SS - Chapter 27 - Pitstop

Sorry it's a little late today, but I'm going to be playing DnD with a couple of the other SCS fanfiction authors, and we talked about characters today. It's been so long since I played, I'm so excite! I may have got a little distracted, but I got back on track eventually.

Enjoy the chappy!

It didn’t take long for Camille to gather everyone, or for me to explain the situation. Everyone in the village knew about the situation back in the dutchy, and they understood how bad it would be if the gate’s construction was disrupted so no one in our little group had any complaints, or questions.

Even though most of us now had access to our magic again I still passed out a handful of magic stones to each person. A well trained combatant could keep their weapons and armor powered just using their innate magic, something we were all familiar with. 

The problem was none of us had the chance to practice this skill in over six months, and as far as I was concerned the middle of a dungeon was one of the absolute worst places to lose your concentration, and the edge on your weapon. I wasn’t going to take any chances.

Once everyone had gathered their gear we set off at a quick pace. 

The road between the camp and the village was exceptionally rough. It was filled with massive holes, from the removed stumps, along with various unearthed rocks and broken roots. Even with all these obstructions the road was significantly faster than trying to make our way through the woods. 

When we arrived at the campsite, I paused for a moment. Holding up a hand, I stopped everyone else.

“Take five. The dungeon isn’t that far from here, but there’s something I want to quickly check on,” I declared.

“We were planning on filling our waterskins when we passed through this area anyways,” Deirdre replied, shucking her pack. “Don’t take too long.” 

“I won’t,” I promised as I turned and jogged towards the construction site. The entire area was a hive of activity, and the last thing I wanted to do was interrupt everyone, so I stuck to the perimeter as I made my way around to the back of the site.

There, off to the side, holding a massive diagram out in front of herself, was the head maid.

“Alex, can I speak to you for a moment, please?” I asked. I’d been doing my best to address the little leader by name lately, not because she’d asked for it, but because the little constructs acted too human for me to treat like objects. They seemed to enjoy the respect, and never asked me to stop, so it had become second nature over the last few weeks.

When I spoke up the little maid dropped the diagram in surprise, which allowed the wind to pick it up and nearly knock her over as it smacked her in the face. The little attendants had to work together to wrestle the document away and roll it up safely. 

“Hup?” she asked, blushing in embarrassment as she waddled over.

“I was alerted of an upcoming dungeon surge, which’ll occur not too far from here. I’m going to take a team in there to try and take care of it, but I wanted to know… in the future, can I rely upon you and your troops to take care of stuff like that?”

The head maid immediately jumped into a power pose, feet spread wide and her arms crossed in an x across her chest. “Hup!” Next she pointed at me, and held her hands close together, then at another nearby maid, then held her arms out wide. “Hup, hup!”

“Ummm…” I muttered blankly.

“I think she’s saying sending maids into a dungeon is a bad idea, and it’ll only make the situation worse. It’s something we need to handle ourselves,” a familiar voice declared.

I turned slightly to find Selena and Camille a couple feet behind me. 

“Where did you learn to speak maid?” I asked the elf blooded girl.

“It’s not that hard, they’re expressive, and they have various ingenious ways to get their point across. I actually kind of enjoy watching them try and get their points across,” Selena smiled.

“Then you can be our official translator going forward,” I grumbled, before returning my attention to Alex. “Thanks for answering my question, you can go back to what you were doing.”

The tiny maid immediately saluted, and turned back to her document, which was now held by a pair of attendants.

“Weren’t you two going to fill up your waterskins with the others?” I asked Camille and Selena.

“I wanted to find out what was so important,” Camille explained. “Turns out you were thinking about wave assaulting the dungeon with the cutestructs, instead of sending in our own people.”

“Cutestructs? Really?” I grumbled.

“Try and convince me it’s not the perfect term for them!” Camille exclaimed. Selena and I just stared at her, deadpanned, until she cleared her throat and continued. “So…. why do you think Alex thinks it’s a bad idea to send constructs into the dungeon?”

“Honestly? I don’t know. I assume there’s a good reason,” I mumbled.

“Well, they’re made of magic, just like monsters. Maybe if they get destroyed in there the dungeon can feed upon that magic. Instead of stopping the dungeon, that would only make it stronger, wouldn’t it?” Selena said.

“Maybe?” I replied, considering. “I could see that happening, but I doubt we’ll be able to get such a complicated answer out of her. Not through charades.” 

Glancing up at the sun I estimated we only had a couple more hours of sunlight left. “Let's get back to the others,” I said. “Now that I’ve confirmed we can’t rely on the maids, we better get over there and start clearing the place out.”

Camille nodded happily, and started skipping away. 

“I still can’t believe how carefree she is, even in the face of imminent danger,” Selena muttered.

“I’ve known her for years, and I’m still surprised at the stuff she’s willing to throw herself into,” I replied. “It’s like she was born without a sense of fear.”

“Or common sense,” Selena added.

I snorted quietly, but didn’t reply further. 

When found the others gathered around one of the newly dug wells Deirdre appeared to be in the middle of unpacking a bunch of herbs and beakers. I raised an eyebrow at the collection of equipment.

“I brought all this so I could test the water quality once we were done with the dungeon,” she explained unapologetically. “Since we were coming this way anyways, I thought I’d bring it with and save myself a trip.”

“That’s fine, but you’re not bringing it into the dungeon with you,” I grumbled. “Even if it’s your personal equipment, glassware is irreplaceable right now, and I don’t want to risk it getting damaged in the dungeon.” 

“Don’t worry, I was planning on leaving it here,” Deirdre replied, as she flagged down one of the nearby maids. When the little one came over she leaned down and whispered a couple words to it. The maid nodded in response, then wandered over to the small collection of tools, gently taking a single piece before wandering off towards one of the buildings. “See, problem solved.”

“You could have just brought all your equipment over later, and not risked damaging any of it, but it’s your stuff,” I shrugged, before looking around at everyone else. “Everyone else ready?”

“On your command, my lady,” Gabriel declared with a bow. It was a smooth action, despite the fact the man was in full plate armor and carrying a massive shield.

“How long am I going to keep telling you to stop that,” I grumbled.

“You will always be my lady, and I’ll continue upholding my knightly honor until my dying breath.”

“You’re not a knight anymore,” I reminded him. “You’re just the head of our security forces.”

“Are you sure? Because word on the grapevine is that you’re a queen now. What would that make your loyal protectors?” Gabriel smirked.

“In your case, a smart ass,” I muttered. I waited a couple more seconds for anyone else to speak up before readjusting my pack, and addressing the group. “The dungeon is only about half an hour from here. I don’t know what to expect at all, so keep your eyes up, and your wit about you.”

Camille nodded enthusiastically before bouncing away. “Follow me, I know the way!”

I shook my head, but still followed her. At least she was going the right direction this time.

The second leg of our trip was a lot more difficult than our quick trek down the road. The map showed the dungeon was located deep in the forest, but it hadn’t revealed anything about the surrounding terrain. Within minutes of leaving the clearing we were hiking through hilly terrain filled with massive rocks. It wouldn’t have been an issue if that was all we had to deal with, but the forest also appeared to grow thicker the closer we got to the dungeon. In the end, it took nearly twice as long as I expected to finally reach our destination.

When we did arrive, I couldn’t help but feel a little underwhelmed. Most dungeons I’d been to had been ‘tamed’, surrounded by fortifications and with a permanent garrison to keep the monsters under control. What we found was little more than a dark hole in the side of a hill, buried so deep in the wilderness that we never would have found it without our system maps.

Camille rushed to the entrance, and stuck her head inside excitedly. “This is it! A wild dungeon, how exciting!”

“Can you please treat this place with a little respect, we don’t know what’s inside, or what a ‘surge’ will do to the monsters,” I snapped at her, before slipping my pack off and taking a look myself. Even though the entrance was rough, within a few feet the walls became smooth and uniform, showing signs of being shaped by magic. The entire area was lit by a faint, diffuse magical light.

“This is it,” I declared to everyone. “Suit up.”