Chapter 37

“And finally,” Ryker let out a long breath. He’d been on his tirade for a good thirty minutes. “It’s not that I’m upset, really.” He looked at Nyle, then Lyn, and then me, holding my gaze. “It’s that I’m disappointed.” His tone dropped, and so did my stomach. “Disappointed in you three, for being so stupid, and disappointed in myself, for not training you better.” He shook his head. “I feel like I let you down Ash. And I’m sorry.”

Flint let out a whistle. “Oh man, that one hurt even me.” He looked at us. “How could you guys do this to Ryker?”

Ryker shot him a look, and Flint walked away laughing.

“Would you look at that,” Flint commented as he drew his bow, “I think I see something that I should be doing over there.”

“I’m sorry Ryker.” I said, defeated. “It was my fault. I should have known better.”

Ryker patted me on the head. The other new Climber’s were still away, and the only others in the area keeping the farmers safe were Ryker, Flint, and one other woman I didn’t recognize. The final member of Ryker’s party, perhaps?

“I should have warned you about the Den Mother.” Ryker said with a sigh. “Honestly, I figured even if you did find the cave, you’d either kill all the wolves and head back, or have to retreat after the battle. It’s my fault for not anticipating you’d be able to handle them all without too much issue.”

“You say it like they’re that hard to fight.” Lyn cut in. “It really wasn’t hard.”

Ryker smiled. “That’s because you had a well-organized team.” His gaze grew distant for a moment. “I remember stumbling on that pack my first day. It didn’t go anywhere as well as it did for all of you,” he smiled fondly, “then again, my team back then wasn’t anywhere near as diverse and well planned as we are now. And we may have gotten surrounded completely by the whole pack at once…”

He shook his head, “still, now that you are aware of the danger, can I count on you to finish the day off responsibly? Do what you need to gather the Essence you need to hit level seven, but be smart about it. Like I said, I’ve only got today to give you this opportunity. After that you guys will be back on your own.”

“Should be doable.” I looked at Lyn and Nyle, “I need two more Essence to hit level six, and five more after that for level seven, so seven essence total.”

Lyn smirked, “I only need six.”

Nyle sighed, “I need 12.”

“There should be a small goblin camp to the southeast in the area.” Ryker said after a moment. “I don’t think any of the other groups headed that way. It’s pretty easy to find. Pick them off from a distance though. There’s going to be a large circular building in the middle of the camp. Whatever you do, do not go in it.”

I looked at him, raising an eyebrow. “Is it another mini boss?”

“It’s another mini boss.” Ryker said with a nod. “And as brutal as the Den Mother is… the mini boss at that goblin camp is uh, equally as vile. You do not want to fight her just yet. Honestly, you’d probably be best off never fighting her.” He shuddered, “the mental scarring is not worth it.”

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I shared a look with my group.

“And” Ryker sighed, “now I just made it sound even more interesting. I should have expected that.”

“How do you know where the camp is?” Nyle asked. “Flint mentioned the Den Mother moved locations every week. Does the goblin one stay in the same spot?”

Ryker grinned and pulled out a pendant. It was a different one than the Teleport Pendant he’d shown us earlier. This one was made of silver, and had a large, open eye on the center that seemed to burn with an inner fire.

“It’s a scouting pendant.” He said as he put it back under his armor. “It can show me the location of monsters and mini bosses.”

“That sounds extremely valuable.” Nyle said. “And a bit overpowered.”

Ryker chuckled. “I wish. It has a couple caveats. First, I have to already have the map discovered for the floor, meaning it only works on floors I’ve already climbed past. Second, it only provides mini-boss and boss locations after I’ve defeated them. Meaning until then the best I can do is try to guess based on monster populations. Which also reminds me, the third caveat. It doesn’t tell me what monsters are that it indicates. They just appear as red dots on my map. Only after I’ve defeated the floor boss for the whole section, will it give me more detailed information. So, really, the only reason I have all this information, is because I’ve spent a lot of time on this floor… and I’ve beaten the fifth-floor boss.”

“That, does make it less overpowered.” Nyle conceded. “But still, knowing where hostile creatures are, even if you don’t know what they are, has to be helpful.”

“Less so on the higher floors.” Ryker said, but he didn’t elaborate further. “But either way, it’s a rare drop and is worth acquiring if you can. If you have bad luck and the Tower doesn’t drop it for you,” he shrugged, “the Enchanters Guild can make them if you provide the materials and 5 gold. Otherwise, Alex will sell you one at Climber’s Rest, but her price is a bit higher.”

“How much higher?” I asked, though considering the richest of the three of us had a whole… one silver, even five gold was far outside of our price range.

“Uh, twenty gold, and you have to be a D rank adventurer.”

I winced. That was definitely even more expensive. Prohibitively so. But still, an item like that would be nice to have. His comments also made me remember I had something else to ask him about, before we headed off to the goblin camp.

“Speaking of items being made and coin and such,” I asked, summoning the recipe of Claw and Fang. “How much will these materials cost me? And where can I buy them, and how do recipes even work?”

Ryker read the paper quickly, handed it back to me, and smiled. “Aspen logs go for 25 copper a piece. The white trees you see around here are aspen trees. If you cut one down you can put it in your inventory, take it to the Carpenter’s guild, and they’ll turn it into logs. You can either pay for the process or let them keep half of the logs as payment. It’s pretty fair. As for the iron bars. Those are made from five iron ore a piece, which is found on the third floor. If you’re looking to buy them outright, each is two silver.” I felt my mind tingle even as he spoke. In response I focused on the magic, and realized he was sending me a trade request.

I opened the window, and he dumped 10 silver into my trade window and accepted it. I eyed him, and his gaze told me to not say no.

“I’ll take you guys around town after the day. We’ll get the materials, and then head to the blacksmith. Unique Tower items such as Claw and Fang can only be made once, per recipe. But I want all of you to come. It will be a good learning experience.”

I looked at Lyn and shrugged. “Sorry Lyn,” I said, though considering the cost of the weapons, and the fact Ryker had just dumped the silver on me, “you’re not getting them.”

She sighed. “Guess we’ll just have to kill the Den Mother.”

Ryker patted me on the shoulder and pointed us towards the southeast. “Before you focus on that,” he said with a chuckle, “how about you get the Essence you need, and actually complete your first job as Climbers?”