agoraphobic_dragon

Godfather's System 115

After I had arranged the movement of the Takis and his enthusiastic group of over-skilled farmers, I was feeling the satisfaction of a job well done. 

The group had worked well enough against the beast waves considering their disadvantages, and I expected them to fight even better once I slipped them some more skills and they built a proper outpost. A tertiary source of experience, in addition to the outpost.

And Zolast, who was working surprisingly hard for an old man. ...

Godfather's System 114

With my Speed and Perception, finding that group hadn’t been particularly difficult. Traveling to their oldest base had been trivial, and from there, following the tracks of thousands of people was hardly difficult.

Even though I had to stop twice on the way to stop cultist attacks, I wore that golden armor on both occasions. I wanted the survivors to gossip about an incredible knight with great enmity against the cultists. 

Hopefully, it would keep them away from me.  ...

Godfather's System 113

“And, that was the last meeting,” Zolast said as we walked through the main forge, which was currently empty with all workers going through an existential crisis. 

”Well, it was fun,” I said with a chuckle as I caught Zolast’s exasperated gaze. 

“You have a very mean sense of humor,” Zolast commented, but that didn’t prevent the sides of his mouth from tugging. 

“I take what I can get with all the work we have to do,” I answered. “There�...

Godfather's System 112 - Interlude Launara

Launara was perpetually afraid. 

How could she not be, when it would take one little mistake to ruin the only good opportunity she had in her life. The moment her gender was revealed, the exile was the best she could hope for. Execution was not an impossibility as well. 

The Church of Hephaestus didn’t take kindly to female blacksmiths who dared to ignore their so-called fate. Never step in an actual forge, and never work on any implement of war. 

“They co...

Godfather's System 111

“ … and, that’s how I applied Charisma during a battle to protect from the fear effect the summoned creature had been radiating,” I said, finishing the explanation of all the tricks I had discovered, which also worked as a summary of my activities. This time, I didn’t hide anything, Toross and his transformation, the full details of the casino, the infiltration of the casino and my secret assassin protege, even the organization I had created as a distraction to disguise the fake mys...

Godfather's System 110

“We have a lot of things to plan,” he declared with a smooth voice. It was an interesting change. His voice and tone were the same, but there was a timbre in his tone that had been missing earlier. It wasn’t exactly confidence, as that was not something he had been lacking even at his worst.

Maybe it was the sensation of looking forward to life once more. If so, I understood where he was coming from. There had been times I had experienced the sensation of dark clouds being dispell...

Godfather's System 109

To his credit, Limenta was able to handle my training for eight hours with limited breaks, and toward the end, he was able to stop himself from speaking even under my full blast of Charisma. 

It still made him freeze and left him helpless, but that was still better than I expected. With my secrets reasonably safe, I left him behind for his mission,, and went back to the Town Yoentia.

Though, as I walked away, I came to a decision. 

I was going to reveal the truth t...

Godfather's System 108

For a moment, I wondered if he was confident that I was the Hero. If not, I might have the chance to convince him otherwise … but to what alternative, I had no idea, as I certainly wasn’t expecting my new ability to betray me. 

As I examined his face, I could see that he was confident in his declaration. “A notification?” I asked. 

“I-it says I have joined the heroic party…” he said, too shocked to deny the declaration. 

I shrugged. “Well, let ...

Godfather's System 107

As I covered the distance between the two towns, a smile blossomed on my face. Partially, it was about the time the journey took. With the new stat points assigned to the Speed, combined with the multiplier effect from my Ability, the time that was required more than halved. 

Still, it wasn’t the utility of my enhanced movement that put a smile on my face. No, it was the joy of moving as fast as a high-powered car, but nothing but with the power of my own legs. The feeling of ela...

Godfather's System 106

Unfortunately, even as I spent fifteen minutes patrolling around the outpost, I failed to find any further hostile presence. Then, a group of guards rushing on their horses, accompanied by Zolast and the rest, I stopped. 

I didn’t show myself immediately, instead stayed back, trusting Zolast to handle the situation alone. 

The guards weren’t stupid enough to antagonize the most critical person to the plans of their liege lord at such a critical juncture. 

...

Godfather's System 105

It didn’t take long for me to arrive at the hunting outpost, but rather than going in directly, I stayed outside, observing the changes. Even during the night, it was an impressive sight. 

It was impressive just how much improvement it had gone through in less than a month. Its walls stood even higher than the town, two layers of enhanced wood, with the inner layer covered with many towers. 

Each tower with a ballista in place, ready to take down a large beast the mome...

Godfather's System 104

The journey itself had passed without any trouble, and soon, I was back on the outskirts of Town Yoentia. And, as much as I wanted to go and visit the hunting outpost to start gathering Experience once more. The pittance I gathered on the way was hardly worth anything, especially since I avoided anything big enough to get the attention of any potential observer. 

But, the state of the town was far more important. 

Since it was on the way, I first stopped by the Casino. I...

Godfather's System 103

At first, the darkness was silent. I swam alone, red and blue mana dancing around me, filling what could only be my soul while I floated. The sensation was familiar … though with one exception. 

Unlike the previous time, where I had been dragged to the place, I was in control. I didn’t know the reason for the difference. Maybe it was my budding magical talent, or maybe it was the fact that I wasn’t dragged here forcibly by a god. 

Either way, I used silence to focu...

Godfather's System 102

After revealing the attack of the Greens, I disappeared to the background, leaving the protection of the dungeon to the ducal guards. They might not be as competent as I would have preferred for my forces, but they were still competent enough to be trusted for the protection of the dungeon once they were alerted to the possibility. 

That didn’t mean I stopped observing the situation. Except for a fleeting moment where I visited the casino to make sure everything was in order — ...

Godfather's System 101

After leaving Zolast and the youngster alone at the basement of the headquarters, I decided to stick around the inner town, despite several signs of skirmish clear at the outer town. 

Ordinarily, I was planning to go around the outer town to poke around a bit more, making sure I had revealed a couple extra safe houses for the Night Blades, but at the meeting I listened, they had been talking about Zolast’s ability to set up a dungeon as a great problem. Which meant, they were abo...

Godfather's System 100 - Interlude Karak

“Are you ready?” Zolast asked. 

“Yes,” Jertann answered, as loud as usual, while Terma was bouncing up and down his feet, ready. Silas was silent as always, her fingers still caressing her newest axe, one that had been brought by Euon. 

“And, how about you, Karak?” Zolast asked as he turned to him. “Do you need some more time to adapt to your new skill?” 

Karak shook his head, and raised his spear — his new, magical spear — to the air, sign...

Godfather's System 99

Sneaking my haul back to the town was even easier than I expected. The fight at the safe house was enough to alert the Night Blades to the existence of the organization, and the death of an inner town commander gave the Night Blades all the justification they needed to start poking around all around the outer town. 

The irony that the Greens were being blamed for the death of one of their members was too amusing. 

The chaos already lessened the number of people at the wa...

Godfather's System 98

A potential blockade was a scenario we were prepared for. The employees went to the storage, rapidly pulled the premade palisade walls, and started to turn the area into a small fortress. I had already made them run drills for this exact purpose, and it would only take fifteen minutes to complete. 

However, I didn’t stay to watch them, but changed my disguise before slipping away. 

What I had done was a declaration of war. Even though I hadn’t killed anyone, I had di...

Godfather's System 97

Even as I sneaked the sneaky assassin from behind, I couldn’t help but criticize his technique. He moved through the roof carelessly, relying more on his Agility than care to keep himself from making some noise. He clearly had Perception as well, but he was over-reliant on it, just glancing to the roof once before he moved to the edge, trusting his Perception to handle it. 

Which was a big mistake, as even without using Concealment or Speed, I avoided his gaze. 

Worse,...

Godfather's System 96

After the meeting with Zolast, I went back to my room, wanting to catch some sleep. Technically, I could have pushed myself more without sleep, but it was not a good idea to push myself needlessly. 

I needed to be fresh to meet a potential emergency. 

Going to sleep was easy. Living the life I had, going to sleep as needed was a life skill I had gained long ago, one that helped me greatly many times. 

What surprised me was what followed. 

I had foun...

Godfather's System 95

It was already noon when I managed to return back to the Town Yoentia, physically and mentally exhausted. After that encounter with the cultists, not only I had to stay for a while to make sure the traitors in the military didn’t ruin my efforts, but also I visited several other refugee groups that were struggling to defend against the constant monster attacks, distributing the rest of the Advanced Skills to the young men that looked idealistic enough to defend their group. 

At l...

Godfather's System 94 - Interlude Takis

Even as he trembled, experiencing the worst pain of his life, Takis was still praying for a god that he didn’t even know his name for the fortune they had been granted. 

Takis was not a man of great prospects. He had already been twenty, but, as an unfortunate Scholar born in a border village, there were limits to what he could achieve. It was a relatively rare class, and from what he had learned, if he was fortunate enough to be born near a city, he would have made a decent livi...

Godfather's System 93

As I walked forward and gave a momentary pose, my magical sword glowing even brighter, the camp suddenly froze. The appearance of a figure on their most likely escape path was enough to add to their growing panic, but I had designed my armor very carefully to look like a savior that stepped out of a storybook.  

Of course, I had no doubt that, if I tried to appear like that among them any other time, ridicule would be the least of my worries, but now, the blue glow of ordinary mana...

Godfather's System 92

I didn’t return to Town Yoentia immediately. 

There were a few reasons for that. The simplest reason was the risk of being tracked directly... Even after destroying the three runes, I couldn’t be sure that they didn’t have any method of tracking it. I was reasonably sure, but there was a difference between reasonably and completely. 

The second, and the more important, reason, I had to dispose most of the advanced skills. As much as distributing them to the hunting...

Godfather's System 91

The door was knocked out barely half an hour after I was left alone. “Come in,” I said, and Barzist entered, carrying a large case made from pure silver, and engraved with gold runes. A more luxurious variant of the crates was used to transfer mana stones. 

“I’m here, sir,” he said. “The exchange had already been completed.” 

“Very good,” I said as I gestured for him to put it on the table. He did, and opened it for my perusal. A glance was enough to co...

Godfather's System 90

When I arrived in Town Maell, it was well past midnight, though my delay was understandable. I had to make a stop back in my town, where I had paid another little visit to Zolast. I left the meat with him, which he accepted with no shock, the earlier explanation about my roots working well to reduce the surprising nature of it. 

The rest, I shredded in the river, leaving no evidence about the origin of the ability. 

Unfortunately, there was precious little that he could ...

Godfather's System 89

I waited until nightfall for my next outing, and this time, I had left only after going to my bedroom, using a secret tunnel to slip away rather than using the excuse of visiting the hunting outpost. 

There were two reasons for my sudden change of pattern. First, Concealment gave me confidence that, even with the observers, I could come in and get out of the outer town without the risk of getting spotted. But, more importantly, I planned for a longer trip this time, which was not j...

Godfather's System 88

My immediate destination after the meeting with Zolast was my own office,  enthusiastic to apply my newest trick, glad that opening up to Zolast already paying dividends.

It was why I was sitting at my desk, casually flipping the skill stones while I kept two of the stones covered with my mana at the same time. It was not the way Zolast had taught me, but he didn’t know the full extent of my Perception, which allowed me to analyze both of them at the same time, just after half an...

Godfather's System 87

The meeting with Zolast took another full hour to finish,  going through exactly what I needed from Zolast for our meeting with the mister Junior Inquisitor, with several repeats to make sure he could act just as I needed.

I had no idea just how strong the Junior Inquisitor Bertnam was, but I had a feeling that, discounting a transformed Toross, he would be the most dangerous opponent I was going to meet, and some extra preparation was not unwelcome. 

Only after I made s...

Godfather's System 86

Zolast stayed silent for a moment as he leaned back, taking another sip of tea, but his tenseness was impossible to hide. I didn’t push him, giving him time to feel comfortable. I didn’t make a deeply personal moment by pushing him even more. 

“I think starting from the beginning is the best,” he admitted. “Once, I had been a priest of Nereus, one of the strongest and most hard-working ones, strong enough to receive the right of class promotion and assigned as the holy gu...