Chương 55: 1-54 A dream of grandeur

"She and her party were here three days ago." Bezzo began his recounting.

"They found sanctuary in this safe zone like so many folks."

"Then why aren't they here anymore?" Josef couldn't suppress a certain note of frustration in his tone. If they had stayed on this floor, then his search for Cana would already be over. She would be safe, and they could all just huddle up and sit things out until the expedition party fixed whatever was wrong with the dungeon. But that was the problem, wasn't it? What if there was no fix? Or if he was the one who had to do it, since it all started with his first visit.

"Apparently, some adventurers weren't willing to just sit around and wait for the problem to fix itself. They organized a group from the people who had made it this far, trying to push as deep as they could." Josef shook his head. Why would she go along with that? Voicing his question out loud, all he received were shrugs.

"Maybe she just didn't like the chance of everything blowing over?" Zippa wondered.

"Or she just couldn't sit around and twiddle her thumbs. Dragons know some folks get strange ideas when they're idle." His younger brother shot him a glare, making it clear who also belonged to that group.

"You should know best why someone would go out of their way to do something good, expecting nothing in return." Bezzo supplied his own opinion on the matter. Would she, though? Josef had to wonder about that, but not because he questioned Cana's kindness. She wouldn't invite more danger than necessary, because she had too much to lose if she died. He met her as a mother who would do anything for the sake of her daughter, and this ran contrary to returning to Coco.

"Guess I'll just have to ask her once we catch up." There had to be more to her decision, but he couldn't figure out what.

"Did you learn anything else of note?" Bezzo nodded.

"The expedition team has also been through here, about three hours ahead of us." Josef's heart sank momentarily when he heard that. Even with the magic sleeping bags, they had fallen behind the main group by that much. They would have to hurry, or get left behind hopelessly. Maybe if they skipped a night's rest and set out now…

"Don't." He couldn't spiral further, as Zippa apparently picked up on his emotions and held him back.

"We are going to save her, and panicking won't help with that. Neither would breaking down on the way." The reptile's eyes pierced him with a fierce yet comforting heat.

"So sit back down, eat, and go back to sleeping." He hadn't even realized he had stood up during their conversation, boding badly for his mental state. He was agitated, on edge, and still summarily exhausted. A quick nap wasn't enough to fix all of that. Then, when his mind was still grasping for arguments why they should set off sooner anyway, he got squeezed by a snuggly serpent. Pretzel had followed behind him ever since the boss fight, and didn't even try to climb on top of him.

He didn't have to wonder for long why that was, because she freely shared her own impressions with him. She felt as if his shoulders had sagged too much under an invisible weight, and hadn't wanted to add to that burden.

"Silly snake. Lifts are always free for you." He scratched her chin, smiling thinly.

"Fine, you guys got me. I'm not running off, even in secret."

"You thought about that?" Zippa gasped, mock surprise mixed with a bit of fear.

"Not yet, and now I won't either." Josef filled his bowl with a second portion of food, which was mostly dry meat with some root vegetables.

"Gonna check in with Linda and Aifreed, though. At least let me do that much before you tuck me in like a child." There was no heat in his jab, because he could hardly resent them for looking after him like that. He made his way over to the two elves, who had still made their camp a small distance away, despite having fought side by side that day. Maybe it would take more to break whatever ice remained between them, or perhaps they just liked their privacy.

Considering that, maybe it was his fault because he was keeping secrets to which the two of them weren't privy. Even if it was hidden well, sometimes people could feel that kind of exclusion. However, tonight wasn't the time he wanted to tackle that conversation. Instead, he wanted to talk with Linda some more about what had happened in that boss room. She was still looking out of sorts, and he was afraid that might be partially his fault.

Or Dusty's, but he wouldn't blame the rabbit for scaring the woman when he had saved their lives.

"Hey Linda, how are you feeling?" The words felt weird in his mouth after having just been on the other side of this kind of conversation.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?"

"I'm fine," she answered a bit too quickly. Were they really going to do this?

"You aren't," he finally insisted. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Poking around in her own food, some kind of ready-made rations with hard biscuits and dried fruit, she sighed.

"No, I am not." She once more fell into silence, signalling that Josef would have to drag every answer out of her, word by word.

"Look, I know Dusty can be a little… intimidating." He had to look for a word that was significant enough without insulting his familiar.

"But I can promise you, he is a good rabbit, and he bites only those who deserve it." To make a point, he picked up the rabbit that had silently appeared behind him. He was getting the hang of guessing Dusty's rough location by the static noise that came through their link. Picking the bunny up, wrapping his hands under the front legs, he presented him like one would a stray cat.

"See? He is totally nice and adorable." Despite all the scares his familiar had given him before, he believed that. The rabbit wasn't exactly to blame for his weird nature or appearance. It's not like he got to choose any of that. If anything, going by what Josef knew now, he would be the responsible party, even if he still couldn't recall how he had summoned his first partner. Falling into his own ruminations, he almost missed it when Linda suddenly giggled.

The childish noise seemed almost foreign from the elven lady he had known so far. At least until he saw the cause of it.

"Harmless and not at all strange, clearly." She tracked the bunny's body, which had kept stretching ever since Josef had picked him up. Finally, his haunches silently contacted the ground, leaving the sausage-shaped rabbit at over a meter in length.

"Pst, you're not helping, buddy," he loudly whispered to his familiar.

"Don't just let yourself go. There's a lady watching." Surprisingly, Dusty listened, and his body began contracting again, slowly returning to his regular shape. That got both of them full on laughing, even drawing glances from some of the other parties nearby, but that was well worth it. They had both needed a laugh. Wiping some tears from the corners of his eyes after setting his rabbit down, Josef glanced at Linda hopefully. In response, she shook her head.

"It's not about your familiar. Well, it wasn't wholly about that…"

"Then what else got you looking so down? Is it about the boss's gem? I stowed it after Dusty coughed it back up." Shoving a hand into one of his pockets, he accessed his hoard and pulled the crystal out.

"We didn't forget it, and I don't plan to just run off with it, either." Making his point, stretched out his hand and offered the gem to her.

"That's not it. In truth, I had almost forgotten about it. I wouldn't be surprised if a creature that… intense had left behind something worthwhile." She perked up at that.

"Aifreed, did you bring our analyzer along?"

"Of course, my lady. I can scan it at once." As the old elf made a grab for the gem, Josef handed it over excitedly. Was there a way to scan skill gems without going to that creepy man, Vasaj, in the black market? He wished he could have something like that, at least until he figured out how to do it with his own eyes.

"So… how much is something like that?" he breached the awkward question, knowing he wouldn't like the answer. Holding up a beautifully framed and intrinsically carved monocle to inspect the gem through it, Aifreed destroyed what little hope he had of getting an artifact like that for himself.

"The cheapest ones go for about seven hundred gold coins, though I would advise against anything under at least fifteen hundred. Otherwise, you will be working with a high fault rate."

"Guess I better get to training my own eyes. That's gonna be quicker than saving up that much." His sad tone was only half faked. An object like that would really have been neat.

"I wish you good luck with that. High level inspection skills might not be as rare as healers, but reaching a reliable level of analysis is still exceedingly rare." Aifreed's answer was quite diplomatic. Nodding, Josef suddenly caught himself.

"Hold on, I'm getting off track. I still don't know what got you down, Linda." She was suddenly chewing her lip in a surprisingly un-ladylike display. As she looked around, it was clear that she tried to catch Aifreed's eyes for support. However, her loyal knight appeared unusually blind to her need. With her eyes finally cast down to the ground, almost a full minute passed before she mustered an answer.

"I just didn't imagine… that things would be like this. This is nothing like the training I went through at home. I knew there wouldn't be refreshments between fights, or a bath at the end of the day. I was always told that the world outside was dangerous. I knew all of that, and yet, this still feels surreal.

"Nothing I did mattered. What did I even train for when I can't accomplish anything in a fight? Sylvan have mercy, my grandfather must be gnawing on roots, seeing my shameful display. My weakness almost got Aifreed killed, simply because I was stuck in delusions about my own grandeur!" She wasn't crying by the end of it, but it clearly took her every effort to keep herself together. If Josef had been a braver man, he would have taken a page out of Zippa's book and pulled her into a hug.

Instead, he somewhat awkwardly put a hand on her shoulder and waited for her to calm down.

"I don't know if it's much of a consolation to you, Linda, but you weren't at all useless in that boss fight. You weren't the one getting caught off guard, being swatted like a fly. And if it wasn't for your acrobatics, I might not have thought about climbing on the creature at all. It might not have been some display worthy legends, but I'm sure your ancestors will be fine with your first real fight being a little rough around the edges." She smiled, a bit thinly but with honesty.

"Thank you, Josef. Truly." She took a deep breath and continued with a steadied voice.

"I shall endeavor to better myself until even Siegfried himself is in awe of my strength!" That name caught Josef slightly off guard. He hadn't expected to hear a name that also had legends attached back on Earth. What were the chances this one was also a dragon slayer? Suddenly, he felt relieved that he hadn't talked about his own status as a Drake or his connection to the dragons.

"It will take some time to fully evaluate this gem," Aifreed suddenly cut into their exchange.

"If you don't mind, I will keep it until tomorrow. Until then, I wish you a good rest. I know my lady will certainly need it."

"Uh, sure thing, Aifreed." He was a little suspicious of that exceedingly well timed excuse to flee the conversation. Did the old elf somehow know? He did fit into the general group of people he knew who could see through his subterfuge. Not that a sample size of two was particularly reliable, but it was still a surprising coincidence. Either way, he had delayed his rest enough. It was time he headed to his bedroll, before Zippa came and forcefully put him to bed.

Tomorrow would be a new day, and maybe it would be a less stressful one. At least he could look forward to learning what skill that gem contained.