Chương 364: (357) 5.53. Grunch Time

Seeing as they were technically camping in enemy territory, Vin decided against assembling the full stronghold of slumber. As much as he loved his comfortable set up, he wanted to sleep lightly and be prepared for anything. Such as waking up to Alka standing between them and a large shadowy figure nearly two feet taller than she was.

"Alka!" he gasped, jerking awake and preparing to shout for the others when she suddenly held out a hand to silence him.

"Hold it, Vin, they're not a ranker," she said, never taking her eyes off the newcomer despite her own words.

"Let's not scream and alert any potential ranker squads that might be patrolling nearby."

"They're not?" he asked dumbly, staring at the figure in the darkness and trying to make out their appearance. While he couldn't really see anything and he didn't dare cast Light and potentially give away their position, based on their size, there was only one explanation that made sense.

"An orc?"

"Yes," the stranger said, taking a single step closer and holding up their hands defensively as Alka angled her sword up toward their chin.

"Please. I am not here to fight. Do you remember me?"

"Wait… Grunch?!" At this point, Vin had met a single one of the orcs in the alliance, and there was no way he'd just coincidentally encountered the exact same orc during their brief stay in their fragment.

"Are you following me?"

"I detected your soul signature the moment you set foot in our fragment," Grunch explained.

"Knowing you are no ally of the ranker king, I decided to wait until nightfall before approaching."

"Vin, what did I tell you about learning magic from random traveling soul mages?" Alka snapped.

"Because I'm pretty certain I told you to stay away from them!"

"He's not a soul mage, he's an Arbiter," Vin explained.

"And I didn't learn from him! He knocked me unconscious and I woke up in a jail cell!"

"I only did that to save your life," Grunch said quickly, raising his hands all the higher as Alka's glowing eyes narrowed.

"The ranker king would have killed you for disobeying him. Order and honor are everything to the rankers, it does not matter that you had information he wanted. There is no honor in killing an unconscious person or a prisoner, however, so I knew you'd be safe."

"Still, quite the big risk you were willing to take with someone else's life," Scule said, revealing he'd woken up as well. Vin blinked as he realized Scule's voice was coming from behind the large orc, though Grunch didn't seem surprised in the least.

"You do not know of the ranker king's strength," Grunch said wearily.

"We have reason to believe he has already achieved his third prestige. He is a true monster of a warrior, having slain countless hundreds of his own people who dared stand against him."

"Shia. Lumel. Are you two up?" Vin called out quietly, not wanting to have to explain all this after the fact.

"Yes," Lumel said, shifting in the darkness to stand beside him.

"I heard everything so far."

"Same here," Shia confirmed.

"Leaving the matter of tossing Vin in prison alone for now, why don't we cut to the chase. Why come talk to us?"

"Both to apologize and clear up any misunderstandings, as well as to ask for your help," Grunch said simply, finally lowering his arms and bowing deeply toward them.

"Our people, both mine and those of the beastkin, are in desperate need of assistance. The rankers came in number shortly after we appeared on Edregon, conquering us in all but name and folding us into their alliance without ever asking. It is a mockery to the term, as we are forced to do whatever the ranker king demands and have no real say in the matter."

"You look like a rather large guy," Scule pointed out.

"Why not fight back?"

"There are more than ten thousand rankers within their fragment, and you've seen how skilled even their weaker members are in combat. Countering that, my home town barely holds two thousand people, and the beastkin village not even half that number. We would not stand a chance."

"I hate to break it to you, but we don't exactly have a force capable of taking down all the rankers even if we wanted to," Vin admitted. He contemplated trying to use Detect Truth to check and see if he was lying, but Grunch had mentioned being able to feel souls twice now. Most likely, if he wanted to hide the fluctuations in his own soul, he knew how to do so already.

"We do not wish to ask for your help in defeating them. That is too much to ask of anyone," Grunch said, shaking his head.

"We wish for your help with escaping. You are some of the first people to make it through the surrounding fragments, we would ask you to assist our people in fleeing from our homes and seeking refuge away from the rankers who now rule over us." Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

"That's a tricky ask," Vin said, glancing at his teammates.

"I'm not exactly saying no, and I know this question is terrible, but can I ask what's so bad about the rankers anyway? Other than the fact that they keep trying to kill us, they don't seem like horrible people overall. They treat their support and crafter classes well at least."

"They have all but usurped our leadership and tell us how to live our lives," Grunch growled, his massive frame vibrating dangerously.

"We would be free to live our own lives once more, unburdened by the words of the ranker king."

"Wait, you said we were some of the first people to make it through the surrounding fragments," Shia pointed out.

"What happened to the others?"

"Some fled back the way they came. Many perished at the hands of the rankers when they tried to do the same. I believe one man is still within their prison, refusing to offer any assistance to them regardless of how long he sits there. You are the first who managed to successfully escape, and then actually came back, which is why I came to you for your help."

"Maybe we could get them out through the dungeon?" Lumel offered.

"It would take quite some time, but I could ferry a small handful of them out through the Underside each day."

"Our dungeons are guarded by the rankers, used as training aids for their strongest of warriors," Grunch said, squashing that plan.

"You know about the dungeons?" Lumel asked, clearly surprised.

"It was hard not to notice the cave that appeared on our land immediately after we lost our levels," Grunch stated.

"It took us some time, but one of our Scouts unlocked the Dungeoneering skill after spending enough time in it, before the rankers forbade us from entering. That said, he has since lost his life attempting to find a way through one of our adjacent fragments."

"If the dungeons are locked off, that means our only chance of helping is to bring them through one of the fragments somehow," Vin muttered, already deciding he wanted to help them both. He briefly wondered if this wasn't all some sort of horribly convoluted scheme, before deciding that wouldn't make any sense. If Grunch had been working with the rankers, they would have woken up to a few hundred deadly warriors surrounding them, led by the ranker king himself.

"You can't all just make it down to the exploding mist fragment? If you hug the fragment barrier, you can run through it just fine."

"We would have to travel through the rankers' own fragment to reach it. A few of us could make the journey, but we have no way to lead two thousand people there without the rankers noticing. Not to mention we have hundreds of noncombatants, including elderly and children. I fear you underestimate the tenacity of the exploding monsters contained within the fragment. A small handful of people might be able to slip through undetected, but a group as large as ours would no doubt attract plenty of monsters."

"He's right," Alka said, her sword still aimed unwaveringly at Grunch's chest.

"There's no way the monsters wouldn't move in on a couple hundred people trickling through the fragment. The same would happen with the darkness fragment. I'd bet we wouldn't even make it a third of the way through before the monsters hugging the ranker border would be upon us."

"So basically, you need our help sneaking your people out through one of the fragments directly bordering your own," Vin said.

"I'm going to be honest, so far the fragments we've seen surrounding yours truly look unpassable. Though I guess we do still have a few more to check out."

"I can lead you to the other fragments and inform you of what we've learned thus far," Grunch offered.

"We can meet with Emrelda and gain her assistance as well. She and I are the only two members of our people who are free to venture beyond the bounds of our settlements, as we are the ones who convey the orders of the ranker king."

"Damn, they've got you all locked down as well?" Scule asked.

"No wonder you guys want to get out of here."

"And you'll really be okay leaving behind your homes?" Lumel asked.

"Starting over again won't be easy."

"We are more than aware, but it has to be done," Grunch said, his voice hard and stoic.

"Once we are free from the rankers' rule, we can think of the future once more."

"Alright… We'll do what we can to help you get away from the rankers," Vin decided, getting sounds of agreement from all his friends.

"That said, we might not be able to help much once you've escaped."

"That is acceptable. We are already asking far too much from you as it is," Grunch stated.

"You should get some rest. I will return in the morning with Emrelda, and we will show you the remaining fragments bordering our own. Perhaps you will find a method of traversing one of the ones you have yet to see that have stumped us for these past few months."

"That sounds like a solid plan," Vin nodded.

"If you can help us avoid the roving squads of rankers, that would be huge."

"In that case, I shall return in the morning," Grunch said, bowing once more before turning and walking off, vanishing into the night. Everyone waited a few seconds to ensure he'd really left before coming together.

"I checked with Sense Life, he's gone," Shia began.

"Everyone else is in agreement, right? We're helping these guys get out of here?"

"It's not right that they're forced to do whatever the rankers say, and I can only imagine freeing the orcs and beastkin would hurt the rankers, so absolutely," Vin nodded.

"Definitely, I want to help," Lumel agreed, sounding far more determined than she usually did.

"This is erring a tad too close to slavery for my liking, so I'm all for helping them," Scule said, getting an agreeing squeak from Reginald by his side.

"Assume I'm always down to help rescue people from monsters, even when those monsters might be other people," Alka said, her eyes flaring.

"Things are going to get dangerous though. Are you really prepared to be responsible for the lives of nearly three thousand people? It'll be more than just your neck on the chopping block this time, Vin."

"Someone has to do it, so it might as well be us," he said.

"By now, I'd imagine we've probably got more experience dealing with other fragments than just about anyone else in all of Edregon. So long as a single one of these fragments has a path through it that we can find, we can save everyone."

"Glad to hear," Alka said, finally putting her sword away.

"With that out of the way, pack your stuff everyone. On the off chance Grunch is lying about everything, we're moving camp. We can find him in the morning once we're rested and ready to join the resistance."