“I am sorry that the welcoming committee is not as grand as you normally get, sir,” Aloy said, being polite as she could be. The Giant by the name of Moshu towered over her. Even the tallest of the guards would have barely reached his shoulders when standing on their toes. The hunter had to wonder how they were going to get the man anywhere he could sleep.
“It is quite alright, esteemed guard,” the giant answered, taking out his hand to shake the woman. It was done with a light press, the larger one knowing of his size and ability to crush the other if he wanted to. “I see that this place is rather… new. Am I to guess that you have only recently begun surveying the Dungeon?”
“We had a full search done of it two days ago, sir,” Aloy answered, not one to miss the slight criticism of the outpost’s state. Not that she would be correcting him about its decor, however. Nobody had liked the current sight, except for the rather sturdy fences. “The [Warden] of the nearby prison settlement took it upon himself to get the Dungeon’s details written down.”
“A man of my taste, I see. It always is best to have the truth shown before your very eyes,” the merchant commented upon hearing Aloy’s words. The guards within earshot perked up at that. A little more than a certain leader wanted them to. “And what a high rank for a region. Am I to suspect that he has returned to his civic duties?”
“Indeed, sir,” Aloy confirmed with a small nod. “While there was a desire to stay for longer, the position of [Warden] does not allow one to stay away from the prison for long. The organisation of the Dungeon and its nearby areas has instead been entrusted to me and a few people in the prison-hierarchy.”
The hunter did her best to keep up the direct eye contact, even if it was rather hard to bend her head upwards for such long periods. The man was more than double her height and his presence was equal to that. Even with the guards nearby, she knew that death couldn’t be avoided if an escalation came forth. The hint of an Aura nearby confirmed that the giant was using more than mere [Trinkets] to ensure his safety.
“How great an honour that must be!” Moshu said with excitement clear in his voice. Turning his back to the woman, he trampled back to the front wagon, bringing out a larger set of papers. “I have not fully been able to prepare the paperwork for temporary, with a chance of permanent, settlement in the nearby area but I do hope that one of your highly-skilled scribes might be able to help. With the Dungeon still in such an infantile state, I do believe that we can both gain much if agreements were to be preplanned.”
Aloy was handed the very large waft of papers, papers which had been made to be handled by Giants and certainly not humans and granted the privilege of looking upon the words longer than most she had ever been seen before. She made a few slow nods as her eyes flew across the pages, not understanding a single word but acting as if she did, before signalling for one of the guards to come over and take over for her.
“I will make sure that we can agree to lunch,” the hunter assured the man, knowing full well that some amount of bickering would have to be made. Even if the woman had no real ability to read those words, she knew they weren’t made to make them equal. “However, I do have a question or two to ask before we allow your caravans inside.”
While the Hunter had left the shielding of the fence, the main entrance had certainly not been opened. Doing such a thing purely for foot traffic was one of the dumbest things one could do when meeting unknowns. The Prison had it open near-constantly, yes, yet that was due to one being able to spot anybody within three kilometres. Here in the forest, there were hardly fifty metres before one had to question their sight.
“What do you need to know? The rides themselves are enchanted with [Featherweights], I have a few of those stacked on my seat for reasons you might guess yourselves to, there are a few [Anti-Thievery] tricks on some of them, and finally, I have a general load of cargo which I was hoping to sell in the coming weeks. It’s mostly general supplies, food, and a few tools which I hear some of the newer folk might appreciate in the coming days.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
The last one forced the woman into raising an eyebrow yet she did not question it, instead of looking over the first couple of caravans. While not obvious to the common eye, the etchings on the wheels made it clear they had been readied for turning quite quickly. Even without anything carrying them forward, the hunter was reasonable they could reach twice the speed of her running at her highest output. And while the thin walls of fabric looked soft, a knife would surely have trouble getting through them. Yet even with those observations, there was still one detail that needed to be cleared up. It wasn’t one based around food or gear but on living beings. A lot of living, breathing entities, some of which were looking quite anxious to get out of their seats.
“I was hoping you could explain the… thirty or so people you have down there,” Aloy answered, nodding towards the larger horde of people sitting very cramped. The guard that had taken her from inside the outpost had reported there being no kids on board yet some of the so-called adults were looking rather young. If they weren’t eighteen, they were certainly no older than twenty. “While my experience is limited with merchants like you, I was not under the thought that you had so many personnel.”
Guards? Those were a given for one with so many wagons to pull along. The men on horses close by might have looked rather weak but Aloy knew that most could overpower any guard the prison had at its disposal. She and Alexios likely had a fair chance due to experience alone but some of the newer men would perish before they realised where a sword was going towards.
“Those are mostly strays. Not sure where most of them are from, if I have to be honest with you,” Moshu started with a lower tone as if the giant wasn’t happy about it either. “The first dozen are from the village. They’d heard about the discovery as well and wanted in through the safest possible passage. The rest? We met nearly all of them along the way, some deeper in than others. Most were ready to head back but the wagons driving by were enough for them to drive on. I wanted to bill them for the transport but few seem to have enough money for even the simplest of fares. Yet now that we are on that topic, I believe it wouldn’t hurt if you could get me a list of their names. Anybody who survives until next month should have more than enough to play with.”
Aloy had to look at the [Merchant] in the eyes again just to accept what she had heard coming out of his mouth. This wasn’t the friendly neighbourhood [Giant] but a man who had wrestled his way up to the position of power he had today. Making the poor pay was just another way of getting his money’s worth. Was that cruel? Not especially, no. Would the woman still remember it? Yes.
“You are in luck with your request, sir. Mandates state that we need all names before we can allow talks of residency,” Aloy started with a fluent tongue, using the hatch that she had practised while sitting in those trees for hours on end. “Our policy dictates that we need to know approximate power levels and skill specialisations of all personnel for emergencies. I hope this will not be troubling.”
“It will be no trouble at all!” the giant assured her. “I’ll have my man line up and get their statements out of the way and then we can get all of those people carried through as well. In the meantime, I believe I have a few notes to get down before entry.”
“Perfectly understandable, good sir,” Aloy said. Giving the larger man a nod, she readied herself from vacating the area and making sure the [Scribe] hadn’t drink himself to death in the last couple of hours. “Is there anything else I can help you with before I take my leave?”
“Nothing too large, really,” Moshu said as he started to turn heel as well. Aloy did the same until… “Although, I do have one question. This Dungeon of yours. Has it been showing signs of expansion in the last few days?”
“It has not, no,” the Hunter answered, detecting a very good reason for such a type of question. “Why do you ask?”
“I have been feeling a peculiar force out from the river in the direction of the Dungeon. Since we haven’t been attacked, I must presume that the Core inside is trying to grow its influence. Was your last expedition inside filled with death?”
The hunter glanced at the river, knowing that a group was inside the Dungeon at that very moment. It was a group she was meant to have been in as well but had skipped so her foot could heal in peace. Yet… what had happened?
“I haven’t gotten reports of such things but I do promise to look into it,” Aloy assured the giant who responded with a nod. “If that is everything, I believe I have matters to attend to.”
“Don’t we all,” Moshu said with a hint of wisdom. “Take care.”
Leaving in hurried steps, the Hunter had two things on the agenda. Make sure the new people were met with thorough searches to not allow any [Shapeshifters] inside and make very sure that an entire group of people inside the Dungeon hadn’t just met their death. The procedure for making sure the first issue was stopped was easy, yet the latter was troubling. How many could she afford to send in?
It was a problem for the future Hunter. For now, she needed to get inside the guards’ building to find a chair. Her foot was aching like nothing else.