Chapter 19

It took three more days before all of our equipment was ready and we could return to the Dungeon. As I had suggested, Brot’k took his time on the various projects and rested regularly to make sure he didn’t overdo it. He admitted that the rest did help to keep him sharp and allowed him to figure out the various problems more easily. Fra’tilia was able to get her hands on a large amount of the silk, thanks to some help from Tyr, with more apparently on the way. She worked diligently and made the most comfortable shirt for me. She also told me that, in a week or two, Enti’s new robes would be ready and that we would be impressed by them. Fra’tilia explained to us that the silk, when woven into fabric and used to make clothing, was sturdy yet light compared to the current linen we had on.

She suggested that with the new robes that we do sleeves for her undershirt. This was so that she had as little skin showing as possible, resulting in less chance of scarring from burns or acid. The functionality of what she suggested seemed to make sense to us and Entivala was on board with the suggestion, so we told her to go ahead and started planning the next generation of robes for my beautiful Elf.

Amenthia’s armor looked almost brand new and I could see where Brot’k had changed things to augment certain areas for extra protection. Cassandra had surprised me the day before, when she unveiled the chain mail vest, she had made me. When she handed it over, I expected it to be heavy due to the small size of the rings she chose to make. Metal rings alone are light, but when there are a couple of thousand or tens of thousands of them, the weight can really add up. Despite the number of rings in this vest, I was astonished at the difference in the weight, especially when she handed me an identical one that was much heavier.

“It took longer than usual to make because I decided to carve a run on every single ring in the vest before adding it,” she explained, as she pointed out the small etching on one of the rings. “As you know, the rings, when made into chain mail, can become rather heavy, and that can affect speed as well as agility. I etched a rune that would decrease the weight of each ring by a third. Again, that doesn’t seem much until you think about how it compounds. That is why I gave you the un-runed one for comparison. When I level up more, I will be able to enhance the rune and increase the weight reduction for the vest further.”

Amenthia and Entivala were given their updated scallops with the new placement area for their emergency escape stones. Cassandra had modified her plate mail bracer for her left hand to match the new design for our scallops as well. She also had one that she was taking with her to our armory for when we met up with Darius, so that he would have the same advantage as us. With our equipment confirmed ready for use, we checked to see if Darius was free to join us, but he was busy with his usual group on the sixth floor. They were completing two quests that members of the party had applied for a day or so ago. He suggested that we do a quest on the third floor that would eat up the day and then rest at the inn. We could then coordinate which set of stairs to the fourth floor we would take, to meet up with their group. That, or they could meet us at the village we would rest at and go from there. They could then escort us to the nearest village and ensure we didn’t get swarmed again before we reached our destination.

It seemed like a valid plan, so we agreed and planned to talk during the evening meal via raven. Cassandra confirmed she would be able to go with us and that she was excited to see how the new armor worked for me. We had breakfast and spent around four hours doing last minute drills before our Dungeon crawl. I had to be sure that we would be as ready as we could be for the unexpected. I figured that we should reach one of the villages on the fourth floor around dinner time, so it would work out simply fine with our plans. I was especially thankful for the mana potions the Pact House provides in the magic training area. Unfortunately, they are bound to the room, as we learned the other day when Enti grabbed one on our way out. It popped out of her hand the second we crossed the threshold of the doorway and, glancing back, we could see that it had returned to the table she took it from.

We had a quick shower and then rushed to the atrium. We took the transport tubes to the Urtal Pact House and went to our armory to get equipped. I felt like some royal soldier as my companions helped me to don my armor. They helped me put on the linen tee shirt that was made for it. Next, they helped me to put on the chain mail vest that would provide the extra layer of protection. Once that was done, the front plate was put in place, followed by the back plate. They were connected by straps of leather that were attached to the front. They hooked into two pairs of small metal hoops in the back plate and had two metal loops around the middle facing my shoulders. Next were the lateral pieces which hooked into loops in the front and back pieces on both sides.

Once the main torso of my new armor was assembled, they slid the upper arm and shoulder armor up into position, adjusting the straps near my bicep to keep it tight but allow easy mobility. The shoulder pauldrons were hooked into the hoops on the straps holding the front and back together. Last was a neck piece that wrapped around my neck and hooked into spots on the front and back plates. This protected my deltoids and the main arteries of my neck but was segmented to allow movement. I was both happy and surprised at the finished product as I looked at it in the mirror nearby. The flexible material looked a deep crimson while the scales now had a black sheen to them.

As I moved around, testing the flexibility and range of movement, I found myself thinking it reminded me of armor from an old anime I liked. Thoughts of other pieces that could be done flashed in my mind, creating a finished product that resembled the armor in question and would be quite useful. I put on the new reinforced pants and my old boots. Next was the belt Amenthia had given me and my blade. I put on my helmet and then began outfitting the belt with our projectiles and retrieved my crystal from its pouch. I opened the compartment and placed the crystal in its new home. I put on my scallops and finished by taking up my shield. The others were finishing with their own equipment and I could see the joy Katie had in her upgraded armor.

The chest and back had been studded to add extra defense of vital areas while the rest had been left as it was prior to her injury. The pants she had also showed reinforcement, much in the way mine had been done. A hood had been added to the back of her armor which would help if she were trying to ambush and to protect her from the elements if there was any harsh weather on one of the floors. I thought that a hybrid version of leather armor, inspired by Assassin’s Creed would indeed be helpful to her and I looked forward to seeing what Brot’k would do once he got some minotaur hide to work with.

I decided, this time, to plot a route towards one of the stairs south of the village. I hoped to stop by the mine and see how things are going. Hopefully, they haven’t had any setback, but I would think that they would let us know if the problems returned or got worse. I brought up the map and registered the set of stairs I had picked as our destination. Our typical grind pattern would take around two to three hours to complete, depending on the various mobs we might encounter. Detouring to the mine would add at least a half an hour to the overall trip, maybe more. I discussed my plans, and everyone seemed on board with it, so we left the armory to head to the southern gate.

Over the next hour and a half we made our way through various mobs with truly little resistance. In between fights, if we weren’t tracking another mob right away, we would discuss how it went and suggest a different method or formation of attack.

About ten minutes from the mine, we got our first real test when a mob of wolves came out of a nearby first line while we were in a fight with a ruin of kobolds. When I heard the howl and saw them coming, I had Enti build a wall of stone around them. It prevented the wolves and kobolds from reaching them, while they could pick off targets at their leisure. It also created a focus that kept Katie and me from being overwhelmed.

We were ecstatic about the first successful test of our new method, though we knew there was still a snag. The creatures could burrow through rock and stone, meaning that wall was useless. Ice might not provide a better defense either, so we had to hope that it would be enough. Katie suggested that she could try to use her vine abilities to snag them and allow us to limit how many we were engaged with at one time. A few minutes later, we entered the edge of the camp and saw a bustle of activity. People were coming and going from the entrance, bringing out wheelbarrows of ore to be placed in specific piles.

Those piles were gone through by a handful of workers that separated the rest of the rock from the ore. Once they were clear of rock the ores were weighed and placed in a crate. The crates were labeled for the various ores, gems, and minerals they were collecting. Near the eastern side of the camp two wagons were being loaded with the various crates. We saw Garn standing near the entrance to the mine and went over to say our hellos. He noticed us immediately and a large grin appeared on his face. He yelled over at someone, who jogged over and took over where he had been standing.

“Hello, my friends,” Garn announced with a warm, friendly smile. “It is good to see you all again, I hope things have been treating you well?”

I shrugged and said, “Some setbacks, but we are pressing forward despite them. I see you are pressing forward as well. It looks like your operation is really getting off the ground.”

“Yes, it has been flourishing,” Garn replied. “Thanks to the deal you made with the worm, we have seen no more collapses and a steady stream of materials. Two of our newer workers tried to break the truce and dig deeper, but I told them if they put us at risk by their greed, I would feed them to the worm myself.”

“If you ever need anything, just send a raven to Amenthia,” I said, reaching out to shake Garn’s hand. “I have a feeling if things keep growing, we will have to negotiate a new deal for you.”

He shook the outstretched hand happily and agreed to let us know if they ever needed our help in the future. Happy that everything was okay here, we continued southward towards our destination. We hit a few more mobs along the way, collecting roughly nine and a half thousand gold worth of orbs. We got another five hundred gold from kobolds along with various beast parts and hides.

As we approached the stairwell, we tightened our ranks and slowed our approach. I was at the front, Amenthia took up the rear, with Cassandra and Kat’ilth’ana on either side of Enti, who was in the middle. She was tracking all possible hostile movement around us and had a rock wall ready should we be ambushed. While we were on an open path, free of trees and bushes, the occasional root would break the surface of the ground. Katie was using her abilities to see if there were any enemies hiding near a tree the root was from.

When the stairwell came into view, we were shocked to see two trolls camping outside of the entrance to the stairwell. They were sitting around a large fire with a bear rotating on a spit that was being turned by one of them. The hide was sitting on a nearby fallen log, drying in the sunlight. Part of me wished they were like the trolls in The Hobbits that turned to stone when sunlight hit them. They looked to be between seven and eight feet tall, with yellow, leathery skin. They were bald with long noses and ears. Both were wearing simple clothing made out of the hide of creatures they had killed. They looked pretty hefty and that meant it would be harder to strike some of their critical areas with a blade.

“Okay ladies, looks like we have two trolls ahead of us,” I whispered to the group. Amenthia, I want you to target their legs. Try and either immobilize them for a short time or at least slow them down. Katie and Cassandra, we will attack them head-on. They are tall, but I’m hoping all that fat will slow them down some, so make sure to keep moving. Slash and cut while running by them. We need to keep their focus on us so Amenthia and Enti can do their thing. Enti, I want you to rain fire down on them, literally.

“From what I can recall from my world, trolls have heightened regenerative properties. Fire will be the only way to counteract this ability and ensure our victory. If we manage to lop off a limb, cauterize the wound before it starts growing something back. I will hold on to my blades. Fire attack charges unless we have no other option. I could be wrong about it, but my knowledge base has been right so far. If they do notice you two, I want you to go into defense mode. Full bunker protocol until we pull their attention away again and then take off the top to lob fire at them. If we decapitate one or incapacitate them, burn the entire thing in a huge fireball.”

All four of them acknowledged that they understood the plan and stopped to get one last look at the map and our enemy before attacking. From Entivala’s map, we couldn’t see any other trolls or threats close enough to cause us trouble, but we would expect it. As luck would have it, the one who wasn’t cooking the bear walked over to the fallen tree to check the hide before turning to return to camp. With both of them having their backs to us, there was no better time to attack. I nodded to my group and three of us took off towards the closest target. We closed the distance quickly, doing our best to limit the noise we were making. I had taken off first, with Cassandra a few paces behind me and Katie a few paces behind her. The idea being I would attack the first troll and keep running towards the second one for my next attack.