AnnouWednesday chapter so you avoid the i for post-ele ceChapter 160: Mutual Be

  The griffin rider aralyzed but could still hear and see us, her eyes darting around in panic at her situation. Maveith was tending to her while I searched the forest room. The trees would have been an ideal harvest for the city above, especially if the room recovered with fully grown trees each time it reset. The braill had a few mantises, but I was not about to climb the tree to get them.

  The floor was covered with leafy pnts and grass, and the reward chest was in the ter of the room. Since Maveith was tending to the elf, I shattered the stone g. As I searched through the stone and silver s, I found a rge ring resembling a napkin holder. It appeared to be made out of stone, with a soft pink color and siderable weight. There was a relief around the outside depig elven hunters chasing rge elk. The craftsmanship was amazing, and I hoped it was an artifact. I bagged it with the s for now and would move it to my dimensional space when I had the aether.

  I turned my attention to the pnts. The only thing I reized as useful was ginseng. Ginseng is used in alchemy, cooking, and teas. If I remembered correctly, the older it is, the more potent.

  I carefully dug up the first ginseng while waiting for my aether to recover in order to pull out my collector. The ginseng root was huge—over a foot long—and had dozens s. This ginseng was incredibly old and, therefore, probably valuable to the right alchemist. I had time to harvest a sed before I could retrieve the collector.

  I started on the rgest spider. Maveith was talking to his captive audience, who garbled words occasionally that I could not make out. I doubted the goliath would be able to soothe the griffin rider. I had aher potion ready to drink if she o be dealt with.

  The rgest phase spider had remained upright, its body frozen in rigor mortis after I took its head. I had to chop the legs to get the body down, as it was eight feet in the air. Soon, I watched thick wisps of blue smoke being pulled into the collector, and I got excited. The apex essehat formed was something I had not seen before.

  Ihe essence sphere, little fshes of white jumped around a foggy matrix. I had memorized all the affihis was dispt—a rare magic affinity. I quickly harvested all twelve of the small spiders, keeping an eye on Maveith and the elf.

  I soon added seven major essences and five minor dispt essehese rare essences were as good as gold outside the Telhian Empire. I stored them all auro harvesting the ginseng. Just over an hour after the fight, Maveith said, “She is starting to move.”

  I ed the dirt off my hands and walked over to the two. Maveith had bahe puncture wounds from the phase spider on her shoulder. It made me think, “Maveith, do you think we harvest some of the venom? It retty effective.” I indicated the elf, and she returned my look with a hard stare.

  Maveith sidered, “If it is simir to harvesting snake venom, I try. Usually, the snakes are alive, though.”

  Maveith stood and took one of the small spiders. While he worked, I looked down at the elf. Her eyes were fixed on me in defiance as her fiwitched. Maveith announced, “I think it is a different process, or they o be alive. Nothing came out.”

  “A pity. We should cook in here a before cheg the passage.” Maveith nodded eagerly at the prospect of food. I took out the elven tablet reader to use as a prep station, curious about what the griffin rider would make of it.

  I decided to try making a brisket. I rubbed a seven-pound bear roast with salt and pepper and seared all four sides before putting it in a pan with the apple-berry jam and some water. I used another pan to cover it. The thermal stone was a distance away, making it challenging to trol the heat.

  “That is mihe elf said in ated Latin. Well, at least she hadn’t attacked me.

  “The knife or the thermal stone?” I replied casually while trying to trol the heat. It was hard as I was using Maveith’s cooking pot alongside mihe massive cast-iron cauldron was still full of apple-berry jam. The elf struggled to sit up and fold her legs beh her. Maveith was watg her closely, and I was keeping her within range of my dimensional space.

  She finally said grumpily, “Both.”

  “Well, you are wele to carry the stone, but I have to hold onto the ko make sure you don’t stab me in the back,” I said dismissively.

  She groueeth a little. “It is a legacy bde. Only those of my line may wield it.” Her eyes were angry, but she trolled her speech. “You hold onto it, but I ask you not to use it.”

  Maveith had been paying rapt attention. “That sounds reasonable, Eryk.” It was the best bde we had for skinning and preparing meals. I took off the sheath with the dagger and made it disappear. Her eyes widened, but she calmed quickly, realizing I had stored it. I repced it with another knife from my ste.

  “Happy?” I asked, but she did not respond, so I focused on the meal.

  A few mier, she started to fish for information. “Where are we?”

  “Maveith told you. We are in a dungeon. A dangerous dungeon,” I replied calmly.

  “Which dungeon?” she said, irritation in her voice.

  “It is called the Shimmering Labyrinth,” Maveith supplied, trying to mediate.

  The elf processed the name. “Never heard of it.”

  “Really? It is in the ruins of Caelora, an elven city.” I said, and her eyes went wide.

  “We are in the Lost City!? Why would you go into the Lost City!?” Her surprise at where we were etched fear onto her filthy face. The city seemed to scare her more than being in a dungeon.

  “The city is not lost and was quite easy to find, actually,” I stated sardonically.

  “Idiot,” she said softly in Elvish, but still loud enough for me to hear. She tinued in Telhian, “Lost City to the elves. The King of Caelora refused help from Esenhem when the Legion was quering the nds. They thought they could defend themselves and would not send their soldiers to help others. The Elven cil became so insed they ostracized the King and the city. It was LOST to the other elven nations. And then the King of Caelora cursed his people, always to defend it.” The griffin rider’s information sounded abht.

  “Yeah, I udied Elven or Telhian history. I am just a try bumpkin,” I said with some indifference. Bumpkin fused both her and Maveith, but the meaning was implied.

  Maveith stepped in as he sensed our tempers rising. “Eryk was scripted into the Legion. He is not from the Telhian Empire.”

  The elf girl studied me, and I could see her flexing aing her trol over her hands. Was she getting ready for some magic fireballs? I figured two air shields would block them easily enough. My jam was bubbling with the roast, so I added a little water. The elf’s stomach rumbled at the sweet smell. All the healing had probably drained her bodies stores. “Where are you from?” she finally asked.

  “Tsinga. Small fishing vilge. Do not ask about my lighter skin. My parents immigrated there. I had a tough time growing up being so pale,” I ad-libbed a little, but I saw pity in her eyes for just a fsh.

  “What did you do to get scripted?” she asked, sounding ied and maybe a little more rexed. She stood and stretched, ah tensed. She was testing us, I thought.

  “Rape, theft, assault. The usual. But I profess my innoot that it matters in the Empire,” I said irritably, trying to shock her a bit a her rea.

  “I see it,” she said, but I did not know if she was alluding to my crimes or my profession of my innoce. “My name is Raelia of House Gvien.” I think she thought I would be more impressed. She was immediately disappoihat I was not and just nodded slightly. “Maveith said you would release me if I helped you escape the dungeon?”

  Maveith’s deep voice echoed as he rushed to join the versation he had been listening to raptly. “It would be a fair exge, Eryk.” He had not sulted with me on this point.

  I could not help but ugh. “Raelia of House Gvien. We are in the deepest part of a powerful dungeon. Even if we leave, there will be tens of thousands of undead specters who want to kill us. Not to mention that the rest of my pany are in this dungeon, and I do not think they are going to be happy to see you, if you know what I mean.” There was also the fact that I could not let them see her, as it would reveal how powerful my space affinity was.

  “Then why did you let me out!? Why did you imprison me a sed time?” Her voice quickly rose in volume. “I will get out of here on my own!” She stormed off toward the blue lizard chamber, never even giviime to reply.

  “Raelia!” Maveith said, trying to calm her as she stormed away.

  I barked harshly at Maveith, “Let her go!” Maveith stopped hesitantly. Wheered the tunnel out of earshot, I told Maveith, “She will be back. She o realize we are her only hope. I will tell her she get out of the dungeon in my dimensional space if we meet others from the pany.”

  Fifteen mier, she came st bato the chamber. “There is a frost samander in that room!”

  “Is that what it is called? We were calling it a blizzard lizard,” I retorted with a smirk.

  Maveith was fused. “We were?”

  “Ugh, I just came up with it, Maveith. Help a guy out here, or the delivery does not work,” I begged, trying to sound funny.

  Maveith nodded. “Yes, we the blizzard lizard. Extremely dangerous, and you should not attempt to kill it alone. Eryk almost died when he did,” Maveith advised the elf sagely.

  “You killed the frost samander yourself?” she asked in disbelief, looking at me.

  “Blizzard lizard. But yes.” I waved my hand dismissively. Maybe I was trying to impress the elf a little. She didn’t o know how close I had been to death.

  The griffin rider mumbled worriedly, “Phase spiders and frost samanders. What is down that corridor?”

  “We haven’t explored it yet,” Maveith answered her. Her despair at figuring out hoed she currently was made me feel some pity for her. She colpsed and sat cross-legged, and I could see her flesh through all the holes in her armor and clothes from the drake. I blushed when she caught me staring. I pulled out the cloak we got from the cockatri and tossed it to her.

  She caught it, and her eyes went wide. Anger ced her voice. “Who did you kill to obtain this? And what happeo Vaeril?”

  “It was a reward in the cockatrice chamber. Vaeril is dead.” I knew Vaeril was the summoner’s apprentice she had been with, probably proteg. That news seemed to hit her hard. She muttered “cockatrices” and Vaeril’s name a few times to herself but did not address us food while as she processed.

  She eventually put the cloak on to cover herself, and it shimmered to blend into the ground, giving her modest camoufge in the open. I should have realized the item was an artifact. “You just borrow that,” I grumbled.

  She pulled the cloak around herself. “It is a ranger’s cloak. The methodology to artifie was lost—well, it was lost when Caelora fell, as they were the only elven crafters who could make them. My people highly prize them.”

  Maveith seemed to think of something. “Maybe the crafters iy did not make them, and the ranger’s cloaks were found in the dungeon?”

  “Perhaps, Maveith.” I produced her backpad tossed it to her. It had her spare clothes.

  “He is your space!?” she asked, some amazemeering her voice. She started going through her bag, but I was certain there was nothing dangerous in there.

  “I am not telling you,” I said ftly. She huffed a behind a tree to ge into underclothes that had no holes.

  She walked back to us and approached more fidently. The thermal stone and steaming brisket were on the ground, and the elven tablet reader was covered in items I used to prepare the meal. “What are you doing?” Raelia excimed, seeing the table clearly for the first time. “That is an assessment table! You ot use it to prepare lunch!”

  “Are they valuable? We found it in Caelora,” I asked nontly, holding back a grin.

  “You find them in Adventurer’s Guild Halls, but this one is elven-made. Unless…” She dropped to the ground, and I stepped ba alert. She moved uhe table, iing it. “Disappointing. It is just a copy of the Telhian assessment tablet.” She stood, and ihe stewi, her stomach rumbling loud enough for me to hear.

  “What does that mean? A copy?” Maveith asked.

  “The First Legion was the first to make readers two thousand years ago. All the artificers who made them keyed them to human physiology,” she said with some loathing. “Others copied the artifact, but it wasn’t until about a thousand years ago that dwarves and other races started artifig assessment tablets that were keyed to other races.”

  “How old are you?” I asked, perplexed. She could pass for a human woman ie teens or early twenties.

  Her eyes narrowed at the question, but she answered, “Forty-seven.”

  Maveith offered unhelpfully, “Elves live much lohan humans, Eryk. She just looks young by human standards.”

  “Thanks, Maveith.” I tested the brisket, and it still needed an hour or two. “I am going to harvest the rest of the ginseng. Maveith, you watch the pot and my back while I am doing it?”

  “Dungeon ginseng?” Raelia asked, suddenly ied. “That is exceedingly rare. Give me a knife, and I will assist.”

  I was not willing to give her any o. “I will be fine on my own,” I said, dismissing her offer. I left the two talking ao harvest the ginseng. I even got lucky when one of the mantises fell from a tree. I quickly restrai and used the collector to get a minor essence of coordination.

  “You have a collector, too?!” Raelia barked from across the chamber. She must not have been able to see me using it while she aralyzed. I groaned as Maveith showed off his bag of minor quiess esseo her oher side of the chamber. I was not sharing my essences with the elf.

  I dug for a few hours when Maveith finally called me over for the meal. He had added a lot of pepper to give it some spice. The sweet, shredded BBQ brisket robably the best thing we had in the dungeon so far. The elf probably ate three pounds of it and even scraped every bit of jam left in the pan. I could not bme her; after all her healing, she he calories.

  “How much time left, Maveith?” The elf was holding her belly and perked up at the question.

  Maveith patiently expio her, “We decided to only remain in a room for half a day to make sure the creatures do not respawn on top of us.”

  “Why? Don’t you know how a dungeon works?” Raelia asked, perplexed.

  “You do?” I asked, suddenly ied in what the elf had to say.

  “Yes. I have been in the Nameless S and Whispering Woods as part of my training.” Maveith and I looked at each other. Maybe the elf would be useful after all.

  I could not help but ugh when Maveith asked, fused, “If it is called the Nameless S, doesn’t it have a hen?”

  ? Chted 2024 by AlwaysRollsAOne

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