Gii was currently running through the main thoroughfare of the city and was in the process of delivering a letter to a small bakery. As he ran passed the various food and trading stalls that were lined up along the street, he was interrupted by notifications popping up in front of him.

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

You have contributed to the death of Tiberius Atoll!

Reputation with the Church of Crassius : -1500

Karma: -300

Your Reputation with the Church of Crassius has fallen below -3000 and is now irredeemable. You have been marked by the church as one of their mortal enemies! High ranking members of the Church can now receive visions of your whereabouts and will take action against you.

Your Karma has fallen below -1500 and will be subject of the following effects:

-Your reputation with good aligned NPC's will start at -100 and they will be more wary of you during interactions.

-Your negative Karma now grants you access to locations that may not have been available before. Keep an eye out for the dens of criminals such as yourself.

--Evil aligned NPC's will be more likely to seek you out and interact with you

Gii stopped in the middle of the road as he watched these notifications pop up one after the other.

Damn, that was much quicker than I expected!

He then began to slow down so that he could think and pepare while he walked. While this was within his expectations, it was still rather quick and he had yet to completely think out the rest of his plan. His basic goal had been achieved at this point however as since Tiberius Atoll had died, they would most likely hold his funeral within the next few days.

The downside was that he had gained 3 levels just for contributing to the death of this NPC.

This NPC must have been a bigger fish than I thought.

Judging by the levels he gained in addition to the negative karma and hit to his reputation with the church, Tiberius Atoll most likely had an extremely high karma count and was well established in the upper echelons of the church. Ideally Gii was hoping to get one of the Pallbeares or someone similar alone in the temple so that he could perform his sacrifice, but his instincts were telling him that might not be possible this time as it seemed likely his funeral would be a big deal.

At the very least I will just have to wait for the right opportunity and take a chance. The key here is that they will definitely recognize he was killed by poison. When they go investigate where the poison came from they will most likely bring away that shopkeep and it will give me an opportunity to search her shop.

Gii felt his plan was pretty viable and was honestly the best he could come up with on the spot with his limited resources. However, as he looked at his notificaions, he frowned over the 3 level up notifications he received. This was the main reason he was worried, because now he was level 7 and in order for him to reach his goal he had to make sure he remained below level 10 before he went to the afterlife.

Gii took some time to calculate out his requirement for Karma and determined that he was now getting into risky territory. The church would nowv be able to actively seek him out so he would have to avoid large cities, particularly ones with Churches to Crassius, in order to make sure he wasn't eliminated by hit squads again. In addition to that, it's possible that the killing of 3 more NPC's would provide him with enough exp to go past level 10 if he was not careful.

I might be able to skip the fifth altar now with the extra negative karma I gained from this...

Another reason Gii had made this calculated risk for himself was the possibility of extra negative Karma to speed along to his goal. The extra -300 Karma he received from killing Tiberius was a pleasant surprise, but a welcome one as it was now just barely possible for him to reach -3000 Karma after desecrating the 4th Altar. The trick would be to make sure he uses NPC's that would give more negative Karma, like he did in the City of Incarnum. While the requirements were stricter, it would provide him with the quickest route to achieving his goal.

***

The next couple of in-game days were fairly uneventful for Gii as he spent much of his time traveling outside of the city. There were still a few gates that were in the general region of the City that Gii needed to register. Seeing as he was now a high priority target for the Church of Crassis, he decided to take the less risky option and leave the city for the time being. Although the Church seemed preoccupied with getting ready for the funeral of the NPC Tiberius Atoll, Gii decided against testing his luck.

News spread quickly and Gii mainly monitored the situation with the game forums as there was a dedicated portion of the player base that seemed to be following the situation. There was much speculation about what actually happened because the church seemed to be investigating the different potion shops in the city. Many speculated the different situations and believed that there might have been some sort of internal strife or perhaps an old enemy that had assassinated the old NPC. Nobody would have guess that a player had caused this stir and was currently huddled in an alleyway outside of a potion shop with a Unicorn on it's signboard.

Gii had been staked out here in secret and he was currently bursting with excitement as the situation he had been waiting for had finally happened. 5 Paladins dressed in their full official attire as well as a preist who looked to be fairly high ranking had just entered the shop. Members of the Crassius Church entering the different potions shops had not been uncommon over the past couple of days. What was uncommon this time was the number of the members and the appearance of their attire.

Sure enough, Gii watched as the members of Crassius's Church exited the building a little while later but this time they had the NPC Mara with them. Gii watched as they allowed her to lock the door to the Shop asnd then she followed them out to the main street and they started to head toward the Church. Gii waited a couple of minutes before he quietly made his way over to the shop and then slinked over to the side of the building in an alleyway. He looked over his shoulders a couple times to make sure there was no one else around and then picked up a loose brick from the cobblestone at his feet.

While holding the brick, he wrapped his hand in the cloak he had been wearing and then , using as much force as he could muster, he smashed towards the window on the side of the building. There was a loud smash as the glass shattered and Gii quickly knocked out the remaining dangerous looking jagged pieces before hoisting himself up and through the window. He gave one last look to make sure no one was coming and then turned around to look inside.

Gii had been trying to plan this for quite some time now, and although he didnt have the exact layout of the house, he had a general idea of where and what he was going to do. Judging by his surroundings of different barrels and boxes that were stacked on top of one another, he was most likely in the back room. Although there was some valuable things here, Gii wasn't sure how much time he would have in the house and so he ignored everything around him and headed staright to the staircase.

As he exited the back door, he soon stood behind the counter that he usually saw Mara behind. To his right was a door that looked to head down into a cellar and next to that was a staircase that led upstairs. This would be his toughest decision and could determine the success of this outing. After a few moments of thinking, he dashed up the stairs. His gut was telling him that the NPC Mara was the type to keep her most precious items close to her personal space where it was easier to reach rather than locked away in the cellar.

As he made his way up stairs he was greeted with a fairly simple living space. The room itself was not that large and only seemed to be about 20 feet across. Across the room was a decent sized bed and at the foot of the bed was a simple iron stove that had its exaust flow into the roof. There was a simple rug in the middle of the room and on the left wall was a large dresser. Gii immediately went to work and searched the room. He checked the most obvious spots first under the bed and in the dresser. He even checked under the mattress as well as the area around the stove. However after about 5 minutes of searching he was unable to find anything and was beginnig to get a bit panicked.

Did I make the wrong choice?

Unsure if he would have enough time to head down into the cellar and search that as well, he frantically pulled up the carpet in the middle of the room and still did not find anything. However his luck did not completely run out as when he moved the dresser to the side, he did find what looked to be a small safe that was locked. Gii had specially prepared tools for this occasion and pulled out a small hammer and chisel. Although it was crude, he currently did not have any lockpicking skills so this was the best he could do.

While it took more time than he would have liked, after hammering away at the hinges on the safe door, it eventually fell open and he located the object he wanted. There was a small bottle filled with a mostly transparent liquid. Gii quickly reached in and attempted to grab the bottle, however the second his hand entered the safe there was a bright flash of blue light. Before he could even react, his vision was flooded with notifications.

[-60]

[You have died!]

Due to the cursed status “Torment of Crassius” you have lost 15% more soul energy upon death.

After a flash of light a stunned wood elf was now standing outside a Gate about 1 days travel south of the city. Gii stood there dumbfounded for a moment before letting out a yell.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?"

Dammit I was so close, I'll never get another chance like that! Why would there be a magic trap!?

Gii stomped his feet in frustration for a few moments as he lemented in his failure. Eventually he calmed down and thought through his options once again.

Ok... truthfully the soul restoring potion is more like an insurance at this point...it's not completely neccessary.

With the extra negative Karma he had gained from killing Tiberius he could die while desecrating 2 additional altars and still have bartely enough soul energy to not be sent to the afterlife. Although he would essentially be forcing himself to get the required Karma in 4 altars and would be abandoning the idea of desecrating the 5th altar.

Argh! I keep letting my knowledge of the game get to my head and its making me greedy.

Gii gave himself a couple of slaps on the cheek before regaining his composure and heading off toward the north and the Graveyard of Heroes. As he was far outside the city now, he had to make full use of this time to make sure he was back in the graveyard before the funeral for Tiberius, otherwise this whole situation would really be a waste.