Novels by Achille

Danny waited well into the night. The two cops never came home.He slipped inside anyway, checked the room, checked the courtyard. Nothing worth taking.Figured guys like that either carried their cash on them or stashed it somewhere smarter than their own house.Damn it. Rotten luck.The cold night wind cut through, and Danny tightened his collar, muttering a curse.Guess those two were out carousing somewhere and wouldn't be back tonight. If he couldn't settle this with them now, tomorrow would only get messier.Not like he could go door to door checking every brothel and tavern in the South Side for two beat cops.Better to head back.He abandoned his post and started walking.The streets along the way were unnervingly quiet.Danny frowned and stopped, listening.The South Side wasn't Blackwood Alley it had actual night watchmen making rounds, ringing bells to mark the hour. With his current senses, he should've been able to pick up the sound from anywhere in the district.He'd hea

It actually works.Danny's mouth curled slightly as he looked up. "How much for these?""Cuttings can't compare to a whole root, obviously," the clerk said, sizing him up. "But this was still cut from a century root. Sixty dollars each, sound fair?"Danny shook his head. "Fifty. I want two."The clerk agreed without pushback. "Deal. I'll wrap them right up."With both roots in hand, Danny let out a slow breath of relief.It wasn't just the extra day of life he'd bought himself. It was proof, real proof that surviving the curse might actually be possible.Whatever the equipment system did to these herbs when they passed through a slot, it clearly amplified their power far beyond what a normal person would get from just eating them. Two scraps of root like these should barely have registered on an ordinary body. There was no way they'd have restored this much vitality otherwise.All he needed now was better herbs. A full century root. A thousand-year root, if he could ever afford one. W

"We're rich! We're rich! Danny, we're gonna be living large!"The second they stepped outside, Gimpy couldn't hold it in anymore, whooping and hopping around like a kid.Over a hundred dollars, when had either of them ever seen that kind of money?"Danny, now that we've got cash, what's the plan? How about we hit up a brothel, get some drinks in?"Squint watched Gimpy rubbing his hands together and couldn't help but snap, "Are you out of your mind? A drink and a girl at those places runs tens of dollars a pop, and finding an actual wife costs hundreds. What are you thinking?""Fine, genius, what's your plan then?" Gimpy grumbled."If you ask me..." Squint swallowed hard, wiping his mouth. "I say we hit a restaurant. Get some roast duck. Back when I was begging outside one, some old man tossed me a piece of duck tail once, best thing I ever tasted""All you ever think about is food. Money in, straight into the toilet the next morning. What a waste."Gimpy huffed and turned to Danny. "D

"Hold up!"Lenny waved the martial artist off.He studied Danny quietly for a second, then burst out laughing."Well, aren't you a bold one, ha ha ha!""C'mon, Danny, sit down, have a seat!"Lenny gestured to a chair and poured him a cup of tea."Here's the thing, Danny." He leaned in. "When Vince was around, I gave him twenty a month to handle a few things I couldn't move through official channels.""But now that you're running Blackwood Alley, twenty's obviously not gonna cut it.""My gambling den pulls in decent money, sure, but overhead's high, I've got a whole chain of people to keep sweet.""Since you're saying twenty's not enough, I'll tighten my own belt and throw in another twenty. Call it forty even. Deal?"Danny pushed the teacup aside, tapped the table once, and smiled. "You're a careful man, Lenny. But I've got a habit you should know about.""I don't like dead weight."Lenny's smile froze and slid off his face."You want a cut of the actual profits."Danny nodded.Lenny

Danny, self-proclaimed master fighter, bent down and started rifling through the corpses.Sure, some part of him wanted to walk away clean, no trace, disappear into the night after a kill. But survival didn't leave much room for style points.Spirit herbs cost money. Unlocking equipment slots cost money. Looting the two dead Kessler men was the fastest option on the table.Luckily, these two had been carrying a lot more than Vince ever had. By the time he finished, Danny's take topped a hundred silver coins. Add what he'd already pulled off Vince, and the total came to one hundred and twenty-three.He hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and dumped the full hundred straight into the equipment system.【Second slot unlocked. Spend 1,000 silver to unlock the third slot?】Danny shook his head immediately, like he could somehow conjure another thousand coins out of thin air.By all logic, his top priority right now should've been sinking every coin into rare spirit herbs to buy h

Squint shook with fear, unsure if these two were friend or foe, and couldn't force out an answer.Gimpy's eyesight was a little better, and the second he spotted the blades tucked at the stranger's waist, he froze solid.Razor Society.Ask anyone in Ashford County who the county sheriff was, and half of them would draw a blank. But ask them who ran the Razor Society, and every single person could give you a name.Cutter had clawed his way up from nothing, running these streets since he was a kid. Pure ruthlessness had built the empire he now controlled. Every brothel, every restaurant, every fruit cart peddling vegetables in Ashford, none of it moved without the Razor Society getting a cut.Vince might've been somebody in Blackwood Alley. Compared to the Razor Society, he was a joke.What were these two doing looking for Vince?Gimpy's eyes darted back and forth, scrambling for a plan. Tell the truth? Lie and try to send them off somewhere else?Luckily, before he had to decide, a sho