Chapter 11: Multiclassing (2/2)

Victor squinted at her. “How do you know?”

“I have the higher rank of that Perk, [Seducer]. You have to sleep with twenty different people to get it, and one hundred for the upgraded version. I am still dozens away from that one.”

“D-did you sleep with me for a Perk?”

“Just a transaction,” she smiled, “Nothing more.”

Yeah, he had been BEEPED in more ways than one. Capitalism struck again.

As he left his ‘damsel in distress’ to rest and got dressed, Victor took it back. That world sucked.

Closing the bedroom door behind him, Victor found the three kobolds waiting for him outside, alongside Jules the Necromancer. By now, the inn’s clients had gotten used to him bringing monsters around whenever he went.

“Chief, chief!” Red said, he and Black carrying the corpses of their fallen comrades on their back. “Sorry to interrupt your murder attempt.”

Murder? Ah. These poor children. They had looked through the keyhole. Victor was too relaxed to scold them. “Hi, Jules. You’re here for business?”

“Yes, yes, I need your signature for the new raw material Lord Vainqueur gathered. Your servants also informed me you were open to the idea of selling their dead companions; I commend you for your dedication to recycling.”

“Since Yellow and Blue are gone, we are two members short for the choreography,” Red complained. “We cannot serve His Majesty Vainqueur without one. We must look for recruits, stylish and colored…”

“Oh, could we look for a green and a white this time?” Black asked his leader. “We need brand new colors.”

“And a sixth with shining silver scales,” Pink squirmed. “A young, virile male.”

“No yellow or blue will ever replace our fallen comrades,” Red said gravely. “We shall look for new colors, and create a rainbow so we may showcase the great Vainqueur’s luster!”

“About that, Jules, is there a way to bring them back to life?” Victor asked the necromancer. “Not as mindless undead, but true revival.”

“True resurrection is a power far beyond my level, and that of anyone alive today,” Jules replied, much to Victor’s disappointment. “You may turn to the goddess Shesha, but she charges a harsh price for it. However… are you under level twenty?”

“I’ve just reached seventeen yesterday.”

“Then it should be easy to take a level in the [Necromancer] Class, and use its starting Perk, [Animate Dead], to revive your servants as undead. After you reach level twenty, the experience penalties will make it significantly harder, so it may be now or never.”

“Can’t you do it yourself? I can pay if you accept magical items.”

“I only raise non-intelligent undead for ethical reasons. [Animate Dead] will bring the lucky fellows back as intelligent ones, including the original soul, if you sacrifice coins or some of your items.”

“Chief, no!” Red protested. “They gladly gave their life for you!”

“You saved my life,” Victor replied. “I owe you that.”

They had also gained class levels out of it, which complicated matters; while convincing monsters to fight more monsters sounded appealing on paper, his experience with Vainqueur made him fear the consequences. Neither did he want the critters to end up as Vainqueur’s emergency rations. Maybe he would better send them on a non-dangerous errand for their safety?

While he didn’t like taking a level in a dark class, Victor decided the kobolds, monsters or other, had earned a raise.

Congratulations! For working with a necromancer to enter the death market, you gained a level in the [Necromancer] class!

+10 SP, +1 SKI, +1 AGI, +1 INT, +1 CHA, +1 LCK!

You gained the [Animate Dead] Class Perk!

[Animate Dead]: You can revive corpses as undead with a touch. By sacrificing money or items, you can revive a living being as an intelligent undead, retaining both the original soul and class levels. The funds needed to revive someone depends on the soul’s value, whom you intuitively understand.

With a glance, Victor instantly guessed the two kobolds were worth a few hundred coins each; more than he owned. He removed his sun bracers, each worth as much, and activated the Perk.

An unholy, purple glow filled the room, turning the bracers to dust. The dark aura then moved to the broken remains of the two dead kobolds, binding them back together, and consuming the flesh.

Much to Victor’s silent disturbance, the two skeletons rose back on their own, their bones having changed color to yellow and blue respectively. An unholy glow shone in their eye sockets.

Your Kobold minions have been revived as Kobones!

“Blue, Yellow?” Red asked as the undead turned at him. “Are you… alright?”

“Flesh…” Blue’s voice had turned into a cavernous, terrible voice. “Flesh…”

What? “Has the Perk failed?” Victor frowned.

“Nah, I’m kidding chief,” the Blue skeleton replied, regaining his original voice and letting out a strange chuckle. How the skeleton managed to do that without lungs was beyond Victor. “Still the same old me, except now I can see my clavicule.”

“This new voice is awesome! Let me try!” Yellow chirped, his voice turning from his original one to the same cavernous echo. “I am Ranger Yellow, and you have met your dooooooom… doooooooom…”

“Red, I am your father,” Blue said with the same voice in a pretty good interpretation of Earl Jones. “Neat!”

“Doooooooom…”

They took their transformation into undead skeletons pretty well. “Blue, Yellow!” Red embraced the reborn minions. “You are back!”

“Yes, and I don’t feel my stomach ulcer anymore,” Yellow said, returning to his normal voice. “Being undead is marvelous!”

Victor smiled at the scene. While annoying as hell, Vainqueur and the Kobolds did save his life and the city. Maybe he had been wrong to distrust them. Maybe they could do good, all of them.

Maybe he could get used to this new life…

Then a knight flew through one of the inn’s windows and crashed against a wall, dashing Victor’s hopes.

Victor glanced at the broken man, and took a long, deep breath. “Minions, help Jules with his business,” he told the kobolds while his fingers went for his trusty canteen and he took a sip of alcohol.

When another knight flew through a second window, and a third hit the wall outside, the adventurer decided not to stop at a sip. “Well, well, well,” Jules rejoiced, clapping his hands. “This association keeps getting better and better…”

“Minion?” An unpleasant voice came from outside the inn. “MINION!”

Sighing and out of alcohol to drown his sorrow, Victor calmly exited the inn, his hand on the new rapier around his belt. He had also taken Vilmain’s flintlock with him as a trophy but didn’t think he would make much use of it.

As expected, he found Vainqueur waiting for him right in front of the building. A good two dozen knights laid broken and defeated around town, the sight fitting the aftermath of a deadly drunken brawl. They bore the insignia of the Shining Crusade.

There died his hopes of getting rescued by a knight in shining armor.

Surprisingly though, the dragon had come back with a pile of treasures in his hands. “Minion, look at what they gave me!” Vainqueur proudly showed his new shinies, from gold purses to magic items.

“What happened?” Victor asked.

“I poked them,” Vainqueur replied, licking his left finger.

“All of them?” Why did Victor sound so bored? The disaster had numbed him to the dragon’s insanity.

“This is the critical hit finger, minion.” Vainqueur showed him his left hand’s index claw. “Every time I kill a manling with it before your brethren, they reward me for it!”

Yeah right. While at it, Victor decided to try his new [Monster Insight] Perk on his ‘master.’

Vainqueur Knightsbane.

Elder Red Dragon (Dragon)

Vulnerable to: Frost, Fairy, and Dragonslayer.

Strong against: everything else.

Self-proclaimed ‘best dragon’, a great red wyrm who is more than a match for the strongest of adventurers. His immense strength is matched only by his arrogance and lack of common sense. Kind of greedy, vain, and self-absorbed, but secretly insecure about his minions leaving him.

“Done,” Vainqueur replied happily, “We can finally move on from this stinking town. I miss bathing in my hoard.”

“Ah?” Victor raised an eyebrow, curious. “What happened, you poked her too?”

The dragon scrapped his teeth with a claw. “I ate her.”

Victor’s mind stopped working. “You what?”

“I ate her. Although I think she would have tasted better with that sweet poison sauce.”

“You ate the quest giver.” And a high-ranking noble in the kingdom.

“Do not worry for the gold, I recovered the reward first,” Vainqueur ‘reassured’ him, before belching.

“W-why?” Victor choked. “Why did Your Majesty do that?”

“Because she was annoying, would not pay me, and wasn’t a princess,” Vainqueur replied angrily. “Also, she tasted like pork.”

Victor looked at the dragon, words dying in his throat.

“Minion, do not look at me like that. There are more enough beastkins lying around for a barbecue if you are hungry.”