agoraphobic_dragon

Godfather's System 85

With both of us busy with our tasks, it had been a week since I had last visited Zolast. “You look like shit,” I said the moment I entered as I noticed just how exhausted he looked. His face was sullen, with large bags under his eyes. 

I was ready to write it off as a sign of his exhaustion due to all the work that went to build the dungeon, but I noticed an important detail that changed it the moment I stepped inside. 

Zolast tensed at my presence. 

How i...

Godfather's System 84

When I arrived in the town, I did my best to look relaxed and casual. I wanted to talk with Zolast, and I was even ready to reveal some of my secrets if that was required to get his buy-in. I was a rather selfish man, but I had my own red lines … kidnapping people and turning them into monsters were well-past that limit. 

It was not just self-preservation anymore. 

However, I didn’t want to rush to him the moment I arrived at the town, which might imply that there wa...

Godfather's System 83

After my spectacular show of illusion, I escaped the town and run through the opposite side of City Yoentia for ten minutes before finally taking a break, killing the occasional beasts that targeted me despite Charisma as I fought.

I waiting to see if there were any that were trying to follow me still. 

For now, it seemed to be none, but better safe than sorry. 

Interestingly, I expected Concealment to reduce the monster attacks, but that seemed not to be the case....

Godfather's System 82

There was an art to noticing hidden pursuers, and, as I followed my unfortunate victim back to the same passage he had used, I had to use that art to see who else was following them — which was inevitable after the secret message the guard had sent. 

The first, and the easiest, step was to break the pattern. 

Unless a tail was a complete amateur with no sense, not caring whether they were noticed or not, they wouldn’t just follow someone on the street directly. Slowi...

Godfather's System 81

“Wow, that was harder than I expected,” I said as I let the mana around my eyes dissipate as I rushed between the roofs for a while to make sure no one followed me. Of course, being hard didn’t refer to convincing my target … but maintaining that glow during the discussion. 

Though the result was worth the effort. 

Initially, I had only tried that fake glow because I had some problems hiding my eye color in a world that didn’t have convenient contact lenses, bu...

Godfather's System 80 - Interlude, Barzist

Barzist didn’t expect to be woken up early, as he had given his men strict orders to make sure he was not disturbed. After a week of constant work, he finally had a chance to sleep, and he had been intending to enjoy it. 

His week had been chaotic since he had stupidly made a greedy bet, and decided to believe a mysterious man with a mysterious deal. In the end, not only he lost precious cargo — half of it to that thief, the other half impounded by the guards — and almost a d...

Godfather's System 79

Twenty minutes later, I was once again at the edge of the Town Maell. This time, I trusted the darkness of the night to cover me, so I rushed forward with relative recklessness. 

Though, when I arrived, I had to stop a moment and examine the town carefully to make sure I had arrived at the right location. The changes the town had experienced were … impressive. 

The first difference was the outer defensive line away from the town. An elatriss away from the outer walls, ...

Godfather's System 78

After my initial trip to the new hunting lodge, I had fallen into a busy routine, a routine that consumed a full week. Every day, I traveled between the town and the hunting outpost, sometimes several times a day, supervising construction on both locations carefully. 

At the side of the town, supervising the construction of the outer town structure took most of my time, particularly the connecting basement and the casino. The basement was important, but luckily, not too complicated...

Godfather's System 77 - Interlude, Zolast

“Work never ends —” Zolast started to mumble as he stepped into his tent, bored and exhausted, only to freeze as he felt a chill at the back of his neck. He wanted to react in some form… but he knew that it would have been useless. 

They found him. And his restricted state, he had no hope of resisting. He expected a blade covered with runes to plunge into his back, ending his life. Pity, just as he was getting used to his cursed existence…   

“Still as i...

Godfather's System 76

“You’re a wizard, Edward,” I chuckled as I looked at my hand and examined the dance of the blue glow, slowly dispersing as my attempts to manipulate it failed. 

[-1 Mana]

Even with everything going on, this new world had its ways of pleasantly surprising me.

Pity, no matter how much I wanted to play with my newest stat and experience the feeling of being an actual wizard, that was not possible. Not because I was afraid of losing the little mana I had — as I soon...

Godfather's System 75

I left Zolast alone after asking some more questions, mostly about the hunting outpost, which Jertann and the rest were overseeing. Apparently, almost a thousand people decided to trust Jertann and stay in the outpost, which surprised me. 

Zolast asked me to visit them and make sure everything was alright. I agreed immediately, as I wanted to get out of town for some experiments with the small silver box I was carrying. 

Or, more accurately,  what was inside of it. ...

Godfather's System 74

Unlike our first arrival, my entry to the inner city was smooth. The guards, wearing tabards carrying the sigil of House Yoentia, didn’t try to pull any trick against a guild member. Though, I could see that those soldiers were new recruits rather than loyal members of the ducal family, as they were far too proud of their new clothes, looking at everyone else smugly. 

The ongoing silent rebellion of their house must have been even worse if some emergency conscriptions of peasants...

Godfather's System 73

“That was…” Mahruss murmured in a daze as we left the guards behind. 

“A good example of why you should be very careful outside, particularly near any noble,” I completed his words.  “And, a good topic to avoid discussing if you don’t want trouble.” The fact that it happened in public was no reason to go around discussing it, after all. 

For the rest of the way, none of the guards bothered us, spooked by the earlier display. I guessed it would take a...

Godfather's System 72

I left Jertann and Zolast behind to handle their logistical and political challenge, happy to be able to foist the work on them. Unfortunately, that didn’t mean I was free. I was already walking toward the small gathering that held the employees of my small operation. 

They were waiting for me silently, with only Mahruss speaking, while Karak nodded. The guards and the gambling operators were standing silently, already learning the value of silence from their short stint — thou...

Godfather's System 71

It was a little later than midday when we arrived at our destination. Or more accurately, we arrived close enough to see the outer defensive line created by the members of the Night Blades, who were dealing with the monster attacks rapidly. 

I hid my frown as I looked at their members. I recognized nine out of every ten faces, which was less than I expected considering I had already memorized every face in the camp. I wouldn’t have minded much, but, without exception, the unfamil...

Godfather's System 70

My first impression of my new employees was … they were a sorry bunch. 

They were twelve of them. Nine of them were young men, some not even into their twenties, while the rest of them were old, around my age. No, I corrected myself a second later as I paid attention to their physical qualities and not just their response, all eight of them were young women, but they were disguised as men. 

Their competency in disguising them suggested that it was not a last-minute cho...

Godfather's System 69

I didn’t do much for the rest of the day. I stopped by my gambling operation, happy to note that it was still making a steady amount of money with no problems. It was good to see my little business wasn’t targeted.

Even my employees avoided the wider mess.

The gang wasn’t as lucky. Technically, from a numerical sense, the losses weren’t too great, barely a hundred members left the gang, but considering they were either gone through their second promotion, or were about to ...

Godfather's System 68

With my targets distracted by the unwelcome inspection, my escape went smoother than I expected … though my feelings were mixed. 

“I was hasty,” I murmured even as I balanced the crate with one hand, the other occupied with my halberd as I slashed continuously. Maybe it was the sensation of excitement that resulted from my newest stat, maybe it was discovering a new, novel way of using Charisma making me overconfident. 

Either way, I had taken some rash risks as I ...

Godfather's System 67

When I left the inn, I had two followers on my tail, which didn’t surprise me slightly. I even heard the boss giving them their orders, telling them to follow me from a distance, and make sure I had the items I had alluded to have, and use their magical device to communicate the result. 

A smart precaution … pity it relied on my arrogance and apparent inability to use Charisma. I wasn’t entirely sure I could use Charisma to give orders, but with my other examples of success, ...

Godfather's System 66

The sudden silence that fell onto the inn was fascinating. No one spoke, no one even moved as the weight of the order settled over all of us. The people at the surrounding tables stopped in shock, their gazes bouncing between the owner of the bar and our table. 

Effects were even more pronounced on our table. Every occupant froze, doing their best impression of a statue, their trembling eyes the only evidence they were still alive. 

Well, everyone except me. I was busy t...

Godfather's System 65

As I walked in, I took a glimpse of the interior. There was only one word to define the place … 

Gaudy… 

Technically, my assessment could be wrong. After all, it was hard to be more foreign than I was, and my exposure to the new world was rather spotty. Only the highest and the lowest, but nothing in between. 

But, I didn’t know how else to describe the place, with walls pointed with bright red and decorated with animal heads, bulky furniture studded wit...

Godfather's System 64

I had just received Speed as my newest stat, but that didn’t mean it was the only useful utility I had. I closed my eyes as I remembered a map that I had seen on Zolast’s desk, one that showed the most recent outlay of the land, one that included all known breaches, as well as three dungeons that had already been established and working. 

One of them was just fifty miles away. It was supposed to be a great distance, but with my new speed, it was less than an hour … and that w...

Godfather's System 63

While Terma dashed away to talk with his brother, I walked next to three that were carrying our captives, looking around to make sure there was no assassination attempt. I didn’t expect a rescue attempt likely, as I doubted they knew enough to risk more assets. 

Still, better safe than sorry. 

As I walked, I was thinking about my problem … particularly, my need to awaken a particular new Stat. 

Speed. 

It wasn't the first time I had tried to awa...

Godfather's System 62

I expected them to rush toward me immediately, as the two hangers-on seemed confident in their newly empowered friend. The sense of invincibility they were supposed to feel made that a quick bet. 

Which was why it was interesting to see them hesitantly, and looked at their leader. They were tense, which was only interesting because they weren’t looking at me in fear, but toward the camp. I didn’t interrupt as they walked toward their leader, and one of them whispered, thinking ...

Godfather's System 61

“Not a bad start,” I said as I stood in front of Karak, and examined the moving cart he had arranged. “It looks workable enough to host a nice game or two,” I said. “You’re responsible to make sure no cheating happens,” I said before I turned to the rest of the group. “Make sure you listen to Karak. He speaks for me,” I warned the rest of the team. 

“Yes, boss,” they answered. A few of them — particularly the two that had been recently promoted — looked an...

Godfather's System 60

I looked around the tent while Zolast sat down, taking note of the details. 

The first thing I noticed was paper … an incredible amount of it, piling over the small table and spilling onto the wooden floor of the cart. “That’s a lot of paper,” I commented even as I turned my attention to the silver runes etched on the floor, memorizing them while looking uncaring. 

“Unfortunately, setting up a guild is a tricky process, requiring quite a bit of paperwork magic....

Godfather's System 59

Karak’s habitual silence once again proved convenient as we continued our journey. My attention was on our observers, both teams retreating after the demise of the unfortunate assassin, further confirming that it was just a test. 

An expensive one… 

“You’re getting better,” I commented as I watched Karak kill the beasts that approached him with a renewed passion. Being forced to his knees by Charisma seemed to unsettle him. 

“I’m trying,” he gr...

Godfather's System 58

“I hate you,” Karak gasped as he collapsed onto his knees once more while I chuckled. 

“You think you do, but it’s just the beginning, boy,” I said, chuckling in amusement. “But, I’m impressed. Barely four hours, and you can stop yourself from completing the attack in almost every attempt. You’re learning faster than I expected. We might start the fun part sooner than I expected.” 

Karak looked at me, with pride, but also with frustration. He could hard...

Godfather's System 57

It took a while for me to find Karak. While I was talking with Zolast, they walked away from the camp to keep their discussion private. Though, not as private as they were hoping, considering they were shouting at each other. 

Jertann was swinging his hammer with a precision that surprised me. He had been showing great improvement since his promotion. Whatever ability he had received from Zolast allowed him to improve much more effectively compared to the others who had been promot...

Godfather's System 56

“Any guess about how many?” I asked. 

Zolast shrugged. “I’m in the same situation as you. How should I know?” 

I shook my head. He was still trying to poke around. “Why don’t you make a guess, give me a range.”

“It’s hard to make such a guess without understanding the forces that are assigned to the operation to stop those breaches,” he countered, still reticent in committing. 

He was still testing me. I paused a moment, measuring t...