CH 15 Mercenary
The sun was setting in the Dark City, Once the Sun had finally fallen over the horizon footsteps could be heard echoing through the silence of the streets. A small blue light could be seen in the distance. It bobbed up and down to the rhythmic patterns of walking. As the footsteps got louder the outline of a man could be seen in the dim light of a blue lamp. Upon his shoulder were two nightmare creatures with each having a few slashes around their bodies vital areas. They were blood fiends of which were so common in this forsaken city. His helmet was over his head masking his identity. From the slit of his helmet, ethereal blue tendrils rose like smoke and dissipated into the air. The rest of his armor was weathered and held together by rags and ropes, only having Plated armor in Places of Importance like the upper body or the forearms.
As the knight hobbled into town the ethereal strings started to dissipate and become less prominent. The people that were still awake in the town all watched him walk by with a multitude of expressions. He looked at them through the visor of his helmet tracking them with his eyes as he passed. He eventually arrived at the door of a large house. Many loud noises could be heard inside of the house, The Knight assumed that it was some type of celebration. He eventually knocked on the door with a sigh, Then his voice echoed out of his helmet "open the door, I have what you want".
The sounds stopped and the knight could hear footsteps coming towards the door. Soon he could see the shadow of the man from under the door, then the door opened to show a man with clean cut hair and light leather armor. The rustic Knight then put his hand out as if asking for payment.
The man pulled out 5 awakened soul shards and handed them over to the Knight. As the Knight received the soul shards the blue tendril fully dissipated. The knight in return handed over the two dead monsters. He stood in the light of the doorway for a bit as the man dragged the carcasses back into the house. He then turned away and walked towards another smaller hut. Arriving at his hut he entered and looked at a rack of dried food he had set up a few days after he had arrived in the Dark City. He took a piece of jerky from the rack and brought it up to his face.
He removed the ragged cloth he called a hood off his helmet. Noah then took off his helmet, revealing his face. His hair was messy and ran down to his neck. His face was unkempt and dirty. His jawline was starting to grow facial hair. His skin color was slightly tan having been sparingly exposed to the sun. Noah took in a deep breath through his nose and out his mouth. Then he took a few bites of the jerky, savoring its salty taste. Once finished he walked over to a jug of water he had purified and took a few sips. He then took (Arstor's Spear) off his back and placed it against the wall near his bed. After he took the (Farron Knife) off his hip and placed it on the floor near the end of the spear.
After the first 5 months of living in the dream realm Noah was able to fully saturate his core so for now he has been saving up soul shards for something in the future. This being said Noah held out his hand to summon the only memories that he has acquired in the past 7 months.
It was a small brown sac held closed by a black rope. He slightly loosened the rope holding the sac closed to reveal many soul shards hidden in its embrace. He then placed the 5 shards that he had just earned into the sac and tightened the rope, closing the sac. He then dismissed the memory and went to sit on his bed and took his Lamp off his hip. He held it up then opened his rune next to it scrolling down to his Lamps runes. Specifically to the amount of souls his lamp has collected.
Attribute description :
(The Umbral Lamp has finally found its new owner. Now complete this forgotten artifact can now collect the souls of fallen enemies. Using the souls of the ones you have slain you can reinforce your weapons. Once a certain soul threshold is met the owner of this lamp can cheat death once.)
Souls : 343
Noah had found a few things about his lamp that he found very interesting. The amount of souls he receives does not depend on the tier of the enemy but on the amount of soul shards they have. So a blood fiend gave him two but a beast of the dormant variety would still give him two. He also noticed that as the soul count gets higher the brightness of the flame in his lamp increases ever so slightly, which could be useful if he ever gets stuck in the dark city at night.
Noah then got up from his bed and blew out the torches that were lighting his room. He then walked back to his bed and sat back down. Noah then glanced at his Lamp and brought his legs onto the bed. He crossed them and placed the Lamp on his legs. He placed both his hands near the top of the lamp and closed his eyes. Noah tried to empty his mind in an attempt to meditate. He sat there for a few minutes with nothing happening. Then he felt his body loosen up and the world around him started to melt away. The blue string-like tendril that had filled his eyes before returned and started to rise from his eyes once more. He sunk into the feeling and dove deeper into his trance. His [ Umbral Blood ] attribute flared and he felt an ethereal power flow throughout his body.
He then opened his eyes showing that his pupils were starting to glow and emit more blue tendrils. Noah held out his hand and summoned his Knife from the ground. It appeared in his hand instantaneously in a lightless blur. He then grabbed it by the handle and felt the ethereal aura that flowed through his body start to flow through the weapon, empowering it. Noah then Smiled at this result. Truly this (Umbral Blood) attribute was more helpful then his old (Adyr's Blood) attribute .His calm state of emptiness was interrupted by his admiration for his attribute and it slowly deactivated and his eyes returned to Normal.
He again gazed into the fires of the (Umbral Lamp) and decided to try something. He placed his dagger back on the floor and summoned his Spear. He said it across his Lap and placed his Lamp on top of it.
'How do I do this?'
He tried to stick the end of the spear into the blue fire. Nothing happened, he really did not have any lead when it came to upgrading his weapon. It said it in the Attribute description that he could, but he really did not know how it worked. Then Noah was hit by an epiphany.
He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate and soon his surroundings felt different. He opened his eyes to see that his surroundings had changed. In front of him was his soul core and around the soul core was a bigger version of his Lamp. Noah then summoned his Spear once more and walked towards the flames that engulfed his core. He then tossed his Spear into the Fire and watched in amazement as the fires swelled. Ethereal strings then attached themselves to the spear. Like worms to dirt they inserted themselves into the black steel of the Spear. Then the spell spoke
[ The Umbral Lamp has offered souls to your arsenal, your weapon has been reinforced ]
Noah noticed that the lamps shone slightly darker which he guessed was from the use of souls. Noah then summoned his spear back into his hand and inspected it. It looked slightly cleaner but something was off. The black wood that wrapped around the spear tip looked weird. Noah tapped the wood only to find it soft, almost like rubber. His finger squished into the wood with a disgusting squelch. Noah recoiled and wiped his hand on his armor.
'What the hell'
Noah then opened his runes to look at (Arstor's Spear)
Aspect weapon : Arstor's Spear
Rank : dormant
Tier: IV
Type : weapon
Memory description
( A unique weapon built to pierce the defences of any armor. This weapon was wielded by Astor, a sadistic knight who took joy in killing. Astor's weapon was lost in a fight with a vial monster, which rusted and corrupted it over the ages. The weapon still has a strong piercing blow but also carries a vial sting. )
Memory enchantment : (Vial sting) ( pierce ) (Astor's obsession)
'Ahh so that what reinforcement does' Noah then opened the runes of his new enchantment
Enchantment description : ( Astor's obsession)
( Astor was a repulsive knight who took joy in skewering the people he saw as lesser than him. His sadistic joy was so embedded into his being it was transferred to this weapon, inspiring a hunger. This weapon's hunger could only be satiated by beings that were felled by its edge. As the weapon feeds it will repair the body of its wielder in compensation )
Noah smiles at this, the Spear New attribute could be very useful and he figured out how to upgrade his weapons. Noah pulled up the runes for the umbral lamp again. He checked his soul count and saw that it had decreased by 300 leaving him with 43 souls in his lamp. Noah also did not fail to notice that the description of the weapon had slightly changed.
Then a knock on the door. Noah's concentration was interrupted and his vision returned to the real world. His eyes moved towards the door. He reached for his helmet and placed it on his head. He got up and walked towards the door, summoning his weapons back onto his body in an instant. Opening the door he saw a lone figure standing in his doorway. The figure belonged to a man, he was tall and had a large build filled with muscles . He wore something that looked to be what a viking would wear. Then he opened his mouth and spoke in a low gravelly voice.
"I have a job for you."
Noah slowly looked up at him and flatly asked" For tomorrow or Today?".
"Today"
He sighed 'great', now I have to deal with this " what do you need?"
"Follow" the man then turned away and started to walk towards the castle gates.
Noah looked at this man in disbelief from under his helmet. 'What the hell is wrong with this guy'. Noah decided to not follow him and closed his door. As he walked back to his bed another knock came from the door. He opened it again to see the same man standing outside of his door. He tried to close the door again but was stopped by the man's hand.
The man then repeated, emphasizing the first word, "Please follow".
'Did this man think saying please would help his case?'
Then another person walked up beside the burly man. A small guy with blond hair. Compared to the burly man he looks like a little boy. He was pretty short just below Noah's shoulder. Noah could easily see over the guy's head, which Noah found a little amusing . He wore a shiny silver armor that reflected the moonlight off its metal plates.
" You're that mercenary with the… unique looking armor right?"
'Well at least he speaks in full sentences' "yeah uhh how do you know me?"
"Well you have quite a reputation out here. When you ask the locals around here for a mercenary, they always mention you in some way, so we came to check you out."
"Ahh well hopefully I meet expectations. So what do you guys need?"
"We would like to contract you for an expedition into the forsaken city. We will pay you half in advance and half after."
Noah then leaned on the door frame " first off who are you guys, I gotta Know who i'm working for? And why do you need an expedition into the forsaken city?"
" Well where pathfinders and we have been ordered by the king to explore a part of the city before a small mission is issued to the lieutenants. We don't have enough people so we have resorted to hiring mercenaries"
Noah shivered a little at the news. Not the reason for his hiring, but on why they were doing the exploration. Noah could see and has been told that the ruler of blight castle was an unruly tyrant so Noah thought that there would probably be consequences if he refused the request. " how much are you paying"
" 15 soul shards"
Noah froze '15 soul shards upfront, and that was only half the payment. This is great, maybe this job will be a good idea after all'. Noah put his hand on the lower face plate of his armor, fainting a moment of hesitation then said " I'll do it for 20 upfront?"
The man instantly agreed which made Noah slightly doubt himself and the feasibility of this mission, but he already made the decision to take the mission when he upped the price so it was already too late to back out.
" Well then welcome to the expedition,I'm Miles" he then gave Noah a handshake." Follow me ,we'll get you Briefed"
Miles then turned towards the gates of the castle and started to walk at a leisurely pace. The burly man followed him at which Noah also followed suit. Once they made it to the gate they all paid their fee to get in and entered the great gates of the castle.
Noah didn't visit the inner city too much. He only ever went there to buy things for his house so he was not very familiar with the area, which made Noah still slightly on guard, glancing at every slight movement he would catch with his eye. Miles eventually made it to a small bar, at which point he entered. Noah soon entered and was greeted with a lively atmosphere. There were many people in this bar all talking, joking, and Drinking. It looked like a party with how they were acting. He did see a few familiar faces from the outskirts, but he decided to not engage in conversation. Noah found a seat a little way away from the crowd and sat. Everyone was preoccupied with their own conversation to pay Noah any mind, so much to Noah's satisfaction he was left alone.
He quietly sat in the corner with nothing particular going though his mind. His mind was pretty much empty which caused his attribute to flare up slightly. He sat there in silence till the door of the bar swung open. His eyes slowly drifted towards the door to see a familiar face. To Noah's surprise it was Leandro. Noah was pretty happy all things considered that Leandro would be joining them on the expedition, but a realization struck him. If Leandro is here then that means
Then a giantess with bronze colored armor walked in through the door. 'shes here too'.
Noah had been in the dark city for approximately 7 months so he had run into Effie on a multitude of occasions. Upon every interaction, Noah had come to the conclusion that Effie was 'the worst person to talk to in every plane of existence'.
Even though Noah came to this conclusion in reality she wasn't that bad but the way she talked just pissed Noah off to no extent. The innuendos, the horrible jokes, and worst of all the fake flirting. Noah found himself to be a prime target for her jokes, and it's not like he can shoot back something witty cause then she'd say something even worse. Plus Noah technically hasn't told anyone his age so if where to find out. Noah shivered. It would be horrible, he could already imagine the jokes now. All in all Noah just preferred to not interact with her at all.
So in an attempt to hide himself or at least lessen his presence, he put his head on the table and sank as low as possible.
Noah kept his head buried in his arm praying to whatever god was still left that he was not seen. His hopes and dreams were shattered when he heard around three pairs of footsteps heading towards him. As they got closer Noah was thinking of a way to get out of this situation and only one plan came to mind.
Effie walked up to Noah and said in an over exaggerated voice"O My GOD it's Noah, what are you doing here?" then she paused, chuckled to herself then said in a clearly provocative tone "are you stalking me? that's kinda hot."
Noah stayed unmoving face buried in his arm. Almost as if he was asleep. Yeah that's right his master plan, his great scheme, his magnum opus was to pretend to be asleep. Truly a master manipulator at work.
She then paused for a moment and poked his shoulder. "Uhh Noah, Heellloooo Noah you good?" Noah thought his plan succeeded but then he heard her laugh. then heard footsteps moving away from him.
Noah shivered at the sound of the laughter, Knowing the Effie was up to something he slightly moved his head so he could see the area around him.
Then Leandros voice cut in " what are you doing?"
"What does it look like, I'm pouring this on his head to wake him up!"
"Why"
Effie looked dumbfounded "Cause its funny"
Leandro then responded dryly "That's not funny"
"Its Hilarious you just haven't seen the vision yet!"
Well shit this plan backfired now he was stuck and about to have some liquid poured on his head. Effie then walked up right beside him and dumped all the contents of the jug on Noah. Luckily it was water but it was still unpleasant. As soon as the water hit Noah effie started to die of laughter, finding her plan to be the funniest thing on earth. Noah rose up instantly after the water was dumped onto him and looked around. He saw Leandro on his right with Savannah standing right behind him. Effie was to his left on the floor Laughing her ass off.
Feinting ignorance Noah pointed at Effie as if to confirm that this was her idea. The other two nodded confirming it. Noah took a few steps over towards Effie and squatted down, dryly saying with a straight face.
"Was it worth it?"
"Yeah!"
"Really? No one thought it was funny"
Effie then smiled and gestured towards Leandro " Leandro thought it was funny, he even said so"
Noah pointed at Leandro with his thumb "No he didn't he specifically said it wasn't funny"
Then Effie's face went neutral then her smile reappeared. "Wait, you heard that!?"
Noah immediately shot up and took a step back and in panic he blurted out a "no!".
Effie then got up and started to walk closer " you did hear it!" Her smile widened even further as she got closer to the back peddling Noah " which means, you-were-faking-it!"
'Shit'
Noah then turned around to escape but Effie was too fast, grabbing him by the shoulder and turning him to face her. She then lifted him off the ground by his armor's chest plate so he could not escape. Noah looked to his side at Leandro and Savannah in a silent plea for help, but by this point they were kind of amused by it themselves and wanted to see where this went .
" guess I'm too much to handle for ya huh?"
Noah pleaded " Please just stop talking, you holding me up is already embarrassing enough" Noah voice then went to a whisper" plus everyone is watching"
Effie's answer was simple and concise. "No"
Miles who was watching from the sidelines and also amused finally walked towards the commotion. With a smile on his face " hey effie do you Know this guy?"
Noah could practically see the gears in Effie's head turning as she tried to find the right words " Yeah I know him, actually I saved this guy in the dark city a few months back. He had nothing to give us so he offer his body in compensation"
Noah's face went red" THAT IS NOT WHAT I SAID AND YOU KNOW IT!"
Everyone turned towards Noah outburst, seeming confused at what was going on.
Effie again bursted out in a fit of laughter. " See, this is why I like talking to you. Your reactions are priceless" Effie then let go of his armor at which point Noah immediately backed away.
Noah put his hand on the front of his helmet in an expression of annoyance "Hey Miles c-can you just.. start the meeting, I just want to go home now."
Miles patted Noah on the back " can't yet, not everybody is here give it a few more minutes. We're still waiting for one more pathfinder to show up."
Noah's moral was completely in the dumpster as he walked away towards a new table, his head hung low. He sat down at one of the tables and watched the conversation between Leandro and Miles. It looked as if they might have been discussing a plan, or maybe his reaction to Effie's jokes he didn't know, but what he did Know was that he just wanted tonight to be over already.
He ended up waiting for a few more minutes till the door swung open once more to reveal a tall lanky man. He had armor that covered his whole body, the armor seemed to be made of a material that looked similar to stone. Even though the armor looked like stone it seemed to be very light, this became apparent when Noah realized he could not hear his footsteps. He strolled into the bar and walked up to the group of Pathfinders and started a conversation with them.
Noah got up and moved towards the crowd so he could be part of the briefing that he knew was close to starting. A few moments after Noah's relocation the Pathfinder announced the start of the briefing. They had everyone in the room gather around a large table to show us the plan on a map.
To Noah's surprise the mercenaries would not even be a part of the scouting force, that was only the pathfinders. With the mercenaries' inexperience in comparison to the pathfinders they would just slow them down. Instead they were more of a reactionary force that responded to strong nightmare creatures. Their job would be to distract or kill the nightmare creatures till the pathfinders have gotten away, then retreat. In essence they were cannon fodder to give the pathfinders time to escape.
Noah's suspicions of the job were confirmed during the briefing . Even if their only job was to fight and buy time most of them would not make it out alive so the high pay was reasonable. It seems that they weren't planning on fully paying everybody to begin with. Which was logical, but Noah was still not okay with sacrificing the people around him. He had to take the job not only for the pay but also because it was a job directly from the king and he could not refuse the king and incur his wrath.
By the end of the briefing the mission date was set for about a week from now so Noah had some time to prepare. He was the first one out the door, rushing home as fast as possible so as to not have to talk to the tall gremlin again.
Noah was let through the giant gates and ran down the step leading to the gates. He took a sharp left turn into a residential district of the outskirts eventually arriving at the sanctuary of his home. The opened the door and rushed inside throwing his things near his bed. He took his helmet off again and placed it near his weapons on the floor. Then he lazily collapsed onto his bed and knocked out for the rest of the Night.
A/n - sorry that it took so long to publish I had to rewrite it two times trying to get the story right. Thank you for reading!