They had a plan. Of sorts. It wasn’t Abby’s plan, therefore she didn’t know if she had all the details, but it was a plan.
Abby’s original plan of shouting from the rooftops like a crazy person wasn’t a bad idea, not in her eyes. Even if it made them all look like crazy people, at least people would listen. And if enough of them shouted about the church’s wrongdoings, maybe people would start questioning things! And if enough people got curious, all it would take would be to show them Setterton as evidence, and then people would be on their side!
Isabelle shut that down pretty quickly.
Apparently her idea was better. If nothing more, she claimed that it would put them at less risk than Abby’s plan. Which, to be fair, was true, as far as Abby could tell, but that was only if they were sneaky enough.
Isabelle’s plan involved a lot more investigation, as if they didn’t have enough evidence already. Following up on the priestess’s comments about evolved humans, she suspected that there was a written ledger or something that the church possessed, containing all the names and possibly locations of people that had evolved due to dungeon influence. In her mind, the fact that this wasn’t public knowledge meant the church probably had other secrets too, and it wouldn’t make sense to separate them. Already armed with the knowledge of the church’s plan to evolve more humans, if the three of them successfully found the ledger along with whatever other secret plans the church was hiding, they could expose everything to the king as evidence, and at least start an investigation against the church’s actions in Setterton, and from there beyond.
The important thing was to get physical evidence. Something they could bring in to the king’s chambers and wave in front of his face. And for that, the only logical place to go was Everlast, the kingdom’s capital, and the home of the church.
They didn’t stay in Hallow for long. Just a single night, as well as breakfast in the morning, and then they left. They still didn’t have money or food, but the thought that the church might still be in Hallow, so close to Setterton, unnerved them enough to get them on the move. They told no one where they were going and just left, walking along the road.
That was days ago.
The walk was rather uneventful, agonizingly so. There was nothing to distract them from the hunger, or their sore feet, or Isabelle’s whining. Determined though she might be to save her mother, she was still a noble. They took many more breaks than Abby wanted to, but even so, they made progress.
On the second day, they met up with a wagon rider and his horses. He was carrying a load of ores from Hallow to the city a few towns away. In exchange for conversation and food, the three adventurers accompanied the man as guards, though nothing came of it. Their pace was slowed considerably, considering the lumbering pace of the horses, but with food in their belly, they couldn’t complain.
The fifth day brought them to Reavers Peak, a quiet military fort on an isolated hill. The man selling the ores decided to stay there for a while, so the three of them decided to find someone else to escort to the next city, also in exchange for food. Isabelle found someone who agreed, and they left within the hour.
“We can’t keep doing this.” Abby decided. “This isn’t sustainable.”
“We just need to get to Everlast. We can worry about sustainability once we get there.”
Abby shook her head. “I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but we need to have some sort of savings. Food, equipment, housing, everything costs money.”
“We’ve been sleeping outside just fine.” Isabelle argued, but even a blind man could see that wasn’t entirely true.
Isabelle had lost her refined nature. Her hair was a complete mess, and she wasn’t standing as tall as she used to. Abby could deal with a little grime, but even she was getting upset about how dirty they were all getting. They needed to clean themselves. They needed good food, not travel portions of hard bread and jerky.
Owyn was right. If Abby was to ever survive in the capital, they’d need money. How far away had they been from achieving their goal? Thirty three days? Or was it thirty four? A month. They were just a month away from achieving their dreams, and Abby had been getting impatient. She would wait for Owyn, she always would, but that didn’t help them gain money any faster.
“We’re heading to Swift Brook.” Barry mentioned. “There’s a dungeon there.”
“So’s the church.” Isabelle muttered with a growl.
Five days. Seven, if you included the escape and their stay at Hallow, and yet even now, Isabelle’s anger hadn’t cooled down even a touch.
“We need a break.” Abby said firmly. They really did. Isabelle needed to take her mind off the church, just for a bit. “We need a break, and we need money.”
“There’s a dungeon.” Barry repeated.
Abby nodded. “Yeah, we’ll go delving. Isabelle, we’ll get you some new cores, and we’ll sell the rest.”
“Whatever.” Isabelle grumbled.
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The Swift Brook dungeons looked a lot more sophisticated than Settertons. For one, two knights of the Vernant family stood guard outside. Well, sat guard. The dungeons themselves were a dried up mine beneath some rocky terrain. Thanks to the previous industrialization, the jail cell bars that blocked up the entrance almost didn’t look out of place. The barrels acting as tables and chairs certainly didn’t.
After a bit of convincing, the knights let the three of them in, with a promise to give them each a pacified dungeon core on the way out. Abby didn’t miss the bet made behind their back, betting that at least one out of the three of them wouldn’t make it out alive.
The entrance had a few lanterns, ready for public use. Isabelle took one, and they entered the dungeon.
Without a map, they were walking blind. They had no idea which areas had been delved recently, which areas led to dead ends, nothing. They decided to use one of Owyn’s lessons of always sticking to one wall. It would definitely lead them down more dead ends than one, but they would at least know how to get out.
The first dungeon they encountered was a baby one. Same as what they were all used to. Abby and Barry held off the mice easily enough, even without their weapons, and Isabelle claimed the core. They waited for a minute while she converted the dungeon core to a magic one, and they were off once again.
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The second dungeon they encountered… was not a baby dungeon.
“At least-” Barry grunted as he parried a blow from a giant hobgoblin ratkin. “At least we have enough room to swing.”
Abby skipped around the edge of the cylindrical room, kiting three armored ratkin after her. Isabelle’s fireball lit up the room, streaking across the center to strike at the monstrosity of scales and fur standing over the plumbus shaped core standing proudly at the collapsed exit on the other side.
Abby ignored the pained shriek as best she could, focusing on the now five ratkin charging at her from different directions. Recalling the terrain from the time Isabelle’s fireball had lit it up, Abby stepped over a rock precariously leaning against a suspicious looking section of wall. With one foot on either side of the rock, Abby swung wide, forcing half of the ratkin back while leaving her left side exposed. The ratkin saw an opening and leapt at her waist. Abby, preemptively in motion, swung her left knee into the jaw of one of the charging ratkin, taking it and herself out of the path of the other.
The second ratkin landed on the leaning rock Abby had stood in front of, shifting it. Abby was already a few steps away when the wall collapsed on top of the ratkin, hopefully killing it. That left Abby between the pile of fallen rocks, the four remaining ratkin, and the giant ratkin-snake-hybrid monstrosity behind them.
Apparently, Abby had gotten close enough to the beast to warrant its attention.
The four smaller ratkin turned and ran as one, aiming for Barry or Isabelle or both. The giant monster pounced, practically falling on Abby with a screech. Abby pointed her sword for its chest and retreated. Not fast enough. Her sword struck true, and blood soaked the blade. The giant beast weighed down on Abby, five limbs clawing for purchase. Abby grit her teeth as she fell to her back. The weight of the creature pressed down on her even more, sliding even further down her sword.
It screeched and shouted, biting for her neck. It was all Abby could do to muster her strength and lift the creature away from her body. Just enough that it couldn’t bite her. She couldn’t throw it to the side, it would gain purchase on the ground if she did that. As it was, she was lifting its hips with her knees, just so that its back legs could only scrape along the ground, pushing Abby back into the wall.
Abby closed her eyes to block out the spittle, doing her best to remain as steady as possible. Any second now, she expected an arrow to come out of nowhere and stick it in the eye. Owyn would laugh, and Abby would chastise him for being distracted by the trap or something. But she knew Owyn wasn’t here, and there was no help coming.
A fireball struck the beast's hind, enraging it. It swayed in her grip, somehow loosening the sword from whatever was binding it in its internals. Abby grunted and leaned into the beast, twisting and shoving her sword fully into its chest. It fell the last bit of distance without much resistance, practically collapsing onto her blade.
Abby fell back, feeling the beast go limp on top of her. She grunted, rolling it off her to free up her arms. She wiped her eyes free from the spittle and retrieved her sword. A ratkin tackled her out of nowhere, teeth sinking into the armor at her neck. Abby acted on instinct, twisting and throwing off the creature to gain distance. The fight wasn’t over yet.
With a few quick movements, this ratkin went down, and Abby was once again able to focus on the room as a whole. Several ratkin were pouring into the dungeon, blocking their exits in every direction. However, the humans now had their backs turned to the dungeon’s undefended core. Abby swung for it, clipping the top of the core.
It chipped and flew out of its rocky pedestal, flying away. It was still in one piece. Abby cursed under her tongue, chasing it to the back wall, trusting her back to Isabelle and Barry. Barry shouted a warning, but Abby was already upon the core. She placed her armored glove down on one end and lifted her sword. Another ratkin, a large one, by the feel of its nearly human sized hands, gripped her armor, attempting to pull her off the core. It was too late. Abby smashed the pommel of her sword down on the tip, severing it.
The humanoid ratkin screeched, redoubling its efforts to kill Abby. Abby twisted around, trying to get it off her back. It let go of her, raking its claws along her back and chest as she turned, sword level with its neck. The ratkin stopped making sound and fell to the ground, sword halfway through its neck. Abby stood, ready to join the others in a last stand against the remaining ratkin, but the fight was over.
Barry smashed his mace into the skull of a mostly intact hobgoblin ratkin, just to make sure it was dead. The remaining ratkin scattered, heading down one of the three tunnels they were able to exit from.
“Right…” Abby walked over to stand between the two younger adventurers. “Injuries?”
Isabelle hissed. “A couple scratches. My leg…”
Her arms were seriously messed up, but it was her leg that was bleeding badly. Abby got to her knees, taking the bandages from Isabelle. “Barry?”
“Fine.” He said. “Scratches, bruises, but fine. Only one is bleeding I think.”
Abby nodded, focusing on Isabelle. “Has the rush worn off? How’re you feeling?”
“It hurts.” Tears began to form in Isabelle’s eyes. “I’m fine. My leg just hurts a bit. We can keep going.”
Abby finished wrapping her leg and began tying. That earned a few whimpered cries from the noble girl. “No, we can’t.”
This was a mistake.
“We need money.” Isabelle said through her tears. “We need to keep going.”
Abby tightened the last knot a little harder than she had to. To make a point. “We’re no good to anybody dead.”
“Which is why we need money!” Isabelle insisted. Her face cleared up when she was able to bring her leg away from Abby’s care. “I’ll slow us down, but that’s fine. I can still walk. I can still cast spells. I have a lot of mana, we need to keep going!”
“No.” Abby said with the tone of finality she was used to hearing from Owyn. “We’re done for today.”
“One more!” Isabelle cried. Abby almost flinched at the volume and desperation. “Just one more! We need to give the two to the guards! We need at least one to sell! We need money!”
She broke down further, and Abby finally began to see Isabelle for who she was. A kid. A noble kid, not used to being without the comforts of food, and knowing where she’d sleep that night, and always having her mother at her side. She was lost in the world and acting tough because she thought she had to. She thought her status as a baroness’s daughter made her responsible for the two commoners she was leading.
Well. One commoner. One earl’s… something or other lost child or whatever Barry was. A noble without nobility.
But Isabelle was only fifteen. Without her mother, without her spells, and without all the comforts she grew up with.
Abby was used to being an adventurer. Used to the outdoors and camping. This poor girl wasn’t. She was just playing when she went out. Excited to see the world and magic. Abby brought her head to her chest, shushing the poor girl. It probably didn’t help, but Abby didn’t know of any other way to help. Barry shuffled in place, looking as lost as Abby felt. He eventually decided to collect the core. And then whatever else he thought would be useful from the corpses of the ratkin.
These were only kids, Abby knew. It just didn’t click until now. She was the adult. She was the one who was supposed to be responsible for these young adventurers. And what happened during that fight? She acted on her own, leaving Barry to protect Isabelle. She fought the boss monster, getting pinned and needing rescue in the process. Just like when she was with Owyn.
Abby needed to get stronger. Not through training, or through better gear, she needed to be stronger now. To protect Isabelle and Barry. Against monsters and the church alike.
Her mind wandered over to the mission. This supposed ledger with all the names of the people that had evolved through dungeons and survived. She thought of Garroway, the giant cardinal with the glowing cat eyes.
Owyn was laying on his bed, hands resting on his chest. “What would happen if a human ate a dungeon core?” He asked. “An enthralled one obviously, since-”
He never did get to finish that thought, but Abby knew even that amount of trivia. A human, a regular, unenthralled human, would die if they tried to digest a dungeon core. But thralls. Monsters that consumed dungeon cores…
Well, they turned out like Garroway.