Cyrene left me on the ground and I smacked my lips making flapping noises in frustration. She was probably correct that she was better to spread the word. Zoey ran over to where I sat and held a hand out to help me get up. I tugged her down and rolled on the cave floor while covering her in kisses. She giggled delightedly.
“Hey do me a favor. Cook your husband something special and then tonight we will rock the wagon,” I said to Zoey with my best I want to fuck you eyebrow wiggle.
“It’s Cyrene’s night. But if you want, she probably is amenable to both of us,” Zoey said while escaping me to saunter away. I watched her snap her tight fit ass with each step and sighed in desire. “Give me half an hour. Hey Dib!”
I was now alone lying on the floor. Normally I would be scouring the battlefield and cutting out hearts. I paid someone to do that now. Ossa was out in the snow though and she would be shivering when she got back. I hopped up and went to find firewood. I wanted to get some nice fires roaring tonight. I liked the feeling of the cave and the openness combined with the cozy warmth. I was conflicted. Did I sleep in the wagon? If I did and say a fox scratched at it, I would wake up from the fall. If I was by a warm fire and the cave disappeared I could freeze if snow started falling and I never woke up. The fires were real so they would not despawn. I figured if it was Cyrene’s night I would let her decide and left the cave’s mouth.
Ossa was sawing away at the chest of a melee troll. I went by her and picked up a wooden shield off the ground. The craftsmanship was rubbish. I would strip the metal-binding it together and then toss the wooden slats on the fire.
“Hey boss, if you help that is great, but part of my job is to deal with trash loot. Desmond said you were new and helpful, but I don’t want you getting upset you were doing my job,” Ossa said while she sawed through ribs. The crunching sucking sound of her getting to the heart was gross and all too familiar.
“I’m looking for firewood. I want to build up the fires.”
Ossa stopped and gave me a pretty freckled smile. Well, some of the freckles may have been splattered blood. She pointed to a canyon wall behind the ogre cave. A lightbulb went off in my head and I realized I should have known these trolls had a home. I saw Desmond leaving the cave she pointed to with a sack of loot.
“Thanks Ossa,” I said and she smiled with frosted breath smoking out her nose.
I walked briskly towards where Desmond, Nicole, and Mysti appeared from.
“Hey Gryff. There was a single guard left behind. We killed her no problem. This loot sack has all the metal. We should probably clean out caves and villages before setting up camp next time,” Desmond said without spite or malice. The big ogre was in a jolly mood. “Not much else in there besides some furniture. Ossa will tear it down before we leave in the morning and rip the nails out to be smelted later.”
“I will help drag it into the cave to work on,” I said and Desmond handed off the heavy sack of metal to Nicole. Mysti helped her carry it and Desmond peeled from them to aid me. “Thanks Desmond, and before you give me the lecture on how Ossa does fine work and this is her job - I know. I merely want bigger fires, and for now, to help dry out gear and keep the cold at bay. What did this one drop for orbs?”
I looked down at the body of the dead troll as we entered the cavern. The ogre had chopped her in two with a greatsword I had not seen before. Cut her right across the chest and parted the body with a gory spray I saw splattered around the corpse. I saw her exposed heart in the top half of her body.
“This dropped off the chieftain. Was better than my spiked club. The easiest way to get to the orb is to cut them in half. She dropped nothing. Not sure if you know this, but this is how normal farming goes. You are the first adventurer I ever heard of getting a treasure map or a rare orb for a mount from some random sea mob. I know you have neat orbs others do not but if you throw in the legendary stuff from your boss buddy; well, then you are blessed like a god. Anyway, for me. That is what I am used to” Desmond said in a scruffy voice while pointing at the dead troll. “Killing some screaming bitch trying to gouge my eyes out. Slicing her in half and getting shit. She didn't even have gold on her belt. I then get to collect half a silver worth of scrap metal and get haggled with by ornery smiths. Normally a waste of fucking time, not this trip though. You know what though, fuck scrap metal when the boss gets chest of expensive ore and millions in silver from orbs. Then again every gold coin eventually equals a silver as my grandma says. ”
“Desmond I get it. Hence why we are here right now. Every bit counts and helps build up the team. Maybe we will eventually cut this part out due to the low return for time invested. As we improve we then get to tackle stronger dungeons and better roaming bosses. Sometimes you get lucky. Most of the time it takes hard work and grinding,” I said as I hoisted a table awkwardly. The ogre helped me get it adjusted to carry and I left the cave. “Thanks Desmond, I appreciate the help.”
The time passed with me hauling shitty wooden beds into a pile by the fire. An hour later and we were still not done. The chieftain had four dressers in his room and we kept finding hidden floor traps when we removed them. They were filled with rubbish mostly beside a bag of silver. The process slowed our work down as the first hidden compartment dropped a rock from above. When we took our break we only had a few more beds and we were done.
Upon returning to the cave, I saw the cooking tripod had been removed and a secondary tripod had been set up to let the kettle of stew cool. With the food safely out of the way, we let the fires roar and the flames dance as the sun started to set. There was more than enough wood to keep the cold at bay through the night.
We repurposed a troll table and I sat while eagerly awaiting a bowl of stew. Zoey handed me a skewered rabbit first and it smelled marvelous. When I bit into it there was a mix of pepper and lemon taste. The meat was juicy and succulent. We all ate with abandon and I was glad I was in robes by the end of it. My belly was stuffed and swollen. Finally, Ossa returned from the cold with a tint of blue to her skin. She set down a hefty sack of loot and Cyrene inspected it while Ossa got naked.
I stole a few glances and realized she was stacked in the chest and I was mildly interested. Desmond covered her up quickly with a robe and they kissed. I was not going to assert myself and try to steal her but a smaller half-ogre half-human may be in my future if they existed.
“Okay Gryff, so these are not tigers obviously,” Cyrene said opening up her monologue of instruction that was certainly coming. I heard Desmond and Ossa go for food while we piled around the sack of orbs. “Oh neat. A rotting plague area of effect; I think this may get a reduced mana cost with Zoey’s staff. I’m giving this orb to Zoey, it is white and fairly cheap. Object now if you disagree.”
There was no argument or objection and she went back to sorting out the orbs into piles.
“Okay here are the standard drops to be expected from here. Five white slashing debuffs and one green. Three white piecing debuffs and no better versions. All debuffs are great for group farming. They have a small area of effect but tanks tend to equip one and off tanks another. I have a blue slashing debuff. Hey, Desmond, you got a piercing debuff?”
The ogre was eating a rabbit on a stick and shook his head no. Cyrene set the clear orb with the white dot and a sharp point off to the side.
“I need an area of effect spell. I am missing something to tag all the targets with,” I said and Dib raised his hand. “I guess Dib can use a better one too.”
“You do not need one Gryff,” Mysti said while rubbing my back supportively. Hey, what had I missed?
“Wait why not?” I asked and noticed most of the team were giggling at me.
“When you break the air with that loud boom you apply hearing damage. To all of us. Yup. Thankfully Nicole has a kick ass area heal. You got all the experience you could that fight. Besides landing more killing blows. Here you go, Dib. Try this push back spell. It will do nothing besides try to shove trolls back
and they will have no problem resisting. The spell will apply to all targets within range. Just do not cast with someone’s back close to you. If they are not expecting it, they will fall over. The rest of these are trash and common or basic stuff. Few silver for these at most. All good though, it will add up and when we get further in we should see better drops. Oh and here is the collected gold and silver. Mostly gold should be around five silver in total. This is why Desmond thought he was getting a good deal with twenty silver a day,” Cyrene said and the elvath and gnomes picked over the trash stuff.
I gave up on finding anything useful in the loot for now and pulled Cyrene over. “I have been told it is your night tonight. Tent or the wagon?” I asked and she smiled while letting her thorns show on her lips.
“Get in tiger, this kitty wants to play,” Cyrene said and I shuddered. “Too soon for cat puns? But my little pussy wants to purr, I promise the teeth won’t latch on.”
She said it so perfectly I couldn’t help but laugh as she purred. Her tent spawned and when Zoey went to join us Cyrene said no. The two of us ducked into the tent and had an action-packed fun time that I was sure everyone else in the cave heard.
CHAPTER 14
A hand was rapidly tugging on my foot in the middle of the night. I felt the frigid air spilling into the warm tent as I was stirred awake. I saw Zoey in a tizzy with wild bed hair and concerned red eyes. She was clearly upset and I was instantly alert.
“Gryff there was a scream from the guard’s cabin and it just happened. The cry out became muffled and then silence. The guards despawned their cabin and as I was running here I noticed their wagon spawned. I think they are leaving,” Zoey said.
Cyrene heard the commotion from Zoey and was already getting in her gear beside me.
“Race to the others. Wake everyone. I am going to stop them,” I said and ran for my armor and boots by the fire. “If it ends up being a misunderstanding we can sleep in.”
I geared quickly and sighed at the sight of falling snow and cloud cover. I poured mana into my physical superiority orb and bounded forward in a sprint. I needed to stop them before they got back to the fort and this was the only way to do that. My boots barely touched the crunchy snow as I closed the distance on the wagon. When I neared the vehicle I spooked Froki with the whoosh of air and crunching of snow.
“Where ya going, not robbing us are you?” I said with hostility. “We give you ore and you vanish in the night. Not very fair if you ask me.”
“By the creator, you sneaky shit. How did you?” Froki went to say and I rolled when a different guard flew up and hurled a dagger my way. “No, wait!”
Asking for forgiveness was too late. I was attacked first and now allowed to defend myself. I hurled a spear that cracked the air and gutted my attacker. The wagon despawned from the concussive force and dropped the two bearfrii on the driver’s bench. Except they started flying instead of falling to the ground and the front two took off in a rapid flight for the fort. I saw a dead bearfrii thud in the snow resulting in a plume of white; a long gash serrated her neck. A quick calculation told me she had been in the wagon before it despawned. I think Froki and his fleeing buddy knew they were dead. I gave them closure as they fled from me, and sent a mana spear flying. When Froki tried to dodge he failed and his lower half tore free of his body. While my spear sailed I ran faster than the last bearfrii was able to fly and grabbed his little stubby leg with a leap as he tried to go higher.
I was going to interrogate him but he spun to jam a dagger in my face. I dodged the dagger with a rapid tilt of my head. I landed with a tumble and another stab darted my way. With a mighty spin, I hurled him into the canyon wall with super strength and he splattered in a gory finality. Well, there went my witness. Shit.
A minute later I was panting when the rest of my team arrived with a litany of profanity. Dead guards that upheld the law tended to stir a cursory reaction.
“Nicole come here,” I said and went to the body with hands bound and throat slit. The female bearfrii had glazed open eyes and a look of anger etched on her face. “Heal her wounds and then try to revive her.”
“Um… I can try. No promises,” Nicole said while casting lay on hands. “Brain damage from lack of oxygen is repaired. Adding blood, and sealing the neck. Ugh, should have done the neck, then added blood. Here we go.”
An explosion of light cascading from above and a boom sounded that was so loud and powerful we shot backwards as a perfect circle was created around the female guard. There was no hiding that spell; the magic of it split the overcast and brightened the night for miles. The dead bearfrii was no longer dead. Her eyes widened in utter shock as she coughed. Her lips sputtered blood, and then she projectile vomited blood. My ears rang and Nicole cast her area heal. The lady bearfrii cleared her airways and cried a loud shriek in dismay. She clutched at her throat and then violently sobbed in terror. I don’t think she realized she was actually among the living again. Deep down the canyon, I heard the gates creak open.
I ran to the bearfrii and slid to her on my knees across the snow-packed ground. I shook her and tried to get her to focus. When I smacked her that did the trick and her eyes focused on me.
“You… You saved me,” while running a hand over her healed neck. “They knew who you were. The bounty on a man with elvath and godlike powers from years ago before the Prox verse was closed, and the threat contained. They said they had figured it all out. I didn’t want to try to kill your team during the boss fight. So Froki said he would kill me and blame you. The captain would have no choice but to arrest you and Froki would inform the Justicars or Inquisitors you were actually alive and collect the bounty. I am so sorry. I only managed to bite his hand once before I got a scream out. That was when the dagger went across my neck. I still feel it. Dying is so awful. So, so, terrible.”
Troops were marching our way from the gate in neat orderly rows. The captain flew forward with reckless abandon for knowledge.
“We heard a bearfrii scream in the night. What happened?” Captain Osgral asked while I was comforting the female bearfrii.
“I was murdered…” She said and pointed to the body of Froki. “They refused to keep confidentiality. They wanted a bounty for him. I failed you, Captain.”
The troops stopped and drew weapons. I backed up and my team spread out. The Captain turned over his shoulder.
“Harlin get over here. Use your truth orb on her and be quick about it before more of the King’s finest die over a lie. The rest of you backup fifty paces,” the Captain commanded. A gnome ran forward while the troops gave us space. The gnome conducted a lengthy questioning and it concluded with the truth. Froki had tried to con his way into a reward. Not a great con if there was a truth orb holder in the ranks. Which caused me to scoff in thought about. Osgral picked up on this and continued. “I never told anyone Harlin had the orb. Always keep your secrets tight Mr. Red. Always. You failed your team, yourself, and cost me three good soldiers from greed. You should not reveal who you are to anyone. And you are lucky I kept my troops back from earshot. I will say he wanted the staff... Not your bounty. Everyone believes in greed as a motivator to corrupt good troops. Even if they can control the desire they understand why some succumb to it. I am refunding the fee you paid for your guides and taking Urisa back for treatment.”
“That is it? We head back and continue the easy route tomorrow?” I asked tentatively.
“Yes and no. The only word I got back from my superiors in response to my concerns about an upgraded dungeon was a purse for bounties on completed research runs. I was going to surprise you with the extra bounty, but to earn the prize you need to take notes on what you encounter or hire note takers. You hired my guards which covered that. So simply annotate what you fight and where and then send it in for review. If the next three reports match yours you will get a payout at a later time,” the Captain said while flapping his wings to get off the ground. “But yes, you were betrayed by the King’s
own. A full report will be sent and I expect an apology issued by someone more important than me. If you want to maintain your secret, which you should, then I would have your company address be established as soon as possible. If not he will come looking for you and King Ptera finds those he seeks.”
“Got it, go forth and clear the route. Be more prepared to hide behind a company name with representatives. My company may even be set up by now. Send the apology note to a Mr. Volt in Remi. We told the man in charge of the paperwork to name the company Awesome Adjective Annihilators. That should make it easy enough to find us.”
Captain Osgral turned his head and repeated his ‘are you crazy look’ from yesterday. “Awesome Farting Annihilators. Ha! You certainly are foolish at times. My troops are collecting the orbs the dead dropped. I will decide what to do with them when you complete the trail. Technically you are entitled to them but I want to hear from my superiors. A falcon familiar will be sent out tonight and should be back before you finish your route. Keep your head down Mr. Red. No one else needs to die a permanent death. Which one is Nicole that Urisa is praising?”
The bearfrii saw Nicole raise her hand and nodded at seeing the staff.
“Thank you for using a spell with such a long cooldown on one of my troops. You honor us by saving Urisa,” Captain Osgral said and left with Urisa as well as Harlin.
I sighed as the troops spun when the Captain reached their line and they faded into the night toward the giant double doors. The bodies and loot had been taken off the field so I turned for the fires. The cave was resummoned and we returned to our encampment to settle in for the night. When the heat was defeating the cold near the fire pits I pulled everyone in for a meeting.
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