by Brent Tyman
“You poor thing!” Kesara sighed. “I couldn’t imagine being saddled with such responsibility.”
“I can imagine it,” Daiver quipped. “I’m sure for others not as naturally gifted as me, even being the heir to land like a county is very taxing.”
“Daiver, is that really a thing you want to say to a lady?” Kesara retorted smoothly, a grin on her face.
Clarissa had been listening silently until her eyes widened all of a sudden.
“Wait!” she said. “Was that the ailment I couldn’t heal when you had no injuries? That has to be it! Right, handsome?”
She was likely referring to the reason I’d had to use my Dynamic Healing spell on Aurielle in the first place. Clarissa had struggled to heal the wounds Aurielle had sustained when the Troglodread burst through the wall she’d been standing next to and had barely kept her alive until this apparent ‘curse’ had been lifted. My powerful Dynamic Healing spell had cured her of some strange illness which was preventing her body from accepting Clarissa’s healing.
Aurielle nodded before I could answer.
“Indeed. My curse is no more, thanks to you Alex,” she said.
“Glad I could help,” I replied, smiling. “You tried to warn us about that Troglodread monster, the least I could do was heal you.”
“Ahh, where is the Troglodread now?” Anny asked, looking around in alarm. “I hope it doesn’t show up again.”
“Fear not,” Aurielle replied. “I dispatched the monster shortly after I awoke in Valdura. It cannot harm anyone now.”
“Huh,” Daiver snorted. “Just… just like that?”
“Did you not observe her power?” Karl commented, still focused on his scribbling. “With how she dealt with this Malophas, that beast would be of no consequence to her.”
“Well, actually…” Daiver started before being interrupted by Vencia.
“If you recall, Daiver was very much knocked out, and therefore couldn’t observe the battle.”
“You forgot to mention he was ‘heroically’ unconscious,” Kesara grinned. “Isn’t that right, Daiver?”
“Of course!” Daiver shouted, laughing. “I’m sure my contribution to the fight, as short as it was, will be recorded for future generations at the least.”
Yep, Daiver was really back to his old self. I was glad to see that his hard knock to the ground hadn’t messed with his impossible optimism and jovial attitude.
“To answer your original question,” Aurielle said, drawing our attention back to her. “With my curse weakening me, and being too weak to fight for my homeland, I travelled here to seek artifacts that might aid me.”
“Artifacts?” I questioned. “Do you mean you needed loot from a certain monster?”
“I believe she is referring to a very old legend,” Karl answered. “Legend tells of powerful artifacts that are scattered in the deepest recesses of the Dungeon.”
Clarissa’s eyes grew hungry at the talk of these powerful items. It seemed she had quite the interest in loot.
Well, loot that wasn’t from the first couple floors of the Dungeon. She had an appetite for pricy loot, it seemed, given how she’d pestered me to gather up the loot from the Demons, the Titan, and Glower Serpent.
“Oh? Are these artifacts extremely valuable?” Clarissa asked, her eyes shining.
“If they exist, then most definitely,” Karl said, pushing his glasses up onto his nose as he paused in his scribbling for a moment.
“Aren’t you already… uhh,” I said, trying to think of a good way to remind her of her wealthy origins. “Don’t you have a hot spring in your room, back in Hoganna?”
Clarissa clapped her hands together in excitement. “This is all for you, handsome! If we can get the shiniest loot, then the Gods only know what limits our Clan can reach.”
“You want to find these artifacts yourself?” Juliana asked with a frown.
Clarissa turned to her, wagging a finger. “And you should too. More loot means more power. These artifacts must be extremely versatile and unique if someone like Aurielle is looking for them, right?”
“That is indeed the case,” Aurielle admitted, looking sheepish all of a sudden. “While I do not know what I will find, I am sure that anything in the legends will aid me in my quest. The Dungeon in my homeland wasn’t an option, due to its troubles, making this Dungeon a safer alternative to achieve my goal.”
Anny jumped all of a sudden, her eyes unfocused.
“Oh no, I can see several auras coming into my view. I think some of the Glower Serpents are returning to the area.”
“It appears we have lingered here too long,” Juliana said, her lips compressing tight in worry.
“Come with us, Aurielle,” I suggested. “We could certainly use any help we can get.”
“I was about to suggest the same thing,” Aurielle replied, smiling. “I wish to repay my debt to you for freeing me of my curse. If you would allow me, I will escort you to your destination and to safety.”
“An excellent proposition,” Karl declared. “Please, allow me to ask you questions from the list I have compiled thus far.”
Karl pulled out a piece of parchment that was covered with symbols. They weren’t from my own language back home, yet I could understand them all the same.
There was barely a single space left on either side of that parchment and it seemed like Karl had dozens of questions at the ready.
Possibly even more, knowing him.
“Hmm,” Juliana mused. “I suppose it’s fine. What are your thoughts, Clarissa?”
Clarissa gave me a single glance before nodding her head.
“I trust my handsome Alex’s judgement. Stick close to us, Aurielle.”
With that decided, we organized the soldiers and set off again for the camping spot Anny had picked out earlier.
As Clarissa had requested, Aurielle stuck close by me, giving me oddly intense looks every so often. I didn’t mind, though. Not in the least.
She really was gorgeous.
One thing was for certain, with her with us, our odds of surviving this Dungeon had increased dramatically. Being able to throw giant magical spears that took down a Malophas was nothing to sneeze at. She’d even taken down a Troglodread, which was just as impressive.
Today had been full of surprises, to say the least. I could only hope the rest of the journey would taper down a little so that I could get some much needed rest.
But knowing both Juliana and Clarissa, sleep was going to be a luxury and most likely the least of their priorities when we stopped for the night…
6
Despite everyone in my Clan having fairly low luck, at least compared to the rest of our stats, the next few days were—luckily—as uneventful as they could be.
Thanks to Juliana’s and Clarissa’s insistence that I sleep with them, I no longer had to share a tent with Karl and Daiver like we had during our journey to the Beastkin town. I certainly did not miss Daiver’s snoring, not in the least.
Not that it would have mattered, really, as by the time the women were done wearing me out, I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
Despite having a surplus of shelters and supplies at the start of our journey, the loss of men to the Glower Serpent meant that there weren’t enough tents for everyone to have their own. There was only so much the soldiers could carry, after all, and the priority was food and water.
Aurielle shared a tent with Kesara and stayed with us at the front as we navigated the Dungeon. She had been forthcoming with Karl on specifics about her homeland, but remained tightlipped on anything that to do with her status as a ‘Chosen’, other than what she’d told us already.
It wasn’t until she’d been with us for two days that I remembered she’d wanted to speak with me privately. Surprisingly, she hadn’t mentioned a thing about it since then.
Then again, Juliana had insisted on everyone keeping as quiet as we could during our travel through the Dungeon, just in case these Glower Serpents c
ould detect us over long distances.
Progress was slow and our route far from straightforward as we did our utmost to avoid any further encounters with monsters on this floor. While there were opportunities to travel upwards to the floor above us, we’d decided to stay on this floor for much of the journey.
This was mostly because the Glower Serpents had eliminated whatever used to dwell here and were relatively spread out, compared to regular Dungeon floors. We didn’t know if we would be quite so lucky if we went up a floor, only to find monsters everywhere.
“All this travelling is starting to get on my nerves,” Kesara complained. “There’s absolutely nothing to talk about.”
“What do you want to talk about?” I asked out of curiosity, although I was careful to keep my voice down.
“I don’t suppose…” Kesara mused, a finger on her lips. “I don’t suppose you’d fill me in on what exactly goes on in that tent of yours after we all turn in for the night.”
“Absolutely nothing!” Juliana squawked, before covering her mouth. “I mean… nothing untoward,” she added in a harsh whisper.
“Absolutely nothing, you say?” Kesara’s grin stretched ear to ear as she snickered. “But I’m afraid the jig is up, my Lady. The entire camp can hear Clarissa’s… you know.”
All eyes turned to Clarissa, who simply shrugged and gave me a wink. “What can I say? Our nightly activities really get me… excited. Wouldn’t you agree, handsome?”
“Don’t answer that, Alex,” Juliana snapped, her face beet red. “Let’s talk about something more productive.”
“Productive you say?” Kesara mused, “but we were having so much fun with this juicy gossip.”
I shook my head as Juliana dragged Kesara a little away from the rest of us.
“I must admit,” Aurielle said, a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “I have heard of the retinues assigned to guard the heirs of the three nations, but you are all far from what I expected.”
“I assure you,” Karl said. “We are extremely competent, when it matters. Although, that has been tested quite harshly of late… against opponents far more powerful than I ever imagined facing.”
“Yes, despite our differences… I have grown quite fond of this arrangement for My Lady,” Vencia added.
“If everyone appreciated how strong I am, I’m sure we would get along much more swimmingly,” Daiver said, quickly flexing his arm.
“You are meant to be increasing your Defense,” Vencia said. “Must we really get into this again?”
“Eh, who cares about Defense if I can defeat my enemies with these Strength stats,” the man shrugged.
Everyone groaned at that, but Aurielle’s laugher lightly echoed off the walls at the party’s banter.
“What of you, Alex. Are you part of Juliana’s retinue, or Clarissa’s?” she asked.
“Neither,” I replied. “I came along to help them out with the Ogre attacks on the Beastkin town. I don’t have anything fancy like land to call myself an heir to something.”
“Really? I was under the impression that the major Clans of the north nations are very proud of their succession rights,” Aurielle said.
Finally! Someone who also noticed that. Though, to be fair, it was mostly Daiver who never failed to remind everyone that he was a Duke’s son. Everyone seemed to love being heirs to land here, though.
“Of course,” Daiver blurted. “My lineage is of the utmost importance to me.”
“What about you, Aurielle? Are you the heir of… anything?” I asked.
She pondered this question for a moment.
“Hmm, perhaps one day I will be, if I prove worthy,” she said cryptically, which piqued Karl’s interest, but despite his unflagging efforts to get her to explain what she meant by that, it was clear she wasn’t going to elaborate on her cryptic statement.
We continued in silence for a few hours, after Karl finally gave up and stopped pestering Aurielle, before Anny suddenly tilted her head in confusion.
“Oh,” she said, stopping.
“What’s wrong, Anny?” I asked.
“Its… ahh… Well, I don’t know.”
“Is your skill not working?” Juliana questioned, and she shook her head.
“Well, it’s not that… ahh… How to explain… Please follow me,” she said, before turning down a side tunnel.
It wasn’t like we were planning to follow anyone else at this point, so after exchanging a few confused looks, we followed her. We were able to see exactly what had puzzled her when we turned a few corners and came across something truly odd.
This Dungeon floor had been mostly long tunnels with the occasional large cavern sprinkled in between. Other than the Glower Serpent and Malophas appearing, and minor evidence of broken chunks of walls scattered here and there on this floor—which we could safely attribute to monsters—there hadn’t been anything strange we couldn’t explain away.
Except for the very bright blue line streaking across the tunnel floor before us, leading to two holes on either side.
Rubble surrounded the openings of these holes, though they looked just as deliberate as the opening we had used to come into the Dungeon in the first place, from the tunnels around Valdura.
“This can’t be,” Juliana muttered.
“Huh. Isn’t that like the lines on the first floor of the Dungeon?” Clarissa asked. “The resemblance is striking.”
That was exactly what I had been thinking. This blue line was eerily similar to the green line used to navigate the first floor of this Dungeon.
As far as I knew, the city state council had it painted to aid adventurers looking to grind in the Dungeon. It was certainly not a natural phenomenon.
What the heck was a blue line doing here?
“Fascinating,” Karl said, as he took out his parchments. “To think that there could be others in this Dungeon with us.”
“Is that what this means?” Vencia asked. “We haven’t seen anyone else.”
“Seeing others down here is one thing,” Juliana reasoned. “But taking the time to paint a guidance marker onto a floor this deep? Seems rather peculiar and out of place.”
We approached the blue line and examined it. I scraped my boot along its surface and none of it budged in the slightest.
Clearly it had been here for a while.
“These walls have been cut very precisely,” Karl muttered as he ran a finger along the edge of the opening. “It wasn’t so clear with the previous opening we found, but this one was done with earth magic. You can see how the mage tapped each section of the wall and essentially pulled it out as a large rod.”
I most definitely could not see that at all, but had no problem taking his word for it. Some of the rubble caught my eye, and when I kneeled down to investigate, I noticed several pieces that were shaped oddly.
Reaching down to pick one up, I lifted a section of rubble that was nearly a perfect rectangle up to my face. One end had been snapped off. As I looked at the rubble more closely, I could see there was a clear symmetry to some pieces, while the rest looked to have been deliberately crushed.
Karl came over and scrutinized the bit of rubble I held in my hand.
“I see you have come to the same conclusion as I have, Alex,” Karl said.
“Care to share with the rest of us?” Kesara said. “This makes no sense to me.”
“I don’t understand either,” Anny muttered.
“It’s quite simple. Earth mages have dug from the surface deep into the Dungeon, and this is how they travel back and forth.”
Everyone was silent as I flicked the rubble from my hand and stood up.
“Earth mages from where, though?” I asked, “the city state council?”
“Pfft,” Clarissa scoffed. “Trust me, handsome, they wouldn’t dare let anyone meddle with their primary attraction.”
“I agree,” Juliana said. “The city state council would never allow their Dungeon to be defiled like this.”
“Perhaps they are from your families, looking to aid in your rescue?” Aurielle suggested.
Clarissa snorted at that and gave a bitter chuckle. “Ha! Just wait till you meet my father, Aurielle,” Clarissa said. “While he equipped me better than Juliana’s father did for this venture, he’s probably too busy schmoozing the city state council to notice I haven’t returned yet.”
“And my father is… my father.” Juliana’s eyes had dimmed before she’d ducked behind long brown tresses to hide her scarlet cheeks, but that sentence pretty much summed up the man I had met in the headmaster’s chambers.
“He hasn’t mentioned the Beastkin even once since I broke the news of our success, other than to repeat his demands that we return to Tringall with all haste, of course.”
“Did you see anything like this before you reached Valdura, Aurielle?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I travelled deep into the Dungeon in search of the artifacts, but my time there was relatively short,” she admitted.
“Oh? How come?” Clarissa asked. “Did you have trouble working out where to start looking?”
“Not for that reason,” Aurielle replied. She gripped her armored wrist with her other hand and idly pressed down, her face tilted to the side as she pondered what to say.
“After exploring the depths for only a few days, I spotted a Titan barreling through a bunch of Ogres on its way to the surface. I knew it would be devastating to allow such a powerful monster to roam freely above, hence I postponed my search for artifacts to track it down. The Ogres slowed me down more than I am pleased to admit, and you know of the havoc the Troglodread caused.”
“Uhh, don’t remind me,” Vencia growled. “That beast caused terrible harm to our forces and to My Lady.”
“You planned to dispatch the Titan all by yourself?” Karl asked, his eyes wide.
Aurielle simply nodded.
I gave a low whistle. “I’ve got to say, that’s pretty admirable of you. It took me, Juliana, Clarissa and Anny combined to even have a shot at taking it down.”
Aurielle let out a smile at that, which I returned.
“I must thank you, instead,” she said. “It was my duty to slay the Titan, to prevent the future harm it could cause. It pleases me to know there are others who use their powers to help others.”
