A Soldier's Life - 13 - Dungeon First Timer

Chapter 13: Dungeon First Timer

Three legionnaires guarded the entrance of the cave. Inside, the men were all working to process the griffin. One man sorted feathers, another cleaned the talons and teeth, and another cut meat into thin strips to smoke them into jerky. As I looked around, a feather pillow hit me in the face, and I caught it before it hit the floor, coughing.

“He’s back!” yelled my attacker. It was Lucien, the horse master. The soldiers parted to let me reach Castile and one of her lieutenants, watching expectantly as I approached. I placed the pillow on the ground and materialized the egg on top from my dimensional storage.

Cheers erupted, echoing in the cave. I felt like a hero returning from the warfront when all I did was climb a summit. Lucien was behind me and whispered, “The pillow was for you, dolt. Griffin down feathers. Already boiled and dried by Mage Castile.”

Mage Castile picked up the egg and held it to her ear, listening. Everyone went silent in anticipation. A moment later, she announced, “It is alive!” There were more cheers.

Lucien mumbled, “Would have made a good omelet, though.”

Adrian chastised him, “Expensive omelet, horse master. That egg is good for at least twenty-five hundred gold on the open market to a griffin tamer. The Bartiradians have scouts that flew on them as well.”

“Good mounts should remain on the ground,” the horse master retorted.

Adrian gave him a hard stare, cracked a smile and said, “Agreed!” and they both laughed.

Castile looked at me. “You did well, Eryk. Go see Delmar for a bonus.” She waved to the corner of the cave. “Take the pillow. Another reward the men granted you.” She smiled suspiciously.

I approached Delmar at a flat stone being used as a table with the potion racks and coin trays in front of him. He opened the ledger and looked up, “Eryk...you have a bonus here from Mage Castile. Two large silver.” He took two large pieces of silver and handed them to me. I was a little stunned. The egg was so valuable, yet all I got was twenty silver.

Seeing my disbelief, he smiled, “Once the griffin parts are sold, you will get another bonus.” He checked the ledger. “Probably three gold. Don’t look surprised. The Empire only lets Mage Castile keep 10% of the harvest. She’ll give half of what she gets to the company. That is, after she resupplies the potions. Most Mage Commanders give nothing to their legionnaires, so be happy. That pillow you are holding—” he pointed “that is a griffin feather down pillow. Worth a gold on its own.”

I felt the pillow. It was soft, and the case was silky smooth. The case was a new legionnaire bag for dirty laundry from our kit. This one was not coarse linen like the one I had been given in training. As I felt it up, Delmar snorted. “The men voted to give you the pillow because they said you moan and groan all the time. Although they gifted it to you as a joke, I suggest you hang on to it and sell it when we reach a larger city. Quilters prize those down feathers.”

I flushed in mild embarrassment, but I would lug the three-pound pillow with me if it were worth a gold coin. That was why I guessed no one wanted it. Three pounds was a lot of weight to carry out of the mountains.

“Go get something to eat,” Delmar said, smiling ruefully. “You’re going to need it. Mage Castile wants you in the dungeon party. Put the potions and these trays back into your dimensional storage.”

My thoughts jolted. Dungeon party? Volunteered again? I walked to someone cooking skewered chunks of griffin flesh over red coals. He handed me two of the sticks, and I started eating.

The meat was amazing, and it took my mind off the dungeon problem. The meat was salty-sweet and melted in my mouth. The cook smiled. “We had some Kraken salt left and a few spices. It’s an instant marinade.”

“Kraken salt?” I asked while devouring the meat quickly, hoping to get more.

He laughed. “Yeah, it’s distilled from Kraken’s blood. A byproduct of alchemists, and one of Mage Castile’s vanities. She breaks it out when we celebrate.” He paused and switched his tone to slightly more ominous. “Or sometimes when we are about to do something that might get some of us killed.” He looked at me seriously. “A kind of last meal.”

I reached for another skewer, and he slapped my hand. “Two each.” Then he reconsidered and handed me a third skewer. I walked to my tent numbly and found Renna, studying her book using a glowing stone.

Renna looked up as I sat. “Sorry to hear you’re going into the dungeon in the morning. Mage Castile announced the six delvers before you got back from the griffin nest.”

“Just six of us?” I asked, suddenly more concerned.

“They tested the dungeon entrance. It only accepts a fixed number of people at a time. After that number has entered, the doorway is closed to others. The dungeon limit could be seven, so the baron’s son may be alive inside,” Renna said doubtfully. I sat next to her, my anxiety rising.

“Why are we even going in? I thought the dungeon absorbed corpses after people were killed. If the baron’s son is dead, we won’t find any evidence anyway. And it’s been a month since he went missing. He must be dead already,” I grumbled while finishing my griffin meat.

Renna looked at me sympathetically. “Mage Castile is strong, and she is taking her best fighters. Well, her best fighters, not including you.” She slapped me and giggled, trying to break my sour mood. “Delmar has been to dungeons before, and he is going. I heard them talking, and he said the dungeon had safe areas where the creatures wouldn't attack you. I think the plan is to search those safe areas for the baron’s son.”

“So you are not coming then?” I asked the mage-aspirant as I removed my armor.

“No. I have not learned any spells; as you know, my only spell form is flight,” she replied softly. “I would not be of much assistance in a dungeon.”

I finished my meat and relaxed against the cold stone wall, and Renna scuttled beside me. Without my armor, the cold stone on my back felt good, but the looming black, oily surface of the dungeon entrance nearby put a damper on my mood. Renna’s knees were touching, and I knew her closeness to me was a good sign.

My fantasies were interrupted when Castile announced that the dungeon team had four hours to rest up. There was a brief period of silence before I asked if Renna could read to me again. She took out the book, and I asked about affinities unrelated to me before bringing up the time affinity.

Renna turned to the proper page. “Time... only one is listed for each range of affinity.” I waited expectantly while she read. “The easiest to learn is something called time sense. It lets you always know what time it is, which is probably useful in dungeons. Did the time affinity gem light up when you used the disc?”

I lied to the young woman, “No, I’m just curious. I also like listening to your voice.” She blushed at my words. “What are the other two?”

She returned to find her place in the book. “The mid-tier spell form is called hasten self. It allows the mage to move faster, which is very useful!” I briefly fantasized about being able to weave through an army, moving at lightning speed.

Renna continued, “The high-tier spell form listed is called ageless. It allows you to stop aging but requires a seventy affinity to learn.” She put down the book and mused, “Wow, that would be amazing. It’s too bad the time affinity is so rare. I would guess the Emperor has a mage casting a spell like this on him constantly. He’s been the Emperor for what, three hundred years?” She turned to me, her emerald eyes studying me.

“I don’t know,” I replied warily. I knew absolutely nothing about the Emperor.

She scrunched her face in thought. “Yeah, I think his three hundredth birthday celebration was three or four years ago,” Renna said, thinking aloud. “I have never seen him in person.” She softened her voice. “I am meeting his eleventh son after I imprint all five of my spell forms. I think they want us to marry.”

The air suddenly felt very thick. I did not know what to say. I wanted her to read on, but I also felt I should console her. She would probably live in luxury, so should I feel sorry for her? I finally said, “Three hundred years old and only eleven sons?” That was clearly the wrong thing to say. I tried another tactic. “If you’re so important to the Emperor, why did High Mage Dacien leave you with us?”

Renna huffed. “I think the Emperor still has seventeen sons alive. I don't know how many have died over the years. As for High Mage Dacien, he only cares about increasing his own power. We came out here to get the apex earth essence from the bulette. It’s the only way he can boost his earth affinity with apex earth essences.” She shifted uncomfortably. “The High Mage is probably one of the five most powerful mages in the Empire. He can pretty much do what he wants, as long as he answers the Emperor’s call to war.” She stared off into space. “I’m sure if I die, they will just find another wife for the Emperor’s son anyway.”

She had a gloomy view of her plight. “How old are you anyway?” I figured an Empire year was pretty close to what I considered an Earth year from my time here.

“Nineteen this December,” she replied. She looked younger, but I took her word. There were ten months in the Telhian calendar. Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December. I remembered that there were originally ten months in the Roman calendar, and doubted it was a coincidence. I was pretty sure the alphabet was Latin. I guessed I had been transported to an alternate reality where the Roman Empire thrived in a world with magic.

I nodded at Renna and smiled, and she returned the smile. “What else does it say about the time affinity?” I tried to return her attention to the book, but I killed the moment.

She reluctantly read the next passage and summarized, “Those with extremely high affinity can imprint the spell form slow domain. It says it creates a bubble of slowed time around the mage, where the mage moves at normal speed. Anyone entering the bubble will be affected by the slowed time. It takes a lot of aether to maintain the bubble, though.”

My affinity was 90 in time. Was there another suggestion that was even more powerful than these suggestions in the book?

I nodded. “I think I should get some rest.” I left her, crawled into my tent, and got my new pillow underneath my bed. It smelled like the outdoors. I really had missed pillows. It did not take long to fall asleep.

It felt like only moments before I was awakened. Mateo gently shook me. “Eryk, they’re getting ready. I was told to wake you.” He was being too polite, and it seemed he felt bad for my fate. He left, and I moved the pillow into my dimensional space. If there was a chance it would be my end, then I was taking the pillow with me.

The other five people entering were Mage Castile, Delmar, Konstantin, Linus, and Firth. I felt out of place in the group of experienced older veteran legionnaires. They looked determined and not at all nervous. Mage Castile addressed me. “Stay near Linus and do whatever he tells you.” She walked into the black oily wall. It seemed to stretch around her, and then she vanished and the wall was smooth again. Everyone else moved through, leaving me standing there.

Adrian yelled at me good-naturedly, “Hurry up, legionnaire. They’ll think you’re running away if you don’t show up soon.” I turned to rush into the wall, and it stretched around me. It felt like I was falling into a pool of warm jello. And then I fell face-first onto a stone floor.

“Watch out, raw recruit. The first step is always disorienting. Pick yourself up, put your pants back on,” Delmar said with some humor.

I stood, checking my pants. They were still on. Konstantin laughed. “Boy, he was just referring to the fact that this is your first time getting fucked by a dungeon.” I was not too fond of the attempt at humor.

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