NOVEL NEXT Chapter 60: Windy Willow
After collecting the gear and coins dropped by the bandits Lucan walked over to their formation. He launched a single shadow bolt at a small shrub.
*Clink*
The shrub disappeared to reveal a broken formation flag. The concealment formation started to falter, flickering on and off before shutting down for good.
Inside the formation was a table, a couple of tents and several crates filled with supplies and weapons.
"Ah, our stolen goods." Heaven said excitedly.
"I can sell them back to you at 70% of face value." Lucan said.
"You cheapskate!"
"He is just joking; it is a gift to put the past behind us. Right Lucan?"
"Oh, umm, yeah, that's what I meant to say." Lucan replied before going into a tent to see if there was anything worth taking with him.
Heaven rolled her eyes while Silent smiled happily. She was pleased that Lucan didn't insist on being paid, but she wasn't sure if he was doing it for her or because he seemed more well off now. Lucan had told her he had a big success selling mana crystals, but they never talked actual numbers. She chose to believe he gave in for her.
Within an hour, guild members of Could Saint had showed up with a wagon and were loading up what was stolen from them.
"Alright, let's get out of here." Silent said to Lucan.
Lucan and Silent snuck away while Heaven and her guild were busy. They walked through the woods back to the transfer point in Cloud Saint city.
Lucan purchased a 5-piece leather warlock set from the Assassin's guild and updated his other gear. Silent Night replace her gear with level 100 equipment.
Silent joined Lucan in the Eldritch Battleground for a week and helped him to get to level 90. His thief abilities had started to become more numerous. He had gained, Concussive Blow, a move that used stamina to stun a target for 3 seconds. Evasion, he could trigger it once every 5 minutes and it would double agility while dodging for 2 seconds. Escape, he would enter stealth, remove all movement limiting effects and become invulnerable for 3 seconds. Enhanced climbing was a passive that doubled his normal climbing speed. The latest ability he received was Feign Death, It was a rogue move that made others think he wasn't a target by playing dead.
Silent Night had just logged off and Lucan was about to as well when he had a thought and decided to contact Raze.
'Silent told me how there was a dungeon ran by the rogues organization to help her prepare for the class advancement. She used it to get the last levels she need to reach 100, do you have anything like that for warlocks?"
"Yes and no. There is no position higher than my Hand, how can there be a dungeon to prepare you for what's above? Of course, there is the Eldritch Battleground, but your standing in it and I also have dungeons for lower level warlocks, but since you are my Hand you won't receive much from them."
"Damn, I guess I will keep leveling here."
"If you want to make a rush to 100 I could make a suggestion."
"Really?!! What's the catch?"
"Don't be like that, it will be good for you. My suggestion would be to incorporate your territory. Officially fall under my banner. If you can get a raid together you could have a good chance at conquering one of the level 100 fortresses near your village. If you conquer it I will send some soldiers to help hold it. Think about it, it already has a transfer point if you can conquer it, your people could move to different hunting grounds with ease."
"Hmm, tell me more about being incorporated."
Lucan and Raze talked for over 20 minutes about citizens' rights, tax break downs and trade laws among other things.
"Alright, let me do some research then I will get back to you."
"Just let me know." Raze finished before cutting the link.
Lucan logged out and Brax climbed out of his Oasis capsule. He immediately started to research fortress. Large guilds in the material planes usually held a fortress or three. The guilds were constantly battling over them. The marketplace held high value to real-world sponsors that would set up shops in the fortress.
Just like how you can shop online instead of going to a store, you could shop in game and have real world items delivered to your home. Brax knew that if he captured a fortress in the shadow realm it wouldn't be an endless waterfall of money like it was for the guilds in the material plane. The shadow realm didn't have the same player density so it wasn't possible. There were still many advantages to be had though.
The more he read the more he like the idea of finishing his climb to 100.
Brax did some light exercise at home but spent most the day on the internet doing research and crafting his plan. He made a few phone calls after dinner before logging back into the game.
Lucan crawled out of his tent to find Silent eating breakfast inside tent city in the goblin plains.
"I have something fun we can do if your interested." Lucan said to her.
"I'm listening."
Lucan told her his plan over the next fifteen minutes.
"Okay, I am in. Oh and I decided I am going to make a few purchases today." She said as Lucan started to receive notifications.
She bought Shadow Form. The ability had proven is worth, many times over. She bought his Phantom slash, but as an ability, not a spell. Once every 6 hours she could use phantom slash a single time. And the last ability she purchased allowed her to enter the 'shadow stalker' state once every hour. The last ability cost the majority of her saved up experience and Lucan even had to look up what it did.
Silent chose to only buy abilities even though she could now cast spells after picking up the warlock class. Taking phantom slash as an ability changed the damage of the move. An ability deals set damage based on the level of the player using it where a spell uses the players spell casting stats.
Silent was built to be a pure rogue, she didn't have plans on investing in the different spell casting stats even though she had a mana bar. This meant she would have to pick abilities or at least chose her spells wisely.
"He, he, he, since you now have a hovering mount, you can drive me around. It's perfect, you already tell people I am your shadow anyways. When we go to large areas with lots of players, I don't have to cover up anymore, I can just stay in your shadow." Silent activated Shadow Stalker and merged into Lucan's shadow.
He stepped onto his broom and rose 100 feet off the ground before heading back to the coven's town.
The shadow Stalker form let her become someone's shadow. It was similar to Shadow Form but lasted indefinitely, or until she attacked or dismissed it. She could also move to any shadow that overlapped with the shadow she was possessing. She could use this ability travel through a crowded street of people entirely unnoticed just by jumping from one shadow to another as the people moved around.
Lucan was happy she found abilities she liked, and he enjoyed the 20% of her spent experience points that he got to keep. They stopped in Shadowsweep to Let Alasan know that the territory was incorporated, and Lucan informed him how that would change the tax they pay.
When Silent and Lucan entered the shadow tunnel to Avalon, she dismissed the Shadow Stalker ability and walked a few steps ahead of Lucan while they journey forward. Lucan enjoyed the sight. Soon enough they were in a run-down tavern on the outskirts of Baramore's capital. Lucan and Silent sat across from a man and a woman. The man was in very powerful looking gear and was level 170, the woman however wasn't even over level 100.
The woman spoke first. "Thank you for reaching out to us at Windy Willow Gaming Organization. Our main office said you weren't willing to give details over the phone, but I was assured you are a serious customer. What can we do to help you?"
"I was hopping to higher some professional gamers to help us take over a fortress, your receptionist couldn't give me a clear-cut answer. Is that something you would be interested."
The man now had his interest peaked. "How big is your guild? What's your members average level?" He asked.
"There is no guild. It's just the two of us." Lucan replied.
That man frowned. "I though you said this was serious." He said scowling at the woman beside him.
"Lucan has already paid a deposit of $5,000 dollars to attend this meeting. Let's hear them out." She said trying to placate him.
Silent was surprised to find Lucan had already spent 5 thousand dollars just to talk to these people. From the way he talked and acted she always imagined he was the type of guy who lived in a barely furnished 1 bedroom apartment and ate cup noodles every day.
"I understand your concerns. The fortress I want to conquer is not in the material plane, nor is it occupied by a force of players. I am the Lord of the territory it is located in, so you won't have to worry about bad relations with local NPCs. It's a tier 2 fortress occupied by monsters ranging from level 100 to level 120. Are you willing to keep talking about this?" Lucan asked.