NOVEL NEXT Chapter 30 - Larissa: At the threshold
The travel was mostly uneventful, thankfully. The dwarf tried to get a rise out of me multiple times, but before it could escalate that paladin intervened. So after several attempts, both of us just resorted to glaring at each other whenever possible.
What bad luck to be paired with one of those idiotic purists. If it all went according to them our governance would allow for random folks to invade people's houses and smash and pillage their belongings in the name of creating higher level adventurers.
Thankfully the walking annoyance at least has a high level traveling skill, seemingly moving the ground under us to accelerate walking speed. Consequently, it only takes us two days of travel instead of three. Unfortunately it won't reduce the amount of time I have to spend around him by a lot, but I will take it. I excuse myself to scout around when we set up camp and use my skills to meld into the surroundings. There is a very low likelihood of finding anything worth reporting, but maybe I’ll find something for the younger team to hunt. But after hours of stalking around I find nothing so I return to the campsite.
Returning to find a small hovel surrounded by stone walls around the cave entrance, reinforced with wooden spikes, impresses me moderately. At least the Geomancer is fulfilling his role, despite his grating personality and political views. The elven girl is seated on the wall, meditating. Her ears twitch at my approach and I am simultaneously impressed in her ability, and disappointed in myself. As a tier two rogue, even though my skills are not ideal for the setting, I should not have been noticed by a tier one. Since an outing like this is inevitably happening again, I will have to improve my skills before that happens.
Scaling the wall I give the young woman a nod and drop down on the other side. Inside the hovel I find a small space prepared for me. It seems professionalism exists as a concept for this nuisance. After a small meal of rations, I settle into an unsteady sleep until I get woken for watch duty, which also passes uneventfully. I just hope the dungeon proves interesting when we enter the next day, otherwise I might die of boredom in this wilderness.
Thankfully there are no words passed between us the following morning. The paladin is in prayer, and the dwarf is meditating, so I take it upon myself to sharpen my knives as I await their readiness. When they are finished, we each double check our equipment, and with some words to the adventurers from Marcus, we enter the cave.
The first section is what you would expect, and only after descending through a small chasm do we arrive at the large underground section filled with ruins described by the report I skimmed. The air in the place is stale and unpleasant, and the decaying stonework gives the whole place a venerable air as we make our way carefully through the rubble and ruins.
When we draw closer to the ruined building at the far end of the cavern, all of us are shocked to discover light shining through a slightly open door. Nodding to each other, we approach the door curtly after a sweep of the area reveals no signs of danger. As we approach, the sounds of faint laughter and music can be heard from within, and all of us tense up slightly. Despite being an entire tier above this place, something about the stifling atmosphere of the long dead city contrasts grossly with the seeming air of elation that emanates from the building, creating an unsettling dissonance.
When only several strides separate us from the entrance we all pause. My two compatriots nod to each other and the paladin's sword starts to glow brighter as he murmurs a prayer, while the dwarf begins casting. An old song and dance for most adventurers, it is time to use long lasting buffs before entering the dungeon proper. While they handle that, I prepare the tribute that was agreed upon. Heavy hearted, I pull out a leather bag that clinks with coins from my [Hoard], and place it on the floor, while reading the ritual components from my bag.
Coinage is a traditional tribute to give young dungeons, and an important one, since statistically speaking as many as 80% of dungeons produce coinage and treasures at tier two or earlier if they have received such. The amount is argued quite heavily in academic circles, but parting with any amount of money is bad for a city's Coinkeeper. Thankfully, it is not my money to do with as I please, so I don’t feel quite as terrible about it.
After the two other members are done applying buffs, at least two of which have included me, the result of which are a slight glow now emanating from my weapons and a hard rocky texture enveloping my skin, we are ready to complete the ritual, which the dwarf does without delay and frankly impressive precision.
At completion, the sack of money vanishes, and the paladin gives us a nod, before pushing open the double door that marks the entrance of the ruin housing the dungeon.
What we see beyond is most definitely not what we expected.