Prologue: No Honor Amongst Thieves

  The nights on Craylon are dark, as it was this night. It would not remain so for long if everything did not go as planned, and tonight was the night as the groups gathered in the guild hall. Which guild or what hall Expert Mage Holland could not say. The job was facilitated by an anonymous client, and organized by an organization that like the client wanted much the same. They wanted to remain anonymous to all who had applied to the job, so whoever this was could maintain plausible deniability. No one here could blame them of course. After all, the mark was property of a god, and was said to open doors to the unknown and hold the secrets of the universe.

  The group gathered was an unsavory bunch Holland included, and despite what he was being offered, he held no illusions that his life wasn't 100% his now that he was part of this job, and believed they would try to kill him after all this was said and done. “AHIM!” A magically enhanced voice said. The figure was wearing dark robes and his face was hidden. “Probably a guild member or the clients representative” Holland thought. The robed individual continued once they had the groups' attention “You are here tonight because you like us want something, and rest assured that payment will be dispensed discreetly upon completion. You all have received instruction crystals now go”, and with that the robed and hooded figure left.

  Payment dispensed discreetly? Well, that confirmed it. The game was afoot, and in this case betray or be betrayed. That was ok, because he had no intentions of handing it over. For someone to go through this much trouble, and the fact they were stealing from a god? Well let’s say this was definitely an object of great power at the very least. Per the instructions on the crystal, he prepped casting components for detect magic, and dispel magic. It said no offensive magic was needed but to keep defensive magic to a minimum as it would set off alarm ritual and enchantments as well as other countermeasures. Fair enough, but that didn't mean he wouldn't keep some on tap. He scoffed at the idea of going into this minimal defensive and no offensive spells. So, he stored mage armor, reflect,greater teleport, and Ice Queens' wasteland in his ring for excellent measure. With this ring of spell storing, he paid the costs beforehand so casting later cost him no mana or components. He drank a mana potion to replace the lost mana and started off to his position with haste.

  The journey was uneventful, and that meant the guards must have been paid off. “Good! More mana for later” Holland muttered to himself. He couldn't relax though. Just because the guards were paid off didn't mean he was the god of time if there was such a thing. Was there? Plus, he was certain the guards watching and defending this place would look the other way for only so long. “No time” he reminded himself. He got to his first objective and used detect magic, and what he saw left him flabbergasted. They weren't just paranoid; this was as if paranoid had a threesome with conspiracy and cautious and had a baby. This was layers of rituals and enchantments that would alert, bind the intruder, place a master level tracer on them, and if the magic used deemed them a threat vaporized them with a multicast master lever disintegrate. Holland gulped and poured all of his mana into gambling a multicast casting 2 counter spells following the initial dispel. This proved to be the right move as he was still alive. A familiar voice sounded in his head

  Congratulations! Multicast has reached lvl 300 Master. INT +5, WIS +5. Multicasting spells cost 50% less. You are now a master of multicasting spells.

  He could feel the power of the world surging into him, and he could feel the notifications nagging at his mind begging to be read, but those would have to wait. He had to stay alert. He waited for his mana to regenerate.

  He was now in the inner grounds. He noticed shadows out of the corner of his eye, then saw a dagger, and he cast mage armor. The dagger hit the mage armor and Holland saw it impact harmlessly and fall to the ground. His would-be assassin was gone nowhere to be seen. This job had just gotten magnitudes harder. He expected to see guards, but no alarm was raised. He sighed in relief, and in frustration. Co-contractors he could deal with, the guards and a place on high alerts not so much. This meant that the job was a last man standing contract. Made sense if your last man was meant to be killed at the end, and he just used a mage armor when a reflect would have been more efficient, and from his ring no less.

  “Good job ass hat” he chastised himself. At least he will be protected for 700 more points of damage. He reached the inner portion of the security rituals and enchantments and set to work. Just as before, paranoid and cautious had a baby. Then when he was almost through, he heard a voice say quietly “Don't move and keep dispelling.” SEARIOUSLY! A rogue that blows their advantage, and makes demands, and my mage armor just failed. Holland reached mentally into his ring of spell storing and stopped the dispel. This fool’s arrogance would be his downfall. He had proven his arrogance by exposing himself and making that ridiculous demand, and blowing any advantage he had, but he'd play on that. Maintaining his link to his ring he raised his hands In a, "you win" gesture ready to cast the spell at a moment’s notice. Reflect was good for spells and physical attacks, but the trick was the timing. If he didn't activate it at the right time he would be done, and the remaining enchantments would disintegrate him. He turned around as quick as he could, which caused the rogue to stab out with his dagger, but Holland was quicker dodging and throwing himself into the enchantments leaving the rogue with a stunned look on his face, but before he hit, he activated reflect causing the discharged disintegrates to rebound off Holland and the only other target was the rogue who was now a pile of ashes. The voice of the world spoke as he was filled with experience

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  Congratulations! Reflect has reached level 300 Master INT +5, WIS +5. Level UP you are now a Master Mage all stats +2. You have gained an addition 10 attribute points and will be automatically assigned.

  Like last time, he didn't have time to spend looking over his gains. Normally a rogue is a mages natural enemy, but not the careless or the arrogant ones, but considering the level up, Holland got the feeling this rogue could have taken him had it not been for the remaining enchantments and his quick thinking.

  He heard voices and pained screams as well as the guards. His window of opportunity was over, and he had to move having made it through the disintegrate enchantments there was no need to finish dispelling them, and it would keep the rest of them off his back. The others would be killed and the guards would be none the wiser. The building was empty. This was worrying as it should have been guarded. It reminded him of a saying his teacher would quote when he got impatient “The patient fox gets the chicken while his impatient partner springs a trap.” So, Holland waited and watched and sure enough a guard materialized out of thin air making hand gestures. A shimmering he had not noticed before started moving with him. He could barely hear it, but he caught a small part of the conversation. Guard1 “False alarm. Guess no one made it through” Guard2 “Don't get cocky” Guard captain “Shut it! Let's check the protections and make sure no one got through” Not good Holland thought. The time table just got pushed up. He cast detect magic and found that they had moved on, and he slipped in seeing no more protective magics. With a simple invisibility spell he made his way to the inner chamber, and there it was. It was beautiful, and power radiated from it in torrents. It was a sapphire the size of his fist with glowing runes floating on a pedestal in a pillar of light. His detect magic was still going, and he noticed a glyph on the ground. It was in a ritual circle that brought forth a barrier of force. Now that could be tricky for a normal mage but not him. A ritual of his own and an invisibility spell later, he was past the barrier and took the stone. Alarms were raised. And in that moment, he realized his mistake and it was staring at him. It was an alarm statue. He panicked and blew his teleport. Because of this, it sent him to a random place, and not far from the building. No no, this was all wrong, then it hit him like a brick. He was caught in a teleport snare. He couldn't move and his connection to his mana was cut off which meant this was probably the betrayal. Well, maybe the betrayal. By the way the magic felt, he wasn't meant to see or hear as well, and whoever set this up thought so to because a robed and hooded figure came into his field of view, and he noticed it was the man from earlier, and began monologing. “You mage types are all the same. When you panic, you pop a teleport. Though I must hand it to you. Using reflect to bypass disintegrate enchantments was brilliant. Oh, I'm afraid your hard work was for nothing though.” He went to grab the stone but Holland heard words escape him, and so must the man who trapped him because he stopped amused. Holland felt the restriction on his speech lift. “Well now, that takes impressive strength but don't pat yourself on the back just yet, because now you will have to die. You saw me.” Holland saw the man toss the used scroll aside and reach for a dagger that looked to be coated with a poison. He panicked again. Realizing for a second time that he had been cut from his mana. It was faint. A realization filling him with hope in the form of a ring. He reached mentally to his ring which harmonized with him under the strength of the snare, and Holland uttered Ice Queens' Wasteland. A nova of ice ushered forth from the ring, froze the man, and the area around Holland in a 20ft diameter. Freezing the snare. He broke free, but that was only one solved problem. Now he could hear the guards rushing to his location. If he was going to be caught, then he would make it as difficult as he could. Being free of the snare gave him access to his mana which meant healthy doses of fireballs and everything else he could bring to bear. Holland wove a fireball spell in his free hand and hurled it at the nearest voice followed by a resounding boom. He felt the energies of the world enter his body signifying experience, but he had no time. He heard the guard captains voice, and issued commands “mana barriers up. This is no ordinary mage. Surround him were going to squeeze him.” Holland knew what this meant, and it was not good. He had to get out of there, so he ran and detonated a second fireball at the frozen man creating a thermal shock making an artificial fog. Out of mana and potions he dashed though the trees, and despite breaking passed their lines even if barely was running out of stamina. To make things worse he could see the treeline ahead. Normally a good thing, but not this time for he was headed to the edge of a cliff, and they were almost on top of him. He wasn't going to be caught, and he wasn't giving this back. In a final act of desperation, he jumped, and mentally reached out to the stone in his hand and all he could think was “SAAAAAVE ME!”