Chapter 32 – Cobra

I rub my hands together, having looked forward to this moment for a very long time. For the sake of my fleeting memory, I bring up the Thief Lord’s basic ability pertinent to this upgrade.

Promote Lieutenant – Upgrade an Underling to a Lieutenant. You may upgrade 1 Lieutenant per 50 Charisma.

There it is. It’s finally time. It took a while, but I have finally passed the fifty Charisma requirement to activate it. The ability is powerful, and it’s definitely a juicy power boost. I would actually say it’s one of the most crucial abilities to have when playing as a Thief Lord. I waste no time in activating the skill.

Upgrade an underling into a Lieutenant.

Lieutenants are considered the elites of a Thief Lord’s underlings. Lieutenants are capable underlings, able to lead a team of underlings on jobs in the name of their leader. Their position demands a certain level of power, and their stats gain a fifty percent boost.

Choose your candidate carefully, Thief Lord.

The benefits of having a Lieutenant is huge. Not only do they get a massive power boost by becoming an elite mob, but they also gain the highly coveted ability to lead the rest of my underlings, which means they can perform jobs without the need of me being nearby. Obviously, this isn’t without faults, as the underlings can not benefit from my planning or skills. They may fail some jobs, and losses are sometimes inevitable, but the gains outweigh the risks. I will probably still have to come along on jobs that have hard difficulty, but performing easy jobs should be a breeze for them as long as their equipment and levels are up to date.

The real question I have to ask myself here though, is which underling should I upgrade? It’s a tough call, but I have narrowed my decision down to two potential candidates. The high-level Hoodlum and the Cutpurse.

Both characters have great merits, and my choice should mostly depend on my game style. The most powerful choice would be to upgrade the Cutpurse, as a boost to his stealth, damage, and lockpicking could make any job easier. It seems like the most obvious choice, and it gives me the most versatility going forward. The only thing holding me back is the potential powerhouse my Hoodlum can be.

There is no reason to deny it, but in my opinion, my Hoodlum has been the lynchpin of the majority of my conflicts. It’s not just that he can fight toe-to-toe with most enemies when combat is inevitable, but his grapple skill has been a key instrument in taking down enemies quickly and efficiently. The massive boost to his physical abilities will only strengthen this skill, and that’s what draws my interest in promoting the Hoodlum over the Cutpurse.

As I said, both choices have merits, and it’s tough to decide. I think I’m going to go with my gut on this one though. As strong as the Cutpurse may be, I can’t overlook the fact that the Hoodlum is good to have when everything goes to shit. In my experience, everything goes to shit at one point or another. Having a designated plan B not only soothes my mind, but it’s also the most logical choice in the long run. I need to be protected at all costs. The Hoodlum is the best option for that.

With my mind made up, I select my Hoodlum, watching as the system does its thing.

You have promoted Human Hoodlum(7) into a Lieutenant.

Would you like to name your Lieutenant?

Warning! All choices are final.

Smiling, I opt to select a name for my underling. I spent a fair time during my off-time thinking up a suitable name, and let me tell you this: Naming stuff is one of the hardest things you can ever do. I don’t envy the parents of multiple children. Their struggle must have been real.

Selecting a fitting name isn’t easy, but I think I’ve come up with something suitable. Since I’m a Thief Lord, which means I’m basically the master of thieves and assassins, it’s only fitting that my underlings live up to our style of life. We’re sneaky little bastards, but we’re also dangerous. Especially with the addition of poison. There is also the fun and fitting saying I’ve always liked, which I find pretty ironic in this setting. If you want to kill a snake, then you have to chop off its head.

[Human Elite Hoodlum - Cobra(7). Lieutenant. Fighter. HP 360/360. Infamy Tier 1.]

I whistle in satisfaction. That’s one hell of a power boost. He will most surely come in handy in any future brawl. Nevertheless, even with all these boosts to his power, they pale in comparison to the one aspect of the promotion I have been looking forward to the most. Can you guess it? No? Well, it’s the one thing that wasn’t mentioned in the Lieutenant description. It has been three months since my last opportunity to scratch this itch, and the moment has finally come. With one hell of a wide grin, I set my eyes on my new Lieutenant.

“Welcome to the team, Cobra.”

My Hoodlum- Or should I say Cobra, meets my gaze. He stares at me intently, his eyes shining with intelligence. With a toothy grin, he guffaws.

“Glad to be here, boss.”

I snort. Grinning from ear to ear. Finally. Finally, after all this time, I have someone to talk to. If I had been a little bit more sentimental, I might actually wipe a tear from the corner of my eye. These past three months have been really lonely. It’s tough having no one to talk to. The human psyche was never meant to be anti-social for this long. Sure, Cobra isn’t a real person, but with the upgrade to his artificial intelligence, he might as well be. Artificial intelligence has come a long way these past decades, and some may argue they should be considered individual sentient beings. I don’t really get too caught up in the ethical debates about the matter, and frankly, I don’t care. As long as I have someone to listen to my bitching and respond to my mad ravings, then I’m good. That’s really all I can ask for, and it covers my basic needs. If I need to talk to someone made of flesh and blood, then I can always call my dad or write a short message to Anna.

Or scratch that last one. That girl is crazy.

The underling in front of me is slightly different from the level seven Hoodlum I knew from just moments ago. Earlier, he was just a regular plain-looking human. Strong, but otherwise nondescript. Now though, his character seems to have a lot more life in him. He has curly brown hair, green eyes, a week-old beard, and a small scar across his nose. His teeth are all there, but their once pristine color has faded into a yellow-brownish color. I wouldn’t call him handsome, but he certainly looks more real.

“I know I’m pretty boss, but you don’t have to stare so much. All the ladies will get the wrong idea.” He grins, sipping from a mug of ale he conjured from god knows where.

“Ah, right. My bad…” I mutter, shaking me out of my musings. It’s been too long since I’ve had a regular conversation partner, I almost forget I have to talk to them. Playing alone for three months must have made a number on my social skills.

Cobra seems to be a cheerful kind of guy. He looks attentive, but he also has this easy-going attitude going for him that makes him appear like an overconfident prick. Don’t get me wrong, those types of people can be incredibly interesting as long as they don’t act the part. His voice is a little odd though. It’s a very rough voice, sounding a little bit like a chain smoker. It doesn’t seem to give him any issues though. Bad boys are supposed to be a little rough around the edges, aren’t they?

“So what do you want me to do, boss? Mug an old woman? Stab someone? I’m up for anything. Just give the word.” He smiles for a moment until he pauses. Raising an eyebrow, he gives me a sceptical look. “Except… you know. That.”

“That…?” I stare at him. What is he on about? What the hell is ‘that’? Does he mean- Cobra interrupts my rambling thoughts as he stretches into an exaggerated yawn, drawing my attention. When his arms drop, his right hand moves down his torso, coming to rest over his crotch. I blink twice in confusion until the realisation hits me. Oh… I pinch the bridge of my nose. He’s that sort…

“Dude… What the fuck? Even if I swung that way, which I don’t I assure you, there isn’t enough dwarven firewhisky in the world that would even make me consider that option.”

He winks at me. “Your loss, boss.”

I snort. This guy has the worst humor. I think I need some time to get used to this guy. I should probably set some time aside later to talk some more to him. Some time I’m not so busy.

“Just shut up. We’ve got work to do.”

“Sure thing, boss! I would offer to lead the way, but you know. I don’t want you staring at my ass.” He chuckles.

“Ha. Ha. Very funny. I bet you’re just saying that so that you can get a good look at mine.”

He bursts into laughter. “If I ever wanted to look at a flat ass, I’d just holler at your sister.”

“Oh, really, mister funny guy. Just for that comment, you’re bunking with the Poisoner tonight.”

The blood quickly drains from Cobra’s face. “Please don’t…”

I grin while giving him a wink of my own. His humor is terrible, but so is mine. Two can play this game, and the only difference between the two of us is that I’m better at it. I think the two of us will get along splendidly.

Anyway, I can’t loiter around here all day. As funny as tearing Cobra a new one is, it won’t bring me closer to my dream. We need to get to work, and I need to check a few things out. What I really want Cobra to do, is head down into the sewers to start training up my freshest recruits. It’s a good idea, but it doesn’t really work together with my plan to go visit the vanity store and get the cosmetic upgrade.

The problem with this is twofold. First of all, I have to enter an area populated by the majority of the city’s player population. That means I can’t bring any backup, and I need to stay as under the radar as possible. The second part is that I can’t under any circumstance draw any attention, which means I need to temporarily take off the armor I earned earlier.

This isn’t the worst thing in the world that could happen, but taking it off would reduce my Charisma attribute well below the required level to support all my underlings. This means I can’t use at least four of my underlings for the duration of my trip, and that includes my Lieutenant. Luckily for me, the game doesn’t automatically dismiss my underlings when I can’t support their required Charisma levels, but it does cause the affected underlings to stop following my orders. They wouldn’t take hostile action against me, but they wouldn’t make any effort to support me either. If I can’t sustain the required Charisma levels, then they would just sit around doing nothing. I experimented with this feature earlier when I was playing as my Necromancer, and it works suspiciously fluidly.

I want to prepare as well as I can for this endeavor though.

The first thing I do is to stash my extra underlings inside my room upstairs. Next, I take off all my useful armor, storing it into the jewelry box container I looted during my first heist. This way, I can at least save my ten most precious items safely if I end up dying and have to recreate my character. Otherwise, everything that I own will automatically disappear a short time after my character is deleted. It’s a harsh feature, but it’s necessary so that I can’t just reroll a new character and easily regain all my lost items in a rented room if something goes wrong. The game insists on an element of risk after all.

As soon as my most precious items are off, my underlings start losing their focus. Their obedient and attentive gazes sort of fade away and the underlings just slump down into a corner, lazing about. Cobra and the two half-orcs actually start up a game of dice, none of them bothering to acknowledge my presence.

It feels kind of weird, but that’s how the game works I guess. Besides; this is only temporary. I’ll be back in an hour, hopefully, and everything will be back to normal by then. Before I leave, I decide to take back my Poisoner’s apron. While I still have my own apron from earlier, hers is part of an item set. This means they cover several item slots, which actually makes it cheaper for me to use as a template for the cosmetic upgrade. I have to save money where I can after all.

With my business taken care of, I put on my crappy starter equipment and head outside. I take a short moment to hide the jewelry box inside the nearby warehouse before I turn my nose north towards the Market District.

I take my time making my way north. I stay off the main road, keeping to the alleyways wherever I can. I don’t meet many players until I reach the Market District, and I actually had to utilize my ‘Calm’ spell a few times on my way when I accidentally ran into a pair of hostile Hoodlums. All in all, the trip was rather uneventful.

The Market District is a perfectly circular district which slopes downwards from the edges towards the center. It’s sort of looks like a giant funnel really. The game’s inbuilt Wikipedia says it’s because the town was built on an old open-pit quarry, but that hardly matters. The sight below me is truly mesmerizing. The district is artistically built, with six main roads leading from the edges of the district that converges at the center. The center of the district is where the most important buildings are located, which is mainly the guild bank, the auction house, and the money exchange office. My chances of reaching those buildings without getting spotted are less than zero, so I quickly discard the idea.

The remainder of the Market District is made up of a set of sub-districts, or quarters if you may. The arms and armor quarter is to the northwest, the alchemical and enchanter quarter to the northeast, the general stores to the southwest while the southeast is where the majority of the taverns and miscellaneous shops that don’t fit into any of the other quarters are located. There is also a bunch of other utility buildings scattered all over, including NPC housing and lodging, so there is plenty to see and do around here. This district may be the smallest of all the districts, but that doesn’t mean you can see it all in under an hour.

The vanity store I’m looking for is situated in the southeastern corner, so I luckily don’t have to travel far. The bad part is that this quarter is the most player dense area in the entire district. Since this is the quarter with all the taverns, this is naturally where all the players go to leave their characters overnight. Or is it overday? Meh, I suppose it doesn’t matter. While most players usually don’t log in or off around noon, it’s still a steady stream of players walking everywhere. My best bet is to quickly locate the shop, enter it, then leave while crossing my fingers and hope that no one casually throws an inspect my way.

I start my trip to the quarter. I take my time, walking from alleyway to alleyway, making certain to scan the streets for any high-level players as I go. It takes a long time, but I really can’t be careful enough when it comes to this sort of task. It takes me a good twenty minutes to move three hundred meters, which is slower than it would take to inch my way forward by the strength of my pinky finger. It works though, and I soon find myself in the vicinity of the store I’m looking for.

Unfortunately, that’s also the moment I run into trouble. A duo of high-level Rangers are walking my way, the guild logo of the Dark Pegasus guild attached to their name tags. The pair seems to be extra vigilant when it comes to checking all the nearby players, and I doubt they do it just for the heck of it. They must be a guild patrol.

Alarmed, I slip further into a nearby alleyway, crouching behind a few conveniently located crates at the far end. Activating ‘Chameleon’, I decide to try and wait out the storm from safety. Lady luck shines upon me as the duo is skirting around their duties, not taking sufficient care to thoroughly investigate every nook and cranny they come across. I can relate to the sentiment, but their sloppy work ethic is what ultimately prevents them from catching me. If this is the quality I can expect from future patrols, then I don’t think I will have too much to fear from walking around in public when I’ve leveled up a bit.

I deactivate my skill and prepare to leave when I catch something from the corner of my eye. There, in a shadowy corner of the street is a familiar-looking metal hatch in the middle of the cobbled street.

Is that… a sewer entrance?