Chapter 162: Party Dynamics

  While Raelia was still focused on the headless gnoll, I went and cracked open the chest. Over thirty rge pieces of silver spilled out, and buried underh the s was a heavy silver adorned with a rge sapphire. It was an ornate piece of jewelry, etched with images of birds and fairies along the , with two fairies holding the gem. The azure gem was shaped like a fttened egg, and its cut made it appear as though flowing water was trapped inside when light shohrough it. It was clearly evident that it was an artifact. I scooped up all the s and the neckce, pg them in the manticore pouch Maveith had made for me while I waited for enough of my aether to recover t out the collector.

  Maveith was dragging the bodies of the gnolls away from the water source. I searched the chamber, noting that the stream running through it was the most iiure. It emerged from one wall aed through a small whirlpool at the other end. There were no fish, which was disappointing since I had hoped to harvest another assortment of essehe bushes showed no signs of fruit either.

  fused, I yelled across the room at Maveith, “What do you think the gnolls were eating?” Every room had tained something the dangerous monsters could survive on.

  Maveith walked around a bit and replied, “Rats e moles. There are some small bone fragments in the scat over here.” He was stirring it with a stick.

  Raelia had recovered her wits. “Dungeons do that to minimize the aether required to maintain the creatures poputing their rooms. There should be something in here for the rats to eat as well, probably one of the pnts.”

  We tinued searg, finding a few holes in the soil. Maveith uprooted one of the bushes, revealing rge, dark bulbous tubers hanging off the roots. “Is that a potato?” I asked, suddeed.

  Maveith washed one off iream and cut it in half. The dark purple exterior revealed brilliant purple flesh streaked with white. Maveith looked fused. “I’ve never seen a purple potato before. Maybe it’s poisonous.”

  Raelia walked over, took it from the goliath, and s. “This is a vitelotte potato. They are a delicacy with a nutty taste. You boil them, mash them with browned butter, form them into small discs, and fry them in oil or fat.”

  Did the elf just describe tater tots? Maveith showed i and looked at the bushes. “Eryk, hootatoes you store?”

  I poi Raelia, indig her size. “I just freed up some space. About that mue.” Raelia did not appreciate my joke and gave me a hard stare. I took out the collector and approached the line of gnolls that Maveith had piled together. The elf followed, intrigued by the collector.

  Kneeling over the first corpse, I pced the collector down and, without looking at her, asked, “Never seen a collector in a before?”

  “Of course I have,” she replied, offe my remark. “They are just rare to see outside the Adventurer’s Guild, sihey are extremely rare to find in dungeons and how to artifice them has been lost.”

  “I thought the Telhian artificers made them?” I said as the blue smoke ulled from the body, f a dark yellow major essence of dexterity. Raelia inhaled deeply in shock at the density of the smoke.

  “hat are currently alive,” she said tersely. She gawked at the essence. “A major essence from just a gnoll?” she whispered.

  I sounded a little smug, knowing something she did not. “The dungeon has not been disturbed for turies. Creatures here are more likely to yield essences, and rger o that.”

  She watched in disbelief as every gnoll yielded the same dark yellow essence of dexterity. I pced eae in the bag as I went. After I finished with the st one, I tossed it to her, and she nimbly caught it. “Only one of the gnolls was killed by the fireball.”

  She quickly pieced together what I meant. Angrily, she spat, “What! How is that fair?! You told me not to help after the fireball, and the two others caught i could not even move when you executed them!”

  Was I teasioo much? “You’re pining?” I asked seriously. I could see Maveith walking over quickly to interveer the griffin rider yelled at me.

  The elf stormed away like a petunt child. Maveith’s hands were dirty from harvesting the potatoes, and his deep voice rumbled in . “We need her help, Eryk. She was extremely helpful in the fight, taking three gnolls out of a before it started.”

  “Sorry, Maveith. I shouldn’t tease her like that.” I took two of the spheres from the manticore poud hahem to Maveith. “You give these to her. Tell her you vinced me she deserved them.”

  “I told you the pouch would be useful,” Maveith said, grinning. Was Maveith making a joke about the pouch holding the spheres?

  “Yes, it is very nice. I’m still a little squeamish when I think about what it used to hold,” I said to my friend. Maveith studied the bck pouch but did not seem to uand my disfort.

  Maveith approached Raelia, who was trying to herself he stream’s drain. He gave her the two essences. She looked at me for a sed before turning her bae. I ed one of the dark yellow essences, feeling a tingly sensation spread, fog on my fingers and toes before dissipating. Dexterity should improve my fior trol.

  I started helping Maveith harvest the potatoes. When he uprooted a rge mole from one of the pnts, I yelled at him to catch it, but it quickly burrowed into the soft soil. So, there were moles, not rats. With my aether recovered, I sent the pouy spad retrieved the small mirror from my barber’s bag.

  I walked over to Raelia, and she looked up at me, curious. At the moment, she had no anger in her eyes after Maveith had givehe two essences. I offered her the mirror, and she was shocked and embarrassed by her appearance. She immediately began scrubbing her face. I left her, amused that she was ed about looking good in a dungeon. Who did she o impress?

  Maveith and I had a huge stack of dark purple potatoes oarp. Raelia, now looking much better after ing up, offered to wash them iream.

  “Great, Raelia. I’m going to up myself oher side of the chamber.” I crossed the room, pnning to bathe out of her sight. “Maveith, you should bathe too. We don’t get many opportunities in here.” Maveith nodded and joined me.

  As we stripped, I took the opportunity to hand Maveith two of the lesser healing potions Raelia had. “Two lesser healing potions, Maveith. In case you hem during a fight. Let me know when you need more essences as well.”

  Maveith’s deep voice was filled with gratitude. “Thank you, Eryk. I have been taking one essence every day like you told me to. I think they are w. I feel faster already.” I arched my left eyebrow at him because I khat even if he had taken all thirty-eight lesser essences, he might have only raised his quiess attribute by one point. It would not have affected his quiess potential at all. He was fortifying the attribute, and training it would be easier, making it less likely to decrease over time.

  It was strange how filthy you could get inside a dungeon in just a few days. The stream had a sandy bottom and was only knee-deep but cool and refreshing. I had no soap left, so I used an abrasive wool sock as a washcloth and gave the other to Maveith. “You keep that sock,” I told the goliath after watg him use it to wash every body part.

  “Are you sure?” Maveith asked. He looked up and muttered, “I think Raelia is spying on us.” I turned and saw a brief fsh of movement sixty feet away.

  “Maybe she nning to roast us with a fireball while we bathed,” I chuckled, but suddenly, unpleasant images of being burned like the gnolls filled my mind.

  Maveith’s face sched. “You should not antagonize her so much. We need her, and I like her.”

  Looking at Maveith, I could not see the nearly eight-foot goliath being intimate with the elf, who barely stood over five feet tall. I erased all thoughts of it. “I’m just testing her, Maveith. We o find out if she trol herself—and if she’s likely to turn on us.”

  Things were quiet for a while, and Maveith id out to dry on a boulder while I floated ier. Soaking in the cool water felt amazing. “I am done!” Raelia yelled from the other side a few mier.

  “How much time do we have left, Maveith?” I asked the goliath, who utting on his damp clothes to join Raelia.

  Maveith sidered., “We have been in this room for less tha hours.”

  “Okay.” I moved to the shore and pulled out several items for Maveith to cook with. “I’m going to enjoy the water for a bit, but you two start a meal.”

  Maveith nodded and looked at everything, sidering. “If we are going to fry the potatoes, I need some fattier bear meat.”

  I searched my spad added some belly meat to the mix. Maveith nodded and took everything across the room. I soon heard the two of them talking softly oher side of the chamber. I dozed off ier, even though I had not meant to.

  “Eryk, the food is ready,” Maveith’s deep voice called above me. He whispered, “She tried really hard to cook. Say you like it.”

  “What?” I asked, leaving the water. “Are you sure she didn’t poison it?” Maveith’s face sched in displeasure.

  “She is eating the food as well. It is just a bit salty.” Maveith fided.

  I dressed a my armor to my space for now. We had time before our enter, and the freedom of movement was wele. They had set up a tle camp, and Raelia had stacked the ed potatoes ly. The dark purple made it look more like a pile of rocks. I just hoped they tasted better than rocks.

  Dinner sisted of grilled bear meat and purple hamburger-sized potato patties. Raelia looked expetly at me as I took two patties and sandwiched some meat betweehe meal had a good ch to it, and it was fvorful, but as Maveith had warned, it was quite salty. I summoned a teen and took a long pull of water.

  I was ho with her. “The texture and fvood. Just a little too much salt for my delicate pate.”

  She reddened, and Maveith shot me an unhappy look. Raelia softly said, “I thought the salt was flour by mistake.”

  “An ho mistake,” I soled her, rather than teasing her further. I would not say my own cooking skills were spectacur. I he entire teen to wash the meal down. Whether my new sustenance ring was w or my body simply did not need a sed portion, I opted for a rale to se my mouth instead.

  Maveith started ing the pots in the nearby stream, leaving Raelia and me fag each other. I decided to put her mind at ease. “If we enter anyone from my Mage pany, I’ll put you ba my dimensional space.”

  Panic fshed across her face, and she tensed, looking like a frightened rabbit ready to bolt. “Is it that bad in there?” I asked, genuinely ed.

  Raelia paused, slowly calming down. “I…I…I do not remember. No time passed for me. However, I was unscious the sed time.”

  There was a brief silence while Maveith clicked the pots he was ing in the background. “It’s the only way out for you. I promise to release you when it’s safe outside—my word is good.” I could see the doubt in her eyes. “And on the bright side, if someone kills me, everything in my dimensional space will be tossed out, freeing you anyway.”

  “Really? I do not know how space magic works. It is aremely rare gift. Did you use space or void magiove the gnoll’s head?” I sensed she was trying to dig for information. She was not particurly good at it, or maybe her ated Latin revealed her i.

  “I don’t know any void magic.” and produced the head of the gnoll at her feet, hiding a grin, and got the rea I wanted as she jumped up. It was a bit childish, but it proved to Raelia that I had not used void magic to kill the gnoll.

  The gnoll blinked, its faeering, unaware it did not have a body. But with just a few heartbeats, it stilled. Raelia cursed me. “Why would you do that without warning!?” Maveith looked disappointed as well. How was I the bad guy here? Raelia stared morbidly at the head, fasated, ption written on her elveures. My guess was that she thought she could be .

  I broke the awkwardness brought on by my own doing. “Let’s check out the room.” I sent all the potatoes to ste, and Raelia’s eyes bulged as they disappeared. If the ring of sustenance worked as advertised, this could mean years of potential food stores for me.

  I equipped my armain, and soon, the three of us were walking down the only other exit from the room. It took a few minutes before we reached a familiar-looking room with tall, elevated stone shelves and a small fountain in the ter. It was almost identical to the st safe room we had found.

  I had everyone wait five minutes before entering first. Raelia went straight to the faded elven writing on the wall. “This is good,” I said, looking around. “end a day here getting some sleep without w about getting attacked.”

  Raelia turo me. “It is an old script, but I had no difficulty reading it.” I was going to tell her I could read it too, but I let it slide, as my Elven reading level robably that of a six-year-old. “It says the room tains gnolls, followed by phase spiders, and then a blizzard lizard room. It also mentions that the stairs to the third level are two chambers beyond.”

  I looked up, fused. “Wait, it says it’s called a blizzard lizard?”

  “No, but I thought that is what we were calling it,” she said, a humorous smirk on her face. Maveith nodded, firming the name.

  “Okay, fine. I use the thermal stoo heat the magical rings enough for the spell forms to show up?” I asked the griffin rider.

  She thought about it. “I think so, but even if not, it will not damage the ring.”

  “What about these?” I pulled out the silver ring from the frost samander’s chest, along with the g I found by the ruined wagons, the rge pink st, and the rge sapphire neckce.

  Raelia’s eyes widened, and her jaw dropped as I casually id them out. She might have reized one of the artifacts. She looked from me to the items repeatedly, disbelief etched on her face.

  I calmly asked, “Do you know what any of these things are?”

  ? Chted 2024 by AlwaysRollsAOne

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