I stopped in my tracks and our perspective teams bunched up behind us. Sophula swatted her husband off her back when he walked into her.
“Umm… Cyrene why the hell are people not farming these dolphuna if they are dropping stuff this valuable?” I asked in dismay.
“They try and most attempts are futile. Think of it like Frooska. Many try and very few, if none succeed. Keep going, we are all wanting to see the loot. Oh, and you should respawn Kor. If he ingested any orbs he needs to spit them out.”
“Will they decay?”
“No. Just... don’t you want to see?” Cyrene asked and Zoey giggled and raised her hand.
“I love loot,” the raven-haired beauty said and others nodded.
“Okay, but I hate passing out. I bet he has been so lonely. I miss our conversations.” I grumbled and we continued down the stairs. “Are mounts and summons forced to idly pass time in an orb?”
Everyone eyed me like I was a crazy human. To be fair I kind of was.
“Mounts and summons don’t talk, ever.” A large orc that followed behind Duchess Sophula said. He showed me his level of three thousand seven hundred and twelve to prove his point was backed up with lots of experience. “You are saying that hydra you have has the ability to talk?”
“Shit,” I said and tensed.
“I see you are getting ready for violence. Calm down, human. We are not foes. I admit my line of questions led down a path I should have seen. The elvath, the talking summon, and now you showing zero fear of me despite knowing my level. I am Harg and I run this outfit, the Asskicking Parrots,” The orc said while thumbing his troops over his shoulder. “They all owe me their lives a few times over. When we get done escorting the Duchess I am very interested in your recruitment. An orc like me knows when a premium officer slot is opening up. I would want free reign of my team and more but we can get into that later.”
“I don’t get it,” an old veteran human behind the orc said. “What do elvath have to do with anything besides originating from Prox?”
“Fuck!” Duchess Sophula exclaimed. “On our planet. The odds.”
“Still super lost,” the old man said with hands up in confusion.
“I am ordering you all to say not another word, and later when we are deep in the jungle all will be revealed. You can follow me over or we can part when we get home,” Harg said.
“We will follow,” the veteran human got a slap on the back of his head from the shaman behind him.
“Oh, hey Harg can I ask the shaman a question?” I asked and he nodded. “In Prox, you could steal electricity and spawn portals with ease. Are you super-powered here?”
“Nope everyone is the same besides the gods and their champions,” the female shaman said with a sly smile. I always marveled at how much more human they looked. I added a dryad. Maybe a few monster wives would...
“Perfect timing, wait in the stairwell so I have space to summon Kor real quick,” I said as I stumbled not reaching another stair. When both teams stopped I laid down on the blood soaked balcony because passing out while standing hurt, a lot. I summoned my friend and he flopped on his side to join me on the ground.
“Miss you,” was all he said before he hurled some items onto the deck and I passed out.
I was shaken awake by Nicole and the entire two teams of adventurers were mute with shock.
“You are the…” The veteran went to say when Harg nailed his teammate in the gut with a staggering blow. The old man caught his breath and apologized, “Shit… Sorry boss.”
A deckhand approached as I stood. He held a hand out and Duchess Sophula had her husband tip him.
“We fished out around thirty-plus bodies. Your monster did some work. We are ready for a pat down. Especially if those fine…”
“Wives, they are my wives. I am tempted to let Desmond toss you overboard but I have to be nice on this planet. Cyrene search them,” I ordered and was obeyed. The men behind the leader grinned. Letting her search them kept tensions down. “Thank you.”
I looked down at what Kor had vomited. A half dozen orbs. I felt I could trust Harg and his crew to not steal in front of a duchess so I started passing the orbs around after a quick look.
There was a blue purify spell times two, a green rainstorm spell, that one might be better with lightning than a mist, three water-breathing orbs, two blue and one green. When the duchess saw there were no mounts in the first batch she huffed in frustration. We went to where the crew had piled the rest of the loot and I tilted my head in confusion.
“What is that?” I asked seeing a golden chest with a silver clasp and the corners decorated with intricate pillars.
“A treasure chest,” Cyrene said and I held up my hands to have her keep going. “Oh, they are a semi-rare drop. Most mid-tier bosses drop them. My guess Kor killed the matriarch or alpha dolphuna and this dropped. That would explain the level gains. The inside is random; as in it could be coins, orbs, familiar, treasure map, and items. Opened one before and a catapult spawned which caused us to all fall over. The box is a collectors item you store orbs in while open, will fetch ten thousand silver or a zadium. You want me to open it?”
“Zoey open it,” I said and she grinned. She raced to the little golden box and lifted the lid. A rolled parchment was inside. “Is that a treasure map?”
“Looks that way. Um… this map looks like exactly how Cyrene described the continent we are going to,” Zoey said while Cyrene and Mysti peered over her shoulder.
“Aye it is on Frizzia alright, and it points right to Vexie. We can make a shovel. This loot should be worth the detour Red. And the guards will let us through if we are going to do a treasure map.”
“I am okay with a detour and seeing a dinosaur. How are the rest…?” I never got to finish my statement.
“Three!!!” Duchess Sophula said with glee. Her fancy ballroom dress was soaked in fish blood as she sorted the remaining orbs. “Red, she called you Red. I may have forgotten your name. Don't judge me and it is better than calling you human. I will buy all three! Ugh, and you got a familiar white cabin, well more like a one-bedroom shack. Sell me that too.”
“Counteroffer. No to the cabin. Hand the boxy case here please so I can view it,” I said and I inspected the building inside. Yup, a tiny one-bedroom building with barely enough room for a bed. Upgraded with time the structure could become a comfy home. I spawned my familiar and tossed the cabin in the large chest. “The three dolphuna. What colors?”
“Purple and two blues. You got the matriarch mount, by the creator. Your beast did kill the matriarch or you got insanely lucky with three drops. I cannot afford this one without leveraging a lot of finances. Sell me these two. I will privately sell the other and give you half the profits.”
“Will this make you happy?” I asked as she scurried out of the blood to stand before me with wide eyes.
“Mr. Red this will make me the happiest cyclops alive. Here is the purple one. I am afraid I do not know anyone with that kind of money besides the King. His daughter has all the finest trinkets but showing this to him will cause many questions you need to avoid. And Mr. Red, you do not need a princess to woo.”
I gave a full-throated laugh that continued for a while.
“What else dropped?” I asked.
“More water breathing, enough for a full party. They are fairly common as is the pure water spray. Another rain storm. This one is different and very valuable to the right people; it is a zombie dolphuna. Only blue and the big downside is it is a water spawn,” Cyrene said while showcasing the zombie orb.
“Fuck me. You can do necromancy here?” Zoey said with barely contained excitement.
“I feel a long lecture coming on and I am soaked in blood,” I said while pointing at my familiar. “Toss all these orbs in the chest. We will vendor them later.”
Nicole clasped her two hands around my right hand. “Does this mean since we got coins no snow?” She asked meekl
y with a warm smile.
“No my dear. We are going to leave Frizzia when the troll king is dead and not a moment sooner. Buckle up buttercup. The grind is going to get real.”
CHAPTER 11
We told Zoey she would learn about necromancy in due time. Cyrene said she would explain it later in the hopes that a future promise would placate her. Nope, that did not help. That girl was hell on earth for any information regarding controlling the dead. Thankfully there was a book on it in our storage. Cyrene handed that thick novel to her and for the next four days, Zoey slept in her clothes after reading the book three times. I think we found her passion and I was excited to hear all about it when she was ready.
The rest of the sea voyage had been fast moving and slow on excitement. The seagulls hid, the dolphuna stay the hell away, and I spent time learning more about my team.
Ossa, for instance, was living in the same cave as Desmond. Which was actually his grandmother’s cave. I would have never in a million years have guessed ogres were fantastic landlords or that King Ptera had a cavern city under the main city. I knew I should have made the connection. Many cities went down when space up top ran out. Desmond’s grandma had a cavern sized for forty ogres and even more surprising; it was full. Everything I knew or thought I knew about ogres was they were generally isolated into tiny communities at most. Not on Thur, and not in Remi. Desmond’s mom worked with Ossa’s aunt and the two remained visiting friends over the years. Ossa was sleeping on a couch in a communal area looking for work and eventually a place to rent of her own. I think the whole damn thing was a setup by parents and relatives trying to brew love. To be fair, I agreed with them as it was apparent the two ogres were vibing for each other. The issue for our party was the ogres could not fit into Barq’s cabin. Both Desmond and Ossa slept on a wagon bed exposed to the elements, which was eating me up because I had the solution. The problem was money and then Desmond might get offended.
I left that festering party problem to the side while the last two days I got to learn more about Dib and since we traveled with Duchess Sophula, Harg. Dib was in a rough patch in his marriage. The kids were out of the house and the glue those children provided was slipping. He did admit he avoided all non-monster aliens in general because they rarely gave bearfrii the proper respect. He warmed up to me and I got to hear how much he was excited to cook some great fish stews. Apparently Nicole had given him extra supply money and he had been picking herbs and roots as we went. Those two dinner meals he cooked from the port to the jungle were amazing. Also amazing was watching a teddy bear slice carrots with a toothy grin and then fly the results a few feet away and dump them in a steamy soup.
Duchess Sophula stayed in the port town. The boat trip was the extent of her voyage. On the trip from the port to the jungle, Harg told me about how he ran the Asskicking Parrots. When we talked, I got to learn what a company provided versus independent contracting. The company would find work and use runners for clients. For instance, the leg work that Cyrene did would generally be done by company staff. Typically a well-run company would have a warehouse with supplies for all sorts of scenarios. An adventurer company generally kept staff on retainer like their own smiths, leatherworkers, and training yard instructors. The last thing an adventuring group wanted was to wait a week to get a blade sharpened. An efficient company was no different than being an emperor in a lot of ways. You had to provide everything while your soldiers did the dying on the field. Well, dying and making most of the money. I am sure contracts with nobles and merchants were haggled by backroom negotiators and not front line troops. He went over his fantastic record as a leader and had me interview his top three sergeants. I got to learn a lot and realized I was not prepared to be an officer of an adventuring company. Yet, I felt I could get there easily with time and experience. I had skirted hard paperwork and structure stuff in Prox. I call it stuff because I really needed to get into the meat of it. Harg helped me by going over which missions to flat out avoid. The irony here was that he mentioned the ice trolls. He informed me team members lost morale so damn fast in the snow. He thought we were crazy but he knew who I was so he understood the drive that would get us through the cold.
I stood there and watched the guard for the southern jungle gate berate Harg for not bringing the duchess in tow. Finally, they were allowed through the gate to the southern section of the jungle and our teams parted with friendly goodbyes. Our trip hit a minor snag when we arrived at the guard checkpoint to enter the Frizzia Jungle.
“You are at the wrong gate sir,” a rhinorc said while pointing to the gate the Asskicking Parrots went through. The guard stood ten feet tall with a rhino head on a thick neck. His body was bulging with large muscles that screamed physical tank. I tilted my head thinking they had gotten the name wrong. Rhinogre would have been better. The guard was in thick metal armor with a purple cape with a crown emblem. He carried a big mace and gave me a challenging stink eye. “You stupid or something. Wrong gate.”
“Excuse me, sergeant. We have this,” Cyrene handed the sergeant the treasure map.
I read a sign on the gate. Vexie now requires a voucher to hunt. Huh, makes sense why he was not expecting us. Vexie vouchers are suspended indefinitely in the hope she floors up in value.
“Let me get the Captain. They missed this somehow,” the guard said with an excessive sigh as he left.
Nicole and Cyrene flanked my sides and were equally frustrated as they both had frowns after reading the signs.
“By law they cannot restrict us unless there is a contagion. Even then they would have to shut down the southern section of the forest which clearly is open,” Cyrene said and then pointed to the large black metal gates. “And there would be a whole lot more notifications.”
A loud string of curses erupted from a guard shack and the rhinorc returned.
“We cannot prohibit your entry. Merely stress you are not allowed to kill Vexie or any stegos. Twenty silver gate tax.”
“Perfect,” I said and Nicole paid him.
When we were through the large gate I view all the shades of green and brown the jungle presented. I was about to walk into a jungle and for mid-winter, I could already feel the moisture from outside the canopy. Birds hopped between trees trying to eat spiders in big nests. Tiger eyes peeked from the depths and I saw a green scary as all heck snake slithering along a branch.
I spun to address the team as they were arrayed before me. “This mission was not on the contract or planned for. There are stipulations that allow for side quests and such. This leaves me at a tipping point. Do I take support and ranged troops into that jungle? I would rather not if we are going to just dig something up. Which leads to this,” I said and summoned my familiar storage chest. “Barq quick question. Is the cabin you have sized for a gnome?”
“Uh, yeah Red,” Barq said and I guessed we were still within earshot of the guards behind the gate.
I flipped open the top, found the necromancy dolphuna and tossed it to Zoey without looking. Next, I grabbed the familiar cabin and tossed it to Desmond. There were gasps from just about everyone besides me and Shala. I picked up on that and gave her a signal to talk.
“The cabin is for you Ossa. Red is concerned if he gives the familiar to Ossa…” Shala said and Desmond eyed me. I had rehearsed this with Shala. She was a neutral party and would cause the least waves. “Well, that Desmond will take offense, and there is little chance Desmond destroys a wagon for a white cabin. This will mean Ossa can move out of your cave and might lead to you growing further apart. Hence why you were given the familiar to decide and I am giving the explanation. I am going to guess Red values you both more than the silver and needs people to anchor his team around. Zoey got the necro orb but we all saw that one coming.”
“This is worth a dozen years guarding the bank. Funny thing is you killing those dolphin fish things made it so grandma is safe and I can move out. Assuming we make it out. Equal split right. This familiar is worth
a lot, sure, not as much as a nobility mount, but it should be sold according to the contract. Unless we unanimously vote on it. I vote in favor of awarding this to Ossa,” Desmond said while looking at Ossa and raising his hand.
The hands went up and it was unanimous. There was no vote on the zombie orb funny enough. I think it mattered less but Cyrene had said that orb was worth more. She was still tight-lipped on necromancy stuff and waiting for the right time to explain.
“Well spawn the cabin!” Mysti said in excitement and Ossa hesitated.
“What is the catch?” Ossa asked and Cyrene approached with the paperwork I had prepared. We waited as they reviewed the contract. “A five-year contract with no mandatory fieldwork but we have to adventure at least two months out of twelve. I do not get that part.”
“I cannot make you go into an underwater adventure you do not want to, but you still have to generate income. There is a big change in payout. No equal splits. Company gets fifty percent which is on the low end but we provide general supplies and missions. The other fifty percent is given to the team leader to allocate. No offense Ossa if a team officer sets up rules that support troops earn less... they earn less. For instance you and Desmond count as one for this trip,” I said and she smiled.
“Yeah, that is standard. This is for both of us. To be fair we could maybe buy one of these with our cut,” Ossa said and Desmond grew agitated. He pulled her aside and they had a heated talk. When they returned Ossa was slightly flushed on her large dimpled face. “Okay, it is a lot to take in. That did come off as rude. I have been given a great gift and a greater opportunity. Both true. The contract is fair and we will accept. Thank you.”
Ossa signed the document as did Desmond and I had hired two ogres for full-time work.
“Here we go,” Ossa said as she ingested the familiar and moments later a cave, not a cabin, spawned. Shit. I did not see that coming. The ogres were not phased at all. “It is so spacious. I bet it goes down into the ground with upgrades. We could live out of this. Sure not in the city Des, but out in the country. Five years is a good time to get ready for a quiet life.”
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