Chapter 6

Grace had insisted that Axel and Rayner travel with the caravan heading towards the dungeon even though it would have been faster for them to travel on foot. Instead, they plodded along with hundreds, if not thousands, of travelers.

But she’d been right in her recommendation for many reasons.

Traveling with the caravan allowed them to see the might of the Coalition gods. A massive gaseous wall of blue bordered the entirety of the caravan, a blessing from a traveler god of the Coalition. The barrier protected the caravan as it traveled.

Kobolds stalked the caravan and launched attacks against it, but the blessing of Turin halted them and when the kobolds pushed further into the shimmering wall of blue, their bodies disintegrated into nothing.

Axel and Rayner both used the opportunity to learn more about the Coalition. Axel spent his time with the people who followed the worshipers into dungeons. Rayner kept an eye on the weapons worshipers carried.

Axel disliked children, but they were a plentiful source of information. This was why he now acted like a clown at a party, entertaining kids with a display of his skills.

The children sat eagerly around him, waiting for him to show his skills off again. Though they had seen it at least a dozen times already, they clapped for more, demanding an encore.

The first thing Axel had figured out was that worshipers rarely displayed their skills to others unless they were trying to make a point. A prudent move.

“Do it again, again!” said a gap-toothed child. The others bounced as they sat, also wanting to see more.

Axel shook his finger. “Not until you tell me something interesting.”

“Why? Everyone knows this stuff,” said a child from the back who had been suspicious of Axel from the start.

“Who cares? I’ll tell you something,” said a proud little girl with an air of knowledge about her. “My mom says that dungeons are alive and can die. That’s the difference between places like this and the Coalition.”

After his fight to stop the birth of the dungeon, he’d already figured that out, but her last words interested him. “What are the differences between the Coalition and other lands, other than having powerful gods?”

“No! Show us your skills. Then I’ll answer.”

Clever little shit. “OK! Here we go!” He fixed on a false smile. “Pain Knife!”

And with the unnecessary announcement of his skill, Pain Knife activated, and the sickly haze of red encompassed the blade.

The children ooed and awed, even the disagreeable child pouting at the back. When adults saw Axel’s skill, they cringed. Deep instincts warned them away from his skill.

Children had no such senses. To them, a knife that could cause agonizing and constant pain was only a weird glow.

Axel deactivated his skill then put away his dagger. “Now tell me what I want to know,” Axel said.

Eyes alight, the girl answered. “There are no dungeons in the Coalition. That’s why Caravans like this one move from place to place to mine leftovers.”

“What is it your mother does?” At the child’s closed lips, Axel pulled his dagger back out and let Pain Knife flare, the haze of the blade jutting out as trying to sprout another blade of red.

Satisfied, she answered. “She’s a miner. When the worshipers kill all the monsters, she takes the resources for them.”

Interesting. Axel wanted to know more. A miner should search for minerals, not flesh. Hunter would be a better name.

A hand gripped his shoulder. “Should have known,” came Rayner’s voice from behind. “Show is over kids. Go to your parents.”

The children whined but did as the big boy said.

Axel frowned. “Those children were a gold mine of information. You shouldn’t have sent them away.”

Shaking his head, Rayner let out a knowing sigh. “If they tell their parents that some man was mining them for information, what do you think they will do?”

“Oh.”

“Exactly.”

“Well then, what have you been up to? This caravan is so huge, I lost track of you.”

“I know, it’s like a moving town. All this to exploit a dungeon. I’ve been helping harvest monster parts.”

“Hold up. This sounds good. Let’s head back to our coach.”

Grace paid for them to travel in style. They rode and slept in a luxury coach with plush pillows made of fine, soft-to-the-touch fabric. Whenever Axel laid his head on them, his eyelids got heavy. The carpeted floors were of a gaudy color that the merchant Garman would appreciate.

The coach even had curtained windows that guarded their eyes against the light if they chose to sleep during the morning. They never did, but it was nice to have the option. Oh, and the seats folded out into a bed.

Blessed items like the ones used by Barny’s guardsmen were embedded into the coach to keep them comfortable. Useful as they couldn’t use blessings by themselves.

Grace not only sent them a fine coach; she sent a message: See what money can buy.

Axel settled in on the heated seat, Rayner sat across from him comfortably. “Now talk. I assumed you took notes on what you learned.”

“Of course, I did. Keeping a list was my idea. Well, anyway, I found this world’s version of a blacksmith for monster parts. They’re called whitesmiths.”

“Cool. Go on.”

“Monsters, unlike humans, have all the skills they need inside their bodies. Gods only play a role in bringing those skills out or adding some that they shouldn’t have. Whitesmiths find the part of the monsters that have these skills and turn them into something worshipers can use in combat or in daily life.”

“Like a monster core or something.”

“Kind of. I helped open the monsters to find the parts. My Force Hammer made it easy. Sometimes there was a bead or a large ball but most of the time it was gore and guts. Whitesmiths seem to be a cross between a butcher, a tanner, and a smith.”

“A chef,” Axel noted.

“Yeah, some whitesmiths are nicknamed chefs if they’re skilled.”

Axel sat back, taking in this new information. How could they could use this? “I suppose what part of the monsters holds the skill and how to use it is a valuable secret.”

“I knew you would go there. Yes, it is. And no, I found out nothing on how to do this myself. The man was so confident I couldn’t steal his secrets that he made an item right in front of me and I watched him the entire time and probably couldn’t replicate what he did. I think it involves a special skill, maybe even a god’s blessing.”

“We need this. Badly.”

“Well, yeah, it would be nice to have some cool weapons. I tried to find out if living weapons are a thing here and got laughed at. A weapon that could live is asking for trouble.”

“Does sound like something that would turn on you. But our need is more critical than that. We have killed a lot of monsters since coming to this world.”

Rayner nodded grimly, his eyes covered in shadow. “Yes. We have. A lot of people too.”

“Yeh. But there is something from video games that we have not been able to do: loot monsters. We would have to drag their corpses to one of these whitesmiths to make any use of them. But a child just told me that her mother mines dungeons so worshipers don’t have to.”

“You want a whitesmith as a party member. That would bankrupt us ... Actually, we already are. The cost of replacing our broken weapons and paying for training have emptied our pockets. We rely on Madam Grace for everything now.”

Axel trusted Grace much more than he had when they first met, but relying on the woman to such an extent still rankled his feathers. A woman would lose respect for a man who relied on her too much. Or at least that had been his experience.

“We need someone better than a whitesmith,” Axel said. “Someone who can make use of a monster’s corpse at a moment’s notice. I got no idea how we find this person but it has to happen.”

“I’ll keep an eye out.” Then Rayner paused, mulling something over. “We need to talk.”

“We’re doing that now. Or are you breaking up with me?” Axel chuckled but when Rayner didn’t respond, he got worried.

“If we don’t talk this out, then that might happen and I want to stay friends.”

Suddenly, Axel knew what Rayner wanted to talk about. “Forget it. It’s done. Let’s move on.”

“No. Let’s be honest about what will happen if we let this fester. At a critical time, when we can least afford it, the tension will explode and it will get us killed. Just look at the three armies’ issues for an example.”

He and Rayner had an agreement. Axel subscribed to the red pill and Rayner was a social justice warrior. It meant their arguments could get heated, sometimes physical.

To prevent actual violence, they resolved to talk out their issues later when they had calmed down a little. Back then, they were talking about issues they had little control over. Back then, their lives were not at stake.

Axel flicked his hand as if in dissmal. “Talk.” He folded his arms.

“About what I said to you earlier, I’m sorry, we have both made mistakes—”

“This is some apology.”

“Let me finish.” Axel raised his hands then went back to folding his arms.

“The reason I didn’t tell you about going out to fight every day isn’t because I was trying to power up without you and it wasn’t so I could train. I went out to kill ... because I liked it.”

“Pardon?”

Rayner’s hands balled into fists and his head hung low but Axel could see something in his eyes, a darkness. “I like killing monsters.” Then Rayner grew animated. “All my life I lived in nuance and complexity with nothing to show for it, but killing monsters, defeating bandits, rescuing women, that’s progress. It’s progress I can see, something I can feel as the blood of my enemies pours down my fingers. So, I like killing and I take every chance I get to do it.”

Axel blanked at the revelation. He’d seen the signs of course. He’d seen and ignored it.

Rayner never hesitated to join battles, always taking a proactive approach to their conflicts. Axel assumed it was his friend’s need to achieve justice but Axel should have known better.

“What am I supposed to say to that?” Axel said.

“Nothing. You don’t have to say anything. It’s the truth. It’s also why you shouldn’t blame yourself for the camp followers. If I wasn’t busy going on a murder rampage, I could have found you, helped you. I let people die as well during the battle.”

Seeing his friend going from rage to utter despair made him forget his own issues. A welcome relief. “It’s because of you that the battle wasn’t lost. My plan to find the officers went bust, and only your efforts saved the day.”

Rayner looked up from the floor.

“So, what if your reasons are messed up?” Axel said. “You like killing bad guys? Good. Someone has to because from what I have seen, few are doing it. So, buck the fuck up. No more of this whining. You are a hero, man.” For good measure, Axel gave him a friendly punch to the shoulder.

Rayner looked ready to cry and before Axel could tell him to stop, Rayner seized up and began to shake, froth bubbling out of his mouth.

“Rayner!” Axel caught Rayner as he fell forward.

At first, Axel tried shaking Rayner while screaming his name and when that failed, Axel poured medicine they had bought into his mouth to no effect.

With great effort, Axel hauled Rayner’s spasming body out of the coach to where the medical wagons were. The medical wagons had the Coalition symbol carved into the doors. Stretchers and supplies surrounded each wagon. A healer held clipboard, checking the supplies.

“He needs help!” Axel in his hurry dropped Rayner on a stretcher. Rayner didn’t react. His eyes had rolled back and the froth covered the lower half of his face.