Chapter 47 Best Paying Job

  Lenna followed her half of the paired compasses until she found Isaac. She arrived to the smell of phosphorous and charred flesh. She then saw the rather self satisfied look on Isaac’s face and the half naked man at his feet, who was conscious but clearly still dosed up on only the gods knew what. It was clear that, as usual, Isaac had been up to no good.

  Isaac’s prisoner was also staring up at him with a look that Lenna couldn’t place. The man’s look was too blank to be any serious emotion but there was a hint of fear and fascination lingering behind the out of focus gaze.

  “Shamesh is stuck.” Isaac told his mate as she arrived.

  “Your doing?” She asked him?

  “The mess in front of us is, but not Shamesh getting stuck.” Isaac replied.

  “And the addict?” She questioned as she noticed the dragon insignia on the back of his rob from his belly down position on the floor. “CSC?”

  Isaac nodded. “Yeah. I killed the rest but let the prostitutes and slaves go.” Isaac explained.

  “What about the casino?” She continued. The entrance to the casino was down a stairwell that twisted further below them with its entrance behind the bar in the lounge.

  “I left it alone.” Isaac replied. “I wanted to be here just in case Shamesh was in any actual danger. At this point, I think he is just going to have to wait it out.”

  “What about the mess in front of us?” Lenna wondered. “How did that even happen?”

  “There were a bunch of guards grouped up and waiting for the lobby to open back up. I just triggered the trap array and left. It was quite the spectacular show of magic.” Isaac commented.

  Lenna shook her head. “So, are we just going to leave Shamesh there until he can get out? He has the Bottomless Bag so we might have to wait for him to clean out the casino’s stash.” She reminded him.

  Isaac shook his head. “There is no way that they have more gold on hand than I can carry. That would just be stupid. There won’t be nearly as many or as lethal security measures in place in the casino.” He told her.

  Lenna shrugged. “So? Are we both going?” She wondered.

  “I’ll go and be back soon.” Isaac replied. “But before I do, my ring was glowing earlier? Not for very long so I figured you were fine but, what happened?”

  “I ran into some trouble.” She told him and held out a handful of adamantine plates. “This is all that’s left. He pissed me off.”

  Isaac picked up Lenna’s loot and eyed it while he stuffed the pieces into his Inventory. “Damn. You are going to have to fill me in on that tonight.” He said and glanced back at the reality magic cage that separated them from Shamesh. “I’ll leave the prisoner with you. Topaz wasn’t kidding when she said that all of the traps are hyper lethal. Be careful.”

  Lenna nodded. “You too.” She replied and settled in to wait as Isaac took off in a jog back to the lounge.

  When Isaac arrived at the lounge, around ten minutes after he had left, he couldn’t help but scowl. Four more people were dead, three wounded to some degree or another off to the side, and the rest were nowhere to be found. “What happened here?” Isaac questioned the first injured person he came across.

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  The woman was still chained to a wall and had been eyeing the keys that were just barely out of her reach. “Everyone fought over the keys, then they fought over the drugs, then they fought over the money. Half of them went downstairs but the rest left.” She told him.

  Isaac kicked the keys over to her and nodded. “Unlock the other two if you can and then just leave.” He instructed her. “There is no way that anyone currently in the casino is leaving alive.”

  The woman nodded vigorously as she fumbled with the key. “Y-yes sir.” She replied as the lock around her neck clicked. She was chained to the wall by a steel collar around her neck but thankfully wasn’t bound any more than that so her ascent to the surface wouldn’t be too much of a problem.

  Isaac hopped the bar and started walking down the circular brick staircase that led to the place where Benedict had lost six lifetimes of fortunes. There was blood on the stairs and wall along with various other fluids but Isaac just tried his best not to touch anything. At one point he had to step over a person that was crumpled in the stairwell. A simple ball of death flames made sure that the person would not get back up.

  Most would call Isaac’s act of killing an unconscious former slave heartless at best, but as far as he was concerned, they had already been given a second chance. By the time Isaac reached the bottom, he had ended another person and stepped over another that was already dead. The thing that all three had in common was severe head and/or skull damage. The pushing and shoving that occurred from a dozen impaired people trying to race to the bottom must’ve been quite extreme.

  Isaac pushed through a curtain to find absolute chaos still ensuing. There were nine people that looked like they had been playing two separate games of poker across two of the four tables. There were two house dealers and a bartender that also handled the chips and converting chips to coins and back again. Those people were supposed to be there. The twelve half to fully naked individuals that had rushed the bar to take all of the gold were not. Most of the players and the other two staff members had all rushed to fight off the crazed savages while one player remained at each table and started rigging or outright stealing from their table.

  Chairs were toppled, chips were on the floor, two of those from upstairs were dead as was the bartender and there were teeth, hair, and blood everywhere behind the bar. Unbeknownst to Isaac, the drugs that had been circling around all but enforced a necessary primal release of some kind. The bloodshed, fear, and adrenaline from his ‘visit’ had pushed pleasure from their minds and opened up space for greed and violence. With the dulled pain and enhanced stamina from the drugs compounding those feelings and desires, it was only a matter of time before it became an absolute mess. In hindsight, it was pretty obvious that those that had left were the ones that either had not taken the drug or had already come down from it.

  Isaac sighed and ran his hand down his face. “This is disgustingly savage.” He mumbled which somehow got the attention of the two that had been rigging and stealing from their poker tables. Isaac appeared behind the one furthest in the back and cut off his head in one clean sweep. Isaac then lunged at the other but the man somehow managed to get a knife up in time to parry Isaac’s blow. He was not expecting a throwing spike to come out of seemingly nowhere and embed itself in his chest however. The distraction from the nearly instantly lethal sneak attack left him open enough for Isaac to slit his throat on the back swing. The commotion caught the attention of some of the brawlers but with all the chaos and thick smoke they had a hard time pinning him down. The fact that he was dressed in all black in a dim room and could teleport just made the skirmish even more one sided. Isaac, true to his word, left none breathing by the time he was done.

  Once Isaac had finished looting the rather small amount of around thirty pounds of gold and platinum coins that they had on hand, he left the way he had come. Isaac was thankfully surprised that all three of the injured had left by the time he had returned. He swiped a bottle of champagne from behind the bar as he left and eyed the label. “Blueberry and orange?” Isaac questioned. “How many kinds of weird wine are there?” He shook his head as he tossed that too in his Inventory. Shamesh was going to have his work cut out for him once the day was through. The smells that clung to Isaac alone would require a directed effort to remove and he didn’t even want to think about what was stuck on the bottom of his boots.

  By the time Isaac arrived back at Lenna and the prisoner, the reality magic gate was fading. “How was it?” Lenna asked him.

  “Bloody.” Isaac replied and then looked over at the door, to the lobby of the bank, as it opened to reveal Shamesh who was a little dusty but otherwise completely untouched. He had the Bottomless Bag hanging from his shoulder as he strode out and covered the distance towards them. “How was it?” Isaac directed at Shamesh.

  ‘There were no further complications, my Lord.’ Shamesh mentally replied with a bow as an absolutely terrified woman peered out at them from just inside the lobby. ‘I left quite a bit of gold behind as the gems and platinum were worth more.’

  Isaac waved him off. “The duchy can pick up the scraps. What about your new friend?” Isaac questioned with a gesture towards the onlooker.

  ‘I had no further reason to harm her and she stayed out of the way.’ Shamesh stated mentally once more as the risk of his speech being countered by wards was still incredibly high. ‘As per your directive, I used sufficient force but saw little need for more than that.’

  Isaac nodded. “Good.” He said and then turned to regard the woman. “How did you end up here?” He asked her.

  The woman visibly paled as she gulped down her desire to run and hide. “I-I, it was the best paying job in the slums?” Her voice squeaked as she finished her reply and Isaac narrowed his eyes on her.

  “I don’t trust that.” Isaac replied. “Come, you are being placed under arrest.” Isaac told her. “My retainer spared you, but if I have to go get you, then his mercy will be wasted.”

  “R-Retainer?” Her voice squeaked again. “T-The l-lich?” She questioned with absolute horror written all across her face.

  “Yes.” Isaac replied coldly and pointed to the ground in front of him. It was clear that he would not be giving her a second chance.