ShanDeRad
patreon
Chapter 16
🕑 Added 2024-04-20 17:37:40 +0000 UTC“Shaun, what have you done?”, Shaun turned around to look at who had just spoken, standing behind him was Gabe, who was the one that just spoke, was standing there beside him was Eric, both of them with looks of shock on their face, even a bit of fear.
“It's not what you think, I know this looks bad…..” Shaun started.
“This doesn’t just look bad Shaun! We just saw you slit a man's throat, not to even mention the two other bodies that are lying around!” Gabe interrupted.
“If you let me explain, I promise that this will all make more sense. Just please, let me explain.” He was practically begging them to just listen to his story. Over the past week he had gotten close to them, he didn’t want one misunderstanding to destroy the bonds they had formed since they started hunting together as a group.
“Okay we are listening.” This time it was Eric who had spoken, he seemed a little more level headed then Gabe at the moment, not that he blamed him, what they had just witnessed would have been pretty shocking, they had never seen someone die before, let alone being killed by someone they called a friend.
“Do you guys mind if I sit down before telling you the story? I’m not exactly in the best shape.” Shaun moved across to the wall and sat down, leaning back he got as comfortable as he could, he was still pretty hurt from the fight, the health potion only doing so much to heal him. Neither Gabe nor Eric moved any closer to him, or even asked if he was okay, he wouldn’t hold it against them though, when he looked at the entire situation from their point of view it was pretty bad.
Shaun started from the beginning, right from when he had heard the fight and got caught by the other rogue, he didn’t leave out any details and told them everything that happened, including what he had been thinking during each part of the battle and his decision to come back after getting away to make sure they wouldn’t hurt them when they got here. It took longer than Shaun expected, the entire fight lasted only 5 minutes, from the moment he was caught to coming back and finishing off the warrior and archer, but by the time he had finished recounting everything 30 minutes had to have passed.
Once he was finished there was only silence, they hadn’t asked him any questions through his retelling and now they seemed to just be thinking it all over, processing the implications of everything Shaun had said. Everything that he had done was only now dawning on Shaun himself, he hadn’t had any time to process what had occurred but after having to relive it all and justify his decisions it all came crashing down on him.
I am a murderer. There was no way around that fact, he had killed them. He could have run before the fighting started but instead, he had decided to meet them head on. He could partially justify needing to kill the rogue, if he hadn’t they never would have let him go and there was no way he would be able to lose them. But the other two? He had made the decision to turn back and kill the other. And he did so, not in the middle of a fight, but in cold blood.
“It’s finally hitting you, isn’t it?” Eric asked him. Shaun couldn’t even speak at that moment, the only thing going through his head was, I am a murderer. So instead of replying he just nodded, hoping that would be enough for Eric. Instead of walking away, which Shaun fully expected him to do in that moment, Eric walked over to him and sat beside him, he took out his health potion and tried to hand it to him. “You look like you need this”
Shaun shook his head, not taking the offered potion, “I really don’t deserve it.”
“Maybe, maybe not.” Eric let out a loud sigh, thinking over his next words. “If I had been in your situation and they had come at me if I was alone…..I would have defended myself and if I am being honest, if I needed to, I think I would have fought to the bitter end to survive. I don’t think that makes me a bad person and I don’t think that makes you a bad person for actually doing it Shaun. But coming back to kill the warrior and the archer, even though you did it to protect us, I just don’t know if I could have done that. And that……that is what I am having a hard time processing. We watched you kill that guy, you didn’t have to, but you chose to do it.”
Eric didn’t continue after that, it seemed like he had said everything that he needed to, and again silence enveloped the tunnel. Shaun just kept thinking about how it felt to kill those men but just couldn’t reconcile the thoughts he had during the battle and what he was thinking now. What has happened to me? It’s only been a week in here and already I have turned into someone I don’t even recognise. The worst part for Shaun, if he was asked if he would have changed anything about what he had done, he didn’t know what his answer would be.
“What do we do now?” Gabe asked them, he still hadn’t moved any closer to Shaun, and when he looked at him, Gabe purposely turned to look at Eric, not meeting his eyes.
“Shaun, you need to loot the bodies.” Eric said, “Don’t argue, it has to be done. When we meet back up with the others we have to tell them what happened, or at least most of what happened. We will say that you came across them while scouting and they questioned you, asking about who you were, why you were alone and that they told you about this ruin and who was running it. Then when you turned around to take them back to us they attacked. By the time Gabe and I caught up you were hurt badly and the others were dead. It’s the truth mostly……and to make it believable you need to loot the bodies. We would never leave behind valuable resources, especially if they came from murderers, right?”
“That’s not exactly the truth though is it.” Gabe replied, not disagreeing with what Eric had said but also not sounding like he was happy to go along with it either.
“It's not a lie though, they attacked, when we arrived they were dead, Shaun was hurt. All of that is true. If we go back there and start saying that he saw Shaun kill that man what do you think will happen Gabe? At the very least they will send him away, worst case though, they try to kill him claiming that he is a cold blooded killer that is too dangerous to keep alive. They might still do either of those things, you never know with Michael and Trevor in charge.”
It took a minute for Gabe to agree, but eventually he came around. He still hadn’t said a word to Shaun, hadn’t even looked at him, but he at least didn’t want him to have to face the consequences of what would occur if the full truth of events came out to the rest of the group. It was going to be bad enough as it was.
“Let's get this over with then” Shaun said, standing up from the wall. He walked over to the first body when the notification popped up asking if he wanted to loot the 3 bodies. With a shiver coursing through his body he accepted, doing this on monsters was fine, doing it on humans, it just felt wrong. Unlike when he would loot a monster, this time the bodies didn’t disappear, instead the items they had went straight into his inventory.
*Two Basic Daggers from (Paul Decardo – Lvl 4) added to inventory*
*Short Sword Sheath from (Paul Decardo – Lvl 4) added to inventory*
*Basic Bow from (Daniel Truman – Lvl 4) added to inventory*
*Basic Quiver from (Daniel Truman – Lvl 4) added to inventory*
*Basic Long Sword from (Jason Lerser – Lvl 4) added to inventory*
*Basic Chest Armour from (Jason Lerser – Lvl 4) added to inventory*
*Five Basic Health potions added to inventory*
*Two Basic Stamina potions added to inventory*
*The inventory of three Level 4 humans have been transferred to your inventory*
He took out one of the health potions he had just received and drank it down as he still refused to accept the one that Eric tried to hand him. The rest he would look at later, it really wasn’t important at the moment. He still had notification flashing at him from the fight that he just hadn’t had the heart to look at, knowing that when he did, the three notifications from killing three people would be in there and it would hit him all over again.
He went to collect the two daggers that he had lost during the initial fight, the first being on the ground from where he had thrown it at the archer but the second….He walked up to the body of the rogue and hesitated, he had put the dagger in his chest, ending the man's life and now he was going to just rip it out, like it was nothing to him?
“Just do it Shaun so we can get out of here.” Gabe said, well at least he is speaking to me now. He reached down and took the dagger out of Paul’s chest, he wiped off of the blood and put it back in its sheath at his waist. “Let's head back now, I am done with this day.” And with that he started walking off.
Eric gave Shaun one last look, attempting a smile but only reaching half way before turning and following Gabe. Looks like I will be following from behind this time, Shaun thought, there is no way that anyone is going to believe their story if Gabe continued to act the way he was.
About an hour of walking they were about halfway back to the cavern, Gabe and Eric had spoken to each other up front but neither had turned around once, not even acknowledging he was there. Shaun decided that he needed to go through his pending notification before they all got back, he would rather deal with it while he was relatively alone then surrounded by people in the cavern.
*You have defeated (Paul Decardo – Lvl 4). Experience gained. 832 TE awarded*
*You have defeated (Jason Lerser– Lvl 4). Experience gained. 1256 TE awarded*
*You have defeated (Daniel Truman – Lvl 4). Experience gained. 759 TE awarded*
Seeing those notifications was just as hard as Shaun expected, he needed a few minutes to just look at them and process what was clearly written in front of his face before moving on. Eventually he came to the conclusion that this might not be the last time he saw this type of notification. Out of the 100,000 people that were in this tutorial the odds of only three of them turning out to be murderers was slim, people changed when they were taken out of their normal lives and thrown into a kill or die situation like the tutorial. Shaun could attest to that. He also made a decision, an important one, if he was ever in a situation like the one he was just in, where he ended up having to fight for his life against other people, he wouldn’t hesitate to defend himself and if he could, he would let them live. But he wouldn’t risk his own life, he wasn’t ready to die.
*Class: Rogue has levelled up by +1 levels. Rogue [Basic] has reached Level 10. +1 Str, +3 Dex, +1 End, +3 Per gained*
*Race: Human has levelled up by +1 levels. Human (F) has reached Level 5. +4 Ap gained*
*Multiple Skill Level ups: [Basic] Short Blade – Level 23*
*Multiple Skill Level up: [Basic] Stealth – Level 25 - MAX*
*Skill Level up: [Basic] Detection – Level 20*
What?!?!?! Why does it say max next to stealth? I only just hit level 10 in my class, 25 can't be the max level of a skill can it? Shaun didn’t like this at all. He looked at the skill description and it hadn’t changed, he couldn’t find anything to indicate why level 25 would be the max level. Unless, it is because of the Basic in front of the still itself, maybe it’s a rarity thing, and the lower it is the lower level it can reach? He was starting to get really frustrated with the lack of information he had available to him, this damn system isn’t helpful in the least when it comes to explaining things!
*New Class Skill Available: Please choose from one of the following options:*
Oh, okay, I take it back, what a great system. Now he was excited, he had hit the max level in a skill which he assumed was an achievement and now he got to pick a new one. It was a class skill which made sense, and he figured that it either had something to do with either hitting max level in stealth or hitting level 10, but again without more information, he really couldn’t tell. Let’s see what I get to choose from.
*[Basic] Dual Wielder – What better than one blade? Two of course! This skill unlocks the basic understanding on how to dual wield weapons.*
I want it. This has been a weakness of mine since the beginning, especially since I have started throwing my daggers. Now that I have a short sword and extra daggers, being able to wield a weapon in both hands would make a huge difference in a fight. But no decisions before I see every choice, Shaun decided.
*[Basic] Critical Weakness – A Rogues needs to know where and when to hit their target. This skill unlocks the basic ability to find a being's weak spot/s before entering a fight. Can not be used if already engaged in combat.*
This one is okay, not good, but still decent. Being able to see a monster's weakness before a battle would be helpful but only if you always saw an attack coming. Not as good as Dual Wielder though. I am going to have to pass.
*[Advanced] One with the Shadow – A Rogue is nothing without being able to move in the shadow’s unseen. This skill allows for an advanced understanding of how to move without being seen or heard. If attacking from Stealth, offers a medium chance of dealing critical damage. Note: This skill is an upgrade on the [Basic] Stealth skill, this skill will replace the existing one.*
Damn it! Shaun thought. He could see it pretty clearly now, he would need to upgrade his stealth skill if he wanted to increase the level. This one was advanced, clearly a label to show that it was a step above a basic skill, the name also changed to show its superiority over just Stealth and in most other ways the description of the skill didn’t change outside of showing it was the same skill but just better.
Now Shaun was torn, he wanted to keep being able to upgrade his stealth skill but he also wanted to be able to wield two weapons. As he walked he kept going back and forth between the two until they were almost to the cavern, and just when he could see the light brightening in front of him, he finally made his decision.
*Skill Gained*: [Basic] Dual Wielder (Level 1) – What better than one blade? Two of course! This skill unlocks the basic understanding on how to dual wield weapons.
Now it was time to face the disaster waiting for him inside.
