Chapter 138: Elven Assessment

  Konstantin and Maveith tinued pying checkers on the desk, preventing me from lying down. Konstantin he spheres in his hand, “They appear to be ingots for making rings.” I tinued holding out my hand for the balls. Konstantifully dropped them into my hand, and I sent them to my ste for safekeeping. I took my teen and sat on the bench by the fire. The fire felt warmer and more invigorating than normal, and I scooted the bench closer.

  “Ptinum is very valuable, Eryk,” Maveith intoned as he ered Konstantin’s st piece. “Much more so than gold. It carries runitments much better than most metals and arnishes.”

  Konstantin nodded in agreement, frustration on his face for losing the game. He appraised me, “How are you feeling?” There was only a mild note of in his tohough more than I expected after our earlier iion.

  I held my hands closer to the fire, deg what to admit. I didn’t want to appear weak, but Konstantin would push me harder if I admitted I could ma. I tossed a board on the fire, “I maoday. The Schor found the dungeon location today.” By their ck of rea, they already knew.

  Konstantin nodded somberly, “Yes. We are going to searore runic ons tomorrow. Yoing to have to be able to do thrice what you did today with the kettle of souls. Sixty at a minimum each day if we are going to reach the dungeon before we all die of starvation.”

  “Castile told me it would get easier the more I used it. Maybe not sixty tomorrow, but I will get there,” I sounded fident, but my body shook at the memory of using the broifact. I hid my body’s unease by stirring the coals.

  Mateo suddenly stood and rushed out of the room, having to take a ‘squirt.’ He left the door open in his rush, and we cursed him for letting the heat out. “Felix, close the door!” Konstantin ordered as they started aname of checkers. “Last one, Maveith, Eryk needs his rest,” Konstantin wi me like he was doing me a faviving me my bed.

  The m, I had to force myself to eat; my appetite was gone. Konstantin gave me twice as much rid beans as everyone else had received. He theo talk with the Schor. As breakfast ended aarted on their daily tasks, Castile made an appearance, Delmar, and Adrian at her back. She looked pale and thin, but her eyes were bright, telling me her mind was sharp.

  She looked across the room slowly, making eye tact with everyone, “We will be getting out of this. You are the stro pany in the Lion! I could promise you rewards beyond measure from the plunder of the city, but instead, I want to affirm to each of you that your lives are more important. The undead will not break you! The cold will not break you! And the unseen summoner will not break you!”

  Castile’s passion was met with some nods, but a few still remained indifferent. I could see Adrian noting who in his mind. Delmar ed his knuckles on the shelf loudly, “We are moving to the underground tomorrow. We learned everything we o here.” That got whispers. Schor Favian looked around longingly at all the books he had not had a ce to study. Delmar tinued, “It will be warmer down there, and we will save time advang through the city. We will be dressing ba full armor kit starting today. Get to your daily tasks, men.”

  With that said, Adrian walked toward me and handed me the kettle. “Konstantin and I will be at your front today—just Bze at your back. Let us know when you need a rest. Gear up, legionnaire!” He said with a pat on my shoulder.

  Putting on my armain was almost surreal. It was like the set had been made fiant. I had trouble getting everything to fit tightly. I walked out into the unal area and noticed my elven dagger on Firth’s belt. I approached the veteran, demanding my dagger back, “Firth, you have a runic sword now. Give me back my dagger.”

  Firth looked me over and drew the dagger, “This is too pretty a on for you, Eryk.” He bahe bde on his index finger and spun it, the bde and handle whirling. “I have never handled such a perfectly weighted sticker. How much do you want for it?”

  “I am not selling it,” I held out my hand. Firth sidered me again and nodded slowly. He tossed, snatched, and sheathed the bde and ha to me. It took me some time to feed the sheath on my belt, but soon I was ready. A few men nodded in appreciation at my recmation of the runic dagger.

  Our armor cttered as we desded the stairs together. Normally, it had a rhythm to it, but not any longer with it being so loose. Bze asked, “Why the armor now?”

  Konstantin answered him while pying with his straps, “In case we run into a wight wielding a on.”

  Adrian tradicted Konstantin, “No, we are to secure the wine room this trip. I know we talked about looking for more runic ons st night, but Castile thought the men o see us making progress toward a goal,” Adrian replied evenly.

  Konstantin looked ready to object but nodded and tio lead the way. It was more of a slow walk today, and we didn’t see any specters for a few minutes. Bze asked, “Where do all the do?”

  “Some are more storerooms. Others lead up into other buildings iy,” Konstantin paused at a door, “This faded writing here says where the door leads.” I took out my own glowstoo examihe faded elven script oone.

  “Some type of restaurant,” I transted with my poor Elvish.

  “Do you think they are open?” Bze asked seriously. “I know it is early in the m and all.” He started to smile at his joke.

  We all started ughing, and Adrian chuckled, “Well, if they are open, breakfast is on me.”

  When things simmered down, Konstantin gave a reality check, “We only took oair to the city. The building had colpsed oairs, but that didn’t stop three specters from ing through the rubble to greet us. We want to avoid triggering a rush from the city. If we stirred the city, it could have hundreds of specters after us.” That sobered things up pretty quickly so we tinued on in silence. We entered just two specters on the way to the wine room.

  Ihe wine room, Adrian ordered Konstantin, “I want you to gh every bottle and dump the toxies. Castile doesn’t want anyone drinking them by mistake.” That was how we spent our four hours. Dumping the witles down the drain after Konstantin pulled them off the racks. After that, we searched a handful of nearby storerooms for specters before returning to the tower. I only harvested nine specters all day and was greatly relieved at the lower number of times activating the kettle.

  As we climbed the stairs, the most divine smell in the world assaulted our noses. We rushed into the small library to find a bird spinning on an improvised spit. Mealking eically and keeping their eyes on it.

  I guessed what the bird was. “Baby eagle?” It was the size of a turkey, so it was definitely not one of the monstrous adults.

  Felix answered excitedly, “Fvius got an owl that ehe main library! My stomach ’t wait to make its acquaintance.”

  “It was most likely a scout trolled by the summoner,” Delmar said from across the room. “It saw us pag up from the window and wao know where we were pnning to go.”

  “Delmar is correct. The summoner sent it, and I am certain it is not poisoned. He just made a slight error in his impatience. He has remained a few miles away, tired of waiting us out,” Castile said rally and sounded in trol. “The good news is he is too busy maintaining his hold of the storm elementals to summon anything else. Once we disappear into the uy, we may lose his focus.” For some reason, I doubted Castile’s optimism. Still, her ter to Delmar’s pessimism brightehe mood.

  There was a lot less meat than it inally looked like. Everyo an equal share, and no one pihe feathers were stuffed into a small bag, and then the bones were boiled, along with the feet, for breakfast broth the day. The fresh meat, although somewhat acidic tasting, cheered everyone up.

  I made sure to y out on my desk before Maveith could start his nightly checkers tour with Konstantin. I o sleep myself, and after a few minutes of twisting and turning, I snuck myself an oblivion pill in the absence of the amulet.

  Konstantin took pleasure in waking me from my deep sleep in the m. “Eryk.” He whispered o my ear while snapping his fingers in my face, “If I was a goblin, I would have stabbed you five times already.” I spped away his hand and sat up. Just as I had guessed, the non-magical oblivion pills did not seem to give me restful sleep iy.

  A thought crossed my mind. “Are goblins edible?” I asked, remembering I had one of the creatures in my dimensional ste.

  Maveith answered from the floor where he ag, “They probably taste worse than the owl from st night, but I do not think they are poisonous.” I hinking that tiny creature had to be at least forty pounds. Maybe I could release it and pretend it wandered into the city.

  With everyone moving out of the tower, it meant Castile could hahe kettle duties today. I hesitated in the room, being the st to leave the small library. I looked longingly at the rge bck desk. Not only was it a piece of artwork, but it was a good bed. I checked outside the door and then stored the rge desk. The top was three by seve, and the height was about two feet tall, and it might serve as a good obstru or workbene.

  I caught up with everyone and walked o Castile who handed me the kettle of souls so she could practice her aether shaping of the nightmare spell. So much for a break for myself. She was not much of a versationalist today, fully trating on learning the spell as quickly as possible. We only entered a single specter on the way to the wine vault, and I used the kettle to deal with it.

  When the doors opened, everyone who had not seen it yet gasped and gawked while walking stupidly among the racks. Delmar issued his procmation, “No one drinks without permission. I will assign you all sleeping locations. We piss in the drain and shit ioreroom across the hall in pairs. That is right.” His voice rose to a and, “No one shits alone!”

  It took a few hours to settle in as Delmar was in charge of camp setup. It helped him diree of his increasingly aggressive nature productively. Adrian assighe guard duties, of which I had none. Konstantin pulled on my armor, “e on, Eryk, no one shits alone.”

  Maveith stood, “I haven’t shit in three days. I think I might have to.”

  “Fine, you e too! Could use a brute.” Konstantin said, irritated. I could already tell we were not going for a shit. In the hallway, Konstanti left and walked rapidly while we followed.

  “I don’t have the kettle of souls,” I warned him. He looked to be on the hunt for more specters, or maybe his bde was driving him to hunt.

  “It is fi is just a few doors down.” He expined, as he tinued walking. He paused at a door, studied it, and ope. We followed him inside, and oher side of the room were heavy bunk beds. Thick dust from deteriorated mattresses covered them, but this could be a game ger. “Too heavy to haul up into the tower but forty feet down the hall? I think that is manageable.”

  Maveith and I wrestled the first o the door while Konstantin watched for specters. My fatigued and emaciated muscles could not match Maveith’s, so we made quite a racket to get the first oo the wine room. There were eight bunks for sixteen beds in total, and soon, the whole pany was helping. It was the most animated I had seen Delmar in a long time.

  We moved witles and took down racks to make room. Delmar thought the wine room was more defensible than the small room from which we took the beds. The small room with bunks was too far away to haul back, but we could sleep in shifts. Everyone was covered in filth when we were done, but the sense of aplishment was high in the pany. Some of the soldiers were actually smiling and making jokes to one ahe only unhappy person was Schor Favian, due to the fact that he was only able to carry ten of his priceless books from the tower.

  We were allotted a little more wihan we probably should have had that evening. I hat Adrian and Delmar didn’t drink and remained on watch with Castile using the amulet. We were in a new phase of our exploration of the ruins, but the clock was still running on us. We had already too many days in Caelora, sustaining ourselves oraordinarily very little. Living off calories from wine was not going to be very pleasant. The move had abated some of the depression, but it would soourn.

  For the hree days, Adrian, Brutus, Konstantin, Mateo, and Bze guarded me as we started to explore the hearth tree and thin the specters in preparation for finding the dungeon. Bze got knocked out when a peist threw a heavy ceramic bowl at his head from behind, but we did well other than that one injury. I to between forty and forty-five specters in the m and awenty-five or so iernoon as we slowly explored new areas.

  We were also searg rooms Konstantin had not searched previously. Oeresting room had a familiar devi assessment tablet—but it was a modest table, simir to the one I used in the capital at the Adventurer’s Guild in the capital. It was also much fancier, with finer wood and decorative carvings, and the nguage was clearly Elvish after I cleared the dust off.

  “Leave it. It is useless anyway, as it is based on the elven race,” Konstantin advised, leaving the room without giving it ahought. However, it had all the attributes and twenty-one magic affinities oable. Even if it gave skewed results, it robably worth something. Konstantin called from the corridor, “We should head bayway. This corridor is heading away from the hearth tree.” I did not know how he khat, but I was sure he would expin it in excruciatiail ter if I didn’t ask.

  I made sure I was the st o of the room ahe entire assessment tablet table into my dimensional ste. It was only about three by five feet, and the height was simir to the bck desk I had stored a week earlier, and I had a lot of space if I got creative. We got eveer news wheuro the wine vault. Castile had successfully learhe nightmare spell! I was thrilled as it meant that hopefully, I would get my amulet back soon. As this pce was beginning to affect me like the others.

  ? Chted 2024 by AlwaysRollsAOne

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