Evolution: A Warlock’s Rise To Power

[Quest received.]

[Steal Garland's Goblet]

[Garland West backed out of a deal with Kelis Jander. You have been asked to steal Garland's prized goblet and give it to Jander.]

[Quest Reward: Thief class]

[Quest Failure: Cannot become a Thief]

"Will you send a message to Garland for me?" Kelis Jander the thief asked.

"Yes, I will."

[Quest Accepted]

Jander gave Lucan the location of Garland's shop which doubled as his home. He left and headed to the nearby shop.

***

It had been 45 minutes since Lucan departed. Jander was talking to the old man since he had nothing else going on right now.

"That wasn't too hard." Lucan said while walking back into the room. He was tossing the Goblet between his hands.

"Fast." Jander said. "Let me see that." Lucan tossed him the goblet. "Hmm, it's the real thing."

"How did you steal it so fast?" The old man asked.

"A bit of magic." Lucan answered. "Garland was so focused on his work he didn't notice my shadow slip into the room. Then it was just a bit of silent magic to swap the real one with an illusion. A second later I was back outside. I had breakfast across the street, but he never reacted while I ate. So I came back. The illusion should last another hour and a half."

[You have acquired the Thief class.]

[You have gained proficiency with: Shortswords, Crossbows, and Throwing weapons.]

[Stealth has increased by 50.]

[Agility has increased by 50.]

[You have gained the skills: Backstab, Lacerate, Tread Lightly, Pickpocket, and Vanish.]

[When you wield a Crossbow or Throwing weapons, attack power is upgrade from agility x 1 to agility x 2.5]

Lucan's attack power with daggers and shortswords was already enhanced by Magic Blade Assassin. Thief was considered to be a weaker type of rouge, but they had many benefits. Lucan looked over his new skills.

Backstab could be activated by using 30 stamina from his new stamina bar. It would deal an automatic critical hit when striking someone in the back.

Lacerate could be activated after achieving a combo of at least 5 hits on a single target. 20 stamina would be spent to deal a bleeding wound to the target. They would take damage ever second for 30 seconds.

Tread Lightly could be activated for 3 stamina per second. It would let him travel at full speed while remaining almost silent.

Pickpocket was a skill that had a chance to retrieve coins or a random item from a person's bag. Success depend on his agility and how alert the target was along with many other factors.

Vanish would let Lucan enter stealth and become invisible. He would remain invisible as long as he didn't attack, cast a spell, speak, or interact with object or people. It could only be used outside of combat. Vanish wouldn't let him turn invisible in the middle of a fight.

Unlike with Raze, these skills would upgrade on their own. He would have to use them and raise his proficiency with them to unlock the more powerful versions. It would take time and hard work compared to paying Raze with experience.

Right now, his stamina bar was at 142. He could trigger a number of Backstab's and Lacerate's. Lucan was satisfied with the 5 starting abilities of a Thief.

"Now that you are a Thief, you must steal coins or things worth a combination of over 150 gold before you hit level 100. You will gain an ability or skill every 5 levels. Be on the lookout, many great thieves have stored knowledge of their abilities in books. You will be able to learn from most rouge skill books. Don't forget the Organization will always buy skill books. There are never enough."

"Yes, and our fences will offer fair prices for stolen goods." Chipped in the old man.

"Great, if anyone ever wants to buy Raze's power, think my name three times and ask for magic." Lucan said before walking out of the organization.

He understood that he could now enter the front of the Organization and was a little curious, but he needed to start leveling.

'That's too bad about the monthly competition.' Super said to Lucan telepathically. 'I just saw the list, you guys missed the cut off by 3 teams.'

'My level is still pretty low, it would have been hard for us to score well in the real competition anyway.' Lucan replied. He would still be below level 100 by the time of the competition, even if they had managed to qualify. It made it very unlikely for him to take home any prizes.

Lucan made his way to the Assassin's Guild hideout, on the outskirts of Vertshadow. The place looked very similar to the one near Avalon, except it was filled with different faces.

He picked up several gold rank contracts. Lucan wanted to earn more contribution points. Most of the contracts posted in the guild were too high level for Lucan, but there were a still a number of jobs he could take.

***

Lucan spent the next week tracking down bandits and murderers, dispatching them from the world. Since he was by himself, his goal was quantity over quality. He didn't want to bite off more than he could chew. He only ever faced small groups when they were below his level. If it was 1 an 1 he would be comfortable as long as they were not 5 levels above him.

Taking the low-level contracts, he was able to complete 4 or 5 every day. Super would always point him in the right direction of his targets and never wanted any money. SuperSleuth had no problem telling him where to look, but if Lucan wanted his target's life story he would have to pay.

Right now, Lucan was in stealth (invisible) while watching a small house in a medium sized city. Candle light flickered in the window but there was no movement coming from inside the house on this dark evening.

The contract for this job stated that Guard Captain Hasbin, of Everfern city, commissioned a sword from the cities finest smith, instead of paying for it, he killed the smith. The smith's daughter was the one who came to the guild with a request for Hasbin's head and the sword her father created and was killed with.

Little brown had already slipped inside and was taking a look around. Lucan mapped out the residence while keeping an eye on it from the outside. Earlier today he had finally looked at the spell book Silent had given him. The spell was called Flashbang. It wasn't restricted to a class, only those with pure mana. It would create blinding light and a deafening bang, impairing nearby enemies and leaving party members unaffected.

Lucan really felt like a jerk. He wanted Silent to come back, but he didn't want to disturb her and make things worse. He didn't know what to do.

'Hey Boss, can you hear me?'

'Yes, Oar, I can. What can I help you with?'

'Mr. Hammerstone stone says they have found something valuable and you should come take a look.'

'Oh yeah? What did he find?'

'He refused to say. He has also said that me and the other dwarves are not allowed to leave until you arrive.'

'Mmm, okay, I will be their soon. Listen to what Ed tells you."

'Okay, see ya in a bit Boss.'

Lucan grinned to himself. From the information given, Lucan felt that Ed had found something extremely valuable and was worried about word getting out. He decided to finish up his current contract and head out.

Little brown watched the sleeping Hasbin after locating the sword while Lucan walked up to the house under the cover of stealth. Activating Shadow Form removed his stealth, but it didn't matter because in an instant, a dark shadow had already passed under the door.

Lucan activated Tread Lightly and ran down the hall past the sleeping maid's quarters and up the stairs to the second floor. He slipped under another door into Hasbin's bedroom.

Lucan held a wand in his left hand and a black dagger in his right. He plunged the dagger into Hasbin's chest, scoring an automatic critical hit on the sleeping target. Hasbin's eye's opened to see Lucan leaning over him. Before a scream could come out, he was frozen in fear after looking into the eye of his killer. Telekinetic Slash struck along side the dagger. After his 5th hit with the melee weapon Lucan used Lacerate.

The deep wound cause blood to start pooling in Hasbin's bed. He was dead before he had a chance to react. His body didn't disappear until Lucan chopped off his head. He did a quick sweep of the room, pocketing a few things before turning to a shadow and leaving through the window. He hid in a dark alley beside the building for a moment, then used Vanish to disappear.

***

A young woman had fallen asleep at the desk she had inherited, the fire had become smoldering embers when she woke in the middle of the night.

"You can't keep falling asleep down here." She mumbled to herself. She picked up the empty plate she had left on the desk and planned to leave to office.

*Crash*

The plate shattered as her eyes were fixed on the chair beside the fire. A severed head was resting in the chair while a sword was propped against the armrest.