Chapter 32

Nominations

“I’ve got a few hours left of my strength buff,” Arris said. “Should I just break it open?”

“Now hold on,” Robern said. “Let’s see if we can open it first. You wouldn’t want to risk breaking anything, right?”

“Why is it so big?” Pelle said. “What if it's something we can’t carry?”

Robern cast Shadow Spool and a black ribbon of shadow engulfed him. The shadow twirled around the base of the chest, looped up, and leapt to the top. Then the shadow dispersed. Robern stepped down to the latch, crouched, and paused to think.

“Tie something around it, hop back up, and pull up the latch,” Vynk said.

“Then how do we open it afterwards?” Robern said.

“I could try and break it open,” Arris said, but his comment went ignored.

Filo handed Robern some length of rope. It was tied around the latch. Robern leapt back up and pulled the latch free.

“Now what?” Robern said.

“I could use my spell,” Lep said. “A couple Hand of Flames ought to be able to lift the lid up.”

We looked at each other but no one had any objections. I shrugged and gestured forward. In a few moments, Lep’s giant Hand of Flames were seeking purchase along the lip of the chest lid. With a little help from Filo and her staff, he was able to get a couple fingers beneath the lid. That was all it took and he lifted the lid open. Robern again scaled the chest and peered down.

“Eh—just bust it open,” he said.

“What’s in it?” I said.

“It’s another one of those stones. Just break it open. There’s a plaque on it we can read.”

“Are you sure?” Arris said.

“Yea, there’s nothing else in there.”

Arris pushed on the chest. Boards began creaking and bending. The chest then burst apart. Pieces of wood showered down. The lid collapsed, heading for Arris.

“Arris!” Pelle said.

Quick thinking saved the ancienne from being crushed. The cosmic bubble of Star Armor encased him just as the chest lid struck him. The shield cracked and Arris tumbled back from the impact.

I helped him to his feet. He laughed.

“Close one there,” he said. “Good looking out, Pelle.”

“You alright?” I said.

“Yea, yea, no worries. Let’s see what stone Robern’s talking about.”

The content of the chest was a monolith. This one had a plaque on it.

“Shall I read it aloud?” Lep said, to which we nodded. “Bael Sumnurs’ Monolith. You’ve weakened the dungeon chain. That leaves me one step closer to reclaiming my monolith. As your reward, I entreat you to place a hand upon the stone. You will be granted Bael Sumnur’s blessing of protection. With this blessing, all damage you receive will be halved.”

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“I should get the blessing,” Robern said.

He said it with such conviction and force, that Vynk and Arris became instantly defensive. Then the party devolved into arguing over who gets to receive the blessing. Robern lunged at the monolith at some point, which earned him a seat on the ground, tied up from foot to neck.

“After everything I’ve done for you guys!” Robern said.

“You know exactly why you’re in this position,” Filo said. “We’re not stupid.”

“Sorry Robern,” Vynk said. “You brought this on yourself.”

“I will never forgive you guys for the way you’re treating me.”

“Treating you?” Pelle said. “What about what you just tried to do? You tried to swipe the reward out from under all of us!”

“Alright, alright,” Lep said. “We’ve got him tied up and I’m pretty sure the rest of us aren’t going to try the same thing.”

“What do we do now?” I said.

“Well,” Lep said. “I think we put it to a vote.”

“A vote?’ Robern said. “No voting.”

“What if each one uf us nominates someone other than ourselves? We write it down anonymously and tally the results.”

Except for Robern, we all agreed. He was stubborn and it took some ruthless negotiating to get him to write down a name.

“We’ll just leave it blank if you don’t write a name down,” Arris said.

“Fine,” Robern said. “Untie me and I’ll play your game.”

When Robern had finished writing his nominee down and folded his paper up, which was a blank sheet from my spellbook, we mixed all the papers in a sack that Vynk had emptied for us.

“You didn’t write your own name down, did you?” Vynk said.

“Of course not,” Robern said.

Filo was designated as the picker. She rummaged through the papers in the bag. Though she couldn’t see, she closed her eyes anyway and drew out her prize. She gingerly opened it, and her eyes then flashed to me.

“Tosin,” she said. “You’ve won.”

Robern muttered a string of curses, turned, and walked out of the chamber.

“Should we go after him?” Filo said.

“He probably needs a few minutes to himself,” Pelle said.

“I don't like it,” Vynk said. “Who knows if he’ll be safe or not. We should stick together.”

“I’ll send my Orb Weaver to keep an eye on him just in case,” Arris said. “How about that?”

“That should do the trick,” Vynk said.

I approached the monolith as Arris cast his spell and the Orb Weaver was conjured. The blessing was substantial, yet I was curious about Bael Sumnur. Were they a deity? A divine? Would they one day call upon me to secure some fantastic ladle or something? Or was this a one time freebie? Part of me hoped it was as simple as that.

“So, Tosin,” Filo said, coming up beside me. “Are you going to claim your reward, or what?”

“No sense in standing around, right?” I said. “We’ve been dungeon crawling for the longest time now.”

I placed a hand on the monolith. The edges of the stone began to glow a bright pink, which darkened into a deep red. Swirls of gold and pink began to dance around me, bobbing as they covered me from head to foot. I felt a sensation suffuse me, as though I’d been hollow and was now filled with vigor. I pulled up my mana and health bars. There was a new symbol to the left of my health bar. It was a pink heart. Half of it was covered in scales of white light.

“How do you feel?” Pelle said.

“Like a pile of gold, honestly. I feel refreshed, like I’ve just woken up from a long deep sleep.”

“Man, you’re so lucky,” Vynk said. “I wish I was the one to get the blessing.”

As he said that, he placed his hand on the stone and gasped. The very same phenomenon happened to him and I saw his health bar adopt the exact same symbol as mine.

“But…” Pelle said.

“Didn’t the guild trainers say only one of us would get a legendary loot?” Filo said.

“Maybe it’s different with monoliths?” Arris said.

“I’m going to get Robern,” Vynk said, running out of the chamber. “Robern! Hey Robern!”

Lep was the next one to touch the stone and receive the blessing. Then Filo, Pelle, Arris, Vynk, and Robern. Each one of us was able to walk out of the last dungeon with a new blessing.

I could tell that Robern felt bad for the way he acted, but stepping out into fresh air once again lifted our spirits. It was a little warmer than it had been. There was still snow piled quite high, and the sun was out.