Chương 49

Hunter Ellen The snowfall had picked up about halfway back to Onroc. It wasn't a problem for Ellen. She'd waffled a little bit about which Class to take when she had hit 11 so rapidly, but in the end she'd opted to go for Landkeeper again, as she hadn't gotten the chance to truly explore its capabilities before she'd died. It had too much potential to ignore, even if she could have leaned more toward a druid-like profession if she'd wanted.

The nice thing about a Landkeeper was it was very hard to get lost, even in the snow. The heavy swirling flakes reduced visibility and forced Ellen and her sister-self to a slow trudge, but they managed to mostly stay on the right path. When they drifted, it wasn't hard for Ellen to correct and bring the two of them back on the right track. It gave her an excuse to look at the Settlement Interface, as well. She'd been examining it more often, of late.

Places where she'd been more recently had more information available, and she could even see that despite what she'd told Merchant earlier, there were in fact two wolf packs prowling the forest. Neither were anywhere close to Onroc as yet, but the fact that she could get an estimate of wildlife in the forest after she'd walked through it was both interesting and powerful. She'd had to rotate the map and zoom in to see where Apprentice and Healer had died… and it concerned her when she found the cave.

Their exploration inward had revealed the part of the cave they'd travelled through, but now that the twins were dead it was unable to show the rest of the cave system. Or maybe the map only expanded where Ellen went, because she was a Landkeeper. She couldn't be sure, yet. What she could be sure of was that the dungeon's area of influence, even with the somewhat fuzzy borders, normally wouldn't extend into that tunnel.

Now that she could examine clearly, she could see the slight bulge away from the mostly-spherical dungeon influence area that pushed into the area. The dungeon had explicitly expanded toward the mana plume. Some people did think dungeons were thinking beings, though their intelligence was likely alien to that of humans.

This didn't prove that this one could think—plants would grow toward sun, and it stood to reason the dungeon wanted the mana plume—but it was one more piece of evidence that the dungeon itself had goals and ambitions. Its intent to kill any Ellen that walked into it was now more worrying than ever. She'd have to talk to the others about it more thoroughly when they got back. Beside her, Smith slipped and stumbled, but Ellen had already seen the footing was treacherous and extended her arm out.

At least, she was pretty sure she'd seen Smith about to slip. She hadn't really thought about it when she held out her arm, and Smith hadn't said anything when she latched onto it to steady herself.

"Mmf, we need someone who can predict the weather," Smith grumbled.

"I'm pretty sure that's a Tier 3 thing to get anything resembling accuracy," Ellen replied with a soft huff. She tugged her scarf up and tucked her free hand into a pocket, once Smith released her. Neither had worn gloves or mittens for this trip, so her fingers were starting to go numb. Smith said nothing. She'd probably already known that, and was just grumbling about the snowstorm. And it was a storm, if a mild one. They might have trouble getting in and out of the longhouse if they weren't careful about it.

This would put on hold the plans for building during winter, despite Carpenter's new ability. Although without a similar one for Mason to set and cure mortar, they had limitations anyway. A few more stumbles finally brought the two into the clearing, and after a long trek that had seen light fading as dusk approached, the longhouse was within sight. The promise of relief from the cold put more energy into their steps, and at last Ellen thumped on the door to be let in. It was, of course, chaos inside…

but not the kind of chaos she had expected.

"Hunter! Smith! You're all right!" Mason and Carpenter were immediately at their sides, offering some warm, fresh blankets and taking the cloaks. They hadn't made a proper foyer yet, so Smith hurried to close the door before much of the heat could escape.

"I told you," Merchant said.

"We've been waiting to hear what had happened. The new Ellens have been very quiet toward us, but all we've heard is that you went into the old cave." Ellen had expected lots of noise and confusion about the four new versions of her that had appeared… but instead all four were huddled in the makeshift bed they all used. The quartet were facing one another and whispering quietly, but it didn't sound like a full conversation. Sixth generation. This story originates from Royal Road.

Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. She shivered as she thought about it. She and Smith were fourth generation, and while she didn't feel any different from her previous self, she also found it easier to relate to Smith than anyone else, despite their completely widely different paths. How would four appearing at once relate? Apprentice and Healer were already eerily close. The four new Ellens turned toward her expectantly, every face showing the same uncertain curiosity.

None asked verbally what happened… and didn't need to. Of course that would be what they wanted. Ellen and Smith settled onto stools near the fire to warm their hands, each holding them out toward the fireplace to feel the waves of heat coming off of it. As their half-frozen fingers thawed, Ellen spoke first.

"I'll try to explain, because I saw more of it than Smith." She let out a breath, still recovering from the hike through the snow.

"The dungeon expanded up into the cave. We were there to find the mana plume, because Smith needed it to try out her new Ability." Smith spoke up now.

"I took Forgewright instead of Blacksmith, it's a magical Class. I didn't mention it because I wanted to try something first. I managed to crystallize some of the mana plume, so I can start work on enchanted forging if I can ever get enough skill to make something useful." Merchant nodded, "We suspected as much." No anger at Smith holding back, just an acknowledgement.

"While Smith was doing that, Apprentice went deeper into the tunnel." Ellen rubbed her hands together and sighed as she remembered.

"I can't even be mad. She and Healer were being very careful about how they went in. What nobody knew was that the dungeon had expanded upward and into the cave system. Apprentice tried to warn us the moment she crossed the threshold."

"What?!" Four voices chorused at the same time as the newest Ellens blurted out their surprise. All four went quiet at once, and didn't interrupt again. That's strange, Ellen thought to herself. Aloud, she continued.

"Something came out of the wall and… it was fast. Almost instant. That's when we lost Apprentice. Smith and I went to retreat, but Healer rushed forward. She was killed, but she took the monster with her somehow. I guess she had an Ability or something she hadn't told us about." Every other Ellen looked toward the quartet of new ones, who all stared right back.

"We probably used Lifebind."

"It's the keystone Ability for the Lifebinder Class."

"It ties two lives together."

"We think it works a little differently with us."

"When one of us died, the other had the damage stored."" Lifebind can heal but it can't bring back the dead."

"So we must have pushed all the damage onto the monster."

"Plus the damage it did to us when it killed our second self." Ellen's eyes leapt from one speaker to the other as all four rotated which one was speaking. She couldn't tell which ones had come from Apprentice and which from Healer, which was a little disconcerting considering the normal attitude the two had.

"How do you even… do that?" Merchant had to ask when the quartet stopped speaking.

"You could, too."

"If you wanted."

"You're the closest one to us."

"Then Hunter and Smith." Shaking her head, Ellen rubbed her hands together and sighed.

"We'll have to hope our food stores can last the winter with these extra mouths. I don't want to know what would happen if one of us died from starvation."

"I'd rather not find that out, either." Merchant crossed her arms and looked back at the quartet.

"Healer was in there, somewhere. Do you know if our food supply can handle two more Ellens?"

"It can," one of the new Ellens said.

"Hunter will need to bring in some game, though," added another.

"Not too much more," a third joined in. Ellen looked at the fourth, who blinked back at her for a second.

"What?" The fourth scratched the back of her head.

"There wasn't anything else to say." Merchant shrugged.

"I'll let you figure out what you want to do, but I have to point out that we lost some of our equipment, too. That's two good pairs of boots, plus winter wear. We don't have enough left to outfit everyone at once now, unless Hunter lucks out with a decent deer hide or something." The request—even if not couched that way—led to Ellen shaking her head. She understood what Merchant was saying.

"It isn't that simple. Even if I go out and get a deer right away, which isn't that easy, it would still take a few weeks to prepare the hide for even one cloak. And they'll never be very nice… none of us have tailoring, so we're sort of fumbling it. I have one big hide that's almost done in the workshop… smithy I guess… and a few smaller pelts I can use to make footwear, but it's going to be shift work for a while."

"We can't do much until this storm season lifts anyway," Smith agreed.

"Once it does I would like to start with the forge, if the smelter is ready. I know we have plenty of charcoal, at least for a few runs." Mason shrugged.

"The smelter is fine. The lining should be completely dry right now, so as long as nobody forgets and leaves it open during a snowstorm, it's usable in small amount of ore, but we don't have a lot of loose ore around to work with anyway." Carpenter nodded.

"I'll have the smithy finished about two days after the storm lets up, we're almost done there anyway." Those plans got a nod from Merchant, and Ellen glanced at the quartet watching all of them, every Ellen in the bed wrapped in blankets and nothing else. Despite the mild chill in the air, they hadn't moved toward the clothing… perhaps because of the knowledge of how thinly their supplies of clothing and coats and cloaks would be.

"Do you already know what you're going to be?" She wasn't sure which of them to address, but they would likely understand. Again, the four rotated their answers.

"That's easy."

"The dungeon is expanding a lot faster than we thought."

"We know we promised Uncle Anroll we wouldn't do much with it."

"But we really have to know what's going on."

"And deal with it if we can."

"We already have a plan."

"We're just waiting until the storm passes."

"Then we're going to be training up."

"At least we still have the spear."

"And the weapons."

"We have enough to be a full party."

"Just leave it to us, Hunter." Ellen felt a shiver run down her spine at the perfectly-synced series of sentences, each one continuing the other's thought. She'd grown used to solitude and her individuality, and then this happened.

"What should we call you?" Ellen asked cautiously. This caused a brief pause in the quartet, as if that hadn't been considered… yet when she got an answer, all four spoke in unison, without any quaver. They'd had a hesitation… but every single hesitation had been the exact same length, to end in a chorus.

"Adventurer."