A Soldier's Life - 430 - Hooked on Essence (minor edit 7-31-25 +100 words)

Chapter 430: Hooked On Essence

The roughly circular fish were easy to catch. They ranged from a foot to almost three feet across. The larger the fish, the slower they reacted and moved. It was best to drift slowly over them and stab them, pinning them to the sandy floor with my sword. I surfaced with three large fish to find Bharok dripping wet and arguing with Baelira on the bridge. The elf looked more amused than worried as Bharok laid into her. I hauled my catch to the walkway and sent them to my dimensional space.

They stopped arguing as I was about to dive again, and Baelira asked, “How much space do you have left?”

I hadn’t revealed the extent of my space since arriving, but the Sentinels knew I was an otherworlder with a space. “I think I can hold another dozen fish, maybe a little more.”

Baelira started stripping and addressed the wet dwarf. “If you don’t want to help, I will. You can keep watch,” Baelira chastised the dwarf, who grumbled something about saying he didn’t say he wouldn’t help, just objected to being volunteered. I dove under the surface, ignoring the good-natured banter. Each fish was an essence to me, and time was of the essence.

In less than an hour, Baelira and I had speared seventeen more of the large fish, giving me twenty. I signaled I was full, but the truth was they were getting harder to track and spear them with our blades. We had gotten most of the lazy ones. We climbed out of the emerald waters, and it was hard not to admire the elf woman’s body as her underclothes clung to her. She was extremely fit and well-muscled for an elf. Where Raelia was short, lean, and slim, Baelira was tall, thick, and muscled. I made sure to maintain eye contact as I addressed her. “Thank you for the help,” I said, acknowledging her efforts.

“I speared eight, and I expect my catch to be returned to me when we are back in Sanctuary,” she replied earnestly. “I have read dungeon harvests are a delicacy to mages.” I arched my eyebrow, but at least I knew her motivations for helping.

“Agreed. I will process the fillets and deliver them to you when I can,” I replied quickly. I wasn’t sure why I was keeping my collector a secret. Still, after seeing how envious the Sentinels were of the protection essences from the bone devil, I felt safer not revealing my superior collector. Being secretive again felt like I was in the Legion again.

“I stood guard, I should get a share,” Bharok said without seriousness.

“Catch your own fish, Bharok,” Baelira said as she pulled on her dry robe.

The dwarf grunted, and I thought he might remove his cuirass and dive in to spite her, so I interrupted. “We should exit the dungeon before they reach the core.” I wanted to ensure we were not in the dungeon when they destroyed the core, in case something went wrong. They estimated it would take two hours to reach the core, and almost half that time had elapsed. “You can have one of my fish, easily twenty pounds of fillets, Bharok, and I will even process it for you.” He grunted in acceptance.

I was soon dressed and headed up the steps to the dungeon exit. Baelira was a little slower in dressing, having trouble pulling her tight boots over her wet leggings. She didn’t argue, and we soon exited the dungeon. Three Sentinels welcomed us on exiting. Baelira took the lead and informed them. “The others are digging to the dungeon core. They should come through in the next two hours.”

I was eager to try the collector of the flounder-like fish in seclusion. “I am going to let my friends know I am safe and get some rest. I will clean the fish tomorrow and give you your catch,” I said, moving toward the steps.

“We should wait until the others return. They might encounter a problem,” Baelira said, halting me with her words. I slowly nodded as it made sense to wait. My trio moved to wait in the same alcove from which we had watched the fight. Bharok spent the time trying to convince Baelira that he deserved more than a single fish, but it was more a matter of him arguing to pass the time. From the argument, it was clear they had known each other for a long time and had a deep friendship rooted in teasing banter.

A murmur echoed through the pier. Soon after, the High Sentinel and his group emerged covered in fine white dust. Without any fanfare, Fenlorian announced the dungeon was destroyed. “The core is shattered, and we took what we could carry. The dungeon is already unstable. I want four Sentinels stationed at the entrance to ensure no one enters until the gate collapses.”

The High Sentinel scanned the gray robes along the pier. “Once the dungeon entrance collapses, we will send an expedition to the Isle to see if those dungeons also were disrupted.” With that, the very tired elf entered the stairs and started climbing. Orders were given for a watch rotation, and the others reluctantly made their way back to their residences. I took the stairs for a long climb to the plateau, finally free of my two shadows.

The Sentinels who sheltered on the plateau were tentatively heading back to their apartments, but the ordeal had clearly shaken them. It was such a small community, everyone knew the Sentinels who had been killed, and they were some of the most powerful of their number.

“Told you he was alright,” Benito shouted as I entered my room. My companions, including Lesna, were all waiting for me.

Blaze arched his eyebrow, inspecting me. “Did you take a bath?”

“Yeah, you know I take them when the opportunity presents itself,” I said, smiling and accepting a man-hug. “You could use one yourself,” I commented as I released him and greeted the others. “The dungeon has been destroyed but has not collapsed yet.”

Evie looked the most relieved of the group. “Can we practice more in the dreamscape together?” She asked eagerly.

“For a few hours. I have a fresh dungeon harvest I wanted to process. Just some fish,” I said, mussing Evie’s hair. I looked at Blaze. “Can you help in the kitchen later with it?” He nodded in understanding, and Benito offered to help as well.

During the short time I spent in the dreamscape with Evie, I noticed she didn’t spend any time with the manifestations of her parents. Instead, she was eager to practice her budding combat skills with me. She was even more aggressive than usual as she came at me, but had learned control and how not to over-commit.

She tried to cheat a few times by enhancing her strength, but since I had entered first, I had greater control of the environment and kept her physical attributes at her real-world norms. It didn’t take a psychologist to figure out her motivations. She was either eager to grow to protect me, or she was trying to develop as quickly as possible, not to be left behind.

I knew her lessons in necromancy were progressing rapidly, and her spellcraft was advancing even faster than her Sentinel instructors had calculated. Tovin, the young orc, was considered a prodigy when he arrived with his powerful affinities and rapid growth. As the strongest orc in Sanctuary, he had displaced another orc for an advisory seat on Fenlorian’s council. Evie was unknowingly challenging his standing as the most promising necromancer to join the Sentinels in recent memory.

When a few hours had passed, I pushed both of us out of the dreamscape. That was one thing I could do if I were the first to enter. I sat up in the chair and cracked my back. Evie was lying on the bed next to my chair, with both her hands grasping the amulet. As she woke, I pulled the amulet to my dimensional space.

“Can we train again tomorrow?” She asked sleepily. Evie didn’t have a ring of sustenance, so the few hours of rest in the amulet after being awake for almost two days were not enough.

Lesna grumbled on the other side of the bed. “Keep it down,” she said, irritated.

“Yes,” I said softly to Evie, rising and heading to the door.

I waited another hour before waking Blaze. A few Sentinels had chosen to remain on the plateau rather than return to their residences on the lower levels. It meant that many of the rooms in our building were now occupied, but everyone was exhausted and asleep from the ordeal. I didn’t wake Benito, preferring to wait until after I collected the essences. He could help with the filleting.

The kitchens were a mess from the visitors, but I cleared a space and got to work. Blaze came with me to help and also to stand guard while I used the collector. It was going to be a smelly, slimy job, and I was wearing some old clothes and donned one of the kitchen aprons as I started working on the first flounder. Blaze gave me a nod from the doorway, and the collector appeared, and I activated it. The aetheric smoke was not dense, but a lesser essence slowly formed.

“Huh?” I looked at the essence, confused.

“What is it?” Blaze asked from the large archway to the empty common room.

I walked over to him so I would not have to say it too loudly. I showed him the small essence and turned over as the water looked to be sloshing inside. “A water essence.”

“That is good, right?” Blaze asked.

I was confused, but I figured the fish must have had some kind of minor magical ability that it had not demonstrated. “It is very good, but now the dungeon is destroyed, and a generous supply of easy water essences is lost to us.” At least I had nineteen more flounders to process.

It turned out that only sixteen of the fish gave water essences, while the remaining four gave two endurance and two constitution minor essences from the largest of the fish. I gave the physical essences to distribute among the others and kept all the water essences for myself. The water aspect of my core was still tender, but with all these essences, I should be able to learn a water spell form eventually.

“You can go get Benito, it is time to do some filleting.” Blaze returned with a sleepy Benito, who gaped at the twenty massive fish stacked across the kitchen. He didn’t complain, as the three of us were soon covered in fish guts. The refuse bins needed to be hauled to the gardens for composting, and we rotated who carried them as we worked.

We worked into the morning and started to clean the kitchen after we finished with the fish, but getting rid of the lingering scent would take days. I had hundreds of pounds of fillets and had some thoughts on how I might prepare them. I baked a large thin fillet for the three of us, and they were as advertised. The fish was flaky, rich, and fatty. The texture was slightly chewy, closer to that of lobster meat, but it didn’t detract from the culinary experience. I was thinking it would go well battered and fried, or diced and rolled into tacos.

In the morning, others invaded the kitchen, but they were still numb from the two days during which their home had been invaded. It would take time for life to return to normal. They helped finish the cleaning. Baelira and Bharok entered the kitchen, dressed and ready for action. The elf sniffed the air. “Done already?”

“Couldn’t sleep,” I explained. “Do you want your shares? Their aether saturation will only last a few days outside of my space.”

Baelira shrugged, letting a smile briefly show, reminding me of Raelia. “You can hold onto them for me. We were told to bring you to prepare for the expedition to the Isle.”

Bharok chimed in. “We get to go with you and keep you alive,” he chuckled.

“Are we leaving today?” I asked, surprised.

“The day after the dungeon portal collapses,” Baelira confirmed. “But neither of us has been to the Isle before.”

“Can I join the expedition?” Blaze asked unexpectedly.

“You haven’t been marked and are not a Seeker yet,” Bharok said gruffly to Blaze. “The High Sentinel is waiting on us,” he said impatiently.

I left with my two guards, and we found Fenlorian in the council room, seated with three others. Lepidus, with his bone mask, was sitting to Fenlorian’s right. The two other Sentinels I recognized were from Fenlorian’s inner circle, who entered the dungeon with him. “Sit, and we can discuss what we will encounter when we travel to the Isle.”

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