Chương 68: Chapter 67: Between the Lines

By the time Gern and the others finally made it down the mountain road, the sky was already beginning to darken. Gern did not lead them straight to Blackstone Dungeon. Instead, he insisted that they enter Blackstone Town first and find somewhere to settle in. At first, Jack had eagerly suggested that they go take a look at the dungeon, only for Gern to reject the idea at once. Gern threw one arm around Jack and the other around Kyle, half pushing and half dragging the two of them into Blackstone Town.

The rest of the group had no choice but to follow behind. After they found an inn and settled in, Gern came up with some flimsy excuse and called Harry outside alone.

"Do you remember everything I just taught you to say?" Harry pressed his lips together and slowly nodded. Then, looking uneasy, he glanced around.

"Uncle Gern, do I really have to go over there and make a scene? What if someone beats me to death?" Gern let out a couple of dry laughs.

"If anyone gets beaten to death, it'll be me. What does that have to do with you youngsters?" He reached out and patted Harry on the shoulder.

"Now, go to the camp outside the dungeon entrance and tell that guildmaster to get his ass out there and listen to your complaint." Harry felt the world spin around him. The Guildmaster? And he had to say all those ridiculous things to the man's face? Harry was beginning to seriously wonder what Uncle Gern was trying to do. He wanted to keep asking questions, but Gern merely shook his head and waved him away. Harry froze. Was he being told to leave?

"All right, get going. It's already getting late. The sooner you go, the sooner you can get this over with..." Without giving Harry another chance to ask anything, Gern turned and walked back into the inn. Harry stood there, utterly bewildered. Only after Gern's figure disappeared behind the inn door did he slowly turn around and head toward the town entrance alone.

Once he reached the gate, he asked one of the guards where Blackstone Dungeon was, then continued along the paved road in the direction the man pointed. As he gradually left Blackstone Town behind, the scenery on both sides of the road slowly melted into the twilight, leaving behind nothing but indistinct silhouettes. Only the camp in the distance, beside a small hill, stood out clearly beneath the darkening sky. Lamps had already been lit throughout it, filling the camp with warm light.

As Harry watched those lights draw closer, an inexplicable feeling stirred inside him. He did not know where it came from. He only knew that something was wrong. Uncle Gern had been far too quiet these past few days. Ever since they left Rockspring Town, he had rarely spoken unless someone addressed him first. Even his usual booming laughter had almost disappeared. Compared to the loud, talkative old man they had known before, it was as though he had become an entirely different person.

And when had all of this started? The day they left Rockspring Dungeon. The day that strange nightmare had ended. Uncle Gern had told him that perhaps those dreams were nothing more than hallucinations caused by their bodies being crushed inside the slime. Yet although the dream had been brief, Harry still remembered parts of it. He remembered that Uncle Gern seemed to have cried at the end. But Harry had been in terrible pain at the time, and his vision had already gone blurry.

He had never managed to see clearly what happened afterward. At that thought, Harry's steps gradually slowed. If that dream had been real... Then perhaps the words Uncle Gern had taught him were not some absurd complaint after all. Perhaps he was trying to use Harry to convey something he could not say himself. Something meant for the Guildmaster of Blackstone Town. Harry swallowed. A moment later, he raised his head again and quickened his pace toward Blackstone Dungeon. If...

If Uncle Gern really was being threatened by something, to the point that he could not even ask for help himself... Then Harry might be the only person who still had a chance to help him. The closer Harry came to the camp, the heavier each step became. It felt as though a massive stone were pressing down on his chest, making his breathing grow faster and more strained. Just then, several adventurers near the camp noticed something was wrong and hurried toward him.

"Hey, hey. Are you all right?" A middle-aged adventurer with a thick beard placed a hand on Harry's back to steady him, speaking in a deep, concerned voice. That booming voice and rugged appearance both reminded Harry of Gern. And yet, he was unmistakably someone else. Harry froze. He raised a hand and rubbed his eyes, only for his vision to grow even blurrier. When he lowered his head in confusion, a drop of water landed in the center of his palm. Was it raining? Harry slowly tilted his head back.

More droplets slid down his cheeks. It was not rain. They were his tears.

"P-please help me!" Harry suddenly grabbed the adventurer's arm. His voice trembled so badly that he could barely form a complete sentence. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"The Guildmaster! I need the Guildmaster of Blackstone Town!" The adventurers exchanged bewildered looks. After a moment of hesitation, one of them turned and ran into the camp to find a Guild clerk. However, by the time the clerk hurried over, Harry was crying too hard to say anything clearly. All he could do was sob and repeat "Uncle Gern" and "Guildmaster" over and over. Everything else came out as an incoherent mess, making it impossible to understand what he was trying to say.

The clerk questioned him several times but still could not make sense of the situation. In the end, he helped Harry toward the Guild's wooden building at the center of the camp. Harry's vision was completely blurred by tears. All he could see were the bright lights ahead, swaying endlessly before his eyes. Only as they drew closer did Harry realize that the building was much larger than it had appeared from a distance.

The emblem of the Adventurers' Guild hung beside the entrance, while figures moved back and forth behind the half-open windows. From inside came the occasional rustle of paper and murmur of conversation. There were many people here. Perhaps someone really could help Uncle Gern. Harry bit down hard on his lower lip and followed the clerk into the brightly lit building. Eventually, he was led into a small room. The clerk pulled out a chair and helped him sit down.

Not long afterward, a young woman entered carrying a basin of hot water, with a clean towel draped over one arm. Her expression looked somewhat stern, but when she spoke, her voice was unexpectedly gentle.

"Here. Wipe your face with some warm water first. You'll feel a little better." Harry stared blankly at her for a moment before finally reaching out and accepting the towel.

"Th-thank you..." After briefly wiping his face and taking several deep breaths, Harry finally managed to calm down a little. He looked up at her with swollen, reddened eyes and spoke quietly.

"Um..."

"Camilla." She took the towel from his hands and placed it back in the basin.

"That's my name." Camilla picked up the basin and continued,"All right. Rest here for a while. Once the Guildmaster finishes what he's dealing with, he'll come see you."

"R-really?" Harry hurriedly rose from the chair, as though afraid she might change her mind at any moment. He forced a faint smile onto his face.

"The Guildmaster is really willing to meet someone like me?" Camilla paused, then smiled softly.

"Of course." She nodded.

"After all, he is an adventurer first and a guildmaster second." Harry stared at her in confusion. He clearly had no idea what she meant. Camilla saw the confusion on his face and let out a quiet laugh. She offered no further explanation and simply carried the basin out of the room. Once the door closed, the cramped room fell silent. Muffled conversations and footsteps occasionally came from outside.

Other than that, all Harry could hear was his own unsteady breathing and his heart pounding faster and faster inside his chest. Before long, the door handle turned again. An old man with short gray-white hair and a dark shirt pushed open the door and entered. His wooden prosthetic struck the floor with one dull thud after another until he came to a stop a short distance in front of Harry. The old man looked down at him for a moment before slowly speaking.

"Lad, I hear you've been asking to see me." He paused briefly.

"Did you come here on your own, or did a man named Gern send you to find me?" Harry drew a deep breath, then forced the words out one by one.

"Uncle Gern sent me. He told me to express his dissatisfaction to you, Guildmaster, because the malicious rumors spread by Blackstone Dungeon drove everyone away from Rockspring Dungeon..." The old man raised an eyebrow but did not respond immediately. Instead, he pulled over a chair and sat down in front of Harry, then gave a small nod for him to continue. Seeing that the old man did not appear angry, Harry secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

"He also told me to tell you that Gern, a veteran Silver-rank adventurer from Rockspring Town, especially hates Blackstone Dungeon because of this. That's why we came here to personally expose the f-fabricated..." Harry's voice grew quieter with every word. He took another sharp breath, then curled in on himself, squeezed his eyes shut, and shouted the word he had been too afraid to say.

"Lies!" The moment the word left his mouth, he lowered his head, not daring to look at the old man again. He could only keep his eyes tightly shut and wait for the Guildmaster to fly into a rage or punish him on the spot. Yet even after a long while, nothing happened. Harry raised his head and cautiously peeked at the old man. The man still sat there with his arms folded, his brows slightly furrowed, as though considering everything Harry had just said. There was no trace of anger on his face.

Only then did the tension ease from Harry's shoulders, and he gradually straightened in his chair. The room remained silent for a moment before the old man finally spoke.

"You're in some kind of trouble, aren't you?" Harry froze. The old man watched his reaction, his tone still calm.

"Before coming to see you, I asked several adventurers from Rockspring Town about Gern. Every one of them said he was only High Bronze." His eyes narrowed slightly.

"But you just made a point of telling me that he is a Silver-rank adventurer."

"I-I don't know..." Harry shook his head in a panic.

"We only knew that Uncle Gern was strong. He never told us what rank he actually was..." The old man abruptly rose from his chair and strode to the door. He pulled it open, leaned out into the corridor, and shouted,"Camilla!" A short while later, hurried footsteps sounded from outside.

"Guildmaster? Is something wrong?"

"Please ask Vice Guildmaster Voss to come here."

"Understood." The footsteps quickly faded again. The old man closed the door and returned to his seat in front of Harry.

"G-Guildmaster..." Harry lowered his head slightly, not quite daring to meet the old man's eyes.

"Why do you need to bring the Vice Guildmaster here too? Shouldn't your help already be enough?" The old man let out a quiet sigh and explained in a gentler voice,"He was sent here by Guild headquarters. He has access to more information than I do, and he has dealt with more unusual incidents. If he listens as well, he may notice something I missed."

"Guild... headquarters?" Harry's head snapped up. His previously dim eyes immediately brightened, as though he had finally found a true savior.

"Th-thank you! Thank you so much!" But his voice faded toward the end, and he lowered his head again.

"These past few days... I haven't known what to do." Harry's hands tightened around the hem of his clothes.

"I couldn't tell Jack or the others. They wouldn't believe me. They'd only think I was playing another prank..." He paused, a trace of unease gradually entering his voice.

"And Uncle Gern has been acting so strangely..." Before the old man could ask another question, Harry began pouring out everything he knew, as though he had finally found someone he could confide in. He told him about the strange nightmare, how Gern had suddenly become quiet after waking up, all the unusual things he had done along the way, and how he had deliberately made Harry memorize those words before sending him here. Harry spoke so quickly and urgently that he did not even notice the door opening again.

A middle-aged man with silver-gray hair tied into a ponytail stood in the doorway. He never interrupted, merely listening in silence until Harry had finished telling them everything.

"It sounds like he's under some kind of contract... but not one he entered into willingly." The sudden voice startled Harry. He jerked his head around and only then noticed the middle-aged man standing in the doorway. However, once he understood what the man had said, Harry quickly forgot his fear and sprang from his chair.

"You know what it is?" He stared desperately at the middle-aged man, hope rekindling in his eyes.

"Can Uncle Gern still be saved? You must have some way to help him, right?" The Vice Guildmaster looked at Harry's expectant face. After a moment of silence, he slowly closed his eyes and shook his head. The smile vanished from Harry's face. He collapsed back into the chair. In the end, he could no longer hold himself together and clutched his head as he burst into tears. ◆ ◆ ◆ Greer followed Elias out of the small room, leaving Harry alone for the moment as he cried.

"So what exactly is going on with that contract?" Greer looked at Elias in confusion.

"Some new trick the dungeons came up with?"

"At its root, it's another mess humans brought upon themselves." A trace of disgust entered Elias's voice.

"In the beginning, a few greedy fools sought out dungeon cores of their own accord and offered to make deals with them. Later, they discovered that humans could actually form contracts with dungeons. It's something that only began appearing in the past few years."

"Those bound by such contracts lure other adventurers into the dungeon and leave them there to die, feeding the dungeon. Then they walk away with whatever possessions the dead left behind." Greer's brows drew tightly together. He glanced back at the door.

"But that doesn't sound like what happened to them." He fell silent, turning Harry's message over in his mind. Then his expression changed.

"Wait, Elias. Gern may have been trying to warn us. He's only High Bronze, yet he deliberately told the boy to describe him as a Silver-rank adventurer... Those words weren't meant to describe Gern at all."

"Silver-rank... hates Blackstone... and forced Gern, who's bound to it by a contract, to come all the way here himself..." Greer suddenly seized Elias by both arms, his words coming faster and faster.

"Something has set its sights on Blackstone Dungeon! It has Silver-level strength, it despises Blackstone Dungeon, and it made Gern, who is bound to it, come here in person..." Elias's pupils gradually contracted.

"It's trying to locate Blackstone Dungeon!" Greer slammed a fist into the wall and cursed through clenched teeth.

"Fuck! Something has gone wrong with Rockspring Dungeon. That whole area is no longer safe!" With that, he strode over to the counter and shouted at the busy Guild staff members.

"Everyone, put down what you're doing! I want an immediate head count of every adventurer staying in the camp or Blackstone Town, broken down by rank. We've got serious trouble!" The entire wooden building erupted into commotion.

"Elias!" Greer turned toward the man behind him.

"Can you contact headquarters? Do they have anyone they can send as reinforcements?"

"I'm afraid not." Elias shook his head.

"To be honest, I received an urgent letter from headquarters this morning. They told me to be ready to return and provide support at any moment." Greer's pupils contracted sharply. Damn it. Why did every problem have to arrive at the same time? He remained silent for a moment, then turned and walked to the window. His gaze settled on the portal glowing with hazy white light against the mountainside.

"Maybe... it can do something."