2.3 Cult

I let myself get lost in thought for a few minutes. I was surprised Velariah and Seralyn didn’t disturb me during it. It was the door opening that broke my attention away from my mind.

Draco and Dworag walked out, and the dwarf asked us to follow him to his smithing area.

Once we arrived behind the building, I could see an armor stand with a full-body plate. I knew this was Velariah’s new set based on its dimensions and the pride that glowed in Dworag’s eyes as he stared at it.

I observed it with him. Streaks of gold were woven over the silvery steel, giving the set the feeling it was of much higher quality than if it had been one color. It was weird how that worked, considering gold was softer than steel.

This set of armor would surely cover much more than the hardened leather set she was currently using. The protection it offered was going to be far superior, too. The only downside of this was its weight, but I could see some gems already placed in several slots across the body.

The main thing that struck me was the helmet. It seemed to be a literal copy of an ancient Greek helmet. There was a clear slit for the eyes. Right in between the eyes, the slit extended downward. A small metal strip extended over the nose area, offering some additional protection. The only thing it was missing to go for the typical Greek look was the plume on top of it.

Velariah seemed captivated by the marvelous pieces of equipment before her.

In the meantime, my eyes had shifted to Dworag’s anvil. On it lay a helmet that was an exact copy of the one on the armor stand. I could see that this one was meant for me, not because of the helmet, but because of the four vambraces that were placed next to it.

I walked over to the anvil and picked up one of the vambraces and observed it. It seemed to be made of the same type of steel that was used for the set of plate armor, complete with gold decoration. The vambraces extended to cover the entirety of my arms and elbows.

I noticed Dworag shift his gaze to me.

“Can I?” I asked.

“Aye. Go for it.”

I loosened the straps and slid an arm in the first one before fastening the straps again.

This would be so much more of a hassle with only two arms…

The piece of equipment fit me perfectly and reached all the way to my shoulders. They were still exposed and I started to wonder if there would be anything that would fit me when it came to it. Then again, I only really had to cover the top. My lower arms didn’t have shoulders… or well, they didn’t have to cover shoulders as broad as my top ones.

Dworag noticed me staring at my shoulders.

“I got something for that, Miss Elania. Don’t worry.”

“You do?”

“Aye.”

He entered his shop and returned with a set of shoulder guards that seemed to have some segments of smaller plates, like scales, attached that fell over the upper arm. Said segments had a leather strap beneath them that went around the arm.

“I’ll toss this in for free as a token of appreciation for your patronage. You guys are starting to earn me quite the coin.”

“Thanks for your… honesty, Dworag,” I said as I started putting on the other vambraces.

“I couldn’t lie to those eyes of yours,” He winked.

There it was.

That smile.

That damned smile.

“Damn, El,” Seralyn laughed behind me. “How many more hearts do you want?”

I covered my face with my palm at her comment.

I continued putting on the vambraces while I covered my face. Soon, I recovered enough of my dignity to put on the shoulder guards that Dworag had put on his anvil.

I glanced over to Velariah who was putting on her new set with the help of Draco.

My focus was quickly brought back to my own armor. I finished putting it on and fastening the many straps and moved my arms around. For some odd reason, all this extra armor made me feel… empowered, as if I could take on the world!

It was also surprisingly light.

“Hey, Vel. Did you have Dworag put in featherlight enchants in every single piece or what?”

“Yeap. Already paid for those, too. They are wonderful aren’t they?”

“They truly are…”

I wondered what other enchants I could put in this gear. Physical damage resistance would probably be a no-brainer. I had no idea what I was going to put in the other slot yet.

I took the helmet and put it on my head. Almost immediately, I noticed that I hated this helm.

My peripheral vision was obstructed, my hearing was limited and it was just straight-up uncomfortable.

I took it off as fast as I had put it on and asked Dworag if he had any other model. I made up the excuse that I needed that peripheral vision because of my fighting style.

It wasn’t far from the truth.

Velariah seemed to think about it the same way. She mentioned this helmet was also highly uncomfortable for her ears, an issue that I didn’t have.

I grinned at the comment.

That must have been very uncomfortable indeed.

Dworag took the helmets in his hands and took a good look at them.

“I should have realized that sooner. I’m sorry for that.”

He entered the store again and soon walked out with two much simpler-looking helmets. These resembled steel caps that went over the head, and then a metal bridge covering the nose. At the bottom of the helmet, which stopped above the ears, was chainmail that extended downward.

He handed one to each of us and we tried them on. This was a thousand times better already. Perhaps it didn’t quite offer the heavy protection that the other one did, but our style seemed to revolve around trying to not get hit. I imagined someone like Draco would benefit from something like that way more than the elf and I.

“It’s not enchanted yet, is it?” Velariah asked.

“Aye, these have four slots, though. They are also more expensive because of that and the increased quality of materials used.”

These didn’t seem like they were of high quality. Maybe looks were deceiving?

“How much?” Velariah asked.

“Twenty gold.”

Oof, that was quite expensive for only helmets.

“Each,” Dworag continued.

Holy shit.

“Uhhhhhh…” I let out.

I started calculating in my mind. This would bring the cost for my armor up to thirty gold and Velariah’s full set to sixty, I think.

“How much do we owe you for all this?” I asked to be certain.

“The old helmets were five gold each. The set, vambraces, and new helmets… I can do seventy for all that.”

Well, fuck. We were twenty gold short.

“Vel. You better have Elly get extra groceries for the coming week. It appears I’m going to have to make a lot of silk…”

And then there was going to be Draco’s set too.

This was going to drain me, literally.

“If you’re paying for Draco’s set as well, I can’t quite tell you how much it’s going to be yet. It needs a few… adjustments. The good news is that it won’t require as much material,” Dworag said.

I looked at Velariah, who fished out the coin pouch.

“We have fifty gold for now,” She said. “We will be able to deliver the rest to you quite soon.”

“It’s alright,” The dwarf said. “Payment can come later, just take it with you. I’ll start working on Draco’s set later today. I’ve got an important commission I gotta finish first.”

He added coals to his burning forge and poked around in them with a blow poke. I took that as a signal he was about to go to work.

“Thanks a lot, Dworag,” I said.

As I turned around to leave the area, I saw Velariah hand him the coin pouch.

We soon found ourselves in the middle of the village again, where we discussed what to do next.

Seralyn wanted to go her own way but Velariah talked her out of it.

“We’ve stayed together for four days now. I suggest we keep doing that, at least for now,” The white-haired elf said.

“Wait, you guys have been staying in the mansion this entire time?” I asked.

“Yes,” Draco spoke. “Velariah deemed it unwise to split up. She said that whoever went after you, or at least gave the command, could also go after your party members.”

“She might have a point there,” I said.

“Ugh, fine,” Seralyn gave in. “You better start getting new games, though. These old ones are starting to get boring.”

“I doubt there’s much we can do there,” I admitted. “Although…”

Cards weren’t hard to make, technically at least. They wouldn’t quite be of the same material and polish they were back on Earth, but my companions didn’t know any better. The number of different games you could play with a deck of cards was insane as well.

“I might be able to make something…” I said. “But I’m not going to play all evening. I’m going to have to pay for that armor some way, and I’d like to not have everyone watching.”

“If you want to have fun with Velariah, you have but to ask us to leave,” Seralyn grinned.

I sighed.

Velariah giggled.

I was taking off my helmet for comfort reasons when a thought entered my mind.

“You didn’t bother to take your old armor with you, Vel?” I asked the elf.

“It’s not worth anything. I let Dworag have it. Maybe he’ll give us a discount sometime.”

“Isn’t he giving us an awful lot of discounts already?”

“What’s wrong with more? No, but really, he has more use for it than me. I’m sure I’ll get something back, perhaps some enchants would be nice.”

We walked for a bit before Velariah asked another question. “How do I look? I forgot to ask.”

“Vel, you always look good. You know how I think about it.”

“Enough with the blatant flirting already!” Seralyn chuckled.

“Getting a bit jealous?” Velariah teased her.

Seralyn sighed and went quiet.

Maybe that was a bit harsh, Vel.

We reached the mansion and knocked. For some reason, Valtheril opened the door where I was expecting Elly.

“Nice armor you got there,” He said with a slight smile. “Come inside, I was in the middle of a discussion. We could do with your input.”

A discussion? With whom?

Valtheril opened the other door and we immediately walked into the dining room. We only had enough time to leave our new helmets in the hallway.

Valtheril took his place at the head of the table again. Two guests joined him at the table. Pylanor and the Lore keeper were both seated before him.

This could get interesting…

I greeted both of them and took two chairs away from the table to stand at it. I could see a few pieces of paper laid out on the table before Valtheril and noticed that the crate housing Minia was gone.

“As you all know,” Valtheril started as soon as everyone was seated. “I’ve been trying to find out about all the strange things happening in and around Dawnleaf. Now, the information regarding the necromantic happenings is still classified, but I am almost certain that’s separate from the issue at hand.”

He reached for two pieces of paper and took them in one hand.

“We have identified who wrote the report, thanks to Kantasia’s work.”

Wait, who was Kantasia?

I saw the Lore keeper nod.

Oh.

So that was her name. I never knew.

“I have already dispatched soldiers to find and arrest him. In the meantime, Master Pylanor, please tell me what you know.”

How much had they talked about before we got here?

“As I said before; lately, certain supplies have been going missing from the underground vault. We initially blamed it on a rat infestation that we dealt with, but these recent events have led me to believe that may have been a simple cover-up to mislead us.”

He paused for a few seconds and scratched his nose.

“From my research on that beast that was slain outside the village, I have to conclude that it was… unnatural. It is my opinion that someone tampered with Borers and caused one to grow to such size and acquire multiple other changes in the process. The missing reagents could have played a part in that.”

“And as far as I know,” Valtheril took over. “Only the treemenders have access to that vault.”

That would even put more suspicion on Lorin.

“What’s more,” Pylanor continued. “The blade that was used to pierce Elania’s heart… I found traces of an extremely potent poison known as Red Death. It is made from Red Pozims, mushrooms which we store in a special vault. Of course, we don’t use it as poison directly. Rather, we carefully extract specific essences from its stem which have healing and anti-venom properties, but if they were to fall into the wrong hands… well, you have seen what they can be used for. Whoever gave the command to kill Elania must have really wanted her dead.”

I shook my head.

“I’m still at a loss for words how you survived,” Pylanor looked at me. “That poison kills within seconds.”

“It’s my inherity,” I spoke honestly.

“Must be a powerful one,” He said.

“It truly is.”

“This really narrows down my scope of investigation to only a few people…” Valtheril thought aloud. “I already have a suspect in mind, I could actually arrest them and bring up charges as it is, but I’d like a confession from an accomplice first. I’m going to ask you to stay here until the arrest has been made of whoever wrote that fake report.”

“Not a problem,” Pylanor said. “I could check Elania while I’m here. She promised to find me, but she never showed up.”

“Oops,” I said. “I’m sorry about that.”

Pylanor chuckled. “It’s alright. You do fascinate me, though. Your regenerative ability is quite something. Is that a second inherity or something?”

“Something like that, yes.”

I figured there was no point dancing around the question

Valtheril would notice me lying if I did, anyway.

“Do you guys have anything to add?” Valtheril asked as he eyed each of us in turn.

I shook my head, as did Velariah. We could only report what we had seen.

Valtheril sighed deeply as he relaxed in his chair. He laid the papers down and rubbed his eyes.

“Oh, Vel,” He let out softly.

“Huh?” Velariah asked. Her ears were sure to pick that up.

“Oh, nothing.” He pretended he didn’t just say her name.

What was that all about?

“You guys don’t happen to know a certain Luke Rogers, do you?” The Lore keeper asked.

I shook my head, as did the others.

“I expected as much. He’s only silver-ranked, so I doubt he’d be able to draw much attention.”

“Which is probably exactly why he was the one to write that report,” Valtheril continued.

“He isn’t the same person who delivered it?” I asked.

“He isn’t. Kantasia has already confirmed that person’s identity as one of Luke’s party members. I confirmed that he didn’t know the report was fake. He is currently in custody for safety reasons and will be released as soon as the arrest is made. Don’t worry, he isn’t being held in chains or anything like that.”

“I see…” I let out.

“The guild doesn’t screw around with reports like these. These are considered top priority and urgent investigations. Submitting a false report stating a possible out-of-control dungeon, though, is going to have consequences.”

I didn’t dare ask what those would be. I had a feeling I already knew.

Valtheril continued and answered without me even asking about it.

“If he knew there was no such thing as an out of control dungeon core, or simply made it up to get me away from here, the usual punishment in such cases is death. However, if he confesses as to who made him do it, I’m willing to lower the sentence.”

“And you’re certain you’ll get him?” I asked.

Valtheril smiled. “I guess you haven’t heard yet. I put the village on lockdown as soon as I got word of the assassination attempt. Nobody went in or out. I had permanent watch over the village gates and patrols around the village day and night. Trust me, nobody got out.”

The General crossed his arms while he was still leaning back in his chair.

“Now, I’ve lifted the lockdown and allowed people to go out, but only if they can show proper identification. Everything is documented. It’s a simple matter of waiting for him to try to leave the village. In the meantime, patrols on the streets are checking every adventurer they come across.”

He had this all planned out it seemed.

Elly exited the kitchen with cups of coffee. She started placing them before everyone on the table. It was amusing to see Pylanor eye the cup with black liquid in front of him. Elly walked back to the kitchen to get sugar and milk and the treemender asked what this drink was.

“It’s called coffee,” Valtheril said proudly. “I received the recipe from a now-deceased adventurer. It’s a drink that gives you a boost of energy, and it tastes good to boot. Be warned, though, one can feel the urgency to visit the toilet after drinking it.”

“That sounds… interesting?” It seemed Pylanor wasn’t quite sure what to make of it.

Elly returned with sugar and milk. I had a great time observing Pylanor experiment with sugar and milk while he kept taking sips to taste after each addition. The maid then walked upstairs.

It didn’t take long before Pylanor seemed to enjoy the drink.

Another victim falls to the coffee cult.

Great success.