Mist of Shadows
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Bracelet Hero Part 5
🕑 Added 2021-11-15 21:54:33 +0000 UTC"This is your fault!" the merchant screamed as he frantically waved the reins, trying to get his tyrellas to move faster and wishing he hadn't taken the group's silver, mostly because there was something about them that seemed to draw the monsters like moths to a flame.
"Bullshit!" Myst lied as he ducked behind the wooden rail of the man's wagon as the group of porcupine-like monsters sent a volley of spikes at the slaver's wagon, causing the enchanted wood to splinter and crack where the spines dug themselves in.
"Thunder and lightning hear my call," Anna chanted as she huddled behind one of the wooden shields the merchant had been transporting in addition to the slaves. She smiled when she heard the crash of thunder and the squeals of various monsters.
Myst barely noticed the transparent popup that displayed the fact that he'd managed to reach level five when he saw the notice that his mage profession had just given him a fireball spell and 'burned' the information into his mind. "Fire that burns!" he chanted, then raised his hands and tossed a 'weak' fireball at the mass of monsters, causing most of the group to die as the fire flowed over them, giving him a decent amount of experience.
"Do you want me to boost the mounts?" Lyno asked, wishing she'd stayed in the capital.
"No point," Myst replied as he pulled several jugs of his poison berry concentrate out of his inventory and tossed them towards the group of monsters. "They're worth experience!"
"You're insane!" the merchant shouted, then gurgled when several spines came from in front of the wagon and turned him into a pin cushion along with one of the two dragon mounts.
"Stay down!" Anna ordered the slaves that were huddled in the wagon, hoping the crates they were hiding behind and the bags of supplies they'd pulled over themselves gave them enough protection to survive.
"Fire that burns!" Myst shouted as he grabbed the side of the wagon with his left hand, pulled himself up and gestured with his right hand, sending a ball of flames towards the large group of porcupines in front of them. "Fire that burns!" he shouted as he was thrown off the wagon as it lurched and nearly tipped over, causing his spell to go wide and hit a flock of birds that were flying towards them.
Myst grunted when he hit the ground, rather glad that his bouncing ability had mitigated some of the damage. "Fire that burns!" he shouted the incantation and tossed the resulting fireball at the group in front as the merchant's guard jumped out of his seat and ran for the hills, only to get bitten and ripped apart by a group of thirty large snakes that came out of the grass.
'I need better spells!' Anna complained mentally as she tried to figure out which group of monsters to attack.
"Fire that burns!" Myst shouted and he tossed the resulting ball of fire at the surviving porcupines in front. He grinned as he got another notice about hitting level six then reached up and pulled his cheap necklace off that boosted his strength by five points and drastically increased the range that monsters would seek him out and stuffed it in his inventory. "Fire that burns!" he shouted and tossed another ball of fire at the survivors of the first group of porcupines, putting them out of their misery.
Lyno grabbed her bow off the wagon bed and started shooting at the snakes that were coming towards them. "Snakes!"
"I'm running out of mana!" Anna complained then chanted, "Thunder and lightning hear my call!" sending a bolt of lightning from the heavens into the group of snakes.
Myst pulled out one of his alcoholic recovery potions out of his inventory and downed it then charged around the wagon as he chanted, "Fire that burns!" He tossed the fireball at the snakes and grinned when it wiped the group out and gave him enough experience to reach level seven. "Is everyone alive?"
Lyno helped Anna check on the slaves. "I'm pretty sure the merchant is dead."
"I meant everyone important," Myst replied as he walked over and touched one of the dead snakes with his bracelet, picking up a bracelet that looked like a twisted snake that gave him three points of agility and a five point boost to agility and an additional 5% poison resistance while it was active. "I thought the merchant said this area was reasonably safe?"
Anna gave Myst a look that said, I know this is your fault and we'll talk about it later. "It might be the upcoming wave," she offered, knowing the soon to be ex-slaves would carry tales.
Myst looked at Lyno. "Can you unhook the dead dragon from the wagon? We can probably make it to town with one of them."
"Of course," Lyno replied as she jumped out of the wagon and went over to unhook the dead dragon and change the harness. "It's going to be slower."
"Probably," Myst agreed as he headed over to loot the dead guard. He would have felt worse about the slave merchant's death if his slaves had been in better health and if he hadn't been ranting to his guard about the shield hero. He looted the man down to his skivvies then walked over and did the same to the merchant, picking up nearly five hundred silver in a bag that was larger on the inside as well as a magic whip, a couple of bottles of slave ink and a magic pen that he fed to his bracelet.
He glanced at the coiled leather bracelet that increased his magic stat by 1 and gave him resistance to pain while it was active. 'Could be worse, at least I'll be able to grab the enchant to share with my party,' he mused as he looked at the Ink Bracelet, a black bracelet that seemed to be formed out of ink. "Sweet!"
Anna looked up from bandaging one of the slaves' arms from a previous wound. "What did you get?"
Myst glanced at the slaves that Anna was checking over for injuries. "I'll tell you later. Do I need to break out the healing books?"
"It wouldn't hurt but none of the spines hit them so I think we'll be fine until we get to the next village or at least until we get out of this monster infested area," Anna suggested.
"In that case, I'm going to start harvesting the snakes, see if you can find anything useful in the wagon," Myst suggested as he walked over and started harvesting the snakes, figuring someone would want the hide and poison glands.
"What are we going to do with the slaves?" Lyno asked.
"We have a wagon filled with loot we probably don't need and the slave seals should have vanished when the merchant died. I don't have a problem helping them get somewhere safe and sending them on their way with the profits," Myst replied, figuring he could leave Lyno to help the slaves deal with selling the loot while he investigated Raphtalia's old master.
He was slightly annoyed that all he got from the porcupine spines was a spiked bracelet that gave him +2 attack power and a spike attack that looked like a waste of SP but at least the meat scanned as edible. Thankfully the PikyuPikyu birds he'd toasted gave him a PikyuPikyu Bracelet which gave him a Special Equipment ability that would let his equipment regenerate if he was wearing it.
A chunk of the dragon meat on the other hand, netted him a Tyrella Bracelet with an equipment bonus that increased his movement speed by 10% and an extra 15% while wearing it.
0o0o0
Myst would have felt worse just dropping the ex-slaves off with lord Reichnott and rushing off but he was rushing off to save a bunch of children from a sadistic lunatic. Unfortunately, he was a sadistic lunatic with a decent number of guards and levels so they were forced to get creative which was why he'd been concentrating several jugs of his poisoned wine into something even more potent on the drive to the man's town. "I'm going to have to thank Reichnott for letting us borrow the wagon."
"Considering we left the enchanted wagon as collateral and basically gave his town a large influx of coins and supplies, I think we're more than even," Lyno replied. "How are you planning on dealing with the noble?"
Myst shrugged. "I'm planning on paying someone to slip it into his wine or at least get it in the area and break the jugs, he should fall over or at least his guards will. Either way, he has a bunch of children in a dungeon under his mansion, he's a dead man walking. I'm willing to live and let live most of the time but he's a monster. Hell, he's worse than the monsters, the monsters are just following their natures."
"Who are you going to get to do it?" Lyno asked.
"Probably the innkeeper or the stableboy if my first plan doesn't work, I'm not particularly picky and someone is very likely to want him gone given his behavior and general attitude towards people," he explained as they headed towards the gates. He flashed the guards a smile when they got close enough for them to see him. "Evening."
"What are you hauling?" one of the guards asked.
Myst shrugged. "Barrels, I'm not the usual driver. He said something about wine and having to bribe people. I wasn't really paying attention, am I supposed to give the mayor several barrels or something?"
"The lord? It certainly makes things easier," one of the guards replied with a smirk.
"Tell you what," Myst said as he grabbed a bottle of wine from behind him and held it out towards the guard. "I'll give you this if you make sure the lord gets the barrels, that way I don't have to bribe the people at the keep to give him the barrels I'm supposed to deliver."
"In other words, you're giving me wine to take the barrels that he's supposed to receive in the back?" the guard asked.
"Basically, I was told the guys at the mansion were greedy and you seem like a fine upstanding guy," Myst lied, barely able to keep a straight face and happy that it was edging towards evening as it helped conceal his features.
"No problem," the guard replied with a grin then turned to his buddy. "What do you think?"
"I think we're drinking on him tonight and we were just about to close the gate anyways," the other guard said with a grin.
"Excellent, where do I go?" Myst asked, fairly sure his plan was insane, except for the fact that it was working. It barely took five minutes to take the cart to the noble's side door and start unloading the barrels. Of course, that was when the lord and several guards came out of the kitchen to investigate the wine that he hadn't ordered. Of course, merely dropping one of the barrels solved the entire issue as the poisoned mist filled the entryway and dropped all of the guards and the corrupt lord unconscious.
"Holy shit," Anna sputtered as she took a couple of steps back from the cloud of purple mist and covered her mouth and nose with her arm, glad that she'd been grabbing another barrel with Lyno when the barrel broke.
Myst glanced at the notices getting eight levels off the guards and the noble had generated as he waited a couple of seconds to make sure the noble was unconscious or comatose then looted his equipment and kicked his throat in, not feeling nearly as guilty as he probably should for killing a person. 'I'm not getting out of this world without killing people, I might as well start with someone worth it.'
Myst looted the man's keys then shoved his corpse in his inventory. He grabbed the first guard by the arms and pulled him out of the cloud of purple mist. "That was easier than I was expecting."
"What are you planning on doing with them?" Lyno asked, keeping most of her attention on the cloud of purple mist.
"I'm going to chain them up and stick truth runes on everyone then ask some very pointed questions after I set everyone free in the dungeon and make sure the rest of the guards are dealt with," Myst explained.
"You should probably grab a guard's uniform and grab them a couple at a time," Anna suggested.
"Might as well try," Myst muttered as he stripped a guard of his jacket, the only bit that really seemed part of their uniform and put it on, making sure to cover his bracelet as he really didn't want stories of his vigilante justice getting back to anyone. It fell under need to know and the crown really didn't need to know, nor did the church he was fairly sure was supporting the man or at least looking the other way.
The next seven minutes of walking guards back and forth or handing guards drinks was annoying but necessary. The next twenty minutes of rescuing people and collecting bodies from the dungeon were something he'd rather forget. It was also the reason that he was a bit less forgiving with the guards than he might otherwise have been.
The main reason he didn't make more of an example out of the worst of the guards beyond snapping their necks was because of the risk of cursing himself if he gave into his rage, the other reason was he was busy looting the mansion to the ground including the stone that would let someone unseal the dragon tainted t-rex someone in history had sealed in a pocket dimension connected to the town square.
Myst would have taken a mining pick to some of the stone but figured they didn't really have the time to waste for him to take the place down to the bedrock, if only because he wanted to make sure there was some evidence left of the man's insanity and because he needed to get to the north to rescue a girl.
Anna looked up as Myst walked back into the room they were using to treat everyone. "How are we getting everyone out of here?"
"If they're in the group, I should be able to teleport them back to Reichnott then we'll just teleport back and leave with the wagon, we made the delivery and left, nothing to see and we certainly didn't walk off with a bunch of people or things," Myst explained.
"Do you honestly think that will work?" Lyno asked.
Myst shrugged. "Some random merchant shows up, makes a delivery and leaves, that's fairly normal in the grand scheme of things."
Lyno nodded. "We rescued the kids, let's get out of here and put the place behind us."
Myst focused on all of the ex-slaves and teleported back to Reichnott's courtyard with the ex-slaves and his party. He looked at the captain that was already hurrying over. "Can you take care of everyone? We need to grab the wagon."
"Of course," the captain replied, horrified by the condition of the demihumans the hero had dropped off.
Myst used his teleport skill and teleported back to the lunatic's mansion with Anna and Lyno then headed for the wagon, wanting to be on the road and as far away as they could get by the time people started asking questions.
0o0o0
Myst was willing to admit that he'd gone overboard buying stats for the group on the ride north but it wasn't like he had a pressing need for the piles of gold and silver he'd stolen from the corrupt noble. Sinking the gold and silver into the group's stats had paid off, especially sinking points into mana regeneration as it seemed to give him an unreasonable return on his investment, causing the group to regenerate their entire pool of mana in just over nine minutes thanks to buying tier four mana regeneration. "Any luck with the spells?"
Anna glanced up from her book and gave Myst a look. "I might have more luck if the wagon wasn't bouncing and if someone quit asking me that question every two and a half minutes."
Myst pulled his attention off the road he could barely see in the faint moonlight, despite the first level of the night vision talent he'd bought for himself and Lyno so they could afford to travel at night and looked at the back of the covered wagon where the cat girl was curled up with her book and a lantern. "Is that a no?"
"I'm going to learn the spell so I can set your hat on fire," Anna replied, mostly joking.
"Then my job is done," Myst replied with amusement.
Lyno sighed. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around the sheer amount of gold that you spent increasing everyone's stats, you could have retired on that."
"I have a legendary weapon, I don't think retiring is in the cards," Myst said. "Besides, you wanted to fight and save the world, what's a couple of hundred gold compared to that level of dedication?"
"I'm just used to nobles being greedy," Lyno replied as four torches ignited on the road several hundred feet in front of them. "Speaking of greed, we might have a problem."
Myst frowned slightly as he studied the torches in the distance, fairly sure bandits wouldn't bother with torches but fairly sure most people didn't hang out on roads in the middle of the night for the fun of it. "Remind me to ask the king for an official writ that absolves us of taxes and entrance fees for every county in the realm after the first wave."
Lyno shook her head. "The nobles would scream bloody murder."
"Probably," Myst agreed as he mentally reviewed the life drain spell he'd acquired from his mage profession for hitting level ten. 'Thirty yard range and they have to be living, makes sense considering the name of the spell and the fact that it falls under the healing affinity, probably because it's manipulating life force.'
He grabbed a jug of 'wine' from behind the seat and plastered a smile on his face as they approached the torches, slowing down the last thirty feet when it became apparent that there was a wooden barricade stretching across the road. Thanks to the poor quality of light, it was hard to tell if the barricade was a decent looking unofficial barricade or a poorly crafted official one but the guards had matching jackets that looked vaguely 'official' or at least similar enough to pass as official.
"You're going to have to pay a five silver toll," one of the 'guards' called out as he walked over holding a torch.
Myst shook his head. "I have a merchant token."
"We don't accept tokens from the merchant's guild, you still need to pay the fee," the man explained.
"I'm going to report this to the guild," Myst complained as he pulled five silver coins out of his coin purse.
"Go ahead, the governor doesn't care," the guard replied smugly.
Myst scowled as he handed over the five silver coins. "Fine."
The guard pocketed the coins and looked at the bottle of wine Myst was holding. "You're free to go around the barrier."
Myst sighed dramatically as he handed the guard the bottle of 'wine'. "Happy?"
"Move the barrier," the guard called out then started walking back to the barrier. "Have a pleasant stay."
"Unlikely," Myst grumbled as Lyno flicked the reins on the wingless dragons and got the cart moving again after the other guards moved the barrier.
Anna waited until they were a couple of hundred feet past the checkpoint then asked, "Do we have an actual plan?"
Myst turned to look at Lyno. "I'm guessing we'll be hit by bandits within a mile and we should probably circle around to check on the guards that are going to be extremely drunk or unconscious. The surrounding region has a bandit problem and the governor is getting rich, it doesn't take a genius to put the pieces together."
Lyno shook her head. "It would make more sense to let us sell the wine before they rob us."
"But then we couldn't drink the wine," a voice said from the darkness, startling the group as a group of five bandits appeared out of thin air that looked suspiciously like the guards from the checkpoint if you ignored the cloth masks they'd pulled up over their mouth and noses to 'conceal' their identity and the fact that they weren't wearing their matching jackets.
"Do you want the wagon or just the wine?" Myst asked, curious what they were after.
"Everything, including the girls," one of the other bandits said.
Myst glanced between the bandits, noticing that they were all in agreement and didn't have any hesitation. He activated his poison bracelet and breathed a cloud of purple gas on the bandits, causing them to start convulsing as the magic infused mist flowed over them. "We're going to run into some trouble if they have someone that's decent level or has a halfway reasonable resistance to poison."
"They'll probably have a couple of thugs that are in their twenties but we should be able to deal with them if we're careful," Lyno explained.
"What should we do with the bandits?" Anna asked.
Myst jumped down off the wagon. "We're going to strip them down to their underwear then we're going to tie them up and put truth seals on them so we can ask them about the governor and his operations. I want to know how many guards he has, where he's keeping his loot and which noble is keeping someone from sending the army to make an example of him," Myst explained as he walked over and started looting the unconscious bandits.
Anna waited for the cloud of mist to dissipate before she started stripping the bandits. "Are you going after the rest of the guards?"
"Not until we get the bandits secured." Myst grinned when he felt magic coming from one of the bandit's rings. He touched his bracelet to the ring and absorbed it.
[Stealth Bracelet unlocked]
Myst read the description for his new bracelet, "Equipment Bonus: +3 Agility and 30% decreased noise generation, doesn't affect your voice. Special Equip: Gives access to a basic invisibility spell and the ability to acquire it through practice provided you have the required affinity."
"That should make sneaking around and investigating things easier," Lyno mused as she jumped down from the wagon seat and worked on tying one of the bandits up with his own clothes. "Do you have an affinity for illusions?"
"Not so much but my bracelet lets me cheat, it basically lets me pretend that I have a minor affinity in just about every type of magic or at least that's what it claims," Myst replied as he absorbed a set of lockpicks.
[Thief profession acquired: Grants the use of thieving skills, additional skills are acquired by pulling off interesting jobs or using skills in useful ways.]
Myst opened his profession menu and looked at the available thief skills. 'Stealth, reduces the amount of noise you generate. Sleight of hand, steal things from people without their knowledge and basic lockpicking, the ability to pick basic locks. That's going to be useful, provided I can avoid getting caught.'
Anna frowned as she found one of the bandits' mostly empty coin purses. "You'd think bandits would be a bit more successful."
"Nah, it just means they're keeping the loot elsewhere or their boss is keeping it." Myst turned his attention towards the bandit that Lyno had tied up. "I curse you with truth," he chanted as he pushed mana into his spell.
Lyno shivered as angry looking crimson runes appeared on the man's face, fairly sure the nobles would start wars to bury knowledge of that particular curse. "How far do you think the corruption goes?"
"Probably somewhere in the king's court but that could just be my general pessimism." Myst gestured at the bound man. "Light of the heavens, cure this idiot," he chanted, causing a soft light to purge the poison from his system and wake him up.
"Idiot?" Lyno asked.
"I just have to identify the target, I don't need a name," Myst explained as the bandit started struggling.
"Do you have any idea who you're messing with?" the bandit demanded.
"No, do tell," Myst replied, planning on extracting everything he could from the bandits before he killed them. "Tell me the name of your boss, what you've done and where he's storing the loot."
"Don't forget all the information about the defenses and who he's paying off," Anna added.
"Tornen," the bandit blurted, then spilled the gang's secrets much to his horror and the disbelief of Lyno as it turned out that the gang was being helped by the Church of Three.
