Chương 100: (B2.36)

36) Village Ellen It was around the time that the seventh adventuring party arrived that the trouble began. Ellen was trying her best, but even with Jack and Camilla helping out, it was getting overwhelming. She'd dealt with busy nights before with large caravans passing through—or technically she'd done that with the help of one of her sister-selves—but a constant bustle of activity was new to both her and the rest of the village.

Lauren and Tobias were starting to show signs of fatigue, though they couldn't complain about the extra income. The dungeon closing up was what caused the problem. Too many people seeking glory and experience, all arguing over who would go the moment it opened up. Voices were raised, accusations hurled… until finally someone had accused the owner of hoarding the dungeon's loot and faking the entire thing. A few had protested the accusation, but the fight was imminent. Ellen had kicked them all out.

The adventurers were lucky it hadn't been raining at the time, because she'd raised her voice and ushered them out with much grumbling from the groups, but nobody really fought her about it. Rumors about the earlier altercation had made everyone a little reluctant to challenge her right then and there, and moving swiftly she'd cleared everyone out.

"Stupid dungeon," Ellen sighed in a long, low, ragged voice. She dropped her head back against the chair and let her arms go limp, forcibly blocking out the flood of stimulation that she constantly felt. She managed to zone out enough to keep the noise from bothering her, though the smell of leather, sweat, and filth from the road still lingered in her nose. Everyone smelled bad to her lately. It was a problem she really needed to figure out a way to handle. Camilla gave her a pitying look… then swatted Jack's arm.

The young man jerked, blinked a few times, then quickly looked to the side with his face reddening. It was an odd response that Ellen was too tired to think about. She just wanted the problem gone.

"They're just all pent up," Tobias said from nearby.

"Let them cool off out there and I'm sure they'll realize there's nothing you can do. Even if their accusations were true, it has nothing to do with us. We're just the inn, and no adventurer wants to upset the only tavern in town." He sounded more certain than he was. Even when she was trying to block out the excess noise and nuance her ears picked up, Ellen could detect the slight quaver in his words.

Whether he was trying to reassure her or himself, she wasn't certain, but it was a reminder to Ellen that Tobias didn't really have that much experience with adventurers. A party or two passed by every few months, but until now it had been only incidental encounters. The vague sound of shouting outside rose up again, and Ellen deliberately shut it out.

"They'd better settle it quickly," she grumbled.

"I know we need the business, but we can't keep running like this. And I worry about what would happen if one of them causes trouble when I'm asleep or out on an errand. My Class lets me take care of this more easily when it's in here, but without that most of these people are way too strong for anyone else to resist." Jack started to say something, but almost jumped out of his skin with the loud thudding impact that slammed against the front door.

He jerked aside, head whipping about to stare at the door that shuddered under the blow. Every head turned to the closed door, surprised it had held up to whatever had assaulted it. NOTICE: Mana Draw Your Townsaver's Sanctuary has drawn 6 mana to maintain entrance integrity. EXPERIENCE AWARDED: Prevented a stronger hostile invader from entering a protected space. For successfully preventing entrance, you have gained 400 Experience.

FIRST TIME AWARD: Prevented a stronger hostile invader from entering a protected space. For performing this activity for the first time, you have gained 12000 Experience. The last one was a decent amount of experience, but she was still a long way from Level 14. It was a pleasant surprise, but most of Ellen's work had been pretty mundane, so she'd been earning small but steady rewards. A few of them were scaling rewards, actions that gave more experience the higher level she was…

but even with those she was barely making progress, aside from the recent bar fight. Another notification of mana draw made her flinch. Someone was really hammering on the door, and they were doing it with intent. This wasn't some scuffle outside that had just happened to slam someone into the door. It was a deliberate attempt to break in. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"We demand to be shown the dungeon right now!" bellowed the man behind the door.

"Open up or we start burning down the village!" Now that Ellen was paying more attention, she could hear the fighting outside. To her relief, most of the adventurers outside were yelling about the threats and trying to calm down the ones who were being so unreasonable. It was only a moment later that she realized that while the reasonable voices outnumbered the ones hurling threats… they seemed to be losing the actual fight. Well, that wouldn't do.

Jack and Camilla both stepped back as Ellen let out a low, feral growl from deep within her throat. Another message popped up about the door being attacked, and this time she dismissed it only to walk straight forward and throw open the door. It was chaos outside. The argument had turned into a full-blown battle, all for the alleged favoritism of someone who wasn't even here.

Several adventurers were trying to subdue one rowdy bunch, and Ellen even saw a sputtering torch down the road, knocked from the hand of one of the people threatening to burn the village. The man in front of her was startled by the open door, but his axe was still in his hand. It had not made a mark on the door, but the way he quickly settled into a stance spoke of plenty of experience. He had a rough shadow of a beard and shaggy brown hair, but Ellen didn't see any scars like a lot of veterans had.

Just well-maintained chainmail over his padded shirt, and a glint in his eye that said he was dangerous. Ellen noticed all this while she was lunging. This man had threatened her home. She needed to make an example out of him.

"GAH!" The cry of surprise wasn't enough to stop him from reacting. He was a veteran, probably Tier 3 even, and he'd taken a defensive stance without even thinking about it. The axe swung automatically, biting deep into Ellen's side during the lunge. Ellen didn't care. She felt the hot flare of pain, but her hands were going for the man's neck, while her knee came up to slam between his legs. She heard her own snarl of anger, felt the jarring impact of her knee against some kind of protection he wore.

Then her arms were far enough forward that she felt her fingers brush the man's neck. Pain exploded in her jaw, vision turning white and spotty in an instant. She felt herself tumbling, hurled away by some Ability the higher-Tier adventurer possessed. Wood splintered around her as her back slammed into the table, the legs buckling under the impact. Her spine flashed with pain, then went numb from the legs down. NOTICE: Control Shift Activated Lycanthropic Shift attempted. Allow?

(Y/N) Ellen was too addled to think about an answer at first, but Control Shift assumed she didn't want to shift if she didn't activate it. She saw experience notifications scroll past as well—a few of them large—but her mind was focused on how her body felt hot, almost on fire. She groaned as she spat blood and teeth, tongue running along her bloodied mouth full of metallic warmth. She could already feel the nubs of teeth regrowing, and her jaw ached as it popped back into place and knit itself together.

Warmth spread up her side from the injury in her ribs, but those too were cracking and shifting back into place. The ringing in her ears was fading already as her boosted regeneration fixed up injuries that would have been fatal to any other Ellen. Luckily, the man's panicked counterattack had thrown her right into the inn, where her already unnatural healing had been further increased. Even the pain faded quickly, allowing her to focus on the doorway while the rest of her healed.

Her legs and feet tingled in that not-quite pain of moving them after sitting awkwardly for too long, but had yet to respond, forcing her to hear the argument once her ears stopped buzzing.

"And what do you think they'll do once they come back and their innkeeper is dead? You think they'll let you just demand to be let into the dungeon after that? The lord of the land might just kick you out!"

"That was uncalled for, she's just defending her home! You'll be sanctioned by the Guild!" The man raised his arms.

"She attacked me! It was automatic! And you all know I'm right! Dungeons don't close themselves without reason, they're definitely hiding something! Why are you all listening to a bunch of clones? Isn't that suspicious?" The argument continued, voices getting louder. The man's high Tier made others reluctant to push back too hard, but the sentiment was slowly turning against him. Slow enough that Ellen didn't like it at all.

These adventurers were treating the village like an inconvenience in their way to the dungeon, and she couldn't let that stand.

"Are… are you all right, Ellen?" Camilla asked in a hesitant voice. She was leaning over the fallen table, her eyes wide with worry at the splintered furniture and splatters of blood all about. It really was a disturbing amount of blood. Ellen felt a wash of heat in her legs, and they throbbed with an aching that told her she could move them again. She wiped her mouth on her sleeve and grumbled aloud, "I'm fine, Camilla.

Get back, I need to inform these rude folks that they are not welcome to cause trouble like this." They attacked her town. That was an affront to her Class, not just her sisters. With a wince from still-healing wounds, Ellen pushed herself to her feet and walked forward. The moment she emerged from the inn, the conversation tapered off. Ellen felt numerous eyes on her, and she could guess why. Her hair was matted on one side, while blood caked her legs and the side where she'd been hit.

Even now, her body twinged at the effort of moving, though the worst of the bleeding had already stopped. She looked horrific and she knew it. The man who had attacked the inn turned around last, confused. So confused that Ellen's right fist smashed into his face without any attempt to stop it. The automatic defense was either not so automatic, or on a cooldown of some kind. Either way, the meaty smack of her knuckles crumbling the man's nose was loud enough for some of the crowd to hear.

"GUH! YOU BITCH!" he roared, the nasal words taking some edge off the anger. His left hand clapped to his bloodied face, his right lifting the axe. Several of the nearby adventurers stepped forward again, but paused when Ellen didn't even flinch at the insult nor the weapon.

"You want to kill me? Go ahead," she growled.

"You can try. And then you have to deal with a dozen or more of my sisters, many of whom are not tending the bar and serving food at an inn. My sister owns this land and the Crown knows it. So how about it? Are you going to declare war on Thallis? Or are you going to pay for the broken furniture and the trouble you've caused these villagers?" The man opened his mouth, but Ellen cut him off.

"No, you aren't going to ever get into the dungeon now." For a moment, he looked like he was going to argue… but his eyes dropped to the wound at her side, then up to her face. The warrior was belligerent, but slow understanding dawned that his apparent Tier advantage hadn't given him the easy win he'd thought it should. Risk assessment slowly worked through his brain, until he grunted and lowered the axe.

Ellen looked around the gathered parties, some ragtag and others with shiny new equipment and clean-shaven faces.

"Anyone who endangers or threatens the village, you lose access to the dungeon," she declared. Then she narrowed her eyes and added one more line.

"And best hope I'm in a good mood when I hear about it."