The Classless Sorcerer's Self-Stealing System

"Do you even realize what you're asking me? Huh…? Do you? Either of you?"

Blychert and Skaldan glanced across the table at one another, though neither of them was particularly keen to answer such a loaded question. Reingard, leader of the Glumgully Ghouls, sat on the opposite side of the table from them, his expression permanently affixed with complete and utter contempt.

Not that Bly could blame him.

For a pleasant day, and during midweek no less, the adventuring hall was surprisingly empty. Blychert figured it had something to do with the recent dungeon decree. But even then, the quest board was still flush for work, and there was even a sign-up list for those who wanted to be part of the day-to-day dungeon clearing task force. All in all, there was no reason for the hall to be this vacant, though not that Bly was complaining, given the context of what he and Skaldan were trying to do.

"Good grief…" Reingard mumbled, as he rubbed at the end of his pointed chin slowly. His twin blades lay across the table, sheathed and affixed to a sword belt, and were positioned directly in front of the large mug of ale that their master was nursing. The fighter shifted his legs and leaned back, saying, "You'd think it was bad enough that my own party was too exhausted to make full rotation? Now I've got low-level dregs crawling out of the floorboards, looking for free handouts. What on Sulren would compel me to let one of you two on my rotation? Never mind both of you!"

"Hey, you heard what we had to say." Skaldan argued, "Come on, Reingard. Don't you think it's just a little suspicious that Gurogan put himself on a mid-range rotation instead of a lower floor? Nelkaar, Naz, Kalia… their teams are all on low floor rotation. Right? It's almost like he's up to something—"

"That asshole is always up to something." Reingard cut in, before taking a long sip from his drink. Clearing his throat, he continued, "Just like every other big shot around here. That's the name of the game, Your Highness. Doesn't mean he's doing anything illegal, and it certainly doesn't warrant you coming on to my rotation. This isn't a game."

"But you just said—"

"Bah! I know what I said." Reingard waved his hand dismissively, "You're not changing my mind, so you can just drop it."

Skaldan quickly offered Blychert a "we're not getting anywhere unless we give him more" kind of a look. Bly shrugged in agreement, hoping that Skaldan would at least have the good sense to dance around certain subjects.

"And if I told you that he was after someone?" Skaldan asked, a sleezy tone of voice to be sure. He leaned in over the table somewhat, and whispered, "Maybe… a certain artificer with a big, fat bounty on his head?"

Reingard practically spit out some of his ale, his expression going faint, as he muttered, "Bullshit."

"Nope." Skaldan grinned smugly, crossing his arms for good measure, "Gurogan's got him pinned down… supposedly. And get this, he's been hiding out down in the dungeon somewhere this whole time! Pretty clever, huh?"

"Pretty stupid, more like…" Reingard shook his head, "Now, hold on—even if any of that were true, who's to say that little fucker is even still alive? And that's your big play? Go and find him? What do the two of you even care—"

"It's about Skegg. Alright?" Skaldan interjected firmly, his tone of voice was devoid of all levity in that moment. The boy's gaze sunk low, as he muttered, "Is that not enough?"

"Skaldan…" Reingard murmured. The man gently placed down his mug, and said, "Still chasing ghosts, huh? Well, he's your brother, so I guess it's not my place to tell you what to do. But look here, it's my ass on the line if something were to happen to you down there. To either of you. That's a risk I'm simply not willing to take."

"…I understand." Skaldan muttered in response. His entire attitude seemed to have shifted in a matter of seconds, from complete confidence to total defeat. The boy wrenched his chair back and stood to his feet. Stepping across, he tapped Bly on the shoulder twice, and said in a forlorn tone of voice, "Come on, guess we'll have to sneak in there just the two of us. At least we know where Cynric is."

"What—huh?" Reingard's expression twisted confused, "What the hell do you mean, sneak in there?"

Blychert furrowed his brow, looking up into Skaldan's eyes only to be met by the slyest, shit-eating grin he'd ever seen. Understanding the assignment now, he frowned, and nodded as he stood to his feet, "Shame though, we probably don't stand a chance down there on our own."

"I'm sitting right here, you know, you can't just say something like that!" Reingard shouted, "You see this gold medallion on my neck? Hey, I'm talking to you two!"

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"Yep, if only someone could have helped us." Skaldan laid it on further, as the two of them started for the door, "Hey, you think someone will come try to find us if we go missing?"

"Doubt it." Bly shook his head, "Spawns on the lower floors will pulverize us. There won't be anything left to find."

"Alright!" Reingard exclaimed irritably, as he stood to his feet and closed the distance to where the two boys were standing, "I get it. Gods, can't believe I'm getting extorted by a couple of a lousy kids…"

Bly and Skaldan looked at one another with moderately satisfied looks.

"Just so we're clear on this," Reingard looked down at them with an annoyed expression, "I don't care what your business is, at this point it seems like the less I know the better. However, that bounty is mine. I'll take you down there on my rotation tonight, but you do what I say, when I say it. Your Highness might be royalty up in these parts, but down there? Chain of command. I'm your leader. Got that?"

Blychert nodded, and Skaldan did the same.

"Alright…" Reingard nodded. He looked around the hall momentarily, before side-eyeing the two boys, "You both get your gear in order, get some rest, and meet me at Giselher's, fifth flame. I'm assuming none of your betters know about this, so try to keep your mouths shut. Yeah? Good, now get out of here before I start to regret it."

Neither Bly nor Skaldan needed much more convincing than that to flee the adventuring hall with their prize. Together, they scrambled out the front door and pushed into the busy atmosphere of Delver's Row.

"Did you see his face?" Skaldan laughed hysterically, "I seriously didn't think that was going to work. But man, you were great! Sold it completely."

"Me? What about you?" Bly scoffed amusedly, "One more second in there, I swear you were going to start crying."

"Hey, don't tempt me."

Despite his pleasant, joking demeanor, Bly couldn't help but get the sense that there was some inkling of truth behind the prince's words back there. He'd shifted into a state of near despair so quicky. He was either a great liar or really pulling from something deeper.

"You going to tell me who Skegg is?" Blychert felt the need to ask, as the laughter settled down. He felt like he'd heard that name somewhere before, but he couldn't remember, "Seemed to get a pretty good reaction out of Reingard. You knew he'd pity you, didn't you?"

"Hm." Skaldan nodded, his expression was neither here nor there. Smirking somewhat, he punched Bly on the arm, "You been living under a rock your whole life or what?"

Something like that. Bly thought to himself, but said out loud, "I'm not from around here. Me and my master came to Calvergia from Loreley so I could train. Also, I'm bad with names and faces. Why do you think I didn't start calling you 'your highness' immediately?"

"Fair point." Skaldan agreed, somewhat of a relief to Blychert in his never-ending lie to keep Trelen's backstory alive and well. Skaldan sighed, and said more softly, "Skeggan's… my older brother. And, well, there was an accident. Or, at least, that's what the official report says. He's not dead, but… he's not really alive either."

"Oh…" Bly muttered, not sure what else to say. Eventually, he thought to ask, "You don't believe it? The report?"

Skaldan scoffed, "Not for one second. My brother is a member of the Undaunted. He's really strong. But he's not stupid. Certainly not dumb enough to ever go down into the dungeon alone, not unless there was—ugh, I don't know. He was on to something, you know? About the cult of Harkkus. He was investigating them. And that Cynric guy? He had an open quest with the hall, but it was all below table. Not even the hall master knew about it. Someone tampered with their books."

"How do you know all this?" Bly asked, a little confused.

"Let's just say I've been doing my own investigation." Skaldan looked at Blychert with a serious expression, "Everything points to Skegg going down into the dungeon by himself. Party that found him say it was on the seventh floor."

"Seventh floor…" Bly pondered aloud curiously. His eyes widened, "Gurogan's quest!"

"Not just that." Skaldan added, "Remember, the seventh floor was closed for inspection those three days, two weeks ago? Only a few months after Skeggan's accident."

"Wait, Nelkaar…" Bly furrowed his brow, remember all of a sudden.

After defeating Kubranul, Nazojan had mentioned something, hadn't he? He'd accused Nelkaar of provoking the initiation of a raid sequence, and he'd wanted to know if prince Skeggan's injuries and Nelkaar's investigation of the seventh floor had something to do with it. Of course, it didn't mean much to him at the time. But now that he'd met Skaldan, and with everything that he learned since then, it really did seem as if the crown prince was involved. The question was, were the Undaunted and the Adventuring Hall trying to cover it all up?

"I know that look." Skaldan said abruptly, "You think she's in on this somehow? I thought that too for a while. Her and Skegg were close enough for her to be able to cover her tracks, I'm sure, but I don't think that's how it is. I think she's just as in the dark as we are. But you know what I think? I think you're not far off the mark either. I think someone around here is playing everyone else for a fool. Well, not me."

Blychert nodded wordlessly.

They needed to find Cynric. Not just because everyone else was trying to, but because if Skaldan was to be believed, then he must have had information about Skeggan. But not only that, if there was any truth about the raid sequence investigation, then it was doubly important to Blychert's goals and what he was trying to discover.

There were still so many mysteries, but he could feel himself getting closer to the truth. And the reason couldn't be simpler: he was getting closer to the danger too.

"I'll see you tonight then?" Skaldan asked, his tone returning to a cheerier one.

The pair stopped in front of the Half Full Flagon, and Bly grinned, saying, "Count on it."

"Hey, Trelen—" Skaldan said, just as Bly was about to take his leave. He turned, and the other boy frowned momentarily, before adding in a more sincere tone of voice, "Thanks. For your help."

"…Don't thank me yet." Blychert tapped his nose once before heading inside.

The prince had no idea who Bly really was. And if push came to shove down there, he'd have to learn very quickly. There was no other way around it. But this was bigger than Blychert at the moment. Maybe being classless meant something else to others, but to Bly, it didn't mean sitting around while bad things happened to good people. Besides, there was no actual proof that he wasn't partially responsible for some of those bad things.

At the very least, he owed it to himself to find out.