Chapter 30: BanceWow, what a bizarre hallucination. Just for a moment, it sounded like the duke was threatening to ensve me. Why is everyone looking my way? Oh crap, that was real! Why the sudden betrayal? Where are the guards situated? Where’s the nearest exit? OK, maybe I can still talk my way out of this.
“David?”
“Your Grace?”
“David, I want you to join the Order of Harz”
“I’ve been to Harba’s Labyrinth. I’ve seen the well-organized efforts of multiple, well-equipped parties to subjugate that byrinth. It is truly remarkable.”
“Yes, David. You can be a part of all that.”
“I’ve also been to Nordselm’s Labyrinth. The work there appears to be more modest. In my view, even a small party of amateurs could be useful in Nordselm.”
“David, are you really turning down my offer?” [1]
“Yes, Your Grace. I regretfully must decline this great honor. I simply turned in a ring that I happened to find. I didn’t even understand its significance. Your reward is too great to accept in good conscience.”
The duchess adds, “You are much too humble, Lord Moreau. Rutina has told us of how you valiantly defended her against those brigands.”
“Thank you, Your Grace, but I cannot take the credit. As His Grace reported, my men and I were merely part of the greater team. I assure you, we had no idea who those brigands were or what terrible danger we were in simply by being near the battle.”
Dig your way out of that, duke. By leaching off our efforts, you’ve created the perfect excuse for me to wiggle out of your grasp. You damn, maniputive duke. You will never understand how fortunate you are to have left me this graceful way to decline your invitation to servitude.
Sweet as saccharin, the duke responds, “Rest assured, David, it was just an offer, not a demand. Of course, I’m happy if you can continue to make contribution, in your own small way.”
“You are so gracious, Your Grace. I can only hope that we might one day become worthy of the honor.”
“Hmm, is that so, David. Well, enough of all this dry talk. David, tell us what you think of Elven Territory.”
“It looks a lot like memories of my old home. The climate and mountains are very simir.”
“Even the rain?”
“Well, not enough to cause flooding.”
“David, it’s not raining that heavily. Why would you expect flooding?”
“It’s just an amateur’s guess based on the mountains’ thick snow yer combined with the sea’s warm air.”
“That’s an interesting theory, David. You seem to know a lot about this region.”
“I apologize, Your Grace. I meant nothing by it. This is just my clumsy attempt to make casual conversation.”
“It’s fine, David. So, what else have you noticed here?”
“Nothing worth mentioning.”
“Oh, now I’m curious. Tell me, David.”
“As you wish. One of the notable differences here is the open racism. Not from everyone, of course, just when I do hear it, they almost seem proud to tell me how despicable humans are.”
The room got really quiet — seems like that might be a sensitive issue.
“Ha ha, well, I certainly walked into that one. That would be a terribly bold statement if I didn’t know it to be true. It is a shame that you had to endure it.”
“Oh no, it doesn’t actually bother me. Every pce has their prejudices. It’s just that others would more likely to whisper such things.”
“So, what do your people whisper about us elves?”
“Elves are said to be beautiful forest-dwellers.”
“Another unexpected answer. Well, we could continue these fascinating discussions all night, but let us end this pleasant occasion here. Thank you for your company. And David, you simply must come back to tell us more of your travels.”
“Yes, Your Grace. Thank you for the invitation.”
Like hell I’ll do that. These friendly chats are absolutely horrible. I already ended up saying so much more than I should have. Any more and he’d either throw me in prison or show up at our house for dinner.
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I thanked all the lords and dies and made my escape. I was so tempted to warp from right there in the corridor, but this isn’t the right time or pce to be reckless. Just as I reached the gate and got a glimpse of freedom, I heard one of the normally silent guards at the gate call out to me, “Lord Moreau?”
“Yes, is something wrong?”
“No, My Lord. His Grace has tasked me to make certain you get home safely.”
Oh, he’s an Adventurer. Well, might be more accurate to say that he’s my babysitter. Maybe it’s just common curtesy for a moonless world to offer transportation, but there’s no way I’ll let this guy know where I live. How can I lose this guy without it looking really suspicious?
“Oh, that so very polite. Please take me to Nordselm’s Labyrinth.”
“Labyrinth, My Lord?”
“Yes, please.”
“I’ll call a few Knights to accompany us.”
“No thanks. My party is waiting for me there. If it’s inconvenient, I’ll just go to the adventurers guild as pnned.”
“Please wait here a moment, My Lord.”
The Adventurer scrambled off, and, of course, so did I. I didn’t have to go far in the pitch-bck night to hide from the gate guards. No one else detectable with my Identify so I quickly warped back home.
“David! You’re finally back. We were so worried.”
“Sorry for coming home so te. It’s all OK but I’m really tired.”
“Good to see you safe, Boss, good night.”
“Thanks, guys. Alina, ready to go upstairs?”
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Day 24
Alina has her own room, but she usually stays with me. This was one of the days I was especially gd she was there. I’ve really grown fond of her cute, furry ears. Oddly, they don’t remind me of a cat’s. These ears are simply Alina’s.
“Morning, Boss.”
“Good Morning, everyone. What were you doing while I was being tortured?”
“We mainly did yard work and general chores. What did they do to you?”
“They forced me to stay for dinner.”
“That doesn’t sound too awful.”
“I hate keeping track of all the titles and their lies. Of course, I did a bit of creative story-telling of my own. In the end, no one can rely on anything anyone said so the entire evening was a total waste.”
“Well, that does sound bad. How was the food?”
“Pretty good, actually. Some fancy meats and cheeses I haven’t seen in town. They even had their own wine.”
“David, does it feel like they are done with all the questions?”
“Yes, at least for now. I want to do my very best to avoid contact with any nobles as long as possible. Of course, they’ll probably keep sniffing around, but I hope they stay away till I’m ready for them.”
“What do mean by ‘ready’?”
“Teaching Rutina brought in a lot of money, especially from the brigands, but it slowed down progress in the byrinths. We need to get strong enough to defend ourselves if they get too aggressive.”
“David, do you think they really will attack?”
“Highly unlikely. I just like to be prepared. So, unless anyone has any objections, let’s get ready for work.”
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I warped us directly to the fourth floor of Nordselm’s Labyrinth to continue the fight against… slugs, according to my notes.
“Remember that the caterpilrs can spit sticky thread. Otherwise, nothing’s really special here.”
Marcus’ shield got spttered a couple times but none of us got hit directly. Damn, we’re good. Well, Theo and Alina are limber and I’ve been working on it. Marcus has gotten a bit heavier so his shield is essential. After beating the slug boss — White Caterpilr — it was time for a short lunch break. I don’t really trust the normal exit of this byrinth, so I took us to the far side of the vilge and we walked.
Nice that it was warm enough to rain instead of snow though it did make everything muddy. I wonder if the floods will hit here too? After eating some bread and dried meat with the kids, I took Alina to Bernhard’s hut.
Bernhard was there carving something, probably just trying to stay out of the rain. With Alina transting, he told us about a group of heavily armored soldiers asking detailed questions about the battle, just as expected. The soldiers seemed pretty calm and they didn’t harass or hurt anyone. This was almost certainly Gosr’s knights and it’s no surprise that he’d keep everything strictly professional.
We warned Bernhard that the rains may get worse and to prepare for possible flooding. We’d bring bread and a few hams next time.
The next floor ‘challenged’ us with kobolds and we made it about halfway through by the time we decided to go home.
“Folks, I’ll drop by the merchants guild to check on my bids. Shouldn’t take long since I won’t wait if my contact is busy. Theo, please put the monster drops into the storage room when convenient — I’ll skip selling stuff for a while.”
I changed into normal clothes and warped to an alley near the merchants guild. Fortunately, Luke was here and avaible.
“Hello, I’m back a bit early. Got anything for me yet?”
“Welcome back, Mr. Moreau. Yes indeed, Sir. I made successful bids on three kobold crystals for 5300 Nars each.”
“That’s nice, Luke. I’ll take all three and bid on two more at a maximum price of 5400 each. I’m in no hurry to get the next set. What’s the current price for s-, I mean, green caterpilr crystals?”
“Caterpilr crystals have recently gone for 4000 to 4200 Nars.”
“I’d like to get up to six of those over the next ten days to avoid spiking the prices. Let’s set a limit of 4300 each for now but I’ll come back in a few days so you won’t have to hold too many for me. I’ll also give you 4000 Nars now to add to the deposit I left st time.”
“Certainly, Sir. Shall we go now to get the kobold crystals appraised?”
“Not necessary. I trust this establishment and you well enough to want my continued business. What’s the total.”
“For today, that will be 19,900 Nars with 4500 of that being a deposit for bidding fees.”
I gave him two gold coins and got a silver in change. Of course, I checked his calcution and saw that the crystals were legit. I don’t expect him to try to cheat me, not that he actually could. I’ll keep the crystals in my item box, which otherwise just holds coins and a few pieces of equipment.
Got back home in time for dinner. I certainly enjoyed eating here with these people over the duke’s fancy meal. Instead of sharing those sappy feelings, I asked them to get ready to get back to work. I’d like to take the next floor of Curatar’s tonight.
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My notes tell me that we’ve started the seventh floor, but I didn’t note the current monster.
“OK, looks like it’s rabbits for this floor. We should also see minos and those silly, one-legged pnt-monsters.”
“That’s Colgen Coral, Boss.”
“Thanks Theo. By the way, we haven’t seen any groups rger than three on this floor, right?”
“That’s right, no bigger than three, Boss.”
“So, the next floor should have four, not five, since the sixth had three, not four. Well, unless it fits a different pattern, or no pattern at all.”
“Hey, Boss, you’re saying some really weird shit. Are you alright?”
“Yeah, thanks Marcus. Got carried away there for a moment. Anyway, let’s follow the map so we can get through this floor as quickly as possible. I really want to check my theory.”
“Sure thing, Boss.”
We made it to the boss room in record time with no one ahead of us.
“Just like in Nordselm, the rabbit boss is really fast so I’ll use my sword. I’ve cast pting on everyone and I’ll try to get it before it has a chance to strike.”
And it was over faster than my little speech. Theo picked up the meat from the artificially clean floor and we hurried exited to the eighth floor. It was getting te, but I had to see. I had to know. We got trees as the next monster but only two this time. The next group had three and finally, a group of four.
“Yes, there it is. Well, it’s at least four. The chance of five on this floor seems remote. So, my working hypothesis is that the max group size is one plus the floor of the log base two of the floor — hmm, floor of the floor — ha, that’s confusing.”
“Time to go home, Boss. Hey, Alina, try to snap him out of it.”
“I’m fine. Hahaha, but it really is funny. OK, I’ll stop it now.”
Still giggling, I got us home safely. With the worried looks, I started to realized what this looked like, and they were right. I’ve been under a bit too much stress tely. Those damn nobles really got to me.
“Sorry, folks. The joke is impossible to expin and it really wasn’t all that funny anyway. I know it’s te but I want to take a bath. Anyone else?”
“Sure, Boss. I’ll help you get the tubs ready.”
It seems that they made tarps to cover them up when unused. Nice touch. I filled and warmed the guys’ tub and then did the same to ours. Soaking in these tubs really is better than bathing in a cold river.
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[1] The duke sees this as bestowing an incredible honor. Any commoner would be eternally grateful. However, feudal bondage doesn’t seem to appeal to David.