Novels2Search
Napoleonic Dungeon
Chapter 9 Part 1: Amelia's Outside Adventure Continues

Chapter 9 Part 1: Amelia's Outside Adventure Continues

About 3 hrs of walking.

We’ve been walking for almost 3 hours now, here’s our party’s marching order. It goes both Karland and I on the front, Jeannette and Earalyn at the back holding their muskets at the right shoulder arms position. That is to say holding the butt of the musket with their right hand with the barrel resting at the shoulder.

Eventually we left the tent-city and it took us an hour to exit the forest, before the scenery changed from lush forest to a plains with tall grass that towered over the small grass, tall grass themselves look like they’re looking down on their smaller grass brethren. Now along the way we passed by some small villages.

We walked for three hours, because we spent an hour at this village. I think Baroqueville is what it’s called, this one bakery there that sold the best muffins I’ve ever tasted. To add to that the people there not only are they nice, but they’re really good at playing baroque music! Now I see where that name comes from now.

“So, Karland, What are you gonna do after turning the quest back to the guild?” I said.

Karland thought about it for a moment, “hmm, I’m most likely gonna go back to my dungeon, got some things to sort out, plus with my travel restriction removed a certain someone to visit.” She answered, “afterwards? Well, I’m going back to my dungeon and I most likely won’t be back for a while. Don’t get me wrong, it's great for us cores to have the ability to go outside, but we can’t stay out for too long.”

“Um, why’s that?” I asked. “The system never mentioned anything to me about any drawbacks to going outside.”

“Well, just because we Cores can travel outside our dungeons via avatars doesn’t mean our actual Cores are safe. No, no, on the contrary adventurers can still come and go as they please, and some of those may potentially have ulterior motives, such as attempting to shatter our cores, or in Bangania’s case take it.” Karland explained, “furthermore there’s also developing the dungeon itself, like you said, your fourth floor is still unfinished and needs more development. Point is do not Neglect your dungeon! Cause when I find out that you’ve neglected your dungeon, thereby abandoning your duties as a Dungeon Core, I will come over and bonk you on your head!” Then as if to cement her point she bonked me on my forhead.

“Ow! Geez man I get it! You didn’t have to bonk me on the forehead!” I said, rubbing my forehead.

The walk turned back to silence, trekking through the road for another five minutes before we spotted a sheep and boar carcass, on the left side with two muscular green figures that are, I’d say, about 7’8” tall give or take, Orcs and males, if I were to guess. They’re probably the Orcs mentioned in the quest, since they have dark-yellow skin, instead of the usual green.

One of them spotted us and hailed us, “Ah, you must be the adventurers the guild informed us of, well I’m afraid that those dire wolves are now killing our boars.” He said in a deep-gruff voice. Now that I can see him he’s wearing padded leather armor with no matching chest plate. His partner on the other hand is just wearing a cloth shirt, and a cloth pants.

“Indeed we are,” I replied, waving at him as we approached.

Both men nodded, “Then come follow us, the chief wishes to meet you.”

And so we took another couple minutes of walking, before eventually reaching a small settlement with a fence, big enough to hold off most predators encircling around the settlement. Now the settlement itself has a lot of Mongolian style yurts with horses tied to hitching posts outside, and a pretty big horse stable on the far east side. Whoa! Even the horses are tall and muscular.

The two Orcs lead us through the camp, before stopping at a particularly large yurt. They beckoned it inside before we were greeted by two figures, one male and the other female. The female might I add is also muscular and just as tall as the male next to her. They’re both adorned in scale-lamellar armor alongside a cone-shaped spike helmet on their heads.

“Ahh, sit, there is something we must discuss.” The man said, pointing at four mats.

Immediately the four of us sat down and the Orc continued, “Now, I am Chief Yugrah and next to me is my wife Valtara. Please dear.”

His wife nodded, laying out a map of the local area, with an X drawn in red ink at the top right of the map. “By the time our warriors ride out to confront these dire wolves picking away at our sheep, but now our boars as well,” Yugrah explained, “Fortunately our trackers tracked them to a cave, that’s where the X is, and we were just getting ready to ride out and confront these wolves at their den.”

I studied the map, “I don’t suppose we showed up at the right moment.”

Yugrah, scratched the back of his head, “Well, originally we posted a quest at the local adventurers guild to help us track down the dire wolves, but since you're here, we can spare four more horses to catch up with our riders.”

Karland gestured at herself, “Oh, it's ok, I can fly to catch up.”

I turned towards Jeannette, and Earalyn, “Any of you know how to ride a horse?” I said in the vain hope that the two behind me knew how to ride a horse, since I certainly don’t.

Both just shook their heads, “Well this is gonna be a long walk.” I comment.

Yugrah let out a hearty laugh, “Oh that wouldn’t be a problem, we can just use a wagon instead, as after this we’re going to pack up and follow our boar herds north. Though, you’ll be slow, plus there’ll be a wagon train trailing behind. I hope that’s alright with you?”

I nodded “Oh that would be great, god knows it’ll take us far longer on foot.”

———————————————————————————————————————————————

Twenty minutes later.

I’m sitting at the back of the wagon, my brown bess on my lap, I also wore my bicorne front-to-back. As for where my three companions are? Well, Earalyn is at the front alongside an Orc warrior who’s holding the reins, and Jeannette is sitting down sleeping with her Shako covering her face, and Karland is with the riders. Staring out, I could see another wagon behind us matching pace. Staring to the right, I saw 5 horsemen herding boars, I’d say that there’s about 25 boars give or take.

We’re actually going pretty fast, I’d say we’re about 15 meters behind the main riders heading to the supposed cave where the dire wolves reside. Man these horses are something else, cause they ain't slow! As for how many wagons there are? Well there's 12 wagons in this wagon train with the wagon I’m on leading the train.

“Would you like to hear our peoples' tales?” An old woman donned in fur clothing, a fur cap, and a golden broom necklace. Said, as she sat next to me.

“Uhh, sure, yeah, I'd love to hear it.” I replied.

The woman gave a sad smile, “Well, It is a long tale, and one that is tragic…”

Suffice to say, I was fully invested in the woman’s tale. Yeah, apparently the reason why their skin colors are dark-yellow instead of green was because these Orcs are called Soline Orcs, which are one of four Orcish peoples native to this continent. Soline Orcs live a very nomadic lifestyle, following what is essentially a fantasy version of Kazakh Tengrism, a religion that has survived a thousand years on this continent! Another interesting part I learned is that the Solines are also boar and sheep herders!

The tragedy comes when the regular green Orcs, called Braxlese Orcs, arrived some 350 years ago from the other continent and waged bloody wars with the nomadic Soline tribes for 39 years. Despite fierce Soline resistance, the invaders came out on top and established the Empire of Lukrah, an empire that lasted till it was dissolved after a revolution 100 years ago, establishing the current day Republic of Ergon, to where the republic according to her has made attempts to reconcile with the Solines, including monetary compensation, exclusive hunting and fishing rights, events promoting Soline culture and traditions, and the list goes on. However, all the tribes want is their traditional lands back, land that was historically used by them to herd boars and sheep. That is all they want.

But the details of what the Lukrah did to the Solines are just horrifying. Just thinking about it chills me to the bone, in fact the tamest thing I could probably mention is the expulsions.

“Wow, that's a very interesting tale.” I said, “Thanks for sharing it with me.”

The old woman smiled, “Think nothing of it. I just like to tell our tale to everyone I meet. Though if you want, I have folktales and myths that are, hmm, less depressing, and should lighten the move..”

“Oh, in that case, tell me a happy folktale. Cause I sure need it after that.” I replied.

The woman began to tell her tale, “This is a short one told to aspiring riders and warriors. Achem, Long ago, there lived a rider named Xumis…”

So to quickly summarize the story; Xumis the greatest warrior of the Wagmukruh tribe, which fun fact the tribe my party and I are doing this quest for is the Wagmukruh tribe, pretty neat. Anyways, this guy is the best warrior nobody could beat him. Every time he’s deployed into battle, the tribe just instantly wins, and he always survives no matter the injury.

So after one battle with the Cadarr tribe which left Xumis the only survivor amidst a sea of corpses around the battlefield. He walked for time, before essentially having a mental breakdown and was cursing at the Skygod Nesigrundar for cursing him to survive every battle, so he uh descends from the sky standing in front of Xumis, placing a hand onto Xumis’s left shoulder, as he stared at the Skygod with tears just endlessly pouring from his eyes.

Nesigrundar told Xumis that his gift of battle is special and is a sentiment shared by everyone, it's just Xumis was the only one that honed in on the ‘gift’. Which, oh my god this guy literally neglected everything just to train to be a warrior, with Nesigrundar just straight up telling him quote, “It is true that I am proud of your fearsome reputation as a warrior and your propensity to survive the odds is noteworthy, this gift is not a curse, it is simply the honed skills of a mighty warrior. However, it is important to balance one’s training with other matters of life, such as seeking a spouse, or watching a friendly spar between two warriors. As for you? You’ve neglected all aspects of life. In your quest to be a mighty warrior you pushed those around you away.”

So basically guy got so good at fighting that he survives every battle and got told by his god that he tryharded so much at combat. Eventually Nesigrundar told Xumis to head back to the tribe where he admits to being the only survivor, but to his shock everyone gathered around him to offer condolences.

At least that’s the point the woman got to her story as we were interrupted when the wagon stopped abruptly, forcing the entire caravan to halt.

“Hey, get ready! We’ve got feral dire wolves incoming! And they’re after the boars!” The Solinian warrior who currently held the reigns yelled.

The elder woman got up, grabbed a circular shield from the back and jumped down the wagon. Meanwhile I’m trying to wake Jeannette by shaking her.

To which she groggily opened her eyes.

“Hey, hey wake up! We’ve got company!” I yelled at Jeannette, violently shaking her.

By now Jeannette became fully awake and sprung into action grabbing her musket and donning her shako, she jumped outside with me following behind.

I turn to our left and spot a pack of five giant wolves, four jet black and one snow white, and they almost reach the waists of the Soline Orcs. All five have surrounded three Solinians, all of whom are wearing lamellar armor with coned helmets, with the Soline in the middle having a blue horsehair plume protruding from the top of his helmet. So far all the wolves are doing is just circle the three, occasionally one of them would growl.

And to our right I spot another pack of three dire wolves chasing down boars while also being chased by Solinian warriors on foot.

“Alright Jeannette, see if you can stop those three from catching the boars.” I said.

Jeannette says ‘Un’ does a salute before turning around to join the chase.

I crouched down low, aimed my musket and made silent prayer to the gods that I don’t miss. I pulled the trigger, and I hit one in the back right foreleg.

Well crap, now they’re all looking at me. Oh and did I forget to give myself a bayonet? Well now I’m really screwed.

The white wolf charges at me. What the hell! Why is it so fast?! The smoke hasn’t even cleared yet, but before I could even do anything else, the wolf was now on top of me effectively pinning me to the ground.

Only reason why it hasn’t mauled me to death was because my Brown Bess kept the wolf's snout at a distance, but I have no idea how long I can hold amidst the wolf’s thrashing and snarls.

Hnngh, I can’t hold on, my arms are shaking and my Brown Bess is slowly lowering. I heard a small whimper as somebody kicked the white dire wolf away, then silence.

“Hah, thanks for the save.” I said, Standing up, I turned to my savior, finding none other than that elderly woman, carrying one wolf over her left shoulder and that same axe she leaped out with in her right arm.

She grinned at me. “Well, don’t thank me just yet, we’ve got more to deal with. Though I’m suspecting that this is just half of the dire wolves and the other half are facing the riders.”

“I see,” I said, as I slung my musket over my left shoulder.

Then another one charged at us, this time I was quick on the draw as I unholstered my pistol and fired, hitting the wolf right in the forehead before it could jump, killing it instantly.

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The remaining three wolves scattered in different directions at seeing two of their comrades dead, however the three Solines took this opportunity to catch one. They did, although the wolf bit the arms of its captor forcing him to release the wolf.

The three were about to give chase when the elderly woman next to me signaled for them to stop. “Let them go, they’ve already been defeated.”

With her axe securely tucked at her right hip, she lifted the lifeless white wolf onto her shoulder. "Despite their attack, they're still animals. Let's gather their bodies for fur, claws, and meat. We’ll use everything, nothing gets wasted." Carefully, she arranged the carcasses at the rear of the wagon we had been traveling in.

I picked the dead black wolf and mimicked her actions.

“Now it is up to our cooks to carry out their jobs.” The woman said, “Come on, there's still fighting at the front!”

We swerved around the right side of the wagon, before we were joined by Jeannette and the Soline with the horsehair plume on his helmet.

“The boar herds are secured, Elder Oghash.” He said.

“Good let’s join the others at the front of the wagon, the remaining dire wolves are there.” Oghash said.

We sprinted to the very front and we spotted a Solinian corpse. His left arm had been torn off, with bite and scratch marks dot his body.

Oghash crouched down, closing the orc’s eyes, “The skygod is with you.”

Jeannette pointed in the distance, “Madame look! Earalyn is surrounded!”

Sure enough I see Earalyn surrounded by 8 wolves, with 8 corpses, 2 Orcs and 6 dire wolves had littered the field around Earalyn. Jeez man, those wolves really did decide to go after Earalyn! As for the Moon Elf herself? Well she’s just using magic, her musket is slung to her left shoulder.

“Alright, Jeannette reload with me.” I ordered as I began to make the motions in reloading a musket. So it took Jeannette about 12 seconds just to reload and I took 30. While we were reloading Oghash threw her axe in an attempt to draw the attention of the wolves onto us.

It somewhat worked. Since the axe drew the attention of 3 wolves, Earalyn used this period of distraction to make a run for it.

She leaped over the distracted wolves and began a mad dash towards us. With the wolves hot on her trail.

Oghash took a javelin that was protruding from the ground, and brandished it as a spear, and the Horsehair Plume Orc unsheathed his sword and along with Oghash formed a small shield wall.

I signaled for Jeannette to aim alongside me. “Fire on my command.”

The wolves are quickly closing the gap between them and Earalyn. As for the distance I’d say they’re about 75 meters away from us. I am sure that Jeannette next to me is confident about hitting something at such a distance without relying on luck. Me on the other hand? I am not a trained soldier, in fact before reincarnating my only experience with guns is airsoft, So let's hope I can hit something, yeah especially since the Brown Bess that I’m holding has an effective range of 91 meters (100 yards).

Anyways moving on Earalyn is now 45 meters away, and I begin a countdown.

“3”

“2”

“1”

“Fire!”

Both Jeannette and I simultaneously fired a volley. I prayed that I actually hit something. Once the smoke cleared 2 of 8 wolves chasing Earalyn are dead, and the Moon Elf herself has reconnected with us and the remaining 6 dire wolves are now just moments away from pouncing on us.

“Brace for it!” Horsetail Orc yelled, right as the wolves made contact with our ad-hoc line.

Agh, Crap! I’ve been pinned to the ground for the second time and two of these wolves just double teamed and tore a huge gash on my left ankle, while the other is trying to bite my throat, only being held at bay by my Brown Bess.

What the?! “Aaaagggghhhh” I scream, This bastard wolf just tore apart my ankle! I attempt to kick the snout of the wolf that just tore off my ankle with my right foot. But it's no use. This bastard is too strong, and my strength in my arms is weakening. To make matters worse it responded by tearing another gash on my right ankle.

“Hya!” Was all I heard before the wolf towering over my head was chopped cleanly in half. The other wolf who was previously biting down legs, witnessed this and began scampering off into god knows where.

Immediately both Earalyn and Jeannette dragged me till I was propped up against the left side of the wagon, leaving a trail of blood.

“It hurts… it hurts so much.” I said, tears threatening to spill from my eyes.

“Hold on, I’ll go get the healers.” Oghash said she then turned to address both Jeannette and Earalyn. “You two, secure the perimeter; there may be more dire wolves waiting to strike.”

“Bu-but Madame is hurt! How can I face the rest of my regiment when they find out I let Madame be injured.” Jeannette said in a panicked protest.

“Come on let’s do as the orc says, I don’t know any healing magic, besides the Great Mother’s health will become more jeopardized should anymore of those accursed wolves arrive.” Earalyn said, gently placing a hand on Jeannette’s left shoulder.

Jeannette nodded, before the two walked off. As Oghash nodded before sprinting off.

The Horsehair Plume Orc crouched down, and offered some kind of green leaf. “Here take this, it will numb the pain.”

Mustering whatever strength I have left, I took the leaf and placed the entire thing into my mouth and I began to chew on the leaf. By now tears are streaming from my eyes.

The Solinian retrieved a long strip of cloth and cut it half with his sword, and began wrapping my wounds with it. By now I swallowed that leaf, and I can feel the pain begin to lessen.

“That should stop the bleeding, at least until our healers can assess the injuries.” He said before joining Earalyn and Jeannette.

Man, even though I am a dungeon core this still sucks, and I know these wounds would heal when I return, as if nothing ever happened, but man I need to be more careful when in my avatar, cause as it stands I am currently fleshy girl and not you know a floating omnipotent orb inside my dungeon. Ok this is probably not the time for jokes.

I waited for about 7 minutes, but it felt like an eternity, when Oghash returned with an even more elderly looking man wearing a brown robe and a cap with what looks to be deer antlers attached to the sides.

“Let's take a look at that leg.” The man said, crouching down, he began to inspect my ankless leg.

Another Soline arrived, “Elder, the riders have returned bringing news of our victory. And all the dire wolves around the wagon train have either fled or been eliminated.”

Oghash nodded, “Good, any casualties?”

“For the riders, none reported, although there were injuries. As for the wagon guards, about 10.” He replied.

“Damn, those ferals really did catch us by surprise.” Oghash commented.

“Oh, before I forget the Elders are convening a council and all Elders are required to attend.” He informed Oghash.

“Bah! They’ll be fine without me, besides I’ve got more important matters to attend to, such as assisting the younger Healers with tending to the wounded, as is the case with this girl here.” The Robed Man said, taking out a mortar and pestle and was in the process of grinding multiple herbs.

“Alright, I’ll be sure to inform the council.” Oghash said, nodding. “Come take me to the location.”

Both Solinians promptly left.

I witnessed the Robed Man delve into his robe, extracting a wooden cup, to which he poured the ground up herbs. The man then went back into his robe and retrieved a wooden pitcher and he began pouring water into the cup, he then fetched a wooden spoon from his robes and stirred the concoction.

Jesus is this guy’s robe a large glorified bag of holding? I just witnessed this man go into his robe and grab three things, in fact he just pulled a bundle of 24 small sticks, a metal cup holder just big enough for the wooden cup, and a bottle which contained lava, yes you heard that right a lava. I actually should be happy that he’s making some kind of medicine, but this is just messing with my mind.

After he’s done setting up this mini campfire he opened the lava bottle and poured just a tiny bit of lava, and the entire thing just caught on fire!

“Is that lava?” I asked in a weak and raspy voice.

The man chuckled, “No my child, it is but a mimicry of lava, created by our best fire casters. The flames themselves don’t last long, but are extremely hot.”

He positioned the cup holder over the flames, and continued to stir only stopping once the liquid turned bubbling dark green texture.

“It is hot, careful, and drink slow, it will heal your open wounds. Though I will admit it doesn’t taste good and is very bitter. But the best healing remedies in the tribe are bitter.” The Robed Man said, “I say this with great sorrow, but I cannot do much for that missing ankle.” He then handed me the cup once the flames died down.

I take it with one hand, and I’m surprised that my hand isn’t burning. I take a sip, and oof it's hot! “Ah, it’s no problem, probably gonna have to be carried back home, thank you really.”

“Again, I am sorry about dragging your party into our problems. Those dire wolves have eluded us for a long time.” The Robed Man said, as he unwrapped the now blood stained cloth wrapped around both my legs.

“What’s your name? My name is Amelia Yokakko.” I said, taking more sips.

“It's Kargynax, and ahh, good it is healing.” Kargynax replied, never bothering to look away from my legs, and re-wrapped my now healing wounds with a fresh set of cloth.

“What are those wolves anyway, they’re huge and fast!” I said, by now I’d just finished the medicine and handed the cup back to Kargynax before it promptly disappeared back into his robe.

“Ahh, well you see, the origins of the dire wolf dates back to when the world had just been created and thus had an excess amount of mana to which regular wolves who had absorbed an excessive amount, they would evolve into the dire wolf, an intelligent and somewhat aggressive breed of wolf with a growth spurt and red eyes, I say somewhat because they’ll only be aggressive when you threaten them or their young. Now the feral version of the dire wolf ditches their intelligence and is an extremely aggressive version to their non-feral counterpart. Unfortunately there’s no visual way to tell a feral apart, aside from looking at their mana.” Kargynax replied. “Well, I’ve got some other wounded to tend to, it was nice talking to you Lady Amelia.”

Kargynax then walked off before disappearing into one of the wagons further back, but not after packing everything, by that I mean disappearing inside his robe.

“Amelia! Oh my days what happened!” I heard a voice to my left, craning my head. I spotted none other than Karland running over.

“Those wolves got me pretty good.” I said, “It's been taken care of.”

“Well that's good.” Karland said, with a relieved look on her face.

Oghash returned carrying a large pouch. “I just arrived from the council meeting and this is the agreed upon sum for the reward plus a thousand more extra.”

“Oh please we don’t need the extra money, just pay us what is owed on the quest.” I said, trying to refuse, but Oghash had none of it and shook her head.

“Nonsense, the Elders and I agreed to pay extra for the injuries inflicted. Take it.” Oghash didn’t take no for an answer and just dumped the pouch onto my hands. “A wagon will take you back to Dragdville. Don’t worry about the wagon, it'll easily catch up with the rest of us.”

“I’ll go get Jeannette and Eralyn, let them know we’re heading back.” Karland said before walking off into the distance.

“May I have the quest? So I can sign it off as proof of completion.” Oghash said, reaching out her hand, to which a retrieved the quest, that's slightly creased but she signs it regardless and hands it back.

Karland returned with Earalyn and Jeannette behind her. “Come on, let's help you up, Oghash lead us to the wagon.” Karland said.

———————————————————————————————————————————————

It took the combined effort of Karland, Jeannette, Earalyn and Oghash just to lift and carry me to the wagon. Seriously, I'm not THAT heavy. But then again… No stop it brain, I am not heavy!

Anyways the three of us are sitting at the back of the wagon watching as the wagon train disappeared in the distance. We’re also escorted by 4 riders, so that's good at least. Jeannette has once again fallen asleep this time with her shako on her lap, and Earalyn is sitting with the driver at the driver at the front. Karland and I are at the back with our legs dangling over the ledge.

I shouldn’t even be worried, yet I constantly think about my ankle or the lack thereof, I am a Dungeon Core! This’ll just heal in the moment I return and unmanifest, but the pain… the blood… it felt so real, yeah I think I’ll just stick to my dungeon and Dragdville from now on, which means no going on grand quests, uh uh no matter what the guild thinks. I’ll just limit my visits to Dragdville once in a while, maybe even visit Karland’s dungeon, and also stick to my dungeon.

It was about halfway to our return trip before Karland signaled for the wagon to stop, “Hey I gotta go, something came up with my dungeon, bye! I had fun, we should definitely hang out sometime.” She said,

“Yeah me too, let's meet again soon, though let’s just stick to Dragdville or somewhere around your dungeon.” I replied, waving Karland goodbye as she hopped off the wagon and flew off west. The wagon continued onwards to Dragdville.

Ah drats I forgot to ask her if she wanted any cut from the reward. Oh well, I’ll just message her later when I get back. For now I scoot next to Jeannette and fall asleep next to her.

I was woken up when Earalyn shook, “We’re here Great Mother, I’ll wake Jeannette next and we can get moving.”

I look to up towards the sky as the sun has began to set, and true to her words were at the entrance to Dragdville, which the city itself has changed drastically, for starters half of the tents are gone, replaced by medieval style buildings, for example the tall three story building with a big sword and shield emblem at the front. I’m guessing that where the Adventurers Guild tent used to be, because it stuck as a sore thumb amongst a sea of tents.

“There,” I said, pointing to the three story building, “We need to submit the quest, then it’s home sweet home.”

By now Jeannette was wide awake and Yawned loudly, causing me to yawn. Oh no it’s spreading!

Anyways, both girls helped me exit the wagon, and I waved and bid the Solinians good, watching as the wagon and its four escorts quickly disappeared into the distance.

With my right arm over Earalyn’s shoulders and with my left using my Brown Bess as a makeshift crutch, we slowly but surely trudged towards the guild building, weaving through huge crowds.

Man what is going on? Why are there so many people at the Adventurers Guild? “Hey Jeannette, can you ask somebody what’s going on?” I said as Jeannette nodded, before she tapped on somebody’s shoulders.

He turned around revealing to be a wood elf with coal dust that dotted his face.

“Um, excuse me sir, but why might there be a large gathering at the guild?” Jeannette asked.

The man let a toothy smile, “Well, ya see, therm b’outta start the Dragdville council meet’in in’bout 13 minutes, and I aint missin dat.” The man said with a very accented voice, I have some guesses as to what the accent is related to, but I could be very wrong so let's not ask him that.

“Okay well thank you sir, the three of us are heading inside to turn in a quest, then we’re heading home.” I replied.

“Aw’rite, darn shame, you’da ave a say in how things are run’ere” he said before going back to what he’s doing whatever it was he was doing.

We finally entered the building and whoa! This place is huge! At the far end is a counter with separation glass, my guess is it’s big enough for 3 receptionists, next to the counter is a set of stairs going up. At the center are 12 circular tables with chairs, and there are 4 square tables at each side.

Place is pretty empty, must be about that council meeting that guy was talking about earlier. Anyways we walked over to the counter to find, hey! It’s that same receptionist from earlier!

“Your back!” She exclaimed, smiling brightly, until she saw my leg. “Oh dear! What happened there?”

“Wolf got me good.” I said, before I pulled the quest and placed it on the glass, “But anyways, here’s the quest.”

She briefly scanned the quest, before stamping it and promptly storing it in some kind drawer. “You sure you're alright?”

I nodded, “Positive.”

She stared suspiciously at me, “O-kay then. By the way you got here just in time, in 13 minutes the guild will be closed to adventurers.” She said, standing up. “In fact I was just about to begin setting up the room for the council meeting.”

“Wait, you're doing this on your own?” I asked dumbfounded, I mean come on this is just too much work for one person!

The Receptionist viciously shook her head, “Oh no, once the ‘meeting’ starts in 13 minutes there’s a 1 hour prep time before the meeting actually starts.” She said, emphasizing the word ‘meeting’ in air quotes.

“Ah well that’s good.” I said, “Anyways goodnight ma’am. Come on, let's go home.”

The Receptionist smiled, and waved at us as we exited.