Chapter 26

The creeping urge to begin spawning monsters hit Tom the next day. With Antoine’s permission, he tried using the Alpha Core to spawn his newly unlocked monster pattern for minotaurs. The resulting beast was not the nine-foot tall monstrosity that they were expecting, however, but a six foot tall juvenile version of the beast which was only level sixteen. Fortunately the beast seemed to be loyal to Tom, and relatively docile.

Spawning one monster satisfied the urge for a while, but it came crawling back while Tom was experimenting with his level ten skill. The only thing Seed seemed to do was make him select from a list of resources, such as iron, coal, salt, and a variety of metals and other mining goods, then reduce the maximum mana cap of one of his Cores.

Frustrated with the lack of apparent effect, Tom tried supercharging it with the Gamma core, turning the effect up as high as it would go. Gamma core refused to go down below a maximum mana of twelve hundred. He left the Skill active while the party practiced with their weapons, Antoine sparring with each of the teens in turn.

After leaving Seed active for twelve hours, Antoine called Tom over to one of the walls near the Core chamber.

“This is what your skill does,” Antoine informed the Controller, pointing at the wall. “That’s a vein of iron ore. It wasn’t here before. I noticed it a few hours ago, but I thought it might have always been there. It’s grown significantly richer since I first noticed it. It’s not growing at quite a visible rate, but it’s quite rapid. Which is surprising, since veins of metal don’t usually grow at all.”

Tom raised his eyebrows in surprise. His skill generated metal? How did that work? He immediately saw how to use it; many of the resources that he’d been able to select from were quite valuable. His Seed skill effectively turned a Dungeon into an endless, self-replenishing mine.

With the mystery of what his level ten skill did, Tom deactivated it, and the party left Gamma dungeon the next day. To Tom’s great relief, the urge to summon more monsters lessened the further away he got.

They were down one horse; the one that the first minotaur attacked had perished, it’s body claimed by the conjoined alpha and gamma dungeon cores. They loaded the saddlebags of the deceased horse and Tom’s mare onto the juvenile minotaur, which bore the burden for them with equanimity. Although it had been Sevin’s horse to die, they shifted around. Jessica gave Sevin her gelding, and she rode behind Tom on his mare.

They continued to use Alpha Core to tunnel through the earth in the general direction of the capital. Since they had no intention of challenging another dungeon until Tom figured out how to heal Alpha Core, they were extremely careful when Tom sensed a subterranean core nearby.

With Gamma core’s significant reserves and mana regeneration capability, Tom was able to push the Alpha dungeon to tunnel faster than ever before, but although their theoretical maximum speed increased, they traveled at a more sedate pace rather than risk the horses.

Jessica broke first, although Sevin was beginning to feel almost as claustrophobic and anxious. She held herself together, and calmly threatened to light everyone on fire in their sleep if they didn’t spend a few days traveling outside the dungeon.

Tom hadn’t been feeling enclosed at all, and he regretted returning to the surface. He felt exposed without the sensation of being inside of a dungeon. He didn’t want to get separated from the others, however, so they spent a few days riding beneath the sun.

Lo did not approve one bit. The sun was too bright, the land too exposed. It was one thing to journey outside of a proper cave or dungeon during the night, but traveling by day was agonizing to him. The other Korgoath shared his opinion, but they kept their complaints to themselves.

Klein’s presence helped Tom deal with the sensation of being exposed while he was out of the dungeon; the familiar sensed his mood and spent the days up top riding on Tom’s shoulder. While the Worsican Lynx was heavier than he had been as a Tree-cat, Tom welcomed the burden.

While experimenting on the surface, Tom made another discovery; the list of resources that Seed could generate had changed to included many species of plants, including food crops and things like cotton, flax, and clover. He happened to be checking on his precious stone while passing a lake, and there he discovered that Seed would even generate fish!

While it had no direct combat potential, Seed would make Tom into a powerful economic force if he were able to use it freely and profit from his efforts. He frowned at that thought; would he be allowed to profit from Seed? Or would the king treat him like a slave, requiring him to use his Skills for the benefit of the kingdom without receiving proper compensation?

He tucked the thought away. King Fenard had a reputation as a wise and just leader. Antoine might hate the man, but although Tom had been conscripted into service, he had yet to see how that would affect his life long term. It could very well be that becoming a Royal Knight would be the best thing to ever happen to Tom. He resolved to at least try to keep an open mind.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

~~~~~~~

Pouches of the deterrent powder were delivered to Tilluth valley, and all of the children in the vale old enough to wander out on their own were presented with one and instructed in no uncertain terms that they were to carry it with them at all times.

“The scent of it alone should be enough to drive off any of the Flame-lynxes you might come across,” Elder Lukan explained in class, “but if you see one, you should open the pouch up and dust yourself with the contents. I know that the herbs inside have a strong scent and it’s not entirely pleasant, but doing so should dissuade even the hungriest of this sort of monster.”

When the pouches were being handed out, Vella took three. The children were assured that they could claim more of the pouches if they were lost or, heavens forbid, used for their purpose, but that they were not to wander alone without one under any circumstances. Vella did not need the reminder or encouragement.

Lukan pitied the girl the frightful experience, and invited her to share a glass of worthmus cider after the special education session ended, buying the child a mug at the inn. Vella was grateful for the gift, but wasn’t much for conversation, instead listening to the adults talk.

The proclamation had arrived that the king had appointed a new lord for Tilluth valley. This was being met with a variety of responses, from annoyance and indignation to eagerness and celebration. Vella didn’t know what having a lord would mean for the valley. For that matter, she didn’t know what a lord did. She knew that they were important people and you were supposed to curtsy to them if you met one, but that was about it.

She asked Elder Lukan, and the old man sighed.

“Officially, Lord Worth will be the protector of the valley. It sounds like he has a high level warrior class, and he will be responsible for hunting and culling the Flame Lynxes to keep their population down,” Lukan explained. “Beyond that, it’s very hard to say what responsibilities our new lord will take onto himself. He might dissolve the council of elders and decide to rule the valley directly, becoming involved in every detail of our lives. Or he might remain aloof and only demand a small tithe to see to his own expenses. It will depend entirely upon our lord’s personality.”

“What about the militia?” she asked. “Will he dissolve that too?”

“Unlikely,” Lukan answered. “I suspect he’ll need the manpower in order to help him hunt our new monsters.”

Norman weaver came into the inn then, and Vella frowned. The encounter with the Flame Lynx had done much to cure her heartsickness over Tom leaving her behind simply by driving everything else from her mind. Now that she was calming down, she was finding that the feelings she’d been experiencing before were muted, and she wasn’t entirely certain that she was relieved by this realization. Still, she was curious as to Tom’s fate, and if anyone would know it would be his father. So she asked.

Norman sighed in response. “I don’t know where he is, Vella. I’m not even certain he’s safe. He’s with the Vanquisher, and I doubt there’s anything in the world that could threaten that man. But they have apparently eluded the Winged Knights for some reason and are currently who knows where doing who knows what. It’s enough to give a man an ulcer.”

Vella considered the information carefully. Before the Flame Lynx, she might have been jealous that Tom and Sevin got to go out on a grand undertaking, but the encounter had tampered down her adventurous spirit. She expected such things sounded much more enjoyable than they actually were.

“Ma says you’re selling your stuff to move to Profons,” she said.

“That’s right, Vella,” Norman agreed. “Unfortunately it’s proving difficult to get a fair price for my goods on a short notice. Sue has been in Profons for the last week trying to make arrangements. We’ll be staying through the winter so that I can make good on the promises to the farmers who pledged to sell me their wool and flax, then we’ll be heading out in the spring to join back up with Tom in the south.”

“Do you miss him?” she asked.

“He’s my son. Of course I miss him,” Norman said. “And I worry about him every day. I do not know what the system was thinking, assigning him an ultra-rare class like this, but all I can do is carry on with the hand that my family has been dealt.”

Vella nodded. “School has been less fun without him and Sevin.”

“Madame Silva has promised to put us in touch with him as soon as he surfaces,” Norman continued, “but the system only knows when that will be.”

A commotion from outside drew the attention of the adults; everyone left the inn at once. They found a distraught Mildred screaming for the militia. Horvald came running, and Vella was surprised how fast the man moved. Horvald was probably the highest level person she knew, although his class was only Commoner, so he wasn’t as fast as a Warrior would have been at his level. But when Horvald was motivated, he moved faster than anyone else Vella had seen.

“What is it, Mildred?” he asked. “I am here, calm down. Tell me what happened.”

“It’s Mitzi,” the middle-aged spinster said. “The monsters took Mitzi!”

“Oh,” Horvald said, and he visibly relaxed. Vella understood; Mitzi was a goat. Horvald had probably been worried that someone was hurt. Vella felt sorry for Mitzi, but a goat was a goat and not a person. She would have felt far sorrier if it had been one of her friends.

“Is that it?” Mildred demanded. “Oh? Oh? You’re the commander of the militia you oaf! Why haven’t you been doing anything about this menace?”

“We have been setting traps and snares,” Horvald answered. “The monsters are elusive and clever. Only three of my militiamen have any sort of tracking skill. I’ll fetch them now, and you can show us the scene of the attack. Perhaps we can track down the monster that got Mitzi for you, Mildred. It won’t bring Mitzi back, but perhaps it will give you some peace.”

Mildred huffed as Horvald called out to the other men to send messages to his trackers. Vella watched the development with some detachment, but in her left hand she clutched one of the pouches of monster deterrent. She had two more in the pockets of her blouse.

She squeezed the soft pouch filled with bitter smelling powdered herbs, and she told herself that it would be enough. Elder Lukan said that the pouch would drive the monster away. Surely that wasn’t just one of those lies that grownups told children to help them sleep at night.