binding effect won’t activate. The Oath-Bindings are lawfully binding, and the system will notify you as soon as the oath is breached.

If we perform an Oath-Binding, I will never be allowed to tell anyone, either inside or outside the game of the existence of the sewers. If I ever told anyone outside of the game, the capsule would rat me out as soon as I hooked into the machine again. The feature of Oath-Binding is a very severe type of contract, and it’s commonly used by business owners in real life, as well as gamers ingame. It’s so common, that you actually have to learn about it in school, as well as be at least eighteen years old to be allowed to make one.

“Excellent. I found a standard contract for secret-keeping online. If you would just add your electronic signature to it, then we can be on our separate ways.” Greg says, sending the contract to me through the ingame interface.

Briefly skimming through the contract, I accept it. What I basically agree to is to never intentionally mention the existence of the sewers to anyone who doesn’t already know about them. In exchange for this, I gain three hundred ingame gold as well as a small favor from the pair. The contract will be considered void if the existence of the sewers ever becomes common knowledge.

“Wonderful. Here’s your gold. I’m sorry to say, but I hope we actually never meet again… I hope you understand.” Greg frowns.

“Hah. Nah, I understand. Thanks, but you won’t get rid of me that easily. How am I ever going to get my favor if we never meet again? I grin. I’ll add you to my friends list. Here…”

[Dwarf Paladin - Gregorious Ironguard has accepted your invitation to your friends list.]

[Human Paladin - Kenwin Smiteman has accepted your invitation to your friends list.]

“All right. Thanks, guys. So where’s the entrance?” I smile.

Greg sighs. “Follow us.”

The three of us walk down another block before we come upon an alley. Inside that alley, I see the customary metal hatch that leads down into the sewers below.

Greg points at it. “Okay, here you go. If that is all, then…”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m off. You’ll hear from me at some point.” I turn around to leave, waving at the pair.

I don’t bother listening to their replies as I start jogging down the alley and turn around the corner. I keep going for a few blocks until I come to a stop.

“Holy shit!” I mutter, grinning from ear to ear. I didn’t really know what to expect from this encounter, but I just gained a shit ton of gold! Three hundred! That’s a month worth of rent!

I didn’t really have a plan about what to do here. The only thing I really wanted was to have them add me to their friends list so I could monitor when they are offline or strike up some sort of friendship to have them tell me if they are ever out of town or off doing some dungeon somewhere. To come out of it with a month worth of rent and the fact that they owe me a favor… wow. Just wow.

I can work with this.

Running on endorphins alone, I make my way back towards the warehouse and my underlings. I briefly considered heading back and buying some more gear for both myself and my newest Spotter, but I figure it’s not necessary quite yet. My Spotter will mostly just act like a lookout, and I don’t see the point in buying new gear for him and me just to risk everything to steal gear that hopefully will replace the stuff I bought. If that’s the case, then there wouldn’t be a point doing the job in the first place. Sure, it would be cheaper and less risky to just buy the gear and drop the job instead, but I could really use the experience. Both in progress towards my next level and towards mastering my class and future jobs.

I probably need to give my Poisoner at least a few more hours to craft some more poisons for the job, so I decide to head into the sewers. I know it’s a risk since both Greg and Kevin are down there, but at least I know their general location. Since they entered from the southeast area of the district, then it should be fairly safe for me to grind my way north and west for a few hours. This could also work out for me in the future. If they choose to enter through the sewer entrance closest to the district’s shops, then it’s reasonable to assume they will continue to grind in that general area. Why would they move further away from basecamp after all? Humans are creatures of habit.

The problem is that my warehouse is also rather close to the east, so I guess I need to either relocate further west or find a way to block off the entrance. It’s not too big of an issue for me, but I’d rather the duo or the Dark Pegasus guild as a whole didn’t know about this place.

Reaching the warehouse, I command my underlings to start stacking boxes on top of the sewer entrance. I don’t know if Greg or Kevin will come this way, or even manage to venture this far on their first day, but I’d rather be safe. The two are only level four, and I doubt they’d make it for long down there if it hadn’t been because their gear is seriously overpowered. Smacking those critters around should be a breeze for them, even at their levels. Hell, I’m not even sure if I could take them down easily anymore.

Nevertheless, I’m burning daylight and should probably start grinding. My goal is to try and gain enough experience to level up after I complete the bard’s job. I’m not sure I can do it in three hours, but I’m willing to try. Killing the slimes should be far quicker with two Spotters at least.

It takes about fifteen minutes to head to the western sewer entrance I found earlier. I brought my entire crew, and we proceed to wreak havoc on the poor critters in the sewers. Reaching level five and getting some new gear and armor for my underlings really help speed things along. I keep spamming my ‘Calm’ spell, as well as my ‘Cheap Shot’ skill as often as I can, leveling both of the skills up once each during the three-hour excursion. Our exp gains from the monsters down here may have diminished, but we can slaughter them far quicker, and we require far less time between each fight to rest and recuperate.

Come to think about it, I haven’t really kept track of the development of my skills. I bring up my status window and peruse my meager amount of combat-related skills.

Class skills:

Mentor – Increases Underling experience gains by 5% * Skill level.

Current skill level: Novice 4.

Doppelganger – Instantaneously switch position with an Underling. Range: 1 meter + 0,2 * Skill level.

Cooldown: 10 minutes.

Current skill level: Novice 6.

Cheap Shot - Gives Underlings a damage bonus to their first attack in a fight equal to Luck + Skill level for 5 minutes + 5 seconds per Skill level or until the first attack has been made.

Cooldown 20 minutes - 5 seconds per Skill level.

Current skill level: Novice 2.

Illusion Magic

Calm – Illusion Mind spell. Soothes the target NPC’s mind. Decreases the Infamy tier of all friendly targets by 1.

Chance of success: Int + 2 * Skill level - Target’ Perception.

Duration: 0,5 Int + 0,2 * Skill level seconds.

Cost: 100 Mana - 0,5 * Skill level.

Current skill level: Novice 5.

Chameleon – Cloaks your body in a static illusion, greatly reducing your visibility when immobile.

Effectiveness: 1,5 Int + 2 * Skill level - Enemy’s Perception.

Cost: 100 Mana - 0,5 * Skill level.

Current skill level: Novice 5.

My skills have been growing nicely over these last few days. The skills do level quicker while I’m at the novice level, similar to how my character grows quicker the lower level I am. It’s going to be tedious on the higher levels when the leveling halts to a crawl, but so far, it’s nice to see progress. Every skill level does count, and each and every one of them could help save my life at some point.

After going at it for a while, I realise I should actually have gotten myself a new weapon. Even though I don’t plan on using it, just having one equipped is enough to increase my attributes by leaps and bounds. I wonder if I made the correct decision to hold off on buying temporary gear before the job. If I had gotten the correct types of armor, I might have been able to spawn an extra underling before the job. I’m sure I’ll be fine, but it still makes me a little antsy. Also, it makes me slightly worried to carry all this cash around. If I die, then I lose everything. I should definitely consider stashing it all inside the tavern alongside my Poisoner. Just in case.

We’re about to leave the sewers when we suddenly come upon the second trap of the evening. Happy I’ll get another chance at trying to level up my Trap Maker skills, I drop to my knees and examine the trap.

To my surprise, this time the trigger mechanism of the trap is a pressure plate and not a tripwire like all the other traps I’ve disabled. Concerned this trap is of a higher level than the previous ones, I inspect it carefully. Disarming traps in this game is like a minigame. The first part is to try and locate all the components involved in the trap and then dismantle them in a set pattern. The pattern varies, but there are subtle hints as to where one should start.

All traps have three general components to them. The main part is always the trigger mechanism, which is what sets off the trap. This is usually a tripwire or a pressure plate at the lower levels, but like everything else in life, it turns more complex the more one dabbles in the subject. The second part of the trap is, of course, the release mechanism. Every trap serves a function, and that function is usually to deliver death and mayhem to whichever witless fool who triggers the trap. The release mechanism is what actually causes the trap’s payload to be set off, be it the launch of a crossbow bolt or the drop of a glass jar filled with poison gas.

The third and final part is the trap’s framework. A trap can’t function with only a trigger and release mechanism. It also needs a skeleton to keep the entire thing together. The framework is the part of the trap that makes it tough to dismantle it as it is designed to hinder tampering and make certain the traps are sturdy enough to weather use.

This trap seems to have upped its challenge though. I first start by thoroughly examining the pressure plate. It’s made up of a very thin layer of burnt wood, which makes it tough to spot in the ambient lighting. The pressure plate rests upon a small metal wire that connects to a small metal loop near the rightmost wall of the sewer. The loop is connected to a small wooden box containing a small metal contraption inside it. I can only imagine this is the framework that connects the trigger and release mechanism. There’s a thin thread extending out from the metal box up along the wall, being connected to another, bigger wooden box near the corner of the roof.

Examining this box closer, I notice that it contains a small glass vial filled with a green liquid, and there’s a hole in the box angled towards the middle of the tunnel where the pressure plate is. My educated guess is that this is some sort of crude acid-based trap. A far stretch away from the simple flail or spear traps I’ve encountered earlier.

To correctly disable this trap and have a chance of recovering any components, I usually have to start by dismantling the framework first. The small metal box that functions as the connector between the trigger and release mechanism usually contains a safeguard against tampering with the trap. If I cut the wrong cord, it might result in the trap triggering itself without me even touching the pressure plate.

My hunch is correct as I spot a small gear inside the box that is connected to a weight mechanism. If it loses pressure from either the metal stick or the thread connecting to the other parts, it would cause the trap to trigger. Another option would be to try and cut the thread connecting the framework and the release mechanism first, but without maintaining constant pressure on the thread, that also would result in failure.

Luckily, these low-level traps aren’t so hard to dismantle. Bringing forth a thin metal tool with a flattened end, I insert it into the framework, trying to jam the gear from accidentally shifting the weighting mechanism around. When I’m confident that the trap’s safeguard has been neutralized, I proceed to carefully dislodge the poison vial from the wooden release mechanism. Keeping my hands steady, I manage to carefully tilt the vial out of its socket without breaking the brittle glass. With the payload removed from the trap, I continue to carefully remove each and every part of the trap at a slow pace. After another minute, I’m greeted by an unexpected prompt.

[Congratulations! You have managed to successfully dismantle a [Weak Acid Pressure Trap]. You have managed to salvage the complete trap! [Weak Acid Pressure Trap. Uncommon. 8 Burn Damage per Second for 8 Seconds. Requires Level 5]. The trap has been added to your inventory.]

[Disarm Trap has leveled up to Novice 2.]

Success!