Chapter 13

“Shit,” yelled the first voice. “The safe zone up there is occupied, and I really do not want to share with anyone tonight. We will have to head west for a while to reach the next closest to that beast.”

“We can get a few more kills in,” the second voice stated, “to help our stats before we face it. I see this as a win for us. Besides, that safe zone was reserved by another house, but are you sure we can take it?”

“Well we didn’t have any money for enchantments, but we’ve got strong armor and weapons that are sure to hurt this thing. You aren’t starting to have doubts about this are you? If we kill this thing, we will become legends in our Pact house and in the city.”

“Okay, but I still think it is a long shot. We don’t have any water magic and we don’t have any long-range weapons to try and work the dragon down to where we can kill it. I just think that this is going to be an uphill battle that we will not be able to win.”

“Well, doubt all you like, but we are gonna do this and we are gonna be the ones to bring it down. Then we will have fame, fortune and all the sexy women just dying to have sex with us.”

I looked at Amenthia and she had a smile on her face, as she fought to suppress a laugh. This was exactly what we were hoping for, and now we knew where they would be leaving from and when they planned to attack the dragon. This would allow us to watch how the beast fought and how it healed after a battle because there was no way these two would be able to succeed. There was always the chance of a fluke occurring, but I doubted that Tyr would give us a task that could be completed by someone else before we attempted it.

The adventurer told his buddy, “We will fight to the next closest safe zone, rest for the night and then make for the exit around noon. It may take some time, but I am sure we will win in the end, buddy, you just have to have a little faith.”

With that, we heard them walk off to the west, no doubt making their way to the safe zone that they had just mentioned. They looked to be about thirty meters northwest of our location. I turned back to Amenthia and she looked as happy about what we overheard as I was.

“Okay, so now that we know that those two are going to try and fight it around noon tomorrow, we have a time frame for when we need to be in position. I would like to be able to keep this safe zone and be able to do some stat farming before we go to bed, but I am not sure we could do that.”

“That is easy,” she said with a smile, bringing up her map display. “I tagged it for our Pact house. The only way that anyone could still camp here would be if they were house Tyr as well. I am sure you heard the second guy mention that they wouldn’t be able to use this safe zone because of that. Also, once tagged, we can leave our stuff here, as no other people would be able to enter the perimeter.”

“What about a person from house Tyr? Wouldn’t they be able to steal our stuff if they wanted?”

She shook her head and replied, “There was an issue with that a century ago, so the Council added a safety measure so any other member would have to initiate a trade to touch our stuff. We would be aware if they touched something of ours because a screen would appear from our bracer. Once declined, they would still be able to see our things, but their hand would pass through an object as if it wasn’t even there.”

“Oh, that sounds rather cool and a useful measure to prevent theft. Okay then, let’s go out to farm for skills and drops. Besides, the drops we are getting from the drakes will make for some awesome armor for both of us, once I get my privileges back.”

With our plan in place, we set up our camp for later in the evening and headed west from the camp to try and get a few more kills. That gave us roughly eight hours of fighting to get out of the way, but the upside was that we knew where the mobs were most of the time and could attack at our leisure. We concentrated on the drakes, as they were the closest to the dragon and allowed us to try different approaches to fighting them. We were enjoying the challenge, although we wanted to limit the damage we took because we wanted to make sure that we had full health by morning. I was starting to notice the signals that would indicate how a drake would attack, so I told Amenthia of the indicators I noticed they were showing, and we were dispatching them far more quickly and with less risk. That didn’t mean that the dragon would have the same indicators.

After eight hours we had killed fifteen drakes, seven wolves, two bears and a goblin band. They were a surprise, as we had not come across them the entire time we were on the floor. I believed it was due to the rocky outcroppings, as they had openings not readily seen. Since they were cave dwellers in most of the games that I had played, I figured that there might be a bit of a subterranean system of tunnels that they would be coming from.

The group consisted of four goblins; three had clubs and a shield, while the fourth was armed with a bow and arrow. We had not seen the opening when we approached the rockface and because there was no line of sight, they were able to get the drop on us. We did not know they were attacking until I heard an arrow whiz by my head. I turned just in time to have my shield block the next one as three goblins charged out of the cave. I rolled away from the entrance, which would force the archer to come out where we could see him better. Amenthia was ready with her bow, and got two of them with head shots, I charged the third, bringing my shield up as he tried to hit me with a vertical blow. Once it connected, I pushed it away and thrust my sword forward towards its chest. As soon as the goblin went up in a puff of smoke, I brought my shield up to where I believed the other goblin was and heard two clunks as arrows struck it. I heard a shriek of pain and looked around my shield to see the goblin with two arrows in its chest. It exploded into smoke and there was a bundle of arrows and a small, bright orb where it had fallen. The others dropped orbs, though two dropped gold along with the orbs. I went and picked up the arrows and noticed that these were different than the ones Amenthia was shooting.

“Amenthia, what are these arrows? They don’t look anything like the ones you are using.”

“Those are the hunting arrows I told you about before, and they can appear as a drop from time to time. That is a bundle of five, which will bring my total to ten, if we need to use them.”

I tossed them over to her and took a peek inside the cave, trying to see if there was a tunnel or if this was just a cave. I was surprised to see a chest inside and called Amenthia over as soon as she had finished collecting our loot.

“Hey, sweetheart, what kind of stuff is found in chests like these? Is it usually junk, or can it be good stuff? What is the chance of getting a really good drop?”

“Well, umm ... let me think,” she stuttered, a light blush on her cheeks. “Chests tend to give useful items, unlike the so-called junk items that you would get in your video games. Whether it will be useful to us though, will depend on what you find. In this area it will be within your level range, but further up, there can be a two-level fluctuation on the drop. While you can potentially wear or use it, there are penalties for using it without the required level or stats.”

I went and opened the cover of the chest slowly, because, knowing my luck it could also be a trap. As I opened the chest I looked in and saw nothing inside. In frustration, I flung the cover completely open. A burst of light emanated from inside the chest, reminding me of a chest from ‘The Legend of Zelda’ games. When I looked inside once again, there was a book there. I picked up the book and opened it to find a language that I was unable to read, but I was sure that the book was important and rare. I closed the book and passed it to Amenthia, before turning back to look inside the chest again. However, the chest was no longer there. I had probably removed its only contents, causing the now empty chest to disappear.

“Hmm ... this looks to be an arcane tome,” Amenthia said as she looked at the book. “It is used by wizards to learn certain spells, ones only they can learn because they can read the language. Unfortunately, given your current skill set, it will be useless to us, so our only option is to sell it. We could choose to put it up for sale to a vendor or possibly trade with a Pact house member for an item of equal value.”

“Amenthia, is there a way to find out how valuable the book is now, so that should we sell or trade it, we don’t get swindled?”

“There are appraisal stones that can do the job. However, we do not have any of those right now. They aren’t a drop and can’t be purchased on this level, so we would have to leave to get one.”

I nodded, putting the book on the back burner as we continued on with our grinding, which had good results by the time we were done. Amenthia indeed leveled up her vitality stat and my awareness stat leveled up as well, allowing me to have the ability to toggle enemy tracking on.

Content that we did well in the time we had before we rested for the night, we made our way back to our camp, slightly weary and very hungry. We would need to rest and eat in preparation for tomorrow, but I promised her that once we had defeated that dragon, I would make it up to her for a day or three. She giggled and blushed at the offer and wrapped her arms around my free arm, pulling it into her chest. We were discussing the plan for tomorrow when we got into view of our campsite and noticed there was a fire going. We had not started one before we left to grind mobs, so that meant that someone else had done so while we were gone. That meant that someone was in our campsite and, due to it being tagged for our Pact house, that meant a house member was now there. The only question on my mind was who could be there, because we didn’t know anyone and weren’t expecting anyone.

As we got closer, we saw that there was a single cloaked figure sitting at the fire, with their back turned to us. I looked at my map display and it showed a green dot in our camp site. When I tapped the blip to try and bring up information, it came up blank.

Amenthia leaned in and whispered, “Unless they have given you permission to view their info, you will not be able to see anything other than their location. This goes for both members of our Pact house and of the other ones.”

I nodded and we continued to slowly approach our camp, while I kept my focus on the figure sitting by the fire. I knew that Amenthia would be scanning the area around us to make sure there were no surprise attacks as we approached. After our run-in with Jonta, we swore we would never take a risk like that again, even if the person was part of our own Pact house. Once we were less than a meter or so away, I noticed that there was a pot on the fire, with steam rising from the contents.

“It’s about time that you two got here,” the cloaked figure called out, “I was starting to get tired of waiting.”

I watched as the hood of the cloak was drawn back to reveal a young woman, around our age, with long red hair and green eyes. She stood up and turned to look at us, her face changing from a smile to a look of awe and surprise as she locked eyes with me. I looked to Amenthia and her eyes were wide in shock and then a large smile appeared on her face. She ran over to the woman and embraced her in a hug, before talking to her in hushed tones. I approached the two and gave Amenthia a questioning look, which made her blush, but the awed look was still on the young woman’s face.

“Pathios, this is Entivala Greenwood. She is from our Pact house and was a friend when I first joined. She helped me learn the different functions of the Pact house and many other things when I joined, which I used to help you when you arrived. Once I was selected for training for when a rebirth arrived, I haven’t seen or heard from her until just now.”

“Well, it is a pleasure to meet you, Entivala,” I said, as I offered my hand. “I am Pathios Daxion.”

She took my hand and let out a little giggle, before leaning in and whispering something into Amenthia’s ear which caused her to giggle and blush.

“Oh, I know who you are, Pathios. I doubt that there are many people in the city who are not aware of you, given the public nature of your punishment. Regardless, I am honored to meet you. I am, of course, Entivala Greenwood, of the Tyr Pact house. I was told of your trial and I am here to be of assistance.”

“What do you mean you heard about my trial?” I asked, bewildered that she knew of it. “As far as I know, only Tyr, Amenthia, the Guild and the Council are aware of my final trial.”

She smiled and replied, “Tyr was the one who told me about it, and he was the one who asked me to come here. He realized that even with your skill and luck, there was a good chance you could be harmed. He also feared that someone may have tampered with your return stone and that, if you fight the dragon, you could die. So, until further notice, I have been assigned to act as a companion to you as well. I would be the same as Amenthia in that regard, though she may not be aware that I, too, had been sent for the same training.”

Amenthia let out a gasp and looked at her friend in shock. I guessed that she had not been told of Entivala being a candidate as well.

“What are you talking about, Enti? I never saw you there when I was training, and my training didn’t end until just before Pathios arrived. Not to mention that it is unheard of for two to receive training around the same time.”

“I was sent to a different camp,” she said with a blush. “There are different ones depending on what our aptitude was. Yours was long range attacker with a bow, while I am a spell caster. We would be taught differently on how to best work with our charge, given the specific skill set. I will admit that I was jealous that you got picked for the program, seeing as no rebirth occurred during my time period.”

“Why would they do that though?” Amenthia asked, slight irritation evident in her voice. “We were always told that only one male and one female would be trained per choosing and that the next choosing wouldn’t be until the trained were released to become adventurers again. The Council would determine the person who best fit the person’s needs and they would become their companion; the rest would wait their five years, or until another rebirth arrived.”

“They have said that, this is true. However, they always train another pair just in case something happens with the companion. Perhaps they do not get along as well as expected - even the Council can make that mistake. I never expected to get a chance, but today I was called into Tyr’s room and told that I was to find you immediately. He said that more would be explained to us once the trial was completed.”

“Okay then,” I offered. “I am not going to argue with Tyr on this one, I have already seen and felt first-hand what his ire would unleash. So instead, why don’t you tell me about yourself and how you can fill in the gaps we may not have known we had.”

“Certainly. As I said, my name is Entivala Greenwood, I am a forest elf and a spellcaster. I’m forest elf by birth, unlike those who have become elves by racial modification. My spells are elemental in nature, with command of all four elements. I am still level one, and as Tyr told me, on a par with where you two currently are, stat wise. I do have a higher vitality stat given the nature of my training and the limits my skills cause. I currently have access to the following spells, fireball, rock wall, water wall and wind wall. Those, of course, would prove somewhat useful as one is an offensive spell and the rest are defensive spells that would protect our party. I can, of course, learn from tomes or grimoires, as long as they are of the language of my class. Druids, Sorcerers and Wizards have their tomes and grimoires, written in specific languages that prevent certain spells from being used by certain spell casters.”

Amenthia squealed and dug around her pack until she found what she was looking for, handing the tome we just found to Entivala.

“Oh my!” Entivala exclaimed in both shock and glee. “Where did you get this? This is a water tome, dealing in ice magic.”

“We found it in a chest that was guarded by some goblins a few hours ago. Is this of any use to you? If it is, you can have it.”

“Yes, this tome could contain spells for two, possibly three levels, before it is used up. We could be quite lucky if it is in my language, as this magic could be quite useful in defeating the dragon.”

She opened the book and her eyes went wide with shock. She soon began speaking in an unknown language and the book began to glow. With a burst of azure light, the book disappeared, however, the azure light now emanated from Entivala’s eyes. She laughed and launched herself at me, wrapping me in a hug. Amenthia laughed at the display and gently pulled her friend back.

“Sorry about that,” Amenthia said, “but you got a very rare elemental manipulation tome. There is no level restriction. There is only a three percent chance of coming across one in the entire Dungeon. The fact you got it here means that the chest had not been opened for some time.”

I cocked my head and asked, “What do you mean that it had not been opened for some time? What does that have to do with what was inside?”

“Just like with the dragon, if things are left for very long periods of time, they tend to change. In the case of the dragon, the drake that it had once been kept winning and grew stronger. Over the years, the drake grew so strong that it triggered an evolution that made it become a dragon. It could have just as easily became a wyrm or even a wingless dragon - I believe they can be referred to as Chinese dragons on your world. The same can happen with a chest. The longer it goes unopened, the better the loot could become.”