Chương 12: Quite Troubling

I hop onto my feet just as another explosion echoes in the distance. Given how the guards were agitated, I presume they are friendly. Or perhaps just another person wishing to take me prisoner.

"Yip!" I hear just outside the door. Wait, if they were truly out to harm me, Luma would avoid them. She may be a spirit fox, but she is a great spirit after all. So she is definitely far smarter than your average fox.

"Honored one, please stand back." Someone rumbles behind the door. I take a step backwards. A few seconds later, I hear a short chant and then a massive wave of pressure hits me. Boom. I am tossed against the wall as a large crack appears in the door.

"Ouch. I think there is something that harms me if the cell is damaged."

"Quite troubling. Give me a moment." The voice says again. It definitely sounds older, perhaps some wise old mage that really hates the lord? Would make sense, given he was able to detect Luma. There is a bit of jingling around and what sounds like a low buzzing sound. Then with a clicking sound I feel like the area around me sort of settles down. The person outside grumbles something obscene, "Enchantments should be disabled, damn tricky things.

Wards against storages, telepathy, divination and dozens of different methods of escape skills. They really spared no expense." A thud hits the door and then it cracks again before quickly crumbling into a pile of stones. Instantly, a small white projectile comes flying right for my chest. I catch Luma and instantly start giving her a whole ton of head scritches. My rescuer steps through the doorway, and I am forced to look downwards.

Because he is a dwarf, and while I don't know much about dwarves, he seems really short for one. Like, he can't be more than a meter tall. Other than that, he has long red hair and a beard that he clearly loves a whole ton. Plus a short wooden staff in his hand and some sort of chisel in his left. Magical tools of sorts I bet. As for clothes, he wears a simple brown robe. He looks fairly young, if he was human, I wouldn't place him past twenty years old. Identify says he is level seventy-two.

"Ahem, honored one." The dwarf says, "And hero it would seem. Quite an interesting predicament. That idiot lord is going to be in a whole lot of trouble."

"Pleasure to meet ya, names' Orn. Thanks for finding me I suppose. But, what's with all that honored one business?" I reach down to shake his hand. He looks questioningly at my hand for a moment, but then reaches out to accept it. His grip is strong, and I can tell he could easily break my hand if he wasn't holding back.

"Ah, forgot to introduce myself, how silly of me. I am Calder Blackvine, leader of a small town not far from the great city. As for the whole honored one thing, this great spirit is bonded to you, is it not? Such a feat is worthy of much honor amongst all cultures. As for the breakout, let's save the thanks for when we are outa here." Calder makes a gesture towards the door. We walk out of the door and into a corridor. Dozens of dead guards litter the floor, many having been blasted to smithereens.

Guess Calder ain't a pushover, despite his smaller stature. I look at Luma, I knew she was super duper special.

"So uh, you mentioned something about trouble?" Calder starts to walk down the hall and I follow closely behind him.

"If you were simply a normal person, it wouldn't be trouble. Lord Cathartic does have authority to imprison anyone in his territory he wants. But impeding heroes in any way upon their journey is a major crime. Not that that will stop certain folk, like the lord of this city."

"I see, so where would one such hero file a complaint about being imprisoned?" Calder laughs, "Well to do that you would have to send a message to the grand capital. Which I will arrange posthaste, given the gravity of this situation. First, we must escape the city though. My people should be waiting just up ahead." Surely enough, we round a corner and there is a group of three people. They wave to Calder and look at me with curiosity. They are all humans, which seems strange, given Calder is a dwarf.

But we are in the land of humanity, so it would make sense that most would be humans.

"Allow me to introduce you all. Friends, this is Orn Spiritus, Hero and Honored One." Calder says and points to me.

"Yip Yip!" Luma says.

"Oh, and this is his great spirit. It is a cute white fox, though you all are unable to see her." Calder laughs.

"I will assure you that she is very cute though." This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. They all acknowledge me. They are all about the same level as Calder. One is a woman that seems to be a melee fighter. The other two are men, and seem to be a healer of sorts as well as a ranger.

"Pleasure to meet y'all." I say, and much of the tension disappears from the air. The ranger steps forward and slaps me on the back.

"Okay, this guy is cool. Name's Vir, by the way." With such a simple introduction, it seems I have won their help. So, time to get out of this prison. We run through hallways, twisting and turning seemingly at random. I resist the urge to ask if we are lost. These people are seasoned adventures, and I get the impression they have been at it far longer than I have been alive. I learn that the warrior woman's name is Bertha, and the healer is known only as Simir.

All four of them are very strong, easily overcoming every guard we face on our exit. Until we reach the exit, that is.

"Drop!" Vir shouts the instant the door opens. Calder shoves me to the floor before dropping himself. Moments later, the air above us is consumed in a wave of white-hot fire. The smell of burnt hair fills the air, and I watch as my health drops by half. The realization settles over me. An attack that was almost a meter and a half away took away half my health. The fact of just how weak I am plants itself in my mind.

But I am not given time to dwell as Bertha is already on her feet and charges forward through the now missing door. She is a blur as she launches out the door towards a figure in a red robe. Crack. The sound of bone cracking is not a pleasant one, nor is the following scream as the mage in red robes that fired off the attack hits a wall with a thud. Their staff shatters into dozens of pieces and I see the life leave them. Simir then appears at my side.

"Hmm, a healing aura? The spirit's doing?" He reaches a hand down and helps me onto my feet. As he does so, he starts to glow with a bit of light magic, and I can feel the healing at work.

"Yeah, it seems like it will be quite handy."

"That it will. Healing is always valuable, even if diving with a dedicated healer." Simir says and then uses some inspection skill on me, probably checking to make sure I am actually fine. The moment I am clear, we move onwards. Beyond the door we exit into a small courtyard, we notice a few servants moving back and forth. They try to hide away to avoid us, and Calder says to leave them. Which is fair, they aren't really threats to this group.

A bit of sneaking and fighting later, we make it out of the Lord's mansion and out into the grassy garden outside of it. There are far less guards now, and Calder breathes a sigh of relief.

"We are mostly in the clear now. They probably won't be fast enough to catch us now. So Orn, how are you enjoying life so far?" I laugh.

"Well the scenery is nice at least. Lots of trees and such, and the beds are really comfortable too! Plus, the prison cells are exquisite, truly top notch." A few chuckle at that. Calder pulls out some sort of compass from his pocket.

"What's that?" I ask. He holds it out to show me. Instead of the typical compass point, there is some sort of map etched onto it. What is more crazy is that it is moving around.

"Basic magic map. I just needed to check where we are so that we can make it to the port where our ship is stationed." Vir scoffs.

"Basic my ass. That thing is practically a legendary artifact."

"To you perhaps," Calder responds, "we dwarves make them by the thousands back home." He turns to look at me and smiles, though I swear I pick up a glint of sadness in his eyes. I feel like he is trying to tell me something, like just casually giving me info that I don't know yet. In fact, I think he has been doing that this entire time. I will have to find a way to thank him later. But for now, Vir just mutters something about higher realms and we proceed on. Oh how wonderful it will be to find a library.

It takes about four hours of walking until we reach the port. Not the same one as I arrived from, for obvious reasons. This one is clearly not owned by the lord, and seems to be some sort of neutral port. For visiting diplomats and stuff I suppose. There are a bunch of inns and such inside. It is basically a small town, on the Lord's estate, which is a small city unto itself that floats above the actual city. You know, cause things just needed to be more confusing.

Right before we enter, Calder gives me a bit of info.

"I remember reading once that heroes can hide their cloaks somehow. Maybe you ought to figure that out, to save us a bit of unnecessary attention…"

"Good idea, I was wondering what I was going to do. It does look cool, so I don't really want to take it off." I reply and start trying to figure it out. About a minute later, I manage to get it to work. It seems the trick is to simply brush my hand against it and whisper "invisible", how convenient. With that, Calder quickly leads us into the port and towards a much smaller flying vessel. Everyone calls them airships, which kinda fits, now that I think about it.

We board the airship and I am immediately taken to a cozy room with a bed – this one is not trapped of course. Not the most luxurious, but it will do. If imprisonment and or servitude is what it takes to get some easy comfort, I think I'll just do it the hard way. By that I mean I need to level up, and fast. I am no expert on such things, but something tells me that these nice fellows will be more than happy to show me the ropes.

Oh, and the instant the airship takes off, a ton of fun notifications appear in my mind. A bit of light reading awaits me, just what I needed to help me sleep.