The Fell War - Chapter 4 (Patreon)

“You need me to do what?”

Maldrom didn’t even look up from his ledger. “Just escort my miners into the mountains and get me some more mana crystals. It’ll only take a few days.”

Alfre raised a skeptical brow at the dwarf. “And why can’t your guild escort itself?”

“Because everyone else is working on that darn boat of yours,” Maldrom snapped, still not looking up from whatever he was writing.

“Technically, you were already building the boat before I’d even gotten back from Crystal Moon Kingdom,” Alfre reminded him, feeling a little smug.

Maldrom sighed heavily, finally looking up at her with a scowl. “Look, we just need more mana crystals. My miners are fairly low level; I just need you and your laughably small guild to look after them. Most surface level mana crystals are in fairly high level places and I’d rather they not die in the process. It’d be a setback I’d rather not deal with.”

Alfre wasn’t sure she’d ever get used to a world where death was considered and inconvenience at worst. “Yeah, alright, whatever. I hope you realize you’re going to have to pay for this, though. Standard escort quest rate and not a coin less.”

Maldrom’s scowl deepened. Clearly, he was unhappy at being charged for such a thing.

Alfre shrugged. “My guild has to make money some how, and I’m sure you’ve got plenty to spare.”

“Fine, fine,” he agreed grumpily. “But just the standard rate. I’m already losing money on this endeavor, so don’t expect me to pay you extra should things go rough.”

Alfre and her friends met with Maldrom’s miners the next day. The dragonling girl that Alfre remembered from the first meeting she’d been to as guild master was their, along with three other low-level players – a dog familiar cleric, a human summoner, and a dwarf knight. They’d already procured elk for the seven of them, and were itching to go.

“Guild master Alfre,” the dragonling greeted cheerfully, “it’s good to see you again. You probably don’t remember me. I’m Basil, Maldrom’s third in command and leader of the mining forces. Thank you for agreeing to come along with us.”

“No worries,” Alfre said in return, running her hand through her direwolf companion’s white fur. “Beira was getting stir crazy anyway.”

“Where are we off to?” Spica asked, mounting her elk with little effort.

“The Stormbreaker Mountains,” Basil said, checking her saddle before hauling herself up onto her mount. “It’s only about a day’s ride away, but the tunnels there are full of mana crystals.”

“And full of monsters,” Elias reminded, looking worried already.

“That’s why we’re here,” Alfre said, getting Beira to boost her up so she could clamber aboard her elk. It looked terribly undignified, she was sure. The curse of being short followed her everywhere.

They took off without much fanfare, careful not to push their elk too hard right out the gate. The Stormbreaker Mountains were no joke, and the elk would have to navigate very narrow paths in order to get to the entrance of the mines. Best to save their energy for that endeavor.

Siniy, the continent they all currently inhabited, was the farthest north, and therefore the coldest of the four continents of Wonderland. Despite the fact it was currently well into early summer, the air was still rather cold, especially once the mountain winds started whipping about. Alfre pulled her cloak tighter around her, the direwolf fur of her coat staving off the cold. There was no real reason for her to be wearing the Cloak of Night’s Shadow, save for the fact the high magical defense it afforded her made her nigh invincible against the lower level mobs that flooded the tundra-esque grasslands of that surrounded the mountains.

Stormbreaker was hardly the most intimidating mountain dungeon in Wonderland, that honor belonged to the Gates of Death, which Alfre and company ‘conquered’ back in April. She had to mentally put quotes around that, seeing as she never actually defeated the boss, just talked to him.

And now months later, Abital spent more time in her guildhall than he did on his own throne. Supposedly because he was in love with her or something. Stupid Spica, making her think so hard about all this.

Alfre shook her head to clear it, her hair whipping about in the blistering mountain wind. They were just starting to make their way up the mountain, their elk moving cautiously along the narrow paths. These paths were almost half the danger, fall off and you were pretty much guaranteed to end up dying. It was quite the deterrent for all but the most stubborn of players.

Eventually, the party reached the landing just outside the mine entrance what felt like hours later. It wasn’t nearly as intimidating as the Gates of Hell, with its spiky maw leading down into the dark. The structure was held open with wooden beams, and Alfre could see torchlight flickering down in the tunnels. She couldn’t let herself be lulled into a false sense of security, though. Stormbreaker was still a difficult series of dungeons, the mobs reaching well past level 40. Of course, Alfre and her friends were all above level 50, so they were probably fine.

Basil tied off their elk to one of the beams just inside the cave, leaving an open bag of feed on the ground near them. “We shouldn’t be gone long, mana crystals are pretty easy to find down here.”

Alfre nodded, letting the dragonling girl lead the way. Beira, her direwolf companion, and Elias and Spica followed along just behind her, the rest of the mining party clustered between them.

“Have you had issues with the mobs in the cave before?” Elias asked, his voice bouncing off the cave walls.

“A few,” the dwarven knight admitted. “Folks don’t tend to come down here much, so when they do, the mobs notice. It’s hard to mine when you have to fight off a small army of ghouls and goblins.”

“Well, you just worry about the mining,” Spica assured them. “We’ll take care of the rest.”

Basil led them down further into the tunnels, their way lit by a small fire spirit their summoner had conjured. Alfre could hear the growling and groaning of the mobs, always just around the corner. It was unnerving, to say the least, to know something was there without being able to see it – the danger always just around the corner.

They found their first patch of mana crystals without much issue. The members of Wall Street Spade went to work, quickly digging out the crystal with such focus, it was no surprised they didn’t notice the danger when it appeared.

A small army of goblins, all level 47, meandered into view. The moment they caught sight of the mining party, the leader shrieked and the troop charged. Alfre, pulse pounding in her ears, shot forward, rapier drawn and Beira at her heels. She could see the purplish glow of Elias’ debuffs on the goblins. She grinned wildly, her face twisting into something almost terrifying, and thrust her rapier forward. A storm of icy needles flew towards the goblins, their thin cloth armor unable to defend them from Alfre’s wintery magic. Beira jumped into the fray, biting at goblins throats with her fangs and swiping at their bellies with her claws. Goblins fell to them with ease, helped along by Spica’s poisons and Elias’ spells. Alfre hadn’t fought like this in ages it seemed. She’d missed the excitement of it.

“That’s enough,” Basil announced, stuffing the mana crystals into her satchel. “Let’s move on. We shouldn’t take everything from one spot. Winnie, no, leave some. Otherwise it won’t grow back.”

The dog familiar huffed a little, but scooted away from the mana crystals that still remained buried in the wall.

“How many did you get?” Elias asked, reaching for the mana crystals in the wall for a small pick me up.

“A half dozen small ones,” Basil said, “but I’d like to get a few more. Let’s go.”

Spica looked up from where she was looting the goblins, a frown on her face as the party passed her. She pouted, but abandoned her looting nonetheless. It wouldn’t be good for her to lose the others, even if she could theoretically make it through the tunnels just fine on her own.

They continued marching down farther into the mines. It was perhaps another hour or so before they found another cluster of crystals big enough that Basil felt comfortable mining from it. Again, not long after they started mining, a group of mobs wandered into the picture – this time it was a trio of high-level ghouls and a handful of lower leveled skeletons. Alfre scowled she hated fighting skeletons. Her rapier was a thrusting weapon, and there wasn’t exactly anything to thrust into when it came to skeletons.

Then, she remembered her halberd. She’d carried it with her in her satchel, despite being sure she wouldn’t use it. She sheathed her rapier, and reached into her inventory satchel for her halberd. The blade sang with her winter, a cold fog coming off it in wisps.

Alfre swung, the axe head of her weapon cutting the air with a wholly satisfying sound and it slammed into the spine of one of the skeletons, shattering the bones and effectively cutting the thing in half. Spica was right up in the fight with her, her poisons useless against the undead. She stabbed a dagger into the eye of one of the skeletons, pulling upwards to remove its head from its body. The rest of the skeleton fell apart as a result. Elias threw several small fireballs at the mobs, skeletons exploding into fragmented bone pieces upon impact.

The skeletons taken care of, the trio turned their attention to the ghouls. They’d fought ghouls before; Abital’s dungeon had been crawling with them. Alfre thrust forward with the spearhead of her halberd, planting the first ghoul with a see of ice. A few seconds later, the seed exploded, the icy spikes piercing the ghoul’s flesh and protruding from their paper-thin skin. She turned to the next ghoul, only to have Spica beat her two it, having severed the ghoul’s spine at his neck with a quick slash of her daggers. Together, feeling the warmth of Elias’ buffs just under their skin, they attacked the final ghoul. Spica plunged her daggers into its eyes. Alfre flickered into position behind the monster and severed its spine with a well-placed hit with the blade of her halberd.

“Are we done?” Spica asked, panting ever so slightly. It wasn’t often she had to get into the middle of the fray like that. Her assassin class was more suited to long distance fighting, hiding in the shadows and whittling down her opponents with poisons and debuffs.

“I think so,” Basil said, tucking a few more crystals into her inventory. “We’ve got ten, which is probably enough for now, especially since the last three were very large, all things considered.”

“Good,” Elias said with a sigh. “Let’s get out of here.”