The tavern wasn’t very far, but with how late in the evening it was it was sure to be completely full. Sure enough, when Andius walked into the building, it was completely abuzz with workers, adventurers and everything in-between. What really stood out to him was the fact that there was a new board right inside the door with various posters on it showing bounties for different individuals. There was a bunch of posters that seemed to belong to members of the bloody blades, all of which having bounties ranging from twenty to one hundred gold. “Guess I know of a decent way to make a little coin now.” He muttered to himself before noticing one poster that made his blood run cold.

The poster in question showed a sketch of a man in a cloak, his face completely concealed in shadows; himself. The part that really shocked him was the bounty price, he was worth fifteen hundred gold! The name on the poster simply read as ‘shadow demon’, so at the very least he wouldn’t be known by name.

Andius set about trying to find Raizus in the crowd, but with so many people here it was hard to tell who was who. To make matters worse, Raizus was apparently in a disguise and calling out his name in a place where he probably had a bounty would be a quick way to get him killed. To pass the time Andius decided to walk to the bar and get something to drink, hopefully the bartender would have seen his companion.

The bar was just as filled as the rest of the tavern, but he found a place where he could stand and within moments someone came over to him, “What can I get you?” The man asked, making Andius almost recoil. This was the same guy that had sold him out to the bloody blades!

He tried his best to act casual and not lean over the counter to strangle this guy, “Just a weak ale please, not looking to get too messed up.” The man nodded and turned away to get a mug so Andius waited patiently for him to come back.

When the man walked back he slid the ale forward and held out his hand with a big grin on his face. “That’ll be a gold, sir.”

“A gold? Why is it so expensive?” Andius said, completely caught off guard by the insane price.

The man snickered and leaned in a bit closer, “Is the charge for not shoutin’ out that you’re the ‘Shadow Demon’.” The man said, a shit eating grin on his face. Andius frowned deeply and fished out a gold coin, pressing it into his hand and locking eyes with him at the same time they flashed violet very brightly.

“Easy there pal, go too far and who knows what could happen in a place as poorly lit as this.” Andius all but growled out, making the man flinch back a little bit and slide the ale over to Andius further. “Here for information too. You’re clearly pretty perceptive if you recognize me without the cloak, and I think the gold you just got is worth the words.” The man nodded casually, as if he was just having a conversation with a regular. “Guy should be here, long blonde hair, in a disguise.”

The bartender nodded and looked over to one of the tables where a man in casual clothes was sitting, hair bound up in a cheap looking hat. “Fire guy, right? Worst disguise I ever seen, but it seems to be workin’. The blades don’t come ‘round here much anymore after you sticked a few of em, but someone might recognize him if you two don’t clear out soon.” It sounded more like a threat than friendly advice, so Andius took the hint and walked over to the table with his ale and taking a sip. It wasn’t bad, actually.

When Andius sat down, he immediately noticed that Raizus was drunk. The burly blonde man jumped a little when someone chose to join him at the table, but when he realized who it was he settled down and gave a lopsided grin, “Hey man! This place is great… I still can’t log out though, you?” Andius quickly checked his menu, but the log out icon was still grayed out, so he just shook his head. “Yeeeaaah, looks like we’re stuck here!” He chuckled darkly to himself and looked down into his ale. “Could be worse I guess, real life is pretty boring. Gotta wonder though, how long are we gonna last stuck in the game like this? Are we suddenly just gonna keel over and die from starvation?”

The dark talk made Andius furrow his brow and he reached forward to put a hand on his friends shoulder, “No point in worrying about it man, not like we can really do anything about it.” This got a small smile from Raizus and a nod before Andius continued, “Anyways man, we got some work to do. If you want to come with me, that is.” Raizus immediately nodded, which wasn’t surprising to him since they were both wanted ‘criminals’ now, might as well stick together. “So, I know where the Bloody Blades make their camp in this area, we should clear them out and maybe even bring their leader back for the bounty, then we need to head to Arcanis, apparently they teach magic there.”

Raizus tilted his head to the side, looking really confused, “Why would we go there? If we’re wanted for our magic, going to a magic city sounds like the perfect way to get caught.” He was right of course, but he didn’t know what Andius knew.

“Because there is a war coming, and our magic is pretty rare and powerful. Charla seems to think if we can get some proper training, we’ll be able to hold off the Gnolls and Goblins without risk to the citizens.” Andius said, getting a wide-eyed reaction from Raizus. It was definitely a lot to take in, Andius still isn’t sure why he accepted the quest in the first place.

Raizus looked down to his drink and slid it away from himself, letting out a long and drawn out sigh. “So basically what I’m hearing is, you want us to go and attack one of the most powerful and influential guilds in the entire game, kidnap one of their officers for the bounty, then go to a city filled with mages where our faces are probably plastered on every street, and just go, ‘hey, we want to learn magic’?”

“About sums it up, yep.”

“Fuck it.” Raizus stood from the table and downed the last of his Ale, and Andius did the same, though most of his drink was left wasted. “Let’s get some rest first, head out first thing in the morning, alright?” Andius nodded, and Raizus started walking up to the upper floors, “I already rented us both rooms, yours is next to mine.” He handed Andius the key and vanished into his own room.

With nothing else better to do, Andius decided to go to his own room and allocate his unspent points. The room was virtually identical to the last one, so after checking everything to make sure no one was going to stab him while he was distracted, he sat down and started allocating those points. His usual choice was normally to dump into charisma and dexterity, but with the changes to his class, he might be better off with intelligence. The way he reasoned it, his summons take a flat amount from his mana pool, so having a larger pool would allow him to summon more of them, right? The question was if he was capped on how many creatures he could actually summon, or if it was completely based off of his pool.

Andius shrugged and decided he really didn’t want to test his summons in the middle of a populated town, but noticed he had enough points to reach a breakthrough in his intelligence like he had with his dexterity, so he put 13 of his 15 points into that. Looking at his status sheet, he realized he also had enough to reach 25 in charisma, so he decided he might as well put his remaining two points there, immediately getting new notifications when he confirmed the changes.

——————

Congratulations! For reaching level 25 in intelligence, you have been granted an attribute bonus that will remain unless you drop below the required level in this attribute.

Mana-Sense: As more and more mana flows through your body, you have become attuned to it’s inner workings and can now tell if there is magic other than your own nearby. This may manifest in a number of ways, and will be unique to you.

——————

Andius immediately felt a sort of pressure in the back of his mind, associated with the smell of burning wood. He assumed this must have been Raizus since his magic was fire based. There was something else though, a feeling of being in warm sunshine on a cold day. He wasn’t sure why, but the feeling was unsettling for him, so he tried his best to ignore it.

——————

Congratulations! For reaching level 25 in Charisma and possessing inborn abilities, you have been granted a unique ability. This ability is uniquely yours and cannot be removed from you by any means.

Calculating…. Wild magic found; assigning unique skill.

Unique Ability: Chaotic Disruption gained: As your inborn magic is raw and wild, also refereed to as Chaos Magic, you have been granted a skill that can be used to disrupt spell casters. When used to disrupt a spell, an equal amount of mana as the caster will be spent, causing the spell to become unstable and have unknowable effects. Good luck.

——————

Andius winced as he read the notification for the second attribute gain, it was a powerful ability that could be used to fight against mages, but it was completely unreliable and might just make things worse for him and Raizus. Either way it was a good ability, so he wasn’t going to complain about it.

Next up was his skills,he had been investing points into climbing for a while now and was still dead set on doing so, but he wanted to be sure that he would have some skills worth using in the coming battle, so he looked over what he had carefully. It was clear to him that his greatest asset was his ability to summon shadow monsters, but he was also still pretty good with his daggers, so it was a tough choice between leveling them both.

In the end, shadow summoning won out, and he put 6 of his 9 points in there, grinning as he saw the power increase of his summons. After that, it was one point into climbing and the other two into stealth. Even as a commander instead of an assassin, he still didn’t want to be seen. When he confirmed these changes, a few final notifications popped to life, showing updates to his skills.

——————

Hidden Skill Shadow Summoning Level: 10

Many believe that Dark magic is tied to demons and evil entities, this long forgotten skill is one of the many reasons for this belief. Masters of this skill were known to summon hordes of nightmarish monsters to harass and slay entire cities!

X(10)+Y(23)% increased chance to completely control shadow monsters that you summon. Shadow monsters cost X(10)% less mana to control. Shadow monsters are X(10)+Y(23)% more powerful, where X is the level of this skill and Y is your charisma.

——————

Climbing level: 8

Not every path is a paved road, those who truly want to get to their objective see every mountain, every canyon, and every wall as a causeway. True masters of this skill can climb a tower wall as if it were a simple paved road!

X(8)+Y(6)% increased climbing speed, where X is the level in this skill and Y is half your strength, X(8)+Z(13)% increased chance of climbing difficult objects, where X is the level in this skill and Z is half your Dexterity.

——————

Stealth Level: 8

The oldest and wisest of warriors will tell you that sometimes, avoiding confrontation is better than facing it head-on. Where others charge into battle without a thought, you slink about the battlefield and plan out your first strike. True masters of this skill have been known to hide from even the eyes of the gods!

2*X(8)% increased chance to remain undetected while stationary, where X is the level of this skill. X(8)% increased chance to remain undetected while moving, where X is the level of this skill. Damage is doubled when attacking from stealth.

——————

Mana cost for following spells have been changed:

Summon Lesser Shadow beast Cost changed to: 39 mana Reserved.

Summon Pack cost changed to: 44 Mana Reserved

——————

Satisfied with the changes, Andius took off his boots and laid down on the bed, closing his eyes and drifting to sleep not long after.

As soon as he was fully asleep, Andius knew something was very wrong. He had no sense of the waking world around him, and he found himself in a dark corridor made of concrete, definitely not something that would be in this game. His first reaction was to try and summon something, but his magic wouldn’t come to him, and when he looked down he was wearing his work uniform instead of his armor. “What the hell is going on?…” He said, looking around his environment

Behind him the long hall stretched further and further into the darkness, and ahead of him there was a single light showing what looked like a breaker box before it split into two more corridors. Not seeing what else he could do right now, Andius started to walk towards the light, hopeful it would lead somewhere that wasn’t half as terrifying as where he found himself currently.

As he got closer to the light, the sound of something metal hitting stone got louder and louder in a rhythmic pattern. Whatever it was, it was getting closer. Andius was only a few dozen feet from the intersection when a blackened and charred hand reached around the corner of the hall, a head poking around the corner that was in a similar state of decay. It’s face was completely burned and the skin was taught, no mouth or nose could be seen on the thing and it’s eyes were sealed shut with sunken in flesh, two orbs of blinding white light floating just inches off the surface.

The creature’s horrifying gaze locked with Andius’ and it’s eyes turned a demonic red before the rest of it’s body walked around the corner. It was a thing of nightmares, it’s body was completely burned and emaciated, it’s stomach so flat that it’s rib cage looked like it was going to burst from it’s body and there was no way to tell if it was male or female. More horrifying yet was the fact that it’s legs bent the wrong way like a dog’s would, but instead of ending in feet, it had two long and rusted sickles that it walked upon, the source of the metallic clinking he had heard earlier.

A line formed on the creatures face, splitting open where a mouth would be, and it’s jaw lowered with a sickening crack all the way down to it’s chest. It let out a screech so agonized and rage filled that Andius didn’t even think twice about turning around and running at a dead sprint into the darkness.

The creature took off in pursuit, the sounds of it’s metallic instruments hitting the concrete floor terrifying to Andius as he rushed through the dark hall. “What the fuck, What the fuck, what the FUCK!?” he screamed, the absurdity and horror of the situation completely overwhelming him. He was used to being the scary one, why was this happening to him?

There was an intersection in the dark hall, both were equally as dark as the other, so he just chose left and took off running just before the creature crashed into the wall at the intersection and started after him again. Andius suddenly burst through a door he hadn’t seen in his panic and found himself outside on the edge of a corn field. “What the hell is going on!?” He shouted as he rushed into the fields, the creatures screams not far behind him. It felt like he was the star in every horror movie he had ever watched and it was far more terrifying living it than seeing it on a screen.

Something caught Andius’ foot and sent him tumbling to the ground. When he looked back he saw a root coming from the ground that seemed out of place in a corn field, and when he looked off to the side he noticed a large oak tree that stretched far too high into the sky to be normal. He stood up and started running for it, he didn’t know why but the tree seemed important to him, he felt if he got there everything would be okay.

Looking behind him, he saw the creature skid to a halt right where he had been and turned to chase him once more, it wasn’t far behind. It’s hands were held out to the side, and every stalk of corn it brushed with it’s fingers was severed cleanly and knocked over. He definitely didn’t want that thing catching him.

He ran with all the strength he could muster, but he was far slower than he should be, and the creature was gaining on him. Would he be able to make it? Just as the thought entered his mind, he saw a small wooden fence at the edge of the corn field and tried to jump it, tripping over the top of it and scrambling to get to his feet. Only a few seconds later the sound of splintering wood erupted behind him, but he could see the tree now!

The tree was absolutely massive, it’s branches spreading across the night sky like a cloud, and there was an opening at it’s base. Andius called upon the very last of his strength and ran as hard as he could, but one of the creature’s claws scraped against his back causing immense pain to flair through his entire body. He almost fell from the pain alone, but he pressed on, and soon he dove through the entrance in the tree and landed in a pool of water.

The creature screamed and banged against an invisible barrier, but it couldn’t get in for some reason. Andius sat up in the pool and noticed the pain from his shoulder was gone. Looking around, the inside of the tree wasn’t very large, but it had bio-luminescent bulbs and vines everywhere, giving it a soft and peaceful glow that seemed to put Andius at ease. Despite the loud screams of the monster, Andius soon found himself relaxing, and withing a few moments his vision swam and he reappeared in his dream-space.

“Well… that was awful in every way imaginable.” He said, looking around the ethereal place anxiously. “Might as well get some training in I guess.” He spent the remainder of the night practicing his climbing skill, summoning trees, mountains, even city walls to climb.

The trees were easy for him to clamber up now, requiring almost no effort to scale, but the mountain gave him a little more trouble. He slipped a few times and fell to his death, but dying in the dream wasn’t a big deal as he couldn’t actually die. The city walls were pretty much impossible for him right now, so he focused on climbing the mountains, and after a few hours found them a lot easier to climb. He could tell that the night was coming to an end just as a notification popped to life in his face

——————

Climbing level: 10

——————

“Well at least something good came of this night.” Andius muttered as the world around him began to shift as he went from the dream world to the waking world. The experience with the creature shook him to his core, but he had more pressing things to worry about right now, like how he was about to invade a camp filled with murderous players.