Barbarian's Path To Multiversal Domination Chapter 8: Two Thousand Years A Borgia Flag Slave

Grace unplugged Elizabeth's headphones and took them off.

"What are you doing?" She questioned, annoyed.

"It's been a while since we spent some time together." Grace smiled, teleporting a chair and sitting on it. "Go on, I'll just watch you."

"... How did you do that? The teleport thingy... and where is your boyfriend?"

"Eh, don't worry about it." She waved her hand. "He went to take a piss and, as for the chair... well, I got magic powers."

"Since when?"

"Not all that long ago, actually. I'll tell you about it."

...

"How many times did you complete this game, again?" Grace questioned.

"Six times."

"And you're playing it again?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Mhm. I'm trying to 100% all of the games in order."

"Pft." Grace chuckled. "You really have nothing to do."

"Shut up." Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "This time, I will have a team of only female assassins."

"Oh wow, how progressive!" Grace said with clear sarcasm. "Are you making a harem for your Ezio?"

"Well... no." She shook her head, sounding embarrassed. "I just prefer the female models. Most of the guys are pretty ugly."

"Yeah, right."

Elizabeth was dragging Ezio across Roma, going from recruit marker to recruit marker. 90% of the time, they were men - to her dismay. The 10% of the time, they were women; she was too late to rescue them from the Borgia. 

Eventually, she saw Dennis' player model, who wore a common brown-purple attire. Everything looked normal... except the completely unique sword he held. He stood with seven guards on the floor, his blade wet with their blood.

"I've never seen that sword model before," Elizabeth muttered to herself. "And I don't have any mods..."

"You should at least recruit that one. You've been running around like a headless chicken looking for girl recruits." Grace remarked. "At this point, you'll take the entire day filling your roster."

"... Fine." 

Reluctantly, she recruited Dennis into the Brotherhood. Afterwards, the potential recruits seemed to flip in gender. Everywhere she looked, she found women recruits... rapidly expanding her team. Before long, she had a grand total of ten recruits.

"I guess I was just really unlucky earlier..." Elizabeth remarked, looking at the recruits menu. She took a closer look at the only man in the group, Dennis Mertvago. Since his avatar was bald, her next decision wasn't hard to make. "It's too bad."

She went into the contracts section and looked for the hardest one. The first five-star contract was in Venice: ' Intercept a message.' It didn't sound difficult, but starting level one recruits only had a 1% chance of completion. Dennis' NPC representative was no exception.

She sent Dennis on it alone, grinning slightly.

"You're evil," Grace laughed. "Are you really sending him to die to make room for some female recruit?"

"Nah, it's just high risk and high reward." Elizabeth joked. 

"Mhm." Grace chuckled. "As if you're losing anything of value."

While she continued to play as normal, Dennis was experiencing a whole new life...

...

After interacting with Ezio, Dennis found himself at the Tiber Island Hideout - surrounded by women. Before long, he was thrown into a lecture headed by Niccolo Machiavelli alongside the other assassin recruits. He began to yap about the Creed's beliefs and whatnot. After that, he got the basic assassin uniform and a hidden blade. 

Before he began his first mission, however, he was thrown into virtual training made specifically for him.

"What the fuck is this?" Dennis looked around, seeing a white blocky world with red arrows pointing forward.

He noticed a timer ticking on top of him.

[Complete Short Course 1 in under 35 seconds to pass.]

Since there was nothing else to do, he began running forward. The first thing he noticed was that he was physically weaker—normal, even. This was part of the test, of course.

Once he ran a couple of metres, he was directed to drop down onto the white ground. Then he continued running forward, stopped by a wall with three red beams erected out of it. The red arrows pointed diagonally to his right - where a raised structure stood.

He would have to parkour his way there.

Dennis jumped, manging to get up on top of one of the beams. However, he almost lost balance and fell all the way back down.

"Never did this shit before..." He cursed out loud. 

He managed to jump to the next one, using his reach to grab hold of it and raise himself up. Then he jumped onto the inside of the structure and continued forward.

His next challenge would be presented by a wall pointing upwards and backwards, where beams floated in the air and led to the top of the structure he came out of.

He tried leaping up onto the beams directly... but found that his leap was too short no matter the technique he used.

"I could reach that shit if I didn't have this body..." He frowned, looking back at the wall. "Grace, I said I wanted a fight, not to be forced into a parkour lesson..."

Grace wouldn't hear his complaint, however. Time was ticking...

Thirty-five seconds was up, and he was reset to the beginning.

"Blyat..."

Hours... days... weeks... would pass as Dennis began mastering freerunning through the Animus' virtual training. With each challenge he completed, he got a new one, which was harder than the last. By the end of it all, he would give any master Assassin a run for their money.

Despite his initial frustration, he grew to quite enjoy climbing over obstacles and took pride in his new skill.

However... that was only the beginning. The simulation changed, now with five guards scattered around a semi-compact area. Some stood on raised platforms while others were on the ground.

[Moving onto stealth assassination. Kill all five targets in under thirty seconds without being detected.]

He checked his weaponry... only a hidden blade.

The first thing he did was run behind his first victim - only for him to turn around instantly and detect him. Before he knew it, the simulation reset.

'Guess they're not wearing earphones.' Dennis chuckled, shaking his head. 'But I don't have much time to play around with either...'

Using his new parkour skills, Dennis began to tackle this new challenge - improving with each attempt. He learned when to run and when to slow down. He also learned to use the ranged weaponry his victims provided - the crossbow. At first, he couldn't hit shit, but he became more accurate as he continued to use it.

Before long, he finished the first challenge and moved on to the next... and the next... and the next. His final challenge was a simulation of a colossal castle armed to the teeth with five hundred guards. He'd have to kill them all without being detected or leaving any traces of his killing. On top of that, he had a relatively short-timer.

"This'll be fun..."

He went from building to building, wall to wall, methodically slaughtering his opposition and stacking them in haystacks and other hiding places. Of course, he had failed this task thousands of times...

It was hardly possible, intentionally pushing him to the brink. Any normal person would've lost their mind in the white Animus space, but Dennis was already far beyond insane. Each loss pushed him to try harder and be better.

Eventually, like all obstacles... Dennis leapt over it.

He was one millisecond off of failing, completing every killing almost perfectly.

"Alright... what's next?" Dennis grinned, looking around.

[Collect 10,000 Borgia Flags in under 1000 minutes.]

"..." Dennis' mouth slowly opened as he looked over a vast simulation of a city littered with glowing flags. They were mainly on the roofs but some were scattered on the ground and others in underground passages.

"Blyat..."

Generally speaking, it didn't sound too difficult. It was exactly ten flags per minute. However, given that they were scattered everywhere and he had to actively find all of them... yeah. While Dennis could relish assassination due to its killing aspect and parkour due to the exhilaration of practically flying across his obstacles- this part of the simulation made him bash his head into a wall. 

Many, many times, for that matter.

Each time, the city and flag locations were randomly generated. Even when he had no chance of succeeding, he had to wait out the 1000-minute timer in every attempt.

He had failed over a million times, living in the simulation for approximately two thousand years. During that time, he had most definitely lost it.

"Borgia flags... Borgia flags..." He laughed madly. "Borgia flags... I must have them all!"

After his tribulations, he had developed a sixth sense for Borgia Flags - being able to smell and taste them from miles away. Hell, he could even hear them glimmer and see them through walls. His abilities in tracking down Borgia Flags had reached a frightening, almost divine, level. Even speedrunners would quiver before his prowess.

And... at long last... his efforts would be rewarded as he moved onto the next phase.

[Final challenge. Use your hidden blade to kill a thousand opponents without being hit once in under sixty minutes.]

"I can kill?" 

Dennis' eyes widened, and his mouth salivated at the thought. Before he knew it, he was surrounded by a dozen Borgia guards in a circular arena. The elation he felt... there were no words to describe it. He alone could understand it. 

"I CAN KILL!!!"

He flicked his wrist and got straight to killing... 

Except he got hit in the first seconds and reset.

The thing is, his fighting style heavily relied on his masochism. He would hardly ever avoid damage, even when he was capable of 'dancing' because of his boxing training. Alas, he had no such luxuries here. He couldn't proceed without perfecting the hidden blade, dodging and countering.

However, unlike the previous challenges... this one was based solely on combat. He didn't have to run about, be sneaky or chase flags. He just had to fight in a certain way.

Fighting... well, that was just his thing.

In a singular day, he locked in and completed the test with flying colours. 

[Virtual training complete... you may begin your mission.]

...

Dennis was thrown out of the Tiber Island Hideout with his new mission. He looked at the scroll, reading it carefully.

"The Templars will soon send their instructions to their men. Find the courier, steal the message and bring it to us..."

Dennis closed the scroll, tightened the lace on his boots and started running. He crossed one of Tiber Island's bridge and kept going. He went outside Rome's border... and continued sprinting north. With his Coast to Coast Epithet, he replicated his marathon to King's Landing... only he was far more efficient and faster this time.

He even outran speeding horses, almost looking like Renaissance Italy's very own Sonic.

In just under a week, he made it to Venice after taking a ship on the last leg of his journey. From the moment he stepped foot onto the city, he used his assassin instincts and scouted every nook and cranny from atop high vantage points. As he focused, he found the exact courier thanks to his Hyper-Advanced Eagle Vision, which branched out from his Borgia-Flag-Finding Sixth Sense.

"Found you..." 

He took a Leap of Faith into a haystack and got to work, stalking the courier like a predator would hunt its prey. His patience had developed to a frightening level, making Dennis a most terrifying assassin. Before, he would have no doubt charged head first at the courier (if he even found him), but now...

He watched from a rooftop as the courier entered an empty alleyway... this was the perfect opportunity.

He leapt down onto the courier and slashed through his throat with his hidden blade instantaneously. He took the courier's message, tossed his body into a haystack and began returning to Tiber Island.

...

[INTERCEPT A MESSAGE mission was successful]

[DENNIS MERTVAGO is now a MAESTRO.]

"Did he just..." Elizabeth couldn't believe what she was seeing. "1% chance, really?"

"I guess you got really lucky," Grace chuckled, acting clueless. "What will you do about him now?"

"I might just have to keep him around to help level the rest..." Elizabeth admitted.

"Now it's Dennis' harem." She laughed.

"... Dennis'?" Elizabeth questioned, suddenly recalling that Grace had introduced her boyfriend with that very same name. She hadn't thought much of it before, but now... "It's been at least twenty minutes. There's no way he's still in the bathroom."

"... Uhuh." Grace stroked her chin. "Maybe he's jerking off?"

"Hmm..." 

Elizabeth's suspicions rose. Did her sister's powers stop at just teleporting inanimate objects?

[Borgia Flags removed 15/100]

[Borgia Flags removed 16/100]

[Borgia Flags removed 17/100]

Suddenly, the side of her screen was flashing with notifications.

'But I'm not collecting any of them... is this a bug?' Elizabeth's eyes widened as she saw the Borgia Flags on the map disappear one after the other. "What the hell..."

"Someone is collecting your Borgia Flags..." Grace chuckled.

...

After returning to the hideout, Dennis got fresh new plate armour on top of his robe, a pistol within his gauntlet, smoke bombs, more knife pouches and a massive axe. He practically went from a lvl 1 goon to a lvl 100 mafia boss in an instant... thanks to his Maestro promotion. 

"Congratulations on your mission's success, maestro. That message was crucial, and now we take one step closer to overthrowing the Borgia." Niccolo Machiavelli pat his shoulder. "It was a hopeless chase, this mission... but you succeeded without a single witness and in haste. Very impressive."

"Borgia Flags..." Dennis touched his head, feeling a strong impulse. "Borgia Flags..."

"... Borgia Flags?" Niccolo looked puzzled. "Are you alright?"

The female recruits raised an eyebrow as Dennis stormed out with maddened eyes.

"MY BORGIA FLAGS!"

He went outside and leapt from building to building like a demon, chasing the scent of Borgia Flags. The Borgia rooftop guards only saw a flash of white as he flowed from obstacle to obstacle like a rushing tide. His collection of flags led him all the way to the ruins of the Colosseum, the historical and still grand structure that it was.

It was only at the sight of this monument that he paused his pursuit of Borgia Flags... standing still.

He slowly stepped towards its entrance, which was guarded by a squad of Borgia guards.

Dennis drew four knives and killed them all in an instant- continuing at his own pace - taking in every inch of the world's largest amphitheatre.

Eventually, he leapt down to the bottom of the Colosseum. 

Once, thousands of different gladiators and animals had fought on these very grounds. Even though it was simulated through a game... the atmosphere before him seemed very much real. He was in complete awe, standing still as a statue.

This... was his paradise.

The place he would dream of time and time again. Where he felt he truly belonged.

A place where real warriors fought; balancing life and death.

His admiration was cut short as he vanished - thrown into his next mission.

"Slyuha..."

Dennis cursed.