Collisa (Outsider Book 1), page 26
A man appeared through the trees, dressed in fine black leather armor adorned with multiple pockets, belts, and pouches for items and reagents. He held a wickedly sharp side sword in one hand and a long dagger in the other, and moved lightly and silently as he swiftly approached the road.
Dare's Eye identified him as “Human, adult male. Class: Duelist Level 26.” There were a dozen nasty sounding attacks the man could use, including Backstab and Maim.
In other words, if it came to a fight they were screwed.
Zuri whimpered and held Dare tighter, shaking like a leaf; if he hadn't been there he had a feeling she would've already bolted.
“I hate to say it, but your money or your life,” the man said as he stepped out onto the road in front of them.
Dare swallowed, wondering if he could talk his way out of this. “If you're conflicted about this-” he began in as friendly a tone as he could.
The Duelist looked surprised. “Conflicted?” He laughed. “Oh, because I said “I hate to say it”? I'm just getting sick of that salutation . . . I really need to think up a better one that's just as short and to the point.”
The man flicked his sword impatiently. “Anyway, let's have your coin and anything else of value you might have. Including the knife and the slave.”
Well, that settled things. Dare had no chance of beating someone 14 levels higher than him, but he'd die before letting the man take Zuri.
“I kind of need my things,” he said. “And Zuri is my friend, not my slave.” As if to shield her protectively, he held her tightly.
Zuri was still trembling like a leaf, eyes huge with fear. But she seemed to realize what he planned, because she shifted slightly and held him tighter with her arms and legs, head tucked into his neck, prepared for him to go maximum speed.
The Duelist laughed loudly. “You have a goblin friend,” he said. “I don't know if that's hilarious or sad.”
Dare shrugged. “Even so, I won't let you take her.”
The tall, lean man shook his head wryly. “You've got balls, friend. Some would slit your throat just for mouthing off to them. But you honestly don't think you have a choice here, do you?”
Dare shook his head. “It does kind of look like I either give you what you want, or die.”
“Good, then shut up and-”
“But like I said,” Dare interrupted, shrugging to make sure his pack was seated firmly on his shoulders, “You can't have Zuri, and you're slow as balls.”
Without waiting for a response he turned and bolted back the way he'd come, using every ounce of speed and reflexes Fleetfoot gave him.
Over the wind of his speed, he heard the Duelist curse behind him and the thud of footfalls as the man took up the chase. The would-be highwayman was burdened only by his light armor and weapons, had long legs, and had selected a class based on speed. He was no slouch in a footrace.
Meanwhile Dare, who was the same height and also a class based on speed, was loaded down by a heavy pack and Zuri. Who in spite of her best efforts bounced around a bit at the speed he was going, slightly throwing off his balance.
Even so, he easily widened the gap between them and the mugger. He had to keep his eyes on his feet to avoid tripping or losing his balance with the weight he carried, but with every glance back he saw the Duelist falling farther and farther behind.
The man interrupted his stream of curses to shout after them. “How the hell? Hunters don't unlock a movement speed ability until Level 30!”
Dare hadn't known that, although now that he did he was looking forward to when he'd be able to go even faster. But he didn't waste breath replying as he reduced his speed slightly, to a pace he could keep up for the few remaining hours to Driftwain.
Where hopefully the mugger wouldn't follow.
Although at the moment they were headed back towards Lone Ox, taking them farther from safety unless he wanted to go all the way back to the village. Which wouldn't be any sort of sanctuary because this Duelist could slaughter the entire village, or at least send everyone running, without breaking a sweat.
Shit. Dare was going to need to leave the road and find a way to circle back north as soon as possible. Probably ducking around much higher level monster spawn points and avoiding roaming monsters and bandits and who knew what else.
At least once they got around the Duelist they could return to the road and follow it. Assuming there weren't any other highwaymen lying in wait.
Godsdamn bandits; he'd have to inform the guards about the Duelist when they reached the town.
Although for all he knew the man was shedding the cloak of bandit whenever he reached a settlement or city, robbing people along the roads and maybe killing them to eliminate witnesses, then sleeping easy every night in taverns and traveling through towns and cities with no guard so much as giving him a second look.
Hell, the Duelist may even be doing quests, hunting dangerous invading monsters, and securing a reputation as a hero. All while preying on innocents wherever he traveled.
How dangerous was a Level 26 overall? How hard was it to reach that level? And once you got powerful enough, did you just get to wander around doing whatever you wanted and nobody had the power to stop you?
Criminals on Earth didn't exactly have the option to level up until they could slaughter an entire squad of guards and walk away unscathed. That had to make crime, interpersonal dynamics, and all sorts of other things more complicated on Collisa.
Like, for instance, did high levels grant immediate prestige, or at least fear?
“Doing okay, Zuri?” he asked, stroking her hair.
“Zuri okay,” she said, although she still trembled slightly. “Human no help.”
Dare chuckled. “No, he was definitely not helpful.” He kissed her head. “I'm going to leave the road and try to circle around him. Pay close attention for monsters.”
She just looked at him blankly until he veered away onto the hilly plain at a right angle, at which point she clutched him tighter and buried her face in his neck.
Over the last month and a half or so since coming to this world, Dare had carefully observed the monster spawn points he encountered. At this point he could almost see the probability line around each spawn point, beyond which monsters wouldn't spawn and couldn't cross aside from the rare roamer.
So he was able to weave through the spawn points and stay far away from any monsters that might aggro. Better yet, if the Duelist wanted to chase them along anything close to a straight line he'd have to go right through the spawn points himself. A bit of extra protection courtesy of the world's system.
Which was a relief right up to the point when Dare glanced back and saw his pursuer running right across a probability line, then straight through the center of a spawn point without the slightest hesitation.
The monsters, a weird insect-lizard hybrid with vicious teeth and wicked claws on its six legs, mostly ignored the sprinting Duelist. Aside from the cluster near the center that began chasing him in a group of four, with the man not even showing the slightest concern.
Right, their pursuer was 9 levels higher than those monsters. He could probably fight that group all at once and survive.
“Fuck,” Dare muttered, speeding up to his fastest sprint again.
“Abur,” Zuri agreed, watching the Duelist and his train of monsters cut their lead by a few dozen yards.
In retrospect, it wasn't as close as Dare worried. Sure, he basically had to turn two right angles, going in a big curve around their pursuer. Which meant the man should've been able to catch up to him. Especially considering the need for Dare to weave between spawn points.
But in spite of his reckless chase and best efforts, the Duelist never got closer than ten yards. Dare repositioned Zuri so she could look over his shoulder and shout a warning if the man tried to throw a weapon, just in case, but otherwise he began to calm down as he passed the closest point of pursuit and began gaining ground on the mugger again.
“I think we're good,” he told his lover. “Back to the road.”
From behind came a furious, defeated shout, and Dare glanced back to find that the Duelist had given up his and turned back to engage the monsters chasing him, dancing around to keep from being surrounded as he cut them down.
Looked like he'd given up the chase.
Dare breathed a sigh of relief and slowed to a trot, making his way back to the road and continuing along it. Although even though he'd relaxed a bit, he noticed Zuri continued to keep a wary eye on the Level 26 until they were out of sight of him.
Thankfully, after that close call there were no more incidents the rest of the way to Driftwain.
They began to encounter travelers the closer they got to the town, mostly farmers pulling carts or driving oxen-pulled wagons full of produce, or craftsmen bearing packs or carts full of trade goods. Dare was cautious around all of them, in case some were bandits in disguise, although he was reassured that none showed a level higher than 10.
Unless there was an ability to change what level you were shown as, they were probably good.
The travelers all seemed more than a little surprised to see him running past at what for them would be a sprint, with a pack on his back and a goblin in his arms. And even more surprised when he left them in the dust without collapsing in exhaustion.
Dare called out warnings to all of them about the Duelist, hoping he wasn't leading the bandit right to innocent people. Then again, they were getting close enough to Driftwain now that these people should hopefully okay.
Especially once he reached the guards and warned them of the Duelist's activities on the road.
He and Zuri both breathed a sigh of relief when the walls of the town came into view. He'd been warned it was small, and he wasn't disappointed; it had fifty homes and buildings at most, maybe a few hundred people total not counting travelers and merchants.
There was a small line of people lined up at the gate waiting to be passed through, with two guards inspecting goods and apparently issuing some sort of entry tax. Dare was surprised to see that they were only Level 20; that seemed awfully low for even a small town like this, especially since he'd just run into a Level 26.
Of course, he was only Level 12 so what did he know?
He bypassed the line and headed straight to the armed and armored man and woman at the gate to give his warning, only to be stopped by a sharp glare from the woman. “Back of the line!” she barked.
“I need to warn you about-” Dare started.
“Back of the line!”
He gave up and took his place; it was a short line anyway, and if someone happened to get robbed in the couple minutes he had to wait, that would be on this guard's head.
After squabbling briefly about fees for trade goods with a farmer she seemed to know, the guard finally waved the last person in front of Dare through and motioned him forward.
He set Zuri down and stepped up to her. “I need-”
“State all trade goods,” she interrupted in a bored tone. “And there's a traveling tax for slaves, based on estimated value. Goblins usually get taxed at 1 to 2 silver.” She looked Zuri over with faint distaste. “She's a fertile breeder, attractive by the standards of her kind. 2 silver.”
“Zuri's not a slave,” Dare protested.
The other guard, leaning casually against the gate flipping and catching a knife to amuse himself, snorted at that. “As if we haven't heard that from half the rascals that pass through this gate hoping to avoid a tax.”
The woman ignored her partner. “If that's true, you need to have an official document from a region or kingdom capitol to that effect. Do you?”
Dare shook his head and reluctantly reached into the coin purse on his belt, in which he only kept a few silver to make him seem poorer and discourage thieves, and fished out two. “I need to warn-”
“State all trade goods,” the woman said doggedly, snatching the coins from him. She marked something on a ledger, then put the coins through the slot in the lid of a sturdy chest chained to the wall just inside the gate. Same as the other taxes she'd collected.
“I only have my camping gear, weapons, and armor,” Dare said, giving up. “I might sell some of it if I can find better.”
“Personal sales or sales under ten silver do not apply,” the guard said. She smirked at his gear. “You're more than fine.” She took another look at his face, opened her mouth with a slight smile as if to add something, then quickly looked away, cheeks turning pink.
“Can I give my warning now?” Dare asked. He wasn't interrupted again so he hurriedly continued. “About two hours-” He cut off, remembering his speed and endurance, and did some quick math. “That is, six hours out from town I was attacked by a Level 26 Duelist trying to rob me.”
“Was it two or six, lad?” the other guard snapped.
“I travel fast . . . I was estimating time at a walk.”
The woman ignored the exchange, spitting off to one side in disgust. “Duelist. Just a prettied up Rogue, you ask me. It's usually picked by nobles wanting to beat on commoners in a duel with rules that favor their class, or lowlifes who want to prey on others but also want to be able to stand against enemies in a head to head fight. Like highwaymen.”
Her eyes narrowed as she looked Dare up and down. “But how do you know that's what he was? He wouldn't be stupid enough to tell you.”
Shit. His mind raced for the best response. “He kind of was,” he answered as confidently as he could. “I recognized his choice of sword and dagger as one that Duelists favor and guessed that's what he was. And since he was 14 levels above me he wasn't afraid to admit it.”
He didn't actually know if Duelists favored that weapon combination, but if the guardswoman called him out on it he could always say it was different where he was from. Or better yet, play the ignorant yokel act.
After all, she seemed happy to cast him in that role.
But the woman just grimaced and shook her head. “Thank you for the alert, citizen. We'll pass it along and make sure this menace is dealt with. We can't have scum going after innocents on the road, disrupting travel and trade.”
Dare glanced at the woman's stats again with his Eye. “Just out of curiosity, how do you usually deal with a higher level enemy?”
The guard leaning against the open gate straightened with a scowl. “You hear that, Tandri? Bumpkin wants to be clever about insulting our level.”
The woman, Tandri apparently, nodded with a scowl of her own. “You're lucky the Commander just gave us a talking to about cracking skulls.”
Zuri hid behind Dare at the guards' tones, and he quickly raised his hands. “I didn't mean to insult you,” he said. “Like your friend said, I'm from a small village and don't know much about the world.” The bluff woman's expression didn't change, and he tried the same smile that had seemed to work so well on the women of Lone Ox. “I'd be grateful for any help you're willing to give me.”
Tandri spat off to the side again. “We're here to keep the peace and stamp out crime, so in training they level us up just enough to do the job in order to save on expenses.”
“Like with everything else,” her friend grumbled. “Cutting corners on lodging, food, ale rations, what have you.”
She ignored him and kept going. “You may have noticed, most people don't bother leveling up very high. We can solve pretty much any problem we run into in town.” She waved vaguely over his shoulder. “As for more dangerous threats, we keep a small group of retired adventurers on retainer to deal with them.”
“For ten times our pay,” the guardsman said. “And most of the time they're not needed so they just sit around drinking, gambling, and womanizing.” He shook his head and leaned back against the wall. “Lucky bastards.”
Tandri shot her partner a disgusted look, then turned back to Dare. “Be on your way, citizen. And don't cause trouble or you'll see that even Level 20s can dish out a beating.”
Of course they could, especially to someone his level. “Thank you,” he said, inclining his head. Still carrying Zuri, he quickly ducked through the gate into the town.
Ten feet in he realized he hadn't asked about translation stones and bit back a curse. Oh well, he shouldn't have trouble finding them by asking around among the vendors.
Compared to cities on Earth, Driftwain was cramped, filthy, poorly planned and built, and utterly lacking in amenities. But even though it was roughly ten times larger than Lone Ox it was surprisingly similar to the village, aside from being more crowded and smelling much worse.
And having a market district in the center of the town, although a small one.
The houses were mostly thatched, with stone walls changing to wooden walls halfway up. He wasn't sure of the purpose of that construction, but he thought he'd seen it before. The larger buildings were mostly brick with slate roofs, and looked much neater and in better repair.
Dare didn't see any sign of beggars or obvious unsavory sorts as he made his way towards the market, and the people he passed all seemed clean and relatively prosperous. If for the most part humbly dressed in rustic garb, with the worn features of those who'd spent their lives doing hard labor to survive. A few were dressed in finer clothes, and one or two wore suits and fancy dresses.
He noticed most of the women shooting him second or even third looks, and a few offered him cheerful greetings or even approached to talk to him. The good looks his unseen benefactor had given him seemed to be working in his favor, and he wondered if he might be able to pick up a beauty to spend the night with.
An unmarried one, this time.
Of course, he'd have to explain it to Zuri and see if she minded. His unseen benefactor had told him harems were common here and most women were cool with it, and his tiny lover had practically pushed him towards that slime girl before they left Lone Ox.
Of course, getting off with a slime girl and a one night stand with some random woman who probably wouldn't be pleased to have Zuri tagging along were two different things.
Well, he'd play it by ear. And if he was able to find a translation stone and finally communicate with Zuri he'd probably spend the whole night talking to her, making it a moot point.
