CLA.S.S NEUTRAL: Stranger Is Coming

King's decision. Thief Treff. Key phrase.

R

agan seemed to have an ultra-precise watch, like every player here, since he came exactly one hour later. The king looked forward to the fun and hoped to enjoy our efforts. This sc.u.mbag promised that he would kill us anyway. I would certainly kill him. This time he came without Kurbakht.

"What have you prepared?" the king asked sarcastically, sitting down in the chair which the executioner had brought. "I'm waiting."

The thief muttered something and started juggling with the metal balls, kicking them up and keeping them airborne like footballs. His Dexterity was obviously high. Having imagined how painful it was, I flinched. However, the king wasn't impressed with such a skillful trick.

"Too stupid," Ragan grimaced. "Juggling first comes to mind when you see such balls. You'll be quartered very slowly. I hope you'll understand that when I told you to think, you would have had to do it harder than you had ever done so before.

I think that after your execution, most people will do it. Hmm… who's next? You." He pointed to the second prisoner. The man immediately flopped to the floor. "Where are your two balls?" the king looked at him, then his eyes widened, and he laughed out loud. "AH-HA-HA!"

Ragan cried with laughter. Why? However, the usurper was very strange, so I shuddered to imagine it.

"He managed to swallow them! Ah-ha-ha!" Ragan had fun. "They'll just chop off your head. I keep my words. However…" He grinned. "They'll do it with a blunt sword! Ah-ha-ha! I haven't laughed like that for a long time."

I heard the man crying in the nearby cell. They weren't immortal. What a bastard! Ragan, I'll take you out.

"What has our smartest prisoner prepared?" this idiot stared at me.

He had changed a lot, as soon as he'd left the throne room and come to the catacombs. The evil cunning traitor of the royal family, this new, arrogant king, had turned into a simple villain. This was very sad. Of course, if he didn't pretend, but it was too complicated for artificial intelligence. I would surely have figured out such a pretense. Although… I could be wrong.

"Where are the titanium spheres? Find them, servant."

"Hold on, Your Majesty." The executioner stood in front of my cell and, stretching his arms, began to look. A minute later, he said, "I feel only one of them. And something strange has happened to the second. It seems he's lost one."

"Lost? Ha-ha-ha! In an empty room? Ah-ha-ha-ha! Wow! Where have you put it, stranger? Velk would have felt it if you had thrown the ball out of the cell. You didn't do that, so where is it?" After a minute of my silence, the king began to get angry. "Answer my question!"

I just grinned and demonstrated the ball broken into two perfect halves.

"Your Majesty, he broke it," the executioner stared at me with disbelieve.

"Broke? But that's impossible! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!" Ragan laughed. "This is the best trick that I've ever seen, although not as funny as the previous one. You should have seen that guy's face. I hope that he won't die before the execution. Two executions aren't enough. I'll have to order the guards to catch a citizen they come across and execute him. I wonder how he was able to swallow them. Ah-ha-ha."

"Aren't you afraid, worm, that I'm only pretending, and I'm only sitting here because I want to destroy you. I want you to suffer for ten millennia." I spoke in a very unusual voice again, forcing the sweat to appear on the king's forehead.

"Let's go, Velk. They can enjoy the last moments of their lives. The execution will take place at dawn." The king turned around and left, without even saying how exactly he wanted to take my life.

The thief moved away from the wall. Apparently, my voice had scared even him. I needed to wait until midnight before I escaped with this small company, as I was already sick and tired of being here. Maybe I could get some bonuses?

***

The watch woke me up at half-past twelve.

"Hey, guys! Will you leave with me?"

"Yes," the man from the next cell answered.

I decided to pump my new spell up. Opening and closing 'The Mole's Hole', I cut the steel bars away from my cell and went out into the corridor. At first, I needed to help the nearest one, as that thief hadn't even responded.

Damn! What a creature! He wasn't human, but he was something similar with a crocodile's head. A kaedd. Now it was clear how he had swallowed the balls. But it had harmed him. The crocodile leaned against the wall, holding his stomach. It was a very unexpected turn in the game. I had to use the 'The Mole's Hole' to get the balls out of his stomach. However, I wasn't skillful enough, so along with the balls I would take out some of his organs. Such NPCs usually died forever, and I wouldn't let that happen. Guy, you have to suffer a little.

"Get up, H'axar'ratkag," What a name! I'd better use the shorten form. Hmm… level 137, not bad. "Now, let's release the thief and get out of here. I have an idea of how to help you to get rid of the titanium balls and not remain crippled after that."

Having helped Arns, I improved my spell to the third level. We went out into the corridor all together.

A man in black clothes and a hood on his head came out of the shadows. A black mask hid his face, and only his eyes dimly glowed in the darkness.

He wore perfectly cleaned boots. Apparently, thanks to them and his pumped up Dexterity, his steps weren't heard at all.

"I'm here to save you, but you've decided to run away without my help." His voice was quiet but imperious. "Nobody warned me about your abilities, Allone."

"I got this skill only a couple of hours ago," I shrugged. "So don't blame those who reported to you about me."

"Hmm… this was just the phrase I expected. It is completely consistent with the received information," the thief said. "However, this isn't the best place for talking. A difficult way is in store for us; the kaedd here is rather heavy. Arns, help Allone to carry him."

"Maybe we better use his methods?"

"Of course. Let's try," I agreed with the second thief. However, neither the path nor the fall through the ground activated. What the hell? "It doesn't work; I don't know why."

"Let's try the proven way of escaping," the main thief shrugged and headed toward the far end of the corridor. Ten minutes later, we came up to the wall. Treff didn't even slow down. He quickly touched one of the stones, and a narrow passage opened in the far corner. Hax barely climbed into it. It took us more than half an hour to get to the castle walls.

"I think you need to relax a bit. The kaedd seemed to getting worse. What happened to him?" Treff asked.

"He swallowed two metal balls, both the size of a fist."

"The king's new torture?"

"Yes."

"He will pay for everything."

"Really?" Ragan's mocking voice sounded next to us, making everyone shake. "Calm down. Stay still. The guards have very sharp peaks—they sharpened them only three hours ago."

I have long assumed that you, Treff Grove, cooperate with the 'Minkar Followers'. But the fact that Allone has joined you was a little surprise. Two powerful enemy pieces will now leave the chessboard. Let's see what next steps your leader will take."

"I always knew you were a fool, Ragan." Treff's mocking voice was filled with contempt. "We don't have a leader. We are the people who lost the best ruler in the Mernor's entire history, and you are guilty in it—a traitor, hiding behind the mask of a good person."

"Too many words, Treff! You used to be an excellent chief of secret investigation. If you had worked for me, you would have lived long, but now you'll die like these other fools.

I won't propose you to return to me again, since I know your answer in advance. Moreover, the current chief of Secret Investigation is better than you. I should think on a suitable way to send you to the next world. Something new and original."

I coughed to interrupt the king and mock him a little. "You've completely forgotten about me, worm, but I warned you. You didn't listen to me. So now you have to pay the bills."

"What can a level-ten jerk, who is pretending to be an ancient old man, do to me?"

"It's not good to confuse strangers' ages," Treff said. "It keeps causing a lot of trouble."

"Could I kill the guards?" I asked the head of the Thieves Guild, making him a little surprised.

"No, please," he answered after a couple of seconds.

"Well then, let's do a dirty little trick."

I pressed the skill button, and a message flashed before my eyes:

You need a key phrase to activate this skill!

Would you like to choose from the proposed ones or use your own?

"May the Force be with me."

Key phrase accepted