NOVEL NEXT Chapter 320 - It's Just Life
Book 6
Part 1
"No sapient is a dungeon, and it is interesting, almost maddeningly so, to observe how chance encounters can so thoroughly alter the course of one's life… Sometimes when one most needs it. It explains why people are so quick to invoke that most discredited of concepts: Fate." - From "The Ramblings of a Busy Mind", the self-titled diary of Student Kuon Feeir, KUO274021097334283LDX, Social Studies Tower, Year 3, The White Towers University (TWT-U7-GX75T9) - 28th of [ERROR], Year [ERROR]
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It was cooler by the lake than it had been in the Jungle Tops. Kur had also been told that it was a lot fresher than the sweltering, air choking red Miasma that even now rose to the skies at his back from the Hungry Jungle.
A place that we're unfortunately not done with yet, Kur thought, repressing a sigh.
In front of him, the Great Lake stretched out into a distant, impenetrable mist of purple darkness. Gentle waves lapped against a dark pebble shore, and the inky, black-purple waters were crisscrossed by lines of neon blue and lilac. As the waves broke on the shore, they parted with a sigh upon the pebbles to reveal a startling swirl of bright neon green, red and pink. Then the colorful water receded, whispering as it sifted through the gleaning pebbles, and another small wave would part upon the pebbles once again.
The pebble shore stretched far to either side of the party, and the air over it was muted, as though Kur held his hands over his ears. There were no beast cries, no insects buzzing, not even a wisp of wind disturbed the still, warm air.
For this reason, Kur almost winced when his domain party assembled before him, their footsteps on the pebbles sounding like peals of thunder as nearly thirty people took seats before him.
In the middle sat his own party. Battered, shaken and just recently awoken from their mad run through the Hungry Jungle, he nevertheless found that determined glint in their eyes he'd come to expect and find in them no matter what was thrown their way.
There were bruises and injuries still left to heal, as while Jasphaer had cleansed them all of the [Touch of Rot], there hadn't been enough time to fully heal anyone from the consequences of that red scourge. As a result, common bouts of coughing burst the silence, and there was still wheezing whenever someone laughed or breathed deeply.
We come out of that in surprisingly good shape, Kur thought. Though…
His eyes came to linger upon Nar. He was protesting, but he was allowing Rel to support him as he lowered his trembling, aura-burned body to the pebbles. Cen kept a close watch on Nar from his other side, with Jul and Mul seated behind Nar. Viy, Jasphaer and Tuk completed the formation, enclosing Nar in a protective cocoon.
The sight warmed Kur's heart, even as his mind fought against the insidious, vice-like grip that had been tightening his mind since the illatrian.
Another narrow escape… It whispered to Kur, its icy claws grazing over his mind, tightening over his chest. You know you can't run from me forever. I am the enemy no one can beat. Not even Nar, no matter how much he sacrifices himself for you and your people.
Kur exhaled discreetly, keeping his expression neutral. He would chat with Nar later, to fully assess his condition and thank him, but for the moment, and pushing the darkness away, he needed to remain on point.
Row's party sat to his party's right, and to the left sat Leon's, who intermittently eyed him with a burning intensity or avoided his gaze all-together.
I guess they know, Kur decided. He'd pulled Row out for a walk so as to not be overheard that morning and so that she could then talk to her party through their mental party chat, but he couldn't rule out that Medis always alert [Hearing] had picked up on their conversation. Especially now, after it had most likely been further boosted by the rewards from their [Survive the Fall] hidden quest.
But speaking of Row, why do I still feel like I've forgotten something, he wondered, eyeing the red-head. Ugh, guess my brain is still not fully here.
Not surprising, given their crash, and that he'd spent the last two days passed out under the [Touch of Rot].
"Kur?" Gad asked, his second in command standing by his side.
"Right," Kur said, as Sej and Sarke took seats in between his and Row's party. "Let's get started."
He disguised a deep breath behind a smile, and grinned.
"First and foremost, well done everyone for carrying the unconscious people out of that nightmare," Kur said. "Sej, Leon, Calli, Eum, Nar, Mul, Tuk, Jul, Gad, Jasphaer, Leta and Jaz. I can't believe how insane it must've been to go through everything you guys did, including the damned Ruler of the Hungry Jungle showing up, to get us all out in one piece. So, thank you so, so much."
"No need for that," Leon mumbled, lowering his golden-brown eyes to the pebbles. "We are all together in this… It was nothing special."
"Exactly!" Leta said, beaming at Kur. "But let's not do that again, okay? That was crazy!"
That got a few chuckles from the group, and Kur felt his shoulders easing a smidge.
"I bet it was. But hey, we came away from this with insane rewards from the Dungeon Guardian, so everyone, make sure you check them out properly later if you haven't yet. And while us party leaders will be checking everyone's status after, make sure to let us know if there are any crazy gains in there, all right?" Kur asked.
A chorus of yeses rose in the dead still air.
"Now, I know you're all still wrecked, but before we decide on our next steps, there is something that we all need to discuss," Kur said, keeping a grimace from twisting his features. "Leon… You and your party, perhaps you already know what we need to talk about?"
"Yes," it was Calli who spoke, her tone level. "Medis overheard it…"
She bit her lip, her eyes, the same warm tone of golden-brown as her younger brother, lowered as she pondered her next words.
"There is someone after you guys, isn't there?" Gad asked. Gentle, but leaving no room for anything else other than the truth.
Leon sighed and scratched at the back of his mane of dark golden locks.
"We weren't sure before… But given what happened to the ma'bat, there is no other conclusion," he said, avoiding Gad's all-black eyes. "Someone in here is trying to get us."
"To kill you or get you?" Mul asked. "Best not to mince our words here."
Calli pressed her lips at that. "Well…"
"Well, what?" the brawler asked, and with a bright pop of light blue, Wolfie materialized and dashed across the pebbles to the aethermancer.
"We don't know their intentions," Calli revealed, a little smile shining on her features as she pet the tail wagging pup. "They could be trying to kidnap us."
There was a moment of stunned silence across the domain party.
"Uh?" Jaz said.
"What? Why?" Tuk asked.
"For ransom, is it?" Kur asked, raising his hands to call for silence again.
Eum shrugged. "Ransom, leverage, revenge, or something else. By now you all know that we come from well off families, and there are many reasons to target us. It's been like that our whole lives, from the moment we were born. Especially me and Leon. We are… heirs to our families. Of sorts."
"Crystal!" Cen whispered, raising a hand to her mouth. "That's horrible!"
"A lot of resources have gone into our upbringing, so our loss would be a significant blow to our families. And we can't discount the possibility of internal rivals either."
It was Gad that spoke ahead of everyone else in the deep silence that fell across the domain party once again.
"Are you saying that someone in your own family is trying to kill you?" she asked.
"I—Yes. It's complicated," Eum said, his eyes hardening.
"My Crystal…" Tuk whispered. "I'm so sorry to hear that, man."
Eum however, shrugged. "It's just life, and we've gotten used to it. What really matters here is that…"
He eyed Leon, who nodded.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
"That we involved you guys in it, and we're really so, so sorry for that!" Leon said, his eyes dark and his jaw clenching. "That was never our intention, I swear! Our guide's death felt somewhat strange, yes, but the Brightnight is an almost purple domain. We expected it to be harsher than anything we'd faced before and I thought—I thought that I had just failed him."
He sighed. "But there's no way a bullet hole that doesn't bleed is an accident. Whatever their goals are, someone has chased us into this dungeon, which means that you are all at danger now. For that reason, we have decided to—"
Kur raised a hand.
"I can guess as to what you've decided, but let's not be too hasty," he said. "Of course, before any decision is made, as a party leader, my responsibility is to my own people first, and it's the same for Row. I ask you guys to be patient, and let each party have a proper talk about this. Sej, Sarke, if you could please split up and join either party in order to answer any questions, that would be most helpful. Of course, your lives are also on the line, so we will take your decisions into consideration, and if you want, you can take some time to discuss it first between you two."
"Thank you," Sej said.
"Is that alright?" Kur asked Leon with a half-smile.
"Y-Yes! Of course! And… please," Leon said. "We'll wait for your decision. Whatever it is."
With that, everyone slowly, haltingly rose to their feet and the two parties stepped away from the camp. Kur glanced back to see Leon's party huddling up together, no doubt chatting through their own private party chat.
He couldn't help feeling bad for them, but his party came first. And he had to give Row and her people the space to make their own decision as well. He may be their domain leader, but a decision this momentous required a party level agreement.
That said, he did feel bad for the aethermancers. They had been practically one of them from the moment they'd joined their dominion party, and he had come to regard them as highly as he did Row and her party. The aethermancers had committed themselves wholeheartedly to the success of their delve, and they had even helped them out on their own gathering and harvesting efforts.
To think about leaving them behind, potentially to their deaths… That didn't sit right with Kur. Not at all.
The altei led them quietly away from the camp.
"Here's good enough," Kur said. "Let's sit."
"You think they would listen in?" Rel asked, as they sat in a circle.
"No, but some separation was needed," Kur replied.
"For what? You can't honestly expect us to leave them here to die. Because without a guide, that's exactly what's going to happen," Mul said, and Kur noticed that he'd left Wolfie behind with Calli.
"Right?" Tuk said, his eyes furrowed with worry. "We can't just abandon them!"
Kur raised his hands in a pacifying gesture.
"Relax. I don't want to leave them behind either. But I wanted to give Row's party some space to talk it through," he said. Then he turned his shadowed face to Sarke, who had joined them. "That said, there are some things that are not adding up that I wanted to properly discuss as well with one of you."
"I can guess as to what they are, but go on," Sarke said, her vibrant emerald scales somewhat muted in that misty, purple light.
"Thank you. First things first, then. We were told that no one can enter the dungeon if they're above the dungeon's level range. Is that correct?" Kur asked the guide.
"It is," Sarke said. "Plus, if you enter at the max level of 70 and it's not your first time in the dungeon, you won't be able to gain any more XP or quest rewards. It's why Sej and I are still stuck at level 70 after all these years guiding parties through the jungle."
"So that means whoever is after Leon, is at most, at level 70?" Kur asked, the rest of the party listening intently.
"Yes. You cannot enter otherwise," she confirmed.
"That's both a relief and a concern, then," Kur said, rubbing his chin. "After the one level awarded as part of that quest reward, we're all at level 51, except Rel and Nar, so while level 70 still seems out of reach, at least it's not anything higher than that."
"It's still quite significant," Gad rumbled. "And the fact that they haven't outright attacked us must mean that they are trying to be discreet about it, correct? To fly under the guardian's attention?"
"That's… That's something I don't get!" Cen said, before Sarke replied. "I thought no one would do something like this in a dungeon! Aren't there really bad consequences for this kind of thing? And isn't the guardian watching?"
The reptilian guide folded her scaly arms.
"As with everything, things aren't so clear cut as I guess you were told," Sarke said. "And to be fair, this isn't the first time I've heard of this sort of thing happening in the jungle. This place is a messy affair, and with the right gear, one can evade the guardian's eyes."
"Crystal… Really?" Rel asked. "How?"
Sarke shook her head. "There are machines that disturb the natural flow of ambient aether, scramblers, jammers and cloaking devices, so one can fly under the radar of a dungeon guardian. Of course, it's incredibly risky, as none of these are completely fail proof, but they are at least capable of making it hard for the guardian to fully make sense of what is happening. For example, dropping lures to gather up six herds of cacklers is perfectly legal and doesn't merit a second glance. And if anyone else gets caught up in that, then who cares?"
"Damn," Nar whispered. "They can attack indirectly!"
"That means the Grounding too," Jul whispered. "Right?"
"And the ma'bat can be ruled off as a stray bullet," Sarke added. "The guardian will not care unless there is clear and obvious proof of malicious intent, and even then, very few guardians do more than just file a report to the System. Whoever's behind this will face no physical opposition."
"Meaning, the guardian will not help us," Kur said. "And I'm guessing that just speaking about it out loud like this does not constitute proof either?"
The guide shook her head. "That would require the guardian to believe us over the word of someone else, who, obfuscated as they probably are, appear innocent. Or even not at all to the guardian's senses."
"Things are either useless or against us," Mul said, eyeing the dark lake with an empty stare. "There's no in between in this damned Creation."
"How about other people? The local delvers are still inside the Brightnight, right? Just in smaller numbers," Kur asked.
The reptilian chuckled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "This is not the kind of place where you can expect help just out of someone's kindness. The jungle is no place for softness. People come in here for their work delves, only to never come back out. And in the right place, a dead body will be eaten up in a matter of minutes, leaving no traces behind."
"A clean death, no witnesses…" Jul said, going pale. "The rogue's way."
"The obvious conclusion would be that some beast got to them or some other shit went wrong," Viy said.
Sarke sighed, and nodded. "You hear whispers from time to time, of suspicious sorts about…"
"And nothing's ever done?" Tuk asked. "That sounds insane!"
Sark shrugged.
"Thousands of people delve into the Brightnight every year. Every day. People go missing, and unless it's someone important, no one's going to waste XP looking into it. If someone was killed and the guardian detects it, the System will be notified, and you'll be able to pay for the report from the Office of Delving so that action can then be taken. If possible. Otherwise, you're just another number in the statistics. That's how it goes, not just here, but across all the non-tamed domains. Of course, if you crawl out of the jungle bleeding and delirious and someone spots you, you will be taken care off. People aren't heartless. Just not dumb enough to stick their necks out into something that will bite their heads off."
A moment of silence stretched across the party.
Professor Thim said one thing, and while it was the truth, it was not the full truth, Kur considered. And the way Sarke speaks makes me wonder if these punishments are as severe as they sound, or if maybe, they're just there to keep law-abiding citizens from straying in a moment of weakness. After all, if you're someone willing to kill or kidnap someone, the threat of punishment might not be a deterrent at all…
He sighed and rubbed his eyes. He was dying to go back to his bed and sleep the rest of the day away. That blasted [Touch of Rot] might be gone from him, but he still felt its worming touch inside him.
"Right. Assuming you are trying to get under the eyes of the guardian, then is it right to say that there can't be that many of them?" Kur asked.
Sarke nodded. "That would be my assumption too. A small party, five to seven, hiding, and trying their best to either kill or capture Leon's party. But I could be wrong, so it's best to expect and prepare for larger numbers. We could be facing a full domain party."
"Crystal," Cen muttered.
"What are they going to do if they capture them, anyways?" Viy asked. "You can't communicate to the outside, and you need to be in a party or domain party to exit together, right?"
"Well…"
"Obviously, they would force them into forming a party," Mul said, in his customary suppressed tone. "Torture, rape… you name it. And you heard what the Leon's people said. Maybe they just want Leon or Eum. Not the rest."
"Seriously?" Tuk whispered.
Sarke, again, nodded, though this time she remained silent.
"And, just to clarify," Kur said, his tone flat in the heavy silence, "if any such people attack us directly, we would be entirely in our right to defend ourselves to the full extent. Is that correct?"
Sarke's eyes narrowed.
"You are correct," she said, her tone dropping. "If they attack you directly and visibly first, you are within your right to deal with them as you see fit. The attackers' rights are forfeit the moment they break the Crystal's Law in the dungeon."
"Visibly," Gad repeated, "and first."
"Yes. Unfortunately, yes. If you attack them instead, you are the ones to get in trouble," Sarke said.
"That's such—Such shit!" Tuk said. "So, we have to take it until they decide to openly attack us?"
"Or until they mess up," Kur said, and sighed. "I know this sucks, but we're not going to leave Leon's people behind, and I doubt Row's party will decide in that direction either. The best we can do is to expect the worst from now on. And the moment they screw up or come directly at us…"
Kur looked around the party, his eyes shining eerily in the low purple light, his expression dark and uncharacteristically hungry.
"Then I don't think I have to say anything else, right? They come after us, they better be ready for the consequences."
Grave nods met his words, no hint of hesitation on any of his party members.
"I will be sensing for them from now on," Jul whispered. "If they come within range, I will find them."
"Thank you, Jul," Kur said, offering her a smile that looked just a bit too wide.
They had killed those who sought to end their path before, and they would do so again. No useless remorse or hesitation was ever needed towards such people.
"How's that sound for everyone?" Kur asked.
"You don't need to ask," Tuk said, in a hushed tone. "We're not going to leave them behind. They have been nothing but incredibly nice to us. They even carried us out of that red jungle! Especially at the end, they could have just dropped us and ran for it with their wounded, but they didn't… And Leon looked like he was ready to die to open the way for us. So, if someone is after them, I'd rather be there when they try again."
Mul reached a hand to the ring tosser and patted his leg. "Oh, we'll be there. You can be sure of that."
"Good. Sarke, what do you think?" Kur asked the guide.
To his surprise, Sarke shrugged.
"Everything can happen in the jungle, and you must be ready for anything to happen," she said. "We were paid to guide you and this situation is not one of the contract breaching clauses."
"There's a clause for this?" Kur asked, stunned.
Sarke chuckled. "There's a clause for everything, Kur. Anything you can think of, no matter how dirty or underhanded, it will be there, covered and accounted for. That's how you stay out of the courts."
"Crystal…" Kur said. "Anyways, that's that then. We'll wait here for the others to make their decision."
"You knew we weren't going to abandon them," Gad rumbled. "You split us up purely for Row's party's benefit."
Kur half-smiled. "I expect they'll make the same decision as us, but they deserve to have their privacy to talk things through. As did we. Even if it does end up souring things between us and Leon's party, it has to be done."
"Fair point," Gad said, and Kur detected a hint of a smile at the corner of her lips.
"Anyways, feel free to do whatever you want while we wait," Kur said, addressing the rest of them. "There are no beasts on this shore, but obviously, given what we just discussed, don't stray too far."