Sunlight intruded into the room through one large window, illuminating the bed, desk, chair, a small fireplace, and a sleeping Pier underneath the sheets of the bed. His eyes struggled to open as he regained consciousness. Hm? What happened to that purple-eyed thing? Was it a dream?–Pier thought as he slowly sat up, hanging his legs off the side of the bed.
“Wait…How did I end up here?” Pier questioned out loud, though he didn’t get much time to properly muddle through his thoughts before he heard a knocking on the door. On the other side of the door, Lyos was waiting for Pier to come out.
“Pier, are you awake? If not I’ll be coming in and dragging you out of bed~” Pier quickly got up from the bed and opened the door, finding Lyos with her staff pointed at the door.
“W-What were you about to do?”
“Nothing,” Lyos said as she turned away and expelled her staff, “We’re about to have breakfast by the way.” Upon hearing this, Pier picked up his pace to catch up to Lyos who had already started walking away. Descending down a flight of stairs, Pier found a room bustling with people. With tables, chairs, and a counter where drinks were being served, he knew exactly what kind of an establishment this was.
“Welcome to the Bronze Flare, the tavern here in Ivell. The Guild quite likes to fund taverns in turn for acting as a place for Adventurers to relax and rest until their next request. Though nobody is sure why they fund specifically taverns, some people think it was a policy made by the Guild’s founder that the other Guildmasters haven’t tried to change out of a sense of tradition. Regardless, taverns are an essential part of every Adventurers’ career so I don’t think they’ll be changing that anytime soon.” As Pier watched the Adventurers clad in varying forms and colors of armor come and go, he spotted Ser and Gourd casually conversing. Spotting both Pier and Lyos, Ser waved over the two from the table he was sitting at.
“Good morning, are you feeling alright?” Ser asked once Pier and Lyos were within earshot, “The way you passed out last night took us all by shock.”
“Hm? Passed out?” Pier inquired.
The Previous Night
The night was silent, the sky clear, and the full moon shone with a gentle yet dazzling light. Through the countless trees and bushes, two torches remained lit and weaved through the countless trees. Ser held one torch in the front followed by Pier, Lyos, and Gourd holding another torch in the back. They walked for Ivell, coming from the camp where they had previously rested the unconscious Pier. The forest was silent with its only sounds being that of Pier’s and others footsteps, and the occasional whirring of seemingly invisible insects. As Pier walked, he found his vision losing focus, and his ability to walk impaired. His mind wandered, and his speech became sluggish.
“Pier, are you okay?” Lyos asked, being the first to notice his slowing movements. With no response from Pier, Lyos quickened her pace to catch up. Coming within arm’s reach, Lyos reached out and tapped Pier on the shoulder. However, instead of turning, Pier simply collapsed onto the ground. Afterwards, Ser and Gourd had to carry Pier all the way to Ivell and into bed at the Bronze Flare.
Back To The Present
“And that’s basically what happened,” Ser wrapped up his explanation to Pier, “Lyos and Gourd both came to the conclusion that it was just exhaustion, so it shouldn’t have any long-lasting effects on you. Just make sure you don’t exert yourself too much.”
“I see,” Pier gave a blunt response as his mind was elsewhere. So was all of that really just a dream? But something is telling me that it might’ve been real–His thoughts continued pursuing a rational explanation for a while, before Ser interrupted his thinking.
“Anyway, since you seem well enough, we’ll be moving forward with our plans for the day.”
“Hm? What would those be?”
“Well, after we eat we’ll be going to get you some armor and a weapon. You’ve probably never used a sword before so your best choice would be to start with a short sword. Also, we’ll need to get you some clothes to wear, after all this entire time you’ve been wearing Lyos’s.”
“That so?”
“W-Eh…Y-You didn’t have to tell him that, you know…” Lyos abruptly spoke up, her face a beet red.
“But you always get embarrassed when it comes to stuff like that, and it's always so funny to see your reactions.”
“Tsk. J-Just know I won’t be letting you get away with this! That goes for you too, Pier!” Lyos said as she got up from her seat and angrily walked out of the tavern.
“What’d I do?”
“I’m not sure, anyway, let’s eat something before anything else happens.”
“Will Lyos be ok?”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“She’ll be fine, she goes to the same place every time she gets worked up like that. Now hurry up and order.” As Pier and Ser told Gourd–who had already eaten by the time they had finished talking–what they wanted and he went to place the order with the employee behind the counter, more and more people left the tavern. “Seems like today is gonna be a busy day for the Guild office.”
“Do you mean all the people leaving? Is that not normal?”
“It’s around this time that the Guild office opens so if a lot of people are leaving now, then it’s probably gonna be busy for the entire day. It’s unusual though, there hasn’t been much activity around Ivell recently, unless…”
“Are you concerned about the dungeon that separated us from Reice?” Gourd asked as he came with two plates of steaming-hot food, “When we ran into it, it had burst open but it seems nobody has encountered any undead monsters from it, it’s concerning to put it lightly. Usually when a dungeon’s gate breaks down, monsters will come out from it in droves, and yet no undead monsters have come out aside from that Kingsguard Slime.”
“Do you think the dungeon is finally acting up?” Ser asked Gourd.
“Maybe, it would be best if we went out and found the dungeon gate, after all we didn’t get much of a chance beforehand.”
“Don’t we need permits to take on those dungeons?” Pier asked.
“We can’t wait for somebody with an undead dungeon permit to come here, can we? Regardless, this dungeon’s gate has already been fully destroyed, if we leave it for too long then there’ll be too many monsters around the gate to even get close to the Dungeonmaster. While the Guild will object, and next to none of the Adventurers here would dare to take on an undead dungeon, we have no choice but to take on the dungeon if we want to save Reice and prevent a disaster.
“But something’s not adding up here, if you’ve already informed the Guild office of an undead dungeon and the fact that the dungeon’s gate has already opened, then why would they care about who has or doesn’t have a permit? Wouldn’t this be an exception considering the danger an undead dungeon poses?
“Well…” Gourd’s voice trailed off.
“It has to do with the regional manager of the Guild office here, he’s a bit…prideful you could say,” Ser said, taking over the conversation, “He was actually the one that encouraged a lot of the Adventurers here with undead permits to go up to Ankyr and help them with their sudden surge in dungeons. When we made the report of the undead dungeon, he came out personally to deny the existence of the dungeon, it seems like he doesn’t want to admit his mistake so he’s simply trying to deny the dungeon’s existence.”
“So taking on the dungeon with just us is really our only option then?”
“Yup, it would seem so. Anyway, finish eating and then we’ll go and get you ready for taking on both monsters and dungeons.”
“I’m gonna go find Lyos.” Gourd said before leaving the tavern.
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After finishing their breakfast, Ser and Pier went to find Gourd and Lyos. The several markets lining the stone roads offered multiple products from weapons to armor to food and even jewelry. The buildings averaged a height of two stories with stone foundations, refined wooden walls, and gable-style roofs protected by ceramic roof tiles. Both Adventurers and normal citizens occupied space at every market, though more Adventurers could be found at markets that sold armor and weapons. Ser guided Pier through the busty streets of Ivell as they got closer to their destination.
“So, where is Lyos then?” Pier asked.
“There’s this small lake not far from Ivell that she really likes. That’s where we’re most likely to find her. That’s also where Gourd went.” Ser answered as they began to leave Ivell. Ivell was surrounded entirely by a forest with two pathways–one going to the northwest and another going straight south–having been cleared years prior. Ser and Pier left towards the forest to the east. Stepping under the cover of the trees, the sounds of insects and small wildlife filled Pier’s ears. Tiny streams of water stemmed out from the base of multiple trees, offering refuge to parched fauna. The wind tugged on the ends of the trees, forcing leaves off of the branches and carrying them away. Walking deeper into the forest, the water streams gradually increased in both size and violence. Breaking through the trees, a small lake found itself surrounded by trees. Multiple streams broke off from the lake, burrowing down into the ground. The water shone with a unique blue brilliance, preventing the sight of reflections. As Pier’s attention was drawn away from the blue lake, he heard the sound of bickering across the water and deeper into the forest. Tracing the edge of the lake, the muddled noise slowly turned into the separate voices of Lyos and Gourd.
“No, Lyos, you need to take them out like this! Root and all,” Gourd said.
“But then it won’t regrow. If I just take what we need, then I can come back later!” Lyos argued.
“These are literally invasive weeds! If we leave them here they’ll annihilate the competition!” Lyos and Gourd were both kneeling, talking about something before pausing their debate as the sound of footsteps caught their attention. They turned to find both Pier and Ser watching them in disappointment.
“What are you two arguing about?” Ser questioned. Quickly, Lyos stood and gave her case.
“I was just gathering some herbs when Gourd came running over spouting about ‘environments’ and ‘we need to remove these weeds’ and ‘I hate all mages’ or something.” Lyos spoke with an air of confidence, though this confidence disappeared almost immediately after Gourd stood up.
“I would like to rebuttal this heathen’s claims, Your Honor,” Gourd requested.
“I’m not a judge,” Ser sternly said.
“...Right. Then, while I definitely don’t hate mages, I do know that these weeds need to be removed. They are a species belonging to Frisk, so having them here in Ivell will pose problems with its surrounding ecosystem. However, it would seem Lyos here wants to keep them for their use in medicine.”
“Of course I do! Do you know how expensive Noskbloom is right now?! They’re running a scam out in the open over in the markets!” Lyos exclaimed.
“Alright then,” Ser spoke up before Gourd and Lyos could continue arguing, “We will just ignore the Noskbloom. After all, we have much bigger things to worry about right now.” Both Lyos and Gourd pouted as they heard Ser’s decision. “Let’s go, Pier,” Ser spoke as the four began walking away from the lake and back to Ivell, “Despite how he may seem, it isn’t very rare for Gourd to get into arguments with Lyos. After all, one of them is a mage while the other researches monsters and other magically-attuned life.”
“They must be close then.” Pier remarked.
“As if!” Lyos shouted, “This guy is always going against my ‘magely’ advice! It’s infuriating!”
“That’s because your ‘magely’ advice is usually incredibly dumb or filled with misinformation,” Gourd clarified.
“See?!” Both Pier and Ser enjoyed a lively laugh as the sparks between Gourd and Lyos continued to go off.