[Omen of the Witchblade] Chapter 151 – Nightboy and the Dreadwolf

“…Heath?” Gwen asked beneath the din of applause. “Why aren’t you saying anything?”

Heath’s boneless body flopped around in Gwen’s arms.

After feeling left out for the entire Gauntlet, he used his most defensive aspect skills and then Gwen wielded him like a battering ram.

The obstacle course never stood a chance.

Unfortunately, Heath wasn’t doing so well.

“…Little buddy?” She began to grow anxious.

“No, Nana Wimpley, not the hot dog switch!” Heath muttered in his sleep. “I’ll go back to the pudding cave.”

“You had a very strange home life,” she said incredulously.

When the crowd started to point out Gwen’s wolf tail, she went into panic mode. She had been trying to hide it ever since they got to the Seabrim Crater. After transforming in the Hall of Martyrs, it had stubbornly stuck around.

Prize boxes appeared at Gwen’s feet. She could only pick one out of the three gift boxes presented. She rattled the boxes around, straining her hearing to be able to tell what was inside.

“And here I thought I’d just get paid in rune coins. Stupid announcer.”

Gwen got a burst of greed-laced instinct. She swiped the box on the right with a fanged grin for the crowd. They seemed to like it. And since Heath was the equivalent of punch drunk, she picked his prize too.

Gwen ran off with the boxes bouncing on Heath’s scrawny chest, then burst out of the Gauntlet, followed by a pack of rabid fans.

***

It didn’t take long to find Gwen and Heath once Mel, Charlie, and Thomas were out of the bookshop. They only had to follow the chanting of “Dreadwolf! Dreadwolf!” with one or two quieter voices shouting “Nightboy!” for some reason.

“Leave me alone, dammit!” Gwen cried.

Elian enacted his umbrella, pushing the fans out of the way and creating a little breathing room for all of them.

Mel looked at her. “You did the Gauntlet without me?!”

Gwen hefted Heath’s boneless body up. “He did it too.”

“I don’t care!” Mel stabbed a finger at Heath. “He’s not awake to receive my ire! You are! Receive my ire! Right now!”

Gwen hunched her shoulders, despite being much bigger than Mel. “It was a baby Gauntlet! We need something tougher or it’ll bore us to death.”

“When’s the next one, then?! We’re doing it together!”

Elian coughed politely into his fist.

“What?” Mel asked. “What now? What could you possibly have to say?”

Elian looked to the north. “Judging by the smoke coming out of the arena and the crews of repairmen going inside, I would say it may be a while before the gauntlet reopens.”

Charlie carefully took Heath from Gwen’s arms, concern plain on her pretty features. She knelt on the street, cradling his body.

His neck probably shouldn’t have been bending that way.

Aspect Skill: [Lifeweave]

Mel turned to Gwen, shaking her finger at her. “Did you just break the entire Gauntlet, Gwen?!”

“Um,” Gwen said, eyes wide as silver saucers. She took a step back nervously.

Thomas put his hand on Gwen’s shoulder. “How did you get through the Gauntlet?”

Gwen muttered something.

“Speak up!” Mel snapped.

“I broke through the walls and destroyed the traps…then went back and killed all the monsters. It was…it was really easy.”

With a shout of frustration, Mel threw up her arms and paced away from her. Unfortunately, the privacy bubble wasn’t that big and so Mel had to turn around again.

“I had one chance to do some real awesome American Gladiators style shenanigans, and you ruined it!”

“Mel, it’s not over!” Gwen explained desperately. “That’s probably not the only Gauntlet. And they’ll fix it. They have multiple levels of difficulty. They just happened to be running the garbage tier one!”

“She’s right,” Elian said. “Though I don’t know how extensive the damage is. They might take up to a week, depending on how badly the machinery was busted up. That’s…not usually how contestants win. However, they will return. You just might have to wait a little bit.”

“A week?” Gwen whispered in horror. “Oh wow, I really did screw up. Elian, you have to find us another one.” She grabbed him by his shirt, lifting him off his feet. “You don’t know Mel! She holds grudges for the pettiest of things! And this is a mess up that warrants more than just pettiness!”

“She’s right,” Mel said. “I am very petty.” She adopted a far-off look. “I’d like to say I’ve elevated pettiness to an art form, really.”

“Truly disturbing,” Elian whispered. He looked at Gwen. “I’ll do my best, but there aren’t many arenas in the Seabrim Crater. We’re more of a shopping destination. You’d want the Emerald Isles or somewhere a bit more…frontier like Highrock.”

Gwen growled at Elian, placing him down. She looked at the prize boxes like they were the next best thing to assuage Mel’s anger. “Take Heath’s, Mel.”

Elian smoothed his lapels.

Mel looked at them, then at Gwen. “No. They’re yours.”

“Take mine?”

“You won them,” she insisted. “I’m not taking your prize.”

“…Charlie, please help me,” Gwen begged.

“Are you still calling me Miss Perfect?” Charlie asked calmly.

“…N-nooo?”

Heath was slowly coming around. “Did I win the pudding cup, Nana?” His head dropped back, and he was out like a light.

“He’ll recover, eventually,” Charlie said with a shrug. “This dude’s vigor must be very, very low.”

“Don’t you help her!” Mel said. “This is Gwen’s mess.” She started walking back to the carriage. “She’ll figure it out.”

Elian was forced to choose between the rest of the Magi or their leader. He followed Mel, leaving the others to catch up.

The carriage ride to the next few shops was silent as the grave. Mel folded her arms and pouted like a child denied a third cookie.

Truthfully, she wasn’t really that mad. She probably gained more from killing the sageworms than she would have at the Gauntlet.

It was the principle of the matter.

That and she had really been interested in the Gauntlet. It sounded like a fun challenge. Nothing could compare to elevating her scrap ritual from G- to F-Tier though. That was too good to pass up. Not to mention gaining access to Virgil’s scroll restoration services.

Mel could only guess that Virgil usually charged a heinous price, considering he was willing to pay the equivalent of 1,800 [Iron Rune Coins] for clearing out the sageworms.

Gwen opened her prize box. A bunch of confetti sprayed out, splattering the inside of the carriage and coating everybody in multicolored glitter.

Heath screamed himself awake.

The werewolf sighed heavily in resignation while the rest of the team glared at her. She took out a glossy lime green [Profession Tool Voucher], a [Vulkan Work Order], and a couple of [Lesser Elixirs].

Gwen looked at the [Vulkan Work Order] closely. “I can take this to the Vulkan Consortium to enhance a piece of equipment. Does that mean improved rank or something else?”

Mel snuck a peek at the item.

[Vulkan Work Order]

(Iron Rank, Item)

(Rare)

A work order that can be redeemed with the Vulkan Consortium in exchange for equipment enhancement. Provide this slip of paper to a Vulkan Consortium Kiosk alongside a piece of equipment to further enhance it.

Elian leaned over. “Huh. I think you get to choose. Those are pretty rare. The Vulkan Consortium are the best crafters and artisans across the multiverse. For most people, it’s a dream to work for them. A dream few people ever achieve. You need to have flawless talent to even attract their eye, much less get offered an interview.”

“So what you’re saying,” Mel said, inching forward in her seat. “Is that the Vulkan Consortium are a bunch of crafting turbo nerds.”

“I…am not familiar with the distinction,” Elian said. “However, you can’t go wrong getting an item from them. All the things you see in the shops here? Not a single one sells anything by the VC. Even the Syndicate doesn’t sell their wares.”

“Maybe they can fix up my [Blindbeast Claws],” Gwen said thoughtfully, watching the city go by through the carriage window. “They were wrecked when I transformed with rage break.”

“If they can’t fix it, nobody can,” Elian assured her. “Do you want me to go to the Consortium’s forge now?”

“No. When all of us have a work order, I hope.”

Mel looked at her. “And how are we going to get one when the fucking Gauntlet is destroyed?”

“I’m going to go back to the Gauntlet later.” Gwen folded her arms, no longer intimidated, though she did wince. “See if I can encourage them with the promise of more Champions. Or just help them fix all the traps I trashed.”

“I’ll go too,” Thomas said.

Mel looked over at Heath. “I know you’re awake, Heath.”

Heath snorted and started to snore.

“I’m going to jam a random item from my inventory into your mouth if you don’t get up right this moment.”

Heath opened one eye, then the other. “I don’t want to go back there! It’s a bad place, Mel!”

Mel continued to stare.

“Fine! I’ll go too. The traps are probably filled with my blood and bone shards, anyway. What’s another pound of flesh.”

“What’s your vigor at, dude?” Charlie asked, dark brows pinched together. “Did it go up from that beating?”

He nodded sheepishly. “It’s Grade Four now.”

“Dammit, that’s still garbage, Heath!” Mel said. “You gotta pump those numbers up! Those are rookie numbers.”

“Well, I guess going to the gauntlet will help with that,” Heath said in resignation.

“I’m sorry, Heath. Didn’t know you were made of glass,” Gwen said, actually sounding sincere. “You said you were feeling left out and, well, you offered to be the battering ram…”

At Mel’s request, Elian directed the carriage to some shops that offered Iron rank and above crafting equipment and supplies.

Everyone’s armor was still lacking. The couple of Iron rank drops from the sageworms helped things, but not enough. Truthfully, this wasn’t as much of a problem with a healer in their party. Unfortunately, it was a problem for Charlie. The fight with the Irons had trashed her equipment. Most of it needed to be replaced.

Iron rank items were expensive, so it would be impossible to buy a full set for everybody. And with everything else they purchased, and still needed to, it would be nearly impossible for even a single person to have a full set of Iron armor.

The plan was to buy items with their limited funds that weren’t easily found in the field and were necessary to jumpstart their professions. During the entire first trial, Gwen hadn’t been able to find a cook pot, frypan, or any cooking utensil with enhancing imprints.

When they piled into a crafting tool shop, Charlie quietly suggested to Mel and Gwen to pick extra cheap tools that they didn’t intend to use but had useful imprints for their profession.

“Pay close attention to the wording,” she said, standing between them. “Lower rarity won’t have much. Those items aren’t powerful enough to hold complex imprints. It’s best for one imprint line, anyway.” She looked around, though it was difficult to see past the wall that was Gwen. “Obviously pick the highest rarity for the tool you’ll be using.”

Gwen stared at the Necromancer in confusion. “Wait, what?”

“Just trust me, please.”

Gwen looked quickly between Mel and Charlie. “Well, okay…” She wandered off into the shop.

Heath followed after her eagerly.

Sometimes, they seemed like a pair of kids together. Part of that was because of how young Heath was, and the other part was that Gwen was an enthusiastic individual who was generally happy to be on an adventure much like Heath.

Mel found it a little funny that the comradery seemed to threaten Thomas.

“I’m going to use the alchemy station we nabbed earlier,” Mel said.

“Are the rarity and imprints good enough?” Charlie asked. “I didn’t get a good look at it.”

Truthfully, the rarity wasn’t. The imprints didn’t seem too bad, but it wasn’t like she was too familiar with what enhancements crafting needed.

Mel had plans for it, but she couldn’t explain that here. No doubt for the same reason why Charlie couldn’t.