I woke up extremely early, since I had a lot of “work” to do. Last night before we all went to sleep, I had met up with the Mayor of the village and had purchased with a few spirits stones the lodging rights for the Smithy building that Carmine was going to use, and for the shack at the edge of town until next year-or-so, so I now had my own “crib” for the duration of our stay. The house was spacious enough to fit our entire group because it also had a rather large basement, even if we had to cram together a little bit when it came to sleeping space. I did not mind having that as an excuse for bunking together with Liliam though, as nothing can match a pair of tits when it comes to a pillow-replacement. Still, during the previous night, we had remained over at the local Tavern because we had already settled-in and had paid for the rooms beforehand.
As my main priority for the day, I now had to go to the shack, clean it up and probably change the lock. I also needed to properly unpack the Pill Forge over there, including its many extensions, and then sort through all of the ingredients that I had gathered when we were travelling. You would be surprised how many useful plants a person can find by the side of the road, especially near Qi-infested areas. Having access to that time-frozen storage space that Will-E provided was an immense boon when it came to the preservation of ingredient-freshness as well. I knew I would have to cook up some more of those regeneration pills as soon as possible, because they would most certainly be needed by the bundle in the proximate future, as shit was probably going to hit the fan soon.
But besides that, I currently had a secondary problem right here at the inn that I needed to solve immediately, which was to prevent Jin together with that silly Lordling and the poor Huntress from getting themselves killed by going into the Dungeon ahead of time while totally unprepared.
Since I knew that convincing them, especially numbskull Jin, to wait for a couple of days was simply out of the question, I had to find some alternate way to prevent them from heading inside, hence my early awakening during this morning's hours. As soon as I arose from my slumber, I headed straight to the back-rooms from the first floor of the inn, where the tavern kitchen was located at, to have a nice little chat with the local innkeeper.
*KnockKnock*
"Sorry for disturbing you from your work. Hello there, I'm Trina, nice to meet you."
"Gong Duan, at your service. You most certainly are up early in the morning. How may this lowly innkeeper help you?" The owner of the tavern introduced himself while he was cooking what would become the breakfast for all the lodgers.
"Yeah well, there is a good reason why I woke up this early in the morning. There is a slight problem for which I will require your assistance, and I will make sure that you are properly reimbursed for your aid." I immediately passed a couple of low-level spirit stones to the innkeeper, causing his eyes to bulge out, since those things were usually a whole lot more expensive than your average gold that he was used to.
"Well, color me intrigued! What could I possibly do for you, for myself to be worth such “attentions”?" He pointed at the spirit stones.
"Well I'm not going to beat around the bush, so I'm just going to come right out and say it. I need you to help me to prevent my companion Jin, the boy that was playing with the fire last night that is, that Lordling, the Huntress, and for that matter any other Adventurer or wannabe Hero, from going into the Monastery-Dungeon for the next couple of days. If they head into the Dungeon while in their current state, which is totally unprepared and lacking any sort of information, they are only going to get themselves killed, and I do not want to see that. I am an Alchemist, so I have a couple of these powders which can create some rather violent bowel movements, and you are in a rather “advantageous” position, given the nature of your job, to help me administer said medicine to those unwilling patients and take them out of the picture for the rest of the day, or maybe even tomorrow."
"So basically, you want me to spike their drinks and their food? Why not simply tell them to wait?"
"Because I know that they will not listen to me. Oh, you can most certainly try and do that with any other people, I encourage it, but I have been together with Jin for a long enough time to know how his mind works. The Lordling also seems rather desperate, since I have heard that his haste is something related to his family having gone missing, and that Huntress seems to be unusually focused on gaining some immediate monetary gains, even if she has to put herself at some risk."
"Yeah well, that lass has a lot of gambling debts, and Lord Jaden is indeed desperate to locate his Father and Younger Brother, both which have gone missing during the Cultist assault, as they had been guests at the Temple when the entire thing happened, but their bodies have not been found yet. His father is the local Magistrate of the entire Province, and it wasn't that unusual to find him at the Buddhist temple from time to time, as he is a good friend with the Head Monk, especially when he needed to use the Weirdwood Tree that is located in the courtyard over there. He was together with the Younger Prince and an entire escort of magisterial guards when the whole thing happened, but none of them have been located yet. Lord Jaden was away on a diplomatic mission with the neighbouring province right before that, and only managed to arrive back here two days ago, only to find out about the tragedy that befell the Monastery together with his family. His own team of magisterial guards has already headed into the dungeon, but they also seem to have vanished, leaving him all alone and stranded here in the village."
"Yeah well, I can see how this whole situation can drive people to do stupid things, and I do not think that the little Lordling is thinking straight at the moment. If he heads in there by himself and even drags other people along with him, he's just going to wind-up dead. If an entire team of professional magisterial guards could not handle the place, then what could a silly little boy be able to do?"
Timmy: *Cough* Kill everything as the Main Character of this particular story piece? *Cough*
You shush your transistors, Timmy! The innkeeper doesn't need to know that!
"Alright...then how much should I apply? I know that some medicines can become dangerous if imbibed in too much of a quantity…"
"Hah! Great! Thanks, I knew that you would see things my way." I pulled out a few medicinal paper envelopes which contained a bunch of white dust inside of them, and then I instructed the innkeeper about the dosage. If everything is going to be alright, then Jin and his newfound team are going to be crapping their pants for the rest of the day, and give me more time to manoeuvre. I hoped that not even Jin was stupid enough to go Dungeon-Delving while afflicted with explosive diarhea. In his case, that might even be in the literal sense, as I could really see him fart explosions out of his bumhole, given his fiery nature.
After finishing my talk with the innkeeper and seeing that my “Idiot” problem had been temporarily suspended, I was ready to go out towards my new shack when I ran into a morning-face Lingfeng and that Monk youth which had been nice enough to show me around town yesterday. I should really ask that one for his name already.
The young Monk had rushed to awaken “Brother Zhang”, as the Guards on the wall had apparently captured another Cultist, and they were currently withholding him in one of the village’s jail cells, which were part of a larger house where the Mayor’s Office was located at.
I immediately rushed together with Lingfeng and the Monk to the jail cell, and we stumbled upon the horrific sight of a man that was missing his entire left leg and left arm altogether, but was somehow still alive and breathing. The bloody stumps seemed to have been forcefully coagulated somehow, so he was definitely a Blood Cultist, as he had obviously used some sort of Blood Arts to seal his own wounds. Still, unable to do anything more than hop or crawl, he had probably been abandoned by the rest of the Cultists, and he had been caught by the guardsmen. Other cultists had also been caught earlier during the week as well, but they had been promptly hanged by an enraged villager mob. We had noticed their bodies getting pecked by crows when we had arrived yesterday.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Unfortunately, in their anger, the villagers had not even bothered to extract any info from the Cultists, and had simply gone with the noose solution, but that had been a blunder from a tactical point of view. Which meant that this particular Cultist could serve as a source of information in their stead, as he was in no condition to retaliate in any way, since he was barely hanging onto his life.
He had been bound with a pair of shackles and chains on his right arm and leg, so he wasn’t going anywhere, therefore I immediately cast my Regeneration spell on him, as I was afraid he would kick the bucket before we could even extract any info out of him. As soon as my spell hit, he opened his eyes, looking with curiosity at us newcomers.
"So...are you the ones to be my torturers? Do your best...you are too late anyway...the BEAST has awakened, and will devour all of you soon enough! THE WORLD WILL BE BATHED IN BLOOD ONCE MORE, AND BE CLEANSED OF THE EVIL WHICH IS HUMANOID-KIND!"
"Which BEAST? There’s like a thousand things with “beast” in their name...that’s way too generic, man. I expected more out of a Blood Cultist. I even call my pet-cat The Beast…"
"NO, YOU IDIOTS! THE BEAST OF BLOOD AND FURY! THE ONE AND ONLY WHITE DEMON-RABBIT OF KER-BANOG! THE DEVOURER OF ARMIES AND HEROES ALIKE! THE HERALD OF THE END DAYS! IT’S GOING TO COME AND EAT YOU ALL ALIVE, THE SAME WAY IT ATE MY ARM AND LEG!"
I could see Lingfeng flinch when he heard that name, so it definitely wasn’t good news.
"CRETINS! YOU IMBECILES, YOU FUCKING SUMMONED AN ACIENT EVIL? HOW MUCH OF A DEATH WISH DO YOU ALL HAVE!?" Lingfeng burst into fury.
"OUR LIVES ARE INSIGNIFICANT! OUR SACRIFICE EVER GREATER! LET THE BLOOD BE SPILLED AND POISON THE EARTHMOTHER! WE WILL ALL BE REMADE ANEW AFTER SHE DIES AND THE END OF THIS CRUEL WORLD COMES!"
Fuck! That sounded ominous like hell! Did someone spill the guts about the truth of the Mother System and turned the whole thing into a Mad Cult? It couldn’t be, could it?
Lingfeng had also understood the significance behind those words, and let his mask slip for a second.
"YOU! YOU BOTH KNOW THE TRUTH! I CAN SEE IT IN YOUR EYES! WHY DO YOU STAND BY HER SIDE THEN? EVIL! YOU ARE MORE EVIL THAN ANY OF US WHICH YOU CALL “CULTISTS” AND “MADMEN”! AT LEAST WE ARE TRYING TO CHANGE SOMETHING, BUT YOU? YOU’RE JUST PLAYING TO HER EVIL TUNE! EVIL! EVIL! EVIIIIIIL!" The cultist began to struggle in his bindings.
"AND YOU THINK SACRIFICING WOMEN AND CHILDREN WILL HELP IN ANY WAY? YOU ARE ALL DELUDED! YOU CAN’T POSSIBLY “KILL” OR CHANGE THE SYSTEM THAT WAY, BECAUSE SHE IS ALREADY WITHIN YOU! YOU ARE ONE WITH THE EARTHMOTHER! THE BLOOD WITHIN YOU CONTAINS HER, AND SPILLING IT WILL DO NOTHING TO HARM HER! THAT CREATURE YOU SUMMONED? IT WAS MADE BY THE EARTHMOTHER AS WELL! IF ANYONE IS THE FOOL PLAYING TO HER TUNE, THEN IT’S YOU GUYS!"
"NO! IT CAN’T BE! YOU ARE LYING! THE END WILL COME! WE WILL BE FREE! NO MORE PAIN! NO MORE SUFFERING! FREE AT LAST!"
"WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! WHOEVER TOLD YOU THAT, HE HAS BEEN MISLEADING YOU THE ENTIRE TIME! THERE IS NO ESCAPING THE EARTHMOTHER! NOT THE FASHION THAT YOU ARE APPROACHING THIS WHOLE SITUATION ANYWAY!"
"YOU! YOU BOTH KNOW MORE! WHO ARE YOU! WHAT ARE YOU! ARE YOU LIKE HIM? HAVE YOU COME HERE FROM BEYOND THE VOID?"
"…"
"YOU ARE! I SEE...YOU HAVE COME HERE TO FACE HER AS WELL...SO WE ARE NOT ALONE AFTERALL! AHAA…AHAHAHAHAAAA…!" The Cultist immediately burst into a mad laughter while tears were streaming down his eyes.
The guy was definitely getting the wrong idea, but maybe I could use that to my advantage.
"Look...since we both know about the “Truth” of the World, why not just come clean with us? Tell us what you guys did, and I’ll tell you the REAL Truth, not just that partial twisted knowledge that has been fed to you."
"Ok...anything to defeat HER!" The cultist immediately stopped sobbing, and drew a deep breath.
He then began to tell us all about the Sect, the Blood Founder, his words, the “truth of the world”, the “final solution”, and then about the mission that they had been given, which was to cast an Ancient Ritual that would summon one of the true Ancient Evils as a result, and bathe the world in blood once more.
I was surprised at how stupid and gullable the Cultist guy had wound up looking in the end, and he started to match less-and-less my image of a “purely evil man”, and resemble more-and-more the description of a victim of a powerful indoctrination and mind manipulation, a technique that had been performed upon him by a person that very skilled at such a thing.
By revealing only part of the whole truth, especially because it was indeed TRUE, it had made all of the Cultists feel like they were “special”, the “chosen ones” that would “save the world”, and then the manipulator had used them as disposable puppets and pawns, which was indeed TRULY EVIL. This “Blood Founder” guy sounded like a Player to me, one that had not been mindwiped when he had arrived into this World and a very dangerous one at that. Being able to form an entire Sect of mad Cultists was not something any layman would be able to do, so he was probably quite a High-Level dude, at least in the mental manipulation departament. Another person to be wary about! Bleh!
After that, I did as promised, and I told him the WHOLE Truth. Fortunately, we had been left alone during our “interrogation” session, so nobody else had heard what we were talking about, otherwise they would have been shocked to death.
When he finally got the whole picture, the Cultist simply broke down, and he kept crying over and over again, and was afraid he would pass out if he kept doing that. I immediately force-fed him a few cups of water to keep him hydrated, since he had already lost a lot of blood anyway and was very low on “internal juices”. The sudden guilt and realisation about his own crimes that had hit the guy had left him completely devastated, and he was becoming incoherent. I slapped him a couple of times, and then I forced him to refocus.
"ENOUGH OF THAT SOBBING! You can feel sorry for yourself later, but for now, you can help us save some lives by telling us what exactly you morons did down there!"
"(*Hic*) K…"
"Why the hell did you guys bring a Dungeon Core in there in the first place?"
"We (*hic*) needed it to raise the ambient magic density, otherwise the ritual wouldn't have worked. Unfortunately, it also seems (*sniff*) that it was a mistake on our part, because the Creature cannot leave the 16th level of the newly-created Dungeon anymore, as it is too large to fit through the stairway gap, and all of the other walls have become Dungeon-Reinforced. The previous “owner” of the Dungeon Core got eaten once the Beast got loose, and after that the creature swallowed even the Dungeon Core itself, before I managed to flee up the stairs with my life."
"So you’re saying that a fucking Ancient Evil now has a Dungeon Core stuck inside of itself? Mother of all Gods! You guys really dun' fucked things up! I can’t even begin to fathom the consequences of such a thing! How many of you were there in the first place? Is anyone else from your Cultist group left alive?"
"I don’t know...probably not. There was also another creature down there though, but it seemed harmless. A Lich, one as old as the Monastery beneath the earth itself I assume, a Guardian of some sort. He told us to just stay away from a certain chamber, so we did, because there was no point in getting into a useless fight with him. He then only watched as we went about our own business, and never interfered. I think we simply amused him, so that’s why he left us alone, but he seemed really powerful in his own right."
"That was probably Sul’Azar. A sad tale, that one." Lingfeng acknowledged.
"You know what he’s talking about?"
"Yeah...another misfortunate soul. A Lich bound to forever guard a Treasury chamber, one that has been below in the catacombs ever since aeons ago. He can’t stray too far from it, but when he got raised, he was never told to guard the CONTENTS of the Treasury as well, so when the Monks dug up the Old Monastery about 100 years ago, they managed to persuade him into giving them the loot, as long as they did not do anything to the building itself. It’s how the funds for the building of the Temple uptop were procured. He’s usually not hostile, as long as you don’t touch his Treasury. Destroying his body does nothing either, as he simply re-appears once again inside of the Treasury room after a while, so he can’t ever leave. The Treasury is his Phylactery, and he can’t ever move it because it’s too heavy, nor damage it on purpose to release himself. Sad indeed."
"Great, so now we have an Ancient Evil stuck in the same place as an Immortal Lich. Now that can’t be good in any way."