Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 3

Quietus was angry at this shadowy figure who had laughed at him. How could he do that? It was so disrespectful! Quietus himself would never do such a thing! Well, he might laugh at people, but not out loud. Unless it was really funny. To be fair, he did get literally thrown out of a building. It was rather funny now that he thought about it. Still, what was this stranger doing laughing at him? This shadowy, cloaked figure. Such a figure radiated an aura of mystery. In fact, he was sure that it was on purpose. He almost didn’t want to go look, but he had the feeling the person had been waiting nearby for some nefarious purpose. Perhaps they had a grudge with the training instructor and were waiting around, looking for the perfect time to seek revenge. Perhaps they waited on a clandestine lover (not very clandestinely now, though). Maybe they were just wandering the streets in the wee hours of the morning for no reason.

Thus, in the time it took him to walk the distance to the alleyway, Quietus had convinced himself out of his rather irrational anger and acquired himself an intense curiosity. Quietus quickly came up with a clever plan to find out the figure’s identity. “Who are you?” he asked.

“Me? I have been called the messenger of the night, deliverer of death, seller of secrets, and a whole bunch of other mysterious names which may or may not be applicable. You may call me Frank. It is not my name, but my associates and I aren’t big on names.”

“So, what is this association that appears to consist of a creepy person standing in an alleyway?”

“That I can answer. We’re the assassin’s guild, and we even have guildhall here in the city and everything. It appears in broad daylight, with a sign to let people know. That, of course, is where people recruit assassins to go fight monsters. This really rather makes us into rogues or some such. Rather a boring business... but that’s not why I’m here. One of our contacts told us about you as a potential candidate, and it’s pretty obvious that you’re not cut out to be a warrior. Still, we’ve seen some of the qualities we like in you.”

“Are all assassins this long winded?”

“No, but many of us are when we are being Frank. Details can be key. Well, I’ll be brief for this part. Come to the back of the guild tonight... or perhaps tomorrow night, depending on how you count your days. We can have a little test run to see if you fit in with us.”

*Ting*

The True Nature of the Guild

Bet your future and your life on discovering the true nature of the assassin’s guild. Visit the guild at the appointed time for your trial.

Difficulty level: E

Quest requirements

Display the attributes of an assassin, and be noticed by the right people.

“Umm... okay.” Quietus was not the best at interacting with people, possibly best displayed by the fact that he smart mouthed a shady character in an alleyway. Sometimes, however, he just had a stupid mouth.

You accepted the quest.

Then, the man who was called Frank disappeared. There wasn’t a puff of smoke or any sign of his departure, he was just gone. Quietus thought that was a pretty cool thing to be able to do. It was like magic. Well, maybe it was, you couldn’t really rule that out in this game. Quietus went on to the morgue. It opened early, and maybe there would be something for him to do there.

“We gotcha some special lessons today,” said Jack. On the table lay a body. So far, this was a pretty normal day for Quietus. “This here person is a foreigner, something like you. See if you can tell what offed him.”

Quietus put his recently acquired accelerated learning of anatomy and death to the test. First, the guy didn’t have any large stab wounds or anything. Severed limbs would be a pretty good indicator of cause of death as well. He hadn’t actually seen any of that stuff, but he had put them on the list of things to look for anyway, just in case. It took a while, and it was only after an hour that he found a slight discoloration on the man’s neck. He pointed it out. “Umm... maybe poison? There’s a discoloration there. Although I suppose he could have been sick, or had a rash or something.”

“Hmm, not bad for a beginner. This sorry example of a corpse is what we call sloppy work. If a man gets killed by a professional, the poison shouldn’t leave any marks. At least, if he wants it to be a mystery. I suppose you might be wondering where we get all these bodies. There certainly aren’t enough citizens in this town to support such a death rate. Well, it’s mostly foreigners that come through here. We generally pick them up in the countryside, don’t want them just lying around. Our job here is to dispose of them properly. Sometimes, we look into what killed a man, ‘specially if he dies inside the city limits. Sometimes, we look, but not too hard. A wise man knows when not to look.”

Jack went on to teach Quietus more in depth about the various ways people died, all “foreigners”. Quietus realized these were players. He had assumed the bodies of players who died just... went away. That was what usually happened in games. It was very odd to think there was actually a way it was dealt with by NPCs in the game. Somehow, he never found it odd that he was involved in this, just that it existed at all.

After half a day of working with dead bodies, something he was strangely coming to enjoy, he was done for the day. He set off through the town. Today would be the day. He was going to find Solara and nothing could stop him. No army, no walls, nothing. He would not be distracted by- hey look it’s that redheaded bard.

He quickly followed her down a side street, keeping his distance. For some reason, she always seemed to do her practice, if that’s what it was, away from the main streets. Maybe she didn’t like being watched, which is an odd thing for a bard. Or dancer. He wasn’t really sure which. Today, it seems, she was practicing both at once. The combinations of song and dance were a bit awkward. Eventually, though, she matched them together quite well. She seemed to get tired much more quickly, and often had to take breaks. During these breaks, she would sit down and look around. Quietus had to put more effort into not being seen. One time, he had just ducked around a corner when-

*Ting*

You have learned a skill

Stealth

It is harder for people to notice you while this skill is active. All stamina consumption is increased while this skill is in use. Quick movement and combat will cancel the skill.

Quietus was surprised. He hadn’t really been sneaking around much or anything. Well, that was how he thought, because he was so used to doing it in real life too. He was sort of a natural. Perhaps not naturally good at it, although he was not bad, but he was definitely a natural at performing the act of sneaking. This was because he was a creep shy. Sometimes, he just didn’t want people to see him. Especially when he was stalking watching observing umm... anyway, those times with Solara.

Quietus decided he would keep the skill activated while watching the bard, since she seemed to want privacy and he didn’t want to disrupt her concentration. During her next few breaks, he caught her looking rather puzzled. He wasn’t sure why that would be. Was there someone else around to make noise or otherwise distract her? He kept watch for this, but mostly he paid attention to her. Still, he did have to watch his back in case anyone saw him stalking her appeared and distracted her.

That night, he went to his meeting, although he really wanted to be a wizard. Still, it seemed like a bad idea to turn down an invitation from an assassin, even a relatively nice one. Plus he had a quest, and he heard those gave experience and stuff. He figured he could use some experience, since he would probably be leaving town soon. The restriction to the city was almost over, and even if he wouldn’t have gone out of the city, he was sure Solara was going to be going out. Hopefully he would find her before then, but he he was starting to lose any hope of that.

End Chapter 3

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