Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 4

Quietus arrived at the back door of the assassin’s guild at exactly the appointed time. Well, maybe. He’d really only been told to be there at night. It was night, so he was exactly on time by his count. He stared at what he could see of the door in this shadowy alley. Yes, this was probably the right door. It was unmarked, unlike the front door, but that would only make sense for truly clandestine activities. Quietus decides that he had spent long enough staring at the stupid door, and performed the secret knock. Well, he would have, but he couldn’t remember it. In fact, he didn’t remember learning a secret knock at all.

Quietus knocked on the door. He heard a voice from the other side.

“Password?”

“I wasn’t given a password,” replied Quietus. He hoped they wouldn’t kill him for forgetting the password. Forgetting the secret knock and the password was very embarrassing. He usually had a good memory for these things.

“No password? ... Ah good you’re not someone we sent to get killed then. Come on in.” The door would have creaked open, but the hinges were rather well oiled so it just opened quietly.

Inside was a man who was obviously some kind of warrior- armor, weapons, broken nose. Quietus had expected someone dressed in black and whispering from the shadows. There were actually very few of those inside as well. Shadows, that is. It looks like they understood that people need to be able to see to walk around.

“I was sent here by Frank,” Quietus explained after the door was shut behind him to keep out the cold.

“Sure, he’s in that room over there, waiting with the other new recruit. Go on in, he’ll explain.”

Quietus wondered about the other recruit. Suddenly, a strange sense of fate rose up inside him. Could it be that the person he had been looking for this whole time except when he was stalking that bard would show up here, when he wasn’t looking? On stepping into the room, he knew his feelings were true. He saw short, blond hair, and a thin build.

The hair was a bit different though. Actually, wasn’t this a male? He really looked nothing like Solara except the hair color being a bit similar. When he saw the man’s face, he was sickened at the thought of even considering that this person was Solara. He kept his face neutral though. He didn’t want to aggravate a possible future guildmate. Although he wasn’t really convinced on becoming an assassin. Still, he also didn’t want to make assassins angry at him.

Frank started with an explanation, “Welcome, potential recruits, welcome. We have gathered all of you” he put an emphasis on the all of you, as if to say he was well aware there were only two people listening, “all of you here today, based on your demonstrated skills and proclivities. Your inclination for our trade, and the mettle to pursue it. Will you skyrocket through our ranks, or be yet another disappointment? It is up to you to decide! Also, your natural talents. Plus, whoever you have connections with will help greatly. Luck will be a deciding factor for some of it. Oh, right. If either of you are here because you think this is an introduction to the assassin class, just leave. That’s not what this is about. We have a front door and operating hours for that.”

Quietus was surprised, but somewhat relieved, to hear this. He didn’t want to be the assassin class. He still felt the draw of magic, even though he was acutely aware of the lack of magic guilds in the city. He was also surprised to see the other player walk out- had the man no sense of curiosity? Quietus was then surprised a final time to hear the player scream unpleasantly after they were out of the room.

“Umm...”

Frank answered the unspoken question, “We are not above being petty. It disappoints us to have promising recruits end up being uninteresting people. Now then, to the matter at hand. Be aware that you are forbidden to speak what transpires after this, upon penalty of death, to anyone not involved in it. Also, we are aware that foreigners have the nasty habit of coming back to life, so be aware that we will kill you a lot if you let any of our secrets out. We’re petty. Last chance to leave without hearing our dark secrets, and since you’re such a nice young lad we won’t even kill you on the way out.”

Quietus wanted to cover all his bases. “If I hear your secret, and don’t join you, but also don’t tell anyone, what happens then?”

“Then we kill you once out of pettiness. Any further questions?”

Quietus had none, so he just shook his head. He also stayed in the room.

“Right, well then, here it is. We kill people.”

Quietus stood there waiting for the secret.

Frank stood there staring at Quietus.

The silence was getting awkwardly long, so Quietus said, “Ok, but what’s the secret?”

“That’s the secret. Well, not really. The secret is that we don’t just kill monsters. We are hired out to kill people as well, although those who become ‘assassins’ generally just hunt monsters. However, if you join the real guild, be you a warrior, wizard, or even a painter, you will kill people. On commission, or sometimes on the whim of a high ranking member. Always for profit.”

“I don’t really see why that has to be much of a secret, seems like something any assassins guild should do.”

“Interesting. Have you no qualms about killing people? Not just vile monsters, but the shopkeeper down the street, or the knight in his castle?”

Quietus, even if you ignored the fact that he may have been somewhat of a sociopath, found nothing wrong with killing people. It was, after all, just a game. Players respawned. NPCs stayed dead, sure, but they weren’t really sentient or anything, so he had no reason to feel bad for them. He did have to take the chance to make a snide remark, however. “Well, I am a bit ill-equipped to kill a knight. I think I’ll pass on that for now.”

Frank smiled. Not entirely the kind of creepy smile you would expect from a professional murderer, but a genuine smile. Slightly creepy as well, but truly happy.

“Then, how would you like to join the true order of assassins?”

You have been offered a position as a novice in the Order of Silence.

“Well, I’ll get paid, right? Sounds great.” And it did.

You have joined the Order of Silence as a novice. Do jobs for the guild to earn reputation and infamy.

*Ting*

The True Nature of the Guild

Quest Completed!

*Ding*

You have gained a level!

Quietus was happy to have his very first level up. He distributed 5 points into Agility, since he felt that would be useful. He also distributed 5 points to luck. It couldn’t hurt to have that.

“Now then, how would you like your first assignment?” Frank didn’t actually wait for Quietus to answer, “This man here,” he gestured to a sketch of a rather plain looking man’s face, “has annoyed someone with money. His name is Marcus Phinx, and he is a beginning merchant. He has been in this country some time longer than you, but has no combat skills to speak of, so you should be capable of carrying out this job. No specifications on how he should be killed. No time limit given, but he is likely to be leaving the city within a few days, after which the difficulty will significantly increase. Here is an advance. If you fail to complete the job, we have ways of obtaining it back. Any questions?”

Quietus didn’t really have any questions. All he was thinking about was the shiny dagger the advance would buy him, and how he couldn’t wait for this guy to be dead.

*Ting*

Assassination

Kill Marcus Phinx.

Specifications: None

Estimated Difficulty Level: E

You accepted the quest.

Quietus automatically accepted the quest. Not that he was planning to refuse it. Now he had something about this game that he was, unexpectedly, looking forward to.

End Chapter 4

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