Human - Level 20

  It took a lot of willpower for Cyn to not immediately create more distance between herself and Cirrus. She had to remind herself that she did not have any concrete reason to feel unnerved by him, so acting on it would be ridiculous. There was no reason to invite trouble. The raid had already had enough division to nearly end them. Plus, Cirrus was the highest level of everyone, save Hex, making him invaluable to their continued efforts to survive.

  The man’s eyes widened slightly, seemingly surprised she had detected him before he reached her, and after a moment his lips curved into an easy smile. Her skin was already crawling just from him being so close, but she felt the sensation of goosebumps as Cirrus returned her Inspect in kind while he spoke. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you. I was gonna offer your little guy some snacks.“ He held up a small wooden bowl that he was carrying in one hand. “You can eat them too, of course. I just assumed you would probably be resting a while after saving so many of us.”

  The ’little guy’ in question warbled from its pouch as Cyn stood up, and they could both see that inside of the bowl was a handful of small, almost neon-yellow berries. Spam stared at the berries a second before choosing to gnaw on one of its own front feet instead. The familiar would occasionally munch on a bite of Cyn’s food, but she was pretty sure that was not because it actually needed to eat. Inspecting the berries only told her they were something called a ‘Plench Berry’, and she had no interest in putting mystery fruit in her mouth without having Hex at least look at it. “Thanks, we are fine though. I should go help with preparing this place to withstand attacks. The sooner that is done the sooner we can work on other things.”

  Cirrus frowned at her dismissal of him, studying her a moment before the smile reappeared. “Sure. Your friend, Hex, has already expressed interest in teaming up to take a look at some of the bonus objectives left scattered around the floor. Having someone so skilled at healing tag along would make things much easier...”

  Cyn turned and began to walk towards Scott, barely suppressing a scowl. Of course Hex has already taken interest in this guy. He’s higher level than Sam or Scott. Or me, for that matter... Able to feel that Cirrus was following her and, feeling even worse having him at her back, Cyn turned her head to speak, “As soon as I am sure people won’t spontaneously die in my absence, I’m game.” She couldn’t afford to lose out on the extra experience that could come from the bonus objectives, or the possibility of interacting with new creatures for her profession. Regardless of how on edge the rogue made her feel.

  She saw Cirrus’s grin widen before she turned back ahead, looking around at what had been done as she moved towards the Standard-Bearer. Most of the debris from the burned-out buildings had been moved, piled high a good distance away from both the Territory Heart and the tree line, but added to the pile was additionally a large amount of usable timber. As she neared, it slowly dawned on Cyn why the fresh wood had been added.

  It was a funeral pyre. Under the logs and beams, not quite covered up, there were dozens of bodies. Vampire and Human, stacked on top of one another. Feeling her stomach twist, Cyn was suddenly very happy she had not taken the offering of berries. It wasn’t as bad as the Cadaverous Puppet Bloom, since the corpses appeared to be mostly intact, but there were just so many.

  There were a few of the Humans adding to the pile still, but most were staying away. Avoiding looking at the pyre more, but still moving towards Scott who stood beside it, Cyn watched as the Berserker and another man - Burt? One of the warriors but I can’t remember his name... - carried a large rock across the dirt clearing that was once a little village. Others ferried smaller stones, laying them in a pattern around the Territory Heart mound. In the light, and without the buildings in the way, she could see there was a wide, boulder-filled river running parallel to the clearing and that appeared to be where they were getting the rocks from. For Sam to shape into a wall using his profession, most likely.

  The cleared area ran all of the way to the water’s edge, and across Cyn could see rolling, grass-covered plains. Surrounding the clearing on all other sides was a forest, made up of a few kinds of trees. It was mostly evergreens, but interspersed between them were trees that reminded Cyn of pictures she had seen of redwoods. They were massive, towering over everything else. Their thick trunks had no low branches, and their dense canopies high above created dark shadows below them with little foliage.

  “Sweetheart, you don’t need to be over here. If you’re rested, there is plenty of stuff that needs doing elsewhere.” Cyn sighed at the Standard-Bearers gentle voice, shifting her attention back to him, Alphina, and another man whose name eluded her. He was relatively short, only a few inches taller than Cyn, with a very lithe build. Fitting for a rogue, as indicated by the purple cloak that he had draped across his back. The man’s skin was such a deep black it almost appeared blue, and after a moment he inclined his shaved head lightly towards her. His name is another strange one, since he’s from the same party as Fish and Mountain... damn what was it... Unsure what else to do, she returned the man’s slight nod.

  Cirrus, thankfully, had wandered off so Cyn no longer felt the aura of nervous anxiety that seemed to stem from the rogue. “I’m fine, Scott. I just needed to make some internal adjustments, since I wasn’t really prepared to deal with being around so many people. If you have a moment, can you get me up to speed?”

  The Standard-Bearer glanced at his cohorts, but Alphina was already waving him off. “Shoo. We should all get to work and stop yapping anyway.”

  “There is too much to be done, and not nearly enough time. We need to be prioritizing the living over the dead.” The dark-skinned man’s argument was directed at Alphina, and based on her waving him off as she walked away, Cyn guessed that was probably the topic of their discussion before she had shown up. She kind of agreed with the man, although she did not want the corpses just strewn about, either.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Scott just sighed after them, and ushered Cyn away from the pyre. “Did you read the objectives?”

  “Yes, but I probably have more than you do.” They did not go very far before stopping, but at least she had her back to the pyre so it was easier to ignore. Although she was mostly now watching Sam direct everyone on where to put the stones - the Berserker looking more comfortable than Cyn had ever seen him - she did not miss the sour look that passed over Scott’s face.

  “Haven’t had the chance to give y’all the thrashing you deserve over three of you not mentioning that feat that got us dropped into this mess. I take it that’s what you’re talking about?” Scott’s tone shifted from gentle to scathing in the blink of an eye. Damn, might have actually pissed him off this time.

  Matching the Standard-Bearer’s stance, Cyn stood up straight and crossed her arms over her chest as she turned to face him more directly. The effect was definitely weakened by the seven or eight inches of height Scott had over her, but, since she had lived most of her life only a few inches over five feet tall, Cyn was used to looking up at pretty much everyone. “I got it during the Trial of Will, and honestly didn’t think it would do anything that needed mentioning. It gives me a stat multiplier, and, from the description, sometimes extra objectives.”

  She expected Scott to look shocked at the idea of a stat multiplier, but instead he just nodded slowly with his lips set in a thin line. Either he’s holding back information himself, or he’s already talked to the other Elite Adapters. She raised an eyebrow at him, and after a moment the old man seemed to deflate a little. “Well if that’s all you thought it did, I guess I can’t be too mad. A bit of extra stats ’s not worth making a fuss over.”

  Scott paused a moment before taking a deep breath and gesturing towards the work being done all around them. “Wall is gonna be the first thing to go up, with one open end to funnel the bulk of any attacks. Then we can put up some shelters, and Dana was talking with the other smith about a place for them to work. There’s some kind of old mine at the base of a mountain upriver that still has ore and such they can use.” She was pretty sure the Standard-Bearer was hiding his own stat-giving feat at this point, with how quickly Scott had moved the conversation forward. But it also wasn’t important enough to pressure him over. Even if Cyn felt he was being a hypocrite.

  “Is it safe?” Despite having experienced the first few dungeon floors, which had been very large, Cyn still found herself surprised at the idea there was a whole mountain in there with them. Their low point, combined with the density of the trees around what would become their fort, made it impossible for her to see the mountain from their position.

  “Absolutely not. Riddled with bad supports, partial collapses, flooding, and some kind of burrowing beasts. One of the first deaths was in there. But Sam is certain he can take care of the supports in a day or three, once this camp is fixed up. At least give us access to some metal, for either training professions or defensive construction.” I’ll have to get a look at these beasts. Not excited to go back underground, though.

  Scott continued speaking when she did not immediately ask further questions. “There’s a few other points of interest that they have mapped out, but with the current state of things... it’s all kind of moot. Few people are going to survive wandering off, since this whole dungeon floor is filled with hostile plants and animals, and only a few of our new allies are not actively combat avoidant. I’m told the critters seem to stay away from the Territory Heart, but based on the fact the Vampires were also staying away previously, I don’t reckon we can count on that.”

  “Those points of interest might be more important than you think, Scott.” Cyn lowered her voice, not wanting to spread alarm if anyone overheard her. ”One of the elite objectives is to find and eliminate all threats to our claim on the Territory Heart. Threats, plural. It might be better for some of us to preemptively seek out problems, before they show up unannounced. Even if we can’t eliminate them, scouting them out will at least give us a heads up about what we are facing.” She paused a moment, letting the Standard-Bearer absorb what she had said. As a frown started to form on his face, she continued, “Plus, I already agreed to take a look at some stuff with Cirrus and probably Hex.”

  The old man sighed, rubbing his jaw with one hand. “Of course you have. And of course Hex will go with, if he doesn’t piss off on his own. Can’t just stay in camp, can you?” Cyn just gave him a smile. Guilty as charged. “Any other funny objectives, miss Elite?”

  She hesitated before answering, not sure if she should bring the conversation back to something so grim. “The only other one is already marked as failed, since it was for everyone to survive.” Wanting to move past the topic quickly, Cyn followed up her own statement with a question regarding something she was curious about. “Have you gotten any information about the Territory Heart?”

  Scott shrugged, the sad look on his face making it clear that the grim reminder was not lost on him. “Not really. It’s that glowing tree up there, clearly, but I haven’t taken a close look. In my opinion, if we do lose it, this whole operation gets shot to hell. Even if it’s only supposed to be a bonus objective to keep hold of it.” Cyn nodded along to his assessment. With their numbers, and the relatively low level of most of the raid party, they needed every advantage they could get.

  The old man stepped closer to her, speaking in almost a whisper. “There’s one real snag in all of this. The people. They’re physically alright now, and can take orders well enough. But very few of them are thinking ahead, even to tomorrow. Or even an hour from now!” Frustration started to leak into Scott’s voice as he spoke, running one hand through his long, white hair. Based on how messy it had become near his scalp, he had been doing that a lot while Cyn was Meditating.

  “From the sounds of it, half the recovered bodies are from the infighting before we even got here. They didn’t have it in them to take care of themselves immediately after that debacle, much less grieve. And now they have to work even harder to survive.” He paused. “They have to choose to survive. And I ain’t sure they all want to anymore. Not when it is looking like they will have to fight every step of the way.”