Chapter 24

Orion

Day 14 of First Landing

Population of Thornhill: 38

The combat skills I was grinding became more difficult to advance. I had two rats on the first floor of the dungeon, and I ended them both with my long knife in melee range. I needed to improve my close-combat skills, so I didn't use my throwing knife before dispatching the final rat. I let it charge in close, sidestepped its attack, and then swiftly moved in for the kill. The risk was unnecessary, but I had grown confident in my understanding of the rats' movements.

Currently, my combat-related skills are as follows:

Throwing Weapons: 4

Path of the Dagger: 2

Stealth: 2

Firewielder: 2

The way I figured the system worked was that it didn’t allow you to spread yourself too thin. You had to specialize and take on greater tasks or beat stronger enemies. To level up, I had to go further down the dungeon and face tougher foes. Beating these rats just wouldn't cut it.

This logic applied to all my skills. For instance, my Cook class stalled at level 7 because cooking the same stew or fried pork every day wasn't enough to make me a better cook. I needed better ingredients and cooking implements. I aimed to reach level 10 in my Cook class and level 3 in all my combat skills before the signal fire was lit, in case the worst-case scenario happened. However, my time in the dungeon and outside of it was running out.

The last loot chest on floor one gave me two coins, bringing my total to 28, having collected 6 from yesterday’s run. I wanted to save up at least forty before going back down to see the Jester again. The previous dungeon loot included a D-grade leather boot which I now equipped. After sweeping through the first floor, I dragged two weapons, a copper axe, and a copper mace, back to the surface and hid them in a log covered with foliage. I had told Sophie about the location of my weapon stash and she would use her portable wagon to store them in the event an attack happened.

My days usually started with a quick two-hour dungeon run, stashing weapons, and then rounding up animals. On my way back to camp, I spotted a stray boar and quickly took it down with my Deadly Shot. Constantly scanning the forest for food had become second nature. At camp, breaking down the boar was a clinical process for me: hooves for glue, belly and fat for rendering, gut for string, hide for leather, stomach for storage bags, fur for spinning, sinew for string, tusks, and bones for tools, dice, and utensils, and meat for stew.

Now that I had an ally in Sophie, I could speed up this process with her cart. She treated it like a commodity, but her ideas about motivating people to work were interesting, and she might be right. Today, she spent most of her time with Bianca and Anika. It was obvious she wanted in on whatever power we held, but the Captain held the power for now.

While preparing the daily boar stew, Captain Alvarez and his copilot, Kestrel, approached my workstation with a look of 'taking care of business'. Several other men formed an ‘intimidating’ entourage, including Marek’s assistant to the left, Miguel—a broad-shouldered Hispanic man in his thirties with a long black beard—and some rich old guy in a stained business suit to the right of the two pilots. A crowd gathered for the impending showdown.

“Good morning, Orion. You’ve been busy as usual.” Captain Alvarez brushed his fingers through his mustache and frowned.

“Mornin' Captain. Just focused on getting food as per your orders, sir.” I smiled faintly, putting on my best behavior. “Anything I can help you with today?”

“We finished the signal fire yesterday,” the Captain said his arms crossed.

“Oh, congratulations,” I said, smiling wryly. “Any messages from Earth yet?”

The Captain laughed softly, a laugh that reminded me of a cop just right before he was going to arrest some idiot. More people gathered around the mess hall. Bianca, Ethan, and Anika looked worried. Sophie had a huge grin on her face. Herman was probably working. Cass looked curious.

“Someone dumped a whole lot of wet sand on the fire last night. It’s gonna take a while to get it back up. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?” the Captain asked, his face now void of any of his usual mirth.

“Who would do such a thing?” I wondered dumbly. “I hang around here a lot, so if I hear anything, I’ll let you know.”

As I went back to work, the copilot, Kestrel, gritted his yellowed teeth and wanted to step forward to smack me, but the Captain held the lanky copilot back.

“Larry here was in charge of the first watch of the signal fire last night. He told me there was no way anyone could get by without his knowledge. Now it comes to my attention that you were missing from your shelter last night. It also comes to my attention that you have a special ability that lets you sneak around undetected. Can you explain any of this, son?” Captain Alvarez asked.

“Knowing Larry, he probably slept on the job. No offense, Larry,” I laughed softly and chucked some wild arrowroot into the pot.

“I was there fella. No way anyone was getting past my watch without me noticing. The light went out, and when I investigated, nobody was around,” Larry said sternly.

“Captain, there’s no way Orion could have done it. He was with me last night,” Sophie smiled suggestively, providing me with an alibi.

There was a chorus of “oohs” from the younger crowd, including my brother and the triplets.

“Sophie, I questioned everyone. The only person unaccounted for last night was this cook. In fact, he was missing early this morning as well. I know you’re trying to stand up for your friend, but stay out of it,” Kestrel spoke up with a harsh look toward Sophie, who wilted under his steel gaze.

“Son, this is serious. We know you have issues with the signal, but people want to go home to their families or at least contact civilization. If you do this one more time, we’ll have to find a way to detain you... at least at night,” Captain Alvarez said.

“That’s a serious accusation without evidence, Captain,” I said, not looking up from my work. “I thought we were all about standard procedure and doing the right thing.”

“I’m just warning you, that’s all. We’ll double the watch over it thanks to whoever did this. One less man on food. It’s a terrible shame, but it’s my job as captain of this plane.” Captain obviously knew bullshit when he saw it.

With the mini-public trial over, everyone dispersed, some muttering their grievances about me. Bianca came over and whispered, “Good job” before leaving to show some fresh faces around the camp, while Ethan asked if I was okay. Sophie was chatting with Anika and Roza about something to do with toiletries and cottonlike fibers from a bush plant they wanted Roza to spin into female products.

When Roza had time, she smiled and held out a flax messenger bag with dark brown leather straps. Her three children and Cass were eating roast fish at one of the mess hall’s picnic tables nearby. Cass seemed to have gotten more comfortable hanging around the other children.

“Roza... I can’t,” I said when it looked like she was giving the bag to me as a gift.

Simple Bag of Freshness - D

Food stored in here spoils 20% slower

“I don’t forget how you saved my children, Orion. Marek and I owe you. We know how much you do around here, and I wanted you to have this as a sign of our gratitude.” Roza pushed the bag up to my chest, not giving me a chance to refuse.

I held it up before me. Something stuck in my throat. “I thought you guys were on the Captain’s side on all this...”

“We want to go home, for our children. If there’s a remote chance we can, we have to try it. I am so sorry,” Roza explained, her pale regretful face turned toward the ground in some shame. “But... we know if the worst happens and you are right, you will protect us. You are our angel.”

“Thank you for this, Roza. It’ll help a lot.” I handled the bag carefully examining the intricate stitching and the diagonal cross-weave pattern. It looked durable. The stray-colored bag smelled of smoke and hay.

“Marek says when he eventually builds your house, he’ll give you two stories and a fireplace so you can cook. He remembers his debt to you.” Roza smiled watching me test my bag, placing a few rocks in it.

“Oh, just tell him it’s alright.”

“No, he insists.” Roza patted me on the cheeks, caressing them softly in a motherly fashion. “Take care, Orion. Relax a little now and then, yes? You look so tired.”

"Thank you, Roza."

And thus, I took her advice and then went to craft a fishing rod. I spent the rest of the day fishing with Herm. Then at night, after Cass had his lessons with Anika and Ethan, I spent it playing checkers with Cass before sleeping earlier than usual.

The next morning, I got up extra early to have more time in the dungeon. I knew what Bianca would do was open the dungeon before she went to bed and then, when she would wake up, she would leave it for two hours to close it, just in case she overslept.

Thankfully for me, yesterday had rained, so the signal fire was out thanks to Mother Nature. The air was chill, causing me to sneeze and feel light-headed. It still spittled as I put up my hood and ran through the mud in my newly looted leather boots and Hide of the Muskrat buff, thanks to a piece of salted muskrat I had stored. Roza’s backpack contained food goodies I prepared wrapped in leaves, which I would use for the dungeon.

There was one problem that I faced. Before I entered the dungeon, I felt someone following me.

So it looks like someone else has the Tracking skill as well. That or they noticed the footprints I made in the raining mud.

Alex’s golden hair clung to his forehead, soaked through from the morning rain, as he made his way past the trees towards the clearing with the tree stump in front of the dungeon cave. He quickly noticed the torches on the dungeon door were lit, signaling that the dungeon was open, and a smile spread across his face.

“Oh, you hypocrite. You’ve been diving without me?” Alex had his hands behind the back of his head, gleefully knowing he had one over on me.

“You usually don’t wake up this early. Off to do some work?” I asked.

“I’m not as stupid as you think I am, Rion. I knew you would be back the minute they announced the signal fire.”

“So you know what’s going to come... Why are you so happy?” I had the urge to reach for my knife, but stayed my hand.

“Duh. We haven’t run into real enemies yet. The dungeon doesn’t count. Do you notice how this place doesn’t have any monsters besides boars and cutesy Bambi stuff? We are bound to run into them sooner or later. The monsters.” Alex's eyes glinted when he mentioned the word "monsters" as if he was looking forward to it.

“And you think you can take them all?” It crossed my mind. Could he possibly do that?

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“Maybe. Maybe not. But I know if we go further into the dungeon together, we’ll both be strong enough to take it. I made a mistake bringing those newbies, but that’s because you kept believing your Earthly instincts, like those other idiots out there who are going to get us killed.”

Alex examined the dungeon information. After seeing the leaderboard, his face hardened, and he spoke again.

“But now you see I was right, don’t you? The only way to save us is to get stronger in the dungeon.” Alex smiled as he drew his sword out. My knife remained in its holster as he pushed past me and entered the dungeon, with me trailing behind.

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The first level went as expected; we cleared it thirty minutes faster than I usually do by myself. I would collect the starter copper sword and copper knife that the chests gave, holstering the new knife and holding the copper sword in my weak hand. We moved methodically to the next level, the maze-like levels of open jail cells with the gremlins.

My tracking skills came in handy, as I used them to avoid large groups of attackers. I summoned a Deadly Shot aimed at the back of the head of one gremlin near a dead end, Alex would charge after with a swing of his sword, decapitating another gremlin. Another dead end led to one stray gremlin cowering upon our approach. I cuffed Alex and said I would get it as I wanted to level up the Path of the Dagger to 3. A sense of pity came over me as I withdrew my new copper knife, the same as the old in design but newly edged, to finish the poor soul who was trembling, expelling his bladder into the corner cell. As I got into reach, the cowering act vanished, and the short green monster bore its fangs and claw and sprung forward. A straight jab with my knife tore past its ribcage through its heart, but not before the creature got the best of me with one of its claws, leaving a shallow cut across my forearm.

Another cornered gremlin at a level further down, and I would Deadly Shot it in its neck. While it gripped its throat, I finished it with my long knife at a distance with a strike down its skull. With that, I had finally reached level 3 in Path of the Dagger.

The three card choices it presented me upon leveling were:

Parry - C

Activate this card right before an enemy attack to block a melee attack with your dagger and leave your opponent stunned for a second

Backstab - C

Attacks on an enemy's back deal more damage

Bleeding Strike - C

Attack leaves a bleed effect on your opponent, which causes healing effects to be halved for a short period

The decision was tough, but I based it on wanting to stay alive rather than doing more damage. I chose Parry.

We finally came to an impasse with five gremlins blocking a wooden door. Two hours had passed, and I suggested, “We should head back. Bianca will close it.”

“Just one more hour,” Alex gritted his teeth. “I can clear this. I don’t want to be on just the second floor on the leaderboard. All this time and only floor 2. Bianca can see who’s in the dungeon; she won’t close it with us still in.”

“She’ll close it forever once we get out, though,” I said.

“So we better make this run count!” Alex charged, and I sighed.

A sweep of Alex’s copper sword flashed through the air, severing the heads of two gremlins with brutal efficiency. I threw a knife that pierced through a gremlin's head, emerging from the other side and clattering against the stone wall behind it. Alex let out a Holy Strike to split another gremlin in half, and I took one in the back with a thrust of my long knife as it retreated. I marveled at the destruction the Hero brought, piles of gremlin heads and body parts littered where he stood. He must have been at least level 5 in his class and level 3 in Path of the Sword at this point.

Now came the hard part. The final boss level of the floor was beyond the wooden door that Alex smashed open with another Holy Strike. Beyond the door and down the stairway, three pathways led to different diverging hallways. I activated my Tracking ability and deduced by the footprints, what looked like a stampede of them, going into the door on the right this time. Alex and I ignored the other two paths that would probably lead to a chest, realizing we were running out of time.

The last room was of gray stone steps that led downwards to a stone altar adorned with tiny skulls. It housed about 15 gremlins and a giant orc seated on a throne behind the altar. As we snuck in, I readied my Deadly Shot while Alex readied his Holy Strike. We would go after the orc first. A Deadly Shot launched from my hands and grazed the cheek of the orc. The orc had moved his head to the side at the very last second. An eerie smile crept on the orc’s face. His newly regenerated eye, which I took out in a previous run, had a distinct burn mark around it. The promise of vengeance was in the look that he shot at me at the altar room’s exit. A command was issued by the orc in a strange language and the gremlins charged us.

“Shit!” I cried and reached into my bag for my salted chicken wing and pork fat to generate my two Soul Food buffs.

Boar Padding: 10% resistance against piercing and slashing attacks for 3 hours

Flight of the Scarlet Fowl: 10% increase in top sprinting speed for 1 hour

Swarms of gremlins approached, but Alex and I held the choke point of the exit. I swung my newly looted sword wildly, using the reach to bat away the approaching gremlins as Alex scythed through the green creatures like so many blades of grass. I guarded Alex’s back as he held the flood of gremlins that approached, cleaving through them every which way and finishing those with my knife in close. We kept retreating into the room with the four-pathway split. There, two gremlins were waiting for us, teeth bared. I sent a Deadly Shot into one of their hearts and sidestepped another to bury my long knife in an uppercut in the other one while Alex kept pushing back the flood of gremlins behind us from the altar room. We made our stand in the four corner rooms with the four pathways. I dug the throwing knife out of the chest of the gremlin who was still on the ground struggling before my boot smashed down on its face. Another Deadly Shot went out of me towards another gremlin from Alex’s direction, which he followed with another Holy Strike on a different gremlin.

The smiling orc leader flung two of his gremlins aside in the doorway, their bodies breaking like eggs against the stone walls. Alex was already out of breath as he charged towards the orc, who knocked him aside with a backhanded slap against Alex's chest. When Alex hit the wall, his shoulder fell funny, and he gripped it wincing in extreme pain.

The orc ignored the Hero, its eyes locked dead on me. I didn’t think I would come this far today and forgot my rope. Though I doubted if he recognized me from the last instance, he would let me try the same trick twice. An arm came down in a hammer strike before me, which I quickly stepped back from. Trying to catch my breath and wait for my moment, I drew a card out of my palms. Another swinging arm came in, and I used my Parry skill to block it, my dagger repelling the attack. Once parried, the orc looked as if it crashed into a stone wall, dazed and confused.

“Alex! Holy Strike him now!” I shouted.

A thunderous slice filled with brilliance tore into the orc, leaving a bloody red line across its back.

A final Deadly Shot flew for the orc's head, landing squarely in its nose. I finished the orc off with my copper long knife, plunging it into its heart. The three of us left standing in the room each fell in our own way. The orc dropped face-first to the ground, pools of black blood spreading where it lay. Alex leaned back against the wall, wincing in pain, while I collapsed on my butt, trying to catch my breath. My head felt light, chills ran through my body, and my vision began to blur as my eyelids grew heavy, but I forced myself to speak.

“We should get back,” I suggested breathlessly to Alex who was still gripping his shoulder. “Have Ethan look at that dislocated shoulder.”

“No, I need to go further. We beat the boss of this area... I can finally get to the third floor.” Alex cried through his pain.

Being tired and not wanting to waste time arguing with this stubborn dungeon-obsessed Hero, I helped him to his feet, and we collected the coins the dead dropped. It brought my total to 36 jester coins.

When we came to the room with the Jester cat, Alex stared in awe at the new products and immediately purchased a Reversed Hourglass, fixing his shoulder and bringing him back to the same tip-top condition he was in before entering the dungeon. The guy seemed to have an infinite number of coins, and with his second purchase, he bought an Iron Sword of Reach. I collected his copper sword for the weapon storage.

Alex spotted me 4 coins, and I purchased Knife’s Edge which was previously locked. I re-examined the throwing knives on my apron and knick myself on one of their edges.

I sighed as Alex, now invigorated by his renewed health, smiled and kept moving forward down the dungeon, choosing the stairway down.

It took exactly one minute for us to decide to turn around. The previous room acted as a reprieve to this floor but wasn’t a true floor. This was floor 3. In it, the swamplands were hard to wade through, the mud slowed a person's movement down, and giant walking crocodiles patrolled huge stone guard towers with wooden doors, presumably one of them leading to the stairway down.

After placing my looted copper weapons near the exit where I knew I would pick them up, we hid beside a shrub with amaranth, which I harvested into the bag Roza had made for me. I knew Alex was taking this seriously when he wanted to try the sneak-and-charge method on one of the lone crocodiles patrolling. A Deadly Shot came out of me, ricocheting off the crocodile’s forehead, leaving a bloody red prick, and it let out a loud hiss that drew in its nearby allies.

Crap, I need iron-throwing knives. It also didn't help that I feel weak as a kitten right now.

Alex tested his new iron sword against the hide of the crocodile with a wide swing, only to find it difficult. We were not strong enough to fight these yet. He decided against engaging the incoming bask reinforcing the lone croc. We bravely hightailed it out of there to fight another day, and back up the stairs, not before I grabbed the starter weapons I left at the exit.

My body felt weak as we trekked back to the camp in the rain. Alex, who had previously needed help from me, returned the favor and came over to ask if I was alright. Being too prideful, I declined his offer of assistance and gritted my teeth as I hazily made my way back to the camp.

When I came back after depositing the weapons, the rain had all but stopped. It was midday, and people, besides Slate, had stopped working and instead took refuge in their shelters. Clark, Herman’s helper, had brought back a couple of fish, his body and clothes worse for wear as he left the fisher’s haul by the mess hall for us cooks to prepare. Word came that one of the kilns had collapsed in the rain.

My thoughts were to hunt for some food for dinner, but I stumbled over onto one of the mess tables, causing looks of concern from passersby. Ethan came to see me to patch up one of the cuts I had received from the dungeon. I told him that my head felt dizzy, and the Doctor threw a card at me in response.

After drinking some tea Anika brewed for me, I broke into a cold sweat. My body felt feverish all over, and I had to be carried to my shelter. Someone covered me with one of the first muskrat hide blankets, and the smell of wet muskrat quickly overwhelmed me. Shivering, my teeth clacked together, and my vision faded to black as my body compelled me to unconsciousness.

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Rjakk-jakk

Day 18 Lost at Sea

No food. No water. Crew doesn’t want to fish. No patience left in our crew.

Voidblasted mercenary scum chasing us. Scum. Why they mind our business?

No different, says Rjakk-jakk. Take coin to hunt. No different. Scum.

'For what?’ says Rjakk-jakk?

Protect fat merchants so the spoiled Queen can get more spices. May the Dealer take her.

Captain growing paranoid. Had men flung out to sea for mutiny.

“For what?”, says Rjakk-jakk.

We speak, we complain, but no mutiny. Only mutiny against the sea.

Another day pass and no land. Drives men crazy.

Captain says we should eat the prisoners if we don’t want to starve.

Some men get desperate enough to drink the seawater. They die quickly. They feed sharks soon after.

Night comes.

“Light! Land! Land! Starboard!” shouts the lookout peering through glass.

Yes. A light in the far distance. Not city, no. City many lights. This was single light. Maybe lone farm or small fishing village.

Shouting from the Captain.

"Get rowing you voidblasted brats!" says Captain.

If lone light our crew can easily take, Rjakk-jakk thinks. If lone light there are people.

Rjakk-jakk licks his lips.

Excitement.