"You fucking dick!"
That was the first thing I heard when I walked over to see what was going on when I saw that a crowd had gathered. I got there just in time to see a fist from one of the bandits being swung into the jaw of another, sending him flying into a stacked pile of boxes. The one that got hit was far from done, however, and he spat out some blood before charging at the other man and tackling him at the waist with the crowd arguing amongst themselves about who was right.
I have no idea what these people were arguing about and I didn't care about it in the first place.
My smirk was the only thing betraying me as I realized that the past two and a half months here were finally starting to pay off. I rolled the small bottle of black perfume around in my pocket, I could feel it draw in the negative energy being generated around me and slowly replenish itself. I used up two-thirds of its maximum use so far, spraying the black liquid evil around the camp where people most often congregate ever since I returned from the raid and became a part of this tribe.
The great thing about this convenient little item is that the more you use it and spread negativity around, the more negativity it generates from the people exposed to it. The more negativity I can create just by exposing the bandits to the stuff, the more the perfume will recharge itself. Thus, it's a perpetual loop of self-feeding negativity. It only helps that these bandits were so easy to be emotionally manipulated.
I haven't just been spraying the ground and communal areas, I've also managed to sneak into tents and spray people with the perfume. From what I've gathered about the perfume so far, whenever two or more people have been sprayed by the stuff they tend to seek each other out. I don't know why they do that, but I didn't question it when it helps me so much. All the negativity I've been putting around the camp has started to attract the attention of the Grimm, attacks on the wall occur more frequently.
I pulled the bottle out a bit and eyed it with Observe, just by standing in this arguing crowd it restored most of its uses. I looked back at the two fighting men and enjoyed the show, I didn't even have to spray them to get them to fight. With just the negativity being spread around the camp fights are caused by themselves, I only have to spray people if I want to make a large amount of negativity at once.
"Just what the hell is going on here?!" I winced in surprise and both the crowd around me and the two fighting bandits quieted immediately, only one person commanded that kind of respect in this camp. I turned my head and saw Raven storming out of her tent with Vernal following behind her, she was practically stomping her way to the crowd. By now the silence was uncomfortable and everyone was shuffling around awkwardly like children who just got caught doing something bad by their parents.
Now she was standing in front of the entire crowd with an annoyed sneer on her face, "Are you idiots trying to attract the Grimm?! We're already being attacked constantly, wasting precious resources and delaying our departure, and your solution is to throw more fuel on the fire? Well?!"
The "No" and "No ma'am", and various versions of it, being muttered by all the different bandits in the crowd was far too soft-spoken for people considered to be the scourge of towns. Raven didn't let her glare down and made sure to get eye contact in with every single one of us. When her gaze went past me and focused on someone else I decided to make a gamble, emotions were running hot right now and maybe the perfume I have could ignite something in one of these people.
Obviously, I couldn't walk around, lest I bring attention to me, so I have to do it to someone close by. For the sake of simplicity I just picked the guy in front of me, he was facing Raven and not paying attention to his surroundings. I slowly pulled the perfume out of my pocket and pointed it at the exposed gap in the man's arm armor. I squeeze the little puff on the bottle and watched a black mist spray out of the nozzle, the mist seemed to sense the man in front of me and pulled itself to his skin, slowly being absorbed.
He stood ramrod straight for a second and I almost thought he knew what I did, but such thoughts were laid to rest.
"If you're so scared of a few Grimm attacks then maybe you should just step down as the leader!" came his shout. I rose an eyebrow, this stuff really does mess with the mind more than I thought.
Raven slowly turned her head to face the guy and replied in a tone so tart that it could cut steel, "What did you just say to me?"
He moved through the crowd, the other bandits giving him either bewildered looks or looks that screamed they thought he was an idiot. He didn't pay them any mind and stood in front of Raven, between her and the rest of us. He was taller than her, but only just, and had a little bit of defined muscle, but he was level twenty. I almost pitied the poor guy.
"I said that if you're so scared of a few Grimm attacks then maybe you should step down as the leader!" He raised his arms in the air, "Hell, maybe I should be the leader! 'Cause I'm not gonna run from those damn monsters like you!"
Raven sneer deepened, "Questioning my courage, questioning my claim to the leadership of the tribe, is it a duel for that position you're looking for?"
"Aye, maybe it is."
"Then you're a fool, but so be it. I accept."
Even when he went to go get his weapons the so-called "duel" barely lasted more than seven seconds. Soon enough his head was parted from his shoulders in front of the crowd. Even if you're a part of a tribe of bandits, seeing one of your own being beheaded because of his apparent foolishness was something that did not feel right. I glanced around the crowd, seeing the different reactions of the people around me.
Oddly enough I could see a black haze forming over the heads of those present.
[You have gained the skill "Negativity Sense"!]
[Negativity Sense (Active/Passive) Lv1 EXP: 0.0%]
The ability to sense the negative emotions emitted by the people of the world. At lower levels it only allows for a vague sense of strong negativity, higher levels allow the user to sense specific negative emotions.
-Passively allows the user to sense strong negative emotions.
-When the skill is active, allows the user to see how strong the negative emotions of an area are.
-Cost: None.
Useful, I quickly used the new ability to see just how strong the negative emotions were. At first, I thought a tide of black mist had suddenly rolled into the camp, but I quickly figured out that that was the amount of negative emotions charged in the air. I don't know if that is a truly great amount, but it is good enough for me. So if that's the case then I can begin my plan to leave sooner than I thought, most of my time here was supposed to be spent getting Neo over to me side and slowly building tension in the camp. But Neo seems to want to leave already and negativity is spreading rapidly enough that my plans had accelerated without my knowledge.
"Disperse and calm your emotions, we do not need any more Grimm attacks," came Raven's command after she cleaned her sword of blood and resheathed it, she turned around and walked back to her tent without another word.
I stuck around a little bit longer and watched the crowd slowly disperse back into the rest of the camp. I could see the negative energy follow and spread through the camp as the bandits went back to their usual hang out spots. I eyed the various tents around the camp, it was time I began planning my leave.
Nighttime eventually rolled around and most everyone was sitting around a campfire, eating whatever the cooks made tonight. The typical boisterous laughter or loud conversations were not present tonight, most of the tribe members either kept to themselves or to a small clique. I had a feeling it was because of me that everyone was not having a fun time tonight, I had spent this week and the previous on a perfume spraying binge. At this point, I'm certain that at least every inch of this camp had been sprayed by the perfume at least once.
All the sneaking around that I did in camp and when I snuck into one of the tribe member's tent to spray them managed to make my Sneak skill level up much faster than it did back in Vale, sitting at a nice level thirty-eight. It's probably because my robberies there didn't really require me being super stealthy all the time.
I felt a tap on my shoulder and look down at Neo, she had been sitting next to me while we kept ourselves separated from everyone for most of the evening. She shoved the notepad I had given her into my face and forced me to read it.
What do you want for your future?
I blinked as I read the question, not really expecting one like this from Neo. I smiled anyway and looked down at my friend, "I want to mark my place in history as the most infamous thief in the world, Neo. Vale, Vacuo, Mistral, and even Atlas if I want to aim for something high, I want the world to know who I am as I take what I want. I want to live my life the way I want it to be, with nobody to pull my strings like a puppet to make me dance."
Neo seemed to think it over, smiled, then nodded. It seemed she approved.
"I also want to share that experience with somebody that I can call a partner."
Neo jerked her head to face me, surprise written on her. She tilted her head at me, asking me to elaborate.
"All that I said is great and all, but if I can't share that with someone I can trust then its a pretty lonely life, you know?" I started. I smiled down at Neo, "That's why I've been looking for someone to be my partner, somebody that I can trust and will have my back, and won't try and run it through. My dream for the future is a pretty tall order and I think it would be nice to have someone help me with it."
Neo pointed a finger up at her face as if asking "You mean me?".
I nodded, "I like you Neo, you're someone that I can consider a friend. You're someone that I trust, and I'd say we make a pretty good team together. So how about it? You want to ditch this place and come with me to Vale? I've already got myself a group waiting for my return."
Neo didn't even hesitate, she nodded her head and glared at the rest of the tribe, her eyes lingering on Raven's tent a bit longer. She looked up at me, and I could tell by her eyes that she wanted to know what to do next. So, I decided to tell her.
I held up a small remote-controlled firebomb.
"I have lots of these, I'm going to hide them around the camp tonight after everyone has gone to sleep. When the last has been set we'll meet up inside a tent a little bit away from all the other's, you know the one."
Neo looked at me, clearly a bit confused about why we'd go inside a tent when we're trying to escape.
I smiled reassuringly at her, "We're going to hide a bit while things get intense and then rob Raven blind, Neo. A final 'Fuck you!' as a parting gift."
Neo grinned brightly up at me, excited at the prospect of robbing Raven Branwen and sticking it, even a bit, to the woman who ruined her.
"Then, all we have to do is hop the camp fence and get the hell out of here. There is a car I parked in between some shady rocks near the road. We'll take that back to Sandyport where I have a ship docked." I occasionally checked up on the car that I stole to get here when I had some spare time, making sure that it still worked and nobody took it.
Neo nodded, she seemed fine that her part in the plan was to just wait for the right time.
I kicked back and took a drag from my cigar, going over which places need a bomb the most. While I could just spread as many bombs as I liked around the camp, I have more than enough to level this place since I enjoy overkill a lot, I'd prefer this to be tactical. I want to draw as much attention to one place as possible so that everyone is too busy focusing on what was going on in front of them and not notice the two of us making our escape.
The storage tent was the first obvious choice, followed by the gate and the more heavily populated side of the camp plus its wall. If the walls and gate were damaged they'd be focusing on those important parts too much to care about anything else.
Once the tribe slowly began to head to their tents for the night I looked down at Neo and nodded, she replied in the same way and went back to her tent as I headed back to mine. She'd wait there until everyone went to sleep, then head to the spot I picked for us to meet. It was an out of the way tent that was mostly used to hold spare weapon parts and kept out of the way from the rest of the camp because nobody wanted to smell the oil all day.
As I laid down on the floor of my tent I pulled out my scroll and checked the time, one in the morning. Only the night guards were awake at this time, and they were easy to avoid. I ducked through my tent flap and activated Sneak and Chameleon. I quickly made my way over to the storage tent, there was one guard there but he was asleep in a chair. I hurried past the guard and through the tent flaps, taking out one of the firebombs. I set two down next to some crates of Dust, considering how close the tent is to one of the walls, this was likely enough to punch a hole through it. The Dust in this tent would do most of the work anyway.
Heading out of the tent was as easy as getting in, my next destination was the more populated tent area of the camp. A few were placed and scattered amongst the tents and I put a few near a section of the wall. Hopefully, it should be enough to knock it a bit loose, these firebombs don't have as much force as a normal bomb does.
As I was about to head to the gate for the final touches I had another idea spark itself into my head. I pulled out the perfume and unscrewed the nozzle. If this thing can make people go from friendly to each other to make them want to beat each other to death just from slowly spraying it around the camp over a long period of time, then I had to know what just pouring it on the ground would do. I brought the perfume up and tilted it so that the entrance to the bottle faced the ground.
Slowly, ever so slowly, the viscous, black liquid oozed out of the bottle and puddled on the ground like maple syrup. It steamed upon contact with the ground and the black vapor briefly covered my sight.
[Gamer's Mind resisted the effects of "Eau de Grimm"!]
I activated my new skill Negativity Sense and saw the ambient negativity in the air skyrocket. I widened my eyes in surprise, perhaps I really should have been dumping it all at once instead of spraying it slowly. With that done I stashed the bottle back into my inventory and quickly made my way down to the gate through the cover of shadows. When I finally reached the gate I made note that the guards only protected the outside.
"Figures, they aren't exactly expecting one of their own betraying them," I thought to myself. "Still, it's an example of doing your duty poorly."
I placed a couple of firebombs on each side of the gate and quickly dashed away from it, I needed to get to the spot Neo and I are going to meet. I paused my movement as I heard distant howls and roars, that had to be the Grimm. Perhaps pouring that bottle of perfume had other side effects, it should've taken longer for it to have created enough negativity to trigger a Grimm attack.
I didn't want to count my blessings, a Grimm attack would be very useful right about now. The Grimm are good distraction tools if you know how to use them. Sadly, the howls and roars had woken people up and it became a little harder to sneak to the designated spot, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. I ducked through the tent flap and saw Neo already there, cleaning her weapon with some of the oil found in the tent. She smiled at me and then pointed outside and tilted her head.
"I've got everything set up and there is even a Grimm attack occurring, seems like as good a time as any to get things moving. You all set?"
Neo nodded.
I held up a remote and pushed the button in its center, "Good."
In the distance, I heard the explosions and the screams of shock and outrage. There were even the shrill cries of pain laced into the screams as well. We kept to ourselves for a few minutes in silence, waiting for the time to move. Once I deemed enough time had passed I poked my head out of the tent flap and gave the camp a once over. A good portion of it was burning and I saw a lot of bandits running around fighting Grimm or putting out fires.
Raven herself was even among those helping, her mask was on and it took me a second to realize that she had it on so she could hide the use of her Maiden powers. Clever, I'll give her that. Vernal was acting like she was the one controlling the weather, bringing snow and rain down on whatever was burning in front of them while Raven acted like she was telling Vernal what to do.
While all of this was going down I motioned to Neo to follow me, we snuck out of the tent and made a mad dash to Raven's tent. It was the same as when I had first entered it and Neo and I wasted no time taking whatever looked valuable. I began to make my way over to where I saw the metal chest, it was small but heavier than it looks. I quickly stuffed it into my inventory, I can break into it later.
Other than the metal chest and some expensive goodies Raven didn't have a whole lot inside her tent. Figures, I suppose. But we had a good enough haul and we didn't need to spend any more time here than necessary. Neo quickly cut a hole through the back of Raven's tent with her sword and, after I left a small calling card with a jack o'lantern on it, we wasted no time high tailing it out of the camp. I took a quick peek at the camp's situation before we finally descended below the wall, the small Grimm attack looked to have been fended off and they were just dealing with the last of the fires.
"We should hurry," I said. "Seems like they cleared the Grimm already and the fires are nearly out at this point."
Neo nodded and sped up, I managed to keep ahead of her and lead us on a mad sprint through the desert night. The run was boring and we didn't encounter any resistance beyond a few stray Grimm that got left behind from the main attack force. Those were taken care of easily enough by Neo and I and didn't even make us slow down in the slightest.
We finally made it to the rocks that I kept the car stashed and we were breathing heavily from the workout of running up and down sand dunes most of the night. I was glad about the cool, crisp desert night air after all of that running. Neo shoved her bag full of stolen goods into the backseat of the car as I pulled myself into the driver's seat and turned the key. The car rumbled into life and once Neo joined me in the front I shifted the car into drive and slammed my foot on the pedal. The car fought briefly for purchase on a sandy part of the ground, then it found its purchase and soon Neo and I were driving down the road, scot free.
It wasn't all that exciting of an escape, to be honest. There were no epic duels between people who were once allies, no grand declarations of eternal hate, not even an exciting car chase as we made our way away from the bandit tribe. In a way I was both relieved and disappointed at the same time with this outcome, perhaps I'm some sort of adrenaline junkie who needs to have that exciting moment to get my blood pumping.
[You are now Abhorred with "The Branwen Tribe"!]
[Raven Branwen now has a personal grudge against you!]
Seems that Raven found my calling card and realized that Neo and I were not in the camp any more. I smirked to myself, maybe I'll get that blood pumping moment some other day since Raven apparently has a grudge against me. For now, I should just get Neo and I back on my ship and into Vale. I glanced over at my new partner and called out to her, "Hey, Neo."
She looked over at me, curious.
"When we get to Vale, we're going to have to get you some new clothes."
She looked down at her clothes and nodded her head in agreement.
"And a new weapon too, I know a guy that does good work."
She looked at me with an eyebrow raised and pointed at her sword.
I sighed, "That thing is dirt cheap and something I'd expect some no-named mook to carry. If you want to fight tougher opponents or just not have it break in the middle of a fight then you need something of high quality. Plus, it'll make you look good and style is important!" Neo seemed to think it over before reluctantly nodding her head in agreement.
We have a lot of work to do for the future, and we need to look our best when we do it.
[Quest Finished!]
One scoop, or two?
What's a master criminal without his true partner in crime? Going lone wolf will only take you so far in this industry. But, unfortunately, you have no idea where this prospective partner of yours is. For now, you will just have to wait for Junior to come up with something.
It seems Junior has pulled through for you and presented you with the location of this partner you so desperately want. It's too bad she's stuck with a bunch of brutish bandits, isn't it?
Quest Progression:
-Commission Junior for his services in finding information. [X]
-Wait until Junior contacts you about the information he found. [X]
-Go to Junior's club at the time he tells you to. [X]
-Find your way to the last known location of the bandits. [X]
-Complete sidequest "Banditry" [X]
-Bring Neo to your side and escape the Branwen Tribe. [X]
Reward: 100,000 Lien, 1,000,000 EXP, new title "Partners in Crime", a new follower, storyline progression.
[You have gained 8 levels!]
(A/N) And we finally have Neo on board. Bit of an anticlimactic ending there eh?
Name: Roman Torchwick
Age: 25
Class: The Gamer
Level: 56 (Next Level: 98,980/153,000)
Title: Kingpin
Bounty: 38,000 Lien
HP: 3,556
HP Regen: 71.12/min (2%)
MP: 6,553 [4,228 + 211.4(5%) + 2,114(50%)]
MP Regen: 688/min [327.7(base 5%) + 327.7(100%) + (32.8(10%)]
STR: 65.8 [Base 47 + 14.1(30%) + 4.7(10%)]
VIT: 75.6 [Base 54 + 16.2(30%) + 5.4(10%)]
DEX: 164 [Base 80 + 12(15%) + 24(30%) + 8(10%) + 40(50%)]
INT: 142.8 [Base 102 + 30.6(30%) + 10.2(10%)]
WIS: 56 [Base 40 + 12(30%) + 4(10%)]
LUK: 43
Elemental Affinity: Earth (10), Wind (10), Fire (10), Ice (10), Lightning (10)
Attribute Points: 100
Lien: 2,492,620
Status Effects: Inactive Aura(Toggled Off)