[Shrubley, the Monster Adventurer] Chapter 118 – The Flower of Friendship III

“This is not for me,” Miranda told them. “This is, as Shrubley said, between Slyrox and Smudge. I will, of course, find one of my own. But this is all brawn, no brains. That is not my style. If you’ll grant me the use of your compass, Shrubley, I would be grateful.”

The little shrub nodded fiercely. “Of course, Countess!” He turned a slow circle, gripping the small circular stone. “I would love it if each of you were able to attune to a Guidance Stone! It feels wonderful, and who would not wish to see their friends prosper?”

The monster adventurers let out cheers.

Konko had never wanted to gain much strength. She always wanted to be an Alchemist and while away her time working on new potions and concoctions.

The life of an adventurer was just to pay the bills and afford her tuition. But suddenly she could see a world where she could find essences of her very own. Where she could even do what the legendary heroes of old had done, attuning to the Shard itself through the Guidance Stones.

Even if she only wanted to be an Alchemist, how much more effective would she be if she had 4 essences instead of 3? If she was… dare she dream, Silver, with all the life-lengthening powers of the Noble Stage at her fingertips?

Dreams of being a Master Alchemist flitted through her head. Dreams she hadn’t dared to allow in for fear that they were impossible.

Konko struggled to temper her desires and retain her pessimistic outlook. And yet the possibility, even the tiniest chance, of one day finding a Guidance Stone was more than enough for the young girl to look forward to the future.

“Do you suppose each of them could touch the Guidance Stone, and see what is being offered before it is decided who takes it?” Cal asked.

“One of them might not be able to resist and instead attune it on the spot,” Sose said.

“I do not think they would,” Shrubley said. “However, I believe we have already reached a decision.” He looked meaningfully at Smudge and Slyrox, who were muttering to each other off to the side.

Slyrox was trying her best to make a boulder, parchment, shears game with mittens, while Smudge kept creating new hands to overwhelm the poor koblin.

Despite herself, Miranda covered a laugh behind her hand.

“Smudge!” Slyrox scolded.

The pink jelly turned a shade darker pink. “You take,” he said. “Smudge pacifist.”

“He’s a pacifist?” Konko whispered. “Oh, gods.”

Slyrox stared. “Are you sure? Also, Slyrox not think Smudge understand meaning of word.”

“Smudge [Dumb], but Smudge sure.”

Slyrox hugged him until he changed shape to fill all the nooks and crannies of her suit of leather armor, including her strange mask.

“If he was made of anything but slime,” Cal began. “I think that what I would be looking at would be utterly horrifying.”

“What do you mean?” Sose asked.

“Like… flesh soup, I suppose?”

“Please don’t ever say something so cursed again.”

“Right, right, sorry.”

Unaware of that conversation, Slyrox turned to the rest of the group. “We have decided.”

Shrubley beamed at them. He looked on proudly as Slyrox, bent nearly double as if she were walking in a squall, slowly made her way toward the Guidance Stone.

The Countess moved to help her, but Shrubley put out a hand to stop her. “This is her battle,” he told her. “She must do it alone.”

Sometimes I wonder if the questbook wasn’t meant for him, Miranda thought to herself. She folded her arms instead and watched as Slyrox made her way toward the Guidance Stone of Dominion by inches.

When the little koblin finally made it there, her bandy legs shaking with the effort, she reached out a mittened hand and pressed it to the scrawled surface.

There was a flash of sheet lightning and all the symbols on the Guidance Stone began to crawl and shiver, rolling across the face of the stone, drawing into Slyrox’s mittened hand.

Slyrox gasped as the Shardscript flitted across her vision.

You have attuned to the Guidance Stone of Dominion.

The following Unique Classes are available to you:

[Monk] / [Chakra Essence]

[Fistgineer] / [Burst Essence]

[Champion] / [Comet Essence]

Slyrox smiled to herself. Today was an excellent day.

Give more info please? Muchly thankings in advance.

Despite being as kind in her thoughts as she could manage, there were no further descriptions given. Each class also further complicated the issue by having very different essences.

There was only so much insight the koblin could glean from a name and an essence. She had a good feeling about Comet essence. Becoming a Champion sounded appealing.

Moreover, she had been obsessed with Comet essence ever since Mistress Ceasewane (RIP, muchly love) mentioned it as a rare legendary type of essence.

Slyrox knows what is in Slyrox’s heart, she thought to herself as she selected Champion. It had a nice ring to it.

The koblin glowed with the force of the sun, blinding all of those there. There was a moment or two when Shrubley was sure that Slyrox was simply gone, as if she was remade somehow.

He wondered if that was what Mistress Ceasewane had seen when he attuned to the Guidance Stone of Vitality.

When the blinding display of light was over, the obelisk was gone. All that remained was a faint outline on the ground that Shrubley figured would vanish from the area completely in just a few short days.

Nobody but them would ever know that there had once been one of the most powerful artifacts of the Shard here.

It made Shrubley wonder how many times he had walked past a previous sight of a Guidance Stone and never realized it.

Waddling over to his friend, Shrubley helped Slyrox off her knees.

“Many thankings for hand-lending,” Slyrox said weakly. Her legs quivered. “Slyrox needs… lie down.” She toppled over, but not before Shrubley caught her.

“The process will no doubt be harder on her,” Cal said.

“I think she managed to advance at the same time,” Shrubley said. He could feel the scant power of Copper coursing within the koblin.

“Pyuu!” Smudge said enthusiastically. “Slyrox is amazing.”

Konko stared dumbfounded at what she had just borne witness to. Even Konko, who was as far away from Copper as you could probably get without being an infant, could feel the change from the koblin.

Slyrox could likely give Konko one half-hearted punch and she would be rendered unconscious instantly.

“We should rest here a little,” Cal said. “Let Slyrox wake up and get some of her strength back.”

Miranda shook her head. “I’ll carry her up. We’ll take too long if we wait for her and there’s no telling when she might actually wake up. No. We need to get a move on. We’ve already spent too much time.”

Shrubley could tell there was a slight edge to the Countess’ voice. He could feel, if not understand, that she was regretting–even just a little–that she had not taken the Dominion attunement for herself.

This may be the last time she ever saw one. Most people went their whole lives without ever seeing a Guidance Stone, much less being close enough to touch it and resisting the temptation.

Shrubley thought a great deal more of the Countess from then on. She had the opportunity to take what she wanted, and none of them could have stopped her.

Few of them would have even tried. She had given them all so much. But it would have been wrong, and even the Countess, who professed to care little for morality, had understood that.

“We will find a Guidance Stone for each of us,” Shrubley said, then looked directly up into her eyes. Despite being naïve in many ways, he did not take promises lightly. “I promise you, Miranda.”

For the second time in her life–and to the same stupid shrub, no less!–Miranda could not hold his gaze and averted her eyes first. “Yeah… well, we’ll see about that,” she muttered.

Miranda reached out to take Slyrox, slinging her over one broad shoulder. They returned to the rope dangling into the ravine and scaled it back up to the top with little effort.

The Countess went hand-over-hand with such ease that even Shrubley was a little envious of her vast stores of strength. He was on the small side, even after reaching Bronze. He was not sure he could ever match that power, even if he was on her level.

Little did he know a great deal of that strength had returned because the sun was no longer shining directly on Miranda due to being inside the sheltering ravine. When she reached the top she pulled herself up, took several long steps away from the rope, and summoned her Steel aura to combat the sun’s rays.

Without it, she wasn’t sure she could make the 50-foot leap across the gap. But with it, even carrying the surprisingly heavy koblin, Miranda made the jump with no issue whatsoever.

Setting the unconscious koblin down, she returned for each of them, dismissing her aura until she had a grip on them to limit its effects on the lower ranked monsters. Cal, in particular, was the most fearful and affected.

Once they were all on the other side, Miranda took a moment to catch her breath. It wasn’t that the jump was hard, but the sun sapped her strength significantly. Any use of her aura depleted far more than it should, and it took her considerably longer to recover.

Though immortal, without the need to push to the higher Ranks, being a vampyr had considerable downsides.

“You shouldn’t push yourself so hard,” Sose muttered to her.

“I am fine, Sose,” she told him. “Besides, how else would they have gotten across? I don’t think it’s a good idea to ask Shrubley to do it. You saw how he looked when he went up to the edge.”

The disreputable oppa nodded. “Just… take care of yourself.”

“I always do.”

Konko took out her potion bottle from the depths of her jacket and held it up. The swirling motes were moving in a different direction this time, farther into the mountains now.

They followed Konko’s directions, taking breaks when they needed them, and checking on Slyrox, who had yet to wake up all day. By the time the sun started to dip into the peaks ahead of them, making seeing difficult because of the blinding golden rays, they were changing directions every few minutes.

“Is the Dungeon moving?” Cal asked, watching the motes in the potion.

“It must have, or… maybe still is?” Konko said with a shrug.

“How curious,” Shrubley said. “Does it displace local stone and matter when it moves? Or does it tunnel as it rearranges its rooms?”

“It may not be a Dungeon,” the Countess said, adjusting the small rope she used to strap Slyrox to her back like a miniature backpack. “As I mentioned before, the potion detects mana currents and changes in those currents. Anything sufficiently powerful could be causing it. We might be on the trail of an Iron or higher monster.”

Cal stopped. “A what?”

“It is possible,” Miranda told him. “Or I fouled it up by using my Steel aura too close to it, spoiling the calibration. If we don’t find anything useful by tomorrow night, we’ll need to remake it.”

Konko looked at the potion, watching the swirling glittering motes abruptly shoot off to the right.

“It’s here,” Shrubley said suddenly, before Konko could even say something. “Dungeonley!” Shrubley called, cupping his hands to the sides of his mouth and shouting. “Here boy!”

There was a distant WOOF, that sounded like the mountains themselves had barked, followed by a quaking so bad that the ground felt like it was turning to jelly. Shrubley and Miranda were the only two who managed to keep upright.

“My bones!” Cal cried, having fallen into pieces that were tossed up and down in the air.

Before their eyes rose a massive 2-story tall carving of a skull with its mouth stretched wide open for an entrance. Ruby light glittered in the empty sockets of its skull.

Cal’s skull screamed hoarsely. “The Rattle Rousers are back for their revenge! You can’t take my bones! Nooooo! Milkin’ John is after muh boooones!”