Jasper was a human living in a town named Brightmoss. It was, at least to the common observer, a large town, but it was far closer to multiple small towns thrashing against eachother like predatory fish bound in wire. The Terryns to which he belonged to competed fiercely against the Granites, the Masons, the Pebbletons, and now the Geode alliance made up of scattered travelers who failed to fit in with any of the four main families, now common enough to act as their own.
All four families had their own resources, of course. The Granite couple, the founders, were leaders in principle, but even with their administrative skill that rule was slipping. The head of the Mason family owned the luckiest quarry shaft in all of Brightmoss, keeping it stocked with sturdy stone and fresh iron for every sort of tool. The Pebbletons knew the secrets of a pure node in the nearby forest, preserving it and sharing in it's power. And the Terryns were the fighters, with a lock on the nearby mole cave. The original family head was a knight for the snow baron, this majesty diluted too heavily in the day-to-day gamesmanship with the lowborn culture of Brightmoss.
Jasper himself was best described as an old man in a young man's body. Physically he was unimportant, majestic in his movements and respectable until his high-pitched voice slipped out of his mouth. Mentally he was cynical even by Terryn standards, quick to act but slow to move. And that's what he struggled to do, on his day to do "live training."
Monster caves were not an uncommon occurrence across all corners of the land. Managed well, they carried a symbiotic relationship with humans, serving as a source of meat, bones, hides, and most importantly training. Live training. Managed poorly... they would either be overhunted and depleted, or fed fresh recruits and snowball into wiping out a nearby town unless a stronger force intervened. And as anyone with a head for politics knew, owing enough favors to a military force that can eclipse yours in strength is a ticket to the graveyard.
"Rose, It's time for our live training." Jasper called through the house, lifting his greatsword of bone off the wall.
He did not have to call far when his younger, more energetic sister bounded through the door.
"I'm ready!" she sang, sword and shield excitedly hanging at her sides. Rose had just reached adulthood, but was a little sister to him and they both knew it, and this was made all the more obvious by her boundless energy.
Jasper sighed and trudged across the road to an alchemist household. "Oliver? It's cousin jasper. We're ready to take you mushroom-hunting."
A shorter human walked out, nearly half of Jasper's age and carrying multiple large bags. Jasper muttered something about 'the youth' that Oliver didn't even listen to, younger human's words speeding up as he and Rose discussed alchemy, bugs, and other nonsense. Jasper began to zone out and walk through the paths out of Brightmoss along a route he knew well.
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"Do you think we'll find a dungeon?" She asked, snapping the older-than-his-years guard out of his trance. Jasper stood upright midstep, nearly tripping into a short tree.
"We're not important enough to get a dungeon, and I'd rather keep it way. They're nasty buggers." Jasper corrected. Rose looked visibly deflated, head hanging. Jasper paid her rejected look no mind, reaching the mouth of Talpi cave. Giant moles were common there, and their parts had a handful of uses. Bats were even more so, but any deliver found them too small and annoying to be of any use.
"Stay sharp. The bats are scared of us, but it's the moles who are the real problem."
Oliver took a stone out of his pouch and shook it, casting a pale yellow light on the rough cavefloor. And as luck would have it, several mushrooms of brown and red. Oliver sliced them off the ground, careful to leave the stalks behind, and moved forward. deeper. narrower into the cave mouth. A single large mole emerged from a tunnel on the wall, and jasper entered a fighting stance.
"I'll look big. go for the legs." He curtly ordered, every drop of fatigue overwritten by fighting focus. The mole snuffled forward, until jasper rapped his gauntlet against the metal side of his blade. Predictably, it advanced, lumbering on it's claws towards the distraction. It swiped once, strength of it's digging claw almost knocking Jasper's greatsword aside, twice at nothing as he repositioned, and was going in for a third before Rose aimed a reverse-gripped stab to the mole's back. It roared and lashed out, causing both fighters to jump back. While Rose lost her footing, Jasper maintained it, lifting his greatsword over his head and with a levering slash, crashing it down on the mole.
The rock under him felt like it shook a little, as the sword had split clean through. Oliver crouched over the mole, carefully cutting away useful strips of meat and hide for his larger bags
"That's odd" Jasper noticed, slowing his pace. "The bats aren't as loud this week."
He defensively raised his sword, listening while Rose ventured forward.
Until a short, twisted staff illuminated itself purple from the darkness. Jasper ran forward, drawing his blade expertly and intercepting a bolt of hungry black light.
That bolt, he recognized, was corrosion magic. It began to eat away at the blade, spreading over and vaporizing the bone from the middle. As he stared in bewilderment and dread, that gave the zombie enough time to line up a cleaner shot. It scraped past his arm, leaving a nasty black withermark, and struck a familiar alchemist.
Oliver slumped over, pool of red forming at the edge of his dropped glowing stone.
Rose wasted no time, dashing towards the zombie mage. Jasper tried to heft his blade again, too used to it's heavy weight and falling off-balance, flexing of his upper arm, causing a nauseating smell. The zombie was about to fire another shadowbolt, when a shield crashed down on it's head. A sword stabbed it center of mass, and finished with a roundslash spraying zombie goo and thud of it's second death
"No one takes my friends away from me!" Rose shouted, voice quivering with a stop to the ex-zombie to make her point. "No one!"
Jasper cursed aloud, turning Oliver onto his front and grimacing at the wound. "This is evil magic. We'll need to call the paladins."
Rose's eyes widened. "I'd be excited to meet them, but if they even get mentioned it usually means you guys are in over your heads."
"Not to mention how weak it'll make us look" jasper agreed in sadness.
Together, they carried oliver outside, and took turns silently shoveling dirt with the ruined greatsword until there was enough to bury. While his pack wasn't full, it was the heaviest it had ever been.