Chapter Ninety-Eight — Bun of Her Word
Chapter Ninety-Eight — Bun of Her Word The moment that Rhawrexdee took off and flapped away, I fell back into the chair I’d appropriated and felt my everything turning to jelly. “Whaa, that was a little scary,” I said.“A... a little scary,” Amaryllis repeated. “You absolute.... I don’t think my language has a word to express how stupid you are. I... well, you got rid of it, at least.”I looked at her. “Oh, you didn’t hear our bargain,” I said. Amaryllis tensed. “What bargain.”“Ah, heh, it’s a... funny idea I had.” Her eyes narrowed into dangerous little slits. “I’m listening.”“Well. I got Rhawrexdee to agree not to eat people if we, um, taught-him-how-to-woo-girls,” I said the last in a rush.Amaryllis went red, then she paled. “You want us to do what?!” she shrieked.“He’s mostly interested in princesses, so I might have to rely on your knowledge. Both of you, that is.”“Awa,” Awen said. “You, you want me to teach a dr-dragon? Not even uncle messed with dragons.”I shoved myself off the chair, shook a little to unlimber myself, then nodded. “Yup. We have two days to get ready before he shows up at the gate.”“So we have two days to run,” Amaryllis said as she slumped. “You had me going there, you idio-” she stared at me. She stared really hard. “You actually intend to go through with it?”“Well, I did say I would,” I said. “And I’m a bun of my word.”Amaryllis shielded her face with both hands as if she could hide from her new Broccoli-caused problems. I kinda felt bad about it. I hadn’t even told the girls my plan before putting it in motion. “Ah, shucks. Look, I’m sure you can stay back here and-” Amaryllis bapped me on the head with a bunch of feathers. “We need to hurry. I didn’t come all the way over to this hole just to get whisked away by some lovestruck dragon. C’mon. We can start our way through the dungeon now and finish it by nightfall.”“P-pardon me, ma’am?” someone said. We turned to see a potbellied man holding a bowler hat over his chest approaching us. “I’m the mayor and... ah, that dragon...”“We took care of it,” Amaryllis said. “It’ll be back in two days, so do try not to panic.”“Ah,” the mayor said. He looked on the verge of panicking. “We’ll take care of it then too. Now don’t get in our way.”“Yes ma’am!” he said before scurrying off.I took a moment to look around and finally noticed just how many people were staring, and whispering. I waved.Amaryllis wrapped her talons around my wrist and yoinked me forwards. “Come on you. I’m not done telling you, in explicit detail, how dumb you are.”“Aww, can’t we just skip that part?” I asked. “Being told I’m dumb a lot has got to be bad for my self-esteem.”“That might be a good thing,” Amaryllis said. “Look at Awen. Self-esteem of a dead fish, but she’s actually clever. There might well be a correlation here.”“Awa, a, a dead fish?” Awen squeaked.Amaryllis’ stride carried us past a group of plate-armoured adventurers that were quick to scramble out of our path, as if we had eaten the dragon instead of just bargained with it. “Is what I did really all that dumb?” I asked.Amaryllis was quiet for a bit, enough that we had crossed a few blocks before she answered. “Perhaps not. Dragons are... not the sort of creature people in their first tier deal with. That is, if you don’t count ‘being eaten’ as a way of dealing with them. They’re like natural disasters to most. When one comes you hunker down and hope for the best. Some nations have the power to fend off all but the most powerful dragons, and they’re not immortal, they can be defeated. But it’s always an expensive endeavor.”“Okay,” I said. “But we didn’t fight Rhawrexdee, we bargained with him.”“Yes. That’s also a solution. But one usually carried out by teams of diplomats with armed escorts, not some dimensionally displaced country bumpkin and her two friends who don’t know any better.”“So what we did?” “What you did,” Amaryllis corrected. “I’m taking none of the blame if it goes wrong and a third of the praise if it works.”I huffed. “Meanie.”Amaryllis grinned back at me, and I knew that she wasn’t quite as angry as I had feared she might be. We spun around a corner and found ourselves right before Yoland’s shop. The old woman was standing outside and leaning on a cane. Her eyes widened on seeing us. “Is it true?” she asked.“Ah, hello, and is what true?” I wondered.“You scared off a dragon?” she asked with barely concealed awe.“How did you learn that so fast?” I asked. “And we didn’t scare it off. We had a polite conversation and I suggested it come back later.”“World’s will,” the woman said. “Um. We kind of need our things,” I said. “If it’s not too much trouble. We’ll pay even if you’re not entirely done.”That snapped Yoland back to attention. “You’ll do no such thing, child. The experience I gained from working on mastercraft items, and the money I’d lose if that beast burned down the town, why, I can’t have you paying. Though I would appreciate you dropping a word about the fine work you purchased at Old Yoland’s.”Grinning, I followed the woman into her shop.
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It had taken us nearly half an hour to get everything sorted and ready, a half hour that Amaryllis had spent frowning and fretting. When we finally left (with a polite wave back to the nice older lady) Amaryllis led us straight south towards the far walls of the city.“Rosenbell is built on the edge of a cliff. It’s a pretty popular place to build a city nowadays. Easy access for airships, a good natural defence, and it allows you to see from afar. In this case it also acts as a barrier against the winds from Silver Salt Bay.” She shook her feathery head. “The geography lesson isn’t important. The point is, the dungeon is at the base of these cliffs.”Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!“I think it’s neat,” I said as I jogged a bit to keep up with Amaryllis. “Ah, why are we running?” “We’re not running, we’re walking with efficiency,” Amaryllis said.Awen looked like she wanted to say something, but her face was red and she was puffing a bit. “Amaryllis, slow down. Why are you in such a hurry?” I asked.My harpy friend huffed, but she did slow down a bit. “What you did back there will attract a lot of attention. Not all of it good. Most of it will be... ambivalent at best. If we can disappear for a day things will calm down considerably. The dungeon is an opportunity to do just that.”“And you want to level up too,” I guessed.Amaryllis huffed and stomped on ahead. I giggled, grabbed Awen by the hand, and pulled her along with me.We arrived at a short wall at the southernmost end of the city. There was half a dozen meters of opened ground between the nearest house and the wall, with nothing bigger than a garden or two occupying the space. Beyond the wall I could make out gantries and the complicated machines used to maintain and dock airships. Amaryllis pointed to an arch in the wall, one that wasn’t even guarded.We stepped through and onto a wooden walkway that stretched out over the edge of a cliff. “Whoa,” I said as I looked down to the plains far below. “Awa, it reminds me of home,” she said. “Look. They have a dock here too.” She pointed off to the side where half a dozen or so airships were parked in one of those strange vertical parking ports that I had been seeing ever since Port Royal. The ships docked here were noticeably smaller though, and none of them seemed like they were equipped for anything worse than a bit of harsh wind. Merchant ships.“Stop gawking.” Amaryllis said. “There’s a lift over there.” She pointed to a little lift next to a kiosk where a young man was reading from a book. He looked up when we approached and set his book aside. “Heya,” he said. “Which level? And, uh, did you see where everyone went? The guards ran off in a tizzy.”“Which level leads to the dungeon?” Amaryllis asked.“Four, ma’am,” he said. “That’ll be three cop each.” Amaryllis slapped a silver coin on the counter before him. “There was a dragon,” I said. The boy fumbled his coin, barely snatching it before it could plunge over the cliff. “Don’t worry. We took care of it.”“R-right,” he said. “Uh. Keep all limbs in the lift and try not to shift too much, please.”We climbed aboard the lift, which was little more than a sort of basket with a steel frame and wicker walls. A motor puffed to life behind the kioske and we were lowered down at about the same pace a very tired snail might move. “Not very subtle, are you?” Amaryllis said.“I’m plenty subtle,” I said.She snorted. “Oh, really?” I nodded. “Didn’t you see how subtly I slid into your best friend slot?” I asked.Amaryllis glared at me, then paused as if to actually think on what I’d said. “No. I refuse to believe that was on purpose.”I grinned and hung onto the edge of the lift as it slowly wobbled its way down past a few other levels of the small docks. Things were moving pretty fast, but that was alright. I was certain we’d find some time to take a break once we were in the dungeon proper. There hadn’t been any quest alerts about this one, so perhaps it wasn’t infected or anything like that and I was going to get to experience my first utterly normal dungeon run. I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t getting a little excited. Awen was shifting by my side, and even Amaryllis was looking impatient... more impatient as our lift finally rumbled to a stop. The level didn’t seem to have any access to ships or anything of the sort. Instead there was a wooden walkway that led into a large bore-hole like cavern dug into the side of the cliff.A large steel gate was barring the path into the tunnel with a sign hanging before it.ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISKDungeon Begins Beyond This Point-Council of Rosenbell“Is it locked?” I asked.“It had better not be,” Amaryllis muttered a moment before she tugged at the gate. It swung opened with a faint squeal of metal on metal. “I guess not.”Looking back over my shoulder, I took in one last look of the bright and cheery afternoon skies over the desert behind me. A deep breath carried the scent of festival foods and oils all the way over to me. Then I turned and stepped after my friends. “Look.” Amaryllis said. She was pointing to a rack to one side. Just a metal pole with two little handkerchiefs tied to it. “Two teams are in there already.”“Should we do the same?” I asked. “I’ve got some cloth.”Amaryllis nodded. “Give it to me first.”Awen was the first to react, pulling a little scarf from the pockets of her jacket, the same one Amaryllis had given her when we entered the edges of the desert a couple of days back. Amaryllis hummed as she tied it in a knot around the pole, then she pinned her Exploration Guild pin to the bottom. “There, now let’s go clear a dungeon.”You are Entering The Palace of StringsLevels 5-7Your entire party has entered the DungeonThis Dungeon is Occupied. Share an Instance?
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Chapter Ninety-Nine — What is a Normal Adventurer?
Chapter Ninety-Nine — What is a Normal Adventurer? “So, uh,” I said as I looked at the menu floating before me. You are Entering The Palace of StringsLevels 5-7Your entire party has entered the DungeonThis Dungeon is Occupied. Share an Instance? “What do we do?” I asked.Amaryllis hummed. She seemed to have calmed down a little now that we were in the dungeon and far away from all the people in the town above. Was it still above now that we were in a dungeon? The last dungeon certainly didn’t fit in the place where we had been, and the Wonderland dungeon was really weird too.“I think,” she said, cutting off my woolgathering. “That we can join whichever instance is already running. Our goal is the boss, nothing else. Having more people around would just shorten the time to get to that objective.”“Awa, I wanted to, um, practice with my crossbow a little too. And, and my glass magic, I think I’m getting there,” Awen said.Amaryllis shook her head. “The bow is fine. The magic... less so. We’ll have to pick up some books on the subject later.”“Ah, okay,” Awen said.“Did that book I gave you help?” I asked.Awen nodded. “Yes, a little. I slept on it too.”“Right,” I said. “Kinda forgot that was a thing.”Amaryllis sighed. “Please focus just a little bit, please. We are about to enter a hostile environment. This dungeon has no delve room. And there are others in it already.” She made a gesture in the air and Mister Menu’s prompt poofed from the corner of my vision.Spinning on a heel, Amaryllis led us deeper into the rocky tunnel of the Palace of Strings. Within a dozen steps the rock walls changed. Roots poking out from above like skeletal hands and the walls were more packed dirt than solid stone. The tunnel grew a little tighter and we had to duck out of the path of what looked like entire tree trunks covered in mud and dirt. And then the tunnel ended and we carefully stepped out onto an open lawn.A red quarter moon hung just over the horizon, casting a faint reddish glow across grounds that were sparsely illuminated by the twinkling stars above.Ankle-high grass filled a huge field surrounded by woods so thick and dark and foreboding that just looking at them gave me Scooby-doo flashbacks. In the centre of the field was a huge mansion that looked like something out of an old Dracula movie. Big windows with flickering yellow lights within, gargoyles on each corner of the roof, and a hedge wall twice as tall as I was all around what I could see of the building.“The book said that the first floor is that hedge maze,” Amaryllis said. “The second begins on entering the building proper.” She was whispering, and I saw her squinting at the sky as a flight of tiny bats flitted by.“Spooky!” I cheered as I started to walk towards the hedge maze. “I really should have spent more time learning that light ball spell, It’d come in handy here,” I said as I raised a hand and pushed some mana into it until it glowed. Not enough to really illuminate my surroundings by much, but it did help.“Awa!” Awen said as she jogged up behind me and pulled up her crossbow so that it was aiming out ahead of us. “I’m, ah, not used to the dark.”Amaryllis sighed and raised her own hand, a bright ball of light sparking to life in it. “You have no gravitas. And Broccoli, there’s a light on your hat.”“Oh, right!” I said. I’d forgotten about that. A push of mana towards my hat and the rune light I’d tied around the brim a while back lit up the world ahead of me. “Thanks Amaryllis!” “I swear, I feel like a mother sometimes,” Amaryllis said.“You’d make a great mom, I’m sure!” I said.She whapped me so hard my hat went flying. “I-idiot!” I laughed as I fetched my hat. “Sorry. Didn't know that was something you were sensitive about.”“I am in no way... nevermind! Let’s just move ahead. I’d like to get this over before sunset.” She glared when I started to point towards the darkened skies. “Don’t start.”Our moods were pretty high as we reached the opening of the hedge maze. They dipped soon after.There were spiders there. Huge things, the size of dobermans with big fuzzy bottoms and fangs the size of my forefingers. The spiders were all piled up to the sides where they were slowly smoking and fading away.“What happened here?” I asked as I held my spade by the very end of the handle and poked one of the spiders. It didn’t so much as twitch.“The others in the dungeon, perhaps,” Amaryllis said. “They can’t have been here for too long, the corpses aren’t gone yet.”I looked at the smoke wafting off the bodies. It was taking longer than usual, eating away at the body inch by inch. “Strange,” I said.“Keep your eyes open,” Amaryllis said.We moved into the maze, eyes and lights twisting this way and that to take in as much as we could. The area smelled like decomposing leaves, a faint tang of rot that grew stronger the deeper in we went. Our lights didn’t seem to illuminate all that far, not as much as they should have.Leafy walls surrounded us on all sides, their tops swaying in an unfelt wind.“Wow, this place is really scary,” I noted.“Awa,” Awen whimpered.I sighed and pulled her into a sidelong hug. “Just because something is scary, doesn’t mean you should be scared of it. It’s usually the things you don’t know about that are the scariest, I think, but that also means you’re worrying about something that might not be there at all.”“Are, are you sure?” Awen asked. I nodded. “Yep. Not worrying about things you have no control over is my number one way not to pee myself while watching horror movies.” I gave her a reassuring thumbs-up.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.“What’s a movie?” she asked.“Girls, ahead,” Amaryllis said.There were more spiders. Not all of them were dead.Two of the big beasties were wrangling something invisible in the air, spider webs, maybe? Another three were skittering back as little thumbnail-sized balls of fire darted through the air and pelted the ground around them.“Insight,” I said as I stared at the spider.An overwhelmed Manweaver, level 5.I stepped up and prepared to smack the first spider to reach us with my shovel. I needn’t bother. Awen’s crossbow twanged and one of the spiders flew off and smacked into the far hedge with a meaty ‘thwunk.’Then Amaryllis reached out a hand and made a casual little shoo-ing gesture. Crackling bolts of electricity raced out ahead and fried the two remaining spiders, then two further away who were tugging at something unseen.I almost felt bad when one of them stumbled close enough that I could smack it. It hardly took more than a bop to the head to kill it.Congratulations! You have put Manweaver, level 5, out of its misery. Due to combating as a team your reward is reduced!We paused as whatever was throwing fire around stopped. Then, from the bushes ahead, came a masculine voice. “Is anyone there?” I looked to the others. “Was that in... whatever language you speak normally?” I asked.“Yes, it was,” Amaryllis said. “Hello there!” she called out. “Are you the delvers who started this instance?” “Maybe? Who’s asking?”Amaryllis rolled her eyes. “We’re from the Exploration Guild.”Three boys-men, really-stepped out from around the corner. One was wearing simple leather armour with some cloth beneath it and he held a staff by his side. The team’s mage, maybe? The other two were entirely different. The biggest of the lot was a handsome enough man with a nice chin and armour like a fantasy barbarian. He would have been nicer if he wasn’t covered in webbing. Next to him was a man in thick full plate, only his lower face visible from under his bell-shaped helmet. He had a little capelet with a strange symbol on the front, like two hands holding.“Ah,” the mage said. “Hello? I didn’t... we didn’t expect to have any company this afternoon. Especially not from such pretty young ladies.”“Aww, thanks!” I said. “I hope you don’t mind us just showing up.” “Me? Never,” he said with what he probably thought was a roguish grin. “I’m Eli, the thick lug behind me here is Boots.” The barbarian looking guy cheerfully waved a battleaxe at us. “And the healer back there is Percy. Don’t let the name fool you, he’s not as big an ass as he sounds at first.”“See if I heal you next time you show up with an itchy crotch complaining about lumps,” Percy said.“Not in front of the ladies,” Eli hissed. “Ah, well,” I said before I cleared my throat. “I’m Broccoli Bunch, These are my friends, Awen Bristlecone and Amaryllis Albatross. And this is my kitten friend, Orange!” My friends waved or nodded seriously when I named them. Orange glared, but she was a cat so that was okay. “We’re here to fight the boss, but I’d love to make friends too!” EliDesired Quality: Pretty, female.Dream: To have intercourse with more women than anyone else.“I’d love to be your friend,” Eli said.“Ah, no,” I said. “I mean... friends are okay, but I don’t do any of... that kind of stuff. Only after marriage.”“Awa? What kind of stuff?” Awen asked.I felt my cheeks warming. “Nevermind that,” I said with a wave. “Um... Amaryllis, help?”“You doofus,” she muttered before stepping up. “What’s your goal here?” she asked the three delvers.The boys looked between each other, and apparently decided to elect Eli as their spokesperson. “We’re just doing our job? Our team has been here for a month now, diving once a day. The spider parts aren’t worth much, but the dresses dropped on the third floor go for a fair price.”“Cool,” I said. “We’re just here for today.”“Indeed,” Amaryllis said. “Are we interfering with your dive?” “Not exactly,” Eli said, he became a little more serious. “Not yet anyway. We haven’t reached the second floor just yet. The maze shifts a bit every day. But if you pass us, then we’ll lose out on any loot drops.”I looked to Amaryllis. There was a question in her eyes and it didn’t take a genius to figure it out. “Up to you,” I said.She nodded. “If we accompany you, we can help clear the monsters and you can keep the loot. It might make things faster for you.”“We’re not here to map things,” Eli said. “We’re moving quickly.”“We’re here for the boss, that’s all,” Amaryllis said.Eli hummed. “Well, we’re not getting any more out of killing the local beasties. We’ve all chopped our share of spiders. We probably won’t level for months at this rate, so one lost day... still, we’ll be escorting you, which puts us at risk.”Amaryllis rolled her eyes. “Three sil.”Eli grinned. “Each.”“In your dreams,” Amaryllis said. “One each. Not a cop more.”Coins were tossed over to Eli who snapped them out of the air. He even bit into one, which couldn’t be sanitary. “That’s a deal,” he said. “Welcome to Rosenbell Delve Team Two, ladies.”“Alrighty!” I cheered. “So now where do we go?” Eli swept his arms through the air like a conductor at a circus. “Right this way,” he said. “Let’s show you the wonders of the Palace of Strings.”“And the horrors,” Percy said.“And the fights!” Boots cheered. I looked at my friends and we all seemed to choose to go along with it for now. I hoped for the best, but kept my spade close, just in case.
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