Arthe and Frith had been traveling upriver for about 2 days now and she had finally forgiven him for his ill advised 'naked' comment, which was a pretty good thing as he wasn't sure he could take much more of the beatings and the silent treatment. Frith had only spoken to him twice in that time and they were only to tell him it was time for him to cook food.
Still all that was done with now and they were back on friendly terms with each other, as they had traveled they had seen more and more signs of the same corruption that had affected the river. There were dying trees and rotting plant life all around them and the air smelt of stagnation and decay, even the few animals they had seen were thin and sickly. They had come across the remains of a bear at one point and its fur was rotting right off its bones so quickly they could see it happening, the two of them still had no idea what was causing this horrific destruction but they knew it had to be stopped and soon before it started to affect nearby villages.
They tracked the trail of decay to a nearby mountain where the river began, as they climbed they came across signs of construction and excavation. There were huge craters dug into the hillside and scaffolding was scattered around everywhere, the materials used appeared to be old rotten wood and rusted metal. Arthe began to wonder what manner of creatures would use such shoddy materials to construct buildings, even the stupidest monsters knew to use fresh hard woods as support struts. The only clue they discovered was a few pieces of discarded armor and some old bones.
It took them another 2 hours to climb to the top of the mountain and when they finally reached the summit they discovered a tower in an advanced state of construction, the stones of the tower oozed sludge and by the side of it was a mine shaft tunneling straight into solid rock. Various crates and boxes lay just outside the cave entrance filled with rocks and ores, issuing forth from the tower entrance was a mournful wailing and a sinister whispering. Everything about the tower said evil, the very wind seemed to recoil at the sheer malevolence emanating from within. Arthe and Frith felt shivers run up their spines and they looked at each other for reassurance, then they began to deliberate over where to go first, the mines or the tower.
Eventually they decided on the mines as it appeared to emit less of an evil influence than the tower and also seemed to be a more likely source of the corruption filtering down from the mountain. As they entered into the gloomy cavern they spotted a human figure lying on the ground just meters from the entrance, upon closer inspection the figure was revealed to be a man. His body was so thin and sickly that it was difficult to tell if he was even alive or not, but a coughing fit soon confirmed his existence among the living.
"Who, 'cough' who's there? If it's one of you monsters you can kill me now I'm not gonna get up for it. 'cough'"
Arthe rushed over to the man and began casting numerous healing spells on him.
"Healing hand! Life's Embrace! Cleanse Poison! Cure Sickness! Tell me who did this to you, are there any more like you, why are you here?"
The man tried to stand after Arthe had finished his spells but Frith gently forced him back down, then she handed him a water bottle and some dried food which he promptly gulped down.
"Thank you strangers, I don't know why you have come to this Freya forsaken place but I am glad you are here. I was forced to come here along with many others by evil monsters, their master wanted us to build him a base of operations so that he could conquer the rest of the country. I've been here for 2 months now and in that time many of my friends and family have perished at the hands of those scum, worked to death here in the mine or fed to the master's servants."
"What manner of creatures would do this? Even the undead do not treat living people this way!" Arthe exclaimed.
"Ha creatures you say, no, the master is a man much like you and me. It is his servants that are the beasts, but even they are not as depraved and evil as he is. Some of them even sneak food to us on occasion, they may be monsters but even they cannot understand why a someone would treat others of his race this way. You look like a couple of strong adventurers, could you help me?"
"Ding"
The Slaves Request:
A nameless slave wants you to free the other slaves held captive and slay both the slaves master and his servants in the mine and the tower.
Servants remaining: 50/50
Mine Foreman remaining: 1/1
Slave overseers remaining: 5/5
Master Slain: 0/1
Slaves freed: 0/65
Quest requirements: Save the life of the nameless slave. Must be level 150 or higher.
Quest rewards: Reputation gain with local inhabitants, ownership of the mountain tower and mine. (if all slaves saved many will work for you)
Quest fails if more than half of the slaves are killed OR if you allow the escape of the foreman or the overseers.
"I accept this request and will bring justice upon these evil doers. Please make your way down the mountain and wait for us at the bottom. We will be done shortly do not fear." Arthe said, as Frith also accepted the quest.
"Thank you both but I shall wait here and bear witness to the demise of these fiends with my own eyes."
Arthe then gave the man the rest of his food and his old sword for protection in case one of the monsters should find him, then he and Frith headed into the mineshaft. They proceeded deep into the mine, the only light was the lanterns on the walls and a faint glow from Arthe's belt. After about ten minutes they came upon their first group of slaves, 10 humans were guarded by 5 spear wielding creatures and one creature wielding a whip and a scimitar. The creatures looked very similar to dwarves but had grey, stone like skin, and no hair at all.
"Psst Arthe, they're Kuaknomi. Rock dwellers, they are the evil version of dwarves and delight in causing misery to others. They are also very thick skinned and can shrug off weaker blows. Their only weakness is the belly or the neck, that and their love of money. We'll have to be quick and accurate if we are going to save those slaves." Frith whispered.
Arthe examined the Kuaknomi closely then decided to try and draw them towards him rather than fight near the slaves, he pulled out a couple of gold coins and threw them at the nearest creatures. To start with they grabbed their spears tighter and began to look for the source of the projectiles but then they realized what had been thrown and they started grubbing on the floor for the gold, Arthe then threw more coins a bit closer to him and sure enough the 5 spear wielders ran straight for them. He nodded to Frith when they came close enough for him to charge at and gestured for her to run and attack the foreman, who hadn't moved away from the slaves even though he was staring fixatedly at the coins.
Then Arthe charged at the surprised Kuaknomi, who didn't even have their spears anymore as they had dropped them in their haste to get at the coins, the five creatures were no match for him and he used Targeted Thrust to stab each one in the belly before decapitating them when the bent over in agony. In the meantime Frith was circling the overseer repeatedly stabbing it lightly in the belly and on its hands, eventually it was forced to drop the whip and she ducked in close and finished it off with a strong jab straight into its eye. When all the bodies had turned grey and disappeared Arthe went and spoke to the slaves, who were huddled in a group clutching their pickaxes in fear, while Frith retrieved his coins and the rest of the loot.
"Don't worry we are not here to harm you, the way back to the entrance is clear. Allow me to heal your wounds and then you should take those spears and make your way to the mine entrance."
After saying this Arthe proceeded to heal each of the slaves, curing them of their most debilitating wounds and cleansing them of sickness. The miners thanked him profusely and the strongest amongst them picked up the spears and led the way for the others.
Arthe rested for a bit to recover some of his Mana and had a proper look around as he did, it appeared that the slaves were mining iron and some strange black ore. He picked up a piece of the ore and nearly dropped it again when he felt the energy trapped within it, he handed the piece to Frith so she could identify it and when she had she gasped loudly.
"What is it, is something wrong?" Arthe asked, quickly getting to his feet and looking around.
"No don't worry it's nothing like that but you should take a look at this, it's incredible."
She handed the ore back to Arthe and then began to gather up as much of the already mined pieces as she could, he looked at the mineral chunk again and then he too gave a small gasp of shock.
Runite ore:
This ore can only be found in places of great natural magic, the ore contains large amounts of pure power and can be used to power spells and trap incoming magic. When purified by holy power the ore becomes pure white and can be used to improve resistances to dark magic as well as bolster both stamina and endurance. If smelted the resulting metal will have massive magic resistance and will provide huge bonuses to Mana points and Vitality, due to it's light weight the metal can even be used to create plate armor for mages.
After reading this Arthe also began to gather up as much of the ore as he could find, it would sell for incredible amounts of money and as far as he knew no one else even knew of its existence. Frith had become a little too excited by the ore and was even hacking chunks of it out of the walls, at this point Arthe began to worry and pointed out that should they complete the quest then the mine would be theirs anyway so she didn't need to be quite so greedy.
After Frith had cooled down the two of them pressed on through the mines, they encountered several more groups of slaves and Kuaknomi who were quickly dispatched in the same manner as the first. Eventually they came to the bottom of the mine shaft and discovered the source of the river at the same time, in the center of a great cavern was a natural spring surrounded by slaves and Kuaknomi. On a platform situated right by the side of the spring was a larger than normal Kuaknomi who was overseeing some sort of machinery, the mechanism appeared to be dropping all of the dirt and refuse from the mining operation straight into the spring which was turning a filthy brown colour. The surrounding area around the pool was covered in the same sort of slime and corrosion Arthe had seen on the tower and at the foot of the mountain, as he looked on one of the slaves poured a barrel of some steaming green fluid straight into the pool and a cloud of foul vapor covered the surface of the water.
Arthe and Frith could not use the same tactic as they had before to dispatch the monsters as they were too far away and too spread out, however there were only 11 Kuaknomi down there including the foreman. The reason for this small number of enemies, despite the large group of slaves, became obvious when the two of them realized that in an iron cage next to the foreman was a group of children. if the slaves rebelled the kids would be pushed into the pool and drown. This made the rescue much more challenging and Arthe had almost given up when he had a brainwave, he quickly sneaked down into the cavern and hid behind a rock near to an unguarded slave.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
He waved to the slave to get his attention and when the slave came nearer he began to whisper his plan to it. The idea was that the slave would claim to have found a large deposit of Runite, Arthe would give him some of the pieces he grabbed earlier as proof, then the foreman would have to come away from the cage to check it out. When he did Frith would sneak up to the platform and guard it whilst Arthe dispatched the foreman and hunted the rest of the Kuaknomi.
Well that's the way it should have worked, all went well until Arthe engaged the foreman in battle and the slaves decided to help him out, Arthe was worried about this as he didn't want any of them to die. Before any of them got hurt he decided to use his trump card and activated his Wrath of the Heavens skill, after forcing the foreman closer to the group of fighting slaves. When he did so many of the slaves and Kuaknomi stopped fighting in shock, the brief pause didn't last long as the majority of the monsters began to scream in pain. Even as they were dying the slaves continued to hit them with pickaxes and rocks, Arthe finished off the injured foreman using Blade Dance to slice open its belly and cut its throat. Frith only had to face two opponents during this time and since she was stood on the narrow platform they could only approach her one at a time, this meant she made short work of them.
Once all the enemies were dead Arthe, who didn't have to heal any of the slaves thanks to his Wrath of heaven skill, went over to the pool and prepared to cast Purify Nature. Due to the size of the pool and the corrosion surrounding it his spell cost him almost 1500 Mana to cast, but when it was done he received two messages informing him that he had been blessed with all of the optional blessings. This was because the spring was the source of the river and as such affected all life along it, Arthe had cleansed the water as well as everything that drank from it or used it to grow.
Blessing of Water:Mana regeneration is increased by 45% for 1 day
Blessing of Earth Life points are increased by 300 for 1 day
Blessing of Plant Life: Experience gain is doubled for 1 day
Blessing of Animal Life: Attack power and speed is increased by 50% for 1 day
Frith had freed the children and had collected all the loot whilst Arthe was purifying the spring and when she checked her quest info she realized that their work was not yet done.
The Slaves Request:
Servants remaining: 15/50
Mine Foreman remaining: 0/1
Slave overseers remaining: 1/5
Master Slain: 0/1
Slaves freed: 50/65
She quickly distributed the Kuaknomi weapons to the slaves, most of the gear was junk in comparison to her and Arthe's existing equipment, and went to get her partner.
"Hey we still have 17 enemies left to kill and 15 slaves to rescue, my guess is they're all in the tower. We'd best get a move on before the master guy realizes we've killed most of his servants, otherwise I don't like the odds of us rescuing the remaining slaves."
"Agreed, what do we do about this lot though, take them with us or leave them at the entrance to the mine?" Arthe gestured towards the freed slaves.
"I say have we take a couple of the stronger ones to help us find our way around the tower and leave the rest outside, we won't be able to protect such a large group but we could probably manage 1 or 2."
"Sounds like a plan, lets get moving then."
Arthe, Frith and the slaves all headed for the entrance and when they got there they asked for 2 volunteers to help show them around the tower. One of the men from the first group they rescued was the first to sign up and a tough looking woman was the second, Arthe gave both of them some armor he had held on to and made sure they knew how to use the spears they were wielding before entering the tower. Arthe led the way listening to the directions given by the newly freed slaves, the inside of the tower was full of chests of ore and racks of weaponry. The small group searched the first floor of the tower for enemies and found 2 Kuaknomi guarding a couple of female slaves in what appeared to be a makeshift kitchen, needless to say the monsters were slain quickly and quietly. Then the group headed up to the next floor.
This floor had pallets all over the floor, it looked like the sleeping quarters for the Kuaknomi. 4 of the fiends were sleeping and so the group crept up to them and stabbed them all in the throat at the same time, the two attacked by the slaves were still alive but couldn't talk because of their wounds and they quickly bled to death. At the far end of this room was a cage holding 8 more slaves, which were swiftly freed and told to leave the tower quickly. The stair case to the next floor was only half complete and so it was inevitable that the group would make some noise, when they did it attracted the attention of 3 Kuaknom who came dashing down the stairs. Only to meet their end on the points of the slaves spears, Arthe had told them to thrust the spears ahead of them when the climbed the stairs in case of just such an event. The male slave had to drop his weapon and grab one of the dead guards weapons because his spear was firmly impaled through the chests of two of the guards and couldn't be removed until they had finished dying. The group would have dispatched them already but they knew that now some guards had heard them their time limit had shortened, 5 slaves were still left to be rescued and there were 6 Kuaknomi remaining as well as the master.
On the 3rd floor was a room filled with weaponry, a forge was built in the corner and 3 slaves were working at it guarded by 4 Kuaknom. Unfortunately these guards had heard them coming and so were prepared for a fight, but Arthe had also prepared for this. He had a handful of gold which he threw straight at the guards, causing a fatal distraction. Well fatal for them, the 2 freed slaves shouted to the forge workers to attack the guards which they did. As they did Frith and Arthe charged the injured monsters and finished them off, in the scuffle one of the forge workers had been badly stabbed but Arthe quickly healed him before he could expire.
"The master is above with 2 women, he said he was going to use them to aid him in an experiment of some kind. Please you must hurry and rescue them!" This plea came from one of the forge workers, who had grabbed Arthe's arm before he left.
Neither Frith nor Arthe liked the sound of that so they told the slaves who had accompanied them to wait on this floor, while they headed up to the fourth. The top floor was a room that resembled a library/alchemists lab, there were books lining the walls and strange glass instruments scattered on tables around the room. None of which held any interest for Arthe at that point, his gaze was firmly fixed on the man in robes chanting some sort of spell in a hideous language. Between the man and 2 guards was a couple of slave women bound hand and foot and lying in the center of some sort of magic circle.
Frith charged at the nearest guard whilst Arthe engaged the other, using Shield Bash and Targeted Thrust he quickly dispatched his opponent and began to attack the still chanting man. His sword clashed against some sort of barrier and rather than keep fruitlessly attacking he cut the ropes binding the slaves and sent them quickly from the room. As the man's chanting increased in speed Arthe began to sense the presence of great evil, he turned to Frith who had just finished off the last of the Kuaknom and told her to run from the room fast.
"No I'm not gonna let you attack that madman alone!"
"Go now, he's summoning some sort of demon! This is not a foe your sword can defeat, go get those slaves to safety! Don't worry about me just leave NOW!"
Arthe finally managed to persuade Frith to leave, just as she left the summoning reached its peak and the man thrust a dagger straight into his heart. Instead of dying he began to change; his body started to grow, spikes erupted from his back and shoulder, huge fangs protruded from his gaping jaw and talons forced their way through his boots and gloves. Finally the metamorphosis was complete and there stood a monster straight from the very nightmares of the insane. The beast dripped viscous slime and its very breath was corrosive, Arthe's belt lit up so brightly its light could be seen by those outside the tower.
Taking a deep breath, Arthe readied himself for battle. By his reckoning the demon was around level 200, in contrast his current level was only 174. With his inflated stats and his High level holy skills the fight should be fairly simple, even so he had not faced a monster with this level of power before and even he felt the cold hand of fear gripping his spine. Blessing himself with every buff he had Arthe charged into battle, the demon roared and blasted him with some sort of dark spear. Claws slashed against armor and swords skittered off of scales, from outside the onlookers could see flashes of gold light mixed with explosions of red and purple.
Frith and the slaves stood watch as the battle raged for nearly 3 hours, towards the end both gold and red lights got dimmer and dimmer, finally there was one more intense explosion of bright white light and then all was silent. The slaves held their breath in hope and fear while Frith completely disregarded Arthe's instructions and charged back into the tower, climbing the stairs in record time she burst into the top room.
Arthe was lying against the wall holding his sword by his side, the body of the demon was nowhere to be seen. As a testament to the ferocity of the battle Arthe's armor was dented and ruptured in dozens of places and blood poured from numerous wounds up and down his body. Frith gasped at the sheer sight of someone bearing so many wounds and ran over to him, she began to shake him to try and wake him up at the same time as she pulled out a couple of health potions and tried to force them down his throat.
"Damn you Arthe wake up, don't you go and die on me, don't you bloody dare. I still haven't had the chance to punish you for sending me away and recklessly fighting alone, if you die I''ll bloody well kill you!"
She gave up on the potions and began to remove his armor and wrap him in dozens of bandages, the wounds looked even more severe with his armor off and some of them smoked while others were filled with a foul smelling black substance.
"crap your wounds are poisoned as well, seriously look at the kind of state you get into when I'm not around."
"Hey do you mind not shouting so loud, I'm trying to sleep here." Arthe said lazily as he slowly opened his eyes.
"Arthe you're alive! Thank Freya! and what do you mean sleep! You try and sleep much longer and you'll never wake up again!"
"Fine, fine I'll get up. Hey don't suppose you've got a Mana potion handy, if you do I'll have myself all fixed up and good as new in no time."
Frith rooted through her pack for a Mana potion which Arthe promptly drank, then he began to cast various healing spells on himself beginning with a poison cure. When he had finished Frith gave him a massive hug and wouldn't let go even when Arthe tried to stand up.
It was in this position that the freed slaves found them in a while later when they finally worked up the courage to enter the tower.
"Hey guys, Quest complete." Arthe waved to them over Frith's back.
The 50 plus people crammed into the room and stairwell let out a huge cheer.