Seth Chapter 79

Chapter 79

He walked up to them and realised they had started a makeshift campfire. He wondered where they had find the wood from, but the whole place had tons of things. They might have just used the wooden chest containing the gold coins.

As he sat down, he saw that everyone other than him looked fine. Zara's arm was wrapped in bandages and Log had a gash running down his cheeks, but other than that, everyone looked to be in fine shape.

“Slept well?” Xarth asked, eyeing him up. He was sitting right next to him.

“Yeah, it was nice. I have recovered from my injuries mostly and should be able to move. There's some discomfort on my shoulders, but I should be okay with time.”

“That's good. If there's more things like that in the ruins, we would need you,” he said, glancing at the golems before turning back to him. “You really did great with going after the runes. Gave us a lot of time and it seemed to have made the wrath dysfunctional as it wasn't able to use a lot of its abilities. Though, I did think you were gone for a second there.”

He laughed heartily and patted his shoulders with some heavy bumps.

Seth smiled, “I have a tendency to survive life threatening situations.”

“That's important in our field of work. We need to be like cockroaches to make it alive through the dungeons and the ruins before we think about stuff like family and retirement.”

He nodded and looked at the rest of them. Rebecca handed him some jerky that Zara seemed to have passed around and he promptly took it up. Chewing on it, he felt the hunger satiate in his stomach.

Taking the moment, he asked, “What happened to Sharan and Tran?”

His questions took the attention of Log and Zara with the latter replying, “We went back to check on them. They are doing better, but are in no shape to fight, so we sent them back. They would be fine and get help in the city. Plenty of folks there have good levels in healing skills, so they should recover in a week or two.”

Seth agreed with that sentiment. He was sure that the deeper they went, the worst kind of traps and monsters they would face, so it was better for them to not have any baggage.

“Yeah, with the Weather Staff involved, even I don't want to be here, but I'm not stupid enough to get my face burnt by raging flames,” Log muttered, in between large bites from the jerky.

That made Seth tilt his head. “You know something about the Weather Staff?”

“Everyone knows about it,” Zara said, looking at him strangely.

Before it could turn into something akin to someone asking about his origins, Rebecca quipped, “Seth isn't from here. I graduated from the academy, so I know.” She brought the attention to herself, then explained. “Anyway, Weather Staff is actually something of a legend in the city. It comes up in the guild bar often and in taverns around the city since a lot of adventurers want to get their hands on it, some for coin and some for power. All of it has to do with the notrietry of the Stormweaver.”

“I know he was strong and made a cult for himself, but is there something more to the story?” He asked, his eyes searching around for an answer.

Xarth grunted next to him. “His real name was Rackus Koble, a lower noble from the countryside of Leolina Kingdom and one of the oldest students in the BlackStone Academy. He was a genius who climbed the ranks of the academy and even became an adventurer. He was a Gold rank adventurer and would have been Platinum easily if he hadn't given up on human society.”

“Given up?”

“Yes, he wanted to conduct experiments on humans and magic and from what we know, they were violent, so the academy kicked him out,” Rebecca muttered, looking around the chamber like she was being blasphemous against a god in his temple. “He was angry and became a rebel, going around every species and trying to see if they were good enough for him. In the end, he decided they weren't and raged a war against humanity. He started his cult right next to the academy as a taunt to them and kidnapped people for his experiments. Once, he even fought off the kingdom's army and his Weather Staff became famous after that. It was a weapon that brought lightning and rain upon his enemies and it made him a living god, giving him the title of Stormweaver.”

“Where did the weapon even come from?” Seth asked, taking in all the information. He had heard bits of it before, but hearing the whole story was something else.

Rackus seemed like someone delusional with his own powers and a ego too big for him to listen to others, so he became isolated. Starting a cult probably felt like a way for him to gain followers who had the same vision as him.

“No one really knows.” Zara shook her head, her face scrunched. “Some say he made it with the blood of a dragon since some dragons are known to have powers to control the weather. Other theories say he was granted it by gods themselves. Since no one had been able to get their hands on the artifact, it's been a mystery.”

He finally understood why Kalrus wanted his hands on the Weather Staff. The old man would surely be euphoric if they found it here.

“Yeah, I believe when people first started treading the ruins, it was to find the staff, but since they never even got a hint of it being here, they lost hope until this part of the ruins appeared. If it got out in the public, I'm pretty sure the interests in the ruins would be at an all time high,” Zacky walked towards them and said, his voice echoing in the chamber. “I’m glad you are up.”

He turned his head towards Seth who gave him a curt nod.

Sitting down, his eyes glued to Seth, “I talked to Sharan and Tran when we went to check on them. They said thanks for saving them and were grateful for it. Also, apologise for being an ass to both of you.”

He glanced at Rebecca who smiled in return.

Xarth took the moment to agree with his words, “Yes, I apologised to Rebecca before and I want to do the same to you. You saved our neck there. If we have lost Sharan and Tran, our party would be weakened tremendously. Also, they are knobheads with inflated egos, but they are friends who have saved my back countless times. So, you have my gratitude. We were talking about it before you woke up and from now on, we will take your lead.”

After saying that, he stood up and did a small bow towards him and held out his axe for a second. Seth didn't know how to take it, but it felt like a ceremony to pass on the leadership position to him.

It seemed like the rest of his party seemed to agree with him as they all nodded their heads.

“I would be honoured.” Those felt like the most right words he could say at the moment and Xarth sat down.

After that, they ate more and drank some water before going to sleep for the night. Seth had slept enough, so he opted for the first shift to look out for any monsters that might be roaming in the ruins.

Fortunately, there was nothing and the shift was spent in peace.

Finally, in the morning, they all set out to explore the rest of the ruins.

***

They left the room in the early morning, hoping that the monsters they fought from now on won't be a major threat. Unfortunately for Seth, things never go according to expectations.

Room after room, they kept clashing against stronger and stronger monsters.

If that wasn't bad enough, the corridors were lined up with traps. More than once, an arrow bristled past his cheeks or waist or even worse, his crotch.

With more members, it was harder for Rebecca to defend against them with her barriers since the length of it wasn't enough to cover for all.

Regardless, they took precautions and moved slowly, careful of where they were putting their foot and using Flickering Step to cross over smaller rooms with obvious traps laid around it.

Fighting with the monsters was another challenge in itself. Not just because of the monsters, but also because they were still getting used to fighting together.

“Seth, crouch down!”

A skeleton warrior stabbed it's sword towards his chest and Seth slid away before turning his head back to see a raging ball of fire coming towards him.

He immediately ducked and the fireball passed overhead, singing a few of his hairs as it hit the skeleton warrior, right in the chest, blasting it off on the wall as bones flew away.

Notifications rang in his mind, but he dismissed them before looking back.

“Can you be more careful?” He asked, staring at Zara who gave an apologetic smile. “I don't want to become roasted meat.”

“I'm sorry. I will try to control my spells more.”

“Just look out who's in the way of your spells.” He shook his head and sighed before focusing on the rest of the skeletons sprawled across the floor.

With abyssal mana flowing through his dagger, he leapt to break some bones.

***

The next room they found themselves in was filled with what looked like drones hovering over the floor with a red crystal shining in their centre. They had pincers like hands and they clanged them together, letting out squeaking sounds.

They seemed to be made of some sort of a grey metal which shone and looked hard to penetrate.

Stormweaver's Carrier - Level 23

Most of them were at Level 23-26 and looked easy enough to defeat. Still, they were numerous. Seth could count over three dozen of them all over the wide chamber.

“How are we going to deal with those?” Xarth asked, looking over to Seth who made a mental note of how the carriers might move.

“Zara and Rebecca would stay in the back, using spells to hit them. Don't use wide area spells if they are too close to any of us. Xarth, Log and I will take on them head on and Zacky can use his daggers to assist us.”

“Okay, sounds good.”

With the plan decided, Seth leapt off and saw a carrier rushing towards him. It was swift, covering ground between them in an instant, but before it could reach him, flames enveloped it as a fireball struck it.

It cried out and fell on the ground, parts flying away as the red crystal came right in front of Seth.

He crushed it under his feet as a notification rang out and looked back at Zara, “Thanks.”

“I have got your back,” she said, giving him a thumbs up.

Knowing that his back was shielded this time, he flickered away, hunting the drones one after another.

***

Like that, they went through each room, their teamwork getting better as they dealt with more and more monsters.

As they went deeper, he noticed the conditions of walls and ceilings seemed to be better and better and there were even statues carved onto the walls. They were sculptures of a man wearing a robe and holding the Weather Staff.

It was Rackus and looking at his face, Seth could already see that he looked a bit like a douche with his face raised high, long blonde hair and a grin.

They watched those statues for a while before moving. Strangely, they triggered less and less traps and on the current corridor they walked on, there didn't seem to be any of them.

“It's strange. I believe we are getting to something,” Rebecca marked, rubbing her shoulders. He didn't knew if it was the temperature or she just felt creeped out by the empty long tunnels.

“Yeah, the statues indicate that we are leading into a main room,” Log said, looking back to check if they were followed. There was nothing.

“Do you think we will encounter more golems?”

Seth was about to answer when they turned a corner and noticed a long steel door, marking the end of the passageway.

Everyone stopped and looked at it, not because of how big the door, but the fact that it was open, revealing a large chamber.

Stepping towards it, Zara gasped.

It wasn't because of how humongous the chamber was. It was because several skeleton monsters had fallen on the ground, their bones scattered here and there. He could even seen skeleton warriors on a platform to the centre of the room. A large weapon had gone through their chest, making holes in their bones.

“What happened here?” Seth asked a rhetorical question and wondered if it was a trick or someone else had been here before them.