Bedecked
Janus stood there for a while, processing. His throat tightened, making it difficult to speak. The secretary's announcement brought a wave of relief, loosening a knot of tension in his stomach that he hadn’t even realized was there.
“He’s alive?” asked Janus.
“When the refugees came here, we had them verify themselves. Cougar Station would have done the same. If his name is on the list, it should be because he told them himself.” The secretary smiled.
"Thank you for checking. This is the best news I’ve gotten since the attack," Janus expressed gratefully.
“Of course.”
-
He had considered immediately heading towards Cougar Station to check on his dad, but the only route there used the same rail line as the one that went towards Crow Station. Not only was that rail line still being repaired due to the appearance of the [Rath Rohen] dungeon, it had been collapsed after the attack. If he wanted to go to Cougar Station, he would have to take the tunnels.
Instead, he asked if the secretary could send a message on his behalf. She couldn't promise anything, clarifying that the only working runescribe channel was reserved for official inquiries. She would, however, give it a shot.
With a sigh, he resigned to wait and see. Even if the secretary couldn't manage to send a message, there was hope that the runescribe network would be fully operational within a few weeks.
The remainder of the day was restful, but surreal, for Janus. He walked around the office district of Bear Station, taking in the sights, and getting a better feel for what was near the Delver’s Guild. He counted himself lucky. If his dad weren’t out working on the rail line when the attack happened… well, he didn’t want to think about it.
Hashilli had rarely been home after joining Pella and Devon. The three of them were obsessed with taking jobs. It was a little frustrating, though. Janus had hoped to copy more of the other [Enhancer]s cantrips.
As the day went on, Janus thought more and more about his first official job as a delver. Hashilli and the others were completing all sorts of writs, and he didn’t want to fall behind.
The next morning, like every morning, Janus visited the tailor. To his relief, his robe had been completely repaired a few days early. He eagerly unfurled the length of thick fabric and spotted a strange patch near the neckline. It depicted a roaring bear surrounded by a green laurel.
Janus shifted the robe around in his arms. “What’s this patch? This wasn’t here before.”
“Ah, yes. That’s the emblem for Bear Station delvers! I thought I’d sew one on for you.” The tailor winked. “Of course, I can quickly remove it if you’d prefer?”
“Oh, no. Thanks, I guess.”
The patch didn’t bother Janus much. He was mostly worried that the shrewd merchant would attempt to charge him more for the addition.
“This won’t cost me anything, right?” asked Janus.
“Ah, no, the patch is on the house. I’m a big believer in the Bear Station philosophy! Stars, I even up-charge anyone I see with an Eagle Station emblem.”
The man scowled as he mentioned the other station.
I hadn’t realized the rivalry was this big of a deal.
Janus bid farewell to the merchant. With his robe repaired, there wasn’t much else he could do to prepare for the upcoming job. Once he had made more money from delving, he would be sure to invest in more items like the [Focus] that Dario had given him.
That night, Hashilli returned before Janus went to bed. The two of them spent most of the night experimenting with [Spell Weaving]. Janus mastered the ability to conjure a tranquil stream of water, summon a gentle gust of air, and ignite fire from his fingertip. Hashilli insisted that they continue, but Janus declined, citing his need for sleep. Tara and Rowan expected to meet him early the next morning—they had a job to do.
-
Janus, Tara, and Rowan stared into a tunnel. Strangely enough, this tunnel was not part of the delver’s guild network. It actually left Janus with a feeling of unease. Privately created tunnels tended to not appear on delver maps. He thought back to his trip here from Crow Station. What if there were a tunnel that just went straight from one station to the other, and he didn’t know about it?
Best not to think about that.
The earth manipulators had hardly started digging yet. The tunnel only extended half a dozen meters or so into the stone.
In the job debriefing, the foreman explained that this tunnel would be used to find new sources of metal and gemstones. The diggers would go for about a week, by the foreman’s estimates.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Their job was to travel with the group of earth manipulators until the tunnel had reached the appropriate length. Janus and his team were expected to deal with any monsters or other complications they could assist with.
“They seem like fine enough lads,” remarked Rowan.
Tara was sulking. “Yeah, yeah. We could have been hitting a dungeon or something.”
“Well, I kind of prefer this for now. Although I’m not that eager to spend a bunch of time in a tunnel again….” Janus winced.
“Well, the good news is that we probably would have been heading for a tunnel anyway,” responded Rowan.
“I guess that makes sense,” Janus sighed.
The digging crew had already gotten to work. It was slow-going from Janus’ perspective. They were only planning to dig about a mile a day, but even that was considered a breakneck pace to many earth manipulators.
It reassured Janus that they would never be that far from Bear Station. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to be weeks out from civilization again.
The trip started with Tara and Rowan’s usual bickering throughout the first day. Janus guessed that Rowan was missing an easy target to pick on. Any time the [Trickster] attempted to pull something on him, Janus ignored the attempt. After a while, Rowan grew bored with trying.
“You’re no fun, Janus. At least Hashilli would, ya’ know, react,” complained Rowan.
With Janus proving to be an unamusing prospect, Rowan turned most of his attention towards teasing Tara. She would rise to almost any bait, but Janus wondered if that was really to Rowan’s advantage. His quips usually ended with Tara violently lashing out.
Janus initially found the banter annoying, but decided it was better than the dull chalky sound of rock being shifted.
The digging was going well. The earth manipulators even reinforced the tunnel and added [Torchstones] along the way. It slowed them down quite a bit, but Janus wasn’t going to complain. He’d spent enough time in questionable, unlit tunnels.
He mentioned it to Tara, and she only shrugged.
“Bear Station has some regulations about tunnels within a certain distance. Since we’re not going that far, these guys probably have to reinforce the tunnel. I don’t know about the lights, though. They might just be extra.”
“I see. I guess Crow Station didn’t really have any regulations for tunnels. Most of them weren’t reinforced at all,” said Janus.
“Yeah, well, you can only have so many cave-ins on people before it becomes a real problem. I guess Crow Station was small enough that it hadn’t really mattered.”
Her explanation felt a little cold to Janus. Surely if there were a cave in that hurt people in Crow Station, they would have acted swiftly to regulate tunnels the same way Bear Station had. Janus simply couldn’t remember a time that a collapsed tunnel was mentioned on his runescribe.
The days passed in a calming, monotonous way. Janus was slowly acclimating to the tunnel as they journeyed onward. Tara and Rowan helped manage his anxiety through their inane conversations. He was starting to learn a lot about the both of them.
Apparently, they had been childhood friends until Rowan moved to Eagle Station. It had been almost ten years until the pair reunited as delvers. They had been on jobs nearly every week for the past couple of years. Rowan helped reign in Tara’s penchant for danger and adrenaline while Tara kept Rowan out of trouble with the station authorities.
It surprised Janus to learn that Rowan was somewhat of an accomplished thief. The [Trickster]s first 100 writs had been garnished in an act of “community service.” But the redhead seemed to have preferred that over time in jail.
After learning so much about the others, Janus was almost disappointed that he had so little to share about himself. His life had been mostly mundane. Originally, he planned to study enchanting and mechanical engineering. He wanted to work with his dad and help build the stations.
At least that had been his plan until Dario showed up. He still remembered the day that he ticked the box on his college application, indicating that he was interested in combat training. At the time, it was a silly gesture. Protecting the stations like one of the heroes in the novels he had read was only a dream.
Thankfully, Rowan and Tara hadn’t ridiculed him when he revealed this. They were very surprised to learn that Dario Wall had been his teacher. Janus never realized that he still hadn’t mentioned the man to the others.
I guess I just hope he’s still out there.
-
It was starting to look like a peaceful job until a group of [Giant Moles] attacked them. The digging team must have attracted the monsters from a nearby nest or, perhaps, the moles had been generated by the System in a nearby cavern.
Fortunately, they were easy enough for Janus and company to defeat. In fact, Janus was pretty sure that any one of them could have handled the monsters on their own. Even though the encounter was quickly resolved, he was still feeling uneasy. The attack was a stark reminder that they were here to protect the earth manipulators.
If we make a mistake, people could die.
He shook off the thought.
“Bah, barely got my blood going.” Tara spat.
Rowan pounced on the opportunity. “Not that time of the month, aye?”
Tara’s fist was already raised when everyone froze.
[Your party has triggered a new quest: Find the Heartstone]
“What the fuck?” whispered Rowan.
“We are turning around boys, not getting mixed up with this shit!” the foreman shouted from behind.
Janus wasn’t entirely sure what was going on. He had never heard of the System issuing a quest before.
“What’s going on?” Janus asked as the group put away enchanted items and the diggers pulled back from the end of the tunnel.
“It’s a quest. I’ve only heard of this happening a few times.” Tara looked conflicted as she watched everyone pack up. “I want to stay and check it out—“
“Absolutely no way.” Rowan interjected. “You know what happens when people trigger a quest. We need to move out of here as fast as we can.”
The foreman pushed through his workers and informed the trio that they would follow behind the rest, acting as a rear guard. Janus and the other shifted their packs and started following behind the nervous digging team.
“Can one of you explain what exactly this means?” asked Janus.
“Quests have been poppin’ up for a little over a decade. Sometimes the System changes or grows. Makes havin’ metamages a blessing, for sure.” Rowan shrugged. “But these quests are trouble. Tons of monsters appear and all kinds of other weird stuff goes on when a quest is triggered.”
“Yeah, it’s like a dream come true for me to complete a quest.” Tara sulked.
“Well, it’s a dream of mine to keep on livin’. Anyway, we need to keep this digging crew safe, aye? It’s our duty.”
Janus couldn’t tell if Rowan actually cared about the digging crew’s wellbeing or not. More likely, he was just trying to convince Tara to go with them. If the quest was as dangerous as Rowan said, Janus could hardly blame him. If Tara stayed behind on her own, she could die.
Janus didn’t have much longer to think before a crashing sound erupted from the rocky wall at the end of the tunnel.