William quickly had his group take control of the open camp after the last of the bandits had dropped their weapons. Not to say all of them came quietly a few tried to kill their fellows at seeing them surrender. This got them promptly shot themselves. William had zero tolerance of attacking surrendered or unarmed people.
William asked the bandits as to where the rest of their group was. Their reply, the dungeon in the ruins. It evidently had given quite the haul for the few floors they had cleared so far. Before William’s group had arrived. The leader took a sizable chunk of the bandit group underground to clear out and plunder further levels.
They had been down their for two days. Evidently the dungeon was pretty easy as it mostly focused on fucking with people using puzzles and really hard riddles. The floor bosses were the only nasty thing about the dungeon. They had no idea how many floors it had but their leader was smart and talented. He evidently was given information to come here as there might be a valuable relic that could be sold to either the Imperium or the Theldians.
William tried to squeeze more information but the bandits that had been captured were the newest to the group. There were so many levels to this problem William was at a loss for a few minutes until he remembered he could have the bandits help dig up the bauxite. Runick could supply them with goods and not worry about sending anyone on such a long excursion. It was a hopeful dream. There was enough blood spilled today.
To cement that notion he showed his prisoners what one of the air rifles could do to their crummy armor. As soon as they say the rifle punch through a steel plate they just about peed their collective pants. William then clapped them in irons without weak points to break or a lock to pick. They were all hooked to each other then attached to a log of their palisade wall.
With the prisoners taken care of he had Cluci call on the wagon crew that was left behind to move everything to the ruins. The rest he had set up a watch looking over ruins but also a larger contingent to watch the dungeons entrance. After the everything had been moved to ruins they decided to wait. If the bandits came out they would be in for an unpleasant surprise.
Unfortunately for William and his group they waited for days. At day five even the prisoners looked a little worried. Day six they were pleading to go check. Day seven William finally caved. At this point the promise of loot was making his gaming loot goblin tendencies act up. He had seen the extremely valuable ‘loot’ they had already pulled out.
It was a mixture of books that were in a language William didn’t know. Nor would he let anyone know he couldn’t read any of them. Evidently these books could, if read fully it would grant an extra class without meeting level ten in your current one. The extra class almost always didn’t follow the usual class system. Usually the first class a person gets at eighteen creates a trend.
Going forward upon reaching level ten the old class will often lock you into similar classes. These books could allow someone to buck the trend and lead to a multi-class. At least if you read the right one. However you could only ever have one of these ‘extra’ classes.
There was also the detriment that all classes share experience gain. Therefore it was recommended that before using these multi-class books one should max out their current class. The other loot was a random assortment magic items and various coinage. One of the items immediately caught Williams eye.
It was a bag and not just any bag. A spatial bag. William saw it for a moment and the gears started to turn. The amount of poundage of material that would weigh close to nothing. The ability to not have to physically carry around material except for a lightweight bag. William pulled a certain phrase of a creepy scheming ring-bearer when he took it from the chest.
“My precious”
William quickly tied it around his waste and never looked back everything else was junk to him. Except for maybe a multi-class book when he could actually read the covers.
William after contemplating the trade offs of going into the dungeon alone he decided to take Grock and Kena with him. He left Cluci topside as the evident closed spaces wouldn’t do much good for the young ravenfolks usual fighting style. Plus he needed someone that was a good shot to look after the prisoners.
As during the seven days they hadn’t been just sitting. They had found the bauxite deposit. The mining expedition would use the ruins as a base and mine the deposit. The prisoners were to be used to mine but in a humane way. Meanwhile William’s party would venture into the dungeon. Just the three of them.
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Grock’s getup had significantly changed since his first encounter with William. He now sported a set of actual well fitting half plate armor. For his weapons he had a double barrel shot gun slung over his shoulder. He also carried a shield and switched his spear for a mace.
Kena had just a cloak about her with her normal dress. But Will knew she had had more defenses then that as she had managed to create what he told her was mage armor but it was literally better as it would actually repel everything. Though it did have the drawback of if she didn’t notice the charge of a particular object it could become stuck to her or worse pass through the barrier.
William had nothing but his new bag of holding and a cloak that at this point was a patchwork of burns, with new, and old linen. He had a comfy linen shirt on that he could just create from thin air now though it took his entire manapool without any base material. William wanted to make nice clothing but his work often had him at the front line.
A pawn in his own plans as he literally couldn’t be hurt though it still hurt like an absolute bitch. William during the wagon ride had thought to finally make a weapon for himself but there just wasn’t anything he felt was safe to use in case someone got ideas.
With the remarkably customization magic had the less ideas he pushed in warfare, the better of a chance he had. Armed with nothing but his wits and the clothing on his back he and his party ventured into the darkness as they entered a shared message popped up in front of them.
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[ You are now entering the The Wordy Catacombs. Current delvers:(2/20) Would you like to enter ( YES / NO ) ]
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The three of them collectively said yes. The darkness surrounding them vanished the area now lit with magical light. In front of them was a series of doorways that seemed to be already opened and ransacked.
Each room sporting weird goo like screen then a door. The other rooms had weird water adding with cups many more rooms had mazes that William solved by using a maze solving algorithm. While it was slower it always solved the maze. Eventually they reached the staircase after what looked like a boss room though it was just more slimy screens.
Going deeper found similar puzzles and rooms with goo screens. Instead of deadly experience it was just a damp musty stroll. However upon reaching the second floor boss room they encountered their first humanoid skeleton.
The bones were jumbled and completely clean of any tissue as if the bones had been given a good clean. Upon inspection however the bones were still fairly dense as if the marrow was still intact. This was off putting to say the least.
On the third floor many more of these clean skeletons started to pop up. However, as they exited a fairly complex maze William heard anguished cries of sorrow. He told Kena to cloak them in her version of invisibility. As they continued forward through the next corridor the cries became intelligible.
“Ask the gods to give you a way to change your destined path via the system. Receive impossible quests. Now why did the gods tell me of this place. I was told that this was supposed to be an easy dungeon. This is the last door before the last boss. I only have one more disposable bandit. I can’t solve those mazes without the tracker.
I tried to save him till last. Now I can’t figure out this dumb riddle it doesn’t make any sense. Which means I am trapped. Fantastic! He He He… why… why…this is what I get for attempting to change course from a divine healer. No water left, some food I will die slowly.”
William was all for leaving this man to die but he had just found someone that knew divine healing. The man also might have the chance with William’s influence to become a doctor. Some of the new batch of people had started getting their modern classes. He had a pharmacologist but he needed a doctor.
Sounds like a match made in heaven. William tapped Kena to drop her spell. The three appeared in the doorway leading to the raving mans room.
William spoke “Hear you're having a spot of trouble mind if I help with your dilemma couldn’t help but overhear.”
The man wore dark clothing but William caught a pendant shaped into some sort of prayer necklace or possibly an actual holy symbol. He had fiery hair that almost looked like real fire and a well kept beard to match. The mans hands started to have bright white flames lick at his hands as he whirled towards William.
“Ah ah ah, mute the flames or the goblin here puts a hole through your torso. Lets just talk like normal adults without the usage of possibly life threatening spells. Eh?” “Wh…Who are you?”
The flames still there. William jumping on the chance calmly speaks
“I am William Willow, this is Kena Vun, and lastly the goblin in half-plate is Grock the Bone-Chopper now that we are introduced may we have your name.”
The flames diminish but are not quenched
“My name is Philip Ruiz. Why are you three here?” “Well for one we were interested in the dungeon but we actually came for something just outside the ruins above a type of ore. However we knew the disposition of your entourage so we killed a number of them as we didn’t want them snooping or trying to frisk us down.”
“That’s perfectly understandable. Planned on murdering them all anyway using them as fodder down here. Every single one is paying their dues to society. Murder for murder I guess you can call it. Do you mind sharing some water with me terribly parched.”
William had Kena float a nearly empty canteen. Philip drank greedily but was unhappy at the volume then looked to William “Could I bother you to help me finish my individual quest? I would find a way to repay you in some way.” A glint cast over William’s eyes for a moment he then said smiling “I think we can arrange something.”