Clover Kingdom / Diamond Border (Hidden Safehouse Beneath Outlaw City): May 4th, 1011.
It was a ugly day for the world. The lower chambers of the hidden safehouse full of sweat, bandages, curses and the sound of men trying not to die too loudly, yet if you were to look closely beneath the lowest floor. To be more specific, inside of a wide cracked training chamber lit by four ugly mana lamps and one broken chandelier somebody had somehow dragged underground. You could see a shirtless 11 year old boy with a bandaged stomach standing in the middle of a drawn out circle full of numbered symbols and broken chalk while a black magenta grimorie floated beside him like it was judging his entire existence.
The atmosphere tense.
(David's POV)
I looked down at the glowing chalk circle under my bare feet and thought with a ugly look on my face "If this bullshit blows up in my face again I'm going to start biting chunks out of the walls."
Nyx sat on a broken crate with one leg crossed over the other while swinging her tail and said with a lazy grin "You have made that same ugly face for thirty minutes straight. Just do the spell already, stinky feet."
I clicked my teeth loudly and said with a kind closed eyed smile "Encouraging words from the woman who got folded through a column like laundry three days ago."
Nyx's grin twitched.
Jarred let out a ugly laugh from the wall where he was drinking from a bottle and said loudly "GYAHAHA. Boss man woke up hateful today."
Benjamin stood beside the chamber entrance with his arms folded behind his back and said calmly "Master david has woken up hateful every day since I met him."
I held my hand out and said with a sigh "Dice magic: Loaded Fate."
My grimorie flipped open.
One black magenta dice floated out of the pages and started rotating over my palm. The symbols around my feet lit up and crawled up my body in glowing lines. I gritted my teeth as the loaded six formed above my head for a brief second before sinking into my chest like burning metal.
*BOOOM*
Mana burst outward and the lamps around the chamber flickered.
Nyx's ears twitched and she said with a interested look in her scarlet eyes "There it is. That weird pressure again."
I rolled my shoulders and felt the heavy loaded certainty settle into my bones and thought "There. The six is locked. Thank god Benjamin grabbed my office safe before the old hideout got fully swallowed."
I had looked inside that ugly iron safe two hours ago and almost cried when I saw the first dice still sitting there on a glowing 6.
Not because I was emotional.
Because if that dice had been gone then my life would have became even more ass.
I raised my right hand and said calmly "Critical roll."
Three dice shot out from the grimorie and started spinning around my fingers.
Nyx immediately stood up from the crate and said with a grin "Try it on me. I'll dodge."
"That is exactly why I don't want to try it on you." I said honestly and very dismissively with a sigh.
Nyx rolled her eyes and said "You just don't want to admit I might actually be useful."
I stared at her for a long second and said with a dead look in my eyes "You are useful. Like an unstable knife somebody keeps throwing at my head."
Jarred started laughing again.
Benjamin adjusted what remained of his new monocle and said calmly "Master david. If I may."
I looked at him.
Benjamin walked into the chamber and placed six empty bottles on broken pillars around the room and said "Your current issue is not power. It is waste. You strike like a cornered beast. Effective. But expensive."
I had a very ugly look on my face and thought "I hate when competent people say smart things around me."
I flicked the first dice.
*SHIIING*
It bounced off the first bottle, missed the second on purpose, ricocheted off the wall and blew up the third bottle into dust.
*BOOOM*
Jarred's eyebrows rose and he said "That's sexy."
I flicked the second.
It hit two pillars, clipped the floor and shattered the fifth bottle.
The third went wild.
*BOOOOM*
It shot through the ceiling and somebody above us screamed "WHO THE FUCK THREW A ROCK THROUGH MY ROOM."
The chamber went completely silent.
Nyx pointed at me and started laughing so hard she bent over.
I rubbed my forehead with a sigh and said with dead eyes "Excellent. I have become a terrorist to my own people."
Benjamin adjusted his throat and said calmly "Progress nonetheless."
I looked at my hand. The loaded symbols were already flickering. Sweat rolled down the side of my face and the bandages around my stomach were damp again.
"I can feel it draining faster than before." I said quietly.
Benjamin nodded once and said calmly "Because the grimorie lets you draw more. It does not mean your body enjoys it."
Nyx's grin slowly faded and she asked "So what. You can blow up old undead monsters now but only for like ten breaths."
"Approximately ass, yes." I said honestly with a shrug.
Jarred pushed himself off the wall and said with a wide grin "Then we make them ten very violent breaths."
I looked at him. Then at benjamin. Then at the wounded men moving above us.
Then at the supplies that were already running lower than I liked.
I clicked my teeth and said "Money."
The room went quiet.
Benjamin nodded and said with his eyes closed "Yes."
Jarred lifted his bottle and said "Yes."
Nyx crossed her arms and said "Yes. Your hidden hole smells poor."
A bulging vein appeared on my forehead.
Benjamin calmly reached into his jacket and pulled out a rolled black parchment with several wax seals on it and said "Bounty notices. Three have already reached the lower market by this morning. The church tightening the upper routes has caused half the filth in this district to start selling each other out."
That made my lip curl slightly.
Now that was interesting.
Benjamin unrolled the parchment over a broken crate and said calmly "A poison mage called glass jaw morten. A pair of grave robbing earth twins. And a former route collector from the mana suppression trade named helmut crane."
Nyx tilted her head and asked while licking her sharp black nails "Which one pays the most."
Benjamin answered instantly. "Helmut crane. Alive or dead. Thirty six thousand gold."
Jarred whistled.
I rubbed my chin with a thoughtful look and said "That means he knows something."
Benjamin nodded.
"And that means the job is going to be even more irritating." I said with a sigh.
Nyx grinned and said "So we're taking that one."
I looked at her and said with a kind closed eyed smile "No. We're training two more days first because I don't feel like getting my ribs played like a xylophone again."
Nyx smacked her teeth.
Jarred lifted his bottle and said with a grin. "To not dying."
I stared at him.
Jarred's grin faltered and said with a stutter "T…that was inspiring in my head."
I dismissed the spinning dice, breathed out slowly and looked back down at my grimorie.
Loaded Fate.
Critical Roll.
World of Fortune.
Three new spells. One immortal nightmare now aware of my existence. A ruined city. A weakened syndicate. A locked six in a ugly iron safe.
And thirty six thousand gold waiting for me at the end of a rope called helmut crane.
I smiled.
Ugly.
Hungry.
"Good. Then I will use the next two days to become more irritating." I said calmly with a chuckle.
Nyx's tail swayed once and her grin widened.
Benjamin bowed.
Jarred laughed.
And deep beneath the broken city where the light didn't reach and decent choices came to die, the devil of the clover border began sharpening his luck.
THE END…