Chapter 140: MKonstantin stood over Delmar. He studied the legionnaire’s body and then said with remorse, “Did anyone else get hit by the specters ht?”

  Firth was cradling his broken arm, “The wight broke my arm.”

  Konstantin moved to stand in front of Firth and study him. “Just the one injury? Do you feel any different?”

  “My fug arm is broken, Konstantin. Of course, I feel fug different!” Firth yelled, spittle flying from his mouth.

  “Eryk cut off Delmar’s head and use the kettle on him!” Konstantin barked at me while we were all still in a daze.

  I looked at Delmar’s corpse, not processing the request. “What?”

  “His spirit is going to turn into a specter! You prevent that before it happens!” Konstantin yelled, his anger bleeding out. He kicked over a rack of swords. The violend noise were therapeutic for him.

  I walked to the body and readied my bck bde, but it just felt wrong to cut off Delmar’s head, so I hesitated. Konstantin stormed over and used his own runic bde to plete the task, steam hissing up as he did so. I fumbled for the kettle and used it. A purple haze flowed from Delmar’s ned head into the kettle. It roof that he had been turning, but it still did not make me feel aer.

  Benito was walking around the room, looking at all the various ons. I think he was having trouble dealing with Delmar’s death and seeking a distra. I went to the wall and charged the embedded glowstoo illumihe massive f chamber. There were a number of workstations and anvils throughout the room.

  Benito asked weakly, “Who is going to tell Castile?”

  There was silence as we all looked around. Konstantin finally voiced, “It will be me. His death was my fault.” No one argued with him as we tinued our search.

  Benito seemed mollified it wouldn’t be him and asked, while clearing the dust off some short bdes, “Are any of these runic ons?”

  Schor Favian was searg with us. “Most likely, no. off the dust, and there is a ce if they have no rust.” I started searg with everyone else. It gave us something to distract us from Delmar’s body. I noticed Fvius pick up Delmar’s runic bde. It was aremely valuable dungeon bde, but no oopped him.

  Every bde and axe I checked was tarnished with rust uhe jacket of dust. It felt like Delmar had given his life for no reason. There were hundreds of ons in here; all were artistic works that o be ed and oiled, but nothing was free of tarnish.

  “Got one!” Aed Benito called from he fes. We all rushed over to fio was ing something that looked closer to a sledgehammer than a on. The head of the sledgehammer had been ed off and looked like liquid mercury in the light of the glowstones.

  Schor Favian quickly assessed it: “Definitely an artificed hammer, but I think it is designed for metalw and not fighting.”

  He ha around, and I realized how heavy it was when it got to me. The head alone robably over five pounds, and the shaft added to that weight again in rich bck wood. Konstantin said what I had been thinking, “The goliath use that. He then be of some help with the specters.”

  We tio search the room and started stag the ons in the ter so we wouldn’t go over them more than once. We made four stacks; one was daggers, one for short swords, one for long swords, and one for axes. The spears we found, we leaned against the wall. We were interrupted twice by wandering specters but eventually searched the entire room.

  Konstantin was the most upset of all of us. I think he wao find something more substantial so Delmar’s death would not be in vain. We found three runic daggers and a sed smaller runic fe hammer among the bones of the fallen smiths. Bringing the total to four more runic ons added to the pany and a sledgehammer for Maveith.

  We left the room and began the walk back to the wine vault. Konstantin led us but did n his feet. When we reached the room, he marched right up to Castile and told her what happened. I went to Maveith, who ying checkers with Remus. “Eryk, how did your exploration go?” The goliath asked when studying the board.

  “Delmar is dead.” I said pinly, and Remus’ red mop of hair looked up in surprise.

  “That is impossible.” Remus muttered as he stood ao spread the gossip.

  I sat across from Maveith and passed him the rge runic sledgehammer. “This is for you, Maveith. It is a runic on. Not designed fhting but should be good enough to bash some specters.”

  The goliath took the hammer and caressed the thick bck shaft and the silvery head. “It is an impressive hammer, Eryk. How did Delmar meet his fate?” He leahe sledgehammer against the table, fog on me.

  I looked around the room as Remus spread the word. “We found a fe, an armory of sorts. We bashed down the door, and a wight attacked us in the fusion as dust blocked the light. There were another eleveers in the room, and Delmar had to fight alone for a period while we dealt with the wight. We didn’t know he was fighting so many. He was overwhelmed before we could assist.”

  Castile ag further in the wine vault as Konstantin had fiellihe entire pany also heard the news, and the mood was extremely heavy. Fvius was handing out the runic daggers and the small hammer those who did not have a runic o. Everyone who had been sleeping was soon awake as we waited on Castile.

  I approached to see if I could help. Castile’s face was hard as she walked bad forth between the wine racks. Konstantin and Adrian stood nearby, waiting for Castile to vent. She tio painutes before finally looking up. Her face hard, she located and asked Adrian, “Who is the best man to take over for Delmar?”

  Adrian swallowed hard. I assumed Delmar and Adrian were friends. They only ever really talked with each other. Adrian offered names, “Lirkin, Linus, or Eryk. Lirkin has been with us the lo.” I was taken by surprise at the mention of my name. We all looked at Castile. Lirkin was the pany cook, Linus was our medid I was the porter.

  Castile sidered the advid then looked at me, “Eryk, do you want the job?”

  Adrian me, indig I should accept it. “Yes. I will take over for Delmar.”

  Castile pushed forward through her apparent grief, “Konstantin, thank you for letting me know. Adrian and Eryk, let us discuss what we will do now.”

  Konstantin still looked guilty but left us. I moved in close with Adrian. Castile announced, “We o move out tomorrow.”

  Adrian agreed, “The men are going to be reeling from Delmar’s loss. If we are moving, they ot dwell on it. We have been lucky only to lose two men so far.”

  “What about food and water?” I khe water teens o be refilled from snow soon. “We ot live off of the wine alone. We should melt snow first.”

  Adrian spoke, “Agreed. I will get teams to fill up some backpacks to melt snow tonight. Should take three trips to fill everyone’s teens.”

  Castile’s hand was shaking slightly as she voiced a question, “Should we attempt to leave the city and front the summoner or tinue our search for the dungeon?”

  This was obviously not the first time they had discussed this. Adrian gave his viewpoint, “The snow is too deep to move effectively out of the city and beyond. We ot surprise him, and he will have time to prepare for us. Even though I dislike dungeons, I think it is our best course of a to tinue our search for it.”

  They looked to me as part of this exercise. Apparently, I was supposed to offer an opinion and a reason for it. “If we do make it into the dungeon, we may be trapping ourselves there. The exit may be gested with specters and wights.”

  Adrian nodded in agreement, “We could draw hundreds of specters to the dungeorance. What if only six of us ehe rest will be mobbed.”

  Schor Favian had been edging closer and was close enough to overhear the versation and approached us. “I do not think we will o worry. The Shimmering Labyrinth has no limit on the number of Advehat enter.”

  Castile looked displeased, “What have you found out? What have you not told me?”

  Schor Favian wi her sharp accusation, “I don’t know how accurate the information is. It is one of the children’s books I found about the dungeon. It describes the first floor as a stone maze. Everyone who enters is randomly pced within the maze.”

  Adrian said in disbelief, “I have never heard of a duhat separates the delvers.”

  “That is because I think it is a solo dungeon. You meet up with others onside and work together. The good news is that it appears there are mas, and it is not difficult to leave the dungeon.” The Schor offered the book iion to Castile.

  Castile opehe book, and Adrian looked over her right shoulder, so I looked over her left. There were some faded pictures, and the Schor described the book, “It is a tale of an elven princess who wants to be an Adventurer. She sneaks into the Shimmering Labyrinth to prove herself to her father.”

  “There could be a lot of embellishment,” Castile voiced skeptically as she paged through the children’s book delicately, careful not to degrade the a book further. She was ied in the pictures. Each picture was a faded watercolor and had the heroine fighting a different monster. I he monsters pictured. There were many spiders of varied sizes and colors, including a bck bear and a massive white bear.

  The Schor took the book back, “It is a child’s tale, but there should be threads of truth in it. It is also the only book I have found that directly describes what to expe the dungeon.”

  Castile looked old, and her hair had streaks of gray in it. “Do you still have the recipe book too?”

  “Yes, I alsht that oh me,” Schor Favian affirmed.

  “We will make our way to the hearth tree tomorrow and try to find a way around it. Will the dungeon be above or below?” Castile asked resignedly.

  The Schor didn’t have a definitive answer but with aant look offered his best guess. “I believe it is below ground. The Elven King tried to hide its existence from outsiders and seems to have been successful for the most part.”

  Castile nodded, itted to tinuing the search for the dungeon. She addressed everyone in the room. “Delmar was a great legionnaire. He kly what ead every one of you needed and how much you could carry. His knowledge and skill with the sword will be sorely missed.” She sed the group, log Delmar’s bde. Fvius, Delmar would have wanted Adrian to carry his bde.” Fvius walked forward, and the two of them exged runic ons. Fvius took the borrowed bde the duchess had secured for the expedition.

  After the ceremonial exge, Castile tinued, “We are close to the dungeon. I hours, we will push together in search of it! We will be able to find food inside, and the summoner will not know where we went!”

  Castile’s speech was not as motivating as I thought it could be. She also did not tell the pany that the dungeon might separate us wheered. I was left to coordihe snow retrieval teams with Adrian to fill everyone’s teens. I also had to ensure each man securely packed six bottles of wine in their packs. Being in charge of logistics meant I now had a lot less free time and had to babysit the men who were too zy to remain prepared.

  I also saw how much solid food we had left in Lirkin’s pack. It was just enough food to feed everyone a single full meal. Lirkin po stretch it for three days, and then we would subsist entirely on wierward.

  As we left the wine vault, there were still thousands of bottles here if we o e bad replenish our supply. Too many of the men were dealing with daily cramps and muscle pains from slow starvation. I agreed entering the dungeon was our best course of a. We were too feeble to fight our way out of the city.

  I was in the middle of the group with Castile, who frequently went forward to capture a specter. I was gd I did not have to use the kettle. We quickly moved through the undergrouwork, Konstantin leading us. When we reached the room where Delmar rested, Castile went in and covered his body in his sleeping roll. She said a few private words and then offered the men a ce to take any ons they wanted from the piles we had made during our previous visit.

  Even though they were not runic ons, the quality was far superior tion-issued gear. I picked through the daggers and hand axes. I added a dozen of eay ste. No one aying much attention to me, and I figured they could eventually be ed and sold. I also took one of the Elven spears. If we found anht, I would prefer to be able to hold it at rahe cw marks on my armor were a terrible reminder of the enter.

  We quickly found the passages blocked by the hearth tree’s gnarled roots when we headed out. The roots blocked the passage and evehrough the stone floor to the lower level and down to the sewers. Castile determi would take too muergy and time to cut through the mess. We started making our way to the right, trying to follow the roots. We stantly had to backtrad seek a wider route around. But we were making progress ciravigating the tree.

  Things got a little dicey when we caused a rush of over fifty specters and peists wheered a wide corridor. We had to cycle men to the front, and Castile got extremely busy with the kettle of souls. roup even had to deal with specters ing from behind through the walls.

  During the rush, Maveith was a monster with his new runic sledgehammer. Where it took multiple strikes from a runic sword to dissipate a specter, Maveith’s heavy hammer blow always took them out in one. We proceeded even slower after that rush. Firth was the only legionnaire who was too io help in the fighting, his dominant sword arm broken and in a sling.

  Everyone was exhausted after hours of walking and fighting in the underground plex. The plex never seemed to end. It really appeared as if we were never going to get to the fabled dungeon. Schor Favian got Castile’s attention, “Mage Castile, this does up to the city.” She gave him an impatient look to get to the point. The Schor wiped the coating of dust to read the Elven script, “It goes to the Elven barracks that I think…now, I am not too certain…but this barraaybe Delver Hall was in charge of guarding the entrao the dungeon.”

  The entire pany was suddenly silent. All eyes turo Castile for dire on what we would do .

  ? Chted 2024 by AlwaysRollsAOne

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