by Dakota Krout
The intrepid adventurers stood, stretching and limbering up happily. Each of them felt that they had made good progress for the day and were excited to enjoy a night of relaxation. As they were leaving, they used their tokens at the exchange chest. Their earlier suppositions seemed to hold true, as silver tokens from the third floor turned into gold bars, and average-looking weapon tokens released minor Inscribed weapons. Each of them was using a weapon more suited to them than what they found, so they happily made plans to split the profit that selling them would bring.
“Do we even know anyone that uses a halberd?” Hans scoffed after he pulled a large polearm from the chest. “These things are basically useless in a dungeon! Half the time the tunnels are so narrow…”
Tom looked at the long weapon. “I think that would be an acceptable weapon in here. Why is it such a disagreeable armament?”
“Pff! This dungeon is an outlier!” Hans jeered, twirling the shaft of the halberd in his palm. “Most dungeons really make you work to even stand up straight. None of you believe me, I can tell. There is definitely something different about this place though. Smart Mobs, fortifications,” he spat the word in disgust, “and now an ecosystem? You don’t normally see things like this in a dungeon below the A-rankings.”
“Is it really that different than the norm?” Dale inquired as he walked.
Hans bobbed his head. “Yeah, it’s special all right. Prolly why Frank has been so shitty toward you in the last few months.”
“What do you mean?” Dale asked as they started moving toward the exit portal.
Hans glanced at him with a smirk, which died as he saw that Dale was serious. “Really? The backstabbing in council meetings, the constant attempts to get more control, the plans to eke every last copper he can get out of you?”
Dale shrugged. “Seemed like just a Mage thing. You know, loss of touch with non-Mages, general snobbery, and sense of entitlement?”
Hans nodded. “All true, yes. Frank though, he’s a good egg. Just been under a lot of pressure recently, and you know what happens when eggs are under too much pressure, right?”
“Ahm.” Dale paused, thinking it was a rhetorical question. “They crack?”
“They crack!” Hans shouted in agreement. “Yeah. Frank is just the leader of this branch of the Adventurers Guild. The main headquarters has been getting numerous requests from other Guild Leaders to replace Frank as the main leader for the area. So, Frank had to show that he was making strong inroads into cash flow, influencing the area, and creating strong connections overall.”
“How do you know all of this?” Dale prodded his friend with a stiff finger. “I know you are on good terms with him, but it is surprising that he’d tell you all of this.”
“Huh? He doesn’t tell me these things!” Hans looked affronted. “The walls of a tent are just really thin, and his voice tends to carry if the wind is ju-u-ust right.” Hans grinned and made a gesture and was lifted off his feet by a burst of swirling air.
Dale laughed at Hans’ antics “You are so-” *Wham!* Dale was thrown into the air as a staff came out of seemingly nowhere and hit his lower legs from the side. The staff whipped around and slammed him into the ground hard enough to make him bounce.
“Situational awareness you stupid twit!” his Moon-Elf instructor screamed down at Dale’s groaning figure before vanishing into thin air.
Dead silence reigned for a moment as Dale slowly got to his feet. He coughed into his hand, a bit of blood flecked the spittle. He had bitten into his tongue as he hit the ground. “Oh, right. Hey guys, my combat instructor will be testing me constantly now. So. Ya-a-ay,” he finished weakly. Luckily he had progressed in his cultivation to the degree he had. A year ago that strike would have broken his ribs at the least.
“That’s how you’ve been training?!” Rose gasped into the quiet. “With him? But! But! He hates Humans!”
“It shows.” Tom crossed his arms and nodded as if he had spoken a great truth.
“He’s still here, don’t say anything you will regret.” Adam gestured at a corner they were approaching. The Elf re-appeared, pointing a dagger-like finger at the cleric.
“You will not give away my position in the future, or I will consider you a hindrance to my training methods.” The Elf glowered at Adam before vanishing. “This training is not for you. But I could include you.”
“Sorry, Dale. You’re on your own.” Adam grimaced as a chill went down his spine. “It’s too bad, I really liked you.”
“Don’t talk about me like I’m already dead. Just get me through the portal,” Dale whispered nervously, eyes darting around. He didn’t know it, but this type of encroaching paranoia was exactly what the Elf wanted to see. The group stepped through the portal into a cluster of people waiting expectantly on the other side.
“Dale! About time! We were just going to send a party in to seek you out,” Frank spoke in a frazzled, angry voice.
Dale looked at him with slightly unfocused eyes. “Oh. Hey, Frank. What’s the matter?”
High Magous Amber strode forward. “It seems that a delegation from multiple Kingdoms and races arrived all at the same time today. This wasn’t planned, and tensions are high as we try to find suitable accommodations for all of them.”
Dale’s gaze sharpened, and a dark look passed over his face. “Are they causing issues?”
Frank shook his head wearily. “Not as such; it is more that their presence is going to cause issues. We have a group of High Elves, a Dwarven delegation from the Stoneheart Mountain Kingdom, and Amazons from the Tigress Queendom.”
“I’m guessing they all want something from us?” Dale looked at the sunken eyes of the Guild Leader. “Hey, Frank? You know that I won’t accept a replacement for you from the Guild, right? I trust you to do the right thing, and I wouldn’t know the motivations of a different person. Take it easy.”
Frank was so surprised that he couldn’t find any words to say. He tried a few times, then simply nodded and seemed to relax a bit. “Thanks. Means a lot,” he finally voiced gruffly.
“We still have an issue, people,” Amber prodded them tersely. “What is your play on this? Should we make them wait? Make them find their own accommodations? Or act the part of the generous host and entertain them?”
Dale’s brow furrowed as he tried to precisely recall what the correct protocol for this type of situation would be. Luckily, the court etiquette memory stone he had received from the Dark Elves covered this sort of thing. Well, for all races other than the High Elves. Somehow he didn’t think kicking them out without a word would be a good move politically, so he ignored that advice.
“Give them two hours to make ready. Have a human guard show them to the bathhouse and pay the tab if they choose to use it. Show them to the Pleasure House and do the same. We need to treat them as foreign dignitaries, at least until they show a direct threat to us or tell us what they want. Then we can gracefully boot them out if they become an issue,” Dale finally issued the orders. He turned to Tyler, the only non-cultivator on the council. “I’ll get cleaned up and put on those clothes you forced me to buy.”
Tyler smirked. “Aren’t you glad you listened?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Dale grouched. He looked at his team. “Sorry all. Duty calls and all that.”
Rose’s eyebrow twitched. “You’d better not forget about that ‘talk’ you promised us.”
Tom had been uncharacteristically quiet but seemed to find his voice. “Dale, I think I may join you for this.”
Most of the people were surprised by this statement. Tom was well known for his hatred of meetings. Dale simply looked at him, and Tom shrugged. “I have my reasons.”
“Go get cleaned up then,” Dale conceded, cracking a smile. “Can’t have you smelling like rotting animal in an enclosed area like the council room!”
They all parted ways, and Dale hurried off to bathe and prepare himself. The wind had picked up and the driving snow was impeding his mobility a bit
. Only slipping once, he got to the bathhouse and quickly paid a full silver for the privilege of skipping the line and getting a hot bath. As he disrobed and sank into the heated, scented water. He sighed in contentment when his bruises and sore muscles began to be soothed.
He didn’t have too long, but he figured that he could spend a good quarter of an hour here. Thoughts of the day were spinning in his mind. He replayed his use of the earth shattering technique, trying to figure out what he had done wrong in his battle with Raile. Dale closed his eyes and extended a string of Essence into his surroundings, working with it in an attempt to get better at controlling Essence outside of his body.
Surprisingly, his Essence moved through the water easily. Dale looped the string a few times, and in a moment, there were small waves flowing away from him. He felt like he was swinging a rope lasso, and the pattern of waves seemed to reflect that. He chuckled and watched the moving water, only to see the waves break against seemingly nothing a few feet from him.
Confused for only a moment, his eyes widened and he gulped. “Uhm. Teacher?” His eyes remained locked on the empty space. His Moon-Elf teacher appeared in the large pool of water, a bitter smile on his face.
“Pure luck. You brat.” He vanished again, and Dale watched as ripples of water followed an unseen form to the edge of the pool. The door opened and closed by itself. Dale held his bare knees and rocked back and forth while taking deep breaths.
He slowly stopped panicking and continued experimenting with his Essence. Dale was surprised at how easily the water seemed to react to his extended Chi thread as he was used to having to force earth and stone to do what he wanted. Curiosity overcoming common sense, he stood up and looped his Essence in the pattern needed for the Earth shattering technique. Instead of passing the thread of power through his earth affinity channels, he went through his water channels. Unbeknownst to him, doing this caused the thread to pass through the Core in his body that accumulated water corruption. He completed the technique, and as Dale forced the Essence back to himself, a detonation of water shot as a geyser to the ceiling!
Shocked, Dale almost didn’t re-absorb the partially used Essence. He barely remembered to control it as it slammed into him, his mind enthralled at the water pouring like rain from the wood above him. The door to the room slammed open as a guard rushed in.
“My Lord!” The guard called frantically. “Are you safe…” he trailed off as he noticed Dale standing in an odd position in the bath, nude but for the gauntlets on his hands. A drop of water landed on the guard’s nose, causing him to sputter and take in the whole scene.
“I was… um. I was testing something,” Dale managed to say as he quickly turned red from embarrassment. Nearly half the pool of water had been emptied. “It. Ahhh. It worked.”
“I… I see.” The guard backed out of the room. “There is a Mage impatiently waiting for you in the entrance room. I’ll let the attendants know that they may need to… draw some water for this bath.” He gently closed the door.
~ Chapter Twelve ~
Smashing a Core in his hand and instantly feeling more alert, Dale strolled into the church. The amphitheater had become the standard gathering place, as it was currently the only place large enough to allow for the residents of the area to listen and participate in council meetings. Several tables had been set together to form a single large table especially for this occasion. There were many people that had arrived today, and the meeting had a far higher attendance than usual. The raised seating of the amphitheater was filled with various groups of scribes who sat with quills poised, eagerly awaiting the discussions and negotiations that would be taking place.
The angry muttering that had filled the area quieted a bit when the city lord entered, but the noise was not fully silenced. Appraising looks were turned on the outwardly calm human striding toward the head of the table. A few, looking at his contained Essence density and therefore his ranking, snorted and crossed their arms. Others wore stiff smiles, while a few looked outright hostile. When he sat down at the head of the table, a golden-haired human huffed and sat forward.
“Where is the woman in charge?” she demanded aggressively. Dale looked at her calmly, his eyes flashing an electric silver-blue as he assessed her ranking. A high C-rank, either eight or nine. He was still getting used to this process and hadn’t perfected his abilities.
“No woman is in charge. We do have several on the council, but the final decision on all legal matters is mine,” Dale calmly stated with an attempt at a professional smile in the face of her scowl. “There isn’t even anyone in the shadows pulling the strings either. I’m not married.”
“How do you ever get things done?” she snorted rudely, looking at the others in her delegation with mirth. “This is ridiculous. A man can’t be in charge. We should go.”
Madame Chandra, who had been silent to this point, cleared her throat. “I assure you, it is no joke. Baron Dale has taken great strides forward in his ability to be a good leader. He works harder than anyone I know, he trains in the harshest but most rewarding ways, and his efforts to rebuild after the recent ‘Wailing War’ have been immensely successful. Notice how our little town has buildings? Walls? All but the church were a pile of rubble or scorched leavings a month ago, and even the church needed significant repairs.”
The Amazonian tensed as she looked closely at Chandra. “Ah, the betrayer of womankind, the herald of necromantic war. Madame Chandra the Dark Valkyrie. Taught any necromancers to hate women recently? Shown them how to cultivate? Kill off a city of defenseless children?”
“Pah, the only impressive thing I’ve seen here is this quartz we are standing on!” a Dwarf spoke into the outraged silence. “I’ve never seen quartz this clear and colorless before, and if I’m not mistaken, the whole thing is Inscribed!”
“You should have seen it a little over a month ago.” Dale wryly chuckled, more than happy to change the subject. “This used to be celestial quartz. It was shattered in the attack, though.”
“Got any left?” The Dwarf grinned, rubbing his hands together in an obviously joking manner.
“Is this what you all came here to discuss? Merchant business? Not so much? Did you come to deliver insults as representatives of your people?” Frank spoke over the sudden increase in noise. “No? Then we will speak in order of when you arrived. High Elves, you will go first, then the delegation from the Tigress Kingdom, then the Dwarves.”
“The Tigress Queendom you ignorant, inbred oaf!” the golden-haired beauty sneered.
Chandra barked a laugh at her, “Ha! That’s funny, an Amazon calling someone else inbred! If your people were any more inbred, you’d all be sandwiches!”
“Enough!” Frank bellowed, slamming his hand onto the table. “Elves! You got here first! State your reasons for attending this meeting. Please!”
“If I knew we would be allowed to speak based on travel time… ah, drat these short legs.” The Dwarf sighed with a long-suffering look on his face and winked at Dale.
Dale leaned forward before the Elves could speak. His tone remained mild as he addressed the Amazons. “That will be enough of that, Miss. Another insult, and you will be escorted off my land. I am building a meritorious society here. Anyone who has the skills needed to perform a task better than others will rise. Male or female. Human or otherwise. Elder or child. Cultivator or not. Please try to respect that.” He sat back, ignoring the glare she was sending his way. “High Elves, thank you for coming here. How can we work together to reach a mutually beneficial friendship?”
“What a lovely way to start the conversation!” A male Elf leaned forward, flashing a beautiful smile. “As a matter of fact, we have arrived because we heard about a heavily propagated rumor that a Silverwood tree was in the area?” His eyes held no hint of anything but happiness as he was speaking.
Dale nodded, having assumed that was the reason they were there. “A Silverwood tree is indeed growing within the Dungeon below.” His bold claim made t
he Elves nearly dance with glee as they broke into excited chatter. The main Elf smiled beneficently and asked, “What would we need to do for you in order to have access to this lovely specimen?”
“Unfortunately, that small detail is not within my purview.” A deep breath escaped Dale’s lips. He wasn’t looking forward to this next part. “I have an exclusive agreement with the Dark Elves. If you want access to the tree itself, you will need to talk to them.”
“What?!” The joyful face twisted into a hateful mask. “The Darkies? You went to them?”
“They came to me,” Dale calmly replied as the High Elf seemed to be having a breakdown.
“Y-you can’t trust Darkies!” the Elf sputtered caustically. “They are little better than mercenaries! They will break an agreement as soon as it is more beneficial for them to do so! As a matter of fact, they completely stopped all contracts with us in the last few…” His voice trailed off as a look of realization appeared on his face. He continued weakly, head held in his hands, “Of course they did. They have no need for access to our trees anymore… You have no idea what you’ve done. Idiot human!”
Having obviously waited until this announcement, the Dark Elf princess, Brianna, strode into the room smugly. “He basically freed us from the position of little better than barely-tolerated slaves?” She sat in the only empty council chair. “Dale doesn’t need to worry about betrayal. I was the one to sign the Mana contract we agreed upon.”
The High Elves stood. “Well,” the speaker spoke pseudo-sadly, “I do hope the next person in charge of this area will be more inclined toward intelligent contract agreements.” With that thinly veiled threat delivered, the group started to leave the room.
“Ah. Planning to have me killed off?” Dale plainly and boldly questioned.
“Unfortunate accidents happen to humans all the time.” The Elf shrugged carelessly. “Best of luck in the coming days… hours… whatever you have remaining.”