The Ruby Magician

The bundle of silverware exploded against the wall with a crash. Divots and holes were left in the wood, and most of the utensils were bent or shattered from the impact.

"Godsdamnit," Landon said, looking around for something else to throw. He couldn't find anything and growled in frustration.

"Calm down, Landon," Jane said, her hands raised placatingly. "We'll find another way!"

"I even threatened the man's family!" Landon screamed. "He came running back to us after what, just one day in the library? Fucking useless!"

"Want me to still hurt them?" Corbyn said, his voice booming beneath his mask.

"Gods, Corbyn," Octavius said, shaking his head. "What is it with you?"

"No, Cor, don't hurt them," Jane said with a sigh. She tilted her head to the side then shrugged. "Well, don't hurt them too much, at least. We still need to show failure is punished."

Corbyn went to stand up, then walked out of the room.

Landon punched the wall. "That's one avenue lost. All that damn time and effort…"

"I told you the library wouldn't have much on it," Octavius said. "We're in the realm of incredibly specialized items, here. Like the masks. The odds of any text mentioning something about them is incredibly low."

"Now's not the time to tell us 'I told you so', Vi," Jane said. "Read the damn room."

Octavius shot a finger to Jane, who promptly shot one back.

Landon looked between them, shook his head, then sighed heavily. He balled his hands into fists, desperately wanting to hit something, then released his anger.

It was not easy.

Finding the second stone tablet was even more frustrating than having only one. Octavius still couldn't read it properly, as its magic was somehow even more discreet than what his mask was able to interpret. That lantern from the damn Red Mage showed more, but he was being incredibly difficult to cooperate. Landon was initially surprised at how cautious he was being, but after asking around about him discovered it made sense.

An ex-soldier. Successful Climber in a short period of time. He was even caught up in some scandal with other Climbers and some shady people, where some rumors said he killed some of them.

If Landon wasn't so pissed at him, he'd be impressed. He could have been a valuable ally. But instead he seemed like he was going to be a true thorn in his side.

The stone tablets obviously had some use, but they were paperweights if they didn't function at all. Even their parchments gave absolutely nothing on their descriptions. But Landon knew there was something special about them, and not knowing gnawed at him nearly as much as when they were looking for the other masks.

After Jane gave the suggestion that Wyn likely has a stone tablet, especially how he reacted when they showed him theirs, Landon was inclined to agree. The man was just too obvious about it. He may be a decent Climber, but his social skills were lacking.

"What's our next possibility?" Landon asked, his voice terse.

Jane looked his way. "This is one I feel a bit better about. It's from one of my contacts in the trading hall, saying that they heard about some rumor about unique items. It's worth checking out."

Landon nodded. That definitely was worth checking out and was better than nothing. He told Jane and Octavius to come along, saying that Corbyn would be busy for the rest of the day.

Walking to the trading district helped Landon clear his head. He needed to refocus anyway. Aureus may have banned them from climbing for a time, but Landon didn't care. They didn't really need to climb, it was just nice to beat something up and kill things from time to time. They had plenty of wealth and could easily get more. Though Corbyn was the only one who truly needed to utilize the monsters for his hunger, but that was easy enough to handle.

Their "suspension" was actually a light punishment, all things considered. If anything, being out of the tower helped them focus. They needed to learn about the tablets they already had, and exploring those ways was a matter of finding the right person with the right information out of Alistair.

Strangely, it was actually harder than climbing. Landon tried to see it as a new challenge but that only went so far. Eventually his own failures were starting to catch up to him.

Now, though, he was determined to find something.

The trading district was full of people, and while most avoided the masked trio, Landon was still hopeful. Plenty of people there wanted items or coin, and he enough of both to get somewhere. Even a start would be better than nothing.

"Who is this contact of yours?" Octavius asked.

"A buyer of some of our gear," Jane said, turning her masked head around and stretching her neck like she was trying to look over the crowd of people. "I trade some of the more useless items for coins, gems, or food for Corbyn. The brute eats like a horse."

Octavius snorted. "Fair enough. We can wait."

Landon grunted his approval while Jane left. He didn't love waiting, but he understood.

After the first half hour, Landon started getting antsy. He didn't love the looks everyone gave him and Octavius. He was mostly used to it, but it also brought up a deeper sense of longing to live without the mask, as much as he hated to admit that. A part of him - a small part - wondered what life could be like again if he was able to feel the breeze on his face. Enjoy the feel of his cheeks or rub his eyes when he was tired.

Seeing Jane roused him from his thoughts. She hurried over to them, and Landon became excited.

"Good news?" Landon asked.

Jane's masked head nodded. "She heard about a Climber with an ability to actually obtain specialized loot!"

Octavius's head shot up. "You're kidding. That's real?"

"Yes! She doesn't know if it's an item or not, but she has it on good authority. Apparently it's one of those new abilities going around lately."

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"How could that help us?" Landon asked. His impatience was clouding his mind.

"Well, think about it. A Climber has the ability to obtain specialized loot. There's a strong chance they've seen one of the stone tablets! She said that according to her source, they often come in with blue rarity set pieces, purple rarity items only seen a few times, and even some blue rarity elixirs and potions that are hardly ever traded. The rumor is this Climber has been trading up a storm and might have some clue about it. It's a good lead."

Landon thought about it for a moment. Jane wasn't necessarily wrong. The Climber might not have a stone tablet, but if they had an item that located special items it was worth looking into. If it was another ability, well, they could be… persuaded to help them. One way or another.

"Alright," Landon said. "Where can we find this Climber?"

"My contact said that they're in the Defender's guild. So we could start looking there."

"Good. Then let's go. Maybe we can tighten this up in a couple of days if we're lucky."

*****

"Nice hit!" Devon said, holding his side. The wooden sword stung, but he was used to the pain. It wouldn't last long any way thanks to his passive skills improving his endurance, and some healing from Maven would be enough to take the edge off.

"Thanks," Bradley said, holding his training sword. "It felt good to finally get one. You're too damn fast!"

Devon smirked. "Perks of my original class, I suppose. Dodging and agility are my specialties, after all!"

Bradly nodded. He walked over to his starting position in the training hall, then raised his sword again. "Ready for the final round? I think I can finally get you this time!"

Twirling his twin shorts swords, Devon eyed his teammate while he walked to his own position twenty feet away from the younger man. While he was young - barely even a man and still a teenager - he was the right kind of person to be a Climber. Tall, hard-working, strong, and was loyal to the group. He still had some areas to improve in, such as his fighting skills, but that would come in time. Devon himself wasn't the best, but after meeting Wyn and being shown just how far behind he was, he was determined to improve himself along with his friends William and Maven.

Still, the Defenders had done well to match them together along with the other members of their group, and Devon was hopeful they could find some success for the coming year. For his Treasure Hunter class afforded him some… unique options to find some seriously impressive items. He had already had some success, much to his group's and guild's delight. But he still had his own goals after his temporary life as a Climber, and now he could achieve them far quicker.

"Are you ready, Devon?" Maven asked, standing in the middle of both of the men.

Two two nodded, then Maven walked to the edge of their small area and raised a hand before quickly lowering it to signal the start of the match.

To Devon's surprise, Bradly held out far better than before during their last bout. He utilized the moves their teacher in the guild showed him and showed great endurance and commitment. Since he was their primary attacker as a Warblade, he needed to be better at his fighting style. He was showing definite promise, so much so that Devon truly tried not to get hit and flashed out with his swords like a whirlwind, but the younger man was improving with every fight.

He eventually scored a hit, and Maven called it.

"Damn!" Devon said, holding his side.

Bradley instantly reddened, dropping his sword. "Are you okay? I'm sorry, I don't think I held back as much that time."

Devon furrowed his eyebrows. "What? Oh, no, I'm okay. It's just that you finally got me! I want you to try and hit me, remember? Come on, Bradley, you need to be more sure of yourself. You're a great Climber, and you're improving rapidly."

"He's right," Maven added. "I can tell how much you've improved just in the last month! We are definitely going to make it to third tier by summer's end!"

Bradley scratched the back of his head awkwardly, but accepted the praise.

After some rest and more teaching moments, Devon pulled Maven aside while Bradly performed one of his training forms. "Where's William? I thought he was supposed to meet us for this training session."

Maven shrugged. "I'm not sure. Maybe he got lost somewhere? You know how he is, he couldn't find treasure if it was dangled in front of him."

Devon laughed. He looked around the training hall one more time, then shrugged. "I can go look for him. We're not in a rush. I'll be back in about twenty minutes, okay?"

Maven waved him off, and Devon slowly started walking around the training hall. It wasn't unusual for William to get lost, but the training hall was somewhere they had been dozens of times. Just where was he?

He went into the side hall where some of the individual war rooms were. He knocked on the doors, with some locked and some people answering from inside. The ones that weren't locked were empty, but approaching the last door made him pause.

He knocked, and there wasn't an answer. He was about to turn the doorknob when he felt a hollowness in his stomach. It was a familiar but unwelcome sensation, something he only felt when facing floor bosses. It was part of his class ability, a sort of internal warning of bad luck that notified him of approaching danger. It was normally more subtle, but this one was as apparent as a punch in the gut.

A cold sweat formed on his forehead. Just what was behind the door?

Slowly opening it, his breath caught in his throat and his eyes widened as he saw William lying on the floor. Small splotches of blood were around his head, and it looked like he had been attacked.

"William!" Devon screamed, rushing inside. The moment he knelt down, the door behind him slammed shut.

He whipped his head around and saw three masked figures against the wall, all wearing cloaks that concealed most of their bodies. Falling to the ground beside his friend, he scurried away from them in fear.

"Hello, Devon," one of the masked people said, his voice muffled and low. His mask looked like a strange dog or wolf. "We need to talk."

Devon couldn't find any words to say. He was stunned and in shock.

"Look at the poor bastard," another of the masked people said, this one a woman. She wore a bird mask with elaborate feathers that would have looked ridiculous but now made her look wild and insane. "He's so afraid he can't even talk!"

"You're better off just talking, kid," the third masked person said, their voice calm but firm. Their mask was like a sphinx. Devon recognized the likeness to the monster. "Don't be like your friend, here. Just tell us what we want and you can get to healing him."

Devon looked over at William. So he was alive, then. He couldn't fully tell as his mind raced, wondering what in the hells was going on.

A thumping noise pulled Devon's attention back to the trio. His eyes were drawn the dog man's side, where a wooden club rest on the ground as he held it.

Devon's heart thumped against his chest like the club on the ground. Whatever they did to William they were about to do to him.

"Now," the dog man said, "are you the one who has an ability that finds unique items?"

Devon wanted to curse. Wyn was right! He shouldn't have been so careless about talking about his ability, and now he was being threatened over it!

The masked man took a step forward, raising the club, and Devon threw up his hands. "Wait, please! Yes, I - I am! That's me!"

The man stopped, but held his club beside him with both hands. "Is it an item or something else?"

Devon clenched his jaw. No point in lying if they're going to beat him. "It's… my class. Treasure Hunter."

Bird woman whistled while dog man sighed and shook his head. Devon didn't know if that was good or bad.

"You're doing good," the sphinx man said. "Have you found any… unusual items lately? Say in the last month?"

Devon took a shaky breath. He glanced at William, who was still unmoving. He then ran through his mind of all the special items he found in the month. They weren't many, but what did they consider unusual?

The dog man stepped forward and Devon quickly started listing off the items from his parchment. He kept stuttering over the words. "Yea, there's a small list. I found a couple of blue rarity potions from a third floor boss a few weeks back. Some strange monster drops, a ceremonial knife, a… a…" he trailed off, mentally chastising himself.

The stone tablet he sold to Wyn. That was the latest one. And definitely unusual enough for them to possibly be interested.

"A what?" Dog man asked.

Devon swallowed the lump in his throat. It didn't go down easily.

Dog man took a step forward, moving so fast Devon hardly registered the movement. The man blurred, the wooden club all but disappearing.

Until it came down onto his left leg with a loud crack.

Devon didn't know if it was the club or his leg that made the noise, but he instantly screamed. The man put a gloved hand over his mouth to muffle him. It was firm and unyielding, like a stone statue's hand cupped over the lower half of his face.

The man tilted his masked head sideways. "I'll ask again. A what?"

Devon tried to move his left leg but it felt heavy, like it was crushed with a boulder rather than a stone club. He focused on his response, trying to form his own words so he could get himself out without any more harm done.

Raising a hand, the man released his grip. Devon spluttered through the pain. " A… a stone tablet."

The masked woman gasped. The man in front of him instantly straightened up. Devon hoped their reaction meant that they found it useful. But what did that mean for him, now?

"What did you do with it?" The man asked, his voice harsh.

"I sold it!"

The man tightened his grip on the club, the wood creaking under his grip. "To who?"

Devon suddenly felt sorry for Wyn. He couldn't withhold the information, though. Not if he wanted to end up like William, beaten unconscious. Or possibly even to death.

He hoped his friend would forgive him for telling the truth.

"I gave it to Wyn Thatcher, the -"

"The fucking Ruby Magician," the masked man finished.

"At least we're back on track," bird woman said. "And have our next move."

"Let's clean this up and get out," sphinx man said.

Dog man nodded, then stood up. "Thanks for the information. It could have ended up a lot worse."

Devon crawled over beside William. He was still breathing, but there was more blood under him than Devon originally noticed. He cursed himself for not having a potion on him.

The silence after the three masked people left rang in his ears like rushing water, interrupted only by his own beating heart threatening to beat out of his chest. Each time he felt his heart beat his leg pulsed with pain.

Not caring if the trio was still around, Devon desparately hoped his friend was still alive. He then screamed for help.