How to Steal from a Fantasy Deathworld - Chapter 10 (Patreon)

Author's note: Readers who have not read chapter 10+ yet, please skip this author's note, you're already up to date!

This is a rewrite, I've moved to compress events together so that we get out of the solo-Wade arc faster.

Patch notes: 1.0.1 -

• New blurb was made for the title, making sure people know this is a litRPG extraction style adventure, with Wade diving into this deathworld, getting loot, coming out alive and selling it for a profit on earth each night. Shenanigans happens on both worlds.

• New quests were added so that readers know more immediately what's the main goal:

New Regional Quest: The keys to the city - Find and attune to a master wardkey rune. Rewards: Free passage within Nathir Shelter-Cities.

New Regional Quest: A grim fate for all - Locate all 23 players within the local region, or their remains. Rewards: Possible allies.

• Character motivations have been updated - Wade's little sister Julie was also in the car ride where they all got run off the road, and she's got the bigger blunt of the damage. She's the architect and civil engineer who was on the track to being an expert until her career was cut short by the car accident Wade inadvertently set into motion. (We do need someone who can design buildings and a small city for the future ;] ) Jason is in a wheelchair and still needs physical training sessions each week, but he can still do things. Wade isn't just trying to help heal his best friend, but also his real family too.

  • Under the hood: I think this is more immediately understandable to people on why Wade really doesn't want to miss work, and he can't just stay in Azdrial here when people depend on him. (And I don't have the wordspace to fit in an interlude to show who Jason is this early on and actually make a connection here. Family is easier to immediately understand on the other hand)

• Added more mentions on how Wade's mania is hyper focusing on getting money. Sure, there's a ton of skeletons after him right now and he's in a very strange and weird world with actual magic— but this is all free time he could have been using for that sweet sweet overtime pay. Priorities people.

Most of this chapter is unchanged, except for the ending, so if you've already read this, jump to the bottom instead and go from there.

Anyhow, back to the show!

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Everything in this world just wanted to kill Wade, and he had no idea what he'd done to deserve this.

He was even willing to let the weasel eat it's meal in peace, but no, it choose violence.

Then again, it was a weasel. A weasel. Wade had seen enough animal documentaries to know better. Those cute furry little animals were born killing machines on the level of cats.

He stumbled back, nearly tripping over the stool behind him. The weasel's movements were impossible to track - it darted side to side like a living shadow. He lunged out with his own stool, and the little creature darted out of the way immediately. Then lunged after Wade. By instinct, and wanting to stay as far away as possible, he tried to stomp at it. The weasel saw that coming, and dove backwards, circling on itself to once again bare it's teeth at him.

It lunged again.

"Get away! Get!" He stomped and flailed with his stool again, but the creature flowed away like water, even jumping between the stool legs. Another stomp, another miss. The thing must be playing with him, testing his defenses or something. Darting in and out. Forcing him to take step after step back. Getting closer and closer to him. Like the world's most demented ten inch monster.

He'd just narrowly avoided being killed by a skeleton, was he going to get his throat ripped out by a goddamn weasel? That just seemed like a funny prank.

His back hit the table and it caused him to stumble with a flare of pain from his left hip. Suddenly, none of this felt like a funny prank.

The weasel lunged. Wade kicked out desperately. His heel caught nothing but air as the creature kicked off to the right, avoiding Wade's leg.

It dove at him. Sharp claws dug into his pants leg, taking grip. Before he could understand what was going on, the weasel was already sprinting up his leg. He yelled, jumping up and away, trying to shake it off, but the creature was racing straight for his throat and hadn't slowed it down for a moment.

Wade's hand let go of the stool and tried to sweep the weasel off of him, just as the monster passed his chest. His fumble worked, he caught the animal mid-sweep. The weasel adjusted, biting his arm instead. Teeth sank deep and pain ripped through his nerves. Wade ate the curse in his mouth, trying not to scream out and make more noise.

A new debuff was applied: Blackrot.

New Personal quest: There can be only one - Eliminate, purge or dominate the Blackrot entity in your body. Reward: One storefront coin. Continued control over your body.

The texts would have been good information to Wade, if he had the presence to read them. Right now, he felt like he'd just attached a bear trap on his arm. The jaws constricted on his arm, gnawing at him, trying to shake it's head and rip skin off.

"Son of a-" He stifled down a grunt of pain, and swung the weasel around, but the thing's jaws clenched harder, holding tight against the centripetal force. Wade finally screamed a few times in blind panic, and slammed his arm against the stone wall.

Level 4 Blackrot weasel - 94%

The weasel equally slammed into the wall but held on, those black-tinged teeth grinding deeper, feet and paws frantically scratching at him, growling with angry squeaks exactly like he'd expect a feral animal to behave. Blood trickled down his arm, dark and wrong-looking. Motes of black dust started to float from his wound.

He clubbed the weasel against the wall again, and again. But the rabid thing didn't let go. Neither did it take much damage from that. Finally, he crushed it up against the wall, pinning it as it mauled his arm harder.

All of this had been instinct and reflex so far, with only a few seconds of actual combat against the monster. But now with the weasel occupied trying to eat his arm, Wade could think for a second.

He had a dagger. And he had the weasel pinned against the rock.

So he drew it out of his pant belt, and shanked the feral thing, right in the gut.

Level 4 Blackrot weasel - 74%

For once in this entire messed up adventure, Wade actually did significant damage to something. The health bar went straight down. The weasel gave a muffled shriek but still didn't let go of his arm, thrashing harder instead. Wade stabbed again. The monster gave another shriek, jaws opening up, wiggling out of the way of his follow-up third shank.

Maybe any other animal in nature would have decided to escape by now, but the weasel was built like a psychopath, and decided it wasn't going to back down until one of them was dead.

Like a viper, it scurried on top of his arm somehow, moving too fast for Wade to really understand what was going on. All he knew is that it was rushing right for his throat again, absolutely obsessed.

Reflex made him back away with a shrill scream, hands thrown high up. Jaws that should have found Wade's throat ended up getting stuffed by his bicep as his blind panic miraculously saved him.

The weasel hadn't wanted the bicep, but it wasn't picky either as it once more started gnawing and shredding through his work shirt, skin and muscle.

Wade immediately shoulder checked the animal back into the wall, using his full weight to crush the tiny thing with every bit of strength he had. It squealed in pain, health bar dropping down a bit more - but still did not let him go, tripling down on biting the shit out of Wade.

He leveled his dagger at the weasel's exposed face while it growled and thrashed. It was more difficult than he thought, if he stabbed the thing in the head, he could easily puncture through and stab himself.

Teeth were sinking deeper into him, and he could feel the little menace ripping through his muscles, forcing him to just commit to something, anything, and kill the bastard.

So he stabbed the weasel's back. That was the easiest target, and much easier to hit.

The creature's jaws let go with another shriek and it finally dropped to the floor. Stunned for only a half second before it began to thrash around.

Level 4 Blackrot weasel - 29%

Wade didn't trust it would die on it's own in peace, the weasel had proved itself the single most bloodthirsty little beast he'd ever seen in his life. No mercy.

He was fairly sure just one stab through a normal earth weasel would have killed it beyond reasonable doubt. But this bastard tanked three stabs and was already lunging out after him. Fortunately, movements were sluggish enough Wade could jump away in time. Still dangerous, but no longer the liquid-fast precise motions it had when it was dodging all of his stomps.

Blood matted its side where he'd stabbed it, as much as he could tell from the buzzing dust of black around it. There was far more of the dust now, all of it coming from the blood pooling under the feral rodent.

The dagger was too dangerous. If he missed with his blade, his face would be way too close, and for whatever reason the weasel seemed to know exactly where his throat was at all times. So Wade had to stomp the monster to death with his heel.

It leaped to the right, then back at him, managing to catch his pant leg again. He yanked back, fabric tearing, and kicked hard. He caught the angry weasel in the stomach, ripping it off his pants. It was sent flying into the wall where it collided with a sick crunch, and rolled back down.

Level 4 Blackrot weasel - 23%

Still thrashing around and still very much not dead. Wade grabbed a stool, raced forward and swung like he'd been carrying a metal bat, aiming for the head.

The weasel dodged death's door, back on its feet, rushing away from Wade for the first time, scurrying to the other side of the table. Finally, it seemed to have decided it's full on obsessive commitment wasn't giving results.

An uneasy truce came down between the two of them. He could feel his body crashing through the exertion of the past half hour. That single point he'd added was already carrying him through this fight.

Identify.

He started with himself.

Level 4 Human - 83%

Not great, but looking down at his mauled arm, that made some sense. On the other hand…

Level 4 Blackrot weasel - 24%

The weasel's health bar had jumped up by one percent. The weasel was healing.

"What the fuck?" Wade whispered out. "I stabbed you three times. THREE TIMES."

How was it healing from that? How was it still running around for that matter?

The weasel simply hissed back in answer. And then abruptly stopped. The head turned to the right, then back to Wade, and back right again.

Without another sound, it turned to to the tunnel it'd come from, and ran.

First thing that came out of Wade was a sigh of deep relief. Whatever this feral thing was, it at least was going to leave him alone.

Then he heard sound from behind him, down the tunnel he'd crawled in from: The sound of a trapdoor being ripped open.

The weasel's departure made a lot more sense in hindsight.

The noises of the fight must have drawn the skeletons to here. More than just found, it was currently being ripped apart given the sounds.

"Shit shit shit." Wade kept his hands on the heavy metal stool, then decided to just leave it behind. That was a small army of skeletons, and the metal stool would slow him down. If the skeletons caught up to him, the stool was next to useless. He needed to run fast, and not trip.

 His hands flew to the lantern instead, yanking it off the table. The quartz crystal inside pulsed with that strange inner light, and he prayed it wouldn't die on him in the darkness ahead.

In a semi-hilarious twist of irony, his chewed up arm was feeling a lot better than the rest of his tired body so far. Better than just okay, the pain hadn't hit at all through the adrenaline, and he still felt like he could move the arm as normal. It was holding his lantern without any issue and he hadn't thought to question that till now.

He put all those thoughts aside. Right now, he had to run. He turned to the staircases, and stopped one foot in that direction. It could lead out of here, sure. But it could also just be a side storage room or something. A dead end.

Some part of his gut felt it would be a bad idea to go up the stairs. He turned to look at the tunnel the weasel had left through.

The weasel wouldn't have gone down that way if it was a dead end. But it could also only have a hole large enough for the weasel to squeeze through. Except… The ground was covered in mats out in that direction, looking to have had the rough natural edges picked at. The ceiling and sides of it also showed tool usage to smooth it out or at least eliminate the jagged rocks that could hurt people passing through. Small quality of life work. It meant this tunnel had seen foot traffic.

Behind him, the sounds of pursuit started, hollow echoes of skeletal feet against stone. He wouldn't have time to backtrack. Between the staircase possible exit or this tunnel, Wade decided he'd follow behind the world's angriest weasel. Whatever it was, it was a survivor down here and knew the lay of the land better than he did. He gritted his teeth and started running down the tunnel.

Mild pain shot through his left leg immediately, but nothing it it had used to be. He could run normally without limping.

The tunnel curved sharply left, and Wade's socks splashed into something wet. The rough-hewn walls gave way to stonework, ancient bricks stacked in neat rows that disappeared into darkness. The ceiling rose way higher, and the cramped mining tunnel turned into a much larger passage.

Wade lifted the lantern higher. The glow revealed a shallow channel of clear water running down the center of the tunnel, with giant walkways on either side. Oh thank god, actual infrastructure. Far above, metal grates in the ceiling let in thin shafts of light that cut through the gloom. He couldn't see what was up there, only that the lights were the same low golden glow as his lantern. But if there were grating up there, and smooth water-filled tunnels down here…

Okay, sewers. Sewers are good. Sewers mean civilization. 

From somewhere ahead, sounds of life echoed back. Not skeleton sounds. He heard voices.

Human voices. English. Muffled in the distance. He looked down the tunnel and saw a distant light. Moving to a beat of walking.

He'd finally found people.

And he was dragging a horde of skeletons right into them.