Everyone rushed to Emerys where he lay unmoving, slumped against the wall by the door. One of the followers was already administering a vial of red liquid, doing their best to make him drink. As everyone else crowded around, Will was left by Koma on the outskirts of the group. Which was fine, as Will was pretty sure he had another method of helping Emerys. Fortunately for him the desk and shelves filled with books and paperwork were only lightly disturbed during the fight. Unfortunately, they were not organized for anyone but the alchemist to find what he wanted. Will searched through half a dozen notebooks before he found one dealing with research notes on the healing serum that had been used to heal Will. He turned to the last successful experiment and followed the procedures that had been painstakingly recorded.
Will rushed over to the alchemist’s body and was gratified when a prompt appeared.
Would you like to loot Aren Savil’s Inventory?
Yes / No
Will chose yes, and his eyebrows rose at the sheer quantity of alchemical supplies he received. Fortunately, he was able to quickly identify all the necessary herbs to make the serum. He rushed back to the group.
“How is he?” Will asked. Amalise turned toward him and he saw her face mask was completely soaked with tears.
“He is alive, but his back is broken. We need a real healer to heal him but by the time we found one the damage would be too much.” Her voice made her sound more composed than she looked, but he could hear the faint hitch here and there that told him of the emotion she was holding back.
“We can help him. The alchemist used a special serum on me when I had broken nearly every bone in my body. It can heal him, but I need your help to make it.” Amalise stared at him for a moment before jumping to her feet.
“What do you need me to do?” Together they prepared the healing vat and the followers carefully placed Emerys on a new table they found that was fitted with all the right hooks and restraints. They strapped him in and hooked him to the pulley system and at the last minute attached the respirator to his face. After the serum had cooled sufficiently, they dipped Emerys into it. Emerys came awake and immediately started to struggle, but calmed down as he was pulled out and set free. He took a couple experimental steps, then danced a little jig.
“Damn, I thought that was it.” Emerys said. Amalise did her best to tackle Emerys in a giant hug, but the big man didn’t move an inch. After everyone had gotten done speaking their worries and saying their congratulations, they turned to loot. All the research notes were taken, as well as all of the specialized alchemical equipment. There were seven spatially expanded crates full of alchemical ingredients and on a whim, Will tried to add one to his inventory. He didn’t expect it to work, and certainly not in the way it did.
Forty new slots were added to his inventory, each filled with various alchemical ingredients. He quickly realized that these were not like his normal slots. Each slot in the crate had a very hard limit on how much material could be placed inside, and every item had to be nearly identical. Large items would take multiple slots, and nothing else could be stored in those slots. Still, it was good to know that there was a way to add space to his inventory, even if he was unlikely to need it any time soon. It would also provide a way to manage items he would have to give to, or trade with, other people. Will took the other crates into his inventory, promising that they would split the loot when the others had the ability to carry the items. It seemed they could not add the crates to their inventory. Amalise explained that adding items to inventory took a very small amount of mana each time. The amount of mana required being directly proportional to the mass of the object being stored. They could potentially store a mountain, and it had been done before, but only with five thousand mages in a mana sharing circle. The mass of all the items in each of the crates was likely enough to equal a building. Not a mountain, but far more than twenty mages of Amalise’s level could manage. Will could see the envy for his inventory growing.
After clearing out the main building, which was open like a warehouse except for what seemed to be a lean to off the side which contained a grubby bed and kitchen, they went to the hole where the monster had emerged. They quickly realized that they were looking down into a large cell. It was hard to get an angle to see without jumping down, but there was a door of iron bars leading into another room. It took them ten minutes to find the secret door that led to the basement. When they did they found what looked to be a prison block. There was a guard room at the bottom of the stairs, though it was abandoned, and another door leading deeper in. Will found the key in his inventory and opened the door. It revealed a long hallway lined with cells. In each cell was a monster gnashing at the bars to try to escape. There was evidence of magical restraints, but the runes on the walls were dark and melted in some locations.
As they filed into the hallway, they made a sickening realization. Each monster was humanoid, a rarity for monsters other than undead. 26 humanoid monsters in total, including the one they killed upstairs. Will suddenly remembered the odd shrike in the top of the bramble, and realized why the proportions were off. The torso had been human, though it had still been covered in feathers. Make that 27 humanoid monsters.
What finalized the thought in their minds was when they found a room with a solid iron door. When they unlocked it, they found piles of weapons and armor. The kind that would have come from adventurers.
“He was luring adventurers to be his test subjects.” Will said flatly. He spat, trying to clear the foul taste from his mouth. “Damn I wish I had been able to get ahold of him. I would have ripped him apart with my bare hands.” Before trying to take the loot, they went back to the main hallway and executed each of the monsters that had once been adventurers. Will had asked if there was a way to save them, but he was quickly shut down. They were monsters now. People becoming monsters were rare, but it was well known that the process utterly destroyed the soul to make the core. Will wanted to throw away the thirty mana gems and eight curseforged cores that landed in his inventory, but refrained. They were just too useful.
After the monsters were gone, all having blown away as black smoke, the mood lightened a bit and they went to loot the final room. Will didn’t know what was good so he let everyone else take the first pick. There was still plenty of stuff left, and so he took a number of obviously enchanted items for himself and stored the rest as party loot to be sold. After finishing that they found two small chests which they promptly opened. In the first was a whole pile of mana gems, which excited Amalise to no end. It also held the cards of the adventurers which had died, which Emerys took.
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“There is a reward for returning the card of an adventurer who had died. It isn’t a fortune, but turning all of these in will get us a bit of a bonus.” The forlorn tone of his voice told Will the money was just an excuse.
The second chest was quite a bit better. The gleam of copper and silver greeted them when they opened it up. It was filled with mostly the larger copper coins, which was already a good payday. But there were also a good number of silver coins. They were of the smaller variety, but each one pulled out brought a cheer from the group. That was until a gleam caught Will’s eye and he snatched up a single golden slave.
“This is like 1500 copper slaves right?” Will asked in a hushed tone.
“Yeah,” Emerys said, “Yeah it is. We will need to get that exchanged. Gold is useless outside wealthy estates and big cities.” He started shoveling coins back into the chest and waited for Will to place the coin inside. He then handed Will the box.
“I trust you not to steal before the loot is divided.” Emerys said. “If anyone knows the problems that money can cause, it’s you.” Will snorted, but took the box into his inventory. He tried not to look at its contents as it was automatically tallied, but noticed one line before he could brush the notification away. Thirty copper crowns. That was twice the value of the single golden slave, and there had been a lot more than the copper crowns. All in all, it was a good first quest.
Will made everyone sit and take a rest as he added every one of the research notes to his compendium. He then looked through and found the book that described the process of brewing the size enhancing elixir. He copied it down on a piece of paper. Killing the alchemist had screwed the village of Bramble over. Given the personality of the Alchemist he was willing to believe he had been holding the village hostage with their own livelihoods. Giving them this recipe would allow them to hire a dozen alchemists and become far more rich than they had been before. It would be better for everyone.
Will handed the research notes off to Amalise who was surprisingly adamant about keeping original documents. She had added the documents to her compendium, but would find the time to donate the rest to one library or another.
With that out of the way, they headed off. They were in the thick of the bramble and had to fight a number of beasts on the way out. Each of the beasts were no match for any one of their party, much less Koma. Koma was happy to rush around toying with the fearsome predators that had come for a meal. Any time they saw a giant raspberry, they brought it down stem and all, and stored it in their inventories. Will had found not only the original recipe he would hand over to the town, but an improved, more effective recipe he would keep for himself. The new recipe still increased height, but had a corrective effect for bone structure and musculature as well. It allowed someone to adapt to their new size better. All of the excess energy after that would be channeled where it would be most effective. And it was built to contain a lot of excess energy. Will would make and take one, but would never tell a soul he had. All this is purely natural.
It took them far longer to return to the town than Will expected, and their return was greeted far more coldly than before. The guards were short and abrupt. Their words toed the line of rude and threatening, but never actually crossed it. There were no women and children out this time to rush into their houses. To be fair it was rather late in the day. They were rushed to the castle where they were allowed into a large audience chamber. The inside was filled with hostile murmurings. Lord Aalto sat in a chair on the opposite side of the room behind a desk that looked ominously similar to a judicial bench.
Will opened his mouth to announce the recipe in his hand, but was immediately cut off.
“Where is Alchemist Savil?” Lord Aalto asked. His tone was demanding, with no room for Will to give him the recipe. The recipe that would alleviate the whole misunderstanding that had already brewed nearly out of control.
“Dead, but I have…”
“SILENCE!” Lord Aalto yelled. “Do you know what you have done? You have ruined us! You have ruined the lives of every man, woman and child in this village!” As he continued to rant, the murmurings of the villagers whom will now saw were hanging off a wraparound balcony looking out over the room, grew louder. It was not long before rotten fruit and vegetables were being thrown at Will and his companions, along with the occasional stone. Will was willing to endure the torment. He hadn’t meant to ruin their lives and wished only to give them the means of their survival. But then Lord Aalto stopped ranting and called out. Dozens of guards armed in enchanted equipment stomped out to surround the group, and Will finally decided he had had enough.
Will called upon the blade of desolation, and a shard of ice formed in his hand. Last time it had emitted an aura that had slowed his enemy and allowed him to cut with greater ease, but something was different. Flashes of memory passed through his mind. His dead parents on tables of stainless steel, his dead dog on the floor of the kitchen. His friends telling him he was a selfish asshole because his allowance had run out and he couldn’t buy them lunch. Finding himself with a broken bike on an endless stretch of Arizona road before being brought into pitch black just to have something shoved into his brain to be sent somewhere cold where everything and everyone was trying to kill him. All of the anger, all of the hopelessness, all of the despair flowed into the twelve foot long shard of ice he held above his head.
Half the people in the room had collapsed under the immense pressure bearing down on everything. Weeping and wailing assaulted Will’s ears as he realized that mana was pouring out from the springtime star and into his Desolate Heart of the Frozen North like an ocean being poured out. He saw one woman rocking back and forth on the ground clutching her head and sobbing. Lord Aalto looked at him with calm acceptance. But it wasn’t the acceptance of a life well lived, but the hope for release of torment and the tiredness of knowing that you can’t fight a moment longer.
A burning coal shone in Will’s spirit map, a second concept hungry for mana. Before it could rampage out of control, Will dismissed his blade of desolation and struggled to reign in the flow of mana. Reluctantly, his cold concept and the springtime star faded into inactivity. Will realized only then how much he had been insulated from the world in his rage. The weeping redoubled, and the wailing turned into screams. The woman rocking back and forth was already hoarse from her screams. One was muttering to himself.
“He took so many, oh gods we let him take so many, all for our greed!”
“Let's go.” Will said. They hadn’t deserved this. This was too much.
“Not yet, we need to collect payment for the quest.” Amalise said gently.
“Who cares about the money?” Will yelled. “Haven’t they already suffered enough?”
“We need to collect payment or they will receive a black mark from the guild. Once we report the situation the guild will send help as long as the town is in good standing. Amalise said. “And don’t worry. The guild understands collateral damage.” Will sneered in disgust, but nodded. He stalked over to Lord Aalto.
“Where is your treasury?” Will demanded. Lord Aalto looked up despondently.
“Down the stairs, the third door on the left.” His shoulders slumped further.
“And the key?” Will asked. Lord Aalto fumbled it out of a pocket wordlessly, and Will snatched it away before stalking out of the room.
They didn’t find the 8 gold Lords they were owed. All in all the currency in the vault equaled only half of that. After some discussion they figured they could waive two gold lords worth for damages done in the process of completing the quest, even though the damage had been done to resist an unlawful arrest. Will was informed that their badges had a record of the events and would give a true accounting of what happened. Like a bodycam but better. They took various pieces of treasure until they had met the value of six gold lords, and then opted to take more treasure so that they could leave some of the coinage behind. With that they left the vault and traveled up through the audience chamber.
About half of the people were still there, including Lord Aalto. Will tossed the key into his lap and the group walked out. It was night now, but no-one wanted to stop.