33

The Dungeon Loot

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Darkness was something humanity had always wished to conquer. The invention of fire, as a tool for progress, also served to push the oppressive nothingness away. And following this, humanity’s ingenuity had developed different sources of light throughout its history.

But even just the light of a simple streetlight was a safety they had taken for granted as only a memory of this sense of comfort was left. A comfort of knowing what was hiding in the dark.

In the light of flames, a young man sat protected from this oppressive darkness as multiple campfires were burning in an encirclement around the church.

But his eyes stared far into the distance. While only the edge of the town square could be seen, the silhouettes of the buildings were still visible in the moonlight.

‘The moon… I wish…’

The last words of the Goblin Ruler kept ringing in his ears. They were words he had forgotten until just now.

‘How come I didn’t notice,’ Alduin thought. Only now, after seeing the dungeon cave again did he finally see a connection, the night sky had returned but he didn’t know what it meant. But he felt it instinctively. ‘There’s something I’m missing’.

A whimper rang from his side.

“…Hati,” Alduin said as he looked over. “Do you like your name?”

The small wolf looked at him before promptly ignoring him.

“Should I tell her you don’t like it?” Alduin whispered, “Maybe you want another bath?” he felt annoyed at this little wolf’s attitude.

Panic was visible, as far as a small wolf could show, as it pushed its eyes open.

“Hmm,” Veleda rubbed her eyes. “Did I fall asleep?” She stretched her arms but the cold made her snuggle back into her clothes.

It was already halfway into November, the frost was only a prelude to what was to come.

“It’s time to head inside,” Alduin stood up. “They’re already clearing all the tables. The gates will close in a bit.” Alduin looked at Veleda before smiling.

“What about the fires?” Veleda asked.

“We’re all heading inside, there’s no need to keep them going much longer.” Alduin pulled her to his side as he threw the last logs onto the glowing embers.

Whatever the case, without the protection they were used to, the night had once again become an enemy they weren’t prepared to face. The last fires would at least allow them to notice if something approached the town square or not.

And with Veleda at his side, they walked through the maze of wooden tables than now littered the square in front of the church.

“You can take Hati with you, I’m going to check up on Gramps for a bit,” Alduin said. “Right. Hati, listen closely to her.” A threatening voice said to the small white wolf.

“Don’t be mean to him,” Veleda laughingly said, “You’ll follow, won’t you, Hati?”

The small wolf looked at the two before its tail wiggled and it strutted after Veleda, knowing this young maiden would reward it in just a moment from now.

Alduin stared at both of them with a small smile, but the moment she left, the words from the Goblin Ruler once more lingered in his mind. ‘Choice?,’ Alduin thought, ‘what did you see?’

He had no idea what it meant, he didn’t even know if he remembered all it had said near the end of its life. But Alduin had an inkling, if there was anything they could find out, it could only be based on the clues they uncovered. And luckily for them, the dungeon wasn’t as empty as they assumed it would be.

Alduin’s steps alerted the people gathered around a table, only slightly removed from the others. A small blazing fire kept the cold at a distance.

“Did you eat enough?” A heavy voice asked the young man.

“I’m not hungry…” Alduin replied. A complex expression painted his face as he looked back at Edward.

Edward sighed, after they had returned from the dungeon he hadn’t had much of an appetite either. “At least eat the portion they prepared for you, this might become a long night.”

Everything was being organized, from their resources to the reclamation of their town as well as their direction to move forwad. Now, they needed to strictly watch over any finite resource they had left. For all they knew, they were on their own from this moment on.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“I’ll grab something in a bit,” Alduin replied, his eyes glancing at the people gathered around the table. All people were wearing complex expressions, but two, in particular, stood out.

Dahlia and Werner. Veleda’s mother and father, now surrounded the table as the two archaeologists of this town. It seemed like they had finally shared their important findings.

“To think there would be something like this hidden,” Werner said. His thoughts were long removed from the sights duing their rescue efforts, his eyes were deadly focused on the object in front of him.

‘Right.’ Alduin already knew what had happened.

“What do we do now?” Lucas asked the group.

Silence descended. Everything they had gathered in the dungeon was gathered and sorted here. Cores, weapons, and-

Artifacts.

There were several artifacts they managed to retrieve. And one of them lay in the middle of the table. A thick golden tablet, something that would have been invaluable only three weeks or so ago. It was this golden tablet that people were now staring at.

“We can’t even be certain of what it represents, can we?” Someone who had helped in their retrieval efforts now asked with nervousness.

“No, we can’t,” Dahlia, Veleda’s mother, now spoke up. “But we can be certain that it has only just begun.” Of the couple, her knowledge of archeology seemed to be even more relevant than Werner’s in what they faced.

A golden plaque, A golden tablet, whatever they categorized it as was not important. What was important was what it showed. A broken net, and something, something unknown, crawling through the cracks in the sky.

‘It can’t be that right?’ Alduin looked up at the sky. The night allowed the network of roots to shine brighter than during the day, but still, they were far from comparable to the moonlight.

“Isn’t it too vague?” The voice replied in annoyance, the stress had been piling up.

“What do you think it is?” Dahlia asked back.

“That-“

“Right, you don’t know either,” Dahlia said, her playful side which she showed during Veleda’s birthday had long since disappeared. “What we do is connect the clues we have gathered. And right now it points us in a single direction.” Her eyes landed on Alduin.

Alduin stared back in silence, he had been lost in his thoughts. ‘Right, it’s about time I mention it.’

“The situation is worse than we can imagine,” Alduin started speaking with a serious expression. He thought back to the first night, the night when the sky fractured for the first time.

“A single red shard landed in the forest behind the museum.” Alduin paused. “The same place where that dungeon emerged.”

“We already know that,” An old man spoke up. His expression seemed to disapprove of Alduin, a young man, being here.

“What do you think happened to places where a cluster of those shards landed?” Alduin hadn’t had the time to clearly gather his thoughts but he assumed the worst-case scenario. “It should have been clear, even if you didn’t witness it yourself, the last broadcast should have shown a clear picture of what was happening.”

Silence descended once more, those that entered the dungeon with him already knew about his assumption, but still, the weight of his words was heavy.

Lucas seemed to be the most affected, he was already prepared for this news, but Alduin could hear his breathing increase. ‘If this is true, then Egan and Alessia…’ Alduin’s thoughts also became chaotic. But still, he continued.

“Now, the important part,” Alduin spoke up. The small group of people stared as Alduin picked up a long object from the table.

“That’s not a spear is it?” Bob, the shield bearer, asked Alduin.

“No, it’s a branch.” Alduin pondered. “Or more like a thorn?” An ash grey spike laid in his hand, straight as an arrow. Right, they were the original material used for the goblin’s arrows.

Alduin held the thorn, which was taller than him, to his side. The grip tightened yet the wood seemed stronger than the metal of his earlier spear. And with a swing of his arm, the air rumbled in resistance. Only a single move and the sharp tip had pierced into the stone pavement.

“What I mean to say is,” Alduin said, “It doesn’t matter if our assumption is right or wrong. The world has changed, and this is our only way forward.”

The strength he displayed was inhuman. The seriousness of his expression validated his words. There was no use in arguing with a person who had personally taken the next step forward.

“Listen,” Dahlia spoke up again. “Normal conventions don’t work anymore. From now on we’ll make every decision believing in the worst-case scenario.”

Her decisiveness rivaled the late Alphons, and Edward fully supported her findings.

“The inscription on that golden plaque,” Dahlia said, “We’ll assume it’s not about the event we witnessed and we'll assume it's waiting for us.” The etched markings, the network in the heavens bending sideways with a massive crack in the middle. “If we want to survive we have no choice but to head for the direction everything is pointing us to.”

And Dahlia pointed to the table once more. “Which brings us to our main point.”

Plenty of materials, items, and artifacts lay in front of them. “We will focus on the materials gathered on this table, Werner.”

Werner nodded and continued, “These unknown metals especially, they aren’t categorized-“

Alduin stood there listening, but his thoughts once more clouded his mind. The gray thorn he held in his hand held back the grip that increased in strength.

‘Right,’ Alduin stared at the heavens, the Goblin Ruler's final expression flashed through his eyes. ‘This is not the end.’ The chaotic inscription, something that eluded every observer, was now pushed to the back of his mind. For there was something else that piqued his interest even more.

An artifact that was already hidden inside the church. The most important item they had found inside the dungeon was the bark of a tree, a shining golden colour, inscribed with unknown runes. The energy Alduin felt from it completely resonated with him, yet at the same time, the elusive presence of that object seemed to hide from his gaze.

Alduin stopped staring at the moon, and just like how the people here were deciding their future, so had Alduin come to an answer. ‘I know how to move forward.’

The weapons he found and was planning to equip.

The wooden thorn that would replace his spear.

The white pup they decided to take with them.

And lastly, the cores that changed their fates.

Alduin was waiting on one more thing before he could take his final step.

The darkness of the night blanketed the earth. The lights in people’s homes, which resembled the stars in the sky, had disappeared.

Yet, in some way, the combination of the moonlight intertwined with the gently glowing network of fractures, made the darkness seem slightly less oppressing.

And in this night, where light broke through the darkness, someone opened their eyes.