“True,” I agreed. “And technically, all the time I spent under the ground I was carrying out his only order — go with the scouts and do as they say. They said to crawl down burrows and look for something unusual. But my oath says that I must do that only until I am able to repay my debt in full. The main argument in favor of my interpretation is that the Great System has never made a peep. That must mean I’m doing everything right.”
“Do you mean to say you’re ready to pay back your debt to Bardan?”
“Exactly,” I answered. “But there’s a problem.”
“As soon as you show up in Skorx’s camp and announce that you’re ready to pay back your debt, they’ll come after you even harder,” Jay stated the obvious.
“Exactly,” I answered. “A zero, who miraculously survived the caverns, is suddenly able to pay off a huge sum... Sorry, I can’t say how much...”
“I understand. You’re bound by oath,” she nodded.
“Heh... Can you imagine what they might think?”
“Beyond that, I have every reason to believe that as soon as Bardan finds out about my miraculous resurrection he’ll do everything to try and hold onto me. He’s probably already been told about my unique and interesting specialty.”
“You can say that again...” Jay chuckled unhappily. “But still, you’ll attract attention when you show up to pay back the debt.”
“I have a plan,” I answered. “There’s someone I need to find. An old friend of my parents. A respected healer woman. If someone like that pays off my debt, even if it’s with my money, there shouldn’t be any questions. Well, they might ask, but at that point I’ll be free! Do you understand?”
“It’s a risky plan,” Jay stroked her chin in thought. “It has lots of holes, but it’s still better than going back to Skorx. And you have an advantage. Everyone thinks you’re dead. No one is looking for you. It’s too bad you can’t just run away. The Great System won’t allow it. But as long as your attempts to honor the oath remain pure, it will keep quiet. It must know you have enough to pay him back in full, that’s why it isn’t saying anything. By the way, what clever scheme did you come up with to earn all that money so fast? I wouldn’t mind a bit of advice.”
“Hey, how much do you owe? If it’s not a secret?”
“Oh, it’s not,” Jay chuckled bitterly. “My stupid boozehound of a daddy took a ten-gold loan from Bardan’s shady outfit.”
After a bit of thought, I said with a smile:
“We’ll be stomping around here a few more days before we reach the surface. So I think me and Gorgie can help with your problem.”
Chapter 25
- You have acquired Gray Moss.
- Congratulations! You receive:
- Experience essence (5).
- Clay tablet “Herbalism.”
- Clay tablet of Agility.
- Clay tablet “Knife Proficiency.”
“DONE,” I said to Jay, who was sitting nearby. “Twenty-four cuttings.”
She was nestled up near a large stone in the middle of the cave and absorbed in trying to mend her clothing. When she heard me, she nodded respectfully and got back to her activity.
Heh... So facile... After all, just a few hours ago she tried to object.
I saw a wall with a small outcropping of gray moss and said we should take a quick break. Jay quickly started whining and hurrying me along, saying we’re losing valuable time on worthless gray moss.
I responded that we were actually not in a hurry, but she ignored me. And I wasn’t feeling like pressuring her or being rude. I had to make a clear demonstration of why I was not going to move until I cut all the “worthless gray moss.”
When Jay saw how much loot I got from each cutting, at first she couldn’t believe her eyes. But when it finally hit her, she spent a bit of time in contemplative silence. And for the record, she hadn’t said anything about it since...
I often catch her looking at me pensively. As if she’s seeing me for the first time. And I understand why... When she first met me I was just some kid, a zero and a cripple. But now she saw me wandering dangerous caverns as if they were my home, and with a terrible monster for company. Seemingly, she didn’t believe the significantly redacted story of how I met Gorgie, from which I removed all mention of magic.
To be frank, I didn’t believe it either. I mean, I said I saw a half-dead predator and just decided to take care of it, then we became fast friends... Heh... But very soon, in our first battle, she will see my spells in action...
Well, not counting when we killed the coldune. That was very fast-paced. Jay might have thought it was Gorgie who sent the scavenger flying with his magic. And I hadn’t activated Lair again... Basically, I know I need to tell her about my magic, but I keep stalling. I’m afraid of her asking questions... The less she knows, the better for her. I had already lost two friends over my secrets...
“Why are you doing that?” Jay asked, tearing me from my thoughts.
“To dry it,” I answered, carefully setting the pieces of moss in what was, to my eye, the driest part of the cave.
“So you get tablets for that too?” she asked, baffled.
“Yes,” I nod in response. “And esses, too.”
Jay just shook her head pensively and continued sewing up her jacket. I took a fleeting glance in her direction. She cleaned herself up. She looked like the girl from old man Burdoc’s cart again. Her mess of red hair was hidden beneath a braid. The grime was gone from her face. Her clothing was neat and tidy again...
“By the way, I wanted to ask. When you worked in Bardan’s residence, you probably heard all the latest news... What’s been happening out in the world?”
“All kinds of stuff,” Jay nodded. “They say the frontier with the steppe has been restless.”
“Sure, it’s always a bit unruly out there...”
“It’s different this time,” she objected. “An orc chieftain is amassing a horde...”
That’s bad. The last orcish incursion happened a few decades ago. After that, the eastern Barony of Arundel ceased to exist. Those were the lands we now called the Wastes.
“This year our Prince Albert is getting betrothed to the daughter of the Iron King, Princess Anna.”
“I’ve heard...” I said. “Bardan is preparing soldiers for the yearly Games, which will be held in honor of their betrothal.”
She nodded and continued:
“Bad news came from the west. The expedition to the Dark Continent, which was organized and led by Count Milon, ended in failure. Only one of their several dozen ships returned. The surviving sailors all say that the rest of the expedition was engulfed by Gloom...”
When she mentioned the Dark Continent, a chill ran down my spine. I wonder, does Count Milon know the true name of those lands?
“Eric, what’s going on with you?” Jay asked in surprise.
I shuddered.
“What?”
“Well, you look like a sparrow in the cold. Like your feathers got ruffled... You’re suddenly all tense...”
Trying to affect a casual voice, I answered:
“Oh, yeah... I just remembered a scary story. Wanna hear it?”
“Oh gods! Of course not!” she waved it off and, pointing her hand around the cave, added:
“I’m trying to get out of a scary story right now...”
“You can say that again,” I answered and asked:
“Has anything changed in our Barony?”
“Baron Corwin refuses to make peace with our barony.”
“The old Raven still lays claim to part of our lands?” I asked in surprise.
“He died last month,” Jay told me. “There’s a new Raven now. Well, more like Raven chick. The say young Corwin has already threatened to cross the border with a mercenary army several times.”
I chuckled.
“Sounds like our Bear will have to go pluck their feathers again.”
She sighed.
“Oh, I don’t know... I overheard Bard
an telling his wife that Baron Berence has some kind of ailment. He’s not the same old Bear as he used to be... And unlike the young Corwin, our baron’s son is a real dunderhead. He has no interest in anything but wine and women...”
I took a heavy sigh. This was reminding me of my parents... Our cozy family evenings next to the fireplace... Mom, tired but happy, wrapped in a blanket with a glass of astringent Orchusian wine in her hand... Father enthusiastically explaining some aspect of the way of the world to me... Sorrow suddenly pierced my heart... Tears welled up in my eyes all on their own... So that Jay wouldn’t notice, I pretended to wipe sweat from my forehead with my shirt sleeve as I wiped the treacherous moisture from my cheek...
When I finally finished arranging the moss, I got up and asked:
“You ready to keep going?”
With a silent nod, she quickly shot to her feet and we were back underway.
* * *
A few hours later, the harn led us to a wide lake. We stopped right at the entrance to the cave. I looked around. The bright azure water came up to the walls almost everywhere. There was just one narrow strip of dry land, to the right. We’d have to walk it to reach the exit.
“What a spooky place...” I mumbled quietly. “Is there no way around?”
“Hrn,” Gorgie answered negatively.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught an admiring glance from Jay.
“Water!” she gave a muted squeak. “Finally I can wash up!”
“No you can’t,” I brought her from the heavens back down to earth.
“W-why not?” Jay asked, perplexed. “Are you not planning to stop here? This is water, Eric! If I don’t take a swim right now, I’ll just die! I smell like...”
I didn’t let her finish:
“No. We will not be stopping here. As a matter of fact, the faster we get out of this cave the better.”
“But why?” she asked, disappointed.
“I can you didn’t listen to Miri very well...”
“She didn’t really say much to me, actually...” Jay shrugged her fragile shoulders, winced and added:
“Dag was more the one creeping around me... A real lecher, that guy...”
“Ah, I see...” I nodded, understanding. “It all makes sense now...”
“What makes sense?”
“I’ll tell you later...” I waved it off and started quickly explaining:
“Now listen and remember. Look at the water. If water is this color, never go near it. Better to run away...”
She gulped in fear.
“W-what’s in there?” she asked, her voice quavering.
“A bleaking,” I answered shortly and added:
“The problem is that this is the only way to the surface. Gorgie was always keeping us away from dangerous places before... But alas, not this time...”
“We have to walk that strip of dry land?” Jay asked with horror in her voice, nodding at the path. “So close to the water?”
I chuckled mentally. Just a few seconds earlier, she couldn’t wait to take a swim. But out loud I said:
“Yes... But...”
I led a thoughtful gaze over the shoreline once again, the narrow path, the lake... Hm... Too risky... We’d have to think something up... And by the way, Gorgie was in complete agreement...
“W-what’s th-the m-m-matter?” she asked, now slightly rattled.
“We can only walk after we fight.”
“You’re going to fight the monster?!”
Jay’s eyes looked like two saucers. She was staring at me as if I were mentally unstable.
“Yes,” I nodded. “Look around. Here on this strip of dry land, we have an advantage. Bleakings are kings of the water, but weaker on land. Here they go much slower. We have to lure it on shore.”
“You’ve lost your mind!”
“Perhaps,” I nodded back. “But we don’t have any other way out. If we don’t take it down here, the creature is sure to catch us on the narrow path.”
“Are you even sure there is one?” she asked, shaking and tilting her head toward the lake cautiously.
“Yes. Gorgie can smell it. He says the bleaking already knows we’re here, too. It’s swimming over...”
“And we can’t go back?” she made her final attempt.
“Better to just prepare for a fight at this point,” I said and added:
“If we work together, we’ll survive.”
That’s only if we win. But I didn’t say that out loud. Jay was about to fall unconscious in fear as it was.
“By the way,” I said, taking some Blots out of my backpack. “Remember when I said you’d see lots of weird stuff? Don’t forget the oath you swore.”
Jay said nothing back. Her mouth open wide, she was captivated, watching the brown spheres appear in my hand one after the other as if from thin air.
When I activated Gulper’s Lair, she reacted with a muted whimper.
“Three hundred points of defense is not much,” I commented calmly. “But in a pinch, it could be the difference between life and death. Believe you me, I’ve had it happen before...”
She now resembled a mechanical porcelain doll, only able to give identical nods until the spring inside stops bobbing.
“Hrn...” Gorgie warned and the scales on the back of his neck immediately stood on end.
I glanced toward the water and, not turning, said over my shoulder:
“Get ready. The bleaking is coming on the attack.”
If not for its excessively mobile tail, the body of the reptile swimming in our direction could be confused with a big piece of driftwood.
When Jay saw the monster, she gave a muted scream. Hm... I’m afraid to even imagine her reaction if she saw an Ysh or an Acid Worm...
Meanwhile, the bleaking swam up to the shore and froze for a few seconds. After it realized we were not planning to walk any closer to the water, it crawled onto the land, slithering smoothly. The curved claws on its short feet gave an unpleasant screech when they touched stone.
“Level nineteen...” Jay whispered with horror in her voice.
The lizard’s long flat body was covered in pale scales. And for the record, they didn’t look all that tough. An oblong, extended snout... Jaws lined with triangular teeth... A ridge of bone running from the back of the head all the way to the tip of the tail... The bleaking was in some way reminiscent of a Red Alligator that jumped out of the portal. I’m reminded that we didn’t even need to activate a trap to kill it.
I swallowed some spit. No taste of bitterness or rot. No... Bleakings come from our world. But that won’t stop us from using the same tactic that helped us take down a similar creature before.
When the lizard reached an acceptable distance, I threw all three Blots one after the next. Losing sixty percent of its energy had an immediate effect on the monster’s movement speed.
Five steps... And the Eel’s Chain Lightning immobilized the predator completely. On the edge of my perception, I hear Jay breathing fitfully.
The harn slammed full force into the stock-still reptile’s scaled side. The bleaking was turned onto its back, revealing a poorly defended white stomach. Gorgie immediately crashed down on it from above. It was an obvious crit...
The thin scales, torn up by the teeth and claws of the cat were turned to bloodied scraps in a matter of moments. Its guts fell out of its belly and hit stone.
Okay... The fifteen seconds are up. The bleaking will come to its senses now. The harn made a long jump to the side. And just in the nick of time... The reptile’s toothy jaws, despite the ghastly wound and loss of over half its energy, gnashed loudly just a millimeter from the cat’s back paw.
The attack made me shudder... Phew... Gorgie could have easily lost a limb...
Not wasting any more time, I activate a Fury scroll for extra power, then land a Ram right on the bleaking’s exposed belly as it tries to dodge.
- Critical hit. You have dealt 102 damage!
Taking a few somersaults
, the lizard again froze in place. His intestines, outside his body, were wrapped around his scaled body and mixed together with blood, slime, sand and pebbles. A nasty smell of decay reached my nose. I heard a characteristic sound; seemingly Jay is nauseous.
Gorgie continued to attack, not wasting any time. All caked in monster blood, he looked like an ancient demon of the caverns as he mangled his old enemy’s unprotected stomach. Based on the harn’s emotions, a creature just like this had once almost killed my four-legged friend...
Dungeons of the Crooked Mountains Page 33