Chapter 65 – Setback

“What do you have there? Show it to me.” Lucille says as she extends her hand. A curious look on her face.

I hand over the necklace I looted off the dead body of Fabian Shirebaggin. The inconspicuous-looking metal chain pulsing with dark magic. Lucille eagerly yanks it out of my hand, inspecting it closely as her hand slowly caresses it.

“This is very intriguing… Where did you get this? I sense some foul magic at play. Nasty stuff.” She mutters that last part, not once taking her eyes off it.

Shrugging, I don’t really see a problem to lie about it. “I looted it off the remains of a dead Bard.”

“A dead Bard? Who?” She asks pointedly.

“His name was Fabian Shirebaggin. A wealthy Bard and Gambler. He was supposed to be buried a few days ago, and I heard a rumour he was to be buried with his most prized possessions on his person. So, naturally, I snuck into the crypts below the city’s cathedral, killed his niece and nephews who were guarding the coffin, and voila; here we are. Oh, I should probably mention he turned into a Ghoul. A dangerous creature that used Necromancy.”

“A Ghoul using magic? That’s… That’s absolutely unheard of.” Lucille mutters, her thoughts starting to wander. “I wonder…”

A bright blue magic light envelops her hands and the necklace, blinding me for a moment. “Fuck! Warn me when you do that!” I shout, rubbing my eyes. My vision turns spotty and it takes me several seconds of intense blinking before I’m able to make out her shape. The grandmaster Enchantress is still cradling the necklace, apparently deep in thought.

Well, that’s incredibly rude. I’m getting a bit tired of feeling like a backseat driver in everything that goes on around here. Am I ever supposed to feel like the protagonist of my own adventure? “Oy! I’m talking to you!” I raise my voice, snapping my fingers in front of her face.

Jolting in surprise, Lucille’s hazy eyes wander towards me, blinking once before she realises I’m still here. Yep, definitely rude. “Oh, sorry about that. This is a very interesting item you have gotten your hands on. If you are willing, I would like to offer you a hefty sum of gold for it.”

I narrow my eyes. “I think I would like you to tell me what it is before I sell it.”

“Oh? Oh. Of course.” She says, waving her hand.

Cursed Necklace of withering Decay and Vitality. Legendary. +20% Maximum Health. Per level gain: +2 Endurance. Soulbound. Can not be unequipped. Special: Wearer must consume the flesh of sentients once every twenty-four hours. Failure to do so will reduce your maximum health by twenty percent for every twenty-four hours until death. Your corpse will turn into a powerful Ghoul upon your death which must be killed before you can respawn.

Woah. I guess I was right about how cursed items work. I didn’t expect them to pack this kind of punch though. That boost to Endurance is insane! Any tank in the game would kill to have this item, even with the demerits. It’s an interesting item, and the requirement to devour the flesh of a sentient every day is definitely almost unforgiving. I reckon only full-time players like myself are the only ones capable of fully exploiting its uses. It’s even more difficult for regular players as killing most sentients come with a penalty to Renown. The respawn thingie is the scariest part of the item though. What if your guild goes deep inside a raid dungeon and then they die? It could take days for someone to kill the Ghoul.

The item is ridiculously overpowered if handled correctly, but I’m not sure most people would dare equip it. There are always those crazy few who would risk it though. Question is: am I one of them? It’s tempting. Very much so, but I don’t really need that much Endurance. It’s helpful, sure, but do I need it? Since I play twenty hours per day and almost all the enemies I kill are sentients, the demerits don’t really affect me much. Sure, dying would suck, but I don’t really plan to ever die. The only real downside I see here is that it takes up an item slot. An item slot I would love to fill with a Charisma or Luck boosting item like my current necklace. I’d say equipping it is probably worth it though. There is only one thing that gives me pause.

“How much are you willing to pay?”

She gives me a sly smile. “For you, little Thief Lord? I’ll be generous. Two hundred gold.”

My jaw drops. Two hundred from an NPC!? Holy shit! Those penny-pinching cheapskates never pay more than a fraction of what an item is worth. For an NPC to offer me two hundred gold? Selling this to a player could net me a small fortune! I knew Legendary items were valuable, but for a Cursed item? This goes beyond my wildest expectations. I’m selling this. Question is: how? As a Villain, I don’t have access to the auction house or any of the regular channels to sell items. Perhaps the Black Market Auction is an option, but with only one hundred and thirty-six eligible customers, maybe more if I factor in any of the other Villain classes, the potential buyers for this item is minimal at best. At least at these early stages of the game.

Maybe Allison or my dad can sell it for me? That should be possible. The potential questions that would raise though is a little concerning. I’m not sure if I want to put myself in that situation, so maybe I’ll save that option as a last resort. Hmm. Perhaps I can sell it directly to Anna? The Dark Pegasus Guild is incredibly wealthy, and this item could give them an edge against their competition in future raids. With my odd relationship with Anna, I might even be able to score a better price than average. Maybe auction it off anonymously on an off-game website?

I need to think about this. “Sorry, Lucille. I think I’m not gonna rush into this one. It’s a powerful item after all.”

“Oh? This offer won’t stand forever you know.” She smiles, batting her eyelashes.

I chuckle. “I’m sure it doesn’t. Still don’t want to rush anything though.”

“I could kill you for it.” She says a bit more coldly. Oh. So she wants to play it like this, does she? Two can play that game.

“And risk ruining your reputation like that? The item is valuable, but not valuable enough for you to lose a large chunk of your customer base over it, I’m sure.” I say evenly, meeting her steel hard gaze.

She raises an eyebrow, seemingly amused. “Oh, and he bites. A nice quality to have.” She smiles. “You’re a sly little rascal, Thief Lord. I like your guts. Reminds me of my youth.” She chuckles and hands me back the necklace. “Do contact me first if you ever come across any more items like these. I am definitely interested in buying. Now, take care, little Thief Lord. We shall meet again.” And with a wave, she disappears through the door, leaving me alone with my Lieutenants.

“I’m sure we will.” I mutter, smiling at the closed door in front of me. I learned a lot from this meeting, and it helps forge the path ahead of me. There are so many things I want to do, and I feel invigorated to think about the possibilities I have going forward. One thing's for certain though; I need to grow in strength. Fast. The other Thief Lords have a massive head start and I need to do my best to catch up. Heading towards the door, I throw a glance across my shoulder.

“We have a lot of work to do.”

----------

We make good time heading back to the hideout. It should only be a couple of hours until Allison and dad log on for the first time, so I see little reason to waste precious time waiting for them. I still have a few jobs I can perform today. Since I now have two Lieutenants, then that means I can now use every single underling during jobs at once since the eight underlings per Lieutenant limitation won’t kick in. I can also have them split up and perform two jobs at once which is a great boon from an efficiency standpoint. Since I still have a lot of underleveled underlings, and Viper is still fresh at being a commander, I decide to split my veteran underlings evenly and have her tackle an easy rated job while Cobra handles the medium rated one.

With all my underlings safely out the door, I find myself with surprisingly little to do. I probably should have tagged along with Viper to see how it goes, but she’s probably gonna be fine. Just like Cobra, Viper has been there on pretty much every job I’ve performed so far and should know what to do. I guess I’ll just spend a couple more hours leveling my trap maker skills. I’m getting closer to leveling them up again, and I would love to see the look on Odin’s face when-

[Kenwin Smiteman writes: You piece of shit! You scamming piece of shit! Your traps are fucking useless!]

[Rynorn Stabberton writes: ?]

[Kenwin Smiteman writes: Don’t give me that shit! Give us back our gold or I’ll find you in real life and smack the living shit out of you!]

[You have ignored Human Paladin - Kenwin Smiteman(12).]

[You have removed Human Paladin - Kenwin Smiteman(12) from your friends list.]

[Rynorn Stabberton writes: May I ask why your wife is getting his panties in a twist?]

[Gregorious Ironguard writes: What? Who?]

[Rynorn Stabberton writes: Your friend, Kenwin. He’s writing me a series of obnoxious messages and threats.]

[Gregorious Ironguard writes: Oh for the love of god! That piece of shit is NOT my friend. Please just ignore him. Sorry about that. It’s just that we’ve run into a bit of trouble with our hunt for the Thief Lord. Think you can help?]

Uh, oh. This sounds bad.

[Rynorn Stabberton writes: What’s the problem? The traps should work perfectly fine against any enemy with a perception attribute below twenty-five, and even then, it would take quite some skill not to trip it.]

[Gregorious Ironguard writes: It’s not that. Some random guy found the sewers and leaked it online. There are tons of players swarming around the place, tripping all the traps we set. Do you have any ideas about what we can do?]

[Rynorn Stabberton writes: What? It’s leaked!?]

Ah, crap. I knew the day had to come, but it’s sort of a tough pill to swallow nonetheless. Especially on the same day I figured out my super-secret fence syndicate wasn’t quite as big a secret as I thought it was. It’s a good thing I recruited all those Beggars when I did after all. Goodbye, easy experience.

[Gregorious Ironguard writes: Yeah, I know right. There goes our grinding zone. Still. Do you have any ideas on how we can find that Thief Lord?]

[Rynorn Stabberton writes: Several, but I suppose none of them are applicable now. If the sewers are swarmed with players, it would be mighty stupid for the Thief Lord to be anywhere near that place.]

[Gregorious Ironguard writes: Shit. Thought so. I guess we just have to come clean to the guild.]

Oh. Oh, no, no. Initiative evasive maneuvers.

[Rynorn Stabberton writes: I don’t really know why you didn’t tell them in the first place, but are you sure you want to tell them now? Almost a week after your fuck up? I’m not sure they would take that so well. I’m just saying. Perhaps you should just forget about the whole thing?]

[Gregorious Ironguard writes: That sounds like one hell of a loose thread. If they figure this out later, they might punish us even more.]

[Rynorn Stabberton writes: How are they going to find out? As far as I know, it’s only you, me, and that dimwit Kenwin that knows about it.]

[Gregorious Ironguard writes: You forget about the Thief Lord. He knows.]

[Rynorn Stabberton writes: Yeah, but who is he gonna tell? I sincerely doubt he’ll have a conversation with your guild about how he killed you. He’s probably forgotten about the entire thing for all we know.]

[Gregorious Ironguard writes: Probably… But there’s always you.]

[Rynorn Stabberton writes: Dude. Really. I don’t care. You paid me, and from where I’m standing, we’re cool. Don’t worry about it.]

[Gregorious Ironguard writes: Thanks, I guess. I suppose that means our business is done here.]

[Rynorn Stabberton writes: Seems like it. Do give me a heads up about the Thief Lord though. Consider my interest piqued; and who knows? I might be able to help. You seem like a pretty cool dude and I don’t mind being friends. You know, as long as you keep that other dipshit away.]

[Gregorious Ironguard writes: Haha, will do! Talk to you later.]

I guess that worked out alright. A pity I didn’t get to milk this opportunity a bit longer, but it shouldn’t matter much. It’s a shame I lost the hunting grounds; but to be honest, I don’t really need them much. My new goal is to farm Infamy points, and I get more of them doing jobs than hunt critters below the city. I’m gonna miss the easy opportunity to quickly level my underlings, but for the most part, I’ve outgrown the need for the sewers. I’ll still use it if necessary though. Maybe one day when I’m powerful enough.

Besides, I have a couple of ideas on other sources for gaining experience. The introduction of the latest PvP patch still hasn’t left the back of my mind, and I think it’s time to finally do something about it. I would have preferred it if my pursuers eventually gave up on their chase, but I can’t hide from them forever. I’m not sure how the other five Thief Lords do it, but I have no doubt in my mind Aria and the Dark Pegasus guild have put measures in place to hide them from the general public. Since I don’t have a thousand-player strong support system, I’m basically just floating around on my luck alone, and we all know that won’t last forever.

Since revealing my existence is only a matter of time, then I prefer coming out of hiding on my own terms rather than someone else's. Sooner or later, someone will spot me moving through the back alleys. It’s a goddamn miracle it hasn’t happened already actually. If I decide the time and place to make my existence known, I can at least steer my pursuers in the wrong direction for a time. Aria won’t have enough manpower to search the entire city, and the only way she’ll find my hideout is if she physically follows my underlings, which is an extremely-

Oh. Shit.

That actually isn’t unlikely at all! There’s absolutely nothing preventing a high-level Rogue from following a squad of my underlings returning from a job. Shit. Another problem. I groan, rubbing my temples. This hiding business is seriously hard. I wonder how the hell the five other Thief Lords haven’t been caught yet? Djeezes. Now I’m absolutely certain they have outside help. There are so many variables to take into consideration. Fuck.

Okay, Ryan. This isn’t an insurmountable problem. If they can do it, then there’s nothing preventing you from doing the same. You’ve overcome more difficult hurdles in the past, and there is no reason this is the thing that finally puts the last nail in your dream’s coffin. If you know about the problem, you also have room to fix it. I only need to come up with some fool-proof countermeasures. Something that will make things too difficult for the enemy to follow. But what?

I need to think about this. Do some research. Also, I should read up on the details surrounding the sewer exposition. Maybe also take a leak. It’s been a while.

----------

Lifting the helmet off my head, I’m immediately hit by a sudden urge to pee. Woah, good timing, Ryan. Exiting the capsule, I quickly jump across the living room on the tip of my toes, reaching the bathroom with only moments to spare. Releasing a breath of relief, a pinging noise draws my attention from the living room. Shaking thrice, I thoroughly wash my hands before I head back towards the capsule, grabbing the cellphone lying beside it. Oh. A text from Allison.

[16:34: Best sistah evah XoXo! (If I catch you changing this you die, little brother): Hey squirt! Our capsules are hooked up and we’re just about to log in. Shoot us a message as soon as you see this. My gamertag is ‘SupaSisSixtyNiner’. SeeYa there!]

[16:36: Best sistah evah XoXo! (If I catch you changing this you die, little brother): Oh, and I forgot to tell you. If I don’t see a message from you within three hours, I’ll personally drive over to your house and beat the snot out of you. Love you, little brother! *Kisses*!]

Oh, fuck me sideways.