Nick found the pass to be eerie with no wind or animals to add sights and sounds to the journey. The steady stomp of boots and the clang of weapons and armor worn or carried by the warriors was all that could be heard in the dim passage. The passage echoed any words spoken in the confined space and made the mounts skittish and hard to handle. The small crystals meant to illuminate the journey left Nick feeling particularly uneasy. The crystal's light created long shadows that flickered as the small company passed them by in a small column.

The newly hired orcs led the way and kept tight ranks. There was little to scout in the passage and any other approaching travelers would be heard well before they appeared. The steady sound of dripping water broke the steady thumb of boots after several hours into the journey. The large drops could be heard splashing into a puddle ahead.

The company soon discovered the source of the dripping water. A small opening no more than a few feet wide was found along one side of the passage. The opening was surrounded by loose rubble and led to a natural cavern containing a small pool barely visible from the tunnel of light coming from the passage. Nick watched as a large drop of water fell from above and splashed into the pool echoing out into the passage.

Larissa approached the opening carefully. She took a few moments while the rest of the company rested to examine the piles of rubble scattered into the passageway.

“This is a recent breach in the passage. Too recent to be a coincidence.” she said thoughtfully.

She drew a small blade and a crystal from her belt pouch. The crystal activated in a flash of red light exposing the cavern’s depths. The cavern stretched far into the mountain. The red light couldn’t illuminate the entirety of its depths and a foreboding chittering echoed off the walls as Larissa stepped inside.

“What was that?” Nick immediately asked at the new sound.

Vander standing nearby replied hesitantly. “That matches the sounds of a drogolith.”

Larissa’s dark complexion slightly paled at Vander’s statement.

“What the hell is a drogolith?” Nick said.

“A monstrous creature that dwells in the darkest recesses of underground caves. Adult drogolith’s can grow to enormous sizes.” Vander replied.

Nick looked back toward the cave and saw a flicker of light reflected off two green specks in the distance right at the edge of the crystal’s light. The chittering grew in volume and a screech of stone and claw shattered any sense of calm.

Urzak, who had been standing nearby, didn't hesitate to start commanding the troop of orcs. “Slingers activate any penetrating skills and weaken the creature before it arrives. Frontliners close the gap with steel and shields.”

To Nick’s surprise the orcs seemed almost giddy at the prospect of a fight. He stepped well back from the opening in the tunnel and soon enough the Slingers were sending their payloads into the darkness with grunts of effort. The solid stones they’d loaded into their slings impacted with deafening cracks and the roar of pain from the drogolith echoed through the tunnel loud enough to rattle Nick’s jaw.

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Larissa had her bow drawn and released three arrows in a matter of moments as the slingers reloaded for a second volley.

“A juvenile, luck favors us it seems,” she said as she lowered her bow and let the orcs with their large battle axes and E’kar with his thick gauntlets step into the gap.

There was another loud screech from the opening and a sudden thud followed that sounded like a speeding car slamming into a concrete wall at the suddenness of the impact. The creature was in sight in the opening by this time and Nick saw an astonishing sight. E’kar’s arm was elbow deep into the head of the drogolith. The creature was at least twice his size but it simply twitched as he shook off its corpse.

The orcs began to shout and celebrate the kill as Urzak stepped forward.

“Well done, the slingers cracked the natural armor making it an easy victim to the blunt damage,” he commented.

He spoke with the orcs in a commanding voice to get them back in order and within moments the creature’s corpse had been brought forward for disposal in the station.

Nick’s eyes followed all the activity but his adrenaline was running too high for him to process it all until a couple minutes passed. As his mind settled, he started feeling satisfaction. It was an odd sensation at first but after a short reflection it was a result of everything that led to this situation. The demon attack, the creation of his company and now his new forces operating with swift efficiency to meet a deadly threat. That threat now laid at his feet and would soon turn into coin to be reinvested into his forces to make them even more fearsome.

A smile settled onto Nick’s face as he opened the station portal and a couple orcs tossed the corpse inside netting Nick 32 silver coins. Vander explained this was due to the threat level of the creature. Nick hadn’t had the opportunity to [Identify] the drogolith but it was considered by the station system to have a threat level of 6. Threat levels determined the amount of coin rewarded by the station for viable corpses with more coin rewarded for higher threat level creatures.

Nick felt he was starting to grasp something that had been escaping him up to that point. The motivation to push forward and level and build something rewarded by the stations. It was exhilarating beyond what he thought and now he had all the pieces in place to continue forward on his journey to greatness.

—

The rest of the journey through the pass was uneventful. There was nothing else of note and as soon the company was at the end. The evening light stretched into the tunnel from the exit carved into the mountains and Nick found himself looking up at a fortified town set into the mountainside around the exit.

It was a shock to see the stone and wooden buildings spread along the slope of the passage compared to the complete absence of people or structures on the other end. At Nick’s surprised look Vander stepped beside him and provided an explanation.

“South leads into the frontiers and presents a border to the kingdom. It has to be guarded in case of an intrusion by another force or in the unlikely event of a monster outbreak that leads to the loss of stations. The pass serves as a natural defensive point to guard the rest of the kingdom in case of an invasion.”

Nick nodded thoughtfully and began to notice a significant number of the town's residents were wearing uniforms in the colors of Repstrom. Looking back at the pass entrance there were solid stone blocks set on chains that could be released to completely block access and towers were set up to give a view down into the valley where the road continued on from the town.