Author's Note:

So here's the promised chapter :) Hope you enjoy it

Btw thanks xion930 for pr!

****

"There are no hidden entrances" Fenek the highest level rogue said reporting to Ace who nodded and turned towards Monthu. "As I mentioned to you before" there was a certain amount of annoyance in his voice but none acknowledged it.

"That leaves us with only frontal attacks..." Monthu said thoughtfully. They probably could take the first wall but it would cost many lives.

"What about hiring people from the nearby towns?" Hawk asked.

"Do you have anything to pay them with? Doubtfully anyone will join us for free even if it's to regain their own castle" Monthu said dismissing that idea. "We'll have to try with what we have already."

"Just don't underestimate them" Fenek said.

"Do you know anything?"

"Not really but I saw goblins bringing barrels of something up to the walls. It's way too smart for them to prepare for upcoming battles" Fenek said in a tired voice. He had been patrolling for a few days and involved in a few skirmishes when goblins tried to attack the camp under the veil of the night. It requires no mention how successful that was.

"I'll take it into consideration" Monthu said and dismissed the rogue, then he turned towards Ace. "Do you have anything to add?"

"Just agree to your way of thinking. We've already spent a week looking for any other way but there just isn't any. I'd say you should let my group try and go around the mountain but I can't say if we'll achieve anything"

"What do you have in mind?" Hawk asked interested.

"Well in a siege my group would be useless so we might as well try something else. If they would concentrate enough on you, I believe we could slip in through the top and cause some disturbances there" Ace said explaining his plan.

"Isn't that a bit dangerous to go thirteen against the whole enemy base?" Aurora asked, not liking the plan at all.

"I think it's a good idea" Monthu said thinking on a more strategic level.

"But they'll probably just all die!" Aurora said.

"So what? Isn't this a place to try out new things? What fun would it be to stay and watch how you win or lose? I want to see my own capabilities."

Monthu looked at Ace for a little while judging his determination. There was no hesitation in the kid's eyes, only eagerness for a new adventure, a new battle to fight.

"You leave this evening. Explain to everyone the plan and be prepared by then" Monthu said finally, making Ace smile in delight.

"Cool! I'm on way!" he said mock saluting Monthu and ran off to search for his group.

After some time Hawk asked. "Is it really a good idea to let him do what he wants? He's taking all our rogues for hardly a worthwhile thing."

"It's better to keep him in a good mood" Monthu said with a sigh. He didn't really care about Ace's political power that was shown by getting this quest but Par liked this game. For that sole reason Monthu had to protect their reputation and that meant not angering any higher ups. Ace included. "Besides here they'll be literary useless while this way they can at least distract them for some time at worst case scenario."

"I wish them luck then" Aurora said with sadness in her voice. It was surely a suicide mission and not required at all.

Ace ran off first to find Par. It was important to make him the first to hear the news. The kid was found training his aim at the makeshift training ground for mages.

"Hey!" Ace said loudly to gain his attention. "I want to tell you something!"

"What is it?" Par asked stopping midcast and blowing a fireball in his face. "Ouch ouch ouch!"

"You okay?" Ace asked concerned.

"Yeah" Par said shaking his head slightly.

"Come with me then!" Ace said and took Par's hand dragging him into a corner. "I've been allowed to go alone into the enemies' base!" he said once none could hear them.

"What? Really?"

"Yes! Me and other rogues are coming around the mountain and will jump down on their castle!"

"That's amazing! I wish I could come with you! But my brother will never let me..." Par said wistfully.

"Let's make a competition then!" Ace said happily.

"What do you mean?"

"Let's see who can gain more points! Last time you were confined to a wagon but this is different! What do you think?"

"The loser will have to talk brother into visiting a circus!"

"You drive a hard bargain" Ace said laughing and shook Par's hand. "Deal. And I'm off to win!"

"You wish! Mages are the best!" Par said with his bright smile back.

"Dream on!" Ace said and ran off to find his subordinates.

They were even easier to find as rogues not on scouting duty stayed in the clearing Ace first talked to them. A few tents were made there to hide from rain or wind but nothing more.

"What's new?" Fenek asked as all rogues circled them. The guy became the real leader while Ace was an official one. It was hard to say which one they would listen if their opinions ever differed. For now Ace brought orders from Monthu which they then divided between themselves.

"Our new mission is to go around the mountain and try to infiltrate the castle. We're leaving tonight" Ace said in a voice full of pride and authority. He had to keep on the act.

The rogues didn't seem particularly delighted at the idea.

"Why such a stupid plan?" Fenek asked freely. He had no reason to talk respectively to a kid only because he had rich parents.

"You..." Ace shook his head in disgust. "We're useless. This way we can at least be a distraction"

That brought no arguments; they all were surprised to even be allowed to join.

"We don't really have a choice, do we?" Fenek asked with a sigh. He expected something of a kind when he joined, no sane man would ever hire rogues for a siege. And now if they didn't follow, they would be removed from the quest and have wasted more than a few weeks for absolutely nothing.

"I'll be leading the way. That's not debatable" Ace said readying a fighting stance but none argued him. It was a suicide mission; they had to infiltrate a base without any real plan. They might as well be led by a kid if that made him happy. "We'll go out when the sun sets. Be ready by then" Ace said and turned around to make his own preparations.

Merchants were a class that followed no conventional rules. They would go into the deepest parts of hell if it only brought any profit. So there was no surprise they had come after the army and sold everything twice the price but they had all kinds of items you didn't thought about buying before and needed now.

Ace came to one of such shops and looked for a new pair of shoes. His was nice and comfortable but very bad for mountain climbing. At the same time Ace picked up a few ropes, all the herbs and some pieces of cloth. You never know when such things might come in handy.

Then he looked through his inventory and finding nothing of interest went to a nearby river. He looked for a deserted place and jumped into the water. 'C-c-coo-old-d-d' But that didn't mean he was planning on leaving. The freezing temperature was very refreshing and Ace enjoyed it immensely. 'It's no surprise I haven't seen anyone else coming for a swim.'

He swam for a few more minutes before getting out and receiving a very unsettling message.

*You have caught a cold. The body has become more rigid and the physical ability is reduced by 5%.*

"Seriously? What nonsense! Can I no longer take a swim normally?" Ace asked incredulously with anger in his voice. Of course there was no answer. "I really do hate those game creators"

He shook his head throwing water in all sides like a wet dog and took out a makeshift towel to dry himself. Ace was still shivering when he ran towards the tent he stayed in together with his team mates. There he found remnants of yesterday's fire and lighted a new one to warm up. His dripping wet clothes were uncomfortable but in Ace's opinion would dry soon enough so he made sure the fire won't spread and curled into a ball to sleep.

Monthu was just so tired of all the planning. He liked fighting but that didn't involve being a general and being responsible for a whole army at all. He decided to check on Par to get away for at least a few moments. The first stop was their tent.

Shocking sight met his eyes there. A small child was sleeping curled up into a tight ball next to a fire and sleeping soundly. Hair the colour of light gold signalled it to be Ace but Monthu could hardly believe it.

The person lying there was just too innocent to be the scheming bastard he was acquainted to. 'Who is he really? The monster we see or this simple young kid?' Getting no answer from the sleeping child Monthu took out a blanket from his inventory and put it on the kid who slept on without noticing anything.

Monthu walked out of the tent and walked to the training grounds where he and found Par. His brother talked about how Ace came to him to talk about his mission and how they created a competition who will get more points. Just as always it surprised Monthu how the guy could be so conscious of his brother's feelings and experience.

"When will the first battle take place?"

"This evening, once the sun sets."

"That means I'll be the first to start" Par said smiling.

"Yeah, good luck with that" Monthu said patting his brother on the shoulder and returning back to planning. It was going to be a long day.

Sometime later Ace was woken up by a commotion near the entrance. He yawned and looked around taking in his surroundings. One thing hasn't been present before. 'Where did this blanket come from?' he wondered folding it and putting at the side. There were only embers left of his fire so he doused them off and stood up to see what was going on outside.

A dozen people stood there looking at him with annoyance.

"What?" Ace asked uncomprehending.

"It's half an hour after sundown already" one of them said impatiently.

"Whoops" Ace said with a guilty smile looking adorable. "Let's go then!"

"Aren't you going to change into better clothing?" Fenek asked. The kid wore simple dark blue trousers and a shirt, an intricate deep purple scarf was wrapped around his neck making him look slightly older when his face indicated.

"Nah. There's no chance in me finding any armour suited for my size anywhere around here."

"Don't you have any specially made with your money?"

"I'm an assassin, I don't usually get into situations where it would be better of use than the quick movement without it" Ace said explaining his lack of any defence. Then he opened the chat menu and texted Monthu. /We're leaving/ There was no answer but he hadn’t expected one.

With that he ran towards the forest and used [Shadow Veil] and [Silent Steps] to disappear from sight. Rogues followed suit glimpsing him from time to time. After an hour or so they stopped to take a short break and replenish their stamina. It didn't mean they ran out of it so fast but that they didn't want to meet any 'friends' while being low and without most of their power.

By the midnight they reached the summit of the mountain and started to walk up. For the first few hours it was easy but later on it got steeper and steeper each moment. It slowed down their pace considerably so they only made half of what Ace had planned for today. That meant it'll probably require a few more days than expected to get higher than the castle sits.

When the morning came Ace found some thick brushes and made his camp there. It was horribly uncomfortable but would hide him from sight while he slept. Rogues found their own preferred sleeping places and went to rest. Only Fenek didn't follow, deciding to take watch. Ace noticed it and happily went to sleep. If there was someone smart enough to stay up to warn others about approaching danger, he would never dissuade him and do that himself.

The next four days they continued upwards the same way with different people keeping watch. Ace made sure to never be one of them. In different circumstances it would have been a great way to earn his subordinates’ respect and trust but as long as he was a kid, they would only see a need to show off. It wasn't worth it at all.

At the fifth evening they finally reached the checkpoint and in a way could see the castle and it's defenders below. It was a magnificent sight with sun going down behind the towers and thousands of goblins running in every direction yelling something unintelligible. A fight seemed to be going somewhere as they all were running in one direction.

/That's our chance/ Ace wrote in their group chat and jumped down on one of the houses' roofs. The landing was rough even if you kept in mind that he jumped from let's say a seventh floor. It took almost all of his health and stunned him for a long ten seconds. Keeping his screams of pain at bay Ace used his broken arm to take out his strongest health potion and drank it. I

t would regenerate his health back to maximum in five minutes but he wasn't allowed to move at all in that time. Not like he wanted to. He probably had his legs and a few other bones broken or badly bruised too. Luckily this was game and even such injuries could be healed in moments by the help of a cleric or strong enough potion.

Ace put his [Shadow Veil] on and closed his eyes to wait out those agonizing minutes. 'Why do I always end up doing something extremely stupid?' he wondered knowing full well no rogue would have followed him and believed him now dead. The ability to disappear completely from sight as long as you weren't moving was that amazing.

'What should I do now anyway, once I got here? It's not like anything has changed simply because of that.' He heard goblins walking around him looking for the culprit for the broken roof but Ace didn't open his eyes. That would only taunt him into moving and giving himself away.

The numbers that symbolized the duration of his healing were moving in slow motion. 3,51. 'This is taking forever' 3,47. The shuffling of feet around only increased too. 3,35. 'Wonder what they're doing... Does at least one of them believe me to have survived it?' 3,24. 'When did seconds become so long?' 3,20. 'Gaah...'

"What's going on here?" a man’s voice came, waking Ace up from his boredom.

"Roof fall! None here! Mystery!" goblins said, answering in their very eloquent language.

"Idiots" the man said cursing and started to look around himself. That wasn't good news for Ace. Humans were usually a bit smarter than goblins and this individual will probably like to investigate the landing place too, discovering an invisible body.

Ace shut his eyes even more tightly and started to picture the place he was in his mind. The few pain filled moments he looked around were of little use but will have to work for now. He made as perfect a copy as he could and pushed it onto the man who by the sounds was turned away.

The illusion had only one difference, the landing place was a meter away from where Ace lay still incapacitated, unless he wanted to move with a few broken bones. At least the potion worked as a painkiller too.

1,59. 'I'm almost there, just a few more minutes and I can take my leave from those stupid smelly goblins.'

The monsters really did smell not having had a bath in their lives and made Ace dream about his swim in the river. He wished to repeat it this very moment for the sake of getting the smell off himself. That, of course, was not meant to be as some goblin managed to fall over him anyway.

"What this? Me fell! None here!" he shouted in outrage but receiving a glare from the human quieted down.

Cloud was at his wits ends as to what happened here. The roof looked as if something heavy had fallen through it but there was nothing here! 'Did someone try to enter our base through here? But it would have been a suicide! Is that why there is nobody here?' he asked himself taking another long look and finding nothing but lots of dust left, ordering all the present goblins to return to their posts. Still wondering he went to report the incident to the leader. Maybe he'll be able to understand something better.

Ace smiled as he was left alone. In the end the guy fell for the illusion and went away. 'He probably decided I had died thinking by the rules of real life. Tough luck' The smile turned malicious as Ace thought of how he was going to repay him for that. Life is such a wonderful but short lived thing.

0.00 the numbers showed and disappeared. Ace activated [All Ears] to make sure no one was around and slowly sat up. Testing every limb he came to a conclusion he was as good as new and stood up jumping up and down a few times causing dust to rise all around.

"Apchoo!" he sneezed from the onslaught of dust and used [Gust] to clear them out a bit. "Now let's see how they'll react. Sadly I can't see their faces right now."

/Hey, guys! Aren't you coming down?/

/What?!/

/You're still alive?/

/How?!/

Ace smiled at that. 'Be amazed'

/I just jumped down/ Ace said faking ignorance.

/You should have died there/ Fenek said without any precautions.

/The height probably isn't as great as it looks from up there/ Ace said with one corner of his lips rising slightly. 'They should get a taste of life too. I'm not going to waste my time and look for an easier way in for them.' /Just come over!/

Fenek didn't really believe it but he couldn't really be left behind by a kid. He took a big breath and closing his eyes jumped down. Wind rushed around him and earth came to meet him way too fast. A loud cracking noise could be heard as he landed heavily on his back. His health dropped below ten percent in an instant. 'Damn. I knew this was suicide. Why did I ever believe the kid went through it without any kind of trick?'

Ace saw the guy crash down beside him and directed gust in a way that kept the sound inside the room. When he was sure goblins weren't coming, he moved closer to the almost dead rogue and poured the strongest health potion he had down the guy's throat.

"Don't move a muscle unless you want to stay the way you are" he said in Fenek's ear and positioned himself at the side to wait.

Five minutes later Fenek opened his eyes glaring at the smiling Ace.

"What was that?"

"You'd never have come if I told you how it was" Ace said shrugging.

Fenek could understand his logic but didn't approve at all. The kid was way smarter and more manipulative than Fenek had given him credit for.

"Why did yo..." his question was interrupted by a sound of someone crashing through the roof.

"Gaaah!" a rogue who had just fallen screamed.

"Shut up!" Ace hissed covering his mouth. It was already hard to hide the sounds of crashing not even starting with screaming. He poured a potion down his throat and kept a hand over the mouth to prevent any sound.

"Release him at once!" Fenek said, angry for the boy's audacity.

"Do you want us to be caught now that we survived the fall?" Ace asked quietly, looking straight into Fenek's eyes.

"I..."

There was nothing to say to that. The silence had to be kept. /Fenek, are you and Fred alive?/ Belinda, the single female rogue asked him. /Yes/ he answered with a single word. It was better for them not to know what was coming or else they'll be stuck there not able to go further or go back and lose everything.

"Wait, how many potions do you still have?" he suddenly asked Ace with fear in his voice.

"Enough" Ace said simply, strengthening the wind to make a cocoon around the house that prevented any sound from leaving. "Make them hurry up, I can't keep us unnoticed for much longer. My mana has limits too"

"What do you mean?" Fenek asked surprised.

"How do you think no goblins rushed in to investigate the commotion? Did you think it was your immense luck? Sorry to disappoint you but that was my magic. And it's running out"

In reality Ace could keep it for more than half an hour with his great regeneration but running out of it was never an option for him. Better get found out and run away than put your luck into not being found at all.

Fenek decided to worry about it later and commanded everyone to fall down. It took him some time to make Belinda come down but finally even she jumped off and all of them were in.

"That hurt!" Belinda said quietly with tears in her eyes after she had healed up. "Why did you make me do it, Fenek?"

"We couldn't leave you behind" the guy answered with a heavy heart. It was pure torture to see a beautiful girl's face twisted in agony while a kid kept her screams silent for whole five minutes.

The girl nodded but didn't seem any happier. Ace wasn't concerning himself about it as he was only an official leader. It was better in a way.

"We should leave now and spread out to gather information for the rest of the night" he said glancing through a broken window outside.

The coast was clear of any goblins or humans so Ace removed the wind shield and put on his hiding abilities before sneaking out. They seemed to have landed in a deserted alley, void of any life. It was surprising anyone had actually heard him. Moving swiftly he soon reached a more populated area. Goblins were walking in every direction talking in their simplified language, something about humans attacking. Not hearing anything of interest Ace continued on.

Sometime later he reached the wall and looked through its defences. Climbing on a tower he looked over the battlefield. Or something of a kind. Monthu's fighters were attacking the gates with a giant pointy thing Ace had no name for but he had seen them in a few middle ages style films he'd watched. Other fighters were trying to use ladders but to no luck as goblins were smart enough to push them back. Still others were simply trying to climb the wall with one skill or another.

Goblins were throwing stones or axe like things at them. Nothing made by goblin blacksmiths looked like a normal weapon. Swords were crooked, axes reminded of scythes while daggers were outmatched by even toothpicks. But nevertheless they did some damage and slowed the attackers quite well as they had to be healed every so often by clerics staged on a nearby hill.

'They'll take it but there will be heavy losses or will take too much time' Ace decided. 'But what could we do to help them out? Could we may be open the gates for even a bit?' That was an interesting idea and Ace went to look for the mechanism. After some sneaking around he finally saw a big wheel lying sideways on a pedestal.

Ten goblins were positioned in all sides of the room to make sure none tried to move it. After some waiting Ace noticed that they were changing after half an hour every time. 'But there are still ten of them, quite a number to deal with without a sound.' Still pondering Ace left and sneaking through the darker parts returned to the house they had fallen in. It was empty of any life.

/Have you established a base?/ he asked Fenek through group chat. /Not yet but we have a few good places in mind/ Fenek said lying. They had found a good place to hide away but he wanted to be without the kid for a bit longer. It might have not been the kid's plan to cause suffering but he still reminded everyone of it. 'I'll tell him just before the sun rises' Fenek said to calm his own conscience and went for another check about the house.

Ace wondered whenever truth was told to him as Fenek was the one to first care about survival but had no way of finding it out. The sun would be rising in an hour or two so he sneaked back to the better district and looked for a biggest house. Once one was spotted he carefully sneaked in and by looking through a lot of rooms found a secret passage who led to a single room.

But it was occupied! Three adults and five kids were sleeping on the ground close to each other for warmth. In a corner a bag filled with a few days’ worth of food lay. 'Just my luck' Ace thought unhappily. There wasn't much time before sunrise when goblins will become much more active and might even see him if he was sneaking around. 'Who are they anyway? Maybe I can get useful information from them at least?'

With that thought in mind he took out a ball of thread and threw at one of the adults. And it was a good idea he didn't come too close or else he might be the one sliced into pieces as what happened to the thread. 'So he's a dagger master. Interesting.'

"That's not a very nice welcome" Ace said quietly as not to wake up the others.

"Who are you?" the man asked in a threatening voice, rising from his makeshift bed, all sleep gone. "How did you get here?"

"I'm part of the Oradin army that is trying to retake the castle from those filthy goblins" Ace said deciding to go with a saviour's act as these people seemed to be one of the last survivors.

"Why should I believe you? You're probably just another one of those bastards that lied and took over our home!" the man said with hatred in his voice.

'This isn't going too well and I'm no soldier to have an insignia symbolizing my station. I'm a kid too'

"You're right to distrust strangers but don't you think I'd have killed all of you or at least tried to? What use would your lives have for me? But if you look from the other side and take into account that I'm from Oradin's army sent to reclaim this place it all makes sense. Don't you think?" Ace asked using a line he'd heard so many times in films.

"So what? Where was your army when we needed you? When goblins were besieging us? You were nowhere in sight! But now that there's glory involved you're all flying here like bees to the honey. Bastards! I'm not going to help in anyway even if it costs my life! I wish you all die here like all those citizens did!" the man said in a quiet but malice filled voice.

'Is there anyone he doesn't hate at the moment? Enemies were bad, but saviours are even worse?' Ace wondered as his eyes caught on a necklace hanging around the man's neck. It was a beautiful silver fox tail. And it horribly reminded him of one thing. To test his idea Ace slipped his hand under his shirt and brought his own out. It glistened in [Flare]'s small light.

"Where did you get this?" the man asked coming closer to make sure his eyes weren't lying.

"I had a very strange master. He talked lots and said almost nothing. One day he told me a story of a goddess and told me to pray to her. After the seventh time this necklace lay in my hands. When I asked master what it meant, he said to give a part of it to every victim of mine and get out of his house. He was done with me" Ace told his story noting the change in the man. He still seemed suspicious but much less angry.

"Did he tell you his name by any chance?"

"He said it was Sedgart" Ace said in surprise. 'Why should the old man have hidden his name? Or given this as a fake?'

"Same as always, lacking any sense of preservation" the man said, shaking his head a bit with a smile. "My given name is Helbert, but around here I'm known as Owen or was as almost all are dead now. The nickname is Silver Fox"

"Ace for all the open matters, Silver Wing or just Wing for darker ones" Ace said introducing himself in the same manner as his host.

"Come with me then. There's one more room in this passage where we can talk without waking anyone up.”

Ace nodded and followed the man stepping over the bodies. They went down a corridor for a few minutes before reaching another room. It was much easier with [Flare] in the open and not having to feel your way through. The place was made from dark stone and looked very old; the room had only a table, two chairs and a bookcase lining the wall.

"Is this your house?" Ace asked sitting down.

"Yeah, I've settled down here after meeting Elena. We were living happily with our two kids until those cursed humans came stealing from us, even the life of our little one."

"What exactly happened here? It doesn't seem like goblins are the main problem."

"They weren't at first. Somewhere around three-four months ago a group of well-known travellers came to our place. They told stories about great adventure and honour that occupied the minds of youths. Those kids went out to seek glory themselves to all of the parents' horror.

“My daughters were too young for that so I didn't really care about that. It was a grave mistake I didn't know I was making. Not a week later the group asked for the best soldiers to defeat a goblin base that had been recently found nearby. The lord and council, me included, agreed to it and sent our best warriors and priests with them. We didn't have any bad feelings towards the group; it wasn't their fault that youths took their stories to their hearts and went out alone.

“After half a month we heard news of our soldiers having been annihilated. We were in shock but a single survivor of a group, or so we thought, came to tell us that the soldiers fought with all they had and even though they destroyed the goblins' home didn't make it through. We were devastated at the loss but steeled our hearts and wrote their names among the heroes that had died protecting our home. We gave badges of honour to their families and any support they required.

“Later we decided to create our army anew but only then did we notice being left without any recruits and no veterans. We had some soldiers but we were lacking in man power horribly if anyone tried to attack us. We thought about hiring adventurers but somehow none were present! That's when we understood the true magnitude of our losses and what it might mean.

“Without having to wait long, it came. Hordes and hordes of goblins appeared from every direction and we had no way of fighting back. It was simply a massacre as we couldn't even hold the walls" the man told his story in an emotionless voice as if trying not to remember at the same time.

"What happened then?" Ace asked, prodding softly when the silence continued longer than five minutes.

Helbert woke up from his memories with a start but seeing only Ace before him calmed his beating heart down.

"The nobles all barricaded themselves in their houses as the last resort. I did the same but it was of no use. They broke through it with ease and killed everyone in sight. As they were already in our house I ushered my family in the secret passage but my little one Dev jumped out and ran off to get her teddy. I tried to get her back but it was too late. Two goblins were in her room and stabbed her the moment she rushed in."

Tears appeared in the man's eyes as he continued on. "She fell like a doll at the feet of those monsters who were laughing! Can you believe it? Laughing! I felt like falling next to her and dying or killing all the goblins in sight until death took me to her but Elena's desperate voice broke me out of it. I ran to her and closed the passage locking us away. We've been here, living on previously stashed food since then but it's running out. We won't last much longer."

Ace listened to the tale with anger in his heart. 'What right did those players have to kill and abuse people they didn't even feel any hatred towards? You don't do such stuff for the fun of it or because it grants power.' Ace decided to play a game with them himself and show what it feels like to be played for a fool. And he was in a perfect position to do that, considering he had all the information in his hands about this place.

"Here is some bread. It's not much but it'll help to make it through the upcoming days. I promise you soon enough this place will be free of any monsters and you'll have a place to see your remaining daughter grow up happily" Ace said to Helbert in a convincing voice.

"How can you be so sure? The army’s leader is probably another glory starved idiot that knows nothing about fighting a large scale battle" Helbert said, dismissing even the thought of it.

"You're wrong there. He's a friend of mine and he got the leadership by an accident, you know? But if he does something, he doesn't leave half way. I believe that the two of us can show those murderers where they belong."

"You're one of the leaders?" Helbert asked in shock. It was surprising the kid was an assassin but how could he also be among the leaders sent to reclaim the castle?

"Yeah. I travel around with Monthu and his group so when he got the order to create an army he gave me the control over a bunch of rogues. They're somewhere around here with me" Ace said thinking about how they didn't really care about him as the sun should have set down some time ago and no one even asked if he was all right.

"That is amazing! We might actually have a chance this way!" Helbert said with hope in his voice for the first time.

"Of course" Ace said smiling.

"You should first look for any survivors. They will probably need help and will assist you in any way they can. Do you agree?"

Ting!

New Quest: Resistance

Vascas castle has been occupied by monsters and most of its inhabitants killed. But humans are like cockroaches who survive no matter what befalls them. Even if you tried to kill them all a pair would still survive. Seek them out and earn their trust to help you out in helping them.

Quest Difficulty: D

Quest Requirements: Find any of the hiding families, earn their absolute trust and give them hope.

Quest Progress: 1/15

'There's so many of them! They're truly like cockroaches!' Ace thought with surprise.

"Yes, I'll look for them. Do you know anything about where they could be hiding?"

*You have accepted the quest Resistance!*

"I suppose some had secret rooms just like I but that's all. May the goddess of light lead your steps so they not falter!" Helbert said, praying for Ace's success.

"May she hide you before her wings!" Ace said answering with his own. It was a specific of their goddess that there were no set prayers. You improvised yourself the way you understood the workings of the goddess and the closer you got the more chance it coming true became.

The man took thirty pieces of barley bread lying on the table and left with a nod. Ace sat for a while longer before deciding to stay there for the day. He locked the door and took out some rags to use for a bed. Lying down he logged off to get some real rest too.

Three days game time later Ace woke up prepared for anything but what was waiting for him. It was a single letter from Monthu asking about his progress while his group hadn't messaged him at all. 'You're all so getting de-promoted to useless mooks next time I meet Monthu'

“How's it going?” Ace asked his supposed subordinates through voice chat to find out what they were up to the last few days.

"What? You're still alive?” Fenek asked in surprise which reeked of a complaint.

“Yep, was forced to log out for some time but now I'm back. What have you done while I was away?”

“Well... We established our base and secured its surroundings...” Fenek said desperately thinking of things the kid could report to the general. 'So you were sleeping all the time waiting for Monthu to win back the castle and rescue you? Pathetic'

“Great! Now we can launch our attack on the gates so much sooner!” Ace said cheerfully.

“What? What do you mean?” Fenek asked in horror.

“Have you went mad?” someone else asked also.

“No but thanks for asking. Anyway we're doing it three days from now so get ready. I hope you didn't think now that we infiltrated the enemies base we'll be taking it easy, did you?” Ace asked laughing lightly at their misery. 'That's what you get for ignoring me. Learn your lesson well.' “I'll be contacting you then.”

“What you're not even going to work with us?” Fenek asked, getting more and more angry.

“I have my own things to do for now but I'll join you on the day whenever you have a reasonable plan or not. So be ready unless you want to be out. Bye!” Ace said lightly and cut off the chat.

'Now I can contact Monthu'

“Hey! Are you free at the moment?”

There was a sigh from the other and a tired voice. “You could say so”

“Is it that bad there?”

“People are getting annoyed without accomplishing anything and starting to doubt my leadership. But, eh, gates can’t be bursted down easily. It might require a whole month of battering them yet nobody seems to care about such things” Monthu said explaining everything. He wasn't one to push his problems onto others but even he wanted someone to discuss them with. Yet his friends were too busy with their own groups to have time to think of battle strategies with him.

“That doesn't sound too good. Do you have anything in mind to change it?”

“I'm thinking of increasing the length of time we spend hitting the gates”

“What about making it a twenty-four hour a day thing?”

“It might weaken the morality but will surely bring faster results. Anyway, what have you been doing recently? Have you gotten into the castle?”

“There are three things. One of them is good, one bad and one depends on a future”

“What did you do to them?” Monthu asked already guessing the bad news.

“It's not my fault they couldn't take a small fall! No one even died!” Ace said, genuinely annoyed at his group.

“I have my doubts about it being a small fall but let's leave it at that. I trust you haven't done anything extremely amoral and still have them under your command?”

“You could say that. Somewhy they truly hate me but are still afraid of getting thrown off the quest.”

“You're already threatening them... You don't waste time, do you?”

“Never” Ace said laughing a little. “Back to the main topic we'll be trying to open the gates in three days’ time. Be prepared in case we manage to succeed. It's doubtful as I left the planning to them but who knows. They might be geniuses in disguise”

“Good luck with that and pull through. We would really appreciate it on the outside.”

“I bet it” Ace said laughing and turned the chat off.