Mythica, book 1, Chapter 23+24.

Chapter 23.

Sabine’s hand dropped to the handle of Reckoning as she stalked toward the tavern door. Anger flared as she waited for Orren to walk into the night. She wanted to kill him right then and there, but it would be better to wait until he was on the road. His death would be chalked up to a random murder, a not-too-uncommon occurrence on the roads this late at night. He looked out toward the road, then back toward the tavern, almost as if he was undecided.

“You should kill him now; it doesn’t matter if someone sees. If they object to your vengeance, they can die as well,” a voice in her head demanded. Sabine agreed, she was being betrayed and she wasn’t going to let that happen to her. “Yes, the blood must flow, kill him, then everyone in the tavern, just to be sure,” the voice suggested.

“No, you do not command here, I am your master, not the other way around,” Sabine growled toward her weapon, finally recognizing that it was the flail’s influence trying to force her into wanton bloodshed. Reckoning fought back, it had fed well on her anger toward Orren and from her feelings of betrayal. Forcing her will upon the weapon was a difficult task, but once aware of its influence, Sabine mastered the weapon’s spirit once more.

“Sabine, are you okay?” Orren asked. Sabine had been so engrossed in her struggle that she hadn’t even noticed that Orren had turned around and headed back into the tavern.

“Where were you going?” Sabine asked. Orren could see something in her eyes, something that frightened him as she continued her battle with Reckoning.

“I wasn’t going to leave, I know how this looks,” Orren started stammering, fearful of Sabine’s wrath.

“You were at least considering it, weren’t you?” Sabine asked. Reckoning was being pushed back by Sabine, but she could feel it trying to stoke her anger against Orren.

“Yes,” Orren said with a sigh. “That was what I was going to do, run off and tell the town guard about you, and then head back to my family. It was the easy way out, I figured you were in your room and would never find me,” Orren paused, gathering his thoughts before continuing.

“That was my plan, but I couldn’t do it. I gave you my word. Standing out there thinking, I realized that I was taking the coward's way out. If I want to make something of myself, to prove myself to my family, I need to be better, I need to be a man of my word,”

He looked her in the eye, and Sabine saw something that had been missing from Orren before. He was resolved, he had cast aside his nervous fear and was going to face her toe to toe, regardless of the outcome. “I agreed to accompany you, to help, and that’s what I’ll do. Well, that’s what I’ll do if you decide to let me live, and if you’ll still have me,” Orren finished.

He dropped his overstuffed pack to the ground but held onto the spear she had given him. Orren wouldn’t last a second against her in combat, but he was willing to try if she decided to take his life. No, she wouldn’t kill Orren. He had made a mistake and tried to run on her, but he realized he was wrong and had done the right thing. This was someone she could work with; someone she might even begin to trust in the future.

“Thank you, Orren. You did the right thing and that’s a credit to your character. Why don’t you get some sleep, we’ve got a busy day tomorrow,” Sabine said. Orren sagged with relief when he realized that she wasn’t going to kill him.

“What do you have planned, can we start training, or were you planning on looking for the maps you mentioned?” Orren asked.

“We’ll have to put the maps off for a few days, we’ve got a bounty to go after, so rest up and meet me down here in the morning with all your weapons and gear,” Sabine ordered.

“That I will, and Sabine, thank you,” Orren said as he walked up the stairs and back to his room.

“Dumb kid will probably get himself killed tomorrow anyway,” Sabine tried to convince herself.

The tavern was quiet, Hammerhead and the other workers had gone off to their beds, and the only other occupants were a pair of older women cleaning up the detritus of a tavern’s daily activity. Sabine retired to her room, it was a rather small one, and sparsely furnished. A bed, not much better than an army cot, a nightstand, and a small table with one chair were the entire contents of the place.

Sabine took a moment to check her progress toward rank three. It was the same as before. Was Gnessos displeased with her for something? She was doing what he asked, but maybe the mercy she had shown toward Orren was being held against her. Without Hamish around to ask, there was little she could do to find out what the problem was.

Annoyed, Sabine flopped onto the bed, not surprised to find the mattress a flimsy straw-filled affair. She didn’t need sleep, but just lying down felt soothing to her. There was time to kill while Orren slept, so she decided to work on her mana while she waited. The task was by no means easy, but Sabine was getting the hang of it. She began the now familiar task of continuously coaxing the various threads of mana to flow in the same direction. As she worked, the ball of mana changed from a chaotic mess into a smoother flow that rotated clockwise inside her.

Her efforts were rewarded as the Manipulate Mana ability kept improving. She kept at it, and as she worked, Sabine also started to channel her mana, not just corral it into an efficient form. By the time dawn broke, Sabine had progressed further than she had hoped. Her mana was organized, all flowing in the same direction, and she found that she could call on it more quickly and efficiently. When she heard people leaving their rooms and getting up and about for the day, Sabine reviewed the latest prompt that had appeared.

Your Manipulate Mana ability has improved. The mana efficiency for all abilities is improved by 22%.

Her work had paid off. With a 22% increase in efficiency, she could now empower her weapons a greater number of times in a longer fight, and repair more damage to her body. With where she was planning to go, every bit of mana would likely be needed. Despite not hitting rank three, Sabine felt good that she hadn’t wasted the night, and had found a way to improve herself even when everyone else was abed.

Sabine left her room, walked down the stairs, and into the tavern. Hammerhead’s was a different place in the early morning. Gone were the crowds sucking down ale as fast as the dwarf could pour it. Instead, the place was sparsely populated by merchants and travelers who had stayed the night in one of the rooms. More than a few looked like they were nursing a hangover, and were picking at plates of food that the wait staff brought out.

Drinking was the main focus of the place after dark, but the kitchen she had observed last night was working overtime in the morning. Sabine waved away one of the wait staff when she came to take her order, leaving a few coppers for the woman’s efforts. It was frowned upon when someone took up a table and didn’t order anything, but the server seemed mollified for the time being.

It wasn’t long before Orren showed up, lugging the huge satchel that he had dragged around during their previous journey. He flopped down at the table and ordered a rather large breakfast. Sabine let him dig into the food, spending the time watching the other patrons. The crowd seemed less seedy, and there wasn’t anyone that looked ready to stab her and steal her coin pouch.

“So, Sabine, what’s the story on our bounty?” Orren asked, finally done stuffing his face with ham and eggs.

“We’re going underground to the Darkrealm,” Sabine said.

“Oh, that’s all, just a morning jaunt into an incredibly dangerous place, not to mention there isn’t an entrance to the Darkrealm within a week's journey of here,” Orren replied, not exactly believing her claim.

“Don’t worry, I have an entrance close by that few know about. If you’re done, we can get going, but first, you need to lighten the load you’re carrying. I can’t have you lugging half of a library with us. Lock all that extra crap up in your room. Bring weapons, any armor you might have scrounged up, rations, torches, or some other light source. Oh, you might want to bring one of your compendiums. I suspect you’ll find lots of creepy crawlies to document where we’re going,” Sabine said.

Orren started to argue that he needed everything, but she put her foot down. On the road during their previous journey, she thought he might have learned his lesson about bringing too much with him, but apparently, Orren had a stubborn streak and wanted all his worldly possessions along for the ride. He stomped his way back to his room and came back twenty minutes later with the satchel much lighter, but still not as streamlined as Sabine would like.

Sabine asked him about armor, but the kid didn’t have any. She flagged down Rawhead and wasted another half hour finding something in stock that would fit Orren. It was a simple leather breastplate, reinforced gloves, and a pair of hardened leather greaves. Not much protection, but better than the traveling clothes he was wearing. Sabine was worried that she might have to shell out some of her funds to get the kid properly outfitted for their journey, but the package from home that was waiting for him when they arrived at the tavern also held his family stipend.

“The entrance is here, in the tavern cellar?” Orren said, as shocked as Sabine was about Hammerhead’s little secret. She had led him into the vacant cellar, and now the pair were unbolting the grate over the entrance. Rawhead showed up and made ready to bolt the grate closed after they descended.

“Hold on there, Rawhead, I’m not going to let you lock us down there,” Sabine said.

“You go down, but other things might come up. No worry, Rawhead check hole in floor every hour. You hear me, you call and I open grate up,” the orc said. Sabine couldn’t fault the logic. If they stirred up trouble down there, it could find its way into the tavern. With the grate locked, and Rawhead checking on it regularly, the tavern would have some protection, or at least a bit of early warning if the worst came to pass.

“Fine, but you better be here when we return,” Sabine warned. The orc seemed unfazed by her threat and waved them down into the pit. Someone had hammered a few handholds into the stone sides of the pit, making it an easy enough descent.

Sabine led the way, with Orren right behind her. The climb down was much longer than she had suspected, and when it finally ended, Sabine could see they were at the dead end of a longer passageway. Something about their descent felt off, almost like they were passing through a layer of energy, a form of mana that Sabine didn’t recognize. The Darkrealm operated a bit differently than the surface world. Perhaps that strange mana was the reason for it.

It seemed like the passage they found themselves in had been worked on, and someone expanding it out from the natural opening. More detail sprang into view as Orren lit a lantern. Its flame was kept low and the lantern only cast a small area of light, which was fine with Sabine. She didn’t want to give whatever was down here any extra warning of their presence if she could help it.

The light did reveal several notes on the wall, likely left by previous adventuring parties. An arrow pointed down the passage and said that the main cavern was about two hundred yards ahead. Another message warned them not to take the smaller side passages but didn’t bother to specify why other than to say that they were very dangerous. That just got Sabine’s curiosity going. Did the previous parties warn her away from it out of the goodness of their hearts, or were there riches in the side passages that they wanted to keep secret?

“Orren, load your crossbow and follow behind me by about fifty yards. I can see well enough in the dark, and I don’t want your light to give me away,” Sabine ordered.

While Orren got ready, Sabine checked out the passageway they were in. The floor had been worked on; the tool marks were evidence that someone had spent time smoothing it out. A few rings had been hammered into the stone walls of the passage, and given the old, burnt-out torches they held, used to light the way for the previous adventurers. Other than the torch holders and the notes scribbled on the wall, there were no other signs of life down here.

Orren clipped the small lantern to a hook on his belt and loaded the crossbow that she had pilfered from the necromancer’s mercenaries. She still hadn’t had time to put Orren through his paces with the weapons, but he seemed to know how to load the crossbow without much trouble. It wasn’t good to keep the arms of the crossbow under tension for too long, so if they didn’t run into trouble quickly, he would have to unload and release the string.

They hadn’t gone far when Sabine heard what sounded like someone’s foot slipping on a rock in the distance. Chittering voices speaking a language she wasn’t familiar with were heard, then silence. Sabine grabbed her flail and channeled mana into the head of the weapon, ready for whatever they were about to face.

Chapter 24.

Sabine motioned for Orren to hold back as she crept forward into the passage. It gently curved to the left, so whatever was going on in front of her, Sabine had to get closer to spot it. She had never been a stealthy type, but whoever was ahead of them was making enough racket that her approach was unnoticed. The voices became more distinct the closer Sabine got, and oddly enough, the more she heard, the more she could understand. A system prompt appeared, which she read quickly before dismissing it.

A new trait has been unlocked, Translator of the Fallen. Your connection to the realm of the dead allows you access to many things. One of these things is the ability to learn the language of any soul that has passed through Gnessos’ hands before.

With her new trait working, Sabine tried to listen in on the conversation going on in front of her. At least two creatures were speaking, and as the conversation progressed, she could recognize more and more of what they were saying. Peeking around the corner, Sabine was surprised to find a wooden barricade across the passageway, with sharpened stakes pointing in her direction.

Manning the barricade were four strange-looking humanoid figures. They were short, the tallest just under five feet. Elongated snouts contained chisel-shaped front teeth. Their fur-covered bodies looked wiry and strong, despite all of them appearing like they could use a good meal or two. Their coats were scraggly and unkempt, and they wore a hodgepodge of gear. Two just had long canvas shirts covering most of their body, along with a long, hairless pink tail dragging behind. The other pair had poorly crafted leather jerkins over their shirts, giving at least some protection.

The creatures’ hands were more like paws with opposable thumbs and sharp fingernails. Each was armed with crude, rusty metal weapons. No two weapons were the same, but each seemed to be formed from a stick of wood with various, sharpened metal bits hammered into it.

They brandished their weapons at each other as they argued, but none of the creatures seemed willing to strike the first blow. Sabine thought they looked like humanoid rats, not a creature she was overly fond of. She listened in and tried to make sense of what their disagreement was about.

“New master say we must hunt-kill anyone in passage. We do what new master tell-demands we do,” one of the rat people said.

“No, we should do like old master-leader said. We need to hide-scurry away and stay safe. Let warrior kin do fighting we should be gathering tasty bits in the cavern, not watch-guarding an old tunnel,” another argued.

“Bah, old master-leader was weak, and now he dead and in the belly of new master. We follow new master unless you think you can kill-eat new master and become new-new-master,” The first rat thing taunted.

“Gnawtooth is not weak, and he was smart-clever enough to escape. He’ll be back to challenge-kill the new master-boss soon, you watch-look and see.

“Speaking of watch-look, why we watch-look here anyway, nothing come out of surface holes since new master arrived. He not even arrived at this one,” Sabine lost track of which of the strange creatures was speaking, they were talking over each other and jostling enough that she couldn’t tell one from the other.

“New-master say, that’s why we do. You don’t watch, you get to be new-master meal,” one rat thing said.

“Hey, if we supposed to be watch-looking, how come none of you watch-see that blue light,” the rat thing said, pointing down the passage past where Sabine was lurking. It was then that she spotted it, a blue glow further down the passage where Orren was peeking around the corner, entranced and writing in his compendium.

“Kill-eat human, good food,” one of the rat things yelled and the others went into a frenzy, moving part of their blockade so they could get at Orren.

Sabine charged forward, pushing even more mana into Reckoning so she could use the Stagger ability. The rats cleared a path through the barricade and began to push and shove each other to get at the defenseless Orren. They noticed Sabine only when she was right on top of them. Before they could even think about attacking the new threat, Sabine slammed the head of her flail into the hard stone of the passageway floor.

The sound of Sabine’s blow surprised her with how loud it was. Rock shattered and the ground in front of her cracked as a wave of mana-infused force flew out. All four rats were caught in the blast, bowling three of them over and leaving the last one stunned. Capitalizing on her advantage, Sabine raced through her foes, slashing the throat of the still-standing rat thing with the sharpened edge of her buckler before hammering her flail into the nearest fallen creature, ending it before it could recover.

The rat that she had hit with the buckler grasped his throat, trying to stem the bleeding while shuffling away from Sabine, his makeshift weapon swinging wildly to keep her back. Sabine ignored the wounded rat and focused on the other two that had fallen. The two rats were trying to regain their feet. She kicked the first one in the head with her mana-infused boot. It turned the powerful kick into a deadly one.

Shrieking in fear, the last rat was able to regain his footing and take off down the passage. Before Sabine could give chase, the rat squealed in pain and fell on his face, sliding for a few feet before coming to rest. A crossbow bolt in the creature’s back revealed that Orren was done with his writing and was back in the fight. Turning, Sabine readied her weapons to finish off the one that she had wounded in the neck, only to find that it had bled out and was no longer a threat.

“These creatures aren’t like anything I’ve seen before. My entry will hopefully help give us an idea of what they are,” Orren said, passing the compendium over to Sabine.

“You should have stayed back where I told you. Glowing with mana and writing in your book gave you away and threatened both of us. Next time, when I tell you to do something, do it,” Sabine said, snatching the compendium from Orren, angry that he had ignored her orders.

“Sorry, I just wanted a peek, I didn’t know this would happen,” Orren said. Sabine ignored him and looked at Orren’s latest entry. He had drawn an almost perfect depiction of the four rats, all gathered together and looking menacing with their improvised weapons.

Verminkin. The verminkin are a subterranean species of humanoid rats that are relatively weak on their own but deadly in large numbers. Pack hunters, the verminkin like to use traps and misdirection to wound and confuse their foes before swarming over them with mass numbers of warriors. While it is easy to rout the verminkin, they will invariably regroup and be waiting for you further along your path.

Possessing strength well below that of the average human male, the verminkin do possess natural weapons in the form of sharp claws and teeth. Agile, and cunning, the verminkin prefer to fashion light armor from the hides of their kills and use available resources to their fullest. The creatures breed quickly and will soon exhaust the food supply wherever they are found. Due to their voracious appetites, the verminkin don’t typically have a permanent home and their colony’s constant need to find new food sources makes them a threat to all.

Physiology is similar to humans with the same weak points in their bodies. They do possess one advantage over humans, they are highly resistant to toxins and cannot be poisoned by most common formulas. Intelligent enough to converse in broken common, the verminkin will sometimes negotiate with other species and factions. Betrayal is part and parcel of a verminkin’s existence, so any agreements with them should be made with the understanding that the verminkin will break their word at the most inconvenient time possible.

“These guys don’t seem like that much of a threat, we just need to keep an eye out for ambushes and traps. We got all four that were stationed here, so I don’t think the main colony of these things is expecting us,” Sabine said.

“They were expecting someone, look at that barricade. Hey, this isn’t wood, what is this made of?” Orren said, inspecting the barricade while Sabine checked the corpses for valuables.

“The verminkin were arguing amongst themselves before they spotted you. It was something about a new leader that had killed their old one. The new leader supposedly came from the same place we did, and ordered these clowns to guard the entrance in case something else got in,” Sabine said.

“You understood them, how?” Orren asked.

“An undead thing that I just discovered. I can understand all kinds of languages it turns out,” Sabine said.

“That’s helpful. Our family has a similar ability tied to our bloodline, but it’ll take me a bit longer to figure out the strange speech patterns of these things. Now that we can both somewhat understand our enemy, how should we proceed? If their leader sent them here, somebody’s eventually going to be looking for these four,” Orren said.

“Let’s push further into the main cavern. We should have a little time and I’d like to get an idea of the numbers we’re going to be facing, and more importantly, where they might be keeping their valuables,” Sabine said.

Orren put his compendium away, not wanting to risk another mistake. He had done well once the compulsion to write had ended, making a respectable shot with his crossbow. After another hundred yards, the passageway joined the main cavern which opened like a big bowl in front of them. They had a good view of the area, the passage they were exiting from was high above most of the cavern and a small winding path led down to the cavern floor.

Stalactites hung down from the ceiling of the cavern, and stalagmites grew like a forest on the cavern floor. Moss, fungus, and other things that thrived in the dark grew over much of the area, many of the variants were glowing with a soft light. A few dark areas could be cave mouths, but even Sabine’s eyes had trouble making out much of the details on the far side of the cavern. The area this cavern covered was about the same as a small city.

It was dim down here, but there was enough light that Orren wouldn’t need to use his lantern, which should help them avoid being discovered. On the floor of the cavern, several areas had been cleared of stalagmites and large tents had been erected, which seemed to house verminkin work crews. The verminkin appeared to be using these as temporary bases and were harvesting the various growths in the cavern, likely one of their primary food supplies.

Sabine counted three of the bases, spaced evenly around the cavern. Smaller tents and makeshift shelters surrounded the larger tents. Given the number of workers scurrying about, each of the large tents supported a couple of hundred verminkin. She also spotted larger verminkin specimens that acted as guards for the others. The guards looked better fed and were equipped with spears, and sometimes a shield or a backup weapon.

The workers didn’t appear armed, other than the simple tools they were using to harvest their food. Several did have crude hatchets with stone heads that they were using to cut down the patches of giant mushrooms that appeared here and there throughout the cavern. These verminkin weren’t that difficult to fight, but Sabine didn’t favor her chances against hundreds of them with only Orren to help her.

“That’s what they used for the logs that the barricade was made out of, it was the mushroom stalks,” Orren said.

“We’re facing hundreds of enemies and you’re still worried about their choice of building materials,” Sabine said.

“Well, it was going to bother me until I figured it out. I hate not knowing how things work,” Orren replied.

They continued to observe as Sabine went over her options. Some of the work parties were small enough that she was confident in taking them out, but all it would take is one to get away and warn the rest and she’d be overwhelmed. Their egress point was problematic as well, she had no confidence that Rawhead would open the iron grate in the cellar of the tavern if she had an army on her heels.

“Something’s happening down there,” Orren said pointing to the left at the floor of the cavern. She had been trying to watch the three large camps for movement and patrol patterns and hadn’t spotted a small band of verminkin skulking out of a nearby cave.

“They’re acting like they don’t want to be seen by their kin,” Sabine said as she watched the band of around thirty verminkin emerge. The four at the rear weren’t walking like the others, they were riding on giant beetles that were the size of a small horse. All of them were using what cover they could find to keep hidden from anyone further in the cavern.

“What kind of beetles are those?” Sabine asked.

“No idea, and I don’t think you want me pulling out my compendium to check,” Orren said.

“Yeah, good call, let’s see what they do, this lot is a bit better armed than the typical verminkin. This group looks like a war party, but who is their target? Sabine asked.