The Legendary Fool

Chapter 124: To beat an assassin

124:

Tom flexed his arms as he began to acclimatize himself to the Blood Wyrm Chainmail. The heavy construction of scales and metal wire clung perfectly to his form, offering complete protection to his abdomen while leaving his arms free.

Well, complete protection as long as someone didn’t just punch through the armor with molten-hot metal. The Gatekeeper would’ve attested to that if he still roamed the mortal plane, but nonetheless Tom had no intention to blindly rely upon the armor to keep him safe.

It was only a fail-safe and the chainmail’s armor skill was pretty useful.

A few minutes later, Tom began stretching his legs, finding that the weight of the platelegs were making an actual difference. It was nothing he couldn’t adjust to, but Tom’s blinding fast movement speed would be reduced to very fast, if he had to take a guess.

He reached for his inventory and pulled out the sabatons he had looted from the Gatekeeper’s corpse.

[Boots of Weight Reduction, Uncommon

Requirements: 5 Proprioception

Description: If the wielder equips armor in the head, torso and/or legs slot and the combined weight of the armor exceeds 100 pounds, the armor skill of the Boots of Weight Reduction will activate.

1. Lighten: Reduces the weight of any armor worn in the head, torso and/or legs slot by 30%]

“I guess these make sense now,” Tom remarked, as began tugging at his right boot with his left and then repeated the process to get out of his common beast leather boots.

“What do they do?” Aleph asked from where she lounged on the tent carpeted ground, a pillow that she had pulled out of her inventory cushioning her head.

Tom made a note to stock up on a pillow, no, as many pillows as he could get his hands on, before he replied, “Reduces the weight of the armor I’m wearing. These are pretty neat.”

“By how much?” Aleph asked.

“Thirty percent.”

She arched an eyebrow at him, before replying, “Any armor?”

“No, it’s got weight conditions,” Tom explained as he slipped into his new metal sabatons, finding them surprisingly comfortable from the inside as he felt the weight on his shoulders and tugging at his abdomen magically lighten.

The sound of shuffling footsteps near the entrance of their tent broke the flow of their competition, as Zirel peeked his head inside and said, “Doesn’t look like there’s any beasts in the vicinity.”

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“We probably scared them off,” Tom offered. “That probably means that the Shadow Guild knows we’re within the forest.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Aleph muttered. “What makes you think that’s the case?” She asked.

“Their people went missing and now beasts are dying in droves. From what I know, the Shadow Guild is the only major power on our side of the tower. The way I see it, we have a choice.”

“Tell us,” Zirel said, as he stepped inside the tent.

“We can try our luck sneaking into one of the kingdoms that border the tower or we can fight the Shadow Guild,” Tom declared.

“I’m not exactly opposed to fighting the Shadow Guild, but you’re the least, well, vengeful of us three. Why is fighting them an option, but sneaking inside the tower isn’t?” Zirel asked.

“They’re assassins,” Tom replied with a shrug, his use of Maya having shed more light on the nature of an assassin than it had on the inner workings of the Shadow Guild. It was a pity he hadn’t used Maya on the Gatekeeper instead, but the ability was asking for sixty five of his Soul Power and that was a cost that even he had found steep moments after arriving in a new land.

“We barged into their territory, clearly heading for the tower. We ran into the Gatekeeper and killed him. We had plenty of time to run, but we didn’t. Instead, we began picking off easy targets in the vicinity. Without knowing our specific circumstances, it looks like we’re a group of powerful dungeoneers that were slighted, killed the Gatekeeper for the offense and found his cards useful enough to level nearby before we got to our main objective,” Tom explained.

Aleph blinked and then turned to look at Zirel, who gave her an equally understanding look.

“You think they’ve set a trap near the entrances,” Aleph offered, her tone sounding convinced.

“They’re not coming after us because they know we’re strong and it’s not in the nature of an assassin to chase the strong when they’re expecting it. They’d much rather ambush us when we least expect it,” Zirel’s brows furrowed as he nodded. “I’m assuming you’ve got a plan?”

“I do,” Tom replied. “But before that, we should at least consider the path that involves less violence.”

“No,” Aleph firmly replied. “It doesn’t.”

“Explain?” Tom asked.

“Between the three of us, we’re a walking treasure trove. None of us will have any status in the kingdom we enter and the moment even one of us slips up and reveals our abilities, we’d be risking Nobles finding out that we’ve got multiple rares between us. I refuse to believe that there’s a place on the surface world where rares aren’t worth killing a bunch of commoners over.”

Tom pursed his lips, before sighing.

“You’re probably correct,” He admitted. “I’m not sure of this, but I think the Shadow Guild’s so called master is the only one amongst them that has a rare. That’s why I didn’t want to tangle with him, but he’s already tried to kill us once and he will almost certainly try again. Better him than nobles, I guess.”

“So?” Zirel began. “What’s the plan?”

“The Gatekeeper did reveal the name of his guild fairly easily, but he gave us no reason to believe that their entire guild operated from within the Sacred Forest instead of a nearby kingdom. I’m not sure if they know that their headquarters’ location is already out, but that’s easily confirmed.”

“You want me to scout out the area near the tower entrances,” Zirel guessed.

“Astute,” Tom complimented. “Yeah, if they’re waiting for us there, it means that they have no idea that we know where they’re hiding or they wouldn’t split their forces until the threat was dealt with.”

Aleph’s eyes went wide as she understood what Tom was getting at.

“You want to hit their headquarters when they’re least expecting it. Just like an assassin.”

Tom coughed into his head before shaking his head.

“I don’t want to do any of this,” Tom replied. “But if we get into a conflict with the Nobles, they’re going to throw people like the Royal Knights at us— guards under their employ, most of them ordinary and more than a few, decent people. At least with a den of assassins, they probably deserve what’s coming to them.”

“A solid plan,” Zirel gave him an approving nod, a hint of respect flickering across his gaze.

“But,” Tom added. “Before that, we still have the rest of the day. Just enough time for me to power through my new uncommon to level 5 and get the mass decrease ability.”