[Remaining participants: 82/100]
Shiv looked at the simple message that had popped up after Joel’s death.
Just then, Gibzi came stomping up from behind Grigold, his cheeks all puffed up.
“Boss, you’s lied teh me!”
What a trusting little fellow
“A simple fellow, aren’t you dear Gibzi?” Grigold said, almost mirroring Shiv’s thoughts, to his horror, with a snide grin on his face.
“Aww, thank’s lil’ bro! Tha’s real swell o’ ya teh say!”
“lil-...” Stumped for what to say, Grigold’s grin grew slack, as for once he found himself lost for a retort in the face of Gibzi’s pure, good-hearted innocence. Or ignorance. It was hard to be sure.
Feeling out of his depth for once, he decided to turn his attention in a more comfortable direction as he cleared his throat.
“Ahem. Boy- Oh, pardon me, I meant
“Grigold.” Shiv said, interrupting the summon mid-sentence.
“Hrg?” Grigold grunted. He did
“It’s not over yet.”
“What?”
Radar had upgraded into the hunter skill, going from a C to an SR rarity. While he hadn’t yet checked the specific functions of his new skill, the difference was already staggering, having increased from a 30 meter radius to 100.
That was why he had been able to pick up on the figures slowly making their way towards them.
Shiv felt he understood why so many people were already dead.
Shiv scoffed inwardly. On paper, it seemed like a good plan. But even Shiv, child that he was, knew that such alliances never ended well.
He knew he shouldn’t feel so sad whenever he looked at him. Joel wouldn’t have thought twice about killing him, before or after the fact. But that’s just how emotions go.
“Now then...”
Regardless of how reliable alliances were in the long run, they certainly weren’t good for him in the now. He had maybe five minutes before they made their way to him, which meant he had to put his plan of action together quickly. Moving the group to a more hidden location, Shiv quickly tried to maximize his odds.
“First things first, shop menu.”
[ACC#2211814914701315208 : 39 : 1
[Equip roll 13G]
[Skill roll 13G]
[Summon roll 25G]
Shiv would have preferred to save up his gold and do a ten role for another 10% discount. But regardless of the immediate circumstances, that was just too unrealistic. Although maybe not impossible, thanks to the greed skill.
While the skill and equip roll’s were an option, he felt the best answer was obvious.
“Summon roll for twenty-five gold.”
[25G has been consumed]
[Dun~ Du-Dun~! Here~ we go! What will be pulled? What will you pull!?]
[DING! DING! DING!~ H~ere you go!]
[You have pulled Miya (R)!]
[Summon: Miya | Class: Onmyōji
It wasn’t that Shiv had gotten complacent now that he had an SSR summon and an SR skill, however, he would be lying if he said he hadn’t hoped for more
[Title: Miya of The Vow]
[Title explanation: A vow of sincerity to bind lost souls together]
[Title effect: Fate itself intercedes to see a vow to fruition - Vow breakers become cursed]
It wasn’t guaranteed for a R summon to have a title, so this fact alone made them somewhat special. In addition, based on the effect of the title, he felt he might could actually make proper use of it, unlike another summon in his possession. Although the vague consequences felt rather disturbing.
“No time to waste, summon Miya.”
[Summoning failed. CHR too low. Increase CHR to increase max summons]
”...Huh?”
A flurry of thoughts rushed through Shiv’s head as he ruffled his messy, shoulder length hair in frustration. Then, suddenly, he clapped his hands together and took a deep breath.
“Hoo~hoh~...ok, let’s calm down. Getting frustrated will get me killed.”
Shiv thought about putting his remaining 14G into either a skill or equipment, but considering how outnumbered he was, he felt instead that it was a better use of his gold to make the most of the goon skill. And to do that, he had to keep Grigold summoned, or he would only be able to summon one of them at a time.
As always, Shiv was left feeling like he was the unluckiest, luckiest person in the world.
“Summon goon, uh, max?”
[Summon goon has been used to max capacity]
[8G has been spent]
[Goons (C) x4 have been summoned!]
[Summon: Gobzo | Class: Brawler | Title: None | Stats: STR ~ C | CON ~ D | DEX ~ E | PER ~ E | INT ~ F- | WIS ~ E- | CHR ~ E | LUK ~ E]
[Summon: Kiichi | Class: Archer | Title: None | Stats: STR ~ E | CON ~ E | DEX ~ D+ | PER ~ D | INT ~ E | WIS ~ E | CHR ~ E | LUK ~ E]
[Summon: Gabby | Class: Bard | Title: None | Stats: STR ~ E | CON ~ E | DEX ~ D | PER ~ D | INT ~ E | WIS ~ E | CHR ~ E | LUK ~ D]
[Summon: Gilly | Class: Coward | Title: None | Stats: STR ~ E | CON ~ E | DEX ~ E | PER ~ E | INT ~ E | WIS ~ E | CHR ~ F | LUK ~ F]
I’ve never seen an F stat before and now I have three pop up at the same time. How is this Gilly guy’s class literally coward? At least Gobzo has...
Three of the four goblins looked almost identical to Gibzi in terms of build and height, but the fourth one was a complete anomaly. Standing at almost two meters tall, and ripped with muscles, Gobzo looked closer to an ogre than a goblin as he towered over shiv. He was nowhere near as big as Grigold, sure, but he was certainly more than what shiv would expect out of a C rank goon.
They didn’t have time for introductions, however, as the invaders could be heard just around the corner.
...
...
However, the intruders kept their distance, staying out of sight. He could sense them just past a couple of walls, but they made no effort to come closer.
Shiv had already figured that the intruders had a way to hunt down other players. But if he was right, one of them likely had a skill similar to his earlier radar. How would they feel when the seven to three advantage they held suddenly dissappeared? Obviously, having four more unknown enemies pop up out of nowhere would cause them to put their guard up. Hell, they may even be on the verge of retreating. After all, why take the risk?
Of course, that was only until you took the summons into account.
Best case scenario, half of the invaders were summons. There were seven in total, which would mean that only one more enemy would pop up in that case.
Worst case scenario, none of them were summons, and Shiv was looking at two to one odds. Much less than that, really, considering his side was a crew of haphazard goblins whose reliability was dubious at best.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Closing his eyes, Shiv wracked his brain to find the best course of action.
Joel likely only had ten gold on him when he died, yet gave him a whopping twenty five thanks to greed. Just how much do the others have?
It was, of course, and Shiv knew that. Still, there were only so many options.
Shiv sighed, glancing at pitiful Joel in the corner.
“Artificial God willing, you won’t be the last blood I spill today, Joel. Not by a long shot if I can help it.”
***
“What should we do, Kass? This ain’t what we signed up for!” Whispered a thin man with a long shaggy beard, his buggy eyes seeming to be perpetually on the verge of flying out of their sockets.
Kass glanced towards Jay and Bright Eye, who had combined their skills earlier to get a read on the enemy. Jay had a skill that enabled her to share her sight with other people, or spy through others’ eyes without them knowing. While Bright Eye had a skill that let him see someone’s stats as well as whether they were a player or not, although he couldn’t see their skills. Jay had spied on Joel’s sight and transferred it over to Bright Eye, who wrote down the stats and appearance of everyone he saw. That was why they were so willing to throw away one of their members, regardless of how weak he was.
The only reason their group ventured into enemy territory like this was because they knew that there was only one player here, thanks to one of the skills of someone who stayed outside. But now there were seven enemies and they were in an unfamiliar territory, while the opponent probably knew the layout much better than they did. They could almost certainly win by bringing out their summons, but could they do so without suffering needless losses they weren’t ready for?
The game had only just begun, after all.
“Fuck it, it’s not worth it. Let’s retreat.” Kass decided.
“What!? After we’ve come all this way? But I’m
“
“Urgh...one of these days, I’ll...” Blacktooth muttered something that sounded far too much like a threat to Kass’s taste.
“You’ll what, Blacktooth?” Kass said, snatching Blacktooth by the collar and staring him in the eyes. “Please, enlighten me.”
“I-I was just ventin’ Kass, nothin’ personal.”
“That’s what I thought.” Kass said as she roughly pushed him away.
Kass had learned a lot of things in life, one such lesson that had been beaten into her was that you didn’t lead a group of vicious bandits like these by being soft.
“Alright people! Pack it up, let
“K-Kass! They’re moving!” He shouted as his head shot around in every direction. “T-they’re in the walls, Kass! They’re movin’ in the walls!”
Make yourself an even bigger target why don’t you, you loony old coon.
Thump
“I-igyaa~ad!!!” Rollo hollered, his bloodshot eyes fixed on where the arrow was lodged in-between his ribs.“Aw, shit!” Kass cursed, summoning a four armed wooden doll the size of a man. “Fuck it! Here I was, about to leave well enough alone, and you just had to go and make the first move! Well fine, you wanna fight? You asked for it, you little brat! Jay, can you see him!?”
“No, Kass, He’s out of my range!”
“Hahahaha! Now
“Blacktooth, shut up! Everyone, get those summons out!”
Just as particles of light began appearing next to her crew, Kass felt like something bit her from behind.
She swung her knife into her blind spot on instinct, but the small figure dodged and darted away before she could even get a good look at it.
She pressed her hand to her side, sticky red blood coming back with it.
At the same time, another arrow came down, this time landing directly in Stevens’ gut.
“Rollo! You still alive!?”
“A-aye...” Rollo was gasping for air and bleeding out, but he wasn’t dead.
“Where are they right now? Not the ones moving about, but those staying still.”
“Uhh..” Rollo wheezed painfully. ”O-over thataway’s, I think. B-but more importantly-”
“Blacktooth, Jay, Bright Eye! Come with me!” Kass shouted, cutting off Rollo mid sentence.
“W-wait! What about us!?” Steven yelled, Rollo nodding his head profusely beside him. “I-I need help here!”
“Then you shouldn’t have got shot! Have your summons guard you and try not to die!”
While the two looked at her as though they had just been abandoned on the doorsteps of an orphanage, another arrow flew past Kass’s head, but went too far right to hit her. She wanted so badly to kill the little bastard, but he just moved from one place to the next too quickly to get a bead on him.
Kass found herself regretting her earlier caution. Had she just had everyone bring out their summons from the get go and stormed them, then this never would have happened. She should have known better than to assume that the enemy would hesitate to strike first, just because they were so disadvantaged.
Just then, she heard the sound of a discordant song echoing about the old cracked walls, the strumming of an out of tune instrument acting as an accompaniment.
“Caught up in the fight~ What a bloody sight~ Don’t you see that this is a reckoning~! Struggle as you might~ Shackled by the fright~ Soon your head will be a-rolling~!”
Something about the tune made it hard for her to think straight, and not just because of how bad it was. It was like she was losing a grip on her own self control.
On its own, this was nothing. A slight annoyance that made it hard to form thoughts properly. When combined with the guerrilla tactics they were dealing with, however, it became a much bigger issue.
Kass, growing paler by the minute, was pressing in the direction that Rollo had pointed out for her the best she knew. But the turning paths and sheer verticality of the architecture was proving harder to deal with than she had expected.
It didn’t help that the group was still being randomly sniped at and having to watch their backs to make sure they didn’t get their tendons cut by the sneaky little cockroach. And at some point another one had joined in, throwing rocks and dropping random debris on them, not as lethal as the other two, but by god was it aggravating. And that singing, that
Still, aside from the initial surprise attack, they hadn’t received too much damage. With a whole crew of eight walking together, it was easy to smack down any arrows and keep the little backstabber at bay, and a few rocks certainly weren’t going to take them down. She only wished they had more than a bunch of common summons, maybe then they could actually catch these little shits before she bled out on the floor.
In the back of her head, she knew the smartest thing to do would be to just get out of here and regroup. But at this point, she was just too plain mad to back out anymore. This wasn’t an issue of gains and losses to her, this was a matter of pride. Really, what
However, in her frustration, she started to make a critical mistake. After passing by so many doors and hallways, waiting for Jay to finally pick up on where the boy was, she became ever so slack on checking every door she passed, which left her open for a brief moment.
Not that it mattered though, as Gobzo was too stupid to take advantage of such small opportunities, instead simply punching straight through the wall she was walking by and caving in the side of her chest with his massive, yellowish brown arm.
[You have slain the Player Kass!]
[Congratulations! You have earned 48G!]
[Your CHR stat has increased!]
[You have gained 1 ember!]
“Took long enough.” Shiv muttered to himself, looking down at the brigands far below through a large window atop the aquarium roof.