Divinity Rescue Corps
88- What Is Drat’s Deal

I was glad of the weather change, and for the night being comfortable. I was also glad for Durability, because it was almost certainly helping me to stay comfortable in the current weather. It would have been too cold for the old me.

After absolutely rearranging Cinzy’s understanding of pleasure, we lay there cuddling. I had hopes for another Pleasure Seeker level, but it was not to be.

The first thing I did was produce the Prismatic Apparel. “You’ll need this,” I told her.

“What? Why?”

It came off me as a shirt, but quickly transformed into a slinky cocktail dress. Cinzy looked at me and arched an eyebrow.

“I didn’t mean to make it do that,” I told her. She continued staring. “Okay I definitely want to see you in that. Anyway, the reason you’ll need it… just identify it and you’ll see.”

She did, and her eyes lit up. “Holy moly, Fletcher. Thank you.”

“Welcome,” I said, and began to go through my system works.

First up, I’d spent 3 Likability Tokens to boost Cinzy’s pleasure, and also to induct her into the fold.

Entwined Ecstasy: You have entwined with Cinzia Graham. Your relationship status is acquaintances. These two are familiar with one another but still have a ways to go.

Pleasure from intimate acts between acquaintances is boosted a small amount.

The next UI message that arrived pertained to bringing her into the fold.

Entwined Ecstasy: You have brought Cinzia Graham into the fold. She has gained the ability Healer’s Breath.

You have reached your maximum capacity for abilities gained through Entwined Ecstasy. You may choose to strengthen the associated ability (Beast Talker) or gain Cinzia’sEntrancing Ululation.

I stared at the screen in fascination for several minutes. The new ability Cinzia’sEntrancing Ululation was common, worked off Likability, and was active. It would require Tokens to activate. On the other hand, it would affect a large amount of people, anyone who heard the wail.

Meanwhile, Beast Talker was already uncommon and also passive. It granted me bonuses with Nakamamon. I’d already used this to identify and befriend a number of Nakamamon, including Shakindria.

I decided that this time, I was going to strengthen Beast Talker, just to see what happened. Right now it was nebulous. With luck I could get another chance at gaining Cinzia’sEntrancing Ululation.

Beast Talker II has advanced to Beast Talker III.

All right. That was quick.

Beast Talker III

(Special Ability, Uncommon, passive)

I- Your Likability is considered +4 when dealing with non-humanoid Nakamamon found in the wild. You gain a Persuasion skill of +5 with them as well. Your Identify is considered +7 when used on a new species.

II- Your Likability and Persuasion are considered +2 with all Nakamamon.

*Note: these bonuses are lost if you take hostile action against any Nakamamon.

Okay now that was a serious increase over the last level. Although it might not help me out of this situation… actually it might. I needed to give it a think, instead of just relying on my Healer abilities to make me punch and kickproof.

Entwine more deeply with Cinzia Graham to unlock further abilities.

Earlier in the day, I’d reached 19 in Healer, though. When you used Healer’s Breath a lot, negotiated on behalf of your patients and brewed up quick potions, that was enough.

I hadn’t dealt with it, because of meditation and then being interrupted by Cinzy.

Level 19: +3 skill points

Yes! Another three skill points.

I quickly put one into Divine Resistance, and froze looking at the screen. There were so many. My Potions skill had increased without me spending points on it, so it was possible to just practice my way into leveling up. For now those would remain unspent.

The last thing was the Great Replenishing. Once I reached level 20 as a Healer, all my spent Tokens would come back. This meant I could (and would) go all out in the short term, spending like a maniac, and grab all my Tokens back one level later.

Escape wasn’t just possible, it was within reach. What I needed was a plan.

Cinzy rested her head on my chest and ran fingers over my hip bones and abs. “We need to talk,” she breathed.

“I’m listening.” I needed to know what was going on with Drat. Did she know? Was she in on it? While this could’ve just been about feelings, or the Ivy and Isabelle situation, I doubted it. Cinzy knew I wanted out.

“I’m sorry,” she muttered. “I couldn’t… I didn’t… it was this big… deal. It was a big deal, okay?”

With no clear idea what she was talking about, I just waited. This was definitely one of those times where waiting was going to be better than opening my mouth and butting in.

“I don’t let just anyone…” she motioned around between her legs. “…get in my business. It was special to me. I thought, you know, it was, it was special to you.”

This was the same girl who could talk as smooth as she pleased at any given time. This was the hottest girl I had ever seen. She knew she was, too. She had anyone and everyone wrapped around her finger if she wanted.

“Listen to me,” I told her. “Are you listening?”

She nodded.

“I should have told you. In the heat of the moment, I just wanted you. That was my mistake. I should have told you about the others. I tried to, but there wasn’t a right time.”

She nodded. “I get that.”

“And if I’m being completely honest, I’d like to avoid dying more than I would like to have this conversation. I want out of here.”

Her face twitched. “I… can’t.”

“You can.”

“You don’t understand.”

“Make me understand.”

“One of the Wizards… is my brother.”

Okay. That was fine. Fine like that meme of the dog in the burning kitchen. Everything’s fine. This is fine.

“Which one?” I asked, knowing it didn’t matter. If I was going to save one of these guys, I was going to save them all. But it mattered enough to Cinzy to being me out here.

“Chris. He’s the… he looks like me.”

No, he didn’t. If I’d noticed a male version of a bikini model cover girl, I’d remember it. However, I did clock the blonde hair I was pretty sure Cinzy had, along with the facial structure.

Well this was a new issue. Cinzy would clearly do anything to get her brother out of this situation, which made a lot of sense. Just because it made sense to keep me tied up here and at Blake’s mercy did not mean it was right.

“Fletcher, I like you,” she said. “But he’s my brother. I can’t have him die. And Drat…”

There it was. Drat what?

But she fell silent. “I can’t yet. I’ll tell you when it’s time.”

“The more I know, the more I can help.” Right now I was penalizing both she and Drat with orders they weren’t fulfilling. If she let me in, I could rescind those orders and put new orders into place that gave her experience points. Blake’s people might think there was no way to level up unless you dangled your friends over the Sarlacc pit’s gross open mouth, but Ivy and Isabelle had leveled up several times under my leadership.

It didn’t matter about the experience, obviously. She had found her brother out here, figured out what Blake and the Guardians were doing, then worked to get me here. Had she met Drat and showed him first, or after? I wanted to imagine Drat made up his plans and they included telling my team what was going on.

Seeing Tara’s bonded Nakamamon out on a search patrol told me Drat and Cinzy were working this plan by themselves. However, without me there to mix up more of the anti-magic serum, she’d have to speed back to HQ for a second time.

“There’s… he’s going… we’re going to get all of them into the city.” I gave her more time to explain in further detail, but there wasn’t any. A sound outside had us jumping up, had us dressing in the dark.

I motioned to my rope restraints, but didn’t say anything. After all, I wasn’t pleased about her just leaving the team when things didn’t go her way. Nor was I pleased about her brother being a Wizard on this expedition, and that steering her actions. She quickly tied my hand back to the post where I’d been tied before.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, and snuck out the window.

“I know,” I told an empty room.

A face poked itself in, and then one of the Guardians snorted and entered. He was a smaller version of Blake: like a mountain had turned into a human. His head brushed the ceiling, and the doorway was only about three feet wide, so he had to turn sideways a bit to get his shoulders in here.

“Go put a bandage on it yourself.”

“What?”

“I’m not healing Guardians,” I told him.

He looked around the little shack, then brought up a small piece of paper and traced a shape on it. The mark, a magical sigil, burned the paper from the middle on outward, and Alan’s light spell ignited in the small space.

Suddenly I was squinting.

“What—”

The guy swiped his hand about the room as though he were clearing spiderwebs. He madly thrashed about a few times, and poked his fingers up into the rafters as well, before grunting and leaving. The hovering ball of light followed after him.

The moment he was gone I noted Drat there in the corner.

“Idiot,” he commented drily. As a Rogue, the beaky-nosed bastard had the unique ability to speak and have almost no one hear him. Cinzy had to whisper because her natural speaking voice attracted everyone’s attention, but Drat seemed to naturally fade into the background. I’d been like that for basically my whole life after the accident.

“Who’s the idiot? Me or him?”

“Both of you, obviously.”

I nodded in satisfaction. That was the Drat I knew.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this plan of yours?” I asked.

“Yeah, you’d have Tara or Regina watching at all times, or all four of the guards on standby so the first time you got punched they would rush in… and get themselves killed. Blake is not a joke.”

“Why do it at all?”

He rolled his eyes. “I had to make sure Cinzy got somewhere safe. She didn’t. She went around the town and ran into these chucklefucks. Blake won’t let her leave. She’s almost as much of a hostage as you. Good thing she can persuade them not to rip her clothes off and get after her. But she’ll run out of Tokens eventually, with the xp penalties you’ve got her under.”

“And so then what?”

“Pretend to betray you to gain their trust, get Cinzy to get you out here so her brother doesn’t get killed by accident. You know they had nine Wizards when they started? They’re down to six.”

Okay it was hard to argue with that too.

“You get xp and replenish your Tokens for doing your job. You stand a good chance of breaking out of here.” He wasn’t wrong. Tokens were good for getting done anything that was really fracking hard. “I needed you to throw these people off their game and you did that today. One down, eleven gigantic assholes to go.”

I sighed. “I’m not looking to get all these people killed off, Drat.”

“I don’t think we have a choice, Boy Scout. With these idiots, it’s kill or be killed. If you get another one to take a nose dive into a tree I’ll handle them.”

“No you won’t.”

“Don’t do that,” he said, scowling. “These guys have to die.”

“This isn’t a movie, Drat. We don’t have to murder our way to safety. That’s not how this world works.” In fact, there was evidence to make me think Blake and his people had caused the Slinktrickle situation just by being like they were being. “They can get fired and have their powers stripped and end up back on earth. This is an HQ decision. Neither of us get to play judge, jury or executioner.”

Come to think of it, I wouldn’t be astonished to discover that the Glumpdumpkin issue originated with Blake and his people being jackasses in the town, then moving out before everything got worse for them.

Drat shrugged. “So long as you’re locked up, I keep doing things my way. It’d be nice if you dropped the xp blocks with the orders attached, but you do you. I ain’t the boss and I’m not about to start trying to get the position.”

He popped off the wall he’d been leaning against and gave me a small clay tablet. Etched into it were infinitesimally small words. He then produced a piece of paper like the one that had just created the light spell and traced the runes with his finger. While the paper burned itself out and released a hidden cache of mana somehow, the tablet expanded until it was newspaper sized.

“Are you still in contact with them?”

He leveled a look at me that said ‘what kind of amateur do I look like?’

“What about the anti-magic formula?” I asked. “Are they getting it?”

“There’s a stockpile from the last batch you made,” he said. “Also, Blake and his people have a stockpile.” Meaning, I guessed, my team had a stockpile. Because he was a sneaky sneak thief.

He pulled out another sheaf of paper. “From our captive Wizard pals. This one was from Cinzy’s brother.” He pointed down towards the tablet he’d enlarged. “That there is an experiment.”

It was a list of orders. The first one was Guardians should train in hand to hand combat at least two hours a day, and that’s an order. Next was: Rangers should train in archery at least two hours a day, and that’s an order.

“What am I doing with this?”

“The idea is that if you issue the order, and it works, they’ll get xp for doing the things that need doing, to help prepare for the final part of my plan.” Again he shrugged. “But of course it’s up to you, being the boss man. If you don’t want to do it, don’t. We just have to plan on losing people.”

He stared at me for several moments.

I couldn’t believe I was doing this. First, I lifted the blanket of orders that was on him, and then the one Cinzy had been given. In the current orders list, a whole host still remained as ongoing:

*Guardians maintain the camp and provide firewood.

*Guardians patrol during the day and set up watch at night.

*Rangers hunt and gather what is necessary each day to boost food reserves.

*Rangers collect a short list of herbs.

*Rangers expand their Nakamadex entries when possible.

*Sorcerer is to create and maintain stone houses, including ventilation and sewage systems, establish a tunnel system linking these to a safe redoubt, and create an escape tunnel from the redoubt to a place of significant distance from any potential threat.

The last one was entirely to give Trent a lot of busywork so he could advance his Sorcerer level doing his earth magic. And because of what had happened in Slinktrickle.

There were a bunch of others: for Trent to look for and catalogue earth aspect Nakamamon, to bring those specimens to the others of the team if possible, for Alan to maintain daily contact with HQ and compile a daily report. And on. And on.

I’d even had orders for Trent: to scout, mostly, to find any secrets the townsfolk might have if possible, to alert the team of danger so they had sufficient response time.

“I’ll try this, but I want it to be known that I’m still not happy with you,” I told him.

“That’s good,” he said, dismissing me with a shrug. “I wouldn’t be happy with me either.”

“Why are you doing this then?”

“One, it was the best way to get the fewest number of our people killed. Two, I have to do things through skullduggery, secrecy or deception in order to get Rogue experience. It really does advocate me to act like a bastard.”

I stared, and he stared right back. The staring contest only concluded with him giving me a creepy smile. Like ‘Well? I don’t make the rules, I just live by them.’

I mumbled out the first order to the team, and was amazed to find that the order sank into the menu. I thought the team was too far away; I’d been wrong.

That done, I cleared out the old orders and rattled off these new ones. Drat nodded, grabbed out another spell scroll paper, and shrank down the clay tablet when I was done with it.

“A pleasure doing business with you,” he said.

This is Christopher both not pleased with his Rogue, and weirdly proud.

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