Day Three. Night.

I reached the camp boundary without incident, and once more, my deception skill ticked upwards.

Your deception has increased to level 47.

Ducking into a nearby empty tent, I stripped off the goblin armor and reequipped my own gear before sneaking out of the crater.

No alarm followed on my heels.

Either the Red Rats had not discovered the two slain goblins, or they simply didn’t care. Leaving the camp behind me, I hurried south through the forest.

I was tired and hungry but didn’t dare rest so close to the hostile tribe. After two hours of hard travel, I finally drew to a stop and, tying myself to a tree, fell deep asleep.

~~~

I awoke before the dawn, rested and hale.

Yesterday had been a long and strenuous day, but I’d finally gotten some proper rest and felt better for it. Glancing about, I considered my surroundings.

The forest was still quiet. Pulling out a ration, I began to eat while I saw to my player progression. I had one attribute point to spend and without dwelling overmuch on the matter, I used it to increase my health pool.

Your Constitution has increased to rank 14.

Next, I considered my plan for the day. Meeting Ultack and Cecilia came first, but how I proceeded thereafter… that I was no longer sure about.

Matters in the valley were tangled.

There were more interested parties than I expected, each with its own agenda. The Awakened Dead was hiding something—what I wasn’t certain yet—but it could not be for nothing that the Erebus was pushing the goblins to war.

The Tartans’ goals seemed simpler. They wanted the valley claimed for the Dark to secure their supply routes into the Netherworld. Mariga and the Shadow’s objectives were no less straightforward: they wanted the Dark stopped.

The dire wolves sought to survive only, and for that, they needed me to destroy the Long Fangs. What the goblins themselves wanted was anyone’s guess.

And let’s not forget the wyvern mother and Ishita’s sworn. Both want me dead.

Somehow, I had to navigate through all these cross-purposes and threats and still find a way out of the valley in the next three days. I sighed.

How do you get yourself into these things, Michael?

I dropped down from the tree. I wasn’t going to find the answers sitting here, and if I didn’t want to be late for my meeting with Ultack and Cecilia, I had to be on my way.

Summoning psi, I slipped through the forest, heading southeast. Along the way, I planned on training my skills further. If I could manage it, I wanted to reach rank five in deception before meeting the Tartans.

~~~

Your insight has increased to level 58. Your deception has increased to level 51.

I achieved my goal with time to spare.

Assuming Ultack had managed to get what I’d requested, I would soon add an advanced deception ability to my repertoire. A plan was slowly taking shape in my mind, and the ability would form a key component of it.

Reaching the meeting spot, I surveyed the clearing. It was as empty as I’d left it yesterday. The Tartans were late.

There was no point in just sitting around and waiting. I had a better use for the time. Sitting cross-legged, I pulled out the trapped containers from my backpack and laid them out on the grass.

Chin in hands, I studied the items on the ground. One was a coin bag, kept closed with a simple drawstring, another was a lockbox, and the last two were thin leather sleeves.

All four objects were trapped, and given the nature of their former owner, I suspected the traps were magical in nature. Drawing on my reserves of stamina, I cast trap disarm.

Trap disarm was a strange ability. It did not directly disable traps but instead gave me the tools necessary to do so. Where an ordinary thief was helpless without his lockpicks and disarming kits, a player-enhanced thief was less affected by the lack. Physical tools still helped, but with my abilities, they were not essential.

Energy rippled into my hands and eyes, transforming my sight and fingers.

I studied the simple coin bag anew, this time using eyes enhanced to spot spells traces and the fine workings of physical contraptions. Sure enough, I spied a coil of magic around the object.

A magic working had been wrapped around the bag in a replica of its physical drawstring. To disarm the trap, I would need to untie the spelled strands around the bag.

I reached out to the object with magicked hands. My fingers had been enchanted by the trap disarm ability, allowing them to interact with the spell wound around the bag. With nimble fingers, I deftly untangled the magic strands and disabled the spell.

You have successfully disarmed a trap. Your thieving has increased to level 23.

I grinned in satisfaction as I succeeded on my first attempt. Grabbing hold of the coin bag, I emptied its contents into the palm of my hand.

You have acquired 0 golds, 3 silvers, and 0 coppers.

I stared at the three silver coins in disappointment. “I guess it doesn’t pay to be an apprentice,” I muttered.

Putting away the money, I turned my attention to the lockbox. Recasting trap disarm, I examined it as meticulously as I had the coin bag.

This time, the trap was a physical one.

Peering into the keyhole, I spotted a thin strand of wire extending from the center of the keyhole to an unknown device within the lockbox itself. Drawing one of my daggers, I delicately pried at the tripwire and cut it.

You have successfully disarmed a trap. Your thieving has increased to level 24.

“Not too shabby,” I said to myself with a small smile.

The lockbox was still locked, but I had another ability for that: simple lock picking. I activated the ability, enhancing my ears to discern the smallest clicks and turns of the lock.

Holding up the item to the side of my head, I jiggled my knife in the lock, noting the impact of every click and turn, until finally, I determined the correct combination, and the lid of the lockbox sprang open.

You have successfully picked a lock. Your thieving has increased to level 25.

It had taken longer than I expected, but that was more a result of my poor tools than because of the complexity of the lock itself. “I need to find some lockpicks,” I murmured.

Peering inside the open box, I found two items.

You have acquired an apprentice’s ring, +2 Magic. This is a rank 1 ring and increases your Magic attribute by 2. This item has no requirements to equip.

You have acquired an acolyte’s ring, +2 Faith. This is a rank 1 ring and increases your Faith attribute by 2. This item has no requirements to equip.

This is more like it. The two rings were the only items I’d found that directly affected my attributes. Given that, I suspected they were not only rare but expensive too.

Drawing off the glove on my left hand, I equipped both rings and felt my mana pool swell, a function of my increased Faith and Magic. While I had no real use for more mana, it was nice to feel the effect of the items.

You have equipped an apprentice’s ring. Your Magic has increased to rank 2. You have equipped an acolyte’s ring. Your Faith has increased to rank 2.

Finally, I turned to the slim, leatherbound sleeves. Pulling the first one onto my lap, I examined it carefully. At first glance, the trap woven about the object appeared as simple as the one I had just disarmed. A mechanical contraption was hidden in the small gold button that secured the sleeve’s flap, and I disabled it without much trouble.

I was about to flip open the flap when a sharp prickle of unease shot through me. Having learned to pay close attention to such feelings, I withdrew my reaching fingers and cast trap detect.

The leather sleeve was still outlined in a shimmer of red. My brows drew down. Why was the pouch still trapped? Casting trap disarm again, I reexamined the item.

There was another trap.

It had been hiding in plain sight too—beneath the mechanical contraption—and was only revealed now because its counterpart had been disabled.

Bloody insidious, I thought, my admiration for the Red Rat apprentice shaman growing.

Tentatively, I picked at the spell, attempting to untangle the magical triggers set about the object.

You have failed to disarm a trap.

I frowned. This spell trap set on the leather sleeve was more complex than the one that had been woven about the coin bag, which accounted for my failure.

I tried again.

You have failed to disarm a trap.

…

You have failed to disarm a trap.

I ground my teeth in frustration. After ten attempts, I still hadn’t managed to deconstruct the trap. Thankfully, though, my failures had not been so severe to trigger the spell itself.

I couldn’t help wondering at the contents of the sleeve. What could it be? To be protected by two traps, one of which was devilishly complex, the contents had to be even more valuable than the lockbox’s items.

With that in mind, I bent my head over the sleeve again. I wasn’t giving up until I had it opened.

Renewing my focus, I began anew.

~~~

More than a dozen attempts later, my perseverance was finally rewarded.

You have successfully disarmed a trap. Your thieving has increased to level 27.

About time, I thought, wiping the beading sweat off my brow. Now to see my reward. My anticipation mounting, I flipped open the leather sleeve and peered inside.

It was empty.

An involuntary bark of laughter escaped me. All that effort, and for what? Nothing.

Still chuckling, I drew the last item onto my lap and began to disarm its traps. If nothing else, it would help train my skill.

The second leather sleeve was trapped in the same manner as the first one, and this time around, I had less trouble figuring out how to deconstruct them.

You have successfully disarmed a trap. Your thieving has increased to level 29.

Expecting nothing, I opened the sleeve. Much to my bemusement, it contained a single sheaf of paper. I withdrew the parchment and, holding it up to the light, read what was written upon it.

This week’s code words. Day 1: bedevil. Day 2: avatar. Day 3: sedition. Day 4: patriarch. Day 5: avalanche. Day 6: stigma. Day 7: deity.

I frowned. The words were scrawled untidily—by the apprentice’s own hand, I suspected—but were still legible. What had a goblin shaman been doing with code words?

Was he a spy? And for whom?

I drummed the fingers of my hand on my thigh, thinking hard, but before I could make sense of my latest discovery, my sharp ears picked up the sound of an approaching party.

Cocking my head to the side, I listened intently. It was Ultack and Cecilia. The Tartans had arrived. Stashing the parchment into my pocket, I rose to my feet to greet them.

~~~

The two recruits had come alone.

“Morning,” I greeted, leaning against a tree trunk with my arms folded across my chest.

Elf and half-orc nodded in greeting as they hurried closer. “We have your items,” Cecilia said without preamble.

“What, all of them?” I asked jokingly. I hadn’t given them nearly enough money for that.

“Yes, all of them,” she replied with no hint of a smile.

I straightened abruptly. She was being serious, I realized.

Ultack chuckled and, removing four books from his pack, held them out to me. “Surprised?”

“Very,” I agreed. “I didn’t think the money I gave you would be nearly enough.”

“Ordinarily, it wouldn’t have been,” Ultack said.

“But the captain is not without resources of his own,” Cecilia said. “ He has his own suppliers, and let’s just say they can undercut the market.”

I raised one eyebrow. “You went to the captain for this?”

“We had to,” Ultack said seriously.

“We couldn’t have helped you without his permission,” Cecilia added, to which Ultack nodded in agreement.

“I see,” I said, taking the items the half-orc held out.

You have acquired an advanced ability tome: lesser backstab. You have the necessary skills: rank 5 sneaking and a light weapon skill to learn this ability.

You have acquired an advanced ability tome: improved analyze. You have the necessary skill: rank 5 insight, to learn this ability.

You have acquired an advanced ability tome: minor piercing strike. You have the necessary skill: any rank 5 light weapon skill to learn this ability.

You have acquired an advanced ability tome: lesser imitate. You have the necessary skill: rank 5 deception to learn this ability.

“Thank you,” I said gravely. “I’m grateful.”

“You should be,” Cecilia said. “The captain has gone to great lengths on your behalf.” She eyed me carefully. “Why, I don’t know. But be sure you do not disappoint him.”

I inclined my head but said nothing, wondering myself what the captain’s reasons were. Whatever he’d told me, I doubted he was helping me simply because of the task he needed completed. He has to have an ulterior motive.

“The captain wants to know if you have anything to report yet?” Ultack asked.

I hesitated. The Tartans had done me a great service, providing me with the ability tomes I needed and warning me of the ambush in the safe zone. I owed them, but I was not yet ready to repay the debt.

Until I knew better what was going on in the valley, I needed to play my cards close. “Not yet,” I said finally. “I’m making progress, but I don’t have anything definitive to report yet.”

Ultack nodded, taking me at my word.

Cecilia, however, was not as accepting. She peered at me suspiciously. “Nothing? What have you been doing all this time?”

I stared at the elf. “When I know something, I will let you know.”

She opened her mouth, no doubt to admonish me again, but Ultack placed a restraining hand on her arm. “Let him be, Cecilia. The captain said to trust him.”

The elven mage closed her mouth with a snap and nodded imperiously. “What will you do now?” she asked, still probing.

“I’m not sure,” I answered less than truthfully. I had the bare bones of a plan, but I was not about to share it with her.

My answer did not please her. Before she could speak, though, Ultack asked, “Shall we arrange to meet you same time tomorrow?”

I considered this for a moment before shaking my head. “No. It might take me longer than that to gather the information I need. I will return to the safe zone when I have news.”

I was sure now I had to return to the village, no matter the risk. I had too many unanswered questions, and the only ones who could answer them—Ishita’s sworn, Talon and Mariga—were all in the safe zone.

The half-orc was surprised by my response but accepted it nonetheless. He held out his hand. “Good hunting then, Michael.”

I shook his hand before turning around to disappear into the trees.

It was time to put my scheme into play.