HH 9 - Slaves and Gold

Gully’s eyebrows went up as he looked at the pile of keys, greed glinting in his eyes.

“Okay, that’s interesting,” the demon said. He drummed his claws against the table. “It won’t take long for demons to remember you have those, and everyone heard your deal with Lord Bythraxomonius. I bet half of the owners are changing their locks right now.”

“That just means this is time-sensitive.”

“Those keys are also worthless to you,” said Gully. “You don’t have any way to take advantage of them.”

“Are you already trying to negotiate me down?” asked Castor. “At least make an offer first.”

“I’ll give you…” Gully trailed off as he thought. Then, he smiled widely and gestured around his own vault. “One item of your choice from within these walls.”

Castor glanced around the space, measuring how useful a single item from within might be. “Ten of my choosing,” said Castor.

“Ten?” said Gully with a steamy snort. “Do you know what I’ll have to invest to even make it inside another demon’s suite without them knowing? What kind of risk I’d be taking to break into their vault, even with the key?”

“Like you’re planning to go yourself,” said Castor. “I’m sure you’ve got a horde of disposable underlings better suited for infiltration, or other buyers who would take the key at little risk to you.”

Gully chuckled. “Yeah, yeah. You know, you’re not terrible at this,” he said, voice low. “What was the other class you got offered? The one between [Demonic Berserker] and [Handyman]?”

“What’s that information worth to you?”

Gully rolled several of his eyes. He reached behind himself and pulled out an unopened bottle of the Unicorn-blood whiskey. He slid it across the table and Castor caught it, turning it around to study the bottle. Unsurprisingly, it had a bleeding Unicorn on the label.

“That’s worth ten gold a bottle,” said Gully. “And you can only buy it in demon lands.”

Castor took another sip from his glass, evaluating the liquor. He tucked the bottle into his bag. “It was called [Underlord].”

“You lucky bitch,” said Gully, leaning forward. “You got offered a legendary class?”

“I did.”

“And you picked [Handyman].”

“I did.”

“Charisma class,” Gully muttered with disgust. “Makes sense.” He took a breath and held up two fingers. “Two items.”

“I could always trade them back to Lord Bythrax.”

“Lord Bythraxomonius cannot steal from his minions,” said Gully. “He couldn’t use them.”

“I’m sure the lord can find an excuse to levy a tax, though. Especially with the forces of light marching to his doorstep. When’s the last time your vault was audited?”

“Fuck off,” said Gully. “Three. Three items of your choice from this vault.” He thought for another moment. “And ten slaves.”

Castor frowned and was about to refuse the slaves outright, but hesitated. “Slaves with soul writs?”

Gully gave a low growl. “Sure,” he said.

“And you’ll bind the writs to me, along with signing over the slaves?”

“Ugh, yes. I get it, no demonic bargains, no monkey’s paw agreements. I won’t fuck you and you won’t fuck me. Our deals are platonic as shit, so yes, you’ll get the contracts and the slaves. They’ll be decent slaves too, ones with some mileage left.”

Castor gave this one some serious thought. Three items from Gully’s vault was an incredible gain. As far as the slaves, Castor had no desire to own them, and wasn’t really considering them as part of the price. Still, Gully had offered, and Castor had no reason to negotiate the demon back down.

Most of the mortal slaves in Lord Bythrax’s domain were slaves for the entirety of their mortal lives. Once they passed on, their souls went wherever the gods willed. The demons got most of them from nearby human kingdoms, and most of those were–allegedly–heinous criminals. Killers, rapists, and repeat offenders. Castor didn’t know how much he bought into that, especially when the nobility of those kingdoms got wealth and favors in exchange. Still, for those slaves, there was an end to their suffering.

Slaves with soul writs, however, were bound for eternity. They’d be worked hard until death, and then their immortal soul would be captured and used by the demons. Necromancy, self-aware items, perpetual-suffering devices, succubus candy, the demons had many uses for eternal souls and they were a pillar of the demonic economy. Ten soulbound slaves, along with their writs, was a substantial windfall for almost any demon. For Castor, it was worth very little. 

To the slaves whose souls were at risk, it was worth everything.

“Deal,” said Castor. “Three items of my choosing and ten bound slaves along with their writs. No demon fuckery.”

Castor would have been happy to hand Gully the keys for free, just to stir up as much chaos as he could after he left. Three items and the slaves were just gravy, but Gully didn’t need to know that.

Castor pulled out the keys and began dropping them onto the table. There were hundreds of vault keys, from demons who were only minorly wealthy, to demons with ten times the assets Gully had.

“I’m making you a lot of money today,” said Castor as he pulled out the final few keys.

Gul’thraxis made a sound that was much too sensual for Castor’s liking. The human sometimes wondered whether Gully were truly a Wrath Demon. 

“I’ll be getting a bigger suite, that’s for sure,” the demon said. He jerked his head towards the shelves. “Pick your items. Take your time, but also remember that we’re on the clock.”

Castor didn’t need to be told twice, and he didn’t need much time to go through Gully’s treasures. He pulled out his notepad, turned it to page 23,709, and started running down the list. 

He paused before getting into the process to go ahead and slot Reconnaissance. With an improved Inspect ability, Castor figured he would be better able to judge the worth of the various items.

Reconnaissance - Level 100

Reconnaissance is your ability to scout ahead, notice hidden entities like stealthed enemies and traps, and determine the location of your objectives. Additionally, Reconnaissance governs the efficacy of Inspect and your ability to avoid the Inspect skill of others.

Castor noted that Recon wouldn’t allow his status to display outright false information, it was limited to blocking or truncating the information available. Recon would ensure that [Eternal Handyman] would display as [Handyman], but if Castor wanted to become something completely different, like a [Coachman], he’d need to pick up Subterfuge.

Subterfuge would start at Level 7. Castor wasn’t a particularly deceptive person, so he gave that one a pass.

His Reconnaissance evolutions were chosen thusly:

Add an additional +(Reconnaissance Level) to the difficulty of seeing your full class and Level using Inspect. (Level 10)

Add an additional +(Reconnaissance Level) to your attempts at seeing the true class and Level of others using Inspect. (Level 20)

Inspect will now show an entity's highest and lowest stat. (Level 40)

Reconnaissance is added to your Wisdom when determining the distance from which you can Inspect an entity (Currently: 125 feet). (Level 70)

Your Darkvision range is extended by (Wisdom plus Reconnaissance) feet. If any entity enters or moves through your Darkvision range, you become aware of its approximate location, so long as you would be able to see and Inspect that entity if you were looking directly at it (Current Darkvision range: 150 feet). (Level 100)

Castor shot a quick Inspect at Gully to test the skill out.

Gul’thraxis

[Elite Demonic Berserker] - Level 784

Highest attribute: Strength

Lowest Attribute: Intelligence

“[Elite Demonic Berserker]?” asked Castor.

Gully shrugged. “That’s what it says, right?” 

If Gully had taken his own advice, the Wrath Demon could have a Recon skill that was several hundred Levels higher than Castor’s own. He probably couldn’t trust what the skill said for anyone over Level 100.

Castor moved on and walked to the treasure pile in the middle of the room to poke through it, making sure there was nothing special he hadn’t yet catalogued. There were a few interesting things, but nothing that stood out.

Castor’s first pick was an Infinite Backpack. His toolbox was great, but he needed somewhere to keep all his other stuff. Gully looked at the backpack longingly, but Castor ignored the demon’s antics. He checked and found that it had a few items already inside, which he pulled out and placed beside the pile in the middle of the room. Gully grunted appreciatively.

“No fuckery,” Castor said as he put down the last item from within the pack. It was a suede bag that always contained the exact dildo the person reaching into it was looking for. Castor wiped his hand on his overalls after letting it go and moved on.

The second item he picked was a Shadow Cloak of Acrobatics. It improved jump height, coordination, and movement speed, while also providing adaptive camouflage. Gully nodded at the choice, seeming to find respectable, but not something that hurt him much to lose.

Castor had a more difficult time with his third pick. He hovered by the Mimic chest that contained the class stone, feeling a desire to take it that he didn’t understand. After a minute of consideration, Gully chimed in.

“Thinking about the stone?” he asked. Castor grunted an affirmation. “I told you you could pick anything, so I won’t stop you, but the stone is fucking with your head.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s a demonic class stone. It wants to be out in the world, so it can get people to pick demonic classes.”

“Is it… sentient?” asked Castor.

“Nah. It’s a conditional Spiritual enchantment. It connects with people who have the ability to take it somewhere new and creates an inexplicable allure.”

“I see,” said Castor, still standing by the chest.

“Look, if you don’t believe me, what would you do with it if you took it? You can’t use the same class stone twice, so if you want to respec, you’ll have to find a different stone.”

“You said you can charge people to use it.”

“Yeah, because I have the power to let people know I have it and still keep it,” said Gully. “If you want to use it for income, you’re gonna have to invite people to use it. At your Level, even if you’re the second coming of Hy’draphonix the Dominator, you won’t have that thing a week before somebody busts you up and runs off with it. Besides, once it’s out of charges, it’s useless to you.”

“Maybe,” said Castor. There was something else there. Gully’s claims about classes becoming rarer bothered Castor, though he couldn’t say why. It was true he didn’t have much use for the stone. It would likely paint a target on his back like Gully was saying, but having a class stone felt right to Castor.

But not this class stone. Spreading demonic classes around wasn’t something he was keen to do, so with great effort, he pulled back from the chest.

“Can I make a suggestion?” asked Gully. Castor kept looking around the room, but nodded. Gully went to a shelf and pulled down a small box from the top, then went to his pile of unsorted loot and pulled out a scroll case. He set them down on the table, and Castor went over to see what the demon was trying to push on him.

The first was an amulet, the second was a map.

“Two options,” said Gully. 

He held up a pendant. There was a silver loop hanging from the chain with a diamond floating at its center. When Castor leaned in, he saw an eye in the middle of the stone. It blinked. 

“Amulet of Spying,” said Gully. “It lets you see from anywhere within a number of feet of you equal to your Wisdom. You can see who’s coming up behind you, get a bird’s eye view of your location, it even works through walls and other non-magical barriers. Good for checking in on the ladies,” he said with several winks.

Gul’thraxis flipped a small catch on the side of the scroll case and a small chain came loose, with a knob of wood at the end. He pulled the chain and a map unrolled from the side of the case. Castor had checked on this one earlier in his search, though he didn’t notice that the map could be pulled out in such a way. It made it more convenient, but Castor still didn’t see its use.

Castle Map of [Demon Lord] Bythraxomonius’s Domain

“It’s a map of the castle,” said Castor. “How is this useful for me?”

“It’s a map of the castle right now,” said Gully. He shared the item text with Castor, who looked over a description completely different from the one he’d seen when he identified the item himself.

Map of Finding

This map automagically adapts its contents to the area within 100 miles of the user, displaying all major landmarks and terrain features commonly found on maps of the region. Additionally, the map will include various points of interest that are otherwise hidden, unknown, or valuable.

This map’s description will present as a map of the local area when inspected by anyone other than the owner.

“You’re gonna be traveling,” said Gully. “And you haven’t been outside the fortress in millenia. You need to know what’s out there, and this’ll tell you.”

Castor had to admit that the item was useful. It might also serve the function of allowing him additional income if he needed it, by hunting down “valuable points of interest”. 

The amulet was also nice, but Castor wasn’t interested in spying. Its uses for exploration and checking one’s surroundings were good, but the map would serve him better, at least in the short term. He did a final check of his list, then gave in.

“All right I’ll take the map,” he said.

“These are good selections,” said Gully. “No requirements on any of them, and they’ll all continue to be useful for a long time.”

“Requirements?”

“A lot of items have attribute requirements. Especially items that modify your abilities or give you new ones. Storage items like the backpack usually don’t, since the magic is bound to the item. It doesn’t use your mana core to work. The cloak is an exception since it’s what’s called an ‘Evolving’ item. Its effects improve as you level, so its requirements always match your attributes. It won’t ever be as powerful as a high-quality enchanted cloak that matches your stats, but you’ll also never need to replace it.”

“Hmm,” Castor hummed, thinking that over. “I guess that does it, then.”

“Good. Let’s head to the bank. Actually, let’s get your slaves first.” There was a pep in Gully’s step as the pair exited the vault. “Mmmm, slaves and gold. Always a good day when there’s slaves and gold.”

The Wrath Demon made a little song out of his love of slaves and gold, escorting Castor to the pens where he’d pick out Castor’s ten new slaves and sign over their soul writs. Gully made recommendations, then offered to let Castor choose between a group of twenty. Castor wasn’t interested in deciding anyone’s fate, so he tore up a page from his notebook, assigned the slaves numbers, and drew from his hat, making the process as random as he could.

Once done, the pair had a soulbound entourage as they headed to the bank, where Castor was intercepted by a smartly dressed, female Greed Demon who served as the branch manager. She whisked him away to a heavily warded meeting room. The manager had Castor confirm through the System the function of the wards, and impressed upon him how their bank was more honest and secure than any other bank in the world, due to their unique clientele. 

When half your clients are backstabbing, treacherous, ancient, and legally sophisticated hellspawn, a business that is anything less than immeasurably fair-dealing will not survive for long. Castor interviewed the manager at length, and was provided every scrap of proof he could imagine to confirm the demon’s claims. By the end of his due diligence, Castor believed the unassuming demon well enough to start talking about his account.

“How much is in my account?” asked Castor.

“Your present balance is 34,972 gold and 10 silver,” she replied. 

Castor kept his expression carefully blank. Internally, he worried he was about to fall out of his chair.

“That is… a different balance than I expected.”