Chapter 5 – The Suspicious Mage

  I awoke before the sunrise.

  This pce can seriously use some work.

  Apparently, the inn was a rge house with the family living downstairs and renting the upper floor to the needy. Thankfully, for the modest fee of two silver, they were amendable to providing me with a bed and arranging water for me. It would have been easy for me to fetch it myself, but I had been spoiled by Raakwell’s luxuries.

  I need to look for a house and commission some amenities.

  While aura made it so that the nocturnal chill was ineffective on me, I still craved a warmer environment.

  Are you up?

  “Yeah, and I would’ve been up even earlier without someone’s constant nagging,” I quipped in a low voice, going about my daily rituals. In this unfamiliar nd, even bantering with the voice felt nice.

  Be thankful I look out for your future. Anyway, that mountain range, let’s explore it.

  “No,” I dismissed the idea immediately. “It’s a dangerous pce, even masters find it impossible to cross. The monsters, the terrain, the environment, everything’s an obstacle, unforgiving, unfeeling.”

  Cd in my snug gambeson, leather trousers, and sturdy boots – with my heavier armor secured to my belt in a storage cube – I armed myself with both axe and sword and descended to breakfast.

  That’s the best part! You’ll have strong opponents to fight against, and get this, you’ll have them all to yourself! Unlike Raakwell’s dungeon that had parties parading through the whole floor.

  “There were barely three parties other than ours that could reach there,” I mumbled while stirring the porridge I had been served, “and everyone stuck to their own areas.”

  The porridge, while humble in its composition, was unexpectedly delightful. I got a big portion for Jericho as well, and we moved towards the guild after breakfast, all the while a mosquito droned on in my head.

  Despite the morning hour, the guild was sparsely poputed. There were more adventurers than afternoon, but not enough to call it busy.

  “Carmel, please come see me in the office,” I ordered while moving towards the back. The modest guild building comprised a single staff waiting room, a diminutive archives chamber, and, upstairs, a corridor leading to three rooms: one housing the guild’s magical devices, another safeguarding confidential documents, and finally, the guildmaster’s office – overlooking both the bustling front road and our tranquil backyard.

  Seated in the guildmaster’s chair, I surveyed the room – a broad table in front of me with a pair of visitor chairs, a sofa paired with a gss table along one wall, and a well-appointed bookshelf on the other. A measured knock heralded Carmel’s entrance.

  “So, tell me about the figures. What are the main monsters, who do we sell the produce to, who are the adventurers to look out for, and please give me all the ledgers,” I told her while going through the drawer to check if my essential identifications were present.

  As anticipated, the main monsters were sheeps and goblins. Well, Dire Rams who dwarfed wolves, and simian goblins, robust, fur cd caricatures of their lesser kin. Of them, only the Dire Rams had any commercial value, their hides coveted by local families for processing.

  By now, Carmel had retreated to her station leaving me alone to peruse the ledgers.

  There’s nothing worth salvaging here.

  “I know,” I sighed with exasperation. “I just wonder if there’s anything I might do to enhance our fortunes.”

  My meticulous scrutiny was finished in little more than an hour, my superhuman capabilities and the guild’s ck of transaction both contributing to the comparatively thin ledger.

  “Other than mild embezzlement, everything seems to be in order,” I remarked putting aside the books.

  Carmel seems talented, handling everything for a whole year after the previous guildmaster retired. Too bad she doesn’t breathe fire else she could’ve easily taken over after him.

  Where are you going now?

  “I intend to inspect the dungeon. Since it has stone tunnels, maybe we can develop a quarry. Moreover, I need to see what this Mirabel is up to,” I replied to the voice while moving out.

  On the first floor, the staff were engaged in quiet chatter.

  There’s a lull after morning rush.

  “Hey you all, how is everything?” I asked, emerging from the stairs with deliberate silence.

  “Oh, nothing, guildmaster,” it was again Carmel that spoke, all three standing up in arm.

  “Rex, I’m not mad at you. With a pce this quiet, even I would’ve joined you in gossip,” I assured them, some tension leaving as their shoulders rexed. “First of all, Carmel, excellent work you’ve done. I checked everything, and it was spotless. I imagine it might’ve been difficult handling everything in the absence of a guildmaster, but you all have done wonderfully.”

  “It was no trouble, Mr. Liam,” this time, Adrija was the one to speak while Carmel only gave a quiet smile. Her voice was soothing unlike Carmel’s sharp pitch, “we all handled it together. I handled adventurers, Carmel handled most of the paperwork, and Montel dealt with the unsavory elements.”

  I looked over to the guy who nodded. “It was no trouble, really,” he remarked, “most of our adventurers are neophytes, and the occasional experts don’t really cause trouble.”

  I nodded appreciatively. “Well, people, while I would’ve really like to cut you some sck for the wonderful work you’ve done here, I’m afraid I must make a trip down the dungeon. So, who’ll be my guide?”

  Both Adrija and Carmel turned to Montel, and I followed their gaze.

  “That would be no problem,” he said with subtle reluctance, “When do we leave?”

  “Now,” I replied.

  From the outside, the dungeon of Niege was simir to all the other dungeons in that it was a gaping hole in a mound that rose out of the earth.

  “So, you don’t hate the guild’s backyard, huh?” I said to Jericho who was walking beside me while fondling his white mane. We had walked to the dungeon that y on the opposite side from where I had arrived.

  Montel trailed behind, looking apprehensively at the horse, more particurly, his horns. It was currently noon. We could have gotten here a bit sooner but neither I nor Jericho were favorable to the idea of giving Montel a ride, and thankfully, he seemed to have the same thoughts.

  The inside of each dungeon was unique, generally representing their surrounding but sometimes mirroring something else altogether. This particur dungeon had wide tunnels inside of it, their walls made of stone.

  I addressed Montel as we moved inside, “So Montel, are you from here, or did you move in from somewhere?”

  He replied while I noted the unchanging brown rock, “I’m a native. Me and Adrija are siblings, living here with our family. Carmel’s from here too, though she lives alone.”

  That was surprising, as most guild staff were people that had migrated in search of opportunities. But maybe that was because the dungeon here wasn’t lucrative enough. Descending some ft stones arranged like stairs, we came across three openings.

  “So did you train here? Attained experienced rank in this dungeon?” I asked, stepping aside so Jericho cold take the lead.

  “Yeah. The dungeon appeared five years ago, and I was a teen then. As luck would have it, the dungeon was a great pce for neophytes to safely attain experienced rank,” he replied while Jericho moved towards the left tunnel. That will be where most of the adventurers went, our years together requiring no voiced command.

  “Why didn’t you move out? I reckon there isn’t much here for someone like you,” I once again moved to take the lead, and we finally had our first encounter – a goblin with brown fur cascading down its body as it charged at us with its sharp cws.

  A kick from me evaporated its torso to gory bits, and I noticed Montel flinch before he replied, “Well, I wanted to, but there aren’t any good dungeons in the province. Moreover, the guildmaster retired and some people started causing trouble at the guild. Adrija was already working at that time, so I jut joined to make sure she stayed safe.”

  I nodded, a lull forming in the conversation as we kept moving through the floor, every monster dying in one hit from me.

  “Montel, I believe I’ve seen most of what this dungeon has to offer. You can go back, and I’ll join you after exploring some more,” I finally dismissed the man who retreated the same way we came.

  “Now, onto the more important task,” I started walking through the dungeon, utilizing my full speed and senses to avoid any more battles. The dungeon was underutilized, that much I could see. Even though it was small, there were more than enough monsters to go around.

  That might be why the adventurers don’t move out of here. But it isn’t enough for an expert to progress.

  The experts – those who either transmuted mana into aether or wove dormant aura into their very flesh, needed more pressure to progress, which this dungeon clearly wasn’t providing.

  Montel’s own condition testified to this. He had been at the guild for about an year, and had internalized aura even before that, yet his prowess barely surpassed that of a fledgling expert. In adventurer ranks, he would’ve barely qualified for yellow.

  As I ventured deeper, I noticed the mana in the air gradually intensifying. Though it came nowhere close to the inside of mage towers, the mana here was unmistakably richer than ambient mana outside. Soon, I found myself before a magic barrier – an opaque screen aglow with a faint blue luminescence, resolutely barring path.

  I retrieved my axe, for what y ahead could be dangerous, its weight in my right hand bolstered both my body and mind.

  Here goes nothing.

  Channeling my aura, I observed the axe head shrouded in a distorting red glow. With a decisive swing, I shattered the barrier, a subsequent stroke widening the breach sufficiently for my passage. I was on my way to locating the densest location of mana once again.

  It took a while, as the difference was minute, but in moments I was across an intersection and in front of a seemingly inconspicuous dead end. The stone here held marginally more mana than its surroundings, but that was how most dungeons fooled adventurers.

  Taking a moment to ensure Jericho was right behind me, I lifted my axe.

  Aura Art: Explosion

  My aura fred brilliantly, gaining a yellow core as I struck the wall, dislodging fragments of stone in every direction. A few more swings ter, a blue glow started emanating from a hole in the wall, and a couple of swings saw the opening enrged enough for me to step inside.

  I came across a girl scurrying along the floor, “W-Wha-!“ she stammered as I took in the room. In front was a man sized oval crystal, hovering above the floor, its body glowing a soft red as visible streams of blue mana circled it.

  I was in front of the dungeon core.

  Brago130sf