Hell to Pay (Ascend Online Book 2) Read online

  With a shake of my head, I pushed past the recent fight, choosing to look around the room and focus on immediate concerns.

  Like just where the hell I was.

  After violently retching from the carnage I had caused, I lay stunned for a moment as my wounds slowly regenerated, before staggering down the hallway I saw the torturer and other guards appear from, coming to a pair of adjoining rooms. The first was filled with a single stone table fixed in the center of the chamber, similar to the one I had awoken on. Unlike the main torture chamber, however, this one had even more torture tools stored inside it, along with a disturbing-looking pile of leather that a prompt in the corner of my vision told me was [human skin].

  Recoiling from the room, I immediately felt slightly less guilty of what I had done to the Torturer and his companions.

  Thankfully, the other room, the one I currently found myself in, was free of torture implements and other disturbing devices. Instead, it was filled with a number of crates, in addition to a small table with a pair of chairs set beside a large water basin. Judging from the bits of food left on the table, I figured the space was a rest and cleanup area.

  Guess even Torturers need to take a break sometimes, I told myself grimly as I grabbed an uneaten loaf of bread and forced it down while eagerly searching the room, checking the crates stashed in there. The last thing I needed was for my body to go into starvation mode and prevent itself from regenerating after combat. Gods, I hope my gear is somewhere around here…

  Ransacking the crates, at first I found nothing but clothes, some ranging from the simplest of rags that only the poorest commoners would wear, to finely crafted tunics that wouldn’t look out of place on a merchant prince or one of the nobility.

  The Undertakers definitely live up to their name, I scowled as I continued to scour the crates looking for my gear, breathing in the faint earthy smell of dirt.

  Considered to be the lowest and most disreputable of all the street gangs in Eberia, the Undertakers didn’t earn their living through respectable criminal means such as blackmail, burglary, or racketeering. Instead, they truly embraced their namesake, preying upon targets that couldn’t fight back, as they chose to invade their victim’s final rest, robbing their graves for whatever trinkets that had been buried with them.

  But yet despite their ill reputation, they remained a prominent force within Eberia’s criminal underworld, for the twin reasons that they had the ability to make a body disappear as if it had never existed, as well as being able to acquire all types of body parts or ingredients needed for necromantic rites.

  Which was why my guild put up with them, though given how I had just ended up in one of their torture chambers, I had a feeling that was about to change.

  I guess the old saying is true…there really is no honor among thieves, I thought to myself bitterly.

  I happened to be one of the few players that had decided to fully embrace the Criminal Path that Ascend Online offered, choosing to shy away from the grand adventure that the majority of the other Adventurers embarked on as they left the cities behind, looking to make their fortunes the honest way out in the wilderness.

  While other Adventurers trudged through the wild for days on end, where a single untimely death could undo days of playtime, I stayed within the relative safety within the city walls, happily enjoying the fruits of civilization. What was the point in going out looking for adventure out in the wild when there was plenty to do here in the city?

  Well, as long as you didn’t have trivial things like morals holding you back and weren’t afraid of taking mind-bogglingly dangerous risks.

  “Ah! Here it is!” I exclaimed while opening the last crate in the room, revealing my gear tightly packed inside. I quickly began pulling out the set of black dyed leather armor that had been given to me the day I had been formally accepted into my guild, the Grim Shadows.

  Laying out the armor out on the ground, I was relieved to find that none of the pieces from the armor set had gone missing, the set description appearing in my vision.

  Grim Shadow Initiate Armor Set

  Slots: Arm, Chest, Feet, Hands, Legs, Head, Shoulders

  Item Class: Magical

  Item Quality: Good (+15%)

  Armor: 195

  Set Bonus: (7/7)

  Strength: +5

  Agility: +5

  Constitution: +5

  Armor Type: Light

  Weight: 7 kg

  Favored Class: Any Martial

  Softened Leather: +10% bonus to Stealth to avoid being heard or spotted.

  Level: 12

  Grabbing a basic set of clothes from one of the other boxes to wear underneath, I dressed myself in the dark leather armor, feeling my confidence rebuild itself with every single piece I equipped. With the final piece on, and the last strap tightened, I glanced inside the crate, looking for my weapons.

  “Shit, no sign of my lockpicks, crossbow, or my daggers…” I cursed quietly to myself after a quick glance inside the crate revealed it to be empty. As I looked up, however, a glimmer of metal caught my eye, revealing a hilt trapped between the wall and the floor. Reaching, my hand grabbed hold of the hilt and pulled free a long scabbarded greatsword from behind the crate. “Ah! Found my sword, though!”

  I hefted the heavy weapon in both my hands, checking it over for damage. Seeing nothing that looked out of the ordinary, I called up the item description.

  Heavy Iron Greatsword

  Slot: Main Hand and Offhand

  Item Class: Magical

  Item Quality: Good (+15%)

  Damage 25-55 (Slashing)

  Strength: +5

  Durability: 120/120

  Base Material: Iron

  Weight: 2 kg

  Class: Any Martial

  Level: 12

  It was a plain, if serviceable weapon, with obvious signs of having been repaired throughout its lifetime, having enjoyed a wide variety of owners before it had found its way into my hands. Likely decades old, I was fairly confident that this blade had been forged to help fight in the endless stalemate that was The War.

  Which made it all the more the pity when I had first spotted the blade in a greedy merchant’s shop, half hidden under a pile of ragged carpets. I was fairly confident that the merchant had long since forgotten about it, and never even knew I had stolen it.

  Damn shame, since this is a pretty decent sword! I grabbed the hilt tightly, feeling the familiar leather grip mesh to my hand. Looking around one more time, I tried to find a hiding spot where my crossbow could have been stashed, but came up empty. Damn…I guess it’s not here.

  “Okay, time to get moving,” I whispered to myself as I mentally brought up my character sheet. “But first we need to make sure nothing serious has changed.”

  Lazarus Cain – Level 12 Bruiser

  Half-Giant/Half-Elf Male

  Statistics:

  HP: 439/710

  Stamina: 534/710

  Mana: 255/255

  Experience to next level: 19637/25200

  Attributes:

  Strength: 75 (85)

  Agility: 63 (68)

  Constitution: 42 (47)

  Intelligence: 10

  Willpower: 10

  Abilities:

  Sneak Attack II (Passive) – Attacks made before the target is aware of you automatically deal weapon damage+35.

  Bleeding Attack I (Passive) – Enemies who take sneak attack damage will continue to bleed for 5 seconds, taking 40% of the sneak attack damage dealt.

  Power Attack II (Active: 50 Stamina) – You slash viciously at the target, putting extra strength behind the blow. Deal weapon damage+25.

  Ambush I (Active: 60 Stamina) – You ambush your target, striking them in vulnerable location. Deals weapon damage+125. This ability can only be used on a target unaware of you.

  Kick (Active: 20 Stamina) – You kick your enemy for 10-20 points of damage, and knock them back 1-2 yards. Depending on your Strength/Agility score, you may also knock
down the target.

  Shoulder Tackle (Active: 40 Stamina) – Stun enemy for 1-2 seconds with chance to knock enemy down based on Strength and/or Agility attribute.

  Deadly Throw I (Active: 30 Stamina) – Throw a weapon with extra strength behind it. Deals weapon damage+15. This ability has a chance to interrupt spellcasting if thrown at the target’s head, force them to drop their weapon if thrown at target’s hands, or slow their movement if thrown at target’s legs.

  Skills:

  Weapons:

  Unarmed Combat – Level 12 – 11% (Increases knowledge of Hand-to-Hand fighting and improves related Abilities.)

  Swords – Level 12 – 75% (Increases knowledge of Sword fighting and improves related Abilities.)

  Daggers – Level 11 – 43% (Increases knowledge of Dagger fighting and improves related Abilities.)

  Crossbows – Level 12 – 22% (Increases knowledge of Crossbows and improves related Abilities.)

  Throwing – Level 10 – 10% (Increases knowledge of Throwing Weapons and improves related Abilities.)

  Other:

  Stealth – Level 12 – 82% (Decreases chance of being detected while attempting to stay hidden. Improves related Abilities.)

  Lockpicking – Level 12 – 89% (Increases knowledge of lock mechanics, allowing you to pick harder locks.)

  Wordplay – Level 12 – 84% (Increases chance to persuade others, resolve differences, and/or get information.)

  Perception - Level 12 - 95% (You are skilled in spotting hidden creatures and places. Depending on your skill level, hidden creatures and places will be highlighted in red.)

  Tradeskills:

  Blacksmithing – Level 11 – 12%

  Cooking – Level 10 – 34%

  Alchemy – Level 12 – 11%

  Leatherworking – Level 12 – 17%

  Racial Ability:

  Titan’s Might (Giant) (Passive) – Your Giant ancestry has given you the ability to wield large weapons in with exceptional strength. All damage dealt by two-handed weapons is increased by 3%.

  Keen Sight (Elf) (Passive) – Your elven ancestry has given you exceptional eyesight, granting you the ability to see twice as far as normal in all lighting conditions. This ability also grants you Darkvision.

  Darkvision (Elf) (Passive) – You are able to see in daylight conditions up to 100ft in total darkness.

  Traits:

  Sigil of Rage – A magical sigil written in the Primal Tongue has been carved deep into your flesh, causing it to pulse with an unfathomable torrent of energy. When activated, Primeval Rage suffuses your body granting you +10 to Strength and Agility. While this ability is active, you are consumed by pure rage as your body is burned from within, dealing 10 points of damage per second. This ability scales per level.

  Scanning over the sheet, I noted that I hadn’t completely yet regenerated from my earlier fight, still feeling pain and fatigue throughout my body, but I couldn’t afford to sit around and wait for it to completely heal itself. I had to get myself moving in case someone else came down to check on the guards posted down here or had heard the noise from the earlier battle and decided to investigate.

  Reaching the bottom of the sheet, I focused on the new ‘Trait’ entry and reread the Sigil’s ability once more, which left me shaking my head and wondering what had happened during the heist that cost me my memory and separated me from my groupmates.

  Dismissing the sheet from my vision, I looked towards a heavy wooden door leading out of the room, then shifted my glance back towards the torture chamber where I had left the bodies of the Undertakers, and the one unknown body I had seen lying on the table.

  I have to go back and see who it is, I resignedly told myself as my feet shifted back towards the hallway. The Undertakers are up to something beyond just robbing graves, otherwise I wouldn’t have ended up here.

  Walking quickly, I found the bodies of the Undertakers lying where I had left them, sprawled out on the ground staring blankly into nothingness. One of the first lessons a Criminal player usually learned, was that unlike creatures in the wild or other players, sentient NPCs within cities didn’t just dissolve into nothingness, conveniently cleaning up after themselves after a few minutes of death. They either had to be burned to ashes or physically carted away and buried for at least seven consecutive days before they vanished from the world.

  This added yet another layer of danger to those who chose to play the game on the opposite side of the law, forcing them to choose between lethal violence and the trouble of disposing a body, lest their crimes be found out and traced back to them, or finding a nonlethal way to remove an NPC from play.

  Steeling myself, I stepped over the bodies, walking with purpose as I moved deeper into the torture chamber. My eyes found the unknown body I had seen earlier, still lying on the stone table with its chest rent wide open. The smell of burnt flesh still filled the air on this side of the room, forcing me to take a deep breath before stepping closer to the corpse. I paused for a moment to gather my will and continued moving forward, hoping to identify the body as quickly as possible and leave.

  Unfortunately, it seemed like the game had other plans.

  I felt a spike shoot through my heart the moment I saw the body’s face, my breath leaving my chest as I recognized the dead man as Fairfax Grimm.

  My mentor and a Thief Lord of Eberia.

  “Shit!” I gasped, gagging as I breathed in the foul air. Coughing wildly, I looked down at the rest of the body, seeing it covered in wickedly long cuts that appeared to have been cauterized almost instantly after being dealt. I couldn’t help but stare at the Thief Lord’s chest, wincing as I inspected the massive wound that had killed the man who had brought me into a life of crime.

  As I finished my inspection of the body, a chime echoed in my ears, the same moment a quest appeared in my vision.

  New Quest! No Honor Among Thieves! (Criminal Quest) (Evolving Quest) (Unique Quest)

  You have discovered the body of Thief Lord Fairfax Grimm, one of the Five Thief Lords that rule the Eberian Underworld. You have no idea how his body ended up here or who killed him, but judging from his appearance, he did not go peacefully. As his loyal follower, will you seek revenge? Or will you sell out your former master to another? Perhaps this is an opportunity to take advantage of the power void for yourself?

  Inform the Grim Shadows that Thief Lord Fairfax has been killed: 0/1

  Inform another Thieves Guild that Thief Lord Fairfax has been killed: 0/1

  Difficulty: Hard

  Reward: Experience & Infamy

  Damn criminal quests, I scowled at the quest description, mentally dismissing it from my vision. They almost always portrayed themselves as having multiple solutions to finishing the quest, while also encouraging the player to be as selfish as possible.

  “What happened, Fairfax?” I whispered at the Thief Lord’s body. “How did you end up here with me?”

  Not expecting a reply from the dead Thief Lord, I stifled another cough before I started rifling through the man’s pockets, remembering the lessons that he had taught me just a few days prior. With any luck, I might find a clue to what may have happened to him, something I could take back to the rest of the guild and ensure that he was properly avenged.

  “I know you wouldn’t take this personally…” I told the corpse softly as I shifted the body, checking for the hidden pockets I knew every thief worth their salt had. “But, sorry, just in case.”

  “Here’s something,” I muttered to myself after a few minutes of searching, feeling my fingers touch something hard and round sewn into Fairfax’s shirt. Pinching the cloth, I tore the fabric apart, causing an oversized silver coin to fall into my hand.

  “Eh?” I couldn’t help but be taken by surprise as I inspected the coin, finding it to be nearly twice the size of regular currency. As I looked closer at the minting of the coin, I was shocked to find Fairfax’s profile emblazoned on both sides, a tag unhelpfully identifying it as a [Strange Coin].


  “Huh, guess this might be something to figure out later,” I said to myself as I pocketed the coin, and finished my search of Fairfax’s body, finding nothing else of interest. Shifting my mentor onto his back once more, I did my best to arrange him into a dignified position. “Alright, Fairfax, time for me to go.”

  I turned to walk away from the body, feeling a spark of anger kindle in my heart. “Don’t worry, though, I’ll find out who did this to you.

  “And make them pay.”

  Chapter 3

  My discovery of the Criminal Path in Ascend Online was a pure accident, in which what I truly mean is that it was because of a woman.

  It all began on Launch Day, the very first day that Ascend Online was released to the public. I was walking through the market, still star struck by the authenticity of the game, when a sudden horde of Adventurers pushed past me and descended on a blacksmith’s stall. Within seconds, they had grabbed everything that the smith had on display, each of them breaking off into different directions to evade the immediate pursuit by the city guards posted in the market.

  Well-practiced at the art, the guards easily intercepted the would-be thieves, easily subduing them and returning their ill-gotten gains back to the understandably irate smith. But while everyone’s attention shifted to the fleeing Adventurers, no one saw a lithe, dark-haired woman approach the distracted blacksmith and deftly pluck a key from his pocket in the chaos.

  At least, no one except me.

  Moving naturally, without even the slightest bit of hesitation, the pale-skinned Adventurer then walked straight through the gathered crowds and out of the market, casually leaving the scene of the crime behind without a care in the world.

  Instantly realizing what the woman had done, I moved to follow her, stunned to see how effortlessly she had gotten away with her crime and intrigued to see what she would do with the blacksmith’s key. Weaving through the crowds of milling Adventurers, I was hard pressed to keep up with her as she crossed the city with the easy familiarity of a local, then brazenly walked into a tavern that I wouldn’t have even considered entering without at least half a dozen friends behind me, had it been in Reality.