Chương 580: Chapter Five Hundred and Sixty-Five - Local News

"To be clear, we are absolutely not free," Amaryllis said. She had her wings crossed and beak turned upwards. The fact that Amaryllis was taller than the village head probably made her all the more intimidating. We had relocated from the field the Beaver had landed in to the village head's house, right in the middle of town. Well, not so much his house as his front porch.

The village head was an older gentleman, a farmer by the name of Eikon Saddleson that looked like he had spent most of his life in the fields and was now happily retired from that kind of backbreaking work. He was a bit wrinkly and his skin was suntanned, but he had greeted us with a smile, serving some very tasty and refreshing lemonade from a big porcelain jug.

I had to send Calamity out to go fetch Amaryllis after a moment, though, because it was becoming clear that we would have to maybe charge a little bit for this, and Amaryllis had explicitly forbidden me from handling our money.

"Amaryllis," I said, crossing my own arms.

"You can't just walk up to someone and say that. You have to say hello first."

"Oh, I'll be polite in a moment, but first I need to undo whatever you've done," Amaryllis said to me. She turned back to the old village head, who seemed undecided between being intimidated and amused.

"Forgive me. But our fine captain here has a habit of letting her emotions and feelings get in the way of good business sense. If I left it up to her, we'd be walking all over in our underthings because she'd give all the rest away."

"I'm not that bad." Amaryllis pursed her beak.

"See," she said.

"I'm Amaryllis Albatross. First mate aboard the Port Royal registered Exploration Guild vessel, the Beaver Cleaver. A pleasure to meet you, sir."

"Oh, um, the pleasure's all mine, young miss," he said.

"Never seen your like before. Would I be mistaken in guessing that you're a harpy folk?"

"I am, yes," Amaryllis replied tersely.

"Now, what has Broccoli said?" The village head chuckled.

"Nothing too bad, don't worry your... feathered... pretty... head? Hm. Ah, but where was I... yes, the dungeon. I've been keeping the news mostly to myself, but it has been worrying me."

"And why is that?" Amaryllis asked.

"Maybe I ought to start from the beginning, eh?" the village head said. He gestured to Amaryllis.

"Sit, sit. There's juice! We have a nice vineyard here for citrus, makes an excellent lemonade. Do you have that, up in your harpy mountains?"

"No," Amaryllis said.

"It's likely too cold for citrus trees to grow. In any case, before we can move on to business, I'd like to know more about the situation at talon. What kind of dungeon are we dealing with here; what's the issue with it?" The village head rubbed at his chin for a moment before speaking.

"Well, if you're gonna help... About six, maybe seven years ago, a dungeon popped up in the old Black Crater."

"The Black Crater?" I repeated. He nodded along.

"Oh yes. There's a large crater, just a ways out of town, towards the shore. I suppose I'll show it to you in a few. In any case, the crater's always been a curious place."

"I think it's why we're here," I said.

"We're looking for the Black Avatars."

"Ah," he said.

"You wouldn't be the first to come asking... hmm, most of the time, I send folks off, like the last headman used to. It's all a little before my time, in any case. But I suppose if you help, a few stories might do as payment?"

"We'll see about that," Amaryllis said.

"And we're going off-topic. The crater, the dungeon, what happened?"

"Heh. Young ones, so impatient. Well, some six, seven years back, a few of the children were out causing a ruckus, and discovered that there was an entrance at the bottom of the crater. Some of them went in, and came out quite spooked. They said that they encountered some knights in there."

"Knights?" I asked.

"Mhm! Big men, in shiny armour. Now, we looked into it, of course, and discovered a little dungeon had appeared. A blessing from the World. We didn't make too much of a fuss about it, of course. Didn't need people from the city trampling all over our fields and getting up in our business. A few of us tried to clear it, ah, but when we lost a few boys to the dungeon, we called it off-limits." This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"And there haven't been issues since?" Amaryllis asked.

"Oh, a few? Sometimes a rumour spreads around, that there are knights patrolling the crater, but I've never seen them with my own two eyes. Mostly, it's far enough from town that I always thought that leaving it well enough alone would keep it calm."

"I suppose," Amaryllis muttered.

"But I take it that that has changed?"

"Just recently, yes," he said. I perked up.

"Have you noticed any weird roots around?"

"Roots?"

"Like, from a tree or something, only way, way bigger," I said. I waved my arms around, to help with visualization.

"We've been encountering some like that at different dungeons, often just before they start acting weird. It's a problem."

"Hoh, no, I can't say I've noticed anything like that. Right now, the dungeon's just a little annoyed, I think?" I blinked. Dungeons could be annoyed?

"How is it being annoyed?" I asked.

"Well, I don't know. You'd be the experts. You don't ask a blacksmith how to mend a dress, do you?" He shrugged a bit, thin shoulders shifting beneath his shirt.

"It's more that I feel like it's feeling that way."

"Are monsters... regularly leaving the dungeon?" Amaryllis asked.

"Yup. A few knights are almost always patrolling the crater now."

"Interesting," I said.

"What kind of class does the dungeon give? Or does no one know?"

"Dunno, sorry, missy."

"That's okay, I guess we'll find out for ourselves." Amaryllis huffed.

"Sure. And lose a day or two in the finding. Though I can't say that it's all bad. A fresh dungeon might be a good way to sharpen our talons. But it's not what we're here for. We're looking for information. It's why we stopped by Blackwatch in the first place." I clapped.

"Right! Do you know anything about the Black Avatars?"

"Hm, I might know a thing or two," the village head said.

"Mostly stories. They left here when I was just a lad, you see."

"So you knew them!"

"Well, maybe," he said with a dismissive little wave. He shifted forward in his seat and poured himself another cup of juice.

"If you're willing to help with our dungeon, even just going down and seeing if anything's wrong, then I'm sure that'll help jog my old memory a little."

"Tsk," Amaryllis muttered.

"Our expertise isn't that cheap."

"I thought as much, but I don't know what a little village like ours can offer you, Miss Adventurer. The lot of you I've seen so far have more gold in equipment on your backs than we make in a year." I glanced to my friends, and... hmm, he might have had a point? Amaryllis was dressed in fine exploration clothes, I had armour on, Awen had her nice coat and lots of tools, and Calamity had that fancy bow on his back.

We'd been picking up things here and there, and when we bought clothes, it was stuff that was meant to last a while, and we tended to buy from nicer shops in the bigger cities. Compared to the locals, who seemed to go around in wool clothes probably made right here, mostly dyed in the same colours and sewn up in simple patterns... yeah, we probably did look a little bit rich. And we hadn't even brought out Caprica and Bastion.

"He has a point," I said to Amaryllis.

"They could at least off to help a little," Amaryllis said.

"Food and board for a few days couldn't hurt, could it?"

"I suppose," the old man said.

"If you don't mind mutton and the local herbs and what we grow in our gardens year round?"

"Of course not!" I said.

"Homecooked food sounds tasty!"

"Hm! Well, I'll send some boys down to the shore to fish something up as well. As for board, we have a few barns that aren't full up that we could let you sleep in. Maybe a few spare rooms?"

"We'll be fine for board," Amaryllis said quickly. I think she'd rather sleep in the Beaver than on a heap of old hay.

"Now, where is this Black Crater of yours, exactly?"

"Ah, well, follow me, then! It's not too far that I can't escort you over for a quick look-see."