Leona headed into town and quickly bought everything they needed. Two gold was probably a bit much, but she needed to test Kryos’ ability to part with money to evaluate the viability of a long-term partnership in the mobile Adventuring Guild scheme.
Overall, she thought as she finished acquiring the supplies and shoved it all into a burlap sack, he’s doing as well as expected given everything I’ve seen so far. Now, planning. We head out tonight, get into the mines, and if anyone questions it, we just say we’re trying to fight monsters at night to see if we can catch them sleeping. None of the miners will question us.
Leona giggled at the idea of all the loose silver ore that was probably at the bottom of the chasm. It needed to be refined, but that would be easy enough. She was a Thief, after all, she could swipe a small crucible, and the two of them could go camp in the dell they had found the Rift in, and just smelt their own ingots.
We’ll extract the raw ore first she thought as she went past the long, dirt ramp and the moving cables that hauled attached carts into and out of the refinery, and figure out the processing later.
Getting the silver ore out of the mine would be an issue. Monster corpses were, generally, not very valuable. That was why she had been prodding at the winged ones that had attacked them—she’d never seen or heard of them before, so they might have been valuable, but she didn’t see anything useful. Kryos’ chitin-covering on his shell was an exception, not the rule.
I wonder where he found the thing he killed for it? she thought as she kept trekking back to the Irontrail Guild Hall.
Still, Kryos and her, hauling bags out of the mine would get attention. What she needed to do was find an alternate way in or out. Hurrying her pace, she got back to the Guild Hall, went to her room dropped off the supplies, and dodging Pavish’s glance of curiosity, went back to the refinery.
May as well do this now while it’s busy, she thought as she activated Seafoam Steps and looked for a place to enter. The Skill was a minor drain on her MP, but it made her harder to detect if she wasn’t being directly observed. At the moment, in the middle of the day, with workers milling about, all she had to do was dip into a crevice between a few buildings and wait until someone left a door open.
She wasn’t waiting long, as someone departed the long, Highpeak Mining Company office that was adjoining the refinery proper. She hugged the wall and slipped her fingers in the doorway before it shut, and peeked inside.
Two workers were there, hunched over desks, and seemed to be jotting notes. She scanned the walls and saw exactly what she was looking for—a map of the mines. It was massive, and covered a huge section of the wall, marking out all of the tunnels, new expansions, old veins, and exactly what she was seeking—ventilation shafts.
That’s our ticket out, she thought. Or in, I suppose, if we don’t want to raise suspicion of going in and not coming out. That’s probably the smarter play.
She slipped her head back and moved toward the refinery next door. There were dozens of mining company workers who were shoving charcoal into large furnaces, with the huge crucibles placed on top. Mine carts arrived on tracks, which were lifted up by burly men hauling on chains to raise them, and then tipped over to dump the ore into the container for processing.
No one noticed the half-sea-elf who snuck along the edge of the interior wall, snatching a bag of charcoal, a crucible that was the size of her chest that was probably used to check for purity of batches, and a sheet that was stuck on a board with the process listed out. No one noticed as she slipped back out the door and used the mine carts to hide her escape.
Not a single soul noticed as Leona got to the edge of town with her ill-gotten loot and headed toward the place that the Rift had opened that she and Kryos had been called to. It was a long walk, and she got there by the time the sun began to set. Once she arrived, she looked around, and found a nice spot to hide it—a depression in the dell where she could rip up surrounding grass and cover the items—except the paper, she slipped that into her pocket.
And now, she thought as she wiped her hands clean on the grass, time to get some food, take a small nap, and then go over the plan for our night-time escapade.
[Your Experience has reached the Threshold to qualify for a level up!]
[You have gained 4 levels! Level 14, Level 15, Level 16, Level 17!]
[Choose 4 Stat Points to Allocate!]
Perfect, she thought as she headed back toward the Guild Hall. I suppose I haven’t done much stealing in a while, so it makes sense that the SAVE system rewarded me all at once. Maybe it’s also lumping in the monster fight from earlier, since now I’ve done something appropriately Thief-ish? I still never understood how that worked: I know Rifts give me Experience when a Chamber is cleared, but does killing monsters give anyone Experience? She sighed. I hope I don’t not get Experience for fighting things. Okay, let’s put three into Agility, and one into Vitality.
[Confirmed!]
[You have reached a level increment of 5!]
[You have gained a Skill point!]
[Unlock a new Skill, or Enhance an existing Skill?]
Well now, I have my Precision Strike maxed out. I could go with Hazard Sense, but that’s been serving its purpose and I haven’t a clue what the upgrade could do. Being stealthier would probably be useful. I’ll go with Seafoam Steps, if you don’t mind.
[Confirmed!]
[Seafoam Steps II.]
[In addition to minimizing your sound and presence, you also minimize your visual profile, blending into the surrounding environment.]
Leona grinned as she got back to the Guild Hall. The moment she got inside, Pavish got up from his chair and walked over to her, and her smile vanished. “What’s got you in a good mood?” Pavish asked.
“I leveled up,” Leona curtly replied.
Pavish glanced at her forehead as he squinted, then looked down at her. “Hmm . . . not causing trouble with anyone important, I trust? Only nicking things that won’t be missed?”
“They shouldn’t be,” Leona replied. “I mean, rich folks don’t miss things they forgot they had, right?”
Pavish chuckled and shook his head. “As long as you don’t get caught, it doesn’t come back to us, then sure.” He looked at the Quest Board. “Those are going quickly. Lots of monsters to kill.”
Leona followed his gaze. “I know. Kryos and I are going to look at them tonight. Maybe see if we can catch some of the monsters sleeping.” She looked back at Pavish, wanting to keep up the ruse, asking, “Any idea what the flying ones are?”
Pavish stroked his small scruff of a beard. “It’s not something I’m familiar with. Right now we’re calling them Umbrawings. They’re fast little bastards. Gerald found an interesting way to deal with them this morning.” He hiked his thumb over his shoulder, and Leona followed it, spotting a metal rake that had been reinforced and sharpened.
“Huh, and that works?”
Pavish chuckled. “Seems to. How is our foundling settling in?”
“He’s a good Anchor,” Leona replied as she headed toward the kitchens.
Pavish followed her. “Anything else I should know about?” he asked, his voice curious but with an underlying tone of suspicion.
“Not particularly,” Leona replied. “He’s a bit of a money-grubber, but I figured that to be the case. Our Skills complement each other in a fight.”
“How are you holding up?” Pavish asked as he followed her into the kitchen while she got a bowl of stew from the chef and snagged a chunk of bread. “You lost a Mender recently. Are you okay?”
Leona moved past him and into the main room, sending a glance to the empty locker that Tavan once had his gear in. “I know what I could have done better,” she replied. “I’m sad with how things turned out, but there’s no point in dwelling on the past. Move forward, blaze a trail.”
Pavish nodded. “Blaze a trail.” It was the Irontrail’s unofficial motto. The man turned and went back to his table, conversing with another Adventurer.
Leona stirred her stew and slowly began to eat, recalling a fond memory of one of Tavan’s long-winded dialogues about something inane that she really didn’t care about. But, he had been so caught up in the telling that he didn’t notice that his food had become cold, and when he finally took a bite, he was very upset. The recollection made her smile. “Now and forever, in the scars I bear,” she muttered.
Leona woke up, got all of the equipment and gear, and then left her room. Heading downstairs, she saw that Kryos was already awake, waiting at the door, shield on his back and mace in his belt loop.
“Ready?” he quietly asked. He seemed excited, his hand twitching as it rested on the opposite arm, and foot-claw tapping on the wood, carving a little groove.
She nodded and handed him the large canvas sack which had all of the equipment inside: ropes, a fall-arrest clamp, pitons, a hammer to nail them into place, and other gear that they would need. She grabbed a shoulder harness that wrapped around her torso, and clipped an oil lantern onto the front, but kept it dormant. “Oh, one more thing,” she said as she pulled out two Healing Potions.
Kryos’ eyes went wide. “I thought these were expensive.”
“They were,” Leona replied as she handed both to Kryos. “But, you’re going to be taking hits, and we don’t have a Mender. I figured it was a worthwhile investment.”
A look crossed his face, and she couldn’t quite place what it was. But, he nodded, and put both vials into the padded slots on the front of his Trader’s Pouch. “How much?”
“They heal forty HP,” Leona said. “They cost me a pretty penny, so you owe me.”
“I never agreed to that,” Kryos replied, his voice taking on a sharper tone.
“I’m joking,” Leona said with a chuckle. “Come on, let’s head out.”
Kryos opened the door and led the way down the road heading toward Suncrest. Leona was just a set behind and next to him, and breathed in the night air. The night was surprisingly bright, which wouldn’t hurt their plans, as they wouldn’t actually be heading toward the main mine entrance.
She tapped his shoulder as they reached the outskirts of town. “Follow me,” she said as she took him toward the mountains.
“Why?” he asked as he pivoted to follow her lead.
“I found another way in,” she replied. “We’ll get in and out, hopefully undetected. I’ll be relying on your eyes to find the opening. Keep up!”
Leona led the way and when the darkness fell fully, she lit the lamp on the front of her harness. It provided enough dim illumination so she wouldn’t stumble, and she told Kryos what to look for with his superior dark vision.
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“There,” he said, pointing over her shoulder. “At least that looks like the outcropping you mentioned.”
They got closer, and Leona nodded excitedly. “Yes! Exactly what the map indicated.” A circular hole had been chiseled, and was big enough to allow for someone to get in or out. She looked back at Kryos. “Shit.”
“What?”
“You’re going to make a racket.”
“Not much of a choice, is there?”
Leona shook her head and clambered into the angled shaft. It was rough—intentionally so—to provide for handholds in case someone needed to crawl in or out. She winced and gritted her teeth as she heard the screech of Kryos’ armor behind her.
Stars above, she thought, he’s great for violence but terrible for anything requiring subtlety.
They descended for a good five minutes before she saw open tunnel in front of her, and a ten-foot fall. “Okay, we’re here. Piton into wall.”
Kryos grunted in acknowledgement and rummaged around behind her. She reached back between her legs, and he handed her a metal spike and hammer. She put the spike into the wall and with a few firm strikes, sunk the piton. “Done. Rope? Fifteen feet.” She handed the mallet back through her legs, and Kryos handed her rope. She tied it off, and then slipped down it onto the tunnel floor.
Kryos slid down a moment after, and he tugged on the rope once he landed with a rattling of his armored shell. “That’ll hold. I can always lift you up and toss things to you, then jump and use my arms to lever myself in.”
“Must be nice being that tall,” Leona commented.
Kryos chuckled. “It has its moments.” He looked around. “Which way.”
Leona pointed to their right. “That way. It’ll take us right to that abandoned section of tunnel. Try and be quiet.”
“I’ll do my best.”
The two of them moved through the dark, with only Leona’s light to guide them, though she knew the half-dragon didn’t need the illumination. The distant, far-off, clank, tink, thud of mining echoed down the tunnels, and Leona was happy that the noise was covering up their sounds.
Kryos was not able to keep quiet. Despite trying to move cautiously—she looked back to see him gingerly taking steps and slowly setting one foot down after the other—he was just a clumsy, larger person.
Well, we can do escort Quests and monster hunts, but infiltration is absolutely out of the question.
That irritated her. Those types of Quests were ones she was skilled at. But, even someone who made noise had their uses. He could make for a great distraction if she needed to sneak into some place. And, he followed her instructions. Someone who could follow her lead, take it when needed, and had a natural ebb and flow with her in combat? That was valuable.
They reached the tunnel and eventually the caves. The fluorescent chalk was still present from their prior venture, and the duo followed that to the chasm. She could hear Kryos’ breath becoming louder, more ragged, and his tread was louder as he started to pull ahead of her. “Hey!” she whisper-shouted.
He looked down at her, seemed to remember himself, and then swallowed. “Sorry.”
She sidled to the edge of the opening to the chasm, and Falkrether’s Demise was nothing but vast darkness to her vision. She could see the metal staples that made up the ladder to her side. “Quietly,” she whispered, as she pointed. “Anchor first.”
Kryos slid past her and began his descent, with her just a step behind.
The duo went down to the ledge they had fought the flying beast upon, and then moved across toward one of the rickety, wooden ladders. Leona gestured for Kryos to open the bag, and she pulled out some rope. “Lower me down, then you can lower yourself with your hands.”
Kryos peered over to the next ledge below, and he kept staring for a few moments.
“Hey,” she whispered. “Less staring at the silver, more lowering me down.”
“Sorry,” Kryos mumbled.
Leona finished tying the rope off to her waist, and Kryos pulled it taut. He then gently lowered her the ten feet down to the next ledge, which was just two-feet deep and maybe four wide. “I’m good,” she said, keeping quiet. “Come down.”
She didn’t risk looking up, or aiming her light source up, as to not disturb the nesting, flying monsters up above. Kryos’ armor clattered, and she winced at the noise, hoping it didn’t disturb anything. She heard him land with a little impact, as he had to drop a few feet to the ledge. “Where now?” he asked. “I don’t see any other ledge.”
Leona pointed to a small ledge that could accommodate her whole foot and probably Kryos’ toes or foot-claws. “That. And there should be enough purchase for your fingers.” A good fifteen feet past the sidle-section was another ledge, which then had another, lower ledge beneath it.
“You sure?”
“Positive. I can do it.” Leona looked at him with an appraising eyebrow raised. “Can you?”
Kryos knelt. “I’d rather use my arms, to be honest.” He slid his fingers onto the sidle-section, then lowered his legs, and finally let his hips over the ledge, and slowly moved across the expanse to the other side before pulling himself back up with nary an effort.
Showoff, she thought, annoyingly impressed once more.
Leona went with her original plan, her Agility making the task practically effortless. She got to the same platform as her companion, and then using the same rope-and-drop technique, grew ever-closer to the silver vein, and the blind-drop into the chasm below.
Kryos pointed to his left. “There,” he whispered. “That looks like a rougher section of rock.”
Leona pointed her mounted lantern at the wall. True to Kryos’ sight and words, the rock face had several gouges in it. Possibly from rockfall—stalagmites that had crashed down from above, maybe. But they ran down to the silver vein proper, and then stopped. “Seems as good as any way to get closer. We get there, put in our pitons, and then belay down?”
“What’s that?”
“We lower ourselves with just the rope.”
Kryos’ eyes went wide. “I mean . . . if you think we have enough rope.”
“I brought three-hundred feet. If we can’t get to the bottom of the chasm with that, then there’s no reaching the bottom.” Leona moved over toward that scarred section of rock, lowering herself, and gripped some of the torn chunks. There were plenty of handholds thanks to whatever carved up the stone, and she was able to descend until she was right next to the shimmering silver vein.
Kryos was practically on top of her as his breathing became heavy and labored. His claw reached out and touched the silver as his eyes went wide. “It’s beautiful,” he whispered.
She snapped her fingers in front of his eyes. “Hey,” she whispered back.
He was lost staring at it.
She grabbed his chin, and tried to turn his face to look at her. It took some effort, but she managed to get him to look at her. “Stay with me. We can’t get this.”
His eyes narrowed back to normal, and he shook his head for a moment. “Sorry. Pitons and rope, yeah?”
“Lots of pitons. Here’s how we’ll do it.” She reached into the bag he was carrying and grabbed three pitons, the mallet, and a heavy blanket. “Hold the blanket over me to muffle the sound.”
Kryos did so, and she couldn’t hear his whispers—whatever they were.
She set to work planting the spikes into the stone, setting them in a pattern where the rope could be tied off, and then put into a figure-eight configuration to allow for the weight to be more evenly distributed. She then pulled the blanket off. “What was that?”
“I said, ‘who is going down first’?”
“Me,” Leona replied as she grabbed the fall-arrest device. “We’ll throw the whole length of rope down, I attach this, and I go down.”
“How do I know if it’s safe to come down after you?” Kryos asked with concern.
“I’ll climb back up and tell you to come down. If it’s not, then I’ll come back up. If you hear me scream, pull as fast as you can.” She attached the fall-arrest device to her harness, slid the rope through it, ran the rope all the way to the point next to the now-tied-off section, and then threw the rest over the edge of the abyss. She closed her eyes, tried to ignore Kryos’ breathing, and listened.
Thump.
“I think the rope made it to the bottom. I’ll be back.” She grabbed the rope with both hands and began walking backwards, the fall-arrest device making very slight clicking noises. It would only lock in place if she dropped more than five feet in a second, so as long as she went at a steady pace, she would be able to keep descending.
Once she got over the edge of the silver, she was hanging over dead air. Her stomach flew up into her chest, and she felt a tingling feeling as the infinite blackness stretched below her.
Good thing I brought this, she thought as she wrapped the rope around her left hand and used her right hand to grab a flashstick from her harness. She struck the device and dumped it down under the lip of the silver vein, watching it sail down into the darkness. It was an alchemical concoction composed of fluorescent mushrooms that were kept sealed away from the air. When exposed by ripping off the film, the goop glowed.
As it descended, she saw the vein continued all the way down to the bottom of the chasm, where the goop landed with a sploosh another two-hundred feet down. She froze, hoping nothing stirred.
Thankfully, after ten, tense seconds, she heard nothing. Satisfied, she pulled herself back up, hand over hand, and looked at Kryos. “We’re in business. Climb down after me.” She then began moving back down, and felt the rope above her move quite a bit as her companion followed her down into the darkness.
She reached the bottom and figured they were far enough away from the flying creatures nesting far up above that she could light a stronger source to see better. Once Kryos reached the bottom with a louder clattering than she would’ve liked, she used a finger to instruct him to flip around, and once he did, she reached into the bag and grabbed the larger oil lamp. Lighting it, she dropped the hood, revealing a thirty-foot expanse around them.
“We hit the motherlode,” she whispered in awe.
There was, indeed, a ton of silver ore scattered about. It looked like the same purity as the vein up above, and that vein was massive, like a tidal wave cresting and ready to fall. No wonder the Highpeak Mining Company wanted to get at it. Then, she brought her eyes back down, and saw Kryos tense. “What’s wrong?” she whispered.
He pointed. “That’s not a random pile.”
She looked where he pointed, and saw a pile of the silver ore chunks had been painstakingly stacked in a pyramid, with exacting numbers on each side. It was not a natural formation upon longer inspection, but at first glance was just a pile. As she scanned around her, she noted that every pile was immaculately stacked up.
Kryos grabbed his mace and shield, strapping the shield onto his arm. “Something lives down here,” he whispered. “And has been organizing this silver.”
What could it be? Leona thought as she looked around. I’m not seeing anything moving.
Kryos pointed to his left. “There’s more piles down this way. If a monster has claimed ownership, we should kill it so it doesn’t surprise us while we’re packing our bags.”
“Smart play,” Leona replied as she kept the lantern in her left hand and pulled her rapier in her right. She followed Kryos down the narrowing chasm, where it eventually got slim enough that they had to go single-file. A roof slanted overhead, and Kryos froze in front of her. “What is it?” she whispered.
Kryos’ arm twitched, and she could hear his faint, light breathing as if he was almost hyperventilating. He wasn’t holding back in a defensive stance. He was angled forward, right foot leading, shield on his side, mace on his shoulder and ready to lash out to strike. He was leaving himself wide open to an attack.
Leona squatted down to peer between his legs, and her eyes went wide as she saw what he saw.
In the rounded cavern at the bottom of this chasm, atop a massive pile of silver ore nuggets, was a dragon. A full-fledged dragon: not a half-dragon like Kryos. It had dark, brown scales, deep, black claws, black horns that extended from the top of its head and curled backward toward its spine unlike Kryos’ which pointed more up and back. It was pounds upon pounds of scaled muscle, nestled atop its hoard. It looked like a predator even in a state of rest, and was the size of a wagon with the carmikalon pulling it.
To her, it was terrifying. She had only heard of dragons in stories: the same went for half-dragons. Kryos had shifted her expectations because of how he had acted, but this was a true dragon: enormous, sitting on a pile of treasure, and dangerous even when asleep.
Or so she thought.
Its head raised up, and eyes flickered open, reflecting Leona’s lantern light. Deep, ruby eyes were set in white, and the dragon just stared, seemingly in a stand-off with Kryos.
Half-dragon faced off with a true dragon, the two just staring at one another as if everything else had stopped mattering.
Do they see each other as kin? Leona thought. Is this dragon waiting to see if Kryos is going to retreat? Is this a dominance play of some type? Some type of silent communication, like dogs fighting for the lead of the pack?
Another thought raced through Leona’s mind. For a moment, she could envision Kryos in that true dragon’s place, sitting atop his hoard of wealth and confidently staring at an approaching challenger. Just waiting, watching, and continuing to hoard. Not caring about a single thing except for the wealth he accumulated.
Leona’s grip tightened on her rapier, and she slowly lowered the lantern to the ground. Thankfully, the dragon didn’t respond to her movement. It seemed to be waiting on Kryos. She heard its giant breaths like the bellows of the forges and refinery, or the gusts heralding a storm’s arrivals over the mountains.
Kryos hadn’t moved in response. His body was tense, and while still open to attack, Leona imagined that if he was truly being driven by greed, he would have rushed in and began fighting this foe. Unless, that is, there was some other social mechanic at play between dragon and half-dragon that she was unaware of.
The dragon rose up and took a few steps down off of its pile of silver ore chunks. It had a larger midsection and rear than front, with bulky, shorter back legs than its forelegs. The forelegs were longer, more muscular, and less chunky. It had a long, broad tail with a huge mace-like protrusion at the tip that looked just like Kryos’ flanged mace. The neck was short and stubby, while the snout was a good two-feet long and lined with razor-sharp teeth. Its nostrils flared, and for a moment, she could’ve sworn it dipped its head in recognition.
Recognizing Kryos as a rival? she thought.
The dragon let out an earth-shaking roar that caused dust to fall from above, and it began to move forward. Leona backed up into the chasm to buy room to move.
Kryos stayed still in the cave entrance.