Chapter 69: Cores

Chapter 69: Cores

Leland let out a deep, long, slow, sigh. He inwardly cursed, thankful that the battle was over before it really started. A rank two monster was one thing, but two rank two monsters that fought together? He had heard of such things before, but monsters were supposed to be mindless killing machines.

Goblins, gnolls, and other partially sentient beings were one thing, but an undead? A being that couldn’t easily be killed? Leland was starting to think they needed to complain to the guild. At the very least they should get a bit more compensation for their troubles.

“Everyone okay?” he finally asked, mainly worried about the now cooling berserker.

Glenny was first to respond. “Yes. We made a lot of noise, I’ll go look for any more undead.”

With that, the rogue was off, invisible as ever. Leland took the time to console his friend with a heavy pat on the back. Jude twisted, his eyes bloodshot and his nose widely flaring with every breath.

“You okay there?”

Jude stared for a long moment before his face fell. He looked away. “I’m fine.”

Frowning at the odd behavior, Leland said, “Good. There might be more around, so get up.”

When Jude didn’t move, Leland lightly kicked him. “Get up. We are not done here. There is still danger.”

Jude glared at him, begrudgingly straining to his feet. He picked up his axe, looking at the flat metal of the blade. He grunted, sending it back into his hand tattoo. At that point, he just kept breathing. Deep, long, and slow.

Watching his friend from the corner of his eye, Leland was about to speak up. Jude, however, cut him off. “Thanks, Leals,” was all he said.

With that, the pair circled the sundered building in the direction Glenny had gone. The rogue made his presence known with an abrupt whisper, telling the others where more undead were. Over the next hour, the team easily destroyed their quota of lesser undead. Soon they had their packs full of depleted undead cores – the quest objective.

Glenny did most of the work, his cloak making the battles continuous and simple. After the first few undead, he had a knack for finding the cores after only a few seconds. Breaking the cores, however, was a different story. But the lesser undead were slow and easily manipulated, making the fights more of conjuration practice than anything.

Again the point that Leland was a terrible fighter against undead made itself known. He was able to easily fracture the lesser undead’s bones, yet his lack of precision ended his usefulness. Without being able to cause pain to the enemy, Leland’s curse simply didn’t do much. Occasionally he would break an important bone like the femur or pelvis, but those were few and far between.

As it turned out, breaking an inner ear bone didn’t slow an undead at all.

Jude, meanwhile, sat most of the fights out. He brooded quietly to himself, watching his invisible friend wreak havoc through the undead horde. There was no reason to involve himself, especially since he would just rage-out again and become an issue for the others.

Once everything was concluded at the ruins, the group left and quickly found themselves en route to a small village. It was a bit out of the way from Frostford, but the quest giver for the undead cores lived there. They would turn in the bat parts at the next small town, any local guild branch, really.

A few hours after the ruins, Jude spoke up, “I think it’s my Legacy evolution.”

Leland and Glenny looked at each other. “What is?”

“Why the knight’s taunt made me... enraged.”

Frowning at that, Glenny spoke up, “How do you mean?”

Jude made a disgusted face. “A simple taunt made me lose my mind when a Hearth Bat’s full screech didn’t? I’ve been thinking about that for awhile, and I can only conclude that my Legacy changed somewhat after evolving.”

“So what? Your Legacy is now sensitive to taunts? What about insults?” Leland asked.

Setting the pack down and pulling out the undead cores, Leland paused on two larger ones. They were slightly bigger than the others, like a quarter to a nickel, but still shined with a hint of dark energies.

The old woman’s hand shot out, snatching the two cores from Leland. “A knight and a nightmare. How interesting.” She shook the small orbs, then held them to her head and shook again.

Leland cleared his throat. “Right so—”

“Here is the money for the quest.” The old woman sat a small sack on the counter. She then pushed it slightly toward the pair.

“That’s not going to cut it,” Jude said plainly. “The quest listing was only for undead, lesser undead, not named mutations of a rank two monster.”

The Legacy of the Witch mocked Jude’s speech with wordless gestures. Then, with a roll of her eyes, slid all of the cores off the counter and into a small bin.

“Hey! Give them back! We aren’t giving them unless you pay for the higher quality cores!”

Jude and the woman stared at each other. Passion and irritation clashed for a long second, enough time for Leland to become used to the smell.

“Just pay us for the extra cores, lady. We got enough lessers to cover the quest. If you can’t afford the higher quality ones, then we will sell them elsewhere.”

She turned to Leland. “I have no more money to give.”

He reached out toward the bin. “Then we have to insist you give—”

The woman’s lightning fast hands shot out again, this time grabbing Leland’s outstretched hand. She let loose a low growl. “I will have these cores.”

Trying to pull his hand back and failing, Leland said, “Then buy them from us.”

The woman’s eyes fell at that, directly onto Leland’s’ hand tattoo. She quirked her head, letting go. “That is not right. You cannot have that.”

“What?” Jude spit. He snatched the bin back.

“Y-you must leave. You dare bring that into my home?” She seethed the last word, like a snake warning all who dared near. Then, her eyes twisted, turning solid grey.

Muttering escaped her lips, ones Leland strained to hear. “Curses... Death to— millennia. How dare you! How dare she!”

Leland leaned back, frowning at Jude. He reached into the bin, taking the higher quality cores back. Then, like the motion set off a trap, the small room became thick. The woman slowly started to raise, levitating as odd magic flowed around her. Her muttering became manic at this point, signaling to the boys to leave.

As they neared the door, her words became booms and shouts, each directed at Leland,hitting him with the force of a decent slap. He stumbled at one, tripping into a shelf full of withered herbs and jars of beetles. The word itself hit harder than the power it imbued. It made him pause, it made him look back.

Static had taken over the woman, flashes of white lightning threatened to fully form. She pointed at him, slamming an invisible force into his gut. He skidded across the shop’s floor, toward the open door.

“Get out!” she screeched, her voice rippling with dreadful augmentation. “How dare a Calamity enter my home!”

With that, Leland didn’t wait around any longer. He took the warning for what it was and ran.