Harror was the closest city.
If you counted the Cathedral as a city, then technically, the Cathedral was closer, but we’d have to go through more Godless land to get there. By making a beeline for Harror, we could assume that we were safe as soon as we got into Harror territory. All it would take was one call and the God Harror would appear and smite the Bandits. In theory anyway. I wasn’t thrilled about relying on a theory or running into a God without Trent there, but this was the hand we were dealt.
Oz called her parents back, which felt uncomfortable to watch, especially with Justia and Gesai over there.
Sylph had finally calmed down and was laying on Ren’s lap in the booth. Both of them were asleep, which didn’t surprise me, since it was just past midnight. Jord had moved to the bunks and shut the screen at some point during the firefight.
I thought about trying to get some sleep myself, but my heart was still hammering away. Without anything else to do, I climbed up in the turret and let the cool night air wash over me as we drove. There was something peaceful about being up here with the wind at my back. I watched the grass and trees pass by, illuminated only by the moon behind us and the headlights in front of us. Honestly, if someone was trying to hunt us, we could be seen for what seemed like miles. But the alternative was to drive in the dark and not be able to see something in the road.
I contemplated sending a message to Ether, but it was after midnight and as much as I knew she’d be excited to hear that we were free, I didn’t want to wake her. Thinking about her made me wish that we could make the RV go faster, but none of us had any spells like that.
We reached the forest, without any issues, though all that did was put me on a little higher alert. At least when there had been grassland and a few trees, the risk of an ambush felt a lot less, but now, there were trees almost right up against the road.
I had to come down, because of low hanging branches. Gesai was in shotgun and the rest of the RV was empty, the others had gone to bed. I moved behind Gesai and leaned on the back of her seat.
“Why hasn’t nature reclaimed the roads?” I pointed at the nearly perfect pavement.
“The main roads between cities are paved with dungeon materials.” Gesai looked up. "It makes it harder for Bandits to set up traps on the roads, or take out bridges.”
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I thought about Sipher. "It would have to be some really high level dungeon material to keep someone from breaking it.”
“Not all Bandits are Adventurers.” Rix glanced over at me. "The leaders, sure, but most of them are just regular people, who either want a different life away from the rules of the Gods or they're criminals who are on the run.”
“How would that even work? Like how would a Mundane go up against you?” I squeezed Gesai’s shoulders.
Rix rolled her eyes. "The pouch I took?”
I realized that she didn’t have it on anymore.
“Woven Tiers can be handled by a lower Tier Adventurer, and with layered Tiers, you could even have something that a Mundane could use.” Gesai touched the shirt she was wearing as she took over the answer. "Like how these processed clothes work. A Mundane could wear these, which is how they’re able to go into the dungeon without being naked.”
“Oh…” I remembered on our first day how Rix had brought a knife made from materials outside the dungeon and it’d been destroyed. “But what about Fray?”
“Fray?” Gesai looked up at me.
“The other brunette that was with us. She grabbed a Tier Zero sword and it burned her hands. Why would that have mattered?”
“Was it crafted or a boss drop?” The older Redhead touched my arm.
I didn’t know for certain, but considering it was almost exactly like the one I had, I was pretty sure I knew the answer. "I think it was a boss drop.”
“Boss drops are different.” Gesai half turned in her seat, so she could look at me. "When dungeon materials are processed, they become less…” She thought about the word she was looking for. "Toxic. So an item crafted from a level nine crystal would be essentially a level one item. Whereas a boss drop from a first floor boss would be a level two item. Both would be Tier Zero, but one of them would have a level requirement, while the other wouldn’t.”
“Gotcha…” I was starting to see how Rix had been able to handle the Tier Three item. “Why don’t they just make weapons out of higher Tier materials and the handles out of lower Tier ones?”
“The blades start destroying the handles and they have to constantly be replaced.” Gesai settled back in her seat. "Some Bandits will do that so their Mundane underlings can fight against an Adventurer, but that really only works against the Tier Zero or One.” She looked over at Rix. "Sometimes a Zero can take on a Tier two, but it’s rare.”
Before I could ask any more questions there was a flash of lightning and two figures were on the road in front of us. Rix slammed on the brakes and got us to a stop before we hit them. Excitement began to build in me as I recognized the gray-haired man and the light-brown-haired man in front of us.
Trent Vowler and Hye Publian.
We were saved.