As the Lanek and Liv joined Kazuma and Sanguineus, multiple creatures had funneled into the plaza in front of the shop. Lanek saw a mixture of ghasts and ghouls, clearly having been alerted to the presence of something in the area. He didn’t see any gaunts about, so it was pretty obvious who they were coming for. Looking at the enemies, he didn’t see any that would give him experience, but he did spot more than a few that would provide him with some SPI.
With a nod to his companions, Lanek stepped out into the courtyard, whip instantly lashing out to pierce and remove the soul from a ghast. A short spear streaked out from behind him, catching another ghast in the skull, removing it from the fight. Damn, that was nice. I wonder if she would be open to carrying some javelins?
His animal companions bolted from the building splitting to either flank and ensuring that the ghouls couldn’t overwhelm the two humans while they dealt with the ghasts. While the ghouls were being shredded and torn, Lanek used his sabre to disable the ghasts quickly, leaving them on the ground until he could harvest them.
Meanwhile, Liv reaped a bloody harvest with her new spear, keeping her distance while she smoothly dispatched ghasts with thrusts to the head or neck. The cutting edge proved just as effective, severing grasping hands and slicing open throats. It didn’t take long at all for the undead to go down permanently.
He checked his SPI, wanting to see just how high it had gotten over course of the battle. Hmm, 45? Oh, I can’t wait to blow something up…
He shook his head, clearing that thought for now. With Liv’s help, they proceeded to collect all of coins and cores. When Liv asked why he wanted the coins, he just shrugged and explained that he simply wanted them just in case.
After their skirmish, they headed toward the equipment shop, stopping at the clothing shop that Lanek had visited weeks ago. While the majority of the clothing did not fit him, Lanek did pick up as many socks and pairs of undergarments as he could find. His current socks and underwear were sorely in need of replacement at this point. He wasn’t sure what Liv took, but her pack was quite a bit larger when she exited the store, grinning broadly.
When they reached the equipment shop, he let Liv have at it. He knew that it didn’t have any armor that would help him out, but he did pick up a normal dagger to replace the seax he had given Liv. While Liv perused the shop, Lanek asked her to wait there for him as he returned to the home of the adventurers that had given him his armor. Now that he had room for it, he intended to retrieve the duelist’s rapier.
When he returned to Liv, he found that she had changed out of the brigandine jacket and was now wearing a mail hauberk and hefting a large round shield. “Bit of an upgrade?”
“Yep, I was hoping for some type of helm, but I guess I can’t have everything. But at least this armor and shield are familiar to me. I finally feel fully equipped for the first time in a long while.”
“I see, why didn't you have anything like this in the dungeon?”
“My spear and shield broke fighting the boss I mentioned before. I don’t know what happened to my short sword, it was simply gone when I woke up. I’m pretty sure I dropped it as anything that had found me while I was sleeping would have killed me instead of robbed me. As for the armor, while I was trained with a mail hauberk, I couldn’t take it into the Labyrinth. It didn’t belong to me. The village had multiple, but they were solely for the defense of the village, so I had to make do with what I could afford to buy.”
“Ah. Does all of the better armor belong to the village as a whole?”
“No, the jarl and his huskarls all had their own armor. Some of the retired warriors and adventurers did as well. However, if one of those warriors fell without having a child to leave the armor to, it became the property of the village and was added to the armory. If we were ever attacked, the armory was opened to everyone and the equipment was on a first come, first served basis.”
“That makes a lot of sense. No point in burying someone with armor when their armor could be put to better use.”
“Aye. So, if I return home, can I take this with me?”
“I don’t see why not. The owners of this place are long dead, even if they did survive the fall of the city. If you are asking my permission, don’t. I don’t own the place.” Lanek said.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Liv smiled brightly at him before laughing. “My brothers will be so jealous when I get home.” Her face darkened abruptly, “If. If I get home.”
“Liv, I can’t promise to get you home as I am a stranger to this place and I have only been here for about a month and a half. But, if you really want to go home, I do have maps back at the monastery that you can look through to try to find a route. Although, I hope you will consider staying.”
“Why is that? You don’t know much about me.”
“Well, I have an idea. It might sound a bit crazy, but I am wondering if we can eventually retake the city, or at least parts of it.”
She laughed loudly. “What, just the two of us, a ghost, and your pets?”
“No,” he replied, chuckling with her, “I want to see if there are other people that would be willing to join us. Maybe small villages within a few days travel of Caelis that would consider joining us. Barring that, maybe the Night Arrows.”
“Night Arrows? Who are they?”
“It’s a goblin tribe outside the city that has helped me quite a bit.”
“Okay, didn’t expect that. Anyone else?”
“You took that better than expected.”
“Well, my village has traded with hobgoblins in the past, so I know that they aren’t all monsters.”
“Oh good, I was a little worried that you would object.”
“Nah. But, you haven’t said why you want to take on this suicidal job.” she said.
“After meeting you and exploring the forests outside of the city and hearing the stories from the Night Arrows, this world is clearly fucked. Seriously, it sounds like gaunts have essentially taken over. It might not be true everywhere, but it definitely is around here. As a result, everyone is struggling to survive and it doesn’t seem to be going well. Not only are people unable to trade with one another, but simply traveling can be a death sentence from what you have told me. However, if we can reclaim the city, or even a part of it, we can defend ourselves from the gaunts by using the walls.”
“And we can use the dungeon for experience and gear.” Liv added, looking pensive.
“You don’t have to answer me now, but I would appreciate it if you thought about it a bit. Even if you say no, I will still do what I can to help you get home. I just don’t like the idea of spending the rest of my life in this world just surviving. I did enough of that back home.”
“Look, I don’t need to think about it. I just have one condition and I’m in.”
“And that is?”
“That you promise me that once it is feasible, we will try to get my family here. The whole village would be nice, but my family is the priority. If we are going to try to make this place safe, then I want my family to benefit, I’m sick of burying my kin and watching my parents weep over another child lost to gaunts, disease, or starvation.”
“Done. Hell, I was hoping we could get them down here anyway, a bunch of warriors would be extremely helpful.”
“Then we have a deal. Have you told Caelis yet?”
“Not yet. I know she wants to restore the city, but she is also wracked by guilt over the deaths of her citizens. She was livid when I came back to the city after she introduced me to Kazuma and helped me escape to the forest.”
“I suppose we should head back and let her know, right?”
Lanek nodded and led the way home. Once in the monastery, he asked Caelis to join them in the meeting room to discuss their plans. Caelis looked dumbfounded at his idea, but also a little hopeful.
“Do you know where to start?” Caelis asked.
“Well, I was thinking that I would try to get some help from Ograch and then work on getting your nodes into the monastery so we can get your help protecting our new headquarters. Although, I’m not sure if the nodes or investigating Laethon should take priority. We’re going to need help dealing with the orcs and spiders.”
“Spiders?” Caelis asked.
“Orcs?”
“Yes, Liv. The former city garrison is filled with orcs, but we don’t know if they are feral or belong to the dungeon.”
“Doesn’t matter, orcs are brutal foes no matter the type.” she stated, clearly speaking from experience.
“As for the spiders, I ran into a group of spitting spiders before I met Liv. [Threat Detection] screamed at me to run after the furballs and I wiped the first group out, and it was a good thing it did. When I looked back after the skill had calmed down, it looked like hundreds of giant spiders were watching me. Well hundreds of spiders as tall as I am, can’t really call them giant after seeing their gigantic friend.”
“Explain. Now.” Caelis spoke in a scathing tone, clearly upset that he hadn’t mentioned this before.
“Okay,” he said in a confused tone. “There was a spider that was taller than even the tallest three story homes in the area looming over all of the others. It could have easily caught us, but it stopped when we reached the last of the buildings before the ruins of the wall around the pit. I wonder if it belongs to the dungeon or is allied with it?”
“No. No, it most definitely is not.” Caelis said quietly, “A matriarch does not serve or ally with anyone.”