Chapter 36

I awoke in the arms of my ladies, and I relished the feeling of them with me, before I extracted myself from the bed and made off to the bathroom. When I returned, the others were starting to get up and while they were getting breakfast ready, I checked on our equipment. I went in and wasn’t surprised to find all our stuff ready for today. Brot’k did his magic as usual, and I couldn’t thank him enough. The worst part was he isn’t one to accept gifts. He would just claim all the stuff I did for him already was more than enough to repay him.

I came back to find everyone getting ready to eat and took my seat. Cassie, Katie, and Theresa would be taking a back seat today. Cassie was almost done with some new tests and would be looking into everything we had planned for the tent. Katie was going to continue working on trying to make duplicates, to help with her work. She felt she almost had it and another day would help to ensure that she would be able to do it. Theresa was excited to have reached level five and wanted to take a little time to work with Fra’tilia to learn more about making clothing. She felt that she was too much of a novice and hoped to get lessons to make better clothing. Fra’tilia was excited to get her input towards clothing as there were styles that Theresa mentioned to her when they first started talking. Dilbar and Ilthvana said they had to go and meet with Darius today, as he had invited them to see his progress. I could see the look of pain in Cassie’s face from his name being mentioned.

“Oh I am sorry Cassie,” Dilbar exclaimed with a look of embarrassment. “I didn’t think about it before mentioning it.”

Cassie gave a pained smile, “It’s okay Dilbar. It is still just a bit fresh, that’s all. I am glad he is doing well and let him know that we are all routing for him.”

“We will,” Ilthvana replied, placing a comforting hand on Cassandra’s. “We will have an update for you all when we get back.”

I had hoped that it would have been more of us, but I knew that the three of us could handle things with Amber today. I asked Theresa and Cassie to bring down some food for Brot’k and Fra’tilia. We wished everyone goodbye and then went to get ready to meet up with Amber. We actually had to wait an hour longer than expected before she showed up.

“I am so sorry for being late,” the Faun exclaimed as she reached us. “I was getting the quiver done. It cost me most of the gold I collected yesterday, but mine has the ability to replace arrows each day.”

“Awesome!” Amenthia exclaimed. “With the money we have been making I have been meaning to look into getting an enchantment that ensures that the arrows replenish over time instead the next day. That way I don’t have to be so conservative in my shots.”

“It will take a lot of gold for that,” Amber replied. “When I looked into it, it was around five hundred thousand gold, and that was for one that replaces an arrow every ten minutes. For the faster ones you need to double or even triple that amount.”

“Well I am in no rush,” Amenthia laughed. “For now I can make do, but if we do another stretch like the last few days, I will need to get more to make sure that I have back up if I run out.”

“Well we won’t be doing anything like that for the next few days,” Amber replied. “We will be checking in with people within the village, to see if they know anything. From there we will go to the areas where the attacks happened to see if we can learn anything about it.”

“You can always talk to Cassandra about it,” I replied. “She could create a layered rune that could do that work?”

My blonde companion smiled, “I think I will do just that. Perhaps she can add some smithing to augment the enchantment like she did with the tent.”

“Well then why don’t we head out and get started?” I asked. “We have a lot of work ahead of us.”

“Where are Dilbar and Ilthvana,” Amber asked, glancing around. “I thought that they were going to be with us today?”

“They are visiting Darius,” Entivala answered. “He wanted to show them his progress and so they headed over to see him.”

“Oh, yeah,” Amber exclaimed as the revelation of who was mentioned hit her. “How is he doing? Is he adapting well to not being an adventurer anymore? Did he go home?”

I shook my head, “He is at a rehab center that is working to develop a magic prosthesis that would allow him and others like him to keep being adventurers or to live a fuller life.”

“Oh, wow, really?” Amber asked. “I had seen some of the older adventurers that ended up losing limbs and had to leave.”

“It is all new, but with the right amount of time and research, it could change a lot of things for people,” I explained. “This could change things for sure once implemented.”

Once that was done, we decided to split up, given the size of the village it would take four or five hours to talk with everyone that we figured would have either interacted with the group or would have been out there. Despite it only requiring us to be asking questions, it was draining and daunting. We would find ourselves being directed to someone else who we weren’t really even considering to talk to. It ended up taking over six hours to try and deal with everyone. When we regrouped for dinner at a tavern within the village and went over what we had learned.

“So how did your investigation go?” I asked, as my plate was placed in front of me by our server.

“Well from what we can tell, there are very few people that were operating outside of the town, and none were in the area where the attacks occurred. They didn’t notice anything suspicious, like unknown people in the village following the adventurers. What about you?”

“Well we got pretty much the same information,” Amenthia answered in between bites of food. “Nothing suspicious in regard to people going through the town, though there were some villagers that were up that way. There were no attacks aimed at them, which means that they are ignored. So, that means we have to be careful while we are out there.”

“Agreed,” I replied. “We have no idea the numbers that could be out there. Do we want to wait until the others are available to come with us or do we head on without them?”

“It’s a tough call to make,” Amber said as she took a drink from her mug of ale. “I worry that there will be more deaths soon.”

I sighed, “I can agree with that, but we have no idea what we will be walking into either. They have a way of not getting noticed until it’s too late and then you have a real fight on their hands. You remember the red crystals in Silvia’s crown?”

“Yeah, I remember that,” Amber nodded. “They had a weird feeling to them, but I just figured they were power amplifiers.”

“You are correct in that,” I replied, “but there is an added effect. Our emergency escape stones no longer work in their presence. Throw in the poisons that they sometimes lace their blades with, and you have a real problem.”

“So what do you think that we should do then?” Amber asked. “Enlil is counting on me to get this done.”

I sighed, “I am not saying that we don’t move forward, only that we need to not rush things. We need to keep safe.”

“I understand,” Amber replied. “Well then, what would you suggest for us to move forward in the morning?”

Thinking for a few moments, I shrugged, “I will check in with the others, to see who might come with us and we will go from there. I know that Dilbar and Ilthvana may be gone for a few days, but Katie and Cassie could be able to come with us. I know that Katie’s skills would be beneficial to us.”

“Okay, then let’s call it a night and regroup,” Amber suggested as she finished the last of her food. “We can meet in the pact house after morning meal and make a plan then.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I replied with a smile. “We can head out towards the search area and hopefully there will be something that will guide us towards the answers we seek.”

With our meal concluded, we headed back to the pact house and entered the armory to drop off our things. When we emerged in our dorm, the others were clearing up the table. As expected, Dilbar and Ilthvana were not there, as they were probably in the capital still visiting Darius.

“Hello ladies,” I said with a warm smile as I embraced Cassie and Katie. “How was your day?”

Katie let us know the progress she made on her project of creating duplicates that would work on potions. She had figured out what she needed to do to create them, but at present her mana levels were too low to sustain one for a long period of time, let alone multiple. Still she had hope that with time we would get the levels she needed to begin. The upside she felt was that once she made one, they would be able to use tendrils to work on their own until she could make more.

Cassandra had made progress in her runes and had gained a few contracts that would provide her with some significant funds for the pact house. She had talked with Tyr, and she would start receiving a commission on all future sales, as she had repaid the costs that had been associated with her transfer. She smiled because that meant that she could help us build our funds towards the bigger tent. I looked forward to that because it would mean we would be together much more often and with Cassie having equipment in the tent, she could do repairs at camp for our gear. This would allow us to spend much longer amounts of time in the dungeon and could accelerate our progress.

Theresa was excited because her time with Fra’tilia taught her a bunch of new things she hadn’t heard before in clothing creation. She had a bunch of ideas for new clothes and Fra’tilia said that she would assist where she could. She also said if it were good enough, she would assist in the sale of goods if Theresa wanted. Apparently, she had also met a man who popped into Quartermaster, named Ivarn. They had apparently struck up a conversation that lasted nearly an hour before Ivarn’s party pulled him away so that they could get on with their day. He apparently appeared just before she left and asked if he could take her to dinner sometimes. Theresa hadn’t given him an answer yet, but the ladies were telling her to go for it. We let them know the current status of the investigation and what next steps we would be taking.

“How big were the groups that were attacked in the past?” Katie asked with a look of concern. “If the groups were larger than what you are traveling with now, then you need to consider that the size of the attackers group will be larger than you anticipate.”

I thought for a moment and replied, “I don’t think that any of them could have been larger than groups of four. I mean it is rare to have a party as big as ours traveling together on the lower floors.”

“Then I would suggest that you wait until Dilbar and Ilthvana return,” Cassandra suggested. “I don’t want there to be any risk to you guys in this.”

“We don’t know when they will be getting back,” I replied. “I also don’t want them to call their trip short.”

Theresa glanced at the two of them and said, “Well if we go with him tomorrow, then it will be safer, wouldn’t it?”

Both of them nodded and agreed that it would be better than just the four of us going on our own.

“We are just doing a preliminary approach to where the attacks occurred, to get an idea of what had possibly happened,” I explained. “I don’t expect us to get into a fight, but we do plan on being cautious.”

“I will be going tomorrow,” Katie stated. “If there is a root system in that area, I can help ensure you aren’t walking into a trap. If there isn’t, I can create one if I have enough time.”

Cassandra sat back and crossed her arms, “I will come too, I don’t like what you may be walking into and if it means your safety then I will make sure you have the numbers to do so.”

“With Lion-o and Airie, we can ensure there are enough bodies to give them a run for their money,” Theresa said with a confident smile. “You will have my help as well.”

“You all have been dealing with your own things and I don’t want you to change those plans,” I replied, embarrassed a bit about their insistence.

“So what, Pathios?” Cassie asked, her irritation of my reply evident on her face. “We want to make sure that nothing bad happens to you. This is Kali’s group, and they haven’t held back the last few times that you have come across their group. The last thing any of us want is you injured or dead because you got in over your head.”

Katie and Theresa nodded, confirming that they felt the same way. I knew that I wouldn’t win this and relented to agreeing with their decision. I had to remember that while I wanted them to keep them safe, they wanted the same for me as well. We finished the meal, and I quickly created a message for Dilbar and Ilthvana to at least let them know what was going on. I sent the raven and then relaxed in bed. My ladies knew that we needed our rest, because who knew what would happen tomorrow.

I woke up in bed and was glad that I didn’t wake up somewhere else. I got up to find the others on the terrace and they all welcomed me warmly. Aphrodite wasn’t here tonight, but Freyja promised to relay everything we told her. Freyja was just as worried about what could happen as the others, but I reminded her that there was no way of knowing what we could be walking into.