Chapter 14: Caravan's Journey
The adventurers departed DM’s dungeon uneventfully. While they returned to the Twin Cities on foot, DM noticed that the beast girls had already arrived at the Guild. As they were interacting with the clerk, shouting echoed down the stairs from the Guild Master’s office despite the closed door in between.
The girls’ keen hearing allowed DM to catch some words here or there. A man was complaining to the Guild Master, and the Guild Master was protesting in response. The phrase dungeon crystal was audible on a couple of occasions, but not much else of note.
“Dungeon crystal? I haven’t heard that before. I guess that’s another thing for me to ask the girls to look into.”
Kat had finished up her business with the clerk but lingered to eavesdrop as much as possible.
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Sasha and Ardreth’s party approached the Guild counter.
“Let me handle this,” Ardreth told Sasha.
“Okay…” Normally, Sasha would object and insist that she’s the leader, but she must have been out of her element in this case. In contrast, Ardreth was unusually willing to step up and take on a leadership role of sorts. The other two in the group were likely too creeped out by the day’s events to say much of anything. Sasha’s attention was drawn to the cute beast girls nearby and she stopped to ogle them.
Ardreth addressed the clerk, who was now free and pretending she couldn’t hear shouting from upstairs. “Excuse me, is it true that we were not supposed to explore the Lower Gordu Forest today?”
“What!? You explored that forest!?”
“Yes… We just arrived in town recently and had no idea there were prohibitions. We just found out about it now.”
“I see. Well, if you didn’t know, then there’s nothing to be done about it. Wait, did you go near the dungeon? Did you see anything odd at all?”
“Yes, we explored the dungeon. We’d like to discuss how it went with the Guild Master.”
“Really!? Are all of you okay!?”
“Yes, we’re unharmed.”
“What happened in that dungeon!?”
“We really should discuss it with the Guild Master first. Everything’s fine, of course.”
“Oh. Well, the Guild Master is meeting with some city officials right now, so could you wait until after that?”
“Of course.” Ardreth led his group to nearby seats. He and his party members all found it a bit odd that five beast girls were staring at them after overhearing their conversation with the clerk, but they chose not to say anything. After all, they were on a mission, of sorts.
The beast girls seemed to lose patience and departed the Guild. DM continued monitoring Ardreth’s party via the infect status placed on Sasha.
The visitors eventually left the Guild Master’s office and departed the Guild. A few minutes later, the party was invited upstairs.
“Is it true you ventured into that dungeon?”
“Yes,” Ardreth replied to the Guild Master. “At the time, we were unaware of any prohibitions on journeying to the Lower Gordu Forest.” Ardreth’s party members seemed surprised that Ardreth was so adept at lying all the sudden. Of course, he’d never do such a thing under normal circumstances.
“Tell me exactly what happened.”
“That’s why we’re here.”
Ardreth walked the Guild Master through the uneventful trip to the dungeon, the chaotic journey to the boss chamber, and the fact that they conversed at length with the Dungeon Master. He conveyed DM’s message almost word for word: “I want to talk. I want to avoid miscalculations which could result in your adventurers getting injured.” He left out the part about DM granting Sasha abilities.
“Anything else?” The Guild Master’s cold words were a bit surprising, given the content of Ardreth’s report until now.
“No, that is all. Now that we’ve informed you, we intend to keep quiet about this unusual affair. We will continue escorting our contracted caravan tomorrow.”
“Very well.” The Guild Master gestured to the door.
As the party exited the Guild, Sasha uttered, “That guy is such an asshole…”
The burglar smiled dryly as the archer noted, “It’s a good thing Ardreth was the one talking.”
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DM had some time to relax after the two parties he was observing went to bed, so he summoned an assortment of goblin shamans to try absorbing their T1 staffs. Although the staffs were randomized, he eventually learned four spells: Ice Spear, Lightning Bolt, Air Blast, and Earth Spike, all T1. He gained 2 MAG from the first staff he absorbed, but none after that.
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He tried out each spell. Ice spear launched a spear of ice at a target. Lightning bolt launched a bolt of lightning at a target. Air blast was shorter range but powerfully repelled nearby targets in a given direction. Earth spike was unique among the four in that it actually attacked the enemy from below.
DM found it easier to cast multiple spells by assigning each appendage a different element to manage. For example, he pointed two appendages at the wall and simultaneously launched an ice spear and a lightning bolt. Then, he quickly pointed a third appendage towards the floor beneath him while focusing on a spot in the chamber where he envisioned an enemy standing. The earth spike seemed to strike the phantom target. Had he tried to use one appendage for each spell, the second and third attack would have each been delayed.
“Hm, should I try holding a staff each with my appendages?” He figured such a display would be the stuff of nightmares to adventurers. He had more experiments to conduct…
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The following morning, Sasha’s party met up with their caravan and continued their journey to the east, crossing the border into the Zarakhelese Empire shortly before dark. The five beast girls informed the Guild of their intention to journey southwest to the Narrow Cliff Woodland. After answering a few questions from the clerk verifying their readiness, they departed on foot.
Although DM hadn’t been conversing with the girls, from what he could tell while monitoring them, they were having a blast. Of course, just about any activity is better than being forced to live and serve in slavery. However, DM felt the girls were naturally attuned to their current employ. He wasn’t sure whether they considered being his spies an additional thrill or just a detraction from their preferred pursuit.
He must not have been eavesdropping on them whenever they discussed their plan for when to meet up with DM, because he wasn’t sure if they would stop by before or after they visited the Narrow Cliff Woodland. It was possible they planned to spend all of their time in the dungeon, but that would be difficult to explain to the Guild so he hoped they wouldn’t attempt that.
After monitoring their journey for a few hours, it was clear the girls were not planning to double back to the dungeon, so DM relaxed. His subordinates would spend a few nights at their destination camping out while hunting and gathering during daylight. At least, that was what they told the Guild. He suspected they would spend just enough time there to gather some evidence that they made it to the forest, then depart early to swing by the dungeon.
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The next day, the caravan including Sasha’s party, a second group of adventurers, and a dozen horse-drawn wagons broke camp and continued their journey towards the town of Gulukkhath. From there, they would bypass the eastern tip of the Upper Gordu Forest, then journey north direct to the capital of the Empire, Gazahanar. The Empire’s capital was actually closer to the Twin Cities than the city's own national capital, Ereacht.
DM split his attention between monitoring the girls and monitoring the caravan. “How the hell am I supposed to remember all these weird names,” DM whined internally, somewhat distressed that he didn’t have a way to take written notes. “If I ever decide to conquer a nation, I’m starting with the Empire and making them change all the names. Wait a second…”
For some reason, it hadn’t occurred to him before, but couldn’t he use the dungeon console to write down information? He needed only to treat the information like a comment in a computer program and be careful not to execute said program.
While he was doing just that, he monitored Sasha interacting with Ardreth. Something Ardreth said gave him a fresh idea for how to apply and maintain negative status effects. Before he could test anything, DM noticed Sasha reacting to something quite unexpected.
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“Sasha, let me try healing you.”
“Why? Can’t you see I’m not hurt, Ardreth?” She gestured to her body as the two rode in the back of a wagon.
“Yes, but I want to see if I can heal you without, uh, undoing the status you were given by our friend on the forest.”
“I don’t get it, but if you’re just going to heal me, then go ahead.”
Ardreth pointed his staff at Sasha and began chanting in the elvish tongue. The tip of his staff glowed slightly, then Sasha glowed to match it. The spell completed.
“Did it work?” she asked.
“Hold on.” Ardreth sensed her with magic. “Yes. It seems so long as I consider the infection to be a positive effect, my healing magic won’t remove it.”
“Aren’t infections bad?”
“Let me worry about it,” Ardreth responded, somewhat exasperated.
“Why did you wait until now to test it, anyway?”
“I promised not to remove anything too quickly, so I wanted to at least wait a day before testing this.”
“Up there!” A loud voice penetrated the wagon from outside somewhere.
Ardreth and Sasha rushed out of the wagon as it halted. They met up with their two comrades who had been walking alongside the wagon. One of them was pointing at the sky. They looked in the indicated direction and saw a wyvern circling perhaps a hundred meters in the air.
“A grown wyvern?” said Ardreth. “This is quite unusual. Perhaps—“
“Ardreth! We’ll worry about why later! We need to protect the merchants and coordinate with the other group!”
“Y-Yes,” Ardreth conceded to Sasha.
Before the party could meet up with the other adventurers, the wyvern swooped down towards the middle of the caravan.
“Incoming!” a wagon driver yelled at the top of his lungs.
The wyvern plowed into the side of a wagon, shattering its side but also helping the wyvern come to a halt. Now that it was at ground level, its appearance was clear to see. It had a wingspan of at least eight meters and was covered by green scales which looked impenetrable, at least to a beginner adventurer.
The driver had tumbled off the wagon onto the ground. The burglar from Sasha’s party sprinted over to the man and pulled him away from the scene. Meanwhile, the wyvern was digging through the wreckage of the wagon.
Hesitant to engage such an imposing foe, Sasha remained a stone’s throw away from the wyvern while searching for activity from the other end of the caravan. She saw the head merchant pointing towards the wyvern while shouting something at the other group of adventurers.
“He’s probably telling them to protect his cargo!” Sasha suggested.
“They’d be a fool to listen to him,” Ardreth responded. “We should back everyone away and let the wyvern escape whenever it’s finished with that wagon. I’m not sure what’s in it but we’re not equipped for this battle.”
“Food,” the archer interjected. “That wagon is filled with food and a few animals, I think.”
“Ah.”
“Sasha, we can stock up on food to complete our journey at Gulukkhath, or further north at Kharb, Nazizad, or even Zirahahazi. Signal the other party to keep back.”
“I wish I had your elvish memory. All right.”
“I don’t think being elvish has anything to do with studying our route…”
The burglar had just jogged back and offered his opinion. “Save your thoughts for later! Focus on the battle!”
Sasha started signaling across to the other side of the battlefield. However, the other group was not paying them any attention. They must have been convinced by the head merchant to engage the wyvern because they were in formation and approaching for an assault.
“Oh no.”