Asunder [litRPG] Chapter 8 (Patreon)

“I see,” the girl said, still eyeing Thane carefully. “Well, thank you for all the help.”

“Your benefactor’s pleasure,” Thane replied, rolling his shoulders but making no move to head out the exit behind him.

“You’re not leaving, are you?”

“Nope. I get the feeling I was meant to keep you alive through the entire dungeon, not just a single fight. If you insist on pushing further, it’s unlikely you’ll get very far. How deep are we into the dungeon?”

The girl sighed, massaging her forehead. “A little less than halfway.”

“So you’re going to have to go through multiple other rooms and a boss,” Thane said. “And you came alone? Or did your party perish already?”

“I came alone. Why do you care so much?”

“Bored, mostly,” Thane said, sighing. His mana was slowly trickling back. “I’m curious as to why this person wanted you alive so badly when you’re so insistent on killing yourself.”

“It’s none of your huskiness,” the girl replied curtly. “Unless you want to tell me who sent you? They’ve clearly got to be at least somewhat strong, since I get the feeling you didn’t just walk into the dungeon behind me.”

“Rules,” Thane replied, giving her a shrug.

She sighed. “Of course. Always with the damn Rules. You insist on tagging along, then?”

“If only to say that I did my best.”

“Fine. My name is Nepa. If you’re going to try to kill and rob me, please have the decency to do it now so I don’t have to waste my time.”

“I just saved you. Why would I want to kill you? That would be a waste of my time and effort,” Thane said, shaking his head and scoffing. “Mortals.”

“What was that?”

“Never mind,” Thane said. “So, what’s your plan? I know nothing about this dungeon, so I’ll follow your orders. If you were bold enough to come here on your own, I’d like to think you at least put enough thought into it to have a strategy.”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” Nepa said. “This is one of the smallest dungeons in the area. There are only six rooms, and this is room number three. The boss is a Brood Mother, and it should be around level ten.”

“Sounds like a death sentence.”

“If we fought her normally, it would be,” Nepa said. “Luckily, I’ve got a different plan.

She reached into her bag and pulled out a small vial. It was full of a shimmering grey liquid. Thane peered closer at it, then made a face and shrugged.

“I’ve got no idea what that is.”

“Poison,” Nepa replied. “A potent one. It should slow the Brood Mother enough for us to kill her. As long as we don’t get hit, we’ll be fine.”

“That doesn’t seem very safe,” Thane said. “Your plan relies on not getting hit? What if you do?”

“I’d rather not think about that,” Nepa replied, grimacing as she put the poison back into her bag. “Nobody’s making you stay. I was planning to do this on my own anyways. The exit is behind you.”

Thane sighed. The god had ripped him off. He hoped the Father wouldn’t be too annoyed with him when this girl’s plan inevitably went awry.

“I’ll stay,” Thane said. He was many things, but an oath-breaker was not one of them. Besides, the worst thing that could happen was that they died. All things considered, that wasn’t much more than a minor inconvenience.

Nepa blinked.  “Really?”

“Don’t push your luck. I got scammed,” Thane said, sighing. “Just give me a some time to regenerate my mana. I really don’t want to fiddle around with more spiders without my magic.”

Nepa squinted at him as if she were trying to tell if he was lying or not. Then she gave him a small nod and sat back against the wall of the room. Thane sat as well. Several minutes passed in silence, which suited Thane perfectly.

“I didn’t want to come here,” Nepa said. “On my own, that is.”

Thane glanced up at her and cocked an eyebrow.

“I’m in a small adventuring party. We took a contract from a minor noble. It was a strict one with severe punishments for failure, but it paid very well. We needed the money, so we accepted. But when it came time to do the dungeon, nobody on my team showed up. According to the contract, if we don’t finish the contract, we were entitled to repay the noble half the amount of money that he would have given us had we finished.”

“So why not just pay?”

“I don’t have nearly enough gold to do that,” Nepa said bitterly. “It would have been one hundred and fifty gold. I’ve barely got ten to my name. If I came up that short, he’d be within his rights to force me to become an indentured servant.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Thane said, frowning. “Indentured servitude is little better than slavery. Why not just leave the city the noble lives in? If he’s just a minor noble, he won’t be able to pursue it.”

“I don’t want to go into the reasons why, but that’s not an option,” Nepa said. “I don’t know what happened to my team, but I need to do this for all of us. If I fail, we could all become slaves.”

“Stupid system,” Thane said. “Sounds like your team got scared and flaked out on you.”

Nepa pressed her lips together. It was clear that she thought the same, but all she did was sigh and shrug helplessly. “Nothing I can do about it now. My bed is already made. All I can do is lie in it.”

“Well, at least you wont have to share the gold with the rest of your party,” Thane said. “Assuming you survive, that is.”

A small grin tugged at the corners of Nepa’s mouth. She let out a slight chuckle and nodded. “I guess you’re right. That’s one way to look at it.”