Path of the Thief - III

Although he was savouring it prior to the conversation, the elf suddenly downed the rest of his drink in a single gulp before slamming his glass on the counter.

"Alright, follow me." The elf spoke up right before obnoxiously crunching the ice cube that was previously cooling his drink.

Merlin was led through the crowd, although it was slightly easier to navigate this time around as people began shifting their chairs aside to make room for their boss. Eventually the two left the gambling room, moving down the same tunnel that led to the training facility, although this time they made a left turn instead of walking straight.

The background noise coming from the gambling ring quickly died down as they walked down the tunnel. After a few turns, very little light was left, and Merlin began picking up the scent of blood which caused his body to instinctively panic.

"Is it alright if I provide some light?" Merlin asked, to which he received an approving nod in response. He started chanting, and in a few seconds a notification appeared.

「Skill ⟪Light⟫ Activated.」

Suddenly a small ball of light, roughly the size of a billiard ball, formed within Merlin's grasp. The ball illuminated the sewer tunnel roughly five meters either way, with five more meters being dimly lit. The light floated into the air and began hovering around him, following him as he continued down the tunnel.

"Before we arrive, what do you know about the cult of Despoina?" The elf suddenly asked.

Merlin seemed taken back by the question, he did notice the elf mention it during what should have been an interrogation, but he had pushed it aside until this moment.

"I know that they're a cult that deals in black magic and manipulation of souls. They also perform human experimentation on their victims." Merlin answered with a fraction of his knowledge about the topic, it would already be suspicious if he knew any more than this.

The cult of Despoina were a group of black magic users who utilised necromancy and soul manipulation. Their ultimate goal was to harness souls, much like how players do, to empower themselves and dominate the world through overwhelming strength.

Their main research topics were hybridisation and soul injections, although their methods usually left entire villages wiped out or mutated beyond repair.

The main issue was that the cult of Despoina eventually became a dangerous force in the main story. Their research eventually creating several troublesome enemies, the most prominent being the starved souls. Creatures who after having their souls shattered in a failed experiment, become ravenous ghoul-like creatures who sought out the living and devoured their souls.

The reason most players found them troublesome was that their attacks were laced with a curse that had a chance to damage your soul. Giving you a debuff that severely reduced the experience you gained from killing monsters until you consumed a curse removal item or had a spell with a similar effect cast on you.

"Looks like someone did their research." The elf looked at Merlin with a hint of curiosity, "Do you know what it means when the cult creates a troll hybrid of someone within their ranks?"

Merlin shook his head, pretending that he wasn't aware.

"Oh, that's a shame. No matter, I'll tell you." The elf continued explaining. "It means that the cultist has done something so vile that it outshines the rest of the filth."

"Because apparently scum have standards nowadays." The elf started getting riled up, it seemed he had some history with this particular cult. He caught himself and continued after spending a second to calm down. "Pardon me. As I was saying, it means that the cultist has done something so bad that not even their fellow cultists can forgive them. Instead choosing to turn them into a mindless beast they can manipulate."

"I say mindless, but they're still somewhat intact, usually." The elf added on, "Although their intelligence may vary depending on what parts of them mutate in the hybridisation."

"And you're telling me this because you caught one, right?" Merlin questioned, it seemed like this was what the elf was obviously pointing towards. "And one capable of human speech as well I assume?"

"Correct, and that's where your last task comes in." The elf suddenly stopped in the tunnel, turning towards a steel bar door embedded in the wall. "You're going to help me extract information from that thing."

┌───────────────────

[Rare Quest]

The Thief Lord's expectation.

You've proven yourself capable with agility, dexterity and stealthiness. Now you are being given a special task that will test your ruthlessness.

The thieves guild leader has brought you to harvest information from a cultist, he has high expectations of you. Don't worry about killing the target, it seems this cultist has inherited a troll's regeneration from his hybridisation and wont die to regular attacks. Practice your knife work on the target, make every hit count.

Critical hits remaining: 50

• Reward: +2 Dexterity, 250 EXP, Class Soul: Thief, ???

• Failure: Quest will be replaced with "Path of the Thief III".

└───────────────────

Merlin reached into his inventory and pulled out his goblin dagger. He accepted the quest before walking into the makeshift prison cell.

There he saw what looked to be a man chained to the wall, but his arms were twice as long as one would expect, allowing him to comfortably sit on the floor while still having his hands chained above his head. His skin took on a greenish hue and he had dark green growths scattered around his body.

The man opened his eyes, but seemed to be experiencing pain due to light sensitivity caused by Merlin's light.

"Good morning sleepy head." The elf walked over to the man, but to Merlin's surprise, the elf had kicked him in the head with no hesitation.

Merlin watched as the wound on the man's face healed almost immediately, it seemed his troll regeneration was extremely high, even when compared to actual trolls. This was something Merlin could tell just by looking at the growths on the man's arm.

Extreme cell regeneration caused by troll hybridisation came with a major flaw. The fast cell regeneration alongside the instability of the body due to the experimentation made mutations extremely likely. The most common mutation to occur was usually cancerous growths on the body.

Although they were mostly benign, those that weren't attacked the nearby cells, although they didn't cause much damage as any cell damage was immediately restored by the troll's regeneration. Although there was a chance any cells that restored would also become cancerous themselves, leading to a domino effect that would eventually envelop the entire troll's body, essentially killing it.

The elf began asking the troll questions, but was either ignored or snarled at. After seeing that nothing was working, he eventually he gave the command to start.

Merlin approached the troll with his goblin dagger unsheathed. And with no hesitation sliced the troll's neck, causing it to split open. Merlin watched as black blood poured out of the wound, which closed only seconds after.

「Critical hits remaining: 49」

"Without any hesitation. Oh my, how terrifying." The elf teased Merlin before interrogating the troll once more.

After a few more critical hits, the troll still refused to talk, its angry snarls had slowly shifted into pained gargles, but he still refused to break.

「Critical hits remaining: 38」

Feeling tired, and somewhat bored of the monotonous task, Merlin decided to spark up a conversation while still attacking the troll.

"Actually, I've been meaning to ask, when we first met you had a few negative words to say about the oracle." Merlin spoke in a casual tone, intending to probe out a conversation. "You called the oracle a nasty snake woman."

Although it was faint, Merlin felt a hint of bloodlust coming from the elf.

Merlin came to the conclusion that the elf had serious issues with cults, whether it be the cult of Despoina, although that one was understandable, or the Serpent-Bearer Kilo's temple, his reaction was always disdain and bloodlust. Merlin wasn't sure if this was the same reaction targeted towards all cults or if he just so happened to talk about two cults in particular that the man hated, and was getting genuinely curious.

"That I did." The elf's expression darkened at the mention of the oracle. "She's a vile, wicked creature, and I recommend not speaking of her again."

"You speak as though you're familiar with her." Merlin stated. It seemed he had hit a nerve, he didn't want to lose his favour, but he couldn't let go of his curiosity, so he asked one last question. "What's your relationship with the oracle?"

The elf didn't respond for a few moments, the room was silent, or it would have been if not for the pained growls of the troll being tortured.

And then, with a sombre expression, the elf decided to finally speak, although his voice sounded coarse, the message came across clear. "She's the mother of my child."