Waking to a sharp peck from my little annoying friend, I got up and walked out to the mess hall. It was completely packed by the people formerly of Burch when I arrived. Camile and Jerrel waved me over to an open spot on the bench between the two of them. Taking my seat as Arthur stood up from his spot and walked up to the front of the room.
“Now that everyone is here we can begin,” he looked directly at me and gave me a grin. “There has been contact made from Burch.” There was an audible gasp across the mess hall. No one had ventured back in that direction and until now there had been no contact attempted. He gave the crowd a moment to settle down before he continued.
“The mayor used the town interface system to send the following message,” he held up a scrap of parchment and began to read. “Treasonous sons and daughters of Burch, I know that you have been corrupted by the Norx agent named Sylar. While the King does not know which town you have sheltered yourselves in, we have sent this message across the registered towns of Eter. The King is a kind and forgiving leader and is willing to forgive you of your treasonous acts in return for information on this Norx agent. Information leading to this traitor's arrest will be rewarded handsomely.” When he finished reading the parchment he balled it up and threw it against the wall.
“First he elevates himself above us undeservingly, then he endangers everyone by triggering that upgrade quest. Now he demands we turn over the one who helped us escape? The gall of that worthless man.” Arthur said with visible anger. “If anyone has thoughts on turning against Sylar please do us all a favor and speak your peace now.” The look he spread out around the crowd made his opinion of anyone speaking out very clear.
“Now that we have settled that, we have other business we need to decide upon.” He resumed his scanning over the crowd while speaking. “We are all cramped here in the mine and I know that many of you are frustrated over the lack of space. We would like to propose a vote of all residents of the Old Mining Camp on exploring the next level of the dungeon. Syl believes that there will be more rooms available to us if we complete the level. The previous level was roughly the same level as he was when he defeated it. If that holds, we will likely be facing level 20 and above beasts in a cramped environment with limited light.” There was a still silence in the mess hall now.
“Are people really that frustrated with the space in the mine?” I whispered over to Camile. She looked at me and shrugged. Arthur continued after a minute of the silence.
“If we attempt it and fail, Syl believes the dungeon will be locked out for 7 days and there may be other penalties we don’t know about. Burch did not spawn a dungeon so we have limited information.” This time he looked directly at me. “Syl, I won’t force you to fight but if we are to have any hope of this you have to be involved.”
Looking around at the townspeople that had become my friends over the last 6 weeks, I considered his words. Part of me was angry at the mayor of Burch for the message. Sending that all over Eter would make it difficult to go anywhere that wanted to use Identify or a variant of it on me. Arthur had told me that most towns and cities would likely require the guard to use Identify to grant entrance to strangers. They have been in the process of setting that up for Burch.
The thought of exploring the next level of the dungeon had always been rattling around in my mind. My near death experience on the first level had caused me to initially abandon any plans for it. Now we would be trying to clear it with a full team. The silence was starting to drag and Arthur looked about to speak again so I stood up and took a deep breath.
“I agree to exploring the mine dungeon. We need to choose our team carefully and I want to be involved in the planning. I request we wait a week to plan and allow me to gather enough resources to make more health potions. We need proper gear and weapons, the ghouls I fought down there were tough. They would have been very difficult if not for certain advantages.” Only Jerrel, Camile and Arthur knew of the bombs. They all had agreed and supported me when I told them I didn’t want to use them anymore, even if Arthur’s agreement was reluctant.
“Agreed. One week to plan and we will attempt the second level of the dungeon.” Arthur stated simply.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Arthur wrapped up the meeting a few minutes later after dealing with some more minor things. My mind was wrapped up thinking about the dungeon. Life at the mine had been going so well there was a strong desire to leave everything as is. Arthur was right about needing me, the rest of the townspeople were too young or low leveled.
It was my turn for overnight guard duty after the meeting. My heightened stamina allowed me to sleep far less than the average person in the mine. I had volunteered to be a solo watch during the night every other night to help alleviate the workload of the other guards. Most of them had unrelated classes or doubled as craftsmen.
Getting up to the outpost required navigating some of the clutter left near the entrance. Arthur would need to address it before it became a security concern. There were two wooden chairs for the guards in the outpost. Rox had been one of the foresters in town and had some skill with minor woodworking. He hoped to change class to a carpenter when he reached level 10.
There was a loud thump as the hatch to the outpost opened and Arthur shoved his large frame through the small access hole. I gave him a surprise look and motioned to the other chair. We sat in a companionable silence for a few minutes before he began to speak.
“I know you have questions Syl, I can see it in your eyes. I’ve been waiting for you to crack and fire them off, your patience is commendable.” He finally said to break the silence.
“I have recently learned about how hard some questions are to answer,” I said sullenly and turned my head to gaze out over the forest, thinking of what I wanted to ask. “What did you do before becoming a blacksmith? I’ve seen the way you lead people. The way they look at you.”
“I...Was a lieutenant general in the first army of Eter. I worked my way up from a simple soldier over a 20 year career. That’s how I met the girl's mother,” he choked up at this and took a moment before continuing, “a career soldier. Proud of it and loyal to my country and my King.” He was quiet again for a few minutes before continuing. “When the Norx began their invasion, I urged caution instead of a full military response. The third army was the smallest of our major legions, sending them out to respond seemed like a good idea at the time. Norx had never been aggressors, I hoped to avoid a full scale war. When the 3rd army advance group was destroyed the King was furious. He blamed those of his advisors who urged peace and caution. I was stripped of rank and decided to return to Burch and take up my fathers old smithy.” He finished and returned to silence.
“When the framework initialized I was offered the class of blacksmith as well as two other soldier related classes. I had left part of my life behind and was reluctant to return. My skills involve smithing in more efficient ways, increasing my output. If I had chosen a combat class..” He trailed off.
“We all do the best we can.” I offered. He gave a grunt and didn’t respond. We sat that way in silence for a few more minutes.
“I want to use the army squad format for the dungeon. A team of 5 will be easy to work with in the small confines down there. No one below level 10 and no one with young kids. We need a mix of melee and ranged weapons and complimentary skills if possible.” I finally said to break the silence.
“That feels specifically targeted.” He said with a chuckle.
“The town would fall apart without you Arthur, it’s not worth the risk.” I replied.
“We disagree on that but I concede the point. Who else did you have in mind?”
“Well I don’t know the levels of the others. You will have to tell me. We need a variety of weapons, I can provide ranged damage and I have some experience with the spear but we need a few more melee fighters.”
“I will speak with a few of the others and gather a few people. We can talk about it again in a few days. Will you head out tomorrow to gather supplies for the health potions? He asked.
“Yes. I will have to range out far to get more marten flowers, the ones nearby are picked over. It will likely be a 2 or 3 day trip.” I explained.
“Understood. We will talk more in a few days to update each other on the plan. Be careful out there, the regional beast lord is still lurking and now everyone that reads the message from Burch will be hunting you for a reward.” He reminded me.
“Thank you Arthur. I will be careful, don’t tell Camile that I’m leaving, she will want to come.” I said as he chuckled and grunted his agreement.