Chương 86: Chapter 054 The Great Plan That Lasted All Of 30 Seconds (Part 1)

Jack surveyed the chamber; the rune formation had burned up in the chaos, and all the runes and white paint were gone. The floor was covered in dead nobles and blood. He began collecting the unused [Chronos Sphere] spell scrolls that were part of the ritual. Some had been damaged in the fighting, but each one he recovered could be the difference between life and death.

"What's the plan?" Cain asked as he grabbed a better sword from one of the dead nobles. He gripped it in his right hand and swung it through the air with a swish.

"Much better."

"Do you want some [Chronos Sphere] spell scrolls?" Jack asked. Cain shook his head.

"In the heat of battle, I'll forget to use them… I think you need them more than I do." Jack nodded.

"I think we have about ten minutes before anyone outside comes to investigate." He stuffed the spell scrolls in his pockets.

"But we should be out of here as soon as possible. I believe the nobles all went back to the manor, so they probably took most of the guards with them… if we are lucky, they took them all." Cain nodded.

"We fight our way through any guards and head back to Lundun. Where the hell are we, and where did you get that bow?"

"We're at one of Viscount Tides' estates… About a forty-minute carriage ride from the city. It's for hunting deer," Jack explained.

"There were dozens of nobles here earlier, but most left. Hopefully it's just the twelve we saw earlier… so maybe forty guards and dozens of Tides' servants." Cain listened as he pocketed a few of the young noble's coin purses and a dagger.

"And the bow?" Why does he care about the bow?

"I bought it from a merchant in Lundun… about a week ago." Jack continued describing his plan.

"We kill any guards outside, get to the horses, then you knock me out." He grabbed a full quiver of high-quality arrows from one of the corpses. Cain blinked.

"What?"

"Knock me out," Jack repeated.

"I'll say you escaped during the ritual. You killed them all and took me hostage before leaving me for dead at the stables. I need to look like a victim; otherwise my family are at risk." Cain hesitated. There was a cough behind them. Jack spun around to find that one of the nobles wasn't dead. It was a young man, Fenton. The teenager had blood running from a gash on his forehead. He was running towards the exit.

"No!" Jack yelled. He threw his dagger, but it missed by a wide margin. He'd never trained in throwing a dagger in his past life due to his disabilities. The noble slammed the door open and fled into the corridor while screaming for help. Jack cursed.

"Fuck! My cover's blown." Cain looked at him.

"Then we run."

"Damn it!" Jack nodded.

"I have no choice." He realised his entire family would have to leave the city. We have to run. The first place the nobles would look for him was home, and his family would die. Again. Jack grabbed his green bag, and moments later, they burst from the hidden chamber into the fake temple ruins. Fenton was long gone. Two guards, a human and a foxkin, stood ready, their weapons already drawn. Jack felt great, like he could do almost anything.

He placed [Assassin's Mark] on the human guard and threw a blinding powder while running at him with his dagger drawn. Healthy, anxious and prepared, major armour, no protections. Cain used a skill that, to Jack, looked like the [First Strike] skill. Before the foxkin knew what was happening, he was cut from right shoulder to left hip. Jack drove his [Assassinate] empowered dagger towards the blinded guard's throat. The man deflected the dagger strike with his arm guard and headbutted him.

With a grunt, Jack fell backwards with a bloody nose and vision clouded by stars. By the time he'd recovered, the guard's head was on the floor.

"Are you alright?" Cain offered his hand and pulled Jack to his feet.

"Fuck!" Jack spat.

"Broken fucking nose!" He realised his mistake. I should've used another [Chronos Sphere] scroll. Stupid overconfidence. With so many potential enemies, he was trying to use the scrolls as little as possible. He'd overestimated his fighting prowess because of his earlier successes in the ritual chamber against entranced young nobles. The guards would be older and more experienced at fighting dirty. Cain laughed.

"I'll set it for you later… if we survive the night." Jack nodded as he watched Cain loot a guard's arm guards.

"That's a good idea." He looted the other guard's arm guards. He was still wearing the new, uncomfortable suit and thin shoes, though he had his hunting outfit and boots in a bag. The pair ran through the forest to where Jack knew there were horses. They had no real plan now. Steal some horses and run before Fenton informed the others. More bloodshed was on the horizon. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. As they ran, Jack began examining his new pseudo skills.

Damn… Eight new skills. While they waited for a pair of guards to walk away from the stable, Jack slipped on his hunting boots while examining his class screen. He breathed a sigh of relief as he felt the comfort of wearing a quality pair of boots. Their immediate plan was simple. Wait for the guards to turn the corner and then sprint across the courtyard. Break into the stable, grab two horses, and ride for their lives. If everything went as planned, they'd have nearly two minutes before the guards returned.

[Class Screen-Internal View] Class: Novice Blood Mage (0) Compatibility: 84% Novice Primary Skills —Harvest Pseudo Skills (0) ——Pseudo Goblin: Blood Regeneration (0) ——Pseudo Librarian: Cross-Reference (0) ——Pseudo Administrator: Multitasking (0) ——Pseudo Mage: Fireball (0) ——Pseudo Healer: Heal (0) ——Pseudo Politician: Convince (0) ——Pseudo Mage: Shield (0) ——Pseudo Inquisitor: Detect Class (0) ——Pseudo Sky-Knight: Skyward Charge (0) Jack couldn't help but smile at some of the new skills.

The [Cross-Reference] and [Multitasking] skills. They'll be helpful at the Library. I can already feel the benefits of multitasking. For a moment, he forgot he was about to flee the capital. He changed into his hunting jacket, making sure to transfer his spell scrolls and other items. He clenched his jaw as the weight of it hit him. Damn it. He'd likely never set foot in the Royal Library again. Jack considered the new pseudo skills he recognised.

He understood what each of the common skills did without needing to focus; they were all based on common class skills, which he'd read about. Having more important matters to deal with, he left [Pseudo Inquisitor: Detect Class] and [Pseudo Sky-Knight: Skyward Charge] to understand later. Jack touched his broken nose and activated the pseudo skill [Heal]. Mana drained from him in a light ripple as he felt the flesh knit itself together. Hmm… that felt strange.

It was the first time he'd used a skill that required mana. He wasn't sure how many times he could cast [Pseudo Healer: Heal] before becoming mana-exhausted. The bleeding stopped, the nose set in place, but the healing was limited. His fingertips brushed the bridge of his nose. It was still sore as if it had been injured a few days earlier. It would need more time to fully heal. Fuck. That was a mistake. He'd realised too late that his nose had healed crooked.

If he wanted it straight, he'd need to break it again, reshape the nose, and heal it.

"Cain," he whispered.

"I'm going to heal your arm." Cain frowned.

"I thought you were a scribe?" Jack nodded.

"I am. It's a long story." He touched Cain's left arm and cast [Heal] on the cut. Like with his nose, the wound sealed with a scab. Not perfect, but it would save days of recovery. Cain inspected the scab and shrugged.

"Ready?"

"Hang on." Jack cast his pseudo mage [Shield] for the first time. Again, he felt a drain on his mana as a blue shield formed around him before vanishing. The shield would last for twenty-four hours or until it took enough damage to dissipate. Cain's eyes widened, but he didn't have time for questions; the guards had just vanished around the corner. Jack shrugged, and they bolted across the courtyard. The stable wasn't empty. A boy, no older than fifteen, was mucking out the stalls.

His eyes widened when he saw two blood-smeared figures running through the door.

"Shit." Jack held a finger to his lips and motioned for silence. The boy glanced towards the exit, but Cain blocked the way.

"If you run or scream, we'll have to kill you." Cain kept his voice low. He pulled one of the young nobles' coin purses from his belt and fished out a gold coin.

"Hide in the back and don't come out for fifteen minutes." He flicked the coin. The boy's eyes went wide at the small fortune spinning through the air. He dropped his shovel, still full of horse shit, and snatched the coin mid-flight.

"Yes, sir." He ran to an empty stall and ducked out of sight.

"Hide the coin and come back for it in a few days." Cain mounted an unsaddled horse.

"Be careful where you spend it, kid." A single gold coin wasn't much in noble circles, but if a stable boy tried to exchange it in the wrong part of the city, he could wind up dead. Jack followed Cain's lead and mounted a horse. It was the same horse he'd ridden earlier, but saddle-free this time.

"So much for no saddle sore," he muttered, steering the animal after Cain at a slow trot towards the stable door. They exited the stable to find half a dozen guards running across the courtyard. The guards had their backs to them. Jack and Cain bolted towards the tree line. By the time the guards noticed, they were already galloping into the forest beneath a three-quarters full moon. Jack felt [Assassin's Intuition] ping multiple times.

He turned back and placed an instance of [Assassin's Mark] on two of the guards. Healthy, annoyed, major armour, no protections… Healthy, embarrassed, minor armour, no protections. He didn't care about the guards' status; he planned to use the marks to determine direction if they were followed. For the next hour, he'd at least know the general direction of two of them. A minute later, a horn blew. Loud and sharp, it echoed through the estate like a blade drawn in moonlight. Then another horn… and another.

The chase had begun.

"Which way?" Cain shouted. Jack scanned the dark woods. It was difficult to orient himself beneath the canopy.

"The main entrance to the estate is that way… I think." He pointed behind them, towards the manor.

"We should head deeper into the forest and circle back." Cain nodded.

"It's a plan." At a trot, they headed deeper into the shadowy forest for a few minutes before they began circling around where they thought the manor house was. The sound of hunting horns and barking dogs never strayed far away.

"I think the lymer hounds have our scent and are tracking us." Jack pointed in the general direction of the manor house.

"If we could find a deep river…"

"You understand the signals?" Cain guided his horse between two trees. Jack nodded.

"Some of them. Not all." He'd read a book in his past life that explained the noble hunting codes. It had seemed useless at the time. Cain shook his head.

"You're full of surprises, Jack the scribe." He chuckled. Jack used his [Perfect Recall] skill to reacquaint himself with what more of the horn sounds meant. As he mentally flicked through a book on deer hunting, he felt connections to other books and even newspaper articles he'd read. Oh, my. That's so useful. His new pseudo librarian skill [Cross-Reference] was pointing him to related information. That's an amazing skill.

As he read relevant parts of various books in his mind, he noticed he wasn't struggling with concentrating on riding through the forest. Is that [multitasking]? His new pseudo administrator skill was allowing him to do two things at once. Ten minutes passed with Jack rereading everything he'd ever read on horn signals while navigating his horse through the shadowy forest. The horns and hounds never stopped.

"There." Jack pointed.

"I think that's the road back to Lundun."