Chief? What is he talking about? He looked over questioningly at Gwenda, who only indicated with a wave of her hand that she would talk about it with him later.
The Merchants with the Elf seemed shocked at the title, and appeared ready to bolt. Unfortunately, they were forced to drag their leader out, who appeared ready to protest his treatment once again – at least, that was what Sterge gathered from the nearly incoherent screams and ramblings as he left.
Then, as if nothing had happened, the Inn picked up its rumbling conversation again. By all accounts it was back to normal in less than 20 seconds after the Merchants left. Glancing around the room, he could see that there were a few other small groups of what appeared to be more Merchants scattered around, trying to appear as unobtrusive as possible; even though they received some harsh looks, nobody accosted them.
“Sorry about that, Sterge. I should have told you sooner.”
“Told me about what?”
Gwenda seemed a little embarrassed for some reason. “Well, the others and I agreed to let you become the ‘unofficial’ Chief of The Village, as we needed to have a figurehead to represent our interests.”
That was certainly news to him. He had heard a few people on his construction crew mention “chief” when he was talking to them or giving instructions on what to build next, but he had thought it was just an affectation like “lad” or “boss”. “Why me? There are plenty of other people in The Village that would do much better – including you.”
“That might be true in some respects, but you’re the perfect person for the job. For one, you wouldn’t want the position – even if it’s more of a figurehead than anything – even if we told you about it, which is why we did it secretly. Second, you’re a Raider – and that makes a world of difference when dealing with other people, especially other Raiders. And thirdly, I’m much more comfortable being your voice and decision-maker, because I wouldn’t have as much leeway to do what I need to do if I were ‘in charge’.”
Sterge wasn’t sure what difference that would make, but he assumed she knew more about it than he did. “So…how come they stood up for me?”
“Because you’re one of them, a Raider, as opposed to these Merchants. There’s some bad blood between them, or so I’ve found from some discreet questioning, and though many of those we saw arrive are technically Raiders in the fact that they registered with the Raider Delving Clan, they are almost their own separate entity.
“And not only are you a Raider, but nearly everyone who has been in The Village has seen you working tirelessly to build these Inns with your own two hands so that they could be comfortable. While you and I may not be very powerful as far as our Raider Levels are considered, your strength of character can go a long way in their estimation. It’s one of the reasons they despise the Merchants so much, because the Merchants try to buy their strength through their wealth instead of through hard work and dedication.”
Sterge was still a little confused and shocked that they had made this decision about him being a Village Chief without him, but he could start to see the wisdom behind it. He could also understand where their viewpoint towards the Merchants came from, as he had seen it firsthand. Then again, he had also experienced firsthand the sheer savagery and disdain for non-Raiders that the Clan could display, and it was probably due only to the fact that they didn’t own or control the nearby land that they were behaving themselves. Oh, he was well aware that not all of them were bad, just like the majority of the Merchants were probably decent folk, but both factions were capable of doing things that could hurt the common people of the world.
As much as it seemed like the majority of the Raiders were on his side, that didn’t mean they would always stay that way.
After the assault on the loud-mouthed Elf, both Sterge and Gwenda were expecting some sort of response from the Merchants. Oddly enough, nothing seemed to come of it other than an underlying tension between the two factions. There were a few scuffles the next day, but nothing that required more than some basic spells from a Healer to patch them up. Things seemed to calm down after that – until later that evening, when some bodies were found on the side of the dirt road halfway from The Village and Heftington.
“Who were they? Do we know how they died?” Sterge asked Gwenda as soon as he heard about them. Worries about bandits or highwaymen attacking travelers along the pathway leading to Heftington ran through his head, as none of them had really been present before; there hadn’t been much of value traveling that far south, but that apparently had changed.
Gwenda told him about who they were – a group of Clan Raiders, not Merchant Raiders – and she knew very little about what had actually happened to them. The only thing she knew for certain was that very little of their valuables had been stolen – as few possessions as they had for a beginning Raider group – and that they had been dumped there unceremoniously after they were killed somewhere else. What was the strangest part of it all, however, was that they were seen entering the dungeon earlier that day, and had even been quickly Analyzed before they went inside to verify that they were indeed who they were supposed to be. It had happened more than once where another group had tried to “jump the line” and pretend to take the place of a different group, so everyone was Analyzed (the same Ability the Clan Outpost leader had used on him and Gwenda) to verify their identity.
Even stranger was the fact that they never came out. No one had remarked on it other than to be more cautious for the rest of the day, because while a full-group wipe wasn’t common for beginning dungeons – again, so he had been told – it wasn’t unheard of. That first group of drunken Humans nearly had their full group wiped, so everyone thought something drastic had happened to this group to precipitate their demise inside the dungeon. Obviously, something had – though the mystery of how they ended up outside the dungeon was currently unsolvable.
Reportedly, the Merchants were also missing some of their own, though without any bodies that turned up that news was more of a rumor than anything. Even that much information was only gathered from a few of the Merchants that traded goods with the Raiders on the perimeter of their camp; despite their animosity, business continued on between the two factions, regardless of feelings towards each other. Having them there was slightly hurting the business of their own Delving Supply Store, but not enough to make that much of a difference.
The next day after the bodies of the five Raiders were found, tensions between the two factions rose even higher. The Raiders that hung around The Village all seemed to blame the Merchants for their deaths, even though there wasn’t even the slightest shred of evidence naming them the culprit; the Merchants, as if in response, took affront to being accused of doing something they didn’t do. Other than some minor trading done on the fringes of their camp, interactions between them ground to a virtual halt. All of the Merchant members who had previously visited the Inns for food and drink – if not for accommodations – no longer frequented them. In fact, the only time they were seen outside of their camp was when they would come to bother Jesper again about their place in line, which was still the same as it had been when they arrived: last.
A few of the Merchant groups tried to “buy” a spot on the list by offering up gold coins to the Raider groups, but after the dead group was found, Jesper put a stop to that.
“No Raider group may exchange their place on my list with another, unless specifically allowed to do so by me. And I’m not planning on switching anyone, no matter how much of an…incentive…is presented to me.” To Sterge, that sounded pretty final and without any type of ambiguity attached to it; the Merchants, however, took advantage of a loophole. Instead of switching groups around, they paid quite a few Raider groups to withdraw their names from the list, which inevitably moved them up in the timeline.
“I don’t understand; isn’t the reason they’re here at all so that they don’t have to pay strong groups of Raiders to usher their young Merchants through more difficult dungeons?
Doesn’t that defeat the purpose?” Sterge asked Gwenda, but Jesper just happened to be nearby and overheard his question.
“The savings between paying even a hundred groups here a few gold to withdraw their name and a single run through a harder dungeon is immense. Last I heard, a group of 4 Raiders escorting a single low-Leveled Merchant through a mid-difficulty dungeon would run them at least 100 gold. Granted, the benefits from that delve would net the new Merchant Raider anywhere between 6 and 10 Raider Levels because of the difficulty, but it is an expensive investment – and there is still a significant danger that they could perish with one wrong move on their part.
“And keep in mind that is for one new Merchant Raider. Multiply that by how many you’ve seen here, and you might be able to understand why they would come all this way in order to take advantage of this dungeon being here. The prospect of controlling access to this place is probably a big draw, as well.”
Gwenda snorted in acknowledgement. “That’s for sure; I get approached every day by that Minister about securing the lease for this land.”
Sterge didn’t know she was still being approached by the Merchant, though he had mentioned that he wasn’t giving up. Regardless, he knew Gwenda and the others were determined to hold onto what they had and weren’t willing to give it up – all the more so, now that they had been successful in keeping their livelihoods through all of the changes recently.
“See that you keep your autonomy, girl; the last thing we need is another major conflict here.”
“You’ve mentioned something like that before; what exactly do you mean?” Sterge asked the Clan representative.
Jesper shut his mouth and appeared guilty, as if he had said something he shouldn’t have. After almost a minute of a visible conversation he was having with himself, he finally relented and shared something with them. “I really shouldn’t have said anything, because it doesn’t really involve you…right now. Just know that the only safety you have here is your relative independence; the lands around almost every other dungeon on the continent are controlled by either the Clan or the Merchants.” He paused for another moment. “Let’s just say that confrontations between us haven’t always been the nicest, and it just seems to be getting worse for some reason.”
That didn’t sound good to Sterge, nor Gwenda obviously. “Then…wouldn’t it behoove you and the Clan to try to control this land, as well.”
Jesper just smiled sadly. “Ideally, yes; however, neither I nor Trevelyan want this land to become a hotbed for conflict, which it would inevitably become. Brand-new dungeons are a rarity in and of themselves, and for one to be so accommodating as this one has been is even rarer. This is arguably the most popular place to be right now, even if it’s primarily for Raiders just starting out on their journeys. Because of that, neutral control is the ideal situation here to avoid bloodshed; even better, that control is backed by an ironclad lease, which not even the crown can withdraw without good reason; otherwise, such a precedent could endanger all of the dealings people have with the crown.”
Sterge hadn’t realized how big of a deal all of this was, even when he was warned by the Clan Outpost leader weeks ago. He looked at Gwenda and saw some of the same feelings he currently possessed reflected on her face as well, though not as much surprise. She must’ve known some of this before; where have I been? Jesper wandered off shortly afterwards, probably afraid they would ask more questions he wasn’t supposed to answer.
“Well, we’re in the thick of it now; no going back, I guess,” Sterge told his long-time friend with a shrug. She just smiled back at him and gave him a side hug on the bench they were sitting on.
“We’ll just have to make the most of it, that’s true.” Her voice sounded a little strained, before it softened somewhat. “I’m glad you’re here with me, though…have I told you that lately?”
“No, but you don’t need to; I know that already. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
A group of Raiders was approaching them, looking one part angry and one part confused. It didn’t look urgent, but Sterge could tell they were wanting to complain or ask Gwenda some questions. “Well, I guess we better get back to work – those Inns won’t build themselves!” He skipped out before he could get roped into having to talk to them.
Sterge looked back at her as he got to the construction site of the newest Inn, number 10 if he was counting right; she looked strained already talking to the Raiders, but she also appeared in her element. It was as if she were made for this kind of work, and it certainly suited her personality much better than farming. What about me, though? Is this what I was made for? Construction and farming? Being a figurehead of a village?
As if by its own volition, his head turned towards the Wentrylock Mountains, and the dungeon located within its peaks. No time for that now – perhaps in the future. Besides, do I really want to go back to the place where we almost died? With a sigh, he picked up another board and started on the wall of the Inn he had been working on earlier.
As crazy as it sounds, I think the answer to that is…yes.
Chapter 11
The four-hour delay – directly after she had trapped the Core-destroying Raiders – in signaling the next group to come in luckily didn’t cause too much of a disturbance to those waiting for her dungeon to reopen. It only took that long to restore all of the traps through her normal dungeon rooms and restock them with creatures because she had ended up spending a lot of her Dungeon Force to slow down and eventually stop those Raiders that had tried to destroy her. She also got started reestablishing the deadlier traps in her Core Room; despite their ineffectiveness against such heavily armored and enchanted individuals as had just defeated them, they were less expensive to rearm rather than to replace with something deadlier.
Not that she could think of anything deadlier that she could currently set up based on her limited Dungeon Force and lack of Trap Specializations in those kinds of traps. Regardless, they would stop 99% of the people that had normally been delving through her dungeon; for anyone stronger, or for those wearing enchanted armor, there really wasn’t much that she could create at this stage in her development.
The first group in after she sent her Root Fox out to indicate everything was ready complained a bit about the wait, but that only lasted for the first few minutes. Tacca watched them intently and scrutinized every word they said as they delved through her dungeon, looking and listening for any indication that they were going to try and finish her Core off since the others had failed. When they left and the next group came inside, without any indication that they were there for any other purpose other than to kill creatures and gather rewards, her Dungeon Fairy spoke up.
“I really don’t think they were working with any of the other Raiders,” Shale said slowly, choosing his words carefully. “Based on what we’ve heard, I doubt that anyone but this ‘Minister’ they were talking about knew that they were coming here. Not that there isn’t a possibility of it happening again, but I can’t see a reason for them to want to do it; normally, dungeons are supposed to help them get stronger, and the only reason to get rid of them is because they aren’t helping. As I’m sure you remember, given what you were doing before…you know…this happened.” He looked embarrassed as he waved towards her Core.
While she wasn’t completely over being unknowingly used to destroy those other Cores, a good portion of the pain and anguish involved in the process of her Bond breaking with them had numbed over time. Recently faced with her own destruction and the reasoning behind it – which didn’t really make sense, as it was based not on what she had been doing, but from some sort of conflict outside of her dungeon – she could better understand why it may have been necessary to destroy those other Cores. As far as Tacca was concerned, she hadn’t done anything to deserve destruction; even Shale agreed, and he was the one who was a stickler for the rules.
The evidence that the group that tried to destroy her Core was working alone was further enhanced when
she listened in and relayed the angry conversations of her sealed-in victims.
“We wouldn’t even be here if it hadn’t been for your need to prove yourself—”
“Oh, shut it! There really was no other choice, you know. They couldn’t send in one of the elite squads because, as you know, they Analyze everyone before they go in—”
“I’m well aware of why we were chosen, but I shouldn’t have let you volunteer me—”
“You all practically begged to come with me! Besides, we were all the perfect choices, especially if we wanted to pin the blame for this on those filthy Raiders that are likely to be found on the side of the road by now—”
“I don’t want to hear it with your ‘perfect’ choices; this doesn’t seem so perfect now—"
“ENOUGH! Instead of arguing, let’s get out of here before we starve to death—”
“Oh, I have enough food and drink inside my bottomless bag to last us for at least a week. I don’t think that’ll be the problem, though, because I have a feeling we’ll suffocate before—
“If that’s the case, then help me with this wall here before it’s too late—”
“Here, let me take over; you’re floundering like a fool—”
“I’m just so tired—”
The entire conversation/argument lasted for quite a while, but Tacca basically tuned out the majority of it and didn’t even strive to identify who was speaking most of the time. The basic idea she got from it supported Shale’s theory that they were working alone, however, because it seemed as if these Raiders were specifically chosen in order to frame another group of Raiders for the destruction of her Dungeon Core.
Needless to say, she wasn’t happy about any of it. Even with that unhappiness, Tacca still felt a little bad about what she was doing to them. As groups of Raiders continued to delve through her dungeon late into the evening, without showing any signs that they knew about or wanted to continue the objective of those that were trapped in the depths of her dungeon, the Core watched them slowly succumb to the lack of breathable air inside their prison. At about 8 hours into their imprisonment, the first of the Raiders collapsed on the ground, unable to get up and move around anymore from the inability to take a deep breath; one-by-one, the others collapsed as well, slumped against the ground or against the wall, barely breathing and holding on to life.
The Dungeon Fairy: Two Choices: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 2) Page 12