Chapter Thirteen

The Sewers

Ogre had his party check and double check their skills to make sure that each of them acquired the skill Heal. Surprisingly, they were all accepted by the enigmatic Godlion, into the Cleric Chapter, given Iron Maces, that were better the pig iron they came with but worse than the black iron weapons they purchased at the smithy, and their choice of iron plate, which fared the same as their weapons as compared to the new gear. Ogre thought it was all freely given, until the High Priest coughed politely and suggested that they leave an offering of gold at the foot of the altar in the nave for the gifts. It was more expensive than the iron plate at the smithy, but the dog had to conclude that skills associated with being a Cleric was more than worth the jules exacted by the plate. Ogre’s heal had three uses, and his restoration, which cured all minor ailments like poison, sickness, lesser stupor, six. Though they all had heal, all but Xendaranan, had three, as the spearbeast had four and eight of his secondary skill; they all had different secondary skills. Xendaranan had Aegis, which called forth an invisible barrier capable of withstanding damage equal to 1000x his spirit stat, for the sum of seconds divisible by 100 of said stat. Aida had a sacred damage buff that could be applied to weapons, six times, for added damage divisible by 100 of the spirit stat. Vedana could summon a similar buff to shields with the same requirements. Orda received two secondary skills, one gave him an active skill called Smite, the other a wide-ranging buff, that increased healing from skills or items, and reduced damage based on the spirit stat, as Vedana and Aida’s skills were based.

Back at Reception, Lambana presented them with metal tags on tough thin thongs that could be tied about the neck. It was difficult for Ogre, with his monstrous head and the musculature needed to move it, but his necklace was given extra length. His was brass, which looked like a sort of faux gold color, different from the metallic red brown of the otters’ copper tags. Ogre held the tag up to reception, “Is this really necessary? I understand that I do not possess a Heroic level commensurate with my party, but my ability, my status level more than makes up for it. I should at least be give a copper tag.”

Lambana frowned, “Your tags are set by the guild in observance with guildmembers who first interacted with you and with the interpretation of your fighting prowess by a Master-at-arms. I have no say, as It was not I, who first met you.”

“Bahbrah and Orstrong.” Ogre growled, thinking; that ram really meant what he said about placing me lower than my companions in Heroic Rank. Annoying beast. “I understand, please continue.”

“Right…yes,” The sheep said, “Your tags denote rank, and who you are, your name should be on the back of it, with the correct runes I hope…Ah yes…good. Also, you must wear it, especially as you slay monsters, as this will direct the storage of your insight tax. For Cerulean it is capped at 0.25 % which is about half of what most Beginner Towns tax. There are fifty or so other provincial and sovereign ranks associated with a tax, governors, prefects, knights, princes, kings, high nobility and beyond. Each of them range up to 0.5%. Some of them provide benefits, most of which is an increase in insight gain, and craftsbeast skill leveling. It can get bureaucratical, so unless you ask me directly, I’ll leave most of it out. Your insight should only be 5% impacted.”

Ogre growled, “So we fight, and we die but we have to give up the insight we get to beasts who will never have to fight for it?”

“It does not seem right.” Said Aida,

Orda, sniffed at her, “I have never seen a world where living is free. From the World Tower we were directed to slay beast and monster to preserve our lives. It was just training for the reality beyond that strange place.”

“We are using established infrastructure, made by the hard work of beasts built in successive generations, paying a fair share makes sense.” Vedana said, looking at Aida and smiling ruefully, as if she was sorry to disagree.

“If that was all it was then, I would agree.” Said Ogre, “But that is just ground level reasoning. Any beast who would rule over beasts must have the ability to police them and keep them in line. When an individual beast has the ability to break a city with the sheer amount of power, they can accumulate by leveling, it changes the political dynamic and forces beasts in power to deal with the common beast differently. The tax is a tax on power. It is a way to channel or direct this flow of power into the paws of those who rule, and to direct that power without risking their napes.”

Orda and Xendaranan looked at one another, considering. Vedana furrowed her brow at Ogre but looked away when he glanced at her. The sheep cleared her throat, speaking, “As I said before, your parchmentwork is in order, inked and ready. You may look it when you wish, but please give us at least an hour’s notice if you want a copy made. We have taken the liberty of selecting an array of bounties and errands that are suitable for your rank. There is at least one hundred or so, select the ones you want, and we will get you registered for them. There are some that are higher paying than others, a bit higher risk though, not beyond Inept Rank of course. I placed those here before you.”

Ogre scanned the parchment, on the desk absorbing the information like a plant soaking up water. That must be the Eidetic Skill. The ability to memorize in detail whatever I see. Very useful, but I do not need to use it sparingly, it does not seem to take up any stamina. The dog peered at the enormous board filled with quests and activated Visionary. His stamina drained faster than it should have, but he took note of and memorized every quest on that board, thousands of them, by rune, and by charcoal sketch.

Sweat slicked Ogre’s brow, and he breathed out slowly. I was wrong, it can use stamina. The dog thought, as he tried to act normal.

“It would seem that you want us to go to the Sewers,” Ogre said, seeing that the bounties and errands with it as location was foremost on the spread before them. “…But we have already fought, Troglogdytes and Goblins, not to mention slimes by the hundreds. You will be underusing our ability if you think that this is all we are capable of.”

Lambana, tried to shrug, but it seemed an awkward unnatural moment for her. There was a tightness to her back that was not unlike Bahbrah’s prim, no nonsense bearing. “There have been more than a few new adventurer parties who felt the same way. We usually don’t hear back from them when they try to do a higher ranked mission without our blessing, sometimes they come back in pieces or just their tags. I would have you know that your circumstances have been considered thoroughly and I believe that the Sewers quests would help the Adventurer’s Guild and Cerulean Town more than any other Inept Rank Quest that may be…less odorous and more palatable. We have lost some low-level parties in them recently, we hope that you can see what happened to them and return their tags if possible.”

Ogre felt his nose grow hot. Orda patted the dog’s backplate, speaking, “It would have been more helpful if you just lead with that, Miss Guild Receptionist.”

“Lambana is fine.” Said the ewe, “Will you take the quests?”

Ogre nodded, not trusting his tongue to avoid embarrassing him further. Her smile beamed brightly, “Good, now, as for provisions, I have some recommendations, if you would bear with me.”

The party settled for Plague and disease remedy one per beast, 10 Lesser Health elixir which healed for 10%, and 5 vigor elixir per beast. The ones from the tower only healed for hp points instead of a percentage of overall health. With their increased hit points from leveling, such elixir would be nearly worthless. The costs associated with provisions surprised Ogre. Maps of local areas only cost a few dozen copper jules, but even that amount was ridiculous seeing how there were skills that could satisfy that need. Health elixir was the worst offender. One of the best health elixirs, that they could be shown, cost hundreds of thousands of gold jules. Lambana hinted that there were some that cost their weight in bloodstar; which had a value of thousands upon thousands of gold. Cures and Soothing Panacea cost dozens of gold, with the latter being pricier than the former. Supplies for rough camping were relatively cheap compared to the vials, even though the preserved food and drink, and oil for lanterns were enough for weeks. The bedrolls, knapsacks for carrying things that overflowed from Status Inventory, weatherproof lanterns, flint, extra wick and tallow, rainproof cloaks and repair kits for armour and weapons all cost about as much for each beast as half the inventory of elixir. Ogre took pickaxes, rope and hooks, and minor lock picks and stashed it in his inventory, for later use. When they were done, Ogre saw that the party had no jules left to their name.

After explaining this to the otters, the dog said, “We will have to make jules our first quest or we will go into debt trying to pay for a room for the night, here at the guild.”

“We have the provisions to sleep rough, even in the town.” Said Orda,

“I’m sure, they will have rules against camping within the walls of Cerulean.” Aida said, “But maybe the outskirts will be less inclined to enforce such rules.”

“We might have to be more careful, outside the walls,” Xendaranan said, “Most new adventurers can afford to stay within, so it makes sense that unsavory beasts might choose a place with less regulation to do their dirt.”

“Crime festers in shadow, but is expunged by light.” Said, Vedana, smiling, “It is a script from Cleric Writings about the Godlion. I received the knowledge when we all joined the Cleric order. It seems fitting to quote it now.”

“Where to first?” Asked Orda as they left the Adventurer’s Guild, with Lambana’s excited farewell.

The sheep was more enthusiastic than I would have guessed, seeing her personality and her connection to Bahbrah who is prim, proper, and preeminently collected. Ogre thought, before speaking, “I have a list of all the quests that we can do, but the Sewers will be a priority. We have vermin extermination, first, as monsters have spilled out from places in the extensive underground system. And we will need to go through them anyways to access other quest points. Plus there is a small bounty right now on the monster gems of Froglets, Gecko-men, and Rats. There are around 327 sites where these monsters are spawning and spilling out into the land outside of Cerulean, frighting beasts in the outskirts and slaying more than a few of them. The other sites are controlled by the patrols of Guardsbeast, but they don’t wander far from the gates they guard.”

“How can there be so many sections of the sewage system, where groups of the monsters have enough space and distance from other monsters to claim and make a territory?” Asked Aida, “Monsters can be hostile to members of their own group; monsters that they grew up with, I can’t imagine that they will allow other groups to come close to them, and risk having to share food populations or sources of loot.”

“Maybe Cerulean is just that big?” Xendaranan, chimed in, as he looked about the sprawling Square before his eyes focused on the monolith from which half the name of the square was named.

“Cerulean is larger than I assumed a Town would be,” Said Ogre; his passive skill showed a massive section that was far larger than the true size of the town. “But there are ruins that swallow the town, outskirts and all like a great forest would a sapling.”

“So the sewer system is a relic of some vast ancient city, repurposed for Cerulean?” Orda asked, “That means there could be any manner of sum of monsters living in its depths.”

“My fur is rising,” Said Aida, “It is no wonder there are new adventurer parties getting lost in them.”

“We will not have to worry overmuch.” Ogre said, “We are not common inepts or novices. We will complete our quests.”

The day stretched long after their orientation, but sundown was still a pawful of hours off when they set off for the first site. It was located on the edge of the outskirts several hundred paces from the Maingate where the party first met guardbeasts, Bore and Yonbore. In full plate the entire party labored to get to the site before afternoon stretched too long into evening. They slipped between the dark allies of the outskirts, under high arched but thatch roofs and rarely slate or tile, frowning as the day blackened prematurely with the promise of heavy rain. The outskirts smelled strongly of rubbish, and exotic spices wafting from cooking pots, the smells of habitation, the ripe red smell of butcher shops and the reek of skinning buildings positioned as far from the gate as one could and still be apart of the outskirts of the town. The ruins came in two forms; as if more than two different ages and settlements, occupied the same space. There were crumbling sections of old stone so worn by time, wind and rain, that they were little better than shapeless lumps. Other sections crafted of impossible stone of immense weight and perfectly carved squares and rectangles shaped the wall where a large sewer grate opened into the world above the ground. It’s purpose seemed to be mainly for water runoff from rain as it was built into the hilly slope of the ground, with the natural decline.

They were too late. The place smelled thickly of blood, offal, and battle. There were no bodies left behind, but the grounds were stained with green and red blood. Aida sniffed the air hesitantly, peering at the grounds stained by battle. “It’s too fresh to belong to the beasts we are to retrieve the tags for. Plus, there are no bodies.”

“It makes sense, the Guild would not only just give these quests to us,” Orda said, running a paw over his muzzle beneath the visor of his helmet. He felt only a little ridiculous having a helmet when his head seemed durable enough to repel a crossbow bolt with just a trickle of blood for the trouble, but only a little, it went well with the rest of his armour.

“Our search will take us into the night,” Said Ogre looking to the sky, “And into inclement weather. We will tough it out, I do not plan on stopping until we have slain monsters. Understood?”

The second site was scoured clean. And the third site was in full battle, when they drew close enough to hear it. Though Ogre could hear and see the fighting a full hour before they reached it. The purpose in continuing onward to it, was to help if it was needed or to avenge if the help they offered was too late. They need not bothered. Jeda’s party was systematically destroying a group of froglike beasts with slick looking phosphorescent green and blue skin. The monsters bore pig iron spears and pitted swords, likely looted from adventurers that fell a while ago. Seeing that the otter had it well in paw, Ogre and his party turned tail and searched out another site. This one bore fruit in the form of a pair of Gecko-men guards, standing watch at the entrance to wrought iron sewer grate large enough to admit an Elephantine. The gecko-men were as tall as Vedana, with scaled skin of different hues, and a long powerful tail. Dark liquid eyes that took up most of their lizard like head peered at them with animal cunning and small nostrils on the end of an ovalangular shaped mouth flared as if smelling them. They had pig iron spears, and leather jerkins opened to the front. The two stood on raised stone platforms, while a stream of cloudy water ran between the bars of the gate and between them, tumbling down the incline into a large bowl ditch.

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This is when I’d normally have an archer, or ranged damage dealer attack first, but we don’t have any beast in that role. This is another oversight on my part. Ogre thought, before quietly calling for Xendaranan and Aida to slay the two monsters.

When the two charged, even a full speed, they were too slow to stop one of the monsters, a yellow scaled creature with small red-brown spots and a glossy white belly. It slipped into the mouth of the sewer gate, opening and closing it as soon as the otters were spotted. The Gecko-man left behind was split in two by Aida almost the same time Xendaranan speared it through the eye, too quickly for it to even thrust once more after the first attack against Xendaranan broke the tip of its spear off against the otter’s black iron breastplate with a metallic ‘snap’.

Aida growled, kicking at the metal gate, and making the iron groan, before leaning on her greatsword breathing hard. Ogre looked at her and Xendaranan who was just as tired. The weight of the armour is affecting them more than it affected me when I was level 1. However, they are in no danger with enemies of this level. Drowning would be a higher concern than that. However, they are otters, I’m sure they can drown but their comfort in water would be well above my own. “Rest, Aida and Xendaranan, Orda and Vedana will take point when that Gecko-man returns with the rest of its tribe. How much insight did it give you two?”

“0.6” They both gasped.

Orda sided up close to Ogre. “Captain, perhaps we should relieve ourselves of some of the plate, so that we can be more effective at fighting. As it stands, we will barely be able to slay one of the monsters without fully exhausting our vigor.”

“We can afford to be a little reckless with these monsters, Orda.” Said Ogre, “The armour will protect you well enough that even if you all get tired the weapons that they have will not be able to pierce the plate. We need Cataphract’s discipline for you all, especially if you want to be able to wear heavy armour.”

“Understood.” Orda said, taking out his shield and sword and taking position before Ogre and on one side of the stream of water from the sewer grate.

Vedana posted on the other side of the flowing water in line with the sword and board otter. Ogre spoke to all of them, “These two will take point for now, conserve your vigor but slay the monsters quickly and efficiently, when you are too tired, Aida and Xendaranan will swap positions with Orda and Vedana until they are all slain. I will be healing support, until I run out of healing uses. We will not use vigor elixir unless you are about to die. The same goes for taking off your armour.”

The Gecko-men returned in force. Just like with Troglodytes, the ones guarding the gate were the sort of scouts, lightly armoured with low class weapons. Two score of the monsters returned, most of them with some sort of plate armour, gambeson with iron rings and small plates or full chailmaille shirts and skirts. Their weapons were all pig, scrap, and rarely, plain stout iron; and all of it once again likely scavenged from fallen Inept parties tasked to slay them.

It took a quarter hour, and at least five rounds of position swapping for the party to break the successive charges of the monsters. Red painted the otters and gore slicked the earth and stone about their sabatons, washing away in the flowing water. At the end of the clash Ogre had to block the way back into the sewers to prevent the rest of the Gecko-men from retreating. A champion of the Gecko-men, a monster as tall as Orda, with a pig-iron greatsword, challenged Ogre.

The dog ignored it and called Aida forth to deal with the creature. She finished it with two moves, first blocking its blade with the crosstrees of her black iron greatsword then spearing it through the ribs, through a rent it’s its iron breastplate. Blood, filthy water, and sweat matted the otters’ fur under visors, plate, and chainmail but they were free from wounds. Ogre collected monster gems and monster parts leaving his party to fall tiredly to the earth, to rest where they may. Orda and Aida knelt, both with weapons resting on the earth but still in paw. Xendaranan and Vedana made no effort to even pretend to be vigilant. Ogre frowned at it, but said nothing as he worked. When the dog was done, he spoke to his party. “So, you all should at least be able to raise your levels by one. Do so now and put your extra points into endurance and stamina. I believe that your stats will naturally increase based on how I have you fighting. After you recover by leveling, please follow me as a group, and don’t fall into the water.”

Ogre only waited a heartbeat for them to recover from the powerful emotions associated with leveling before he entered the sewer. The main section went on for several hundred paces, under a section of the Cerulean’s outskirts. Only two branching sewer tunnels got the party’s attention, one of which held a hatch of Gecko-men eggs, under a makeshift mound of thatching and other rubbish to make a large nest. Lesser monster warriors guarded the hatchery, which Ogre left to his party to slay, so that the insight would not be swallowed by his ridiculous amount he needed to level. However, when crushing the eggs, he took point, smashing them with the cleric maces they received from the High Priest. Ogre shuddered at the half-formed gecko-man infants and clenched his massive jaws to keep from being ill. Even after seeing the piles of adventurer tunics and lesser clothing gear used in the nest, it took much effort to see offspring of the gecko-men as vermin as opposed to the fully matured monsters.

The other chamber held a large circular chamber with a foul-smelling adjoining room filled with old piles of leavings, with bones and adventurer tags in them. Ogre completed the unpleasant task of retrieving the tags against the protestations of Orda. When they were done, the dog led them from sewer into a stormy night. The foul dank air of the sewers were washed away by the deluge. However, Ogre did not give them much time to rest.

They completed ten more sewers like the first. Some tunnels held fewer monsters, only a pawful, and others were filled with so many monsters that the battle lasted over two hours. The rain made moving in the armour near the sewage tunnels dangerous and a slip into the water, even for the otters nearly fatal. They fought froglets, that used the watery terrain to their benefit, and Gecko-men who fell easier to their weapons. They were not wounded often but the accumulation of battle, fatigue from wearing the heavy platemail, and the minor cuts and bruises from falls and near drowning weighed heavily on their minds and bodies. They used the lanterns when they entered the sewers to finish off the tribes of vermin monsters. Sometimes the lanterns fell into the rushing sewer water, requiring them to use the extra candles and oil. The otters leveled up to 85, but their stamina and endurance increased at higher rates than even the amount of status points that they put in them could account for. However, by the end of the last sewer dive, the rain exhausted itself and the night grew so deep and so cool that it became uncomfortable with their damp fur and soggy padding. And yet, they did not attain the Cataphract’s Discipline skill.

The party camped outside, beyond the outskirts. It was too wet to make a fire, but the bedrolls were dry and the preserved food more than enough to fill the belly. Ogre took watch the entire night. His excess stamina and endurance allowed him an abundance of energy that the otters could not match even without their cumbersome armour. They fell asleep quickly, slept past the break of dawn, and well into the morning, only stirring when Ogre shook them awake. Ogre ate from his stores of meat as he kept watched, making sure not to eat too quickly, he did not want to raise his fatigue to intolerable levels. Eventually he gained enough weight to reach half a ton. The eating improved his stats in ways that slaying the lesser monsters could not.

Ogre led them to more sewer runs the next day. This day was overcast, a dreary gray that took the heat associated with the season turned it to a cool dampness that was heightened with the wet location of their questing. Having found more uncontested sewer openings during the day, they were able to complete thirty sewer sites. The next day brought forth an additional fifty, though they had to battle well into the night to accomplish the feat. The day after that, they barely managed to complete a dozen or so sites, as there were long battles with far more beasts, in small hoards, despite the effort of questing for even longer than even the previous day. They kept this up for a full week. The otters fought the battles with Ogre leading and ultimately, they slept while he kept watch. It rained on and off for that week, making the sewer waters flow strongly.

Ogre saw the banner and smiled, realizing what was coming as they finished the last site and headed back toward the town gates. Reeking they returned to the Adventurer’s Guild, to bath, resupply and to turn in extermination bounties for the Gecko-men and Froglets. Just as they entered the Adventurer’s Guild, Aida let out an exclamation, followed closely by the others as they revealed they finally received the Cataphract’s Discipline skill. Their armour was still too heavy for them to move normally in it even after that week of fighting and leveling. However, they were used to fighting disadvantaged in one sense, around treacherous terrain that could end them quite easily if they slipped into the overflow channels.

Ogre greeted Bahbrah, barely noticing Cori at the standing desk just inside the foyer of the Main Guild building. The small dog was dressed in gold and pearl white silks, with a pinned back, pale chocolate cape scroll-worked with gold and silver. A shimmering white shirt peaking under a heavily embroidered, striped doublet and breeches, clad his torso and thighs, with knee-high fawn boots, and amber gold buckles above thickly heeled soles. The difference between Cori and Ogre was uncanny; especially with the larger dog’s stained, black iron suite of armour, dripping sewer water, ruddy bits of gore, and mud on the Guild floor.

“When are we going to share another drink, eh ole hound?” Asked Cori, flashing small but sharp white teeth, “I can barely recall the last time, but the night felt wild…and free!”

Ogre snorted, lifting a brow. “Never again. My head ached as if somebeast dropped a building on it when I wasn’t looking. Plus, my party and I have quests to do.”

“Ah…to get filthy with jules?” Cori said, “Is that why you quest, for wealth?”

“I do it to live. To survive.” Said Ogre shrugging. “The next fight is as good a reason to make it through the current one.”

Cori cocked his head to the side, staring at the other dog in a strange way, before his face became morose, “That won’t be enough. With the rate that you are growing, you’ll soon become harder to kill than most monsters. You’ll have to find something else.”

Ogre started to walk away, but he stopped. “I have nothing else. I do not remember a life beyond the Tower. This is all I have.”

Cori was quiet for a moment.

“We should at least share a meal sometime.”

Ogre nodded, “I’m planning on giving my party the day to rest and wash up. Plus, there is something I must do. I’ll need to sleep for a while after I do it…”

The dog paused looking up and to the right at nothing before speaking again,“Food…I guess food is another reason to live, good juicy meats, and delicious sweets.”

The otters that gathered about the dog smiled widely from the shadowed recesses of black helmets with raised visors.

“Oh you have a bit of a gourmand in you, I see.” Said Cori, flashing his quick smile once more. “…And…Why yes, I see you’ve learned to shield yourself from prying eyes. May I ask your level?”

“I am still level 4.”

“I mean your true level,”

Ogre smirked. “I will keep that to myself for now.”

“I’ve spoke to the otter called Jeda and the fox, Lam,” Said Cori, “You will need to be careful around those two. Jeda has reached level 150 and he holds a grudge against you. The last time I saw your stats such power did not matter much. But that otter will wait for his chance. Lam has told me more distressing things. Please do not try to defy a Felidae, Ogre. It will not bode well for you, your party or any beast near you. They rule this land completely. No kitten fears in a kingdom of beasts that might hate it.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about, Coriander.” Said Ogre, turning away and striding to where Bahbrah waited behind the absurdly long reception desk. “I will eat well for lunch. And you can join us at midday if you wish. I might even toast half tankard to our recent successes.”

“Greetings Adventurers,” Said Bahbrah, “I see that you have been fighting in the sewers. Do you have any monster gems to turn in for a bounty?”

Aida strolled up to the desk and leaned a filthy vambrace and couter on the polished wood, staining and scratching the surface, before speaking, “We have hoards of them.”

Ogre abruptly noticed how tall she had grown. Aida was easily taller than Glaeddra now and the closest to the dog’s new height after the days of careful gorging. The others, though they had not grown as quickly as the greatsword-wielder were equal or better in height than the previous second in command of the old Otter Ford. Ogre rested a gauntlet on Aida’s pauldron, pulling her back from ruining the desk further.

“We do have a rather large number of gems.” The dog said to Bahbrah before turning to his party, “However, I figured out something while keeping guard when we camped outside. After slaying the gremlin, I received some rewards that I did not take the time to check, after…you all know…losing so many to those monsters…It was hard to think about loot at the time.”

The party’s faces grew solemn, but Orda sided up next to Ogre, speaking, “What did you find out?”

“I was gifted with a schematic for making special rings. Judging by the description it can enhance certain stats and even gift beasts with skills that they normally could not learn.”

“Where was this, when we were trudging through grimy water for days trying to get Cataphract’s Discipline?” Xendaranan snorted, he elbowed Vedana to get her to agree with him, when no one responded he dropped his nose in embarrassment. Vedana scowled at him, and then rapped the top of his helmet with her gauntlet.

“Careful,” She snapped.

Ogre responded to the spear-wielding otter, “Cataphract’s Discipline was for your benefit mainly. However, the monsters there were too inferior to challenge us to refine our battle tactics, the added challenge of full plate for you all forced us to come up with creative ways to deal with the enemy. It was the best and most efficient way to use the lower rank quests to our benefit, while staying relatively safe.”

Bahbrah spoke up suddenly. “I’m sorry, we as representatives of Adventurer’s Guild Reception, usually do not pry more than we need to into the inner workings of a party, however, I must advise caution. Powerful monsters do slay many beasts; however, it is the underestimation of lesser monsters and environs that usually result in party-wipes. That is the total annihilation of a party. Deliberately placing hooficaps on one’s party members just because you assume a monster is not challenging enough is dangerous. And after that, you have no need to sleep rough. Cerulean is so close and your quests barely take up more than a few hours from a gate. Plus, even if you finish late, the outskirts have living accommodations much better than bedrolls, you are sure to get better rest than sleeping on the hard ground.”

Ogre growled slowly, feeling anger seep into his words. “I am not hindered by my armour, and my strength is great enough to overwhelm an unaided Master-at-arms. I will not suffer them to die when I can so easily lend a paw. Plus, you knowingly gave us quests well below our ability. Hardship and risks now, is the only intelligent way to progress before our enemies become too strong to take those risks. Or worse yet force those hinderances upon us.”

Bahbrah set her jaw and folded her forelegs across her chest, before softening after a moment of thought. “I…I don’t like your tone, it is rude! But you are making some points, that hint at thought behind what seems like rash decisions. Still, you were sent to the Sewers, in full cognizance of your potential, because there were parties…that…did…not…return…from…there, understood? Please be careful.”

Ogre growled again and opened his mouth to retort, but Orda stepped up, cutting the dog off, “We understand, Guild Receptionist, and we thank you for your concern. Our survival is of upmost importance to our captain and leader.”

Aida stepped up to the desk again, pointed a metal finger at the sheep, “…Yeah, be careful about what you insinuate about our Captain…you were not there when he saved our hides…slaying that weird goblin after it tore through our bevy like a steel cleaver through wet parchment.”

Vedana sided up next to Aida, gently pulling her back, but she gave Bahbrah a glare as she did. Bahbrah nodded, voice flat, “How many monster gems for the Vermin Bounty? I’m sure you are aware, that lesser vermin like Froglets and Gecko-men are 10 copper jules per gem, Giant Roaches, Rats, Spiders, and Bugs are 25 to a 100.”

“I am aware.” Ogre lied feeling his nose grow hot. Fifty gold would have made that week-long torment a lot more fulfilling than five gold jules. “I’d like to turn in 4050 gems, all either Froglet or Gecko-men.”

“Yes.” Said Bahbrah.

Ogre received payment and led his party to the smithy where they were given a special solution to clean the armour, including the gambeson underneath, oil the plate and give it to the smiths to repair. He then spoke to the aged carcajou Laft about whom he could take the ring schematic to have his rings crafted.

Laft pulled on a thick chain attached to wenches that held one of the largest would-be blades Ogre had ever seen. Laft used the system of chain and monstrous pliers to drop the glowing white-orange chunk of metal on a great anvil, as two beasts, the Elephantine and another wolverine that Ogre did not know, pounded it with oddly shaped hammers. He roared over the sounds of ringing metal. “Itemsmith or Gemsmith can do it. If you leave it here with me, I can see that it gets to the right beast. It will require soulweight, you might need to go to the Heroic Exchange to ask one of those Godlion-forsaken foxes to help you in that.”

“Not…necessary.” Said Ogre, recalling the odd behavior of that old fox, and his thinly veiled threats. “So can I leave these with you? I would like as many of the most powerful rings, that can be made with these monster gems.”

The status Archaia, dumped the monster gems he called from his inventory into a large metal bowl, that looked only half finished. Laft looked at the mound of dark green gems then at Ogre, speaking, “Did you get the Ore and chopped wood yet?”

“Not yet.” Said Ogre leaving his party’s and his armour behind as they made their way to the bath and finally to the Great Dining Hall.