Chapter 53

Finn and Ava disappeared into the Drowned Goblin as soon as they got back to Pura, while Hert and Leon stopped outside his shop. Their walk back had been tense and quiet, even though Leon had divided the loot as equally as he could between them.

Hert turned his head to Leon and chuckled. “I honestly didn’t think you had it in you to threaten someone.”

Leon looked toward the inn. “He needs us. We want the boost. With his behavior thus far, that wouldn’t last. I needed to get the point across.”

Hert nodded. “I wondered how far your patience would take you. You think it could work on Ava, too?”

Leon gave a deep sigh. “One troublesome person at a time. Finn’s the one dealing the most damage to our team, so getting Ava to see things differently is… low priority.”

“Bet she’d start crying.” Hert shook his head and turned toward the door. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m gonna take a nap.”

Leon nodded. “Yeah, sounds like a good plan. See you tomorrow.”

“Um… we’ll see about that tonight. We might need to skip tomorrow, if what Finn said was true. But if there’s no news, let’s do that.”

“What do you mean?”

Hert scratched his beard. “Well, season shift is… tricky. You’re usually advised to stay within the city once it comes, but the system will notify us about it.”

“Okay? Well, we still need to meet up to decide what we want to do.”

Hert nodded. “Eight it is, then.”

They parted ways, and Leon went to the crafting merchant to sell off his part of the loot. If there had been the mood for it, they could have divided the loot through Leon selling all the parts and then splitting the coin between them, but no one had even raised the idea.

He’d kept the bread, and the goo, since no one wanted that, while the others took the rest. The breads weren’t worth much in of themselves, but they could be worth something for boosting his rations. The green stuff, even though it was classed as junk, sold for one coin and left Leon with seventy-nine coins in total. Not a lot, but he could hunt more as soon as he’d lowered some of his fatigue. Might be good to recoup some health, too.

Leon walked toward the plaza and opened his inventory to take out one bread. He frowned. There were only four there. He glanced at the rabbit in the two inventory slots.

“You like bread, too?” He took one out and bit into it, trying not to think about where it came from.

He wondered how the effect would affect Trouble, but he supposed she knew what she could and couldn’t eat. Besides, he had nowhere else to store food if he got it as loot. He chuckled as he remembered what the man at the hamburger stand said; don’t ask what’s in them. Though, thinking of that and the bread in his hand made him wonder about what was in the food at the inns. It tasted good and hadn’t made him sick, though, so no use in thinking more of it.

Leon walked into the Laughing Bard and stopped when he saw Red sitting at the bar, talking with the old innkeeper. He had forgotten about taking the quest today. He glanced at his fatigue. It was at sixty-four percent. It should be possible.

“Ah, here he is.” Crag smiled. “How did today go? Is Finn finally settling in with your group?”

Red looked over her shoulder at Leon. “He’s in your party?”

“Not for much longer, unless he changes.” Leon approached the bar. “What can you tell me about him? He has a knack for putting other people in danger, that’s obvious, so what happened to his previous groups?”

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Crag leaned on the bar and scratched behind one of his enormous ears. “I wish I knew, lad. But all I know is what I’ve heard from the man himself. And that’s not much.”

Red shook her head. “He’s not one I’d trust.” She turned in her chair and pushed her hair over her shoulder. “I don’t know if it’s true, but I think one group disappeared.”

Leon sat on one of the bar stools. “They died?”

She shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe they just went into the next part of the city and split up there. An acquaintance of mine was in it, and I haven’t heard from him since.” She sighed. “Maybe he’s just not gotten around to visit me.”

Leon nodded. That was the most likely, especially if she hadn’t heard of their deaths. Finn could have turned his back on them, but there was nothing to gain for him if he left a party that wanted him there, especially since that meant he needed to fight alone or find another group. Maybe they’d hear some rumors about it once they got to level ten and could proceed. Though, Finn likely didn’t have enough impact for people to gossip about him for long. Unless he’d made himself so unwanted that people forced him out of there.

Leon smiled to himself. If Finn sought a new party, a lower leveled one, it might have been because they wouldn’t think of using force against him, since the ones with the NooB-title would be immune to such attacks. And that had been true for their group as well, for a short while.

“So, shall we?” Red jumped off the chair and walked around the bar.

“Uh, sure. I’ll go to accept the quest.” Leon walked toward the stairs.

Crag grabbed his arm. “I’ll do that for you.”

The quest box popped up and disappeared in a flash, and Leon received a notification that the quest had been added to his log.

Red opened the trapdoor, and Leon quickened his steps to enter the staircase before it closed. As it did, he heard Crag chuckle behind him.

Leon frowned, but didn’t think much more of it as he followed Red downstairs.

“So what level are you, anyway?” Leon asked as he caught up to her in the kitchen.

“Eight.”

That was higher than he’d expected. That meant she must have cleared the first floor, too.

“Did you go into the first level of the tower alone? That’s courageous.”

She stopped and sighed. “No, I didn’t. Stop trying to gain information from me. I don’t want your pity.”

“I get that,” Leon said as Red opened the door to the room with the barrels. “Being curious is in my nature. And I don’t exactly pity you, except that you didn’t get a fighting class rather than a supporting one, while you want to do everything alone.” Leon smiled. “I actually got an idea yesterday, if you’re willing to hear me out. A non-binding agreement of helping each other.”

“After the quest, maybe.”

“Sure.”

Red held open the door to the cellar, and Leon let Trouble come out.

“Hi, Trouble.” Red let on a smile. “How have you been?”

Trouble didn’t move forward to greet her, but stood by Leon’s side, looking from the woman to him, then stayed still, her eyes on the door.

Red nodded. “Shall we?” She walked through first and stepped to the side to let Leon take the lead while she pointed at something in front of her.

He stopped at the top of the stairs, staring at the creatures in the small room below. “What the hell are those?”

Red drew out her lute. “What do you—” She froze in her movement and frowned. “Fungi?”

“Well, yeah. I see that’s their name, but where are the rats? And why do they move?”

Below were twelve three-foot wide mushrooms, some green, and some purple. Their feet were creme colored and pointed toward the ceiling. They wobbled as they rested on top of their hats, and all wore white tags stating they were ‘Fungi Level 1.’

“So… how do you think they attack? Have you ever fought anything like them before?”

Red shook her head. “No. I’ve never seen anything like them. Why are they upside down?”

Leon frowned. “Do you know how to cure poison?”

Red shook her head again. “Um… I think we’d better tell Crag about this. Maybe he knows? I don’t want to fight something that might inflict something we can’t cure.”

Leon drummed his fingers on the broadside of his sword. He looked at Trouble, who gazed up at him. He still didn’t know if potions worked on her, so if the Fungi attacked and she got poisoned, there was no way to be sure she’d survive. Besides, if he remembered correctly, poison was one of the few things sleep didn’t cure.

He sighed. “Yeah. I had a question I wanted to ask him, anyway.”

They left the cellar without another word.

When they came upstairs, Crag turned toward them with raised eyebrows, placing a newly cleaned tankard on a shelf. “The quest hasn’t ended, so what are you doing here? Did something go wrong?”

“What does a season shift mean?” Leon asked. “Earlier today, our group fought a large group of monsters, and now there are mushrooms instead of rats in the cellar. Are those things related?”

Crag’s eyes widened. “So soon?” He glanced at the ceiling, then tugged at his ear. “Have you noticed that the weather never changes? How it’s always sunny? That’s one season. Next season, it will rain, endlessly, and the monsters will change, too. The caves and dungeons change first, then the surrounding areas. My dungeon is no different.” He glanced at the ceiling again. “I’ll cancel the quest for now. Please head out of the inn. I need to inform the city council.”

The old innkeeper walked toward the two tables where the regulars sat. “Season shift.”

The three men nodded, emptied their tankards, and hurried toward the door.

Crag turned and waved his hand toward Leon and Red. “Go tell the guards, please. You can come back in a few hours.”