S22, A Exciting Quest

It had been some time since our battle against the reptids, summer was in full swing, and every time we walked under the sun we ended up drenched in sweat inside our leather armor.

We had had more than an earful from an enraged Instructor Remme for adventuring so deep into the dungeon. He had drawn a big circle in Terence’s map and told us not to take a single step out of it. He had also made us pay for the repairs of our weapons and armor. He didn’t make us pay immediately but added the costs to the fine for messing the tavern, it was quite a sum. We would have to keep saving money if we wanted our iron plates.

Once we recovered from our injuries he had made us train nonstop for a whole week. Every morning we swung and thrust our shields and spears until we felt that our arms were about to fall off.

As for my debt to my companions, I hadn’t been able to settle it. Stroud had ignored me every time I talked about the matter. Terence, Falnid, and Bolton had also refused any kind of compensation and had told me that I was being too stubborn, but I still felt responsible and kept the money I got from that expedition with me.

“Uh? What’s happening there?” Falnid pointed at the guild’s main building.

There were a lot of trainees in front of the door, this explained why the training grounds had been deserted when we passed by some moments ago. Even in the evening, there were always some trainees practicing.

“Maybe some cool adventurers came, like those we saw that time,” Falnid continued with an excited tone.

“I doubt it, that’s too much of a fuss. Unless it’s someone famous,” Terence replied.

“Oh! Do you think Niall came? Or Dergaust? I would be happy if it was just one of their party members.” Bolton really idolized famous adventurers, I had learned quite a few new names thanks to him.

“Well, we will know soon enough, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up, we are in the middle of nowhere,” Terence said.

We pushed our way through the multitude and got inside the guild. Once inside we saw that the uproar had something to do with the bulletin board and kept walking towards the counters in the back, where there was some free space.

“Hey, hello guys. How did your task go?” Stroud and his companions came out of the crowd to greet us.

“Hi, Stroud. We had some problems finding enough monsters, but we got it all in the end,” Terence answered.

“Good for you. I think we ran out of luck when we found that palemoss.”

“So, what’s the fuss about?”

“I knew you would ask that. They are planning a big raid, you see. Someone came to the training grounds with the news. Everything is written on the quest sheet.”

“They put up a quest sheet? They didn’t announce anything?” Terence asked with a dubious expression and focused his gaze on the bulletin board.

“Not yet, the paper only says it’s gonna be a raid in a kobold settlement and they will be recruiting trainees for it. The pay is nothing to scoff at!” Stroud exclaimed. “Someone asked the receptionists before and they said they will be telling us the details tomorrow.”

“Oh, how much?,” Falnid chimed in.

“It says rewards begin at five tiny silvers per head, depending on your role.”

“Interesting. Does it say how many trainees they are recruiting?” Terence inquired.

“No, it only says the instructors and the Grey Hound’s guild will be participating.”

“Hmm, interesting,” Terence murmured. “It seems it’s going to be quite the big event.”

“Yeah, easy money, we will join,” Bert chimed in.

Stroud’s group talked a bit more with us before leaving. I barely said anything, I still felt too awkward in their presence.

“Terence! We should join too,” Falnid said pulling Terence’s arm. “Maybe we can ask Anne to register us beforehand,” he added whispering close to Terence’s ear.

Falnid’s impatience wasn’t without reason. Lately, we had been unable to take on a couple of profitable quests with limited spots. I took a look at the bulletin board, at least two tasks had been taken off it since this morning.

“No. We need to discuss it first,” Terence replied pushing Falnid away with his arm.

“Oh, c’mon. You know we will decide to join. Look at Simon’s face.”

‘Uh?’ I abruptly turned my head towards them. “I was just taking a look at the other quests!”

Falnid and Terence gave me an unconvinced look. “Well, whatever the case, we should finish our business first. The time for selling parts is about to end,” Terence changed the topic. “We can discuss the raid after dinner.”

We approached the counter. We had come here to deliver some monster parts from a task.

“Hello trainees, can I help you with something?” Anne’s speech had gotten more casual, but her radiant smile was the same as always.

“Yes, Miss Anne, we wanted to exchange monster parts for a quest reward,” Terence told her.

Bolton and I put some monster parts on the counter. They were three pelts from dungeon dogs. The task to gather them was one of the most difficult ones posted right now and we could repeat it as much as we wanted.

We had chosen it because most trainees weren’t yet at the level where they could take them on, so there was little competition but despite that, the ones in the corridors had been mostly hunted down and we had had to scout the caves in search of more.

Terence got all business-like with Miss Anne. Most of the time he was the one that took care of negotiations at the counter. He and Miss Anne had gotten very close, and the same could be told about the other guild receptionists.

“So, Miss Anne, can you tell us something more about the raid?” Terence asked with his friendliest smile.

Miss Anne looked around and after making sure no one was close she told us, “I can only share with you a few details, but it seems this kobold settlement has been bothering the guild for a long time.”

“Oh, how come?” Terence asked leaning on the counter.

“Apparently there are more than a hundred kobolds living there and they have trained a lot of dungeon dogs,” Miss Anne whispered close to his ear.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

More than a hundred kobolds? That was a sizable settlement, during the lecture they had given us before the kobold ears quest they had mentioned most tribes had around two to three dozen members.

“I see. Thank you, Miss Anne, you are the best,” Terence told her with a radiant smile.

…

Later that night, after a more than unpleasant dinner we arrived at our bedroom.

“Ugh, that food is gonna kill my tongue, I swear it! Why can’t we eat in the tavern?” Falnid asked. “Even some meat skewers would do.”

“We need to pay the fine and the repairs, remember?” Terence replied.

“We already have more than enough,” Falnid pouted.

“I would like to save up some more, just in case. Also, we still have to buy the new equipment.”

After the reptids battle, we had discussed countermeasures against big monster groups. We had come up with a few ideas, like burning oil, spreading a powerful monster's urine, and scattering caltrops around.

Each one had its caveats. We didn’t know if fire would be effective. Using monster urine worked in the mountains, my father had taught me that trick, so I was pretty sure it would also work in the dungeon, but to get it we had first to kill a powerful monster. A varan would do, but I wasn’t very eager to collect its fluids.

In the end, after asking Instructor Remme for his opinion, we had more or less decided we would buy a bunch of caltrops. The problem was that they were pricey, a few copper coins a piece, so to buy the number we were planning we needed at least two silver coins.

“Ugh. You are right.” Falnid had been the one most excited about the caltrops. He had told us they would be a nice addition to his pouch of powders and baits.

“Good, then, about the kobold settlement raid, what do you think?” Terence asked.

“We can’t miss it, absolutely not!” Falnid said vehemently.

“Simon?” Terence said focusing his gaze on me.

“Well, I’m a bit worried. If what Miss Anne said is accurate it’s gonna be a big battle, last time we almost died for underestimating the shrill reptids.” The last thing I wanted was to get my companions in danger again.

“I was thinking the same. I don’t feel comfortable fighting a horde of monsters,” Terence said with a thoughtful expression.

“No! We will be fine! We are going alongside the instructors.” Falnid insisted on joining.

“Falnid has a point,” Terence said. “Not only is the reward good, but we will also be able to see the instructors in action.”

“Yeah, I wanna see Marcus kicking those kobolds!” Falnid exclaimed throwing a couple of punches at an imaginary enemy.

“Instructor Marcus? Not Instructor Remme?”

“He was really cool when he smashed those Grey Hounds’ adventurers in the tavern,” Falnid explained.

“I see, hmm, I wonder how many of them will be in the raid. Marcus just came back from a long expedition in the dungeon. There is a possibility he won’t participate, as for the others… it’s difficult to tell.”

“I wonder if my uncle will participate,” I interjected. Seeing Uncle in action had been a dream of mine for a long time.

“Oh, yes. He is a silver plate, right?” Terence asked.

“Yes. He traveled all around the dungeon when he was younger. Every time he visited our house he would tell me some stories about his adventures.”

“Oh! Tell us some!” Falnid requested.

“Hmm, I don’t know,” I hesitated. I had never told a story to anyone before. I didn’t even know which one I should tell.

“Please!” Falnid pleaded with big eyes.

“… Hmm, let me see… This is one of Uncle’s favorites… It’s not set in the dungeon, thought…”

“Does it have a monster? If it has I don’t mind.”

“Alright, then… One time Uncle and his companions were having a break in a city in Nordmarshen. They were in a town that had a dungeon entrance called Sniegat, I think… Anyway, they were having breakfast in a tavern when a man wearing rags entered and began begging the adventurers inside for their help slaying a beast.” I started telling the tale with some hesitance.

“Everyone ignored him because he had no money to offer,” I continued. “But my uncle took pity on him and offered to at least hear his story. Turns out this nearby village had been hit by a flood for the third time that year. The folks were desperate and had decided the cause of the disaster was their local guardian deity’s foul mood, so to appease it they chose to offer the man’s son, a young boy, as a sacrifice.”

“In case you don’t know many people in the northern countries worship long-living beasts,” I explained. “Uncle asked the man about their guardian deity and discovered that this one was a monster from the dungeon, a giant walrus.”

“Wait, a monster? What’s a monster doing out of the dungeon?” Terence interrupted me.

“I was getting there. The man told Uncle that when he was a child this priest had offered to move this giant walrus onto the beach near the village to keep at bay some sea serpents that would crawl out of the water in the misty mornings looking for food.”

“A priest?” Terence interrupted again.

“Well, I don't know… Maybe it was a tamer…” Uncle was also not clear on this part. Sometimes it was a priest, sometimes a tamer, and others it was a mysterious person.

Terence didn’t seem convinced by my vague explanation, but I ignored him and continued.

“Whatever, Uncle and his companions were enraged to hear that these villagers were going to sacrifice a child to a monster and rushed to the village alongside the man. After arriving they saw the giant walrus approaching the tied boy on the beach while the rest of the villagers looked from afar. Seeing the imminent danger, Uncle ran towards them, and just before the monster could eat the child, he thrust his spear into the walrus' stomach. The beast flinched, but it wasn’t dead. It did not even look to be seriously injured and Uncle’s spear was now stuck in its belly.”

“At this moment Uncle’s companions caught up with him. One took the boy and the other two helped him fight the giant walrus. Uncle took out his blue iron sword and slashed at the monster. He wounded it several times, but the injuries would just close back in a matter of moments. Even so, the monster was enraged. It swept its tail and rolled around trying to catch them. The fight was getting dangerous and to make things worse the villagers had started to run towards them to help their guardian deity.”

“Uncle and his friends could have chosen to run at that moment. They had already rescued the kid after all, but that wouldn’t prevent other children from suffering the same fate. Uncle couldn’t leave things like that, so with his sword held high he jumped onto the walrus, ran up its back, and before the monster could react sank his sword on top of its head,” I said putting my hands together and imitating the downwards strike.

“Wow!” Falnid exclaimed. At least he was enjoying my story.

“With the monster dead, Uncle made a couple of cuts to free his spear and all ran away from the mad residents. It was a difficult escape, but everyone made it back in one piece. Once the enraged folk that had pursued them all the way to Sniegat arrived they were stopped by the guards and couldn’t get in.”

“And the town guards didn’t detain your uncle and his companions?” Terence asked with a dubious expression. “I heard northerners take their guardian deities very seriously. It wouldn’t be the first time they sentence adventurers to death for killing one.”

“By the time the town guard heard the villagers’ story and went searching for them Uncle had already bribed a mage to get three plates for the family and were on their way to Lindvendi.”

“Oh, I see. So your uncle smuggled the family into another country through the dungeon, clever. It has to be a lot easier to avoid pursuers in the caves.”

“Yes, they had some difficulties along the way, but nothing worth mentioning.”

“That was incredible, tell us another story!” Falnid cheered as he pulled my sleeve.

“Uh, well. Maybe tomorrow.”

“Yeah, it’s gotten late. Let’s go to sleep,” Terence agreed.

“Uh?” Falnid pouted. “At least tell me what’s the strongest monster your uncle has killed.”

“Hmm, he has killed a lot of them, including some dungeon guardians. But he did that during raids alongside many adventurers, so I don’t know if they count… From those he finished personally the strongest, one would probably be the irregular gelid phythere he fought in the Upper Dungeon. That winged serpent had a pattern of red lines on its body and its gelid breath would tinge everything it touched in a crimson color that rotted the flesh.”

“Oh! You have to tell me more about that!”

“That’s enough for today, Falnid. Let Simon sleep.”

“Alright, tomorrow. Don’t forget it.”

I crawled under the sheets and closed my eyes. I could tell Terence was a bit more interested to participate in the raid after hearing Uncle’s story while Falnid had been obviously excited about it from the beginning. The only one who seemed reluctant was Bolton, the big boy hadn’t said a word since we had entered our room and began talking about it.

‘He probably doesn’t want us to join.’

Bolton had been more quiet than normal since our battle with the reptids. He hadn’t voiced it, but I knew he didn’t approve of some of the tasks we had picked as of late. This time it would be probably the same, he wouldn’t say a word and just go along with the rest of us.

‘Should I say something?’

I was feeling a bit guilty about making him take on tasks he didn’t want to, but none of them had been really risky, and the raid, with the instructors participating, would be the same.

‘He is just feeling insecure, so in a way, we are helping him confront his fears.’

I was aware it was a poor excuse to appease myself, but it helped me fall asleep. In the end, we would not make a decision on the raid until we knew all the details.