Chapter 10

I had no idea why we were here, but I had faith in Amenthia and that was all I needed. It took nearly ten minutes to arrive at the destination Amenthia intended for us and it looked to be a shop of some kind. It was only single story, as the height of the hallway would not allow anything more than that. It was wide enough to house three or four of the stalls we had seen. We entered and found it to have a moderate number of people perusing the wares. Amenthia had a more direct purpose and took us through the store to the counter where the shop owner was standing. He was human, standing at least an inch or so shorter than me. He had grey hair, though I could not tell if it was natural or colored that way. There were signs of wrinkles and such, but I was unable to ascertain what his age was, based on what I could see. He wore long robes and a small, circular hat, both lavender in color.

“Ahh, Amenthia, my dear,” he said with a thick accent that I couldn’t place. “I’m happy to see that you have returned to partake of my talents. I take it that this is the young man you have told me about, who would need my services?”

She smiled and said, “That is correct, Arvin. This is Pathios. I also brought the last of our gold to pay for it, so I hope that six hundred gold will be enough to cover the cost.”

I looked back to her in surprise, I didn’t expect us to burn through the little gold we had collected so quickly, but again, I trusted her judgement in this matter.

“Hmm, six hundred gold,” he softly repeated while scratching his chin. “Come with me into my work room and we can discuss it there.”

She nodded and Arvin opened up a section of the counter for us to pass through. He then guided us through one of two doors behind the counter and took a seat in one of the four chairs that were in the room. The room was sparse of any decoration, the chairs were simple, as were the bookshelves. There were no rugs or draperies of any kind on the windows, giving a feeling of function rather than extravagance. One of the many shelves held books, while the rest were covered in jars and containers of various sizes and shapes. We both took a seat in two chairs that were opposite his and waited for him to speak.

“I take it that one of the tasks you told me about is the reason you are here?” he asked softly, his brow furrowed. “I will need to know the details to decide how far your gold will go.”

“We are to travel to one of the less-used stairwells, guarded by a dragon that has slowly grown powerful over time. Our task is to slay the beast, once and for all.”

His eyes widened in shock, “Trethraz? Tyr is sending you to try and kill that beast? Hasn’t he punished you enough already?”

“So, will it be enough, Arvin?” Amenthia asked impatiently. “Your help can mean a victory where there wouldn’t have been one, otherwise.”

Arvin got up and started looking through his books and muttering to himself as he went. I looked over to see Amenthia sitting, nervously waiting to hear his reply to her question. It was a little off-putting to see her like that, as it was rare to not see her confident, bubbly self.

“I would suggest fireproofing your armour, but there is a limit to how much protection that can provide. If I do a whole set, you will be protected, even the skin that is exposed.”

I told him, “You will protect Amenthia completely, including her weapons. If we have any other options after that, I will choose them then.”

Amenthia looked at me in shock and surprise, and she saw that I would not back down, nor would I change my mind on the matter. Arvin nodded and collected materials from his shelves, placing them on a circle on the floor that reminded me of an alchemy circle of a fullmetal alchemist. He then gestured to Amenthia to stand within the circle, placing the materials between them.

Once she was inside the circle, he raised his hands and began to chant. One by one, the various things he had placed in the circle began to glow. As the chant continued, the glowing materials began to float off the floor until they were at least two or three feet off the ground. I watched in awe as one of the jars dashed towards Amenthia and collided with a piece of her armour. The glow spread to the armour it had struck, while the jar had vanished. One by one the pieces collided with Amenthia’s armour and weapons until the only part of her not glowing was her exposed skin. Slowly the chanting died, as did the glow emanating from Amenthia’s gear.

“That will protect you from indirect contact with the flames you will encounter from the dragon. It will, however, only protect you from fifty percent of the damage of a direct attack. Please be very careful, though. Your skin will not be burned by the attacks, but you could still end up weakened severely by an attack. Though deaths are extremely rare, there is still a small chance that your extraction stone may not get you out in time. It has happened on occasion and each time it was a monumental loss for us all, not just the Pact houses.”

Amenthia looked at me with worry as she realized the magnitude of what we could be dealing with, but I responded with a reassuring smile.

“So, Arvin, what are the remaining options left for me, now that have completed enchanting her armour, so Amenthia has been protected?”

“Well you have spent all but one hundred gold,” he said softly. “With what remains you can possibly enhance two things.”

Without batting an eye I responded with my sword and shield as my choice for enhancement. He turned and found three jars and placed them in the circle before gesturing for me to move in. The process was then repeated, though this time two things struck my sword, while one struck my shield. After a few moments the glowing ceased, as did Arvin’s chanting and I stepped out of the circle.

“Your sword and shield have received the same protections, though they are slightly different. The shield cannot be destroyed by flame and will protect twenty-five percent of any damage you shield yourself from. The sword will not warp from the heat of the flame, nor will it break from the hardness of the dragon’s thickest scales. I have given you these extras in reward for your valor in choosing to protect Amenthia. I could tell it was a genuine gesture, and that you would make it again anytime you had the chance to do so. This gift is of no charge and I hope to see you two again soon, once your final trial has been completed.”

I nodded and Amenthia gave him the last of our gold. We bade him goodbye until we could visit again. We made our way to the front of the shop and then I had Amenthia guide us to the closest set of stairs for the Dungeon. Before we headed up, Amenthia took me by the collar and shoved me against one of the nearby walls.

“I swear to the gods who watch over this world, that if you get killed, I will find you in the afterlife and kick your ass! Be warned, Pathios Daxion, when this task is over, you will owe me one and I will collect!”

She then further added to my confusion, by giving me a soul-searing, mind-numbing kiss. For a moment I thought that my mind had short circuited from the kiss and I felt my legs almost give out from underneath me. She pulled back and released my collar, a slight blush on her face, before starting down the stairs. I looked on as she went, shocked and elated at what had just happened. I took a quick leer of her fantastic ass, cleared my head and started down behind her.

There were stares from the people we passed by on our way down the Dungeon tower, to the Guild offices below. The punishment had, of course, been shown across the world, and become a public spectacle. The fact that I was punished that way would, no doubt, skew their opinion of me - given why I was disciplined. The facts usually don’t matter to people, only that I had done wrong and therefore was now equal to a criminal. I could only hope that my future actions would undo the damage that had been done. Only time would tell, but for now, my goal was to complete this trial as soon as I could.

Despite the looks and muttering, which were a bit disconcerting, we made our way to the first Guild floor and asked to see Esmerelda. There were further stares from people waiting and whispered conversations as we waited. Amenthia gave my arm a reassuring squeeze, and the Guild member signaled that she was ready to bring us to Esmerelda. When we arrived at her room, Esmerelda was her warm, welcoming self, guiding us to our chairs before taking her own.

“Well, I must say I am surprised to see you two here today, as I would have expected you, Pathios, to be still in bed healing from the lashes you received. It was a horrible thing to watch and I am sorry that happened to you, as it seemed a bit extreme. I know you would not have killed him unless you had no other choice, plus Jonta was always an arrogant ass and he had harassed a number of adventurers over the past two years. Unfortunately, harassment isn’t a crime and he had been warned and punished with fines and losses as a deterrent. There was no sign or proof he had done anything worse than that or we would have sanctioned him and notified the council ourselves. Hopefully the new laws that are going to be passed will help keep this issue from ever happening again. So, what can I do for you two today?”

I smiled and said, “Thank you for your kind words and support, Esmerelda, I really appreciate it. We will be heading into the Dungeon today to finish the final trial that was assigned to me. Per Tyr’s instruction I am to defeat a sub-boss guarding a particular stairway to the third floor that has been a trouble for quite some time.

“Tyr is sending you after Trethraz?!” Esmerelda exclaimed in shock. “Is he out of his mind? You are not even level two yet, and this beast is level three, at least, and has nearly killed everyone who has gone up against it. Tyr isn’t pulling any punches, is he? Even though it is both of you, you will have to be careful, because you are both still level one.”

I turned to Amenthia in surprise, and she nodded to confirm what Esmerelda had just said. I would have to ask her about that when we had a moment. For now, we needed to complete our task here.

“We will do our best to build up our stats,” I explained, “and possibly upgrade our equipment while inside. While the first day was a nice haul of gold, due to decent drops, but our second day got cut short by Jonta. We had to use all the money we earned to pay for new armour and weapons for me, as well as other things to help in our trial.”

“There are Guild members at each Pact house check in, as Amenthia has no doubt explained to you already. You can deposit orbs and things you don’t want to keep there, that way you can replenish you gold supply without leaving the second floor. Please be aware that the fine that has been placed is in effect. The value of the fine will be removed from your total the next time you deposit orbs, so I would suggest that you collect as many as possible.”

“Well, it is good to be reminded that we have the option. If you don’t mind me asking, what is the size of the fine?”

“The total is ten thousand gold,” she answered with an apologetic sigh. “The council didn’t take it right away to ensure that you had enough funds for your new equipment.”

“We will talk to you again when we either succeed in our given task or are extracted due to being near death from fighting that thing.”

We bade one another goodbye and my companion and I made our way to the staircase, ready to make our way to the first floor of the Dungeon. Amenthia was nervously glancing over at me as we went, no doubt wondering when I would ask the question she knew was coming.

“I think we need to have a quick talk about what Esmerelda mentioned a few minutes ago. Since I never once asked what your level was, you didn’t lie about it when we talked, but you didn’t offer the information yourself. To some, that is considered a lie by omission and things like this are very important, my sweet. Please don’t hide anything moving forward because I won’t judge.”

She sighed and replied, “I know, Pathios, and I am sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but once my first trial had been completed, I was told by Tyr that it was all that I needed to complete. The rest of my trials would be completed, when I went in with my chosen companion. That is why I didn’t participate in the first trial. I had already completed mine and I was ordered to bear witness, as well as report my opinion of the fight to Tyr.”

I stopped and looked at her, “What would have happened if my selections had been different and I had not been I sent to Tyr’s house? Would you be stuck waiting for someone who would not come, or would there be another option for you?”

“Thankfully, that would not have happened. Because, if no one arrived before my twenty first birthday, I would be given my two remaining trials to complete and I would be a full-fledged adventurer. I would have been given some compensation for the time I missed waiting for my possible rebirth partner. The first trial gauges an adventurers combat style, intuition and skill. The results are given the Guild to give them an idea of how you will do, and they can estimate your leveling up to level five. It also lets them gauge your natural abilities, so they can give you quests best suited for your talents.”

“Amenthia, in the future, information like that is important for me to know,” I told her, trying to not sound angry. “I need to know as much as I can, so that I can plan accordingly when we enter the Dungeon and when we are in fights. Not knowing your level and what you are capable of could put either of us at unnecessary risk. I know we both wouldn’t want something to happen to the other, so no more hiding stuff like that, okay?”

She nodded and gave me a shy smile, as she squeezed my arm, her armour the only thing keeping her breasts from wrapping themselves around it. We continued on and made our way up the stairs to the first floor of the Dungeon. Once we went through the archway and reached the plateau, we picked the longest route we could that would allow for a stop at the town village on the second floor.

We had only gone a few feet from the stairwell when we were beset by three mobs of boars, each mob having two boars each. The mob closest to us drew our focus, so I readied my sword and shield and once they were in a few feet I charged the two as Amenthia lined up a shot towards one of the mobs behind. She hit the closest two in the eye, killing them instantly and causing one small orb to appear, as the two boars burst into clouds of smoke. I raised my shield to bash the boar to my left, while trying to slash the one on my right. I successfully hit the boar to the side causing it to lose its balance and roll a bit away from me. Amenthia dispatched that one with her short sword as I focused on the one that had been on my right. I couldn’t hit its front leg, but I was able to slash the second boar in its hip deep enough to make its mobility lessen. I readied my shield to prepare for the boar’s counterattack and it didn’t disappoint me. As I rolled out of the way, I heard arrows flying and hitting the other boars. As expected, two shots were all I heard and then the distinct burst that followed when they burst into smoke.

I readied myself, shifting my foot placement in preparation for the boar’s next attack. Once it got close enough, I jumped to the side and brought the sword down hard at its neck. Despite the sword’s lesser quality, I was successful in cleaving its head off, causing it to burst into a plume of smoke. No orb dropped this time, however, Amenthia had two in her hand so the second mob must have left a drop.

I would have to make a few changes to my fighting style due to the extra weight, but this would do for now. We continued on along our intended route and we didn’t ignore a single mob on the way. We had small bites of food as we went, as we didn’t want to waste time stopping for a meal unless it was absolutely necessary. This would allow us to keep our health up, as we progressed to our chosen stairwell to the second level. We had picked one as far away from our starting point as possible, determined to collect as much experience as we could. We tore through the mobs we came across, focused on our task and fueled with an inner fire to succeed in our assigned task. We came across all sorts of beasts as we made our way across the map and we felt we made some good progress as we went. By the time we arrived at the stairwell, we had collected twelve small orbs, nine small, bright ones, and three medium orbs. We planned to stock up on food as well as health potions when we reached the village because we didn’t want to run the risk of our health getting too low and forcing us to leave prematurely. If the extraction stone is forced to activate, Amenthia had mentioned that we could lose some of our orbs to pay the cost of the emergency transport.

This was a good start, and would help to replenish our funds, but I knew that we would be spending most of it when we got to the village. Since the orbs Amenthia had were in her possession when I was punished, we didn’t lose them, but those had been used up to get our armour and enchantments. So, every little bit was going to help now, the ones we handed in had netted only a few hundred coins and we had spent twelve hundred on my equipment, so each drop would count. We would need to make sure to keep Amenthia’s use of arrows to a minimum as we had not made it to the next level yet and I didn’t want to have to rest until we reached our destination. So far, she had used eleven of her daily allotment of thirty arrows, which left us with nineteen arrows left. These could be used up quickly if we became unlucky with the mobs we encountered. Part of the rations were gone, but we would have enough to last us to the village on the next floor, we just had to be careful how much damage we took.

I turned to Amenthia and asked, “Can drops include food? If not, is there any way to hunt for food or is it only bought?”

“There are hunting arrows that are used to collect food in the Dungeons,” she replied, “I could use those the next time we come across a mob, as I currently have five, but they do not respawn, so we have to be very careful. The arrows will prevent them from disappearing in a puff of smoke, instead treating them like real animals, allowing us to harvest what we need. While that would be useful, we do not know how to field dress and prepare a dead animal, so I would wait before we resort to that.”

I nodded and made a note to learn how to field dress an animal. We continued our trek to the stairwell to the next floor. We once again made quick work of the mobs in our way and we were lucky that most were our level, allowing us to concentrate on killing them quickly and collecting the drops. We both lost some health due to the close combat, Amenthia lost less than I did, as the armour I was wearing was not as effective as my previous armour. I hadn’t changed my fighting style and the weight of the armour slowed down my reflexes, along with being not as sturdy or thick as the last set. However, we added quite nicely to our collection of orbs and were now up to nineteen small orbs, thirteen small, bright ones, four medium orbs and one medium bright.

We lucked out in finding no opposition guarding the door to the next floor, so we made our way up. I concluded that the goblin I had faced had appeared specifically for my trial, but I would make sure to be on guard, as there was no telling if a sub-boss might spawn.

We decided to make camp near the entrance to the stairs, as there was a one-hundred-foot safety zone surrounding it. We started a nice fire to keep warm, enjoyed a decent meal while ensuring we had enough food to last us until we could get to the village. Then we laid down our sleeping mats and went to sleep, I slept soundly that night, the heat from the fire kept me at the perfect temperature all night.

When I woke up the next morning, I was surprised to find I was not alone on my sleeping mat. Sometime during the night Amenthia had joined hers with mine and cuddled into my right side. It was an amazing sensation, to have a flesh and blood woman sleeping beside me yet again. She smelled so good that it was having the obvious effect, and I crawled out to relieve my bladder of some pressure, as well as relieve myself of my erection. I made sure to have my weapons with me, as I couldn’t be sure how far from the stairs I was. When I got back, Amenthia had awakened and had almost finished cleaning up the camp site and once cleaned up, we headed to the next floor. In the archway, we looked at our bracers to get a gauge for how we were doing. It would take us a about half a day, if we don’t go directly, to get to the village from where we were. We could try to stretch it out and make it a day to ensure as many drops that we could get, but the risk was high. We picked a long path that traversed as much area as possible within our half-day limit, much as we had done the day before.