NOVEL NEXT Chapter 55: A Plan
Lucan stared across the Goblin Plains. Super wouldn't be here till tomorrow. He decided to level in the plains till he arrived. With Adrestia and Little Brown circling high in the sky, there was a good chance he wouldn't be ambushed.
He spent the day killing goblins. With his play style and dual basic classes, fighting continually wasn't an issue. He would use all his mana, pull out a blade and start using his stamina and rogue moves while it recharged. He had also bought himself a hand crossbow and throwing weapons. The throwing weapons did decent damage, but they weren't the cheapest thing to replace if they couldn't be recovered.
Lucan mainly used the hand crossbow and Night Whispers. He kept at it even when the sun set. With both night vison and thermal vision, he didn't need to rely on the sun. The change in situation also made his Flashbang spell more potent.
As the sun was rising, Lucan returned to the protection of the village, he had gained a level and a half, but needed his gear repaired. Fighting like a rogue caused him to take more hits than casting spells from far away. He took a small nap to refresh himself while his gear was being fixed. When he woke, Super notified him that he was coming this way. Lucan tracked down Brandt and let him know that Super was coming through the door. Brandt ordered a couple guards to wait for his arrival so players wouldn't pounce on him while yelling about an invasion.
Soon enough Super was led to the Administration building in the center of the village.
"Lucan good to see you again." Super said, walking into the room with 4 others behind him. "These are a few of my most trusted subordinates. I was hoping to set up shop here and do a bit of exploring."
"That shouldn't be a problem, I am sure we have room in the village." Lucan said.
"I am Lisel Farwest, I answer to the Queen of Shadows. We have plenty of room in the village. Please take an empty building for yourself."
"Thank you for your kindness. I am SuperSleuth, if you need information, please let my people know." Super turned to Lucan while setting a large number of booklets on the table. "I have detailed reports on each player. I took a close look an found that 38 of the 40 players are all in the same guild. It's run by King Killer, the level 142 samurai that has been giving you issues lately. The guild is called the Deadly Dozen even though they have 113 members. It shouldn't come as a surprise to hear that their Guild headquarters is currently locked up. Not many people going in or out. I can't prove it, but I am guessing most of their members are here. I also included some information about their guild, their affiliations, and the other members."
"Good work." Lucan said starting to flip through the player bios. Each of the 40 players has over 10 pages of information written about them in a booklet.
"Knowing our situation, would you like to give a recommendation?" Lucan asked, since Super had already personally gone through every bit of info.
"Nah, that's your department, I would just embarrass myself. If you don't mind, I would like to go an find a good location."
"Sure, go ahead." Lucan said as Super and his subordinates left.
"This is incredible." Cheese the druid said while flipping through a booklet.
"The price of the request varies, but Super always does good work."
"I don't doubt it." Lisel said as she too began to read.
For the next two hours, the only thing heard in the administration building was the turning of pages.
Lucan spoke first. "The easiest way to end this would be to arm the Golem Guild. They are 6 months out of a Guild war with the Deadly Dozen, both sides lost several levels and called an end to the war when they determined that to kill their enemy, they would have to kill themselves. If we can tip the scale in the favor of the Golem Guild, the Deadly Dozen will be forced to retreat."
Cheese let out a chuckle. "You want to do some C.I.A. stuff?"
"It could work." Lisel said. "And done right, it won't increase the animosity between us and the Deadly Dozen."
"One of my classmates is in the Golem Guild." Will said. "I wouldn't call us friends, but we get on alright."
"Do you want to handle this then?" Lucan asked Lisel.
She nodded. "We will take care of it."
Lucan stuck out his hand. "Swear to take what I give you and use it only to further the war between the Golems and the Deadly Dozen."
"I swear." She said taking his hand while activating pact magic. Lucan transferred her 200,000 experience points, half of what he had, and a bag filled with 5,000 gold.
"Lucan… there is no way I can match this much." Lisel said with embarrassment.
"Don't worry, this place has grown under your contributions while I have done nothing to help. If I am being honest, I don't plan on sending followers here any time soon. This is the best way for me to help right now, there is no need to match it. If you do, I will have to give you even more."
"We will put it to good use. 5 days… in 5 day's I will make sure the Deadly Dozen have retreated."
"I will be in the plains if you need me." Lucan said while walking out of the room.
"5 days." Will said scratching his head. "That will be a challenge."
Lisel shook her head. "I fear that even at his level he could accomplish it in 3, I already pushed our time frame to its limit."
Cheese nodded. "He gave us a ridiculous amount of information and a big bag of gold. If we can't cause a fight between the 2 guilds in 5 days, I too will feel embarrassed."
Lisel nodded her agreement.
"I get it." Will said. "But it's not your contact. The guy in the Golem Guild is good for a group project but still a weirdo. I will contact him now."
Lucan stayed in the plains until it was time to log out. When he signed back in, he fought for another day. Lucan didn't know if he was lucky or not, but he still hadn't seen the field boss or any players from the Deadly Dozen.
When Lucan returned to the village, he had reached level 66. At level 65 he learned a thief skill called Acrobatics. At the cost of 5 stamina per second, he could activate Acrobatics to temporarily double his agility and flexibility. It gave a few other perks, like always knowing where the ground was when disoriented, not getting dizzy, and a few other little things.
The trip back to the village was a breeze after Lucan spent all the experience he earned on a new ability. Telekinetic Cling. He could sacrifice 2/3 of his mental mana to toggle on the ability. While active, that mana wouldn't regenerate, leaving him with only a 1/3 of what he normally had. While Cling was active, his hand's and feet would stick to what he wanted them to stick to. He could climb walls, hang from the ceiling, or even stand on a flying broom with no fear of falling off.
Lucan's bum thanked him greatly for the new ability. He really had no idea how anybody was able to sit with their full weight on a broom for more than a couple minutes. Now he could stand on the broom like a surfboard or skateboard. He channeled the magic to power the broom through his feet and retuned to the village in half an hour after flying over the heads of the low-level goblins.
Lucan returned because the higher-level goblins were smarter. They were working together, any caught alone would instantly flee. Even though Lucan's level was also increasing, it was becoming more dangerous. In his last fight he had been taken down from 5,321 HP to 27 Health Points. If he wanted to keep leveling here he had to slow down. Lucan decided to leave for now.
He needed to check on Shadowsweep, and Harvin was coming today. Raze had come to an understanding with Harvin the architect.
"Nice broom." Super said to Lucan as he landed in front of him. "Elite witch?"
"How did you know?" Lucan asked.
"Elite witches generally have 1 of 4 items stashed in their homes. A cauldron is most common, great for alchemy, poisons, and candy making. Some oracles can make good use of them as well. The second most common find is a Witches Hat. It increases spellcasting abilities while enhancing beauty and speechcraft. The third is a Witch's broom, you are familiar with that. The rarest is finding a pet cat, each one is unique, but they are good pets for spellcasters. "
"I got lucky and ended up with a broom." Lucan said.
Super laughed. "It looks like you overcame the biggest complaint about flying brooms."