Chapter 10

The next two days passed in a blur; I was eager for the weekend to arrive so I could spend more time with Zavra. We kept our distance during our nightly patrols despite not seeing anything. I could tell we both felt a little guilty for getting distracted the other night, but I certainly didn’t regret it. Marcus informed me of a traveling troupe of entertainers that was going about the city and said I should invite her to that. I decided that Saturday morning I would find her and invite her to hang out for the day.

When Saturday morning came, I woke with a nervous knot in my stomach. I was never good at asking girls out and I certainly didn’t want to screw this up. I showered and put on a new set of deep brown pants and a soft white shirt I had bought the day before. With a nervous sigh I left the library making my way towards the Lucky Gnome. By the time I reached the inn the knot in my stomach felt like a lump.

I pushed open the door and stepped inside, in their usual corner set all four of them chatting over a bit of breakfast, Stephan had taken to staying at the Inn as well. I made my way over and took a seat. Serk pushed a plate of bacon and eggs towards me with a smile. Stephan seemed to be in the process of telling a story, but I only half listened as I half-heartedly ate my food. After I washed down the last bite, I glanced over at Zavra who gave me a warm smile. I noticed she wasn’t wearing her normal purple robes but a simple white shirt with a black corset and long deep brown skirt, she looked lovely as ever. I motioned for her to follow me, and we left the table. A few feet away I turned and nervously spat out, “Doyouwanttogooutwithme?” I swallowed hard and she stared at me for a moment before it cleared my throat and said in a calmer voice, “Do you want to go out with me?”

“Out where?” she asked with a small smile. Right, not Earth, how does dating work in this world? Is dating even a thing? Wasn’t it called courting in medieval times? I was getting sidetracked. “I mean, there is a traveling troupe somewhere in town I thought we could go see it together, you know spend the day together. If you want to that is,” I said nervously.

“That sounds like a lot of fun,” she smiled warmly at me and rushed back to the table to finish off her food. I noticed Serk giving me a sly grin and rolled my eyes at him. A few moments later we left the Inn and began to wander the streets. I had no idea where the troupe would be, Marcus had said they were moving about the city. As we turned a corner, Zavra wrapped her arms around my right arm falling into step beside me, her proximity brought a flush to my cheeks and her intoxicating scent to my nose.

For the better part of an hour, we wandered, talked, laughed and basically just enjoyed hanging out. Finally, I spotted a large wagon painted in bright colors. A small crowd was gathered watching a man who was standing on his hands juggling a pair of balls with his feet. The crowd cheered as he kicked both balls into the air landed on his feet and caught the balls in one fluid motion. The man took a bow and stepped away, two men carrying a barrel and a wooden plank came up next. They placed the wooden plank on the barrel and one of the men stepped on one side. The other produced 3 axes and a couple of daggers from a small chest off to the side. The crowd ohhhed and awwed as he stepped over handing an axe and both daggers to his partner. Both men balanced on the plank as it slowly rolled with the barrel and began juggling the sharp weapon between them all while continuing to keep their balance on the ever-shifting plank.

The crowd cheered when they finished and took a bow, I clapped and turned to Zavra who was smiling and clapping with the crowd. As I turned back towards the performers my eyes caught a glimpse of black cloak and I turned quickly towards it. I studied the cloaked figure and realized they looked vaguely familiar. I quickly used Analysis on him.

Jareth

Race: Human

Class: Assassin

Level 5

Skills: Assassinate, Stealth, Poisoner, Dagger fighting

Experience 105

My pulse quickened and my eyes went wide, that was the assassin whose hand I had cut off. He stood at the mouth of an alleyway and scanned the crowd, thankfully he didn’t seem to recognize me as he turned away from the crowd and headed down the alley. I grabbed Zavra’s arm, perhaps a little harder than I intended. “What?” She said in alarm seeing the tense look on my face.

“I just saw the assassin I fought the other night.” I said gesturing towards the alley, Zavra’s eyes went wide.

“I should let Serk know.” she said quickly pulling the stone from her pocket.

The assassin was disappearing down the alley, I needed to follow him, but it would be much harder in broad daylight. After a thought, I gave Shadowfire a mental command to follow him at a safe distance. I turned back to Zavra “Serk and the others are on their way.” She said quickly.

“Shadowfire is tracking him, come on let's try and follow him,” I took her hand as we pushed our way through the crowd a few people complained but I ignored them. We reached the alleyway and crept forward. The alleyway curved after a hundred feet or so then spilled out onto another street. There was no sign of the man, ‘Shadowfire you got eyes on the target’ I thought loudly.

I got no response, but my map appeared, and a small moving dot indicated Shadowfire’s position. He was another street over cutting across rooftops as he followed the man. I lead the way across the street and into another alley, a mangey cat snarled at me as I got close, but I shewed it away. We cut through the alley, down another street, and into another alley. ‘He is headed into the sewers through a grate, and he isn’t alone.’ Shadowfire said in my head and my map pinged the sewer location.

‘Can you follow him, without being seen?’ I responded.

‘I think so.’ he said.

‘Do it, we will track you, just be careful.’

‘Don’t worry my dude I got this.’ Shadowfire said smugly. I rolled my eyes at him even though he couldn’t see it. We continued forward until we reached the mouth of an alley. According to my map the sewer grate was somewhere down the alley. We watched the alley for a few minutes, but no one entered it. We crept forward and I could see a sewer grate on the ground. It appeared closed and I gave it a pull trying to lift it. The grate stubbornly refused to move. After a minute I gave up and sat down looking around for some sort of release button. I second later the little dot on my map that was Shadowfire disappeared and a second after that my map vanished. I blinked in confusion and tried to summon my map, nothing happened. “Crap” I said in annoyance.

“Whats wrong?” Zavra said turning towards me, she was watching the mouth of the alley.

“I think something killed Shadowfire I can’t sense him anymore and my map won’t work. The map is technically one of his skills.”

“Can you resummon him?” She asked curiously.

“I can but I haven’t used that spell before.” I stood up and moved over to Zavra. “Let’s find a spot to summon him. I don’t want to do it in this alley in case our enemies come looking.”

“Good idea.” We moved to any alleyway a couple streets over and I sat down on the ground. Since Summon Familiar was a spell I instinctually knew how to use it. “I have never seen a summoning before,” Zavra said with excitement.

“Me neither,” I said with a small smile. I channeled my mana into the spell for the first time. Words fell from my mouth that I didn’t know, and my hands began to move in strange patterns. The spell took a full minute to cast, at first nothing seemed to happen than slowly arcane circles began to form on the ground before drawing themselves in intricate patterns. After 30 seconds the patterns had completed, and a blue glow began to form in the center hovering a few inches above the circles. The glow brightened forming an almost egg like shape, within the egg I could see Shadowfire curled into a ball. As the spell finished the egg popped and Shadowfire fell lightly to the ground. He shook himself like a wet dog and looked up at me with a smile.

“Well, that was unpleasant,” Shadowfire said stretching his slender body.

“What happened?” I asked in concern.

“I’m not sure one moment I was creeping across the ceiling following the 3 guys like you said, they were quietly moving past an intersection, and then something hit me, and I woke up here.”

“They weren’t the ones that killed you?” I asked curiously.

“No, I don’t think so. I think there is something down there,” He said and landed on Zavra’s shoulder, “got any food I am hungry, dying really takes it out of you.” I rolled my eyes at the little dragonling, and Zavra giggled before feeding him some jerky. We moved back to the first alley seeing no signs anyone had been there in the last couple minutes. Serk, Stephan, and Alvor arrived a couple minutes later following Zavra’s directions.

“Do we really have to go down there?” Zavra asked mournfully, she had changed back into her usual robes while waiting for the others to arrive. After Serk pried open the grate Alvor stepped forward and descended the ladder down into the sewers. A moment later the rest of us followed.

The sewer tunnel was about 10-12 feet wide and nearly that tall, a roughly 3-foot walkway ran along either side of it with a slow-moving foul-smelling river of sewage flowing down the center. It was dark except the shaft of light that fell through the sewer grate. Alvor and Shadowfire took the lead, Alvor had immediately spotted tracks leading deeper into the sewer and Shadowfire confirmed it was the same direction the assassin and his friends had been going.

I cast Dazzling lights channeling mana to keep the spell active and floating about a foot above my head. We crept along the sewers trying not to breathe too deeply. As we walked, I turned towards Serk with a puzzled look. “How are there sewers if the toilets of this world simply magic away the… bodily fluids?” I asked quietly. I heard a faint chuckle from Serk and instead of answering he pointed at a spot some 50 feet ahead. A tiny portal, no more than an inch or so appeared for a brief second letting loose a spray of water and foulness. “That’s disgusting” I said in alarm.

“How do toilets in your world work?” Serk asked. I choose not to answer, I supposed this was similar. I guess magic can’t solve everything. We pressed on for a couple more minutes before Shadowfire halted us. “Up ahead is the intersection, not sure what’s up there but I would advise caution. The three men I was following moved quietly through here.” Shadowfire said quietly to the group.

“Did your familiar just talk?” Stephan said in disbelief.

“Yeah, don’t worry dude he’s just special.” I said giving Stephan a slap on the back. He stared at me in confusion, but I turned to Alvor. “Feel like peeking around that corner?” Alvor nodded and moved silently ahead after a few feet I lost sight of him in the darkness. A few tense moments passed before Alvor appeared a grim look on his face.

“It’s a Filth Beast and it’s a level 10 boss monster.” He said and I heard groans of disgust from everyone else.

“What’s a Boss monster or a Filth beast for that matter?” I asked in confusion.

“Boss monsters are tougher than normal monsters, they also deal more damage than normal, but they award a lot more experience if you can kill it. Filth Beasts are nasty critters, big too. They tend to make a nest among filth and have a taste for rot and human flesh. Try not to let the tentacles hit you they are known to spread disease when they strike.” Serk said sternly.

“That sounds disgusting.” I said in revulsion.

“Any chance we can sneak past it?” Serk asked Alvor.

“Perhaps. Derek and I are the stealthiest of the group. Zavra shouldn’t have too much trouble, but I worry about you and Stephan moving quietly in your armor.” Alvor responded.

“Too bad we don’t have a way to make us quieter.” Serk said in annoyance. Serk grimaced even more when with a blink Stephan removed his heavy armor keeping only the light padding beneath on. “I really hate that skill.” Serk grumbled.

“I can’t make you quieter, but I can make you invisible.” I said with some regret. Casting invisibility was great, but it took two of my three daily spells to cast.

“That might just work.” Serk said with a grin. “Alright I will go across first, the rest of you follow once I am through.” With a small sigh I reached out and placed a hand on Serk’s shoulder, I channeled the mana and cast invisibility for the first time. Serk’s body vanished before me, but I could tell he was still there since my hand was still on his shoulder. “This is different.” Came Serk’s disembodied voice. “Give me 30 seconds.” Serk said and we heard faint splashes as he moved away from us.

Several moments later Alvor dropped into stealth and crept forward, Stephan followed shortly after that. I turned to Zavra and gave her a reassuring smile before dropping into stealth. I held my breath as I crept forward, just a few feet ahead the tunnel widened into a cross intersection we wanted to cross to the far side ignoring the tunnels on the left and right. As I reached the corner, I shot a quick glance to the left where the creature was. Instead of a tunnel the sewer ended in a massive chamber about 40 feet across and maybe just as tall a solitary beam of light fell a few feet away from the massive bulk of the creature. In the darkness I could just make out its silhouette and gave a small shudder. Turning away, I moved across as quietly as possible my foot slipped momentarily on a rock but didn’t seem to alert the creature. I made it the other side releasing my breathe. I watched as Zavra crept forward crossing the distance silently.

Halfway across however she slipped and fell into the sewage gasping as she tried to stand back up. I darted towards her as a low wet growl sounded and I froze. The massive creature shifted, and I got my first real look at it. It was easily 15 feet fall and had leathery black skin covered in mold and open festering wounds. What appeared to be a tear in its black flesh opened to reveal a mouth filled with jagged rotting teeth. A pair of eye stalks sprouted from its head both whipping around to look at Zavra and I. A pair of thick tree trunk like tentacles curled away from is flabby body and I could just make out that they were covered in octopus like suckers. I quickly used Analysis on it.

Filth Beast

Level 10 (Boss)

Skills: Disease Touch, Rot bite, Constrict, Bad Breath

Experience: 462

I had about 2 seconds to wonder what sort of a skill Bad Breath was until it opened its mouth releasing a wet belch. The smell hit me in the face like a dead fish that had been rotting in the sun for three days soaked in garbage. I nearly vomited falling to my knees hacking and coughing.

You have been poisoned 4 poison damage per second for 5 seconds. You have been stunned for the next 5 seconds.

“Crap!!” I thought loudly as I continued to cough. I couldn’t move and both of the creatures’ tentacles were reaching for me and Zavra who was also caught in the breath. Just before it reached me, the tentacle stopped short and dark blood sprayed out of a gash on its tentacle as Serk appeared before me his axe carving into the creature. Arrows slammed into the other tentacle giving the creature pause. What it had thought was an easy meal was fighting back and from its wet gurgling growls in did not seem happy about that. It lashed out at Serk with both of its thick arms. He managed to dodge one and slam his axe into the other. A blast of light slammed the beast in the face, and it roared in anger its flesh charred where it had been hit.

I took in a deep breath as the poison left my system this proved to be a bad idea since I was still surrounded by filth. I spat and stood to my feet drawing my sword. Zavra was already standing and preparing a spell. I charged the creature my blade flashing out and cutting several shallows cuts across its skin that wept black blood.

I cast Produce fire and tossed the ball of fire into its side. It growled in protest as the weak spell charred its flesh. I cast the spell several more times aiming at its tentacles and face. One of its tentacles lashed out at me and I barely dodged it. Another blast of light slammed it in the face, and it snarled. I could see its health was less than half already. Rather than slow the creature down, the loss of health made it flail around in desperation.

I tried to dodge as one of the tentacles swung for me but at the last second it changed direction. The full weight of the tentacle slammed into me knocking me from my feet. Its suction cups clamped onto me, and the beast lifted me up and towards its mouth. The tentacle constricted around me squeezing the air from my lungs.

You have been diseased! 10 damage per second for 30 seconds. You are being crushed! 10 damage per second until free.

Crap! This thing was going to kill me. I tried to force my way free, but the beast had a firm grip on me. It lowered me towards its rotting teeth but the tentacle I was trapped in jerked wildly. The creature let out a howl of pain as I slammed into the ground. The tentacle around me went limp and I squirmed free. Serk had hacked part of the tentacle off the creature’s bulk. A warm light engulfed me and my health, which had been dropping rapidly began to refill. I gave Stephan a thumbs up as I tried to catch my breath.

The beast snarled in pain and raised both its tentacles slamming them into the wall above its head. It began to pull, lifting its flabby bulk out of the water trying to get clear of everyone. Unfortunately for the beast this only prevented Serk from being able to hit it. Zavra, Stephan and I unloaded spells on it as Alvor fired arrow after arrow. Within seconds the creatures bulk slammed back into the water splashing all of us with filth. It let out a final wet gurgle as it died.

You have gained 93 XP from Filth Beast. 462 XP divided equally among 5 party members.

Your skills have improved, Evocation Magic level 3, Spell Casting level 4

You have learned new spells.

Level Up!

You have reached character level 4 you have one stat point to distribute.

Sweet! New spells, more daily spells and a Level up. This fight had been disgusting and dangerous but boy was it worth. I immediately assigned my new stat point to Intelligence giving me a nice 10-point boost to my mana and then opened my spell book to look at my new spells.

Ice Bolt (Evocation)

Source Spell

Cast time: Instant

Range: 60 feet

Affect: Hurls a bolt of freezing ice at your target dealing 4-10 ice damage and slowing your target for 2 seconds.

Acidic Arrow (Evocation)

Level 2 Spell

Cast time: Instant

Range: 80 feet

Affect: A green arrow shoots from your palm striking a target within range. Target suffers 12-18 acid damage.

Fire Beam (Evocation)

Level 2 Spell

Cast time: Instant

Range: 30 feet

Affect: Releases a blast of burning flame from your palm in a straight line to a max length of 30 feet. Anyone within the line of fire suffers 15-20 Fire damage.

I certainly hadn’t been expecting a new source spell, that would definitely help me grind out some more skill levels. That acidic arrow sounded nasty. At skill level 4 I now had four daily spells to cast. I had already used two of them to turn Serk invisible, not that it had mattered in the end.

I groaned slightly in disgust as I reached out and touched the beast. Its inventory appeared and I took the few coins it had. I ignored the rest of the filth in its inventory and stepped away. I stopped after a couple steps seeing something floating in the water. I moved over to it and realized it was part of a body. It appeared to be a fresh kill; the man’s lower half was gone. I noticed he was wearing what remained of a dark hooded cloak. I lifted the sleeve on his arm and sure enough saw the familiar tattoo of the cult. ‘That was one of the men I was following, looks like he didn’t get past the beast’ Shadowfire said in disgust. I pushed the body away and joined the others.

“Thanks for the help back there.” I said to Stephan, “that thing would have killed me if you hadn’t healed me.”

“I would not be much of a healer if I did not heal my friends,” he said with a smile.

“We should use caution going forward, I doubt our battle went unnoticed,” Alvor said a moment later. We turned and headed down the tunnel we head been heading for with Alvor leading the way. A few minutes and several tunnels later Alvor stopped at an intersection and crouched low to the ground. “There are more tracks here, headed in different directions. I can no longer see which way our quarry went,” Avlor said in frustration.

“Why would there be more tracks in the sewers?” I asked.

“Rumor has it the thieves’ guild has a hideout somewhere down here, could be them or more cultists,” Serk told me then turned back to Alvor, “Which direction has the most tracks?” Alvor pointed towards the left tunnel. Serk turned back to me, “Can that map of yours show where we are in the city?”

My map appeared a moment later at first it simply showed the maze of tunnels we had traveled through, but with a flick of my mind I zoomed out showing the streets above us. I scanned the map for several long moments trying to get an idea of where we were. I didn’t recognize this part of the city, which confused me for a moment. I wasn’t sure how the map could be showing me part of the city I had never been to before. ‘The map doesn’t just update from you.’ Shadowfire said in answer to my unasked question, ‘you’ve had me flying around the city for the past week remember.’

‘Right, thanks.’ I thought back. I noticed a temple I had never seen before about a block away. It was a domed building with one tower on its side. “Left tunnel heads west, we are about a block or so east of some kind of domed temple.”

“The temple of passage.” Stephan said.

“You have a temple to a god named passage?” I asked in bewilderment.

“No, he is the god who guards the passage between life and death. No one knows what his name is.” Stephan responded. I was about to ask more questions when Serk cut me off, “why don’t we save this discussion for later. What is East of here?”

I scanned the map again, a couple blocks over I saw a tavern Marcus and I had visited once. “Not much just a tavern and a small marketplace,” Serk was quiet for several moments.

“I don’t like the idea of wandering around down here. If the thieves guild is nearby, I doubt they would take too kindly to adventurers at their door. Then again if it is the assassin or any of his cultist friends…” Serk trailed off in thought.

“What if the thieves guild is helping the cultists?” Stephan asked.

“That is a possibility.” Zavra said solemnly.

“I don’t feel like crossing the thieves guild they have their hands in a lot of pockets in this city. I wish we could tell for certain which way the assassin went.” Serk said in frustration. I looked at the tunnels around us desperately hoping for some clue the others might have missed. Shadowfire nuzzled against my neck sensing my frustration. An idea occurred to me, and I looked at the little dragon. ‘Hey Shadowfire, could you sense the assassin? You have that sense ability, right? You picked up where the goblins camp was, and it was miles away.’

‘Afraid not. My skill lets me sense pockets of life force, like the goblins camp or even Ravensbrook, but here in Ravensbrook there is too much energy around me. I can’t sense a specific person or group of people. I’m sorry’ Shadowfire said mournfully. I rubbed his little head comfortingly ‘That’s alright buddy’

“I say we press on for a few more minutes.” Serk said after several long moments of silence. So, we trudged through the sewers for several more minutes until Alvor called a halt. He could see more tracks now coming and going from multiple directions. Rather than push our luck, I sent Shadowfire to scout ahead. We stood in silence for long moments until Shadowfire returned, “There are people ahead, I don’t think their cultists though. Looked more like thieves they were in a large chamber roughly 100 yards ahead.” Shadowfire said softly to the group.

“That would be the thieves guild alright, I’d put coin on it,” Serk said.

“Would they really be working with the cultists?” I asked.

“I don’t know if they are, might be our quarry heard us coming and ducked into busier tunnels to hide their tracks,” Serk said thoughtfully, “Or they are working together for some reason. Either way I think it best if we head back for now.”

“Did everyone else know his familiar could talk?” Stephan said looking around the group. I chuckled and patted him on the back as we turned and made our way to the nearest sewer grate. Climbing out I got a wonderful breath of fresh air, after an hour of wandering around the sewers it was a relief to be out of there. Serk patted me on the back and led the way back through the streets. Many people starred at us as we passed many covering their noses and mouths in disgust. Rather than head for the Lucky Gnome, Serk lead us to the adventurer’s guild. We pushed our way inside getting a few disgusted looks as we approached Ardwin sitting at his desk.

He scowled at us as we approached, “What is the meaning of this, you’re getting filth all over the floor.” Without saying a word Serk pulled one of the Filth Beast’s eyes from his inventory and tossed it onto the desk with a wet thwap. Ardwin nearly fell of his seat getting away from it, something foul started oozing out of the eye and onto the desk. “W-W-W-What is that thing?!” Ardwin stuttered.

“Just the remains of a Filth Beast that was living in the sewers. I am sure the city will be happy to know its dead and not terrorizing anyone anymore.” Serk said with a smug look.

“It just so happens we got a quest for something lurking in the sewers earlier. I will mark it as complete.” Ardwin sneered pulling a sack of coins from thin air. He tossed them at Serk who smiled and put the eye back into his inventory.

“A pleasure doing business with you Ardwin, as always.” Serk turned towards the rest of us, “Time to get cleaned up, head for the showers.”

The guild had a series of showers in the back for adventurers to use. It was little more than a simple private room with a chair, a table, a clothes and armor rack that magically cleaned anything hung on it and the bathroom. I stripped out of my disgusting clothes placing them on the rack and stepped into the shower. I stood for several long minutes letting the hot water wash all the stank off me. Shadowfire even joined me briefly washing his scales clean. Now clean, I turned off the shower, dried off, and wrapped the towel around my waist. I sank into the chair letting exhaustion wash over me. I nearly fell asleep right there until there was a knock on my door. “One moment!” I shouted and hastily reequipped my clothes and armor, now clean thanks to the magic rack. I moved over to the door and opened it. Zavra was standing on the other side dressed in a soft red dress her hair still damp from the shower. My breath caught as I saw her, she was so pretty.

“Hey” I said with a smile.

“Hi, I just wanted to make sure you were ok. You did almost get eaten by a monster today,” she said shyly tucking a loose strand of hair behind her slightly pointed ear.

“I’m fine, just tired. I have a feeling I am going to sleep good tonight.” I said stepping out into the hallway. “Where are the others?”

“Oh, they already headed for the Lucky Gnome. I thought maybe we could walk back together.” She said giving me a nervous smile.

“That sounds lovely.” I said offering her my arm. She wrapped her arms around mine, and we left the guild slowly making our way back to the Lucky Gnome. The last rays of sunlight were fading as we made our way slowly down the streets. We didn’t talk much simply enjoying each other’s company. All to soon we were standing outside the Lucky Gnome. “I am glad you are ok.” Zavra said with a smile looking up at me. I smiled back at her looking deep into her soft blue eyes. She leaned in and kissed me gently on the cheek and I felt my face go flush with excitement. She pulled away giving me one last look before entering the Inn. I stood dumbfounded for a moment resting my hand on my cheek.

I shook my head clear and followed her inside meeting up with everyone else at their usual table. We decided to spend the next few nights patrolling much as we had been before. We were certain the cult was still active within the city and needed to figure out what they were up too. I had potentially one week left of training in the Dojo so long as I could reach level 6 in my Draco Jitsu skill. I told Serk and the others of my potential graduation ceremony the following Saturday and they were more than happy to come to it.

We spent the rest of the evening chatting, eating, and drinking though the mood was a bit more subdued than usual. Rather than head back to the library I rented a room at the Inn, if all went well this week, I would be leaving the Dojo by weeks end so securing a place to stay within the city seemed like a good idea.

As I settled into bed that night, I noticed a small icon blinking the in the corner of my vision. Curious I mental clicked it and a window appeared.

You have completed the quest What Lurks in the Sewers. You have been awarded 95 XP.

Sweet! Serk head already handed out the gold, a whopping 45, for the quest. I had been a little too distracted to even think about the experience I gained from completing the quest. With that XP I now had 1,043 Experience points and I needed 1,400 to hit level 5. I was eager to see what classes I would be offered when I reached that level. I closed the window and rolled over, falling asleep within minutes.