The Arcane Archer - Chapter 50 Infiltration And Artifacts

The night after arriving at the Resistance was a weird one. Though it was nice and quiet most of the time, you’d hear the occasional shank happening in the distance.

Once I was able to fall asleep, I was awoken around 9 hours later by an archer for the resistance who seemed to have based her entire fighting style and look off of me as she had the same bow as me and armor I was wearing yesterday as well.

“Good morning General Leo!” She said while saluting me. “I’m here to help you for the morning before taking you Leader Aaron to be briefed about the mission!”

I stared at her for a few seconds just mentally questioning why she though it would be a good idea to do that. Eventually I got to asking for a few minutes to change into regular clothing before she happily responded and left the room.

Once we finally got to the mess hall, cafeteria, or whatever they called it, I got a bowl of oatmeal, some bread, and bought some orange juice from the system cause I could. I sat down, had a spoonful of oatmeal, and then had a bombardment of questions from the Soldier and multiple other people who saw me enter the area and wanted to talk to me.

I tried answering as many as I could while also keeping some things secret because I didn’t want literally EVERYTHING known about me, I barely was able to eat anything before about an hour or so was up and the Soldier quickly rushed me down to meet up with their Leader Aaron.

Thankful for no long having to be mobbed by people who saw me as a celebrity, I bought some more juice before bringing out some food from my inventory to eat. Arriving at the war room very quickly, the person from yesterday who I first saw when I was falling down the hole was talking to Ava while having his arms behind his back like a person in the Military in America.

As we entered the room, Ava saw us and gave a quick wave which the Leader noticed, causing him to turn around.

“Ah, Leo and private Taylor (Author’s Note- to lazy to think of fantasy names), glad to see that you’ve finally arrived.” He said before turning to the soldier. “Thank you for bringing him, you are dismissed.”

She saluted to him before turning around and quickly leaving the room. Upon doing so, Aaron turned back to me.

“I’ve been talking to Ava about the mission and what you would be able to do the most during it. She talked about some of your abilities and their uses and I think we’ve come up with a plan that just might work.” He started walking over to a table and indicated me to follow.

Setting down a few folders he started describing in the plan.

“Our main mission is to take the Artifact from the King. While we don’t fully know what the artifact is, we do know that it has something to do with teleportation. There’s both good news and bad news about this. The good news is that there is a cooldown on how many times they can use it per day. The bad news is that we don’t know if they’ll have used it the full amount of time, they could for the day meaning they could use it to escape. Now while we don’t know the range, we can say with enough confidence that it’s far enough to teleport you away from the room to make an escape.”

He then opened the folder and started reading some stuff off.

“To counteract this, we’ve decided on this plan. You know up to tier 3 wizard spells meaning you have both counterspell, blink, and invisibility. Sneaking into their home, you’ll use invisibility to get around and blink to go through the walls as needed. Once you find the king, you’ll report back to the rest of the group and lead them to him. Once there, we’ll initiate combat with him and if he ever tries using the artifact to teleport away, you’ll need to counterspell. The only major thing that could go wrong with this is that your counterspell might not successfully work against the artifact which is why I’ve brought this.”

Setting down a silver ring on the table, he slid it in front of me.

“This is a Ring of Focus which makes spells that are able to be resisted a bit harder to resist and spells just a bit stronger, meaning that it will have a slightly higher chance of working on the artifact. It doesn’t increase it to a 100% chance but will still increase it nevertheless.”

Putting it on, I didn’t feel anything happen but with a quick look from my stats I saw that the chance of me succeeding on a counter spell increased by around 8.73%. I asked the system quickly as well what would happen if I wore multiple of these rings but discovered that wearing more then one of the same items wouldn’t increase the effect. So no to two rings of focus but yes to a helm of focus maybe? I’ll have to test it out later Or I could just ask the System.

‘Hey system, would it be possible for me to wear a helm of focus or something like that?”

[It is not possible to do so because it would have the same enchantment on it. If it’s enchanted with something else that offers that enchantment as a side effect, that however will work.]

‘So, if I twist up the enchantment ever so slightly it would work?”

[Affirmative.]

“Anything else I should be informed of before being sent off? Any guard positions, secret traps, hidden areas?” I asked before going off on this mission.

“We’ll be sending you in through a secret entrance we know of but you’ll mostly going in blind. If we knew any more, we wouldn’t be needing to send you in alone to find out how to get to the King.”

I gave a small sigh but could understand and didn’t argue.

About 12 hours later, I was crawling into the King’s home through the sewer system. A group of half-humans were following right behind me so that once I finished finding out the correct path to where the king is sleeping, I could immediately come back and show them the way.

The group wasn’t that big, consisting of only four other people, each of a different class. There was a sorcerer and priest (Of a weird obscure god I never heard of) to offer support from the back with either spells or healing. A barbarian and fighter to focus upfront and both deal and take damage as to make sure the back support didn’t get hurt. Oh, and Bell as I wanted a way to communicate with them somewhat while I was away. I also didn’t ask about their exact classes like with the dwarves I knew, just got the basic classes to know what they could and couldn’t do.

At the end of the sewers, we came to a dead end where it would normally start if someone were to be escaping out of the king’s home. This meant that it was time for me to break in and figure out the needed path.

Taking a deep breath through the enchanted mask I had on (made to filter air and make it smell nice), I casted blink on myself.

Blink a third level spell that has a 50% chance every few seconds to teleport you into the Ethereal plane. The Ethereal Plane is a misty, fog-bound dimension that coexists with the material plane (The plane I’m currently on) and pretty much every other plane. When one goes into the Ethereal Plane, they’re able to see the material plane through muted and indistinct colors that make it seem more like looking through fog and distorted glass.

While in this plane, you’re unable to interact with anything on the material plane and invisible to it as well. This makes it amazing for reconnaissance, spying, and almost any other occasion when one wants to move around without being detected.

Now once I’m on this plane, I’ll be able to move in pretty much any direction and though anything (as long as it’s not magical) as there is no gravity and am unable to be detected as one cannot see into the Ethereal Plane (unless my magical means once again.)

The best part of this blink spell is that it doesn’t require concentration, meaning I can cast invisibility as well and improve my stealthiness even more for an entire minute.

As I sit there, I wait a few seconds for it to take affect while the others just stared at me in confusion. I was about to shrug but just then I was forced into the Ethereal Plane. Once I was, I floated upwards through the ground and found myself in a bathroom.

I reappeared for a few seconds which gave me just enough time to cast invisibility which sadly did require concentration this time. Invisibility does exactly what it says it does and makes me invisible. During this time (1 hour), anything I’m wearing, or carrying is invisible with me. But I have to be wary to not cast anything as if I attack or cast a spell, the spell ends.

Walking up to the wall next to the door out, I waited for blink to activate and force me into the Ethereal. Once it did, I stuck my head through the wall to look for any guards to be on the lookout for, only to find none.

Before I was forced back, I went through the wall as to ensure I didn’t have to walk through the door and possibly have creaky hinges reveal that someone was here. Walking through the halls a bit, I came upon a kitchen with many people working in it. I started sneaking my way through and stole a freshly baked loaf of bread before I was about halfway through and blink activated, which I then quickly went through everything to get to the end and leave through the wall.

Once done with that, I shoved the bread into my inventory.

Done with the kitchen, I was now in the dining room which was both giant and magnificent. And even though it was pretty late at night, there was still a few people up and waiting for food by the looks of it. I assumed that the people in the kitchen were preparing food for the morning, but it seems that they were making food for these people right here.

Most of them appeared to be guards with one or two of them being royalty. I quickly surveyed the area looking for the door out and quickly spotted it. It was closed and had a guard standing on each side, ready to question whoever came through or left.

I waited for blink to activate but after a few seconds, I mentally cursed. The spell had ended as I wasn’t paying enough attention to it. Getting out of here would be incredibly difficult now.

I can’t recast blink as it’ll end invisibility and reveal myself which would end badly. I couldn’t attack the guards either as that would end it as well. The only option would be to somehow cause everyone to be loud and force everyone to pay attention to something.

A quick survey of the area didn’t reveal anything of importance, but I had to think of something.

About a minute passed as I quietly walked around, looking for anything to use before it came to me. Theoretically, I should be able to use my inventory without ending the spell as my inventory isn’t a spell itself.

Reaching out into space, activating my inventory, and grabbing my bread I put in their earlier, I quickly brought it out and rejoiced that I was correct. Now with the invisible bread in hand, I tried figuring out what I could do with this or anything else in my inventory.

As a few seconds went by, the female royal people sniffed the area before loudly saying, “I smell some fresh bread.”

“Of course, you do.” The other royalty said. “We’re right next to the kitchen where they’re making our food.”

“I know that, but we had someone enchant it so that we wouldn’t smell what they’re cooking and make ourselves hungrier while waiting.” The female royal answered back with a hint of anger.

They argued back and forth for a while but during that time, I came up with a plan.

Sneaking up to one of the guards, I tore off a piece of the bread and put it on the ground next to them. Taking a bite out of it, I then place it on the ground as well and made it seem like it was the guard who did it. While I was doing that, the guard yawned so I decided to just drop it instead to create a bit of noise for them to hear.

The plan worked perfectly.

The male royal heard something drop and looked over to the noise, only to see the guard and the bread. Without thinking or even questioning what was happening, he quickly told the other royal who saw it as well and commanded the other guards to take him to the torture chamber for what he did.

While highly excessive just for some bread on the ground, I followed behind the other guards as they opened the door which gave me ample time to sneak my way through without getting caught. Now I was in the main entrance area with stairs going upwards.

Before going up them, I counted the guards and looked around for an area to hide so that I could recast blink. After a bit of looking and following behind some guards going through doors, I was able to get to a secluded area that allowed me to cast blink and then invisibility in rapid succession.

Almost immediately, blink forced me into the Ethereal, so I used that time to run through the walls and go up the stairs. There was a few guards stationed along the walls of the next floor, but I was just somehow barely quiet enough for them to not care.

Slowing down, I made sure to take my time while in the material plane and rush as quickly as possible while in the Ethereal. The combination of the two allowed me to quickly move through this floor and into a giant library.

Inside this library, there was no guards stationed and absolutely no lights or windows. While there was some candles, they were all burnt down to nothing and everything had a fine layer of dust over it.

Blink was about to end in a few seconds so I decided to instead just look around for the next couple of seconds so that I could recast my spells before I rushed forwards. Looking around the books, some where really basic while others appeared to be spell books.

I eventually had so many interesting books in my inventory that I decided to shove literally every book I could within a few minutes time into my inventory. While this gave me a giant amount of books, compared to all the books in the library it was nothing.

Wiping the sweat off my brow, I gave one last look of the library to see if there was anything of importance before noticing a book. This book seemed to be layered in gold and gems, so I picked it up and read the title. “Font of magic” was on the front of it and had no author. I read through a few pages of the book and it described a deep wellspring of magic within every living being. This wellspring is able to cast spells and create a variety of magical affects.

Compared to a wizard who learns how to cast spells with mana through knowledge and items, those who are able to access this well are known as sorcerers and it’s possible for everyone to access this given time and chance.

Smirking slightly at this, I decided to close my eyes and look inside myself to see if it was true. For a few minutes, I found nothing and was about to throw this book back on this table and rush back to my mission as I’ve already spent way to much time messing around but just as I was about to do so, I felt a cold power inside.

At first, I thought of how clich it was. “Look inside and you’ll find power inside of yourself!” kind of clich. Opening back up the book, I saw that it listed some basic uses of this wellspring of power once you find it inside yourself.

They called these uses, “Metamagic” and are used to shape spells and even change them. One of the metamagics I noticed increased the duration of the spell and I instantly focused on learning that. After a few seconds, I eventually got it to work and increased the duration of blink to 2 minutes using a good amount of this wellspring inside of me.

Using up the rest of this wellspring, I discovered thanks to the system that I increased the duration of the spell up to 8 minutes. Casting invisibility, I kissed the book in hand before quickly throwing it into my inventory for later use and running through the wall once blink forced me into the ethereal.

From there on out, I was able to move throughout the gigantic house with ease. From the library, there was then an armory, a prison, gigantic wardrobe full of fancy clothing, a kingly bathroom, a brewery, and finally the king’s room itself.

Inside the king’s room was an overly decorated room with many sculptures of the king, multiple swords on the walls, a giant bed that seemed big enough to fit an entire army, multiple pictures of himself, a bunch of gold (which I quickly stored in my inventory), and a few other things here and there. Sadly, the thing I was looking for the most wasn’t there. The king himself.

I rummaged around looking for any secret door or something like that where the king could be hiding and having a secret meeting but was unable to find one. With regret, I walked towards the wall to bang my head on it. Sadly, blink activated and forced me into the ethereal plane just in time so that my head instead went through it.

Upon doing so, I immediately saw multiple heavily armored guards with gigantic swords and shields in hand, standing next to a throne. In this throne was the king himself.

Pulling my head out of the wall, I looked over to the side slightly and saw a doorway which I assumed earlier was just for the bathroom or something. Face palming for a few seconds, I eventually made my way back to the others through a long and tedious process of going directly through the floor in the Ethereal Plane.

Now before you ask, the reason I didn’t go upwards through the floor in the first place was because I had to make sure that he wasn’t on the first floor. If I didn’t, I could’ve missed him entirely and not search his house for useful stuff.

Once I got back to the others, I quickly told them that I discovered where the king was and a few other things. With that, the priest took something out of their backpack and handed it to me.

What they handed to me was a really weird looking crown.

“This is a one time use magic item that we were able to purchase for thousands of platinum coins. With it, you should be able to teleport us anywhere within 500 feet or so. All you have to do is put it on your head, think of the location while we hold onto your shoulder or something, and once you concentrate on the location within 500 feet, we will all be teleported there and the crown will turn to dust.”

The crown handed to me had a white-gray look that made it seem brittle. It had little wave like lines drawn all over it that seemed to slightly glow a lunar blue color.

Putting the crown on, I started focusing on the king’s room and as a couple of seconds passed by, the sewer walls around us slowly started to fade away and turn into the walls of the king’s bedroom as if we were in a slideshow transition.

As soon as we were fully in the king’s room, the brittle crown on top of my head lost the weird lunar blue color coming out of it and rapidly turned to dust. I shed a small tear for all the money that was just lost for a single use of that item.

The fighter seeing that we were in king’s room, asked me where to go next to find the king. I indicated towards the door and told them to be wary because a bunch of guards. Pushing open the door, the barbarian pushed ahead of the fighter and ran directly forwards before spotting the king and rushing towards him.

The guards were able to push themselves between the barbarian and the king just before the barbarian was able to get an attack off. The barbarian roared with rage and recklessly swung his axe around trying to hit anything.

The fighter rushed in as well seeing that all stealth was thrown out the window and that we were just going to wing it. With him rushing in, the priest and sorcerer moved forwards a bit so that the could see the entirety of the guards and started offering support.

Getting my bow off my back, I started offering support as well and fired multiple arrows at the guards. All while doing this, the king was hiding on his throne and crying out of fear.

After a couple of seconds went by, the fighter was able to get the first good hit and successfully killed one of the guards. That left just 7 more to go!

With the first guard killing, the guards hold on the barbarian loosened which allowed him to break free and continue rushing towards the king. Using that time, I was able to shoot another guard and get enough XP from him to level up.

As the barbarian ran forwards and was just a few feet away from him, the king pulled out a peculiar looking helmet and put it on his head. Just as he did, a large amount of mana could be felt surging out from it as it started to glow to an almost blinding degree.

Quickly I casted counterspell on it in hopes of quickly stopping whatever was happening. As I felt my magic leave me and attempt to stop whatever the helm was doing, it didn’t seem to work as it continued to grow brighter and brighter until the ring of focus on my hand started heating up and then suddenly, the light was gone.

The king who seemed to be filled with joy previously about being able to escape and survive this ordeal was now filled with fear. The barbarian seemed to get closer and closer until they were faced to face with the king. The guards where constantly hitting the barbarian with a multitude of attacks, whether it was magic or sword.

The barbarian raised their weapon in the air and stared down at the king before bringing their weapon down and cutting the kings head off.

By now, there was only 2 guards left as they all prioritized on keeping the King alive. I was able to level up 2 more times by the time we were able to kill the king but that still left us with the 2 guards. The guards stood in awe at what just happened and their inability to protect who their god told them to protect.

They were quickly pushed out of this funk as our fighter attempted to decapitate one of them with their sword. Shooting a few arrows, I offered support by hitting them here and there as a distraction while also dealing a decent amount of damage.

Eventually with the help of the priest and sorcerer, we were able to finish the last 2 off and someone give me one final level from this encounter.

Walking over to the now severed head of the king, I gently took off the helmet from his head using mage hand and used multiple uses of prestidigitation. Throwing a use of inspect at it, I found out that it was the helm of teleportation, a legendary item that allows you to cast the spell teleport 3 times per day. (Author’s Note- The regular helm of teleportation from Du0026D is only rare but I’m making it legendary here because it allows you to literally cast the teleport spell which is 7th level.)

The helm has already been used twice, once from something I don’t know about and once from what just happened. While looking at it, I started hearing heavily armored footsteps rushing to our location echo around.

The others ran up to me and asked if I was able to use this artifact to get us away from here. I quickly replied with a maybe as I put the helmet on and willed it to cast the teleportation spell. Mana surged from it as it surrounded us and started glowing brighter and brighter.

Previously unnoticed doors banged opened as multiple guards started rushing in. However, they weren’t in time as the helm of teleportation finished casting the spell.

Now let it be known about one thing of the teleportation spell. When teleporting, you need to be familiar with the location you’re going. If you use a permanent teleportation circle as the location you want to go to and you know the circle, then you have a 100% chance of going there. It is the same if you teleport to an associated object that you know of.

However, if you’re very familiar with it, you only have a 75% chance of being on target, 10% chance of being off target, 10% chance of going to a random similar area, and a 5% chance of it being a mishap. All of this just for an area you’re familiar with.

But what about to a place you’ve only viewed once? Say the temporary bedroom you stayed the night in? Well when that happens, the chances of you being on target or slightly off target drop dramatically.

For me, I was teleported to a similar area as when the spell finished teleporting us and we were able to see again, I could definitely tell that we were not where we were supposed to be. After all, why would I want to go to a secret base of Aetius instead the secret base of the rebellion? Can you answer me that?

Well anyways, I can tell you everyone’s reaction to when they too understood what happened.

“Oh Shit.”, “Oh Fuck”, and my favorite, “Fuck you god. Fuck you so so much.”