Chapter 60

After having walked in silence back to Pura and having sold the loot to the merchants, the group split up. Considering how many toad groups they had defeated, they had gained quite a bit even after Leon’s peace offering. Finn had still been fuming, but also still oddly quiet for the day. Ava had tried getting him to talk more on their way back, but with little success. The two had entered the Drowned Goblin together, though. It made Leon wonder what was happening behind the scenes, not only between Ava and Finn, but with Finn himself.

Leon said bye to Hert and walked toward the Laughing Bard. Leon wondered what the rest of his party did all day. It was not like they could plop down on a sofa to watch TV or play a video game, and except for Hert, they didn’t seem that much into reading. Come to think of it; there should be books around, but he hadn’t really seen any.

A younger couple ran past him, holding a sack stretched over their heads, and Leon sidestepped to let them pass. He could ask the system about any feature he wondered about in Gaitol, but there should be books for training and the like as well. That was an idea to explore later.

He entered the night market square and looked at the area around him. There were no people anywhere. Odd. There had always been a few groups standing around chatting. He’d never seen it completely empty. He strolled up to the inn, where he climbed the steps and entered. The people he’d been missing outside seemed to be here, and some of them wore clothes that were still soaked from the rain. Three new coat racks stood full of jackets and hats, all dripping onto the floor. As the water reached the stone, it disappeared, like the tiles absorbed it somehow, and there was a heavy mixed smell of wet wool and warm bodies lingering in the air.

Leon glanced over the full seats around the bar, looking for Red’s brown hair, or the hat she wore from time to time. When he couldn’t see it, he ventured into the adjacent room. This room was completely full, too. He’d never seen a person in here except on market nights or when Red played on her lute. Odd. He wondered if Crag still offered dinner.

Red wasn’t up on the stage, nor did she sit at one of the tables. Leon walked to the bar and toward the stairs leading up to his room when a small, gnarled hand stopped him.

“You stuck in your own mind, boy?” Crag said. “I’m talking to you.”

Leon turned to him. The old innkeeper stood on his ladder with one foot as he held out his arm over Leon’s chest. “Sorry, I was looking for Red. It’s busy here.”

Crag nodded. “Indeed. It comes with the rain season. How do you like it so far?”

Leon smiled. “It’s nice not to get wet.”

“Speak for yourself,” a burly man said. He leaned his elbows onto the counter, drinking something steaming from a tankard. “Lucky bastard. Your kind…”

Crag smacked the bar with a hand. “Now, now. He can’t help where he comes from, can he? Much like you.”

The man just grunted in displeasure and went back to his drink. Leon turned back to Crag. He motioned for Leon to follow him. Crag pulled the string to the trapdoor and shouted “come over here and do your darn job” over the bar to someone Leon couldn’t see, then he entered the stairs to his dungeon. Leon looked over his shoulder as he followed, but the only one he saw was the man at the bar, staring after him.

Crag led him to the kitchen, where he promptly sat down on a stool and stretched out his feet. “Ah, that’s nice.”

Leon stood there, unsure of what to do. Then he sat down too, and his nose was happy to have escaped the dank smell above. Here it smelled like roasting bread and sweet, hot drinks. Leon nodded to the stairs. “So, what was that?”

Crag leaned back. “Well, there are some people here, like that man, that think players get unfair advantages that should extend to everyone. But you won’t need to worry about them, boy. Mutterings is all it ever comes to.”

“Why is it like that?” Leon opened his inventory, taking Trouble out. “I mean, why can’t everyone get shielded from the weather?”

Crag’s face lit up at the sight of the rabbit. “Trouble! Nice to see you, lass.” He rose and started rummaging about in the cupboard behind him. He spoke over his shoulder. “Only the system knows why. Maybe to make this world make sense, in one way or another. There’s no explanation for it.”

Trouble pressed herself to Leon’s side, making him almost lose his balance. With the height of these stools, she was taller than him. He scratched her cheek. “So where’s Red?”

“She’s coming,” Crag said. He took out a small box, from which he took a small, round cookie-like thing. He turned to face them. “Red keeps busy, like you do. She went up to sleep two hours ago, and said she’d come down after that.” The old man walked over to Trouble and stretched it out. “Try this. It’s been here for a while, but it shouldn’t have gone bad.”

Trouble’s nose twitched at the smell, and at first, she pulled her head back in confusion. Then she sniffed it again and took a careful bite.

“What is it?” Leon asked as Trouble took a bigger bite, still careful not to accidentally chew on the man’s gnarled hand.

“They called it a lure at the school in Bellwater,” Crag said. “It’s something they used in one of their courses.”

“A lure?” Leon looked at the cookie-thing as Trouble kept chewing, then taking another careful bite. “Like to lure monsters?”

Crag nodded. “You put this down in a dungeon area, and the inhabitants will come there for the smell. They don’t use it anymore, though, so I got a box as they threw them out.”

“Why don’t they use them?”

“A few people can ruin it for many,” Crag said, his eyes on the rabbit. “People started putting them close to the city, amassing creatures close to the border.”

Leon could see how that would be a problem, especially if someone went in to fight alone. Maybe someone had tried to use an area effect spell or attack on them? That sounded reasonable. But in that case, why hadn’t they finished the job?

“So how does this affect Trouble? Is she going to be dozy for a while, or what happens?”

Crag chuckled. “Nothing like that. It tastes good to them, so it’s a treat.”

Trouble finished the lure and stroked her cheek against Crag’s. He fell onto the floor, laughing. Leon rose and stretched out a hand to help him up. “You mentioned Bellwater, and Finn did too. What is that?”

Crag took it and rose. “Thank you. Bellwater…” He petted Trouble and sat down again. “Bellwater is the area of the city you enter through the portal here. Most people call it Hightown.”

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“So the name for this place is Belows, also called Lowtown.”

“Yes, very good!” Crag smiled. “And above Bellwater is?”

“There’s more?” Leon asked, sitting straighter. “I thought there was only one more city part.”

Crag chuckled, then rose to pour a very sweet-smelling drink from a barrel close to the stairs. “Want some?”

“Sure.”

Crag handed him the steaming tankard, petted Trouble again, and sat down. “There are five city areas in Pura, each requiring a higher level than the next to enter, and that corresponds with the levels you can visit in the tower.” He sat the tankard down and counted on his fingers. “Belows, here, is for players up to the tenth level. The next area, Bellwater, is accessible after level ten. Then there’s Belnor, requiring you to be level twenty-six. To reach the top of the tower, you need to get to the fourth area and be level fifty. Ordinary people like myself can go through all the portals, so it makes trading very easy.”

Leon felt the blood drain from his face. That was a lot of levels. And that some of the city parts would remain unavailable for him even after he reached level ten was disheartening. “Why?”

“Why, what?” Crag took a sip.

“Why is the city divided like that? And the tower levels?”

Crag chuckled. “Don’t be downcast, boy. It’s for your own good. They don’t want you to needlessly die because you think you can handle beasts twenty levels above your own. The levels of the beasts in the dungeons adapt to what your own level can handle, most of the time, but they still have a cap for how low or high they can go.”

Leon took a sip. It tasted like melted honey, but not as sweet, and a little bubbly.

When they fought the grasshoppers with Finn, they had been around Leon’s level, and at the season end, the highest leveled one was twelve, just like Finn. That meant that the scarecrows and pumpkin they saw just before meeting the mages reflected their levels, so they were probably level 15 or above. Leon’s heart thumped uncomfortably loud in his chest, and he hugged Trouble to him. If they decided to hold a grudge against him…

Crag clapped his hands once and rose. “Red! Did you get enough rest?”

The cleric took the last step into the kitchen, tying her hair into a ponytail. “Yes, thanks. It’s busy up there.”

“Oh!” Crag brushed off his apron and walked toward the stairs. “I’ve stayed here for quite too long.” He stopped to rub Trouble’s cheeks, and then continued upstairs. “Best of luck!”

Red looked after him, then turned to Leon. “It’s good he took some time to rest, too. How are you doing?” She kneeled in front of Trouble. “Hi, sweetie.” She caressed her cheek, and Trouble accepted the touch, but didn’t fall to the familiarity she’d shown Crag.

“Glad to see you again,” Leon said, standing. “Crag said you were resting?”

“Yeah. I tried going into the forest earlier today, but I got poisoned and needed to get back for some antidote.”

“You didn’t buy any beforehand?” Leon asked, emptying his tankard. “I’d think that Crag would have warned you.”

“He did,” she said with a sigh. “I just thought I could do without, and maybe get the skill he told me about. No such luck.” She opened the door to the room with barrels.

“Did you know you need to get to at least level 50 to complete the tower?” Leon asked, following her. He opened his inventory.

Red stopped and looked back at him. Worry shone on her face. “No. That can’t be true, right?”

“Crag said it.” Leon showed the backpack to Trouble, which she promptly turned her head away from.

“But that’s bullshit!” Red said. “How do people even get to that level?”

Leon shrugged. “I don’t know. But I think Margaret, at the other inn, said that the highest level recorded was 88, or something like that. But from what I know, there have been only three people who have completed the tower at all.”

Red clenched her jaw, and it looked like she was about to swing the lute she’d taken out into the wall. She stopped herself and closed her eyes. “I’ll get there. One step at a time.”

Leon turned to Trouble. “Jump in. I don’t know if potions work on you, so I don’t want you to get poisoned.” Trouble turned her head away again, and Leon sighed. “Fine. Then you stay here until we’re done.” He faced Red. “Do you have an antidote now, just in case? I only have one on me.”

She nodded and glanced to Trouble. “You really should find out if the potions work on her.”

“Yeah, I know. I just haven’t been in a situation where I could test if it works or not.” He ruffled Trouble’s head. “Stay here, then.” Trouble still didn’t look at him.

“Alright, then.” Red opened the door, and within a second, Trouble was through. She bounded down the stairs and stopped at the last step.

Leon groaned, and Red patted his shoulder as he passed. “She does what she wants to, I guess?”

“Potions better work,” Leon said. “Can you keep an eye on her while I’m fighting the mushrooms? I’m not sure I’ll get a notification about her getting poisoned or not.”

“Of course.”

Leon walked down the stairs, looking at the fungi below. Their level one tags were all white, but he wondered if they had something special to them. Trouble looked up at him, expectant, as he came down to her.

“I thought you’d learned to listen to me after what happened with the wolf king,” Leon said, and Trouble looked away. He sighed. “You seem intent on fighting. If you start feeling bad, I need you to come to me so we can see if I can cure you, though I’d rather you just stayed back.”

Trouble’s ears twisted toward him, but she still didn’t move her head. Leon looked at the twelve mushrooms below, wobbling on their green and purple hats. The smell of mildew increased as he stepped onto the floor. The upside-down mushrooms started moving back and forth circularly, faster and faster. He pulled out his imp dagger and short sword and approached one. As he was about to strike down on the moving hat, Trouble shot past him and slammed into the cap, sending the fungi into two others and interrupted their movements. As they clashed, they sent out a spray of particles into the air. Leon grabbed the nape of Trouble’s neck and kept her back.

“That’s probably poison,” he said to her. “So, please stay back.”

Trouble whined and looked up at him. Leon didn’t want to enter the spore cloud, so instead, he turned to the other nine Fungi and started running. He’d like to study them a bit more, but if they all started puffing out clouds, the room would soon become more dangerous, especially for Trouble.

The mushrooms’ movements had increased; a few so much that they’d started spinning on their caps. Leon swung his sword at one of them, and cleaved it in half, then continued to the next beside it, making quick work of the four close by. Red used Rockstar to hit another. Trouble bounded forward, going toward one of the spinning caps. It seemed to increase in speed the longer it was left alone, and started moving toward the rabbit. Trouble jumped toward it, but it spun under her, and she landed on the other side. The fungi switched direction in a heartbeat, pummeling into her back, and the speed made her tumble forward. The three Leon had left to the side spun now as well, and came toward them. They looked like spinning tops. Leon ran forward to take out the one targeting Trouble, and as he came close, the rabbit spun around and launched at it. She landed on top of the fungi, which stopped spinning. Half a second later, a spore cloud formed around Trouble’s head, and she wheezed.

“Trouble!” Leon took out the mushroom and bent down beside her, and Red took out another mushroom behind him. “Are you okay? Get back to the stairs. Please.”

Trouble just shook her head, then clawed at her nose.

The three spinning fungi came toward them, and Leon kicked at one. He felt a force against his foot that would have toppled him if his balance was worse, and the fungi spun away, into the other two. They bumped into each other, but that didn’t stop their spinning. Instead, they started spewing the spores again, and increased their speed toward them. Leon ran forward, cutting down, and two of them fell. It sent a cloud of spores into his nose and he coughed. It tasted like mold.

You have been poisoned.

He took out the third, then turned to face the rest. Red had taken down a third one, and Leon ran to the remaining fungi, making quick work of them. They disappeared and formed a small pile in the middle of the room. The spores lingered in the air. Instead of going there, Leon ran to Trouble, who sat at the bottom of the stairs. He opened his inventory and pulled out his antidote, uncorking it.

“Drink this, okay?” he said. He tilted Trouble’s head back and poured the potion, but it didn’t leave the bottle. A message popped up.

ERROR You can only use potions on humanoid creatures. [Close]

Leon stared at the notification. “Come on!”

“What is it?” Red said and approached him.

“It doesn’t work!” Leon said, frantic. He pushed the bottle into his inventory again. “She got the spores shot into her face, and the fucking potion doesn’t work!”

Trouble just blinked, not showing any emotion.

“Let’s get to Crag,” Red said, pulling on his arm. “Maybe he’ll know what to do.”