Rise of the Living Forge - Chapters 177-178 (Patreon)

“What is it?” the female adventurer asked. “My name is Maddy, and this is Theo. If there’s anything we can back you up on, we owe that much.”

“Unless it’s going deeper into this dungeon,” Theo said, coughing into his fist. “I don’t think we’re going to accomplish anything other than getting killed if we try to.”

“Don’t worry. We didn’t go through all this effort to bail you out just for you to get killed,” Arwin said, speaking quickly but firmly. Killing the Crag Lizard had probably bought them a little bit of time and energy — and they needed to rest for a short while and gather their energy again anyway. “It’s something outside of the dungeon. My name is Ifrit. I—”

“Oh, shit. The smith!” Theo’s voice lit up with recognition. “I heard some people talking about you. The guy that really likes…”

His eyes drifted over to Lillia and he cleared his throat. “Well, that checks out.”

“Yes. That would be me,” Arwin said without missing a beat. “My group is currently trying to establish a bit of a name for ourselves in Milten. If you want to pay us back, swing by our street and check out what we have to offer.”

“That’s it?” Maddy blinked. “We aren’t really all that rich. If it’s really expensive, as much as we’d like to—”

“It’ll be well within your price range to stay at the inn at the bare minimum,” Rodrick put in. “You won’t need more than a gold or two.”

The two adventurers glanced at each other, then nodded. “If that’s really all you want, then we can definitely try. Is that really all?”

“That’s all,” Arwin confirmed. “I would suggest you leave this dungeon immediately, though — and if you don’t mind, keep everything you saw about our abilities to yourselves. As far as everyone else is concerned, I’m just a smith and there’s nothing special about my companions. We’d like to keep it that way.”

“I swear we won’t say a word,” Theo promised, pressing a hand over his chest. “Not that anyone would believe us if we did, but don’t worry. As far as anyone else is concerned, your team just finished off a monster when we were badly injured. That’s it.”

“Thanks,” Rodrick said. He flashed them a grin. “Safe travels. Don’t get into any fights on the way out. It would be a waste if you got killed after we went through all the trouble of saving you.”

Maddy and Theo didn’t need to be told twice. They repeated a hurried round of thanks before darting off in the direction of the dungeon exit that the Menagerie had come through. They were so caught up with still being alive that, somehow, neither of them noticed the fact that the body of the massive lizard was missing.

Lillia shot Arwin a look. “You’re responsible for the body going missing, I take it?”

“Achievement,” Arwin said with a nod. “Mesh delivery service. It’ll definitely save us a lot of effort.”

“That’s convenient,” Lillia said. She paused for a second before turning her gaze to the backs of the retreating adventurers. “Was it really fair to ask them to come to the inn?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Arwin asked innocently. “I didn’t make them do anything. The Mesh shouldn’t have any issues with it.”

“It feels a little bit cheap, don’t you think? They’re basically being strongarmed into going.”

“Eh. I’d say it’s fine,” Anna said, shaking her head. “I mean, we did just save their lives. Coming by the inn is a pretty low cost. It’s an effective business strategy.”

“You’re supposed to be the voice of reason here,” Lillia said through a sigh. “Thank you, though. I can’t protest too much.”

“More importantly, does anyone else need healing?” Anna asked. “That was a nasty fight.”

Nobody spoke up.

“I think we’re all fine,” Reya said, speaking up for the first time since the end of the fight. A small frown pulled across her lips. “The Mesh just told me that I was making progress along my Challenge.”

“That sounds like a good thing,” Olive said. “Better to get rid of the Challenge by completing it rather than by failing it. What’s wrong with progressing it?”

“Apparently, it consumed the Title I should have gotten for killing that thing,” Reya said, casting her gaze back at where the huge monster had been. “I think it’ll give me a better one when I complete the Challenge, but I could have used the power now.”

“Don’t stress about it. It’s not something you can control,” Anna advised. “Just make sure you don’t get yourself killed before then. I can’t tell if that attack of yours impressed or scared me. You aren’t as resilient as Arwin or Rodrick, so please keep that in mind.”

“I know. I just saw the opportunity and had to take it,” Reya said.

“I think we all understand that feeling,” Olive said, her gaze pulling away from Reya and raising to the forest beyond her. Her hand tightened around the hilt of her sword. “Just make sure you control it. It serves you well until it doesn’t.”

They fell silent for a few minutes, taking the time to focus on gathering themselves again in preparation to continue deeper into the dungeon.

“Did anyone else get anything worth noting from the fight?” Arwin asked.

“Improved Skill Selection Achievement,” Rodrick said.

Anna and Lillia both nodded, then glanced to each other.

“Seems we got the same,” Lillia said. “What about you? Was it just the delivery of the monster?”

“Yeah, but given how big it was, I’d say it’s a pretty big delivery. I hope we end up with some of the meat as well. You’d probably be able to put it to good use.”

“It would be odd for the Mesh to take something away from us, so I’m sure we will,” Lillia said. “How is everyone doing on energy? As much as I’d like to sit around and recover completely, I think it might be smarter to get moving before we can’t anymore.”

“Probably the right call,” Rodrick said. “Do you know what direction we’re headed, Arwin? It slipped my mind.”

“Yeah. There,” Arwin replied, pointing toward where the band of force from [Dragon’s Greed] had been pulling him. “We’re in the equivalent of the second room right now, but we might not be far from the third. Everyone keep your guard up.”

“I don’t think it’s possible to let it down here,” Olive muttered. “I didn’t get to do much that time around, so I’m ready to leave whenever. I just wish I could do something when my opponent wasn’t standing around and waiting for me to hit it.”

“Don’t worry. Once I get a little stronger, I’ll be able to use Imprison a lot more effectively,” Reya said. She hesitated for a moment before putting her hand on Olive’s shoulder in an awkward pat.

Arwin nearly bust out laughing. The difference between the adventurer that had literally scaled the side of a behemoth to jab a tiny dagger into its eye and the girl before him now was stark.

Olive didn’t seem to notice. She just gave Reya a distracted nod. “Thanks. I just want to be able to be more useful on my own. There’s no need for a warrior that can’t fight.”

“We’re a team,” Arwin said. “There are roles for each of us to play, and you might not get one in every fight. That doesn’t mean you’re useless. If you were a solo adventurer, I’d agree that you’d need to be better at handling everything yourself. But you’re part of the Menagerie now — and that makes your inability to participate a failing on my shoulders.”

Olive blinked in surprise. “What? How?”

“I’m the one who was calling the orders after the fight started. I didn’t utilize your abilities properly. We had the tools to do it, but I was more focused on myself than calling shots,” Arwin said honestly. “Working in a proper team is something I’m still learning. I promise I’ll get better at it.”

It’s amusing. As the Hero, I was general in name only. I didn’t make the strategies for the overall battles and I just trusted my teams to cover my back while I focused trying to kill Lillia. I didn’t have to consider anyone’s abilities other than my own. Lillia seems like she actually has some experience with planning things out. I need to rely on her — and the others — more.

A distant rumble shook the dungeon. They all exchanged looks. It definitely didn’t sound like a monster, but something had definitely happened. Their time was running out.

“Let’s get moving,” Arwin said.

He re-activated [Dragon’s Greed] one more time to scout the path forward, then set off with the rest of his guild at his back.

***

They made good time through the dungeon. There really weren’t many monsters, which was probably a result of all the adventurers already having cleared the area of weak enemies. The only things that would be left alive were the ones too strong to be killed by the average Journeyman Tier.

It wasn’t long before the forest thinned and they found themselves in a wide, grassy plain. Scorch marks and scars on the earth spoke of battles past, some more recent than others. There was still no sign of enemies, so the Menagerie continued ahead at a brisk pace.

They soon left the plains, which were likely the third room, and entered a flatland made of entirely dry grass. Hills rose in the distance, flanking a tall black tower that rose three stories into the air and cast an imposing shadow in the fake sunlight.

Nothing had to be said. The Menagerie set a course for the tower. The barren plains were just as devoid of monsters as the grasslands had been and it wasn’t long before they’d climbed the hills and got their first look at the base of the tower, which Arwin suspected to be entrance to the fifth floor.

They weren’t alone. Rising up from the base of the tower was a large, black-scaled snake.

[Overloading Life Constrictor — Journeyman 9]

The Life Constrictor was easily twice as long as the Crag Lizard. A portion of its body seemed to be trapped underground and four heavily armored adventurers faced off against it. Being buried beneath the ground didn’t seem to have made the snake any less lethal. The bottom half of a man had been flung to the base of the hills, marking at least one fatality.

It didn’t look like the dead adventurer’s allies were faring much better. Their armor was cracked and heavily damaged, and one of them was leaning heavily on her ally. The adventurers had managed to leave several serious cuts on the monster’s scaled form and one of its huge fangs was cracked — but they weren’t going to win the fight.

Nobody even had to say anything. They all burst into a sprint down the hill toward the other adventurers before anyone else could die.

“Godspit. What are those idiots doing? Why aren’t they running?” Reya yelled.

Arwin went to respond, but the words caught in his throat as one of the adventurers fighting the snake turned just enough for him to catch a glimpse at the front of his armor. There was a small badge on it.

Even at the distance Arwin was at, he recognized it instantly. The bright red with a shimmer of gold wasn’t easy to forget. The adventurers were members of the Ardent guild.

Chapter 178

There wasn’t any time for Arwin to stop and consider if he actually wanted to help the Ardent guild. This was probably the team that Busal had mentioned reaching the fifth room. Arwin really didn’t have much desire to have any more dealings with them than he had to — but a death was still a death, and none of the adventurers before him looked far from it.

He bounded down the hill, [Scourge] pouring into his legs and accelerating him with every step he took. It wasn’t the ideal way to engage the snake, but there wasn’t enough time for him to draw Prism’s Reach.

Arwin shot past the Ardent guildmembers just as the snake’s head shot forward. He summoned Verdant Blaze and brought the hammer around, slamming it into the side of the snake’s snout and pumping his muscles full of [Scourge].

A crack rang out, tremors racing up Arwin’s arms, and the snake flinched back to abandon its attack. It felt more like he’d surprised the monster rather than actually injured it. Arwin dropped to the ground in front of the other adventurers just as Rodrick arrived beside them.

The snake hissed, pulling back even farther to stare down at him with a massive, watery eye. Its tongue flicked out to taste the air, trying to determine if Arwin was actually a threat or if he was just another snack waiting to sprint into its mouth.

“What are you doing?” the leftmost guildsman asked in a distressed tone.

“Saving your sorry asses,” Arwin barked. “Why are you still fighting this thing? Do you not realize that we’re just a few deaths from a Dungeon Break? Get out of here!”

The air itself rattled as the Life Constrictor let out a low hiss. Green smoke wafted out from the corners of its mouth and curled up around its head.

“We can’t!” the healer said, her voice gummy and thick, like she was trying to speak through a mouthful of food. “You’re the one that needs to leave. The snake has a neurotoxin in its breath! It slows your movement. We can’t move fast enough to get away.”

The corners of the Life Constrictor’s mouth pulled back, almost as if it was smiling. Then it exhaled. Sickly green fog rolled across the ground like the front of an approaching storm. The adventurer closest to Arwin groaned and pulled his shield forward like he was moving through molasses.

Energy erupted from it as he activated a Skill — but Arwin didn’t wait around to see what it was. He banished Verdant Blaze and grabbed the two men closest to him, slinging one over each shoulder as he spun.

Rodrick grabbed the first of the healers and Olive drew up alongside them just in time to snag the last woman — and they all spun and sprinted back for the hills as fast as they could move.

The snake roared and stretched after them. Even as bound to the tower as it was, the monster was huge. A shadow blocked out the sky, but Arwin didn’t even bother craning his neck back to look up at it. The only thing he was focused on was pumping his legs as fast as he possibly could.

Water rippled around Rodrick, who was staring straight in Anna’s direction and using the increased movement speed he got for moving toward allies to escape danger instead of run into it.

Shadows rose up from the ground around Arwin and the others running from the Life Constrictor. They formed into a thick plate and snapped to the side, launching them all like toys through the air.

A thick wall of wind slammed into Arwin before he could even hit the ground, throwing him and the two adventurers in his grip even farther. They hit the ground in a tumble of limbs and an earth-shaking crash shook the world an instant later with enough force to buck Arwin back into the air.

The world spun around him and he lost his grip on the adventurers, letting them tumble on their own as he caught his own balance. He needed them alive, but that didn’t mean he was going to go out of his way to make sure they didn’t get bruised up.

Arwin managed to catch his balance just as the huge snake’s head started to rise. It had slammed its body into the ground in an attempt to crush them, and Lillia had just barely thrown them to safety in time.

Ironically, when dealing with a monster this large, its shadow was actually big enough that Lillia’s own abilities were also stronger. Groans from the adventurers at Arwin’s feet told him that they were still alive.

Rodrick and Olive had been thrown a fair bit farther than Arwin had, but they both pushed themselves back upright as well. They weren’t out of the snake’s range yet, and trying to take it on while they were ferrying around what might as well have been corpses would make the fight borderline impossible.

Arwin scooped the Ardent guildmembers back up, activating [Scourge] once more so he could actually lift two people in full plate armor, and sprinted off. Rodrick and Olive were right behind him, though it looked like Olive was dragging her target more than carrying them.

The Life Constrictor’s hiss echoed through the dungeon once more. Another wave of green mist rolled from its mouth and washed toward them. Arwin pumped his legs harder, skidding to a stop at the edge of the hill and hurling both of the men in his grip.

They sailed through the air, but Arwin had already turned back to the others by the time he heard them hit the ground with two loud thuds and a multitude of pained curses. The wall of poison was rolling closer, and without Scourge, both Rodrick and Olive weren’t as fast as he was.

Arwin shot back into motion, running to grab the two female guildmembers from their grasp. Rodrick instantly grabbed Olive instead, drawing on [Flowing Steps] as he raced back for safety.

The few moments it took Arwin to shoulder the two women and draw on [Scourge] again were enough for the poison to reach them. It washed over his body like a cold, wet fog and pressed in against his armor.

Almost immediately, the gem on the center of Arwin’s chest armor started to glow a dull green. It did its best to absorb all the magic around him, but it was nowhere near enough. The Ardent guildmembers coughed and wheezed as the poison wound into their lungs.

It prickled at Arwin’s throat and wound into the base of his skull, but he sprinted all the same. They were only in the fog for a few seconds before he burst free of it once more, sprinting past Rodrick and up the hill.

Wisps of green smoke coiled off his body and he coughed, expelling some of it from his lungs. Despite the furious prickling that had now stretched to completely cover him, his movements didn’t feel slowed at all.

A small laugh slipped free as he realized why. The Life Constrictor’s poisonous mist was a neurotoxin. It targeted the mind. [Indomitable] protected him from mental effects, so unless he took a bath in the snake’s poison for a prolonged time, it wasn’t going to be able to do anything to him.

Anna rushed over as Arwin dumped the two guildmembers on the ground and turned back to the snake. It hissed, tongue flicking out once more, but they’d finally escaped its range. The poisonous fog gathered at the foot of the hill, but it didn’t climb it.

The snake turned back and pulled away from them, returning to the tower and coiling around it. It kept a single, massive eye staring at them in challenge, as if daring someone to grow close enough to try it again.

“Are you okay?” Anna asked.

“I’m fine. Get them,” Arwin said, nodding to the men and women on the ground. “Can you deal with something like this?”

“I’m not so sure Cure is meant to deal with ailments this bad, but I should be able to with enough time,” Anna replied, dropping to her knees beside the healer of the other group and pressing her hands to the other woman’s Chestplate.

“Nobody else got hit by the poison, right?” Lillia asked.

Rodrick and Olive shook their heads as one.

“No. Rodrick got me out fast enough,” Olive said.

Anna’s patient sat up with a strangled gasp. She doubled over, coughing, and Anna moved on to the next one of the Ardent members without hesitation.

So much for not being sure if Cure was meant to handle something this bad. Anna handled it in just a few seconds flat. Did she just flood the skill with magical energy so it would perform faster?

But, by the time that the Ardent guild’s healer had managed to gather herself enough to wipe her mouth with the back of her hand, Anna had already made her way around the rest of the woman’s guildmembers and purged every single one of them of the poison.

Anna flopped to the ground with an exhausted groan. “Okay. I’m out. That took everything I had. That poison was really strong.”

“Who are you?” the shield-bearing warrior asked through a coughing fit. He pushed himself upright, wobbling as he rose, but managed to find his footing.

“Does it matter?” Arwin asked. “I think there’s a different line you should be starting with.”

The man reached up to his helm and pulled it off to reveal a clean-shaven face with straight black hair. His cheeks colored slightly with embarrassment, but there was a distinct sadness in his eyes as he looked back over to the Life Constrictor lying in wait. “You’re right. My apologies. Thank you for the timely save. We couldn’t have taken more than another blow or two. The snake was playing with us.”

“Did you get Jonah?” one of the women asked. “Is he—”

“Dead,” the warrior said. His fists tightened at his sides. “We will grieve later. We aren’t out of this yet. If we don’t deal with the dungeon—” The man cut himself off and glanced at Arwin, then blew out a breath. “Are you aware of what a Dungeon Break is?”

“Yes,” Arwin replied. “We don’t typically risk death to ourselves just to bail another group out. This dungeon is one strong push from teetering over the edge and taking half of Milten with it.”

The man gave him a grim nod. “Then you understand why we need to press onward. That snake has absorbed an enormous amount of magical power. If we can kill it, we can delay the break.”

“You can’t kill it, though,” Reya said. She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Are you seriously going to try again?”

“We got caught off guard the first time,” the other warrior said as he rose. “We need to. After Jonah—”

“The girl is right,” the dark-haired man before Arwin said with a sharp shake of his head. “We’ve already made a mistake. Without Jonah, we aren’t going to be able to take that thing down. It’s injured, but so are we. If one of us dies fighting it, we could trigger the very thing we’re trying to stop.”

“So we’re just going to give up and leave?” the healer asked. Her hands tightened at her sides. “How are we supposed to explain that to—”

“Leave that to me.” The dark haired-man looked back to Arwin and the others and inclined his head. “I know you only acted out of necessity but I thank your team, nonetheless. I will mention this to my guild.”

Arwin let out a snort. “I doubt they’ll think much of it but feel free. Tell them the guild that bailed you out was the Menagerie.”

Judging by the look in the man’s eyes, he didn’t recognize the name. That was only a mild surprise. Larger guilds had a lot of branches and people in them, after all. The part of the Ardent guild that managed purchasing goods probably only had limited interaction with the actual adventurers, so only some of them would know a blacklist by heart.

Which makes it even more suspicious that Busal did. That guy was waiting specifically for us, wasn’t he?

“I’ll do that,” the man said. He looked back to the snake, then grimaced. The look of regret in his eyes was one that Arwin recognized. The man shook his head and blew out a breath. “We’ll try to send reinforcements to deal with this. My group is weakened, but we have stronger adventurers. Be careful.”

With that, he gathered his people and they broke away.

“They could have been a bit more grateful,” Reya muttered. “That thank you almost felt like he was fulfilling an obligation.”

“He’s not thinking about how he and the others survived,” Arwin said, watching the group jog off. “His thoughts are on the one that didn’t. I don’t like the Ardent guild much, but I can give them a pass for that.”

Lillia didn’t say anything, but the thickening shadows around her told Arwin everything about her mood that he needed to know. Losing an ally was something that was all too familiar to both of them.

“How in the world do we deal with that thing, though?” Olive asked. “They’re going to find out who we are the moment they leave the dungeon. If we wait for reinforcements, we aren’t getting shit.”

Arwin looked back to the snake. “I’m noticing something about it that I believe may be to our advantage.”

“Seriously? What?” Reya asked.

Prism’s Reach materialized in Arwin’s hands and a cold smile pulled across his lips. “It can’t dodge.”