A Soldier's Life - 162 - Group Dynamics

Chapter 162

While Raelia was focused on the headless gnoll, I went and cracked the chest. Thirty-plus large pieces of silver spilled out, and buried underneath the coins was a heavy silver chain with a large sapphire on it. It was a very ornate piece of jewelry with etchings of birds and fairies along the chain, and two fairies were holding the gem. The azure gem was shaped like a flattened egg, and the cut made it appear like flowing water when light was behind it. It was obvious that it was an artifact. I scooped all the coins and necklace for now, using the manticore pouch Maveith had made me, while I waited for enough aether to bring out the collector.

Maveith was dragging the bodies of the gnolls together, far away from the water source. I searched the chamber. The stream running through it was the most interesting feature. It came out of one wall and exited in a small whirlpool at the other end. There were no fish, which I found disappointing as I was hoping for another pile of essence. The bushes had no fruit on them either.

I was confused and yelled at Maveith across the room. “Maveith, what do you think the gnolls were eating?” Every room so far had something the dangerous monster could live off of.

Maveith walked about a bit and replied, “Rats or large moles. Some small bone fragments in the scat over here.” He was stirring it with a stick.

The griffin rider had recovered her wits, “Dungeons do that, so it takes them less aether to maintain the creatures that populate its rooms. There should be something in here that the rats eat as well. Probably one of the plants.”

We searched some more, finding a few holes in the soil. Maveith uprooted one of the bushes, and large dark bulbous tubers hung off the roots. “Is that a potato?” I asked, suddenly excited.

Maveith washed it off in the stream and cut one in half. The dark purple exterior revealed a brilliant purple flesh mixed with streaks of white. Maveith was confused, “I have never seen a purple potato before. Maybe it is poisonous.”

Raelia walked over and took it from the goliath, then sniffed it. “It is a vitelotte potato. They are a delicacy with a nutty taste. You boil them, mash them with browned butter, form them into small discs, and then fry them in oil or fat.”

Did the elf just describe tater tots? Maveith was interested and looked around at all the bushes. “Eryk, how many potatoes can you store?”

I pointed at the elf with an open palm, indicating her size, “I just freed up some space. About that much volume.” Raelia did not like my joke and gave me a hard stare. I took out the collector and went to the line of gnolls Maveith had piled together. The elf followed me, interested in the collector.

Kneeling over the first corpse, I placed the collector and, without looking at her, asked, “Never seen a collector in action before?”

“Of course I have,” she said offended. “They are just rare outside the Adventurer’s Guild since they are extremely rare to find in dungeons.”

“I thought the Telhian artificers made them?” I said as the blue smoke was pulled from the body to form a major essence.  Raelia inhaled deeply in shock at the density of the smoke.

“None that are currently alive,” she said tersely. She gawked at the essence, “A major essence from just a gnoll?” she whispered.

I sounded a little smug in knowing something she did not, “The dungeon has not been disturbed for centuries. They are more likely to give essences and larger essences at that.”

She watched in disbelief as every gnoll yielded the same dark yellow essence of dexterity. I placed each one in the bag as I went. After I finished the last one, I tossed it to her, and she nimbly caught it, “Only one of the gnolls was killed by the fireball.”

She quickly pieced together what I meant. Angrily, she spat, “What! How is that fair?! You told me not to help after the fireball, and the two others caught in the blast couldn’t even move when you ended them!”

Was I teasing her too much? “You are complaining?” I asked seriously. I could see Maveith walking over quickly to intervene after the griffin rider yelled at me.

The elf stormed away like a petulant child. Maveith’s hands were dirty from harvesting the potatoes. His deep voice was concerned, “We need her help, Eryk. She was very helpful in the fight, taking three gnolls out of the fight before it started.”

“Sorry Maveith. I shouldn’t tease her like that.” I took two of the spheres from the manticore pouch and handed them to Maveith. “You can give these to her. Say you convinced me she deserved them.”

“I told you the pouch would be useful,” Maveith said, grinning.

“Yes, it is very nice. I am still a little squeamish when I think about what it used to hold,” I said to my friend. Maveith studied the black pouch but didn’t seem to understand my discomfort.

Maveith went to Raelia, who was trying to clean herself near the stream’s drain. He gave her the two essences. She looked at me for a second before turning her back to me. I consumed one of the dark yellow essences. The tingly feeling spread and focused on my fingers and toes before dissipating. Dexterity should give me more fine motor control.

I started helping Maveith harvest the potatoes. Maveith found a large mole attached on one plant when he uprooted it. I yelled at him to catch it, but it was released from the roots and burrowed quickly into the soft soil. So, moles and not rats. With my aether recovered, I sent the pouch to my space and retrieved the small mirror from my barber’s bag.

I walked over to Raelia, and she looked up at me, curious. At the moment, she had no anger in her eyes after Maveith gave her two more essences. I offered her the mirror, and she was shocked and embarrassed at how she looked. She immediately began scrubbing her face. I left her, amused that she was embarrassed at her filthy appearance in a dungeon. Who did she need to look good for?

Maveith and I had a huge stack of dark purple potatoes on the tarp. Raelia, who looked much better now that she was clean, offered to wash them in the stream.

“Great, Raelia. I am going to clean up myself on the other side of the chamber.” I crossed the room, planning to bathe outside of her sight. “Maveith, you should bathe, too. We don’t get many opportunities in here.” Maveith nodded and joined me.

As we stripped, I took the opportunity to hand Maveith two of the lesser healing potions Raelia had, “Two lesser healing potions, Maveith. In case you need them during a fight. Let me know when you need more essences as well.”

Maveith’s deep voice replied with gratitude, “Thank you, Eryk. I have been taking one essence every day like you told me to. I think they are working. I feel faster already.” I arched my left eyebrow at him because I knew that even if he had taken all 38 lesser essences, he might have raised his quickness attribute to one point, and it wouldn’t have affected his quickness potential at all. He was fortifying the attribute. Training it up would be easier, and it would not fade easily with time.

It was strange how filthy you could get inside a dungeon in just a few days. The stream had a sandy bottom and was only knee-deep but cool and refreshing. I didn’t have any more soap, so I used an abrasive wool sock as a wash cloth and gave the other to Maveith. “You can keep that sock,” I told the goliath after seeing him use it to wash every body part.

“Are you sure?” Maveith asked. He looked up and muttered, “I think the Raelia was spying on us.” I turned and saw a brief flash of movement sixty feet away.

“Maybe she was planning to roast us with a fireball while we bathed,” I chuckled but suddenly got unpleasant images of being burned like the gnolls in my head.

Maveith’s face scrunched, “You shouldn’t antagonize her so much. We need her, and I like her.”

Looking at Maveith, I couldn’t see the nearly eight-foot goliath and the elf that was barely over five feet being intimate. I erased all thoughts of it. I defended my actions, “I am just testing her, Maveith. We need to find out if she can control herself. If she is likely to turn on us.”

Things were quiet for a while, and Maveith laid out to dry on a boulder while I lay in the water to float. Soaking in the cool water felt amazing. “I am done!” Raelia yelled from the other side a few minutes later.

“How much time do we have left, Maveith?” I asked the goliath, who was putting on his damp clothes, to join Raelia.

Maveith considered, “We have been in this room less than eight hours.”

“Okay,” I moved to the shore and put several things for Maveith to cook with. “I am going to enjoy the water for a bit, but you two can start a meal.”

Maveith nodded and looked at everything, considering, “If we are going to fry the potatoes, I need some fattier bear meat.”

I searched my space and added some belly meat to add to everything. Maveith nodded and took everything across the room. I soon heard the two of them talking softly on the other side of the chamber. I dozed off in the water even though I didn’t mean to.

“Eryk, the food is ready,” Maveith’s deep voice sounded above me. He whispered, “She tried really hard to cook. Say you like it.”

“What?” I asked, leaving the water. “Are you sure she didn’t poison it?” Maveith’s face scrunched in displeasure.

“She is eating the food as well. It is just that it is a bit—salty.” Maveith confided.

I dressed and sent my armor to my space for now. We had time before our next encounter, and the freedom of movement was welcome. They had set up a nice little camp, and Raelia stacked the cleaned potatoes neatly. The dark purple made it look more like a pile of rocks. I just hoped they tasted better than rocks.

Dinner was grilled bear meat and purple hamburger-sized potato patties. Raelia looked expectantly at me as I took two patties and sandwiched some meat between them. It had a good crunch to it, and the meat had good flavor, but as Maveith had warned me, it was salty. I summoned a canteen and took a long pull of water.

I was honest with her, “The texture and flavor are good. Just a little too much salt for my delicate palate.”

She reddened, and Maveith gave me an unhappy face. Raelia softly said, “I thought the salt was flour by mistake.”

“An honest mistake,” I consoled her rather than needle her further. I wouldn’t say my own cooking skills were spectacular. I needed the entire canteen to wash the meal down. Either my new sustenance ring was working, or my body did not need a second portion, so I declined a second portion in favor of a raw apple to cleanse my mouth.

Maveith started to clean the pots in the nearby stream, leaving Raelia and me facing each other. I decided to put her mind at ease. “If we encounter anyone from my Mage Company, I will put you back in my dimensional space.”

Panic signs erupted across her body, and she tensed and looked like a frightened rabbit, ready to bolt. “Is it that bad in there?” I asked with genuine concern.

Raelia paused and slowly calmed. “I…I…I don’t remember. No time passed for me. However, I was unconscious the second time.”

There was a brief silence while Maveith clicked the pots he was cleaning in the background. “It is the only way out for you. I promise to release you when it is safe outside—my word is good.” I could see the doubt in her eyes. “And on the bright side, if someone kills me, everything in my dimensional space will be tossed out, freeing you anyway.”

“Really? I don’t know how space magic works. It is an extremely rare gift. Did you use space or void magic to remove the gnoll’s head?” I got the feeling she was trying to dig for information. She was not very good at it, or maybe her accented Latin gave away her interest.

“I don’t know any void magic. I produced the head of the gnoll at her feet,” hiding a grin while I did, and I got the reaction I wanted as she jumped up. It was a bit childish, but it proved to Raelia that the gnoll was not killed by void magic.

The gnoll blinked, and its face sneered, not realizing it didn’t have a body. But with just a few heartbeats, it stilled. Raelia cursed me, “Why would you do that without warning!?” Maveith looked disappointed as well. How was I the bad guy here? Raelia stared morbidly at the head, fascinated with contemplation written on her elven features. My guess was she thought that it could be her head next time.

I broke the awkwardness of my own doing, “Let’s go check out the next room.” I sent all the potatoes to storage, and Raelia’s eyes bulged as they disappeared. If the ring of sustenance worked as advertised, then this would be years of potential food for me.

I equipped my armor again, and soon, the three of us were walking down the only other exit from the room. It was a few minutes before we reached a familiar-styled room. To long elevated stone shelves and a small fountain in the center of the room. It was almost identical to the last safe room we had found.

I had everyone wait five minutes and then entered first. Raelia went right to the faded elven writing on the wall. “This is good,” I said, looking around. “We can spend a day here getting some sleep without worrying about getting attacked.”

Raelia turned to me, “It is an old script, but I had no difficulty reading it.” I was going to tell her I could read it too, but I let it slide as my Elven reading level was probably that of a six-year-old. “It says the next room is the gnolls, followed by phase spiders and then a blizzard lizard room. It also says the stairs to the third level are two chambers beyond.”

I looked up as I was confused. “Wait, it says it is called a blizzard lizard?”

“No, but I thought that is what we were calling it.” A humorous smirk on her face. Maveith nodded, confirming the name.

“Okay, fine. Can I use the thermal stone to get magical rings hot enough for the spell forms to show up?” I asked of the griffin rider.

She thought about it. “I think so, but even if not, it will not damage the ring.”

“What about these things?” I pulled out the silver ring from the frost salamander’s chest. The gold ring I found by the ruined wagons, the large pink stone ring, and the large sapphire necklace.”

Raelia’s eyes bugged, and her jaw dropped as I casually laid them out. She might have recognized one of the artifacts. She looked at me and then at the items repeatedly, not believing her eyes.

I calmly asked, “Do you know what any of these things are?”