Allies -Chapter 7

After breakfast, Elmerin filled in the rest of the party on the possibility of a dungeon seed. They would have to minimize exploration for the rest of the trip and prioritize speed. If the labyrinth turned into an actual dungeon, it would be much more difficult to clear it before the next visit from Bolat, leaving the inhabitants of the county without shelter during the deadly months. 

Evacuation to neighboring territories was… problematic, for a lot of reasons. Many of them political.

Elmerin ordered Nera to cast Physical Reinforcement on herself. After doing the same to himself and adding Strength, he pulled out a harness. With that, Physical Reinforcement, and Strength, he could carry Kres on his back for several hours.

Falchan would tactically be a better option due to greater physical strength and a lower center of gravity, but no one trusted him with Kres' safety.

Prepared, they set off.

*******

Shortly after noon, the party came to a large, high-ceilinged room, already occupied by another party finishing their lunch. 

"Hey, Elmerin, Sky!" The leader nodded to the other members of the party.

"Hey Alex." Elmerin returned the greeting, nodding to the other party members. "Have any of you met Nera yet?" At the general shaking of heads: "Nera's here from the temple of Idalin in Melton's county. She's a healer and can do some decent defense magic."

Alexavier raised an eyebrow. "Decent? Low stamina, then?"

Nera blushed while Elmerin ignored the comment. "Nera, this is the party Death Eagles. Alexavier is the leader and primary damage dealer, don't call him Alex unless he says you can. Seef is their tank - as you can see, he has the size for it." 

The easily two meters tall man grinned and waved.

"Reefka is one of the best archers around, and also an excellent scout. Don't try to beat her at cards or a drinking contest. Kaada is a combo rogue/thief/scout - he trained Sky."

"Worst lock-picking technique I ever saw.'' The small grey-clad man grinned.

"Riyo is a mage specializing in water and earth, and can also do undifferentiated magic. Don't ask about Ree learning other magics, she doesn't like it.''

"A healer?" Alexavier looked as if he'd been considering something. "How are you on burns?"

Nera swallowed. "I handled kitchen and blacksmithing injuries back home a few times. I once helped treat someone where the burn had gone down to the bone."

"Good enough." He motioned to Riyo. "We had a run-in with some magic-overdosed fire ants. We beat them, but Riyo hurt her arm defending us from them and we're out of potions. What are your rates?"

"Oh, I'll-"

"Two canaries," Elmerin interrupted. "Another canary for looking over any other minor injuries."

Nera looked horrified. "Oh, that's all right-"

"Three then." Alexavier pulled out the coins and, when Nera didn't take them, pressed them into her hand. He fixed her with a stern glare. "Nera, always charge when the person can afford it, and be careful about taking their word that they can't. There's a lot of adventurers -and others- where using your powers for free won't be seen as 'oh, she's so nice', but as 'what a patsy; let's see what we can milk her for."

"But- I don't want to seem greedy-"

Alexavier shrugged. "Then give it to your church. The point is to not let yourself be suckered into doing work for free when they can pay." He pointed to Riyo. "Now please, heal her arm."

The other members of Elmerin's party had already split off to talk to the Death Eagles members they knew. Sky was catching up with Kaada, while Seef had lifted Kres up onto his shoulders -Kres had relaxed a bit and was telling Seef about their encounter with the orcs and orc general. Drysia was talking with Reefka, with both pointedly ignoring Falchan's attempts to take over the conversation.

"So, fire ants gave you trouble?" Elmerin asked, curious. "You're all Emerald level."

"So was the queen," Alexavier said grimly. "We saw and dealt with multiple other overloaded and corrupted monsters too. And now Kres is talking about a Sapphire level orc?"

"A rather mutated one. We also ran into a highly mutated Sapphire level goblin sorcerer," Elmerin said quietly. He pulled out the list he'd shown his party the night before. "Plus a lot of other monsters, and a quite high percentage of corrupted ones."

Alexavier paled. "Dungeon seed."

"That's what Sky thought. I agree. Falchan tried to argue, but Drysia shut him up. She's annoying, not stupid."

"Shit. Have you eaten?"

"We were going to stop here for a few minutes."

"You do that, I'll talk to my group." Alexavier looked at the Eagles' grim expressions. "Looks like your people have been filling them in."

"Don't let Falchan hear you say they're my people," Elmerin snarked. "His father's the count, after all."

Alexavier sighed. "That does get old."

*******

Elmerin's temporary party and the Death Eagles agreed to travel together. Reporting was more important, now, than worrying about prizes or who got the most kills. Elmerin and Alexavier quickly arranged their combined teams: Sky and Reefka in front, Kaada bringing up the rear to watch behind the parties. Drysia behind Sky and Reefka, with Falchan and Seef in the middle to protect Kres and Nera, just behind Drysia. Seef would carry Kres. Alexavier and Elmerin were behind the tanks, helping Kaada guard the back.

No longer needing it for himself, Elmerin cast Physical Reinforcement on Nera, so she could save her magic for healing and defense, and Kaada, to compensate for any weakness remaining from her injuries. They then set off, heading as quickly for the entrance. 

Normally it would have taken another two days of traveling through the forest and to the city of Cothemore to warn the adventurer's guild, but with the big clearing effort partially funded by the royal house, a temporary office had been set up outside the labyrinth, set back from the entrance in case of monster emergence but easy for the explorers to access. Once they were alerted, they'd tell the main guild in the city, who would put together a team to track and find the pool of magic corruption or Bolat crystal that was threatening to turn the labyrinth into a full dungeon. 

They had to act fast. A corrupted pool or a crystal could actually be quite close to the entrance, but once the dungeon formed, the core would sink to the lowest layer of the dungeon, requiring fighting past as many as thirty or forty levels to get to it. If the dungeon wasn't reclaimed, even more levels could form, all while the monsters became more and more mutated. A powerful enough dungeon core could even start cloning monsters from the existing ones and available organic matter, increasing the numbers until the dungeon overflowed.

Falchan whined about the pace, but Drysia and Alexavier both told him to shut it before Elmerin could. When Falchan responded by insulting the low amount of land Alexavier's family held, Alexavier pointed out that while their families were both counts, Falchan's family had only obtained the title two hundred years before as a promotion from knight, while Alexavier's vastly predated the Demon Wars four hundred years before. Alexavier's family also had far more influence in their home kingdom than Falchan's did in Korrum.

"Will you just shut up?" Nera snapped at Falchan. "My dad's the Baron of Faunford, and he has more real influence than 'your father' does. He's much wealthier and there's a big church to Idalin in his territory. Dad also says Count Cothmore is an idiot for giving the branches of the Merchant, Crafting, and Watch guilds that ultimatum that they put one of his relatives in a high position, or get out. Now there's only sub-branches of Merchant and Crafting that can only handle limited duties, and the Watch pulled out completely!"

Falchan gawped at her, almost slowing down before Seef "accidentally" jostled him. "You're a noble?!"

"If your next line is 'but you don't act like one', you're getting healed last next time we're in a fight."

Since then Falchan had been in a blessedly silent sulk as they sped along.

"The faster Drysia gets up to Black Opal, the better," Alexavier said softly to Elmerin.

"So she can be more arrogant?" Elmerin's tone was definitely snide. 

"So she can finally give Falchan a well-deserved kick in the ass."

"What?"

"In my homeland of Corundum, she'd have been able to appeal to the higher lords long ago to get Kres declared Falchan's or not, and get that sham marriage declared valid or not. If it was declared valid, she could get a divorce. She wouldn't have to put up with him just because she's a commoner and he's a noble." Alexavier sighed. "Here in Korrum, commoners have hardly any rights. But they do give marquis and duke titles to Black Opals regardless of birth.

"With a higher title than Falchan's, she can straighten out both the parentage and the marriage mess."

"She could have just told him no in the first place."

"Drysia was sixteen, El -sixteen! And naive as hell. She couldn't even read. The guild in Bexley had been protecting her from the more negative attention, but they didn't teach her to recognize it herself. So when the beautiful commoner was approached by the handsome nobleman, she had no idea she needed to be cautious.

"I've been here ten years, El. She's been getting more and more bitter, and most of it can be traced to Falchan's actions. The worst part is he's too dense to be doing most of it on purpose -he's hurting her because he refuses to learn how not to."

"Refusing to learn is a way of doing something on purpose." Elmerin paused speaking to double-check an Echo ping. "It doesn't explain why she doesn't get the marriage declared invalid -it's sketchy as hell."

They paused as the group came to an intersection. After a quick look around and a joint consultation of maps, they continued their pace. Alexavier resumed the conversation.

"El, how the hell do you know so much and yet miss some things? Drysia would have to pay for the appeal."

"What!?" El glanced forward and lowered his voice. "Commoners don't just have to pay for divorce from a noble, they have to-"

Alexavier nodded. "Korrum ignores that commoners are the foundation of a country's power. That includes the mess with Kres, too. Drysia would have to pay for the appeal to have him recognized or rejected by Cothmore, since Falchan won't either declare him his blood or soundly reject him."

Elmerin was quiet for a time as they moved swiftly along. "It doesn't excuse her negligence of Kres. Or her stealing from him."

"Kaada asked her outright about that once. Apparently she never wanted a child, and said the only good thing about Kres is he wasn't a daughter. I'm not sure what that means -Drysia was kind of drunk at the time. It was just one of the few times we could talk to her without Falchan hovering, since he'd already passed out and been carried away."

"And the stealing? Did she have an excuse for that?"

"According to my sources in the guild, Falchan did it first. Don't look at me like that, not all of them are Cothmore suckups. Drysia started when she learned Falchan was doing it. And she's been pitching much less of a fit to the guild than Falchan about you supervising Kres getting paid properly."

"Am I supposed to praise her now for being less of a sewage-feeding slime?"

"People have reasons for what they do. Change the reasons, and they'll often change their actions."

"You hope." Elmerin realized that Alexavier's information gave Elmerin a few more options for getting Drysia to give up her parental rights. He'd been worrying this might get prohibitively expensive, but if she didn't want the kid and did want prestige, there were a couple of things he could try.

*******

Characters in this chapter:

Elmerin

Kres

Drysia

Nera Faunford

Sky

Falchan Cothmore

Death Eagles Party, information as displayed on guild record card:

Alexavier Asheburne, 30. Guild Rank: Emerald. Hair: Black. Eyes: Hazel. Gender: Male.

Skills: Sword Arts: Level 8. Critical Strike: Level 6. Dagger Arts: Level 5. Shield Arts: Level 5. Small-Unit Leadership: 7. Tactics: Level 7. Stamina: Level 8.

Magic: Water: Level 2. Earth: Level 1. Fire: Level 3. Wind: Level 2. Ripple: Level 2.

Birth-Talent: Luck. Medium level. Added note: "Luck" defined as controlled very short-range bending of probability in his favor.

Seef, 28. Guild Rank: Emerald. Hair: . Eyes: . Gender: .

Skills: Shield Arts: Level 9. Sword Arts, Defensive: Level 5. Defense: Level 8. Stamina: Level 7. Strength: Level 7.

Magic: Water Shield: Level 2. Earth Shield: Level 43. Mana Shield: Level 3.

Birth-Talent: Growing Wall. Note: The more blows successfully deflected, the higher his defense.

Reefka, 26. Guild Rank: Emerald. Hair: . Eyes: . Gender: Female.

Skills: Archery: Level 7. Knife Arts: Level 7. Woodcraft: Level 7. Scouting: Level 8. Farsight: Level 8. Tracking: Level 7. Animal Lore: Level 6. Trap Detection: Level 6.

Magic: Water: Level 3. Fire: Level 2. Wind: Level 4. Stealth: Level 7. Swift Steps: Level 6.

Birth-Talent: Carving. Note: Substance must be normally carveable.

Kaada, 35. Guild Rank: Emerald. Hair: Light brown, graying. Eyes: Medium Brown. Gender: Male.

Skills: Knife Throwing: Level 9. Knife Arts: Level 9. Dart Throwing: Level 8. Woodcraft: Level 5. Scouting: Level 10. Farsight: Level 9. Tracking: Level 8. Lock Picking: Level 8. Trap Detection: Level 9. Lightfingers: Level 10. 

Magic: Water: Level 4. Fire, Small Flames: 4. Earth, Removal: Level 5. Wind: Level 4. Silence: Level 6. Muted Sound: Level 7. Stealth: Level 9. Item Appraisal: Level 5.

Birth-Talent: Baking. Note: May only bring baked goods to guild hall once a month; they have a high distraction factor.

Riyo, 26. Guild Rank: Emerald. Hair: . Eyes: . Gender: Female.

Skills: Knife Arts, Level 4. Staff Arts: Level 6. Stamina: Level 6. 

Magic: Water: Level 8. Earth: Level 8. Undifferentiated mana: Level 9. Multicast: Level 6. Defense Shield: Level 8.

Birth-Talent: Soften and harden metal. Medium level. Note: Metal can be manipulated while softened. The metal retains its qualities in softened form.

Spells in chapter:

Physical Reinforcement: Increases endurance, resistance to fatigue, resistance to damage, and decreases negative effects from excessive physical activity. Duration depends on skill and mana of the caster. 

Strength: Increases physical strength by 30-100%. Increase depends on the overall level, experience, and mana of the caster. Duration depends on skill and mana of the caster. It is advised to not use this spell without Physical Reinforcement.

Items, magic:

Dungeon: A labyrinth, cave system, or other location or facility that has been so saturated with corrupt magic or Bolat energy that has condensed to a single point and become the heart of a quasi-living magic-based organism -a dungeon core. A dungeon's magic will attract corrupted monsters to serve it, and will corrupt animals and beings brought into it if they do not have a way to defend or purify themselves from the magic. A dungeon can have as few as ten levels, or far more; the highest recorded in history was one hundred. The average tends to be between thirty and forty. 

The dungeon's magic can create and alter floors and levels, encourage the breeding of and spawn monsters, create and alter traps and obstacles, and take abandoned and lost items to place them as bait for unwitting explorers. A high level dungeon can even generate its own items. These items are incredible in power and ability, but incredibly difficult and dangerous to get. All the dungeon's power is anchored in the core.

Dungeon core: Condensed corrupted energy and/or condensed Bolat energy that has formed into a crystal or or object that has in turn become a quasi-living magic-based organism. To protect its existence and to grow and gain strength, it creates a dungeon and summons corrupt monsters to defend it. Once a core gains enough strength, it can not only encourage monster fertility, it can take available biological material to create new monsters. The advanced cores can also generate high-level items to use as bait. All cores can create and manipulate dungeon levels, but the more powerful a core is, the more levels it can generate and control.

A dungeon core may initially form quite close to the entrance of the labyrinth or other structure it forms in. But once the core forms and activates, it will sink to the lowest level available as it begins to manipulate the new dungeon.

Note that in the case of two "tower dungeons," the core instead of sinking, rose to the top floor.

Dungeon seed: A deliberate attempt to make a dungeon core. A Sapphire-level or higher monster crystal saturated with corrupt magic almost to the point of breaking or a Emerald-level or higher Bolat crystal is used. It is placed in a hidden area of the structure to prevent detection and fed with corrupt energy; various items and symbols are used to prevent the outflow of corrupt energy and concentrate it. 

Monster crystals fail to form a core about one in four times; there are no known occasions of Bolat crystals failing to form a core. 

Deliberately trying to create or creating a core and a dungeon is outlawed by all of Tas' current governments. Punishment and execution methods vary, but they're all painful and messy, even if otherwise the government has given up on such methods.