Chương 14: Chapter 13: of Dungeons, sisterhood, and Vows

"I think..." I said as I dragged the broom in an almost leisurely way over the cobblestone bridge, sweeping away glinting green glass shards from the road carefully "... that I should try and talk with those Adventurers." I said. Gelidia, sitting on the rail nearby, gave me a look.

"... World preserve, why would you want to do that?" she asked, incredulous.

"... because they wanted something. It wasn't just because I was here, I think." I said. I didn't look up at her for more than a glance.

"I think they were just sort of... making sure monsters didn't crop up behind them as well as in front of them, does that make sense?" Gelidia opened her mouth, then... shut it again.

"Okay... let's assume they were thinking like that - it makes a kind of sense, I mean, I assume your cookery had a scent to it, so it's not a stretch." she said.

"That would be sound - so why would they..." and we both looked up to the keep. I smiled at her, and shrugged a little.

"I mean... that would work, right? And even if the town is pretty empty... how would they know that? Maybe they were hunting supplies, and smelled the food... so they came to look and found, basically, a monster." she said.

"... could you blame them?"

"But why come at night? This place is Haunting Central!"

"Easy experience. Did you inspect those guys? they were way, way stronger than anyone here but you." I looked at her.

"And you're an outlier." I said.

"If they're hunting loot and experience... that'd be the way to get it done with a minimal risk, I think." I said. I'd played a lot of RPGs and it made sense to me. Gelidia stared at me in something like horror, or possibly admiration.

"You... might be on to something there. So... let's assume you DO go visit them out there in the woods. They might have moved on, left the area at some speed, but one thing is for certain - they won't be happy to see you." she said, watching me bend to pick up a particularly big chunk of the green crystal and admire it. It really was... quite lovely, how it caught the morning light. It was like ten o'clock, I figured, sun wasn't quite at its zenith.

"Well... I bring them some things, maybe try to trade. Either way, give them a gift. An olive branch - they won't be expecting that. I come up, making noise and carrying goodies for them, real obvious like. I mean, there's meat I haven't used up yet, and I have a whole bunch dried out so it'll keep, right? I give them some of that, peaceful like!" I said, and smiled as I rested a moment on my broom.

"I can outrun any mother's son of them, I think, if it turns ugly." Gelidia frowned and chewed her bottom lip a minute, and... nodded.

"I just bet you could! I'll be with you, too..." she said"... that seems like a risk, though... I mean, we don't want to encourage them to return here." she said.

"Well not as adventurers looking to get loot and experience, but if what you said about the town picking itself up again is true, one day... we'll want trade, right?" I said, only realizing I'd said 'we' after the fact. And why not? I was a citizen here now, right? I'd have to go to the Fountain and check it out in the town square, see if I counted!

"We could... do you know what a whitelist is?" I asked. Gelidia shook her head, furrowing her brow at me.

"It's like a guest list for a party. This person is known to us, and is welcome - they can bring guests, but only if they comport themselves as guests! They are known to us and welcome here. This could be a Whitelist town - where the only people allowed here are those who are welcome or vouched for." I said, but Gelidia was shaking her head.

"Maybe if we had something people wanted... but there's nothing here, Goldie. World, you are the only living person and everything is in shambles!" she said and I shrugged.

"Well, yeah. That's what happens when you're at rock bottom. You have nothing left to lose - so anything is then possible." I said, and she blinked, jerking her head as if I'd slapped her.

"Any direction is up from here, right?" She snorted and smiled, shaking her head still as she stared with blank eyes at the pavement. I resumed sweeping.

"Maybe, maybe not. In my experience... never assume there's nothing else that can be taken from you - fate likes to say 'but ACTUALLY'" she said, and I giggled.

"She does, doesn't she?" as laughter bubbled in my voice.

"The sediment should have settled by now - let's go make some soap." I said, and left the half-completed bridge. Gelidia slid off the wall, and followed in tow. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"Alright, fine fine" she said. When at last I arrived at the town center, I inspected the fountain. Village of Lambstock Level: 2 Population: 1 Status: Destroyed Owned by: N/A The monolithic fountain in the center of the square, with its four lamb head spouts, only had this to say on the subject of citizenship. I clearly counted - but Gelidia clearly did not.

"How come you don't count? You definitely live here." I asked the ghostess my hostess. She shrugged.

"Not Alive - I definitely don't count. Dead people don't." she said.

"Okay, you're... a ghost, alright, but you're not laying in a grave - you're here being an aristobrat and throwing adventurers out of dead towns." I said, and she chuckled.

"I'm a monster. I have the Ghost core and the Wind Sage core." she explained. I blinked at her, and smiled as we kept walking towards the inn.

"Is that how it works for ghosts? You get a kind of Ghost core, get a ghost class ghostily?" I said, broom on my shoulder as I walked.

"Ghost.. ghostily... world, you make it sound so... I dunno, I'm sure you mean no offense, but I died, Emily!" she said, though there was no actual heat in her words"Show some respect for the dead!" she said piously, with a smile dancing on her face. I kept smiling.

"I do respect you! But seriously, didn't you have two cores in life?" She frowned a little.

"... a noblewoman who lets her town fall is no kind of noble. I didn't deserve the Lord class anymore." she said after a moment. I looked at her.

"... wait, you subsumed your Lord core into Ghost?" I asked. Like I had, with my werewolf core? We walked in silence for a minute. She was no dummy, my friend Gelidia. Her eyes widened slowly as she turned her head to face me. We stopped.

"... World..." she breathed.

"... you know, I didn't once think of it like that." she said"... We are exactly alike in that respect, aren't we?" I smiled at her. A great deal in common, indeed!

"I did do that, and so that means... I'm not just... I'm not like the other people here who didn't do that, like the poor Captain and his men!" she said, growing visibly excited!

"... I'm not just a monster, not like him! I was giving him orders last night - he couldn't... NOT obey me! I'm... I'm one of the people he had to listen to in life!"

"Could... he subsume too? Stabilize, like we did? Could his men? Could the people of the town?" I asked, and she frowned over the question, eyes still wide.

"World Preserve us... I think they could!" and then another thought occurred to her. She put her face in her hands and groaned. There was actual misery there, and I frowned at her.

"... of course. I just figured out why the adventurers would come here. There's only one real, logical reason." she said.

"... a Dungeon. There's a Dungeon somewhere in the town now - how could I not have realized it? We returned every night! There's a huge well of mana here we have been sustaining ourselves with!" she cried!

"A Dungeon? Like, with-""-with monsters, and loot, and experience, yes! The World creates them as... a way to disperse mana into the world at large, process it into a form people can use." she said.

"... a new Dungeon." and sighed. Her gaze... was drawn up to the keep once again.

"And I bet that I can make an... informed guess where the dungeon would be." I said, and Gelidia looked at me again. It was one of the saddest, most frustrated looks I'd ever seen.

"What do you think? Will the home I grew up in make a good dungeon, Emily? Will people get good loot, do you think?" she snapped, tears welling on her cheeks. She was angry, and upset, but... not at me, I was pretty sure.

"They'll come and..." she was crying openly now, fists clenched with white knuckles"and raid the home I lived in since I was a child and... and fight monsters in the hallways and my Parents, they'll be the bosses, surely!" and on impulse, I hugged her. She was ice cold with her anger, and my breath misted, but I held on. I held her against me. Gelidia was frozen for a moment... then she embraced me back, burying her face into my neck as she shook with anger and tears. I didn't let go - just...

held on tight, and rocked her gently in my grasp in the morning light. She didn't stay there long. I got the impression... that she wasn't given to showing emotion quite like this, not where just anyone could possibly see her, even if there was nobody in the darkened doorways and ruined byways, not even animals.

"I'm... I'm sorry." she said, and I shook my head. I brushed the tears from her eyes with my thumbs, my own brimming with sympathy for her as her cheeks lay cool beneath my hands. She looked so lovely to me, in the morning light, even as she gripped my wrists and stared downward.

"Nooo, it's alright." I said. She took a steadying breath... and let it out in a rush.

"World... if... if it is my keep... MY keep... I'd rather know for sure. I know I'm asking a lot from you already... but..."

"You want me to check it out?" I asked, and she nodded.

"It has to be you. I don't know why the World put you here... but I need you. I don't... think I could do this alone." she breathed, and looked more vulnerable than I'd ever seen her yet, her blank eyes searching mine as we stood in the center of the dead street, barely a foot apart.

"I already said I'd help you find your parents, find what happened to them... this is just... more of the same. You can count on me." I said, resolved. What wouldn't I do for the first friend I'd made in this strange new world I found myself in, for this woman who was a kindred spirit to me? What wouldn't I do for this town? PACK. My wolf had it dead right.