A Soldier's Life - 399 - Grandstanding (minor edits 5-31-25)

Chapter 399: Grandstanding

As we moved to a clearing to give Blaze a line of sight, I skewered a gremlin hiding in a rotten log with the Heartseeker and another hiding in a shallow pit beneath a carpet of moss. I used the spear to trigger their simple traps before I harvested them. My earth speak made the hunt completely unfair to the small goblinoids. Both yielded minor dexterity essences, which I handed to Blaze. “I already have two for Lesna and Evie,” I explained, and he took them gratefully.

When we paused in a clearing a few minutes later, we could barely see the city lights through the trees now. It took Blaze three shots to draw the attention of and bring down the next wisp. As it descended, I grew worried, for this soft violet wisp was twice the size of the first, almost a foot across, and it hummed like a power line as it approached. “Draw your weapon, it might not fit,” I ordered Blaze more calmly than I felt. Blaze stood behind me as I angled the urn.

My hands were cooked once again, the smell of burnt flesh in the air, but it was another successful capture. I decided to remove my spider silk gloves and put them in my belt as they were offering no defense against the wisp’s energy. I carried the steel urn to the edge of the clearing and used the collector. Sparking wisps of essence were pulled through the urn, and I realized it was because the creature was resisting. It was a futile fight, and soon the essence formed.

A luminescent pearl rolled on the collector, and I smiled. “Just a minor essence, but it is what I was hoping for,” I informed Blaze giddily.

Blaze wasn’t as captivated as I was and gestured to the wisps above. “The line of wisps leads toward the dungeon.”

“And the bugbear encampment,” I finished his thought. “We will keep the city lights in sight and retreat immediately if we encounter a bugbear.” With my aether sight, I could see his expression of relief.

We didn’t need to leave this clearing for Blaze to target the next wisp. Blaze’s bow twanged, and he cursed, notched another arrow, and cursed again. “Didn’t I give you an artifact to improve your aim?” I teased.

Blaze lowered his bow. “You are more than welcome to have your turn. I cannot tell how far away it is without a point of reference, and the spectral lights are all different sizes! You should be praising my skill that I can hit them at all!” He growled back in mock indignation.

I got on my knees and kowtowed to my friend, “I am not worthy!” Of course, he would not understand the reference, but I still thought it was funny.

My action took Blaze aback, and he eventually mumbled, “better,” before releasing his next arrow. It missed again, but he quickly notched a fourth, missing again and drawing the attention of the wisp. The pale yellow wisp darted toward us much faster than the first two. I was a bit shocked when the wisp was only the size of an apple, but at least this time, I didn’t have to heal my hands. The tiny wisp yielded a minor energy essence, but I didn’t complain.

The night dragged on, and when Blaze ran out of arrows, I gave him the two quivers I had in my dimensional space. I had a third quiver of Maveith’s arrows I had forgotten about, but Blaze complained they were closer to spears than arrows and refused to use them.

The total harvest for our night of work was decent, with ten wisps and four gremlins. Two of the wisps had been among the trees and didn’t need to be lured by Blaze. All the gremlins had yielded dexterity essences, while we received six minor aether pools and four energy essences from the wisps. We learned the larger wisps were the ones who reliably gave the aether pool pearls.

“I only have three arrows left,” Blaze reminded me as I looked at a blue-green wisp above the tree tops. He turned and motioned in the direction we had come. “I cannot see the city any longer,” he reminded me.

I looked longingly at the floating essence, but Blaze was right. We were probably dangerously close to attracting the attention of the bugbears. The only reason they were not hunting the woods at night was that they had plenty of food from raiding the abandoned farms. I pulsed earth speak and nodded. “Let’s head back,” I said reluctantly.

We announced ourselves as we broke from the woods and held glowstones overhead as we approached the wooden walls. The guards mocked us in terrible Elvish as we approached, “You were warned! Gates will open at dawn in about six hours! Make yourselves comfortable!”

I nodded to Blaze and we approached the gatehouse. We started to ascend the wall on invisible steps. I placed air shields as steps, and Blaze followed closely behind until we reached the top and stepped onto the ramparts. We were met with incredulous expressions from the pair of guards. “Sorry, we are tired and didn’t feel like waiting,” I said as we passed.

“What he said,” Blaze said in Telhian.

We used the same trick to enter through the window of our room. Blaze collapsed on his bed, a puff of dust and dander from the straw mattress spreading in the room. I tossed him one of the aether pool essences, and he caught it reflexively but looked confused.

“Take it. You made some progress searching out and controlling your aether, and this will help more. Focus and try to follow the essence as it dissolves and spreads to your aether core. It will happen very quickly, so be prepared.” I nodded encouragingly.

“I thought this couldn’t help someone like me?” Blaze questioned while turning over the luminescent pearl.

“It won’t raise your potential unless you consume hundreds, but it will help improve your attribute a little,” I said. “Most importantly, you can use it as a training aid. A very expensive training aid, but extremely useful.” Blaze had told me his aether pool stat was seven with a potential of twelve, so it was not going to help much, but he deserved a share of the harvest.

After centering himself for a few minutes, I watched as he placed the pearl on his tongue. His eyes went wide as the pearl disappeared, and his breathing got labored. “Wow! That was completely different than a physical essence,” he said after a moment of processing the absorption.

I couldn’t help but smile. “Did it help you define your aether channels and core in your mind?”

“It happened so fast, but I think so,” Blaze said, stripping his armor to sleep.

I did the same, lying in the other bed. I popped one of the minor aether pool essences into my mouth and reveled in the surge of aether, tracing it as it pooled in my core, swelling it slightly. I smirked as this had been the easiest essence harvest in a while. We were both soon asleep.

A strong, insistent knock woke us. The sun hadn’t even lit the window. “Eryk. Blaze. Breakfast is served! If you want something, come down quick before the locusts consume it all!” Kyrenic barked merrily through the door. His footsteps could be heard as he walked away.

Blaze groaned and rolled over. “Can I sleep in?”

“Let us make an appearance and you can sleep the rest of the day,” I said seriously.

“So that you can drag me out into the woods at night?” Blaze lamented.

“Of course. I will see about getting you some more arrows while you sleep,” I said as I opened the door and walked down the stairs.

The locusts Kyrenic had referred to were the children. There was a large spread across the bar, and about thirty children stood against the walls drooling at the buffet. Most of the women had plates and were seated. It was clear the children would wait until after all the adults had eaten. I took two links of sausage and some boiled potatoes and sat at one of the tables. Kyrenic sat with me, his plate unabashedly overflowing. “There is plenty of food for the kids, no need to hold back,” he muttered, digging in. I just grunted, letting him think I was being noble.

Blaze tramped into the room in his armor and started to fill a plate. Right after Blaze filled his plate, Kyrenic looked at me, and I indicated I was fine. He turned and nodded to the barkeep, and the children descended just like locusts. It was somewhat orderly but rushed, as the children cleared the counter. The barkeep had other bowls behind the counter to replace empty ones.

“They only eat twice a day. Breakfast and dinner,” Kyrenic explained. “Most of these children are orphans from the farms that were attacked.”

I ate slowly, as the only noise was the sound of people eating. Some of the children went for seconds, but were stopped when trying to get a third serving by one of the women. “Who is paying for the food?” I asked as I pushed my empty plate away.

Kyrenic got a little flustered. Nonchalantly, he said, “I donated a few coins. This emergency is expected to last only a few days. At least that is the word from their king.”

I placed a handful of silver on the table, maybe fifty in total. “For our meals and room,” I said dismissively, not wanting to be outdone by the knight’s generosity. Why was I even trying to compete with him? Kyrenic nodded in gratitude and called the innkeeper over to take the donation. “Where can I purchase arrows in town?”

“The fletcher is by the east gate, but all his production is going to the city watch,” Kyrenic said.

“We only need about forty arrows for our foray tonight,” I said hopefully.

“Wisps are not susceptible…ahh, the urns,” Kyrenic puzzled out. “You are going to agitate them and get them to come to you! Brilliant!”

“They were terribly difficult to hit. It’s embarrassing that I need more arrows,” Blaze muttered with his mouth full.

“You already went out? I was in the common all night,” Kyrenic asked, confused.

“Eryk made us jump out the window,” Blaze said in mock indignation. “Had to climb the wall when we returned because the gates don’t open till dawn. Ask the guards if you need to confirm.”

I could tell Blaze just wanted Kyrenic to learn about our theatrical return. Kyrenic had such a strong pulse on the city, I figured he would have learned about it eventually. “Was it a productive night?” He asked, interested.

“Ten wisps and four gremlins,” I stated.

“Did you bring the gremlin heads in for the guild bounty?” Kyrenic said, reclining with an approving stare.

“How much is the bounty?” Blaze asked, giving me the side eye.

“A silver a head,” he told us. I thought that was more trouble than it was worth, but their heads were small, just slightly larger than my clenched fist, so not difficult to harvest.

“And the wisps?” Blaze asked hopefully.

“No bounty was posted for the wisps or the earth elementals. But there is a gold for a harpy head and a large silver for a bugbear. The bugbear chieftains are a large gold,” Kyrenic said, listing the bounties. I assumed the chieftains were the larger and stronger variants in the dungeon’s final room.

“I am going back to sleep,” Blaze said, excusing himself.

“Sorry I woke you,” Kyrenic apologized sincerely. “I will have breakfast put aside for you tomorrow. I wish I could join you, but…” he indicated the children he had sworn to protect overnight. “I would be happy to help you procure some arrows.” I nodded, and we were soon walking the sparsely populated streets.

The town probably housed over two thousand people, but most had apparently fled. The Adventurer’s Guild maintained a small fortification just outside the dungeon, but Kyrenic explained that it was what the bugbears had taken over. Getting the arrows was easy enough, thanks to Kyrenic vouching for me. The guard captain gave me two quivers from his stockpile after he learned I was one of the adventurers who had gone into the woods last night.

Kyrenic served as our translator. “How did you do it?” He asked through Kyrenic after handing over the arrows, requesting no compensation in return. I felt I had to tell him something in return for his generosity.

“A simple air spell form.” I made a series of air discs to use as steps. The captain looked like a child as he took a turn standing on the disc and managed to catch himself when it expired. Of course, I had lost one of my aces for the next time I practiced with Kyrenic as he looked on in amusement.

I joined Kyrenic as he made his rounds through the city, trying to assemble a company to assault the bugbears. There were only a handful of adventurers remaining. I learned most had been killed in the first two days, with the two strongest delve teams having entered the dungeon and not exited. He only had about a dozen men committed to an attack, which he admitted was not enough, as they estimated there were over sixty bugbears.

Shortly before midday, a bell rang in town, and I turned to Kyrenic. “It is for when the next dungeon break is to occur. We can go to the walls and watch if you have your spyglass.”

We climbed the wall, and I raised my spyglass. Two specks appeared in the distant sky, and my spyglass revealed that they were harpies. There were soon four harpies, and they looked to be in an aerial combat for a display of dominance. I caught only a few flashes of the wisps, but they quickly disappeared. Wisps hibernated during the day on the ground.

“That means there are likely another twenty-three bug bears,” Kyrenic said bitterly. “If we don’t thin them soon, they will have an army. It is taking too long to subdue the other dungeons.” I think that was a slight against the locals. The problem was, I could imagine what happened to a delve team who were caught in the dungeon when it happened. All the creatures would have been suddenly free to travel and would have overrun the group. If that happened in the Shimmering Labyrinth…I couldn’t imagine the dread that must have filled them when they realized what was happening.

“I will scout their defenses tonight,” I said without hesitation. I was here for their essences anyway.

“That is a dangerous endeavor, Eryk,” Kyrenic replied warily.

“Just have a bath ready for me when I return,” I patted the confused Kyrenic on the shoulder as I returned to the inn.

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