Chapter Six. Growing Circle
“What do you mean you can’t sell me a new sword?” Connor asked
“I’m sorry bud, but you aren’t of Castelian descent. You also don’t have a last name, suggesting that you were a criminal at one point. After all, why else would your family disown you?” The smith calmly answered, seemingly having had this conversation with many others. “Why don’t you talk to the metalworker about an apprenticeship? Old Mabel could use the help now that she’s gotten older.”
“I was born to swing a sword, not forge one.” Connor answered, sighing. “Thanks for the suggestion though.”
Connor walked out onto the busy streets of Summer Hold. It was a bright sunny day, perfect for a picnic or fishing.
…If you had the money to afford either of those of course.
Connor didn’t have the money. His sword had shattered in the fight against the bandits, meaning that his main weapon was gone for the time being. He could always use his bow, dagger, or magic. But he was significantly less proficient with those weapons than he was with a sword. Which meant that he wasn’t doing as many high-paying jobs, meaning that he didn’t have as much income as he used to.
Lets take a look at the ol’ bounty board then. Connor thought.
As he walked to the bounty board, he overheard a couple of bounty hunters talking.
“Man, there just doesn’t seem to be any easy jobs anymore. It’s all hunting dark wizards, or notorious villains.” One of them remarked.
“Yeah, supposedly all the super strong criminals came in and either recruited the weaker ones, or killed them.” the other answered.
Stepping up to the bounty board, Connor had a look at the jobs. Sure enough, there weren’t any simple protection or delivery jobs. Connor continued scanning the board when a specific job caught his eye.
Wanted: dead. Argen the “undefeated”,
Argen was last seen to the south of Ashen Volcano.
They are wanted for many crimes including but not limited to:
Theft, Murder, Arson, and Kidnapping (an extra reward will be
given if the captives are liberated.)
The MC has declared that Argen should be shown no mercy
as his crimes have escalated to the point of no forgiveness.
Reward: 200 crowns
“My fucking god…” Connor muttered to himself.
Assassination jobs from the MC were extremely rare, since they liked to have a trial for the criminal before they were executed. “This Argen guy must have really annoyed the magic council for them to order his death, and slap a substantial reward on top of that.” Connor remarked.
Connor grabbed the paper. He might just be able to pull this off.
Two Hours later. Connor found the dark wizard’s hideout. It seemed to be a large cave carved into the side of the ashen volcano. Connor drew his dagger and sidled up to the side of the entrance. He could hear faint mutterings and crying coming from inside the cave. Connor silently entered the cave.
As he peaked around the corner, Connor saw a dark wizard clad in orange robes reading a book on their desk. At the other end of the room, six people dressed in rags were mining out the interior of the cave. Every once in awhile, the dark wizard would pick up a whip from the desk and lash one of the slaves. When the whip hit, the flesh of the impact site started to hiss and bubble. There appeared to be some kind of acid on the whip.
Connor ducked back behind the wall, mind racing. A plan started to form inside his head.
Connor jumped out from behind the wall and shot a blast of lightning at Argen’s desk. Argen heard the lightning and immediately assumed a defensive position, but Argen wasn’t Connor’s target. The whip was blasted to the other end of the room by the lightning. Getting hit by that thing would hurt.
Argen summoned a light magic circle. Connor braced for the beam. He grunted in pain as the beam of light burned him. Connor fired a blast of lightning in response. As Argen stumbled back from the blast, Connor started to gather his power. Lightning started arcing around Connor, gathering in strength until it burst towards Connor. When the flash of light was gone, Connor stood there cloaked in lightning.
Connor dashed forward faster than any human should have been able to move and punched Argen 30 times in the span of 5 seconds before lightning-blasting him into the wall. Connor’s power started to fade. He stumbled against a wall as Argen started to get up.
“cough… You… Fool!” Argen said in a raspy voice, walking towards Connor “Everyone knows that using a mode spell like that can strain your body! Now… You’ll PAY for your-”
THWACK
Argen fell to the floor, a pickaxe sticking out of the back of his head. One of the slaves had snuck up behind him and finished him off.
“Heh… thanks…” Connor said. “Mind if I sit here for awhile?”
“Aye, take your time. Thank you for freeing us.” she said “The name’s Emily Barion, I was a miner by trade. That asshat said he had a job for me. He didn’t say that he wasn’t going to pay me. He also didn’t mention that he was going to keep me as a slave. I suspect that these other people fell victim to the same trap.”
“What an asshole… Are you all miners?” Connor asked
“Nope” A man behind Emily said “My name is Thomas , I am a novice chef who was looking for a job to hone my skills. Jimmy Auburn over there is a brewer. His brother, Oscar, is an architect. Luneth Calding and Salvadore Cole are wizards, but they were put in anti-magic shackles along with Oscar. Oscar uses earth magic to assist in construction you see.”
“I see, well its a pleasure to meet all of you.” Connor said “My name is Connor. I’m a bounty hunter, and part time guild leader. Heh, you should see the reward for that guy’s head. 200 crowns for the corpse and a bigger reward if I freed all of you.”
The ex-slaves suddenly looked suspicious “Connor… Who?” Emily asked
“Ah shit, not this again.” Connor said “Look, my parents were dickheads who refused the idea of a son who failed to meet up to their unreasonable expectations. So they got rid of that son. End of story. If you simply must have your curiosity sated then we can go to a MC base and have them look me up.”
“Very well then.” Emily said, grabbing a crossbow from the corner of the room. “Start walking.”
“Fucks sake, let me decapitate the corpse first so that I can collect the bounty” Connor responded as he got up.
Salvadore proceeded to toss the head at Connor, who caught it.
“Okay… Thanks I guess” Connor said.
Four hours later. The “group” walked into the silent tower. Connor walked up to the commissioner at the desk, who raised an eyebrow at the sight of a man being held at crossbow point.
“Hey uh, I’m here to collect the bounty on Argen the undefeated.” he said with a smile as he deposited the head on the table. “And these people behind me are the people that he kidnapped”
“Care to explain why they are currently pointing a crossbow at you?” the commissioner asked
“Ah, yeah about that. Could you please look up the name ‘Connor Nimbus’ in your record and confirm that there were no allegations against them?”
With a confused look, the commissioner complied.
“No confirmed allegations aside from unauthorized lethal force in bounty hunting, the fines were docked from his pay as is standard protocol. He was supposedly disowned from his family due to an inability to use magic at the time. Though, further questioning from Captain Rose Silver revealed that he had, in fact, learned to use magic between the time he was disowned and the time of questioning. Happy now?”
“Yes, thank you.” Emily said as she stepped forward. “We were captured by Argen before he staged a… rough rescue.”
“Haha… Now about that reward.” Connor said
“Of course, 200 crowns for killing Argen and the deed to a property north of Summer Hold.” The commissioner said with a bored face as he handed over the rewards.
“…Deed to a property?” Connor asked
“Yeah, its an old rundown estate that’s barely standing. Frankly, the land is more valuable than the house itself.” The commissioner remarked
“Okay… I guess I could have a look at it. Thank you.” Connor said,
Connor turned to leave, but something stopped him. He remembered something about the Crimson Circle.
“Say…” He said, turning towards the newly liberated workers. “How would you like to join the Crimson Circle? We were formed on the premise of helping people reach their full potential in the profession of their choosing, and it seems you guys could use some jobs… So waddya say?”
They looked at him in shock. Usually only specialized guilds would take craftsmen as guild members. Even fewer would take wizards as well.
After some deliberation amongst themselves, they had an answer.
“We accept, but those of us who aren’t Castelian need a place to stay until the estate is up and running.” Emily answered for a group
“Leave it to me. I can pay for rooms at the inn for about a month because of my sudden influx of wealth.” Connor said with a smile.
A couple of hours later, the group arrived at the town square. It was starting to get dark outside.
“We’ll need to get you guys some uniforms soon…” Connor said “But that can wait for a bit. Until then, those of you who have homes here should head in for the night. Those of you who don’t, come with me. We’ll get you set up at the inn. We’ll meet here after noon tomorrow.”
The group split off. Connor and the rest who didn’t own a house in the city made their way to the inn.
Connor pushed through the door. He spotted Jeremy and Rose sitting at a table in the corner, they probably wanted to ask him more questions.
With a groan, Connor said “Take this money and get yourselves some rooms. I have some unfinished business to take care of.”
Connor walked up to the bar and ordered a drink. He brought his drink to the table Jeremy and Rose were sitting at and said “Alright, what do you want?”
end of chapter six
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