Chapter 318 - Broken Hearted Dragon

“What did it drop?” Reivyn asked, tearing his attention away from the disappeared spark.

Teilon bent over and pulled something out of the chest, holding it up for the other to see. Reivyn looked at what was retrieved, a broken, yellow gem about the size of his two fists held together. It was cut in half with a jagged edge, like it was torn instead of cut. It was dim, and Reivyn didn’t perceive any Mana in the item with any of his Skills or Perception.

He tossed an Identification at it.

[Broken Heart of the Dragon]

Illuminating… Reivyn stared at the gem with a deadpan expression. Well that sure tells me a whole lot about what this thing is.

“Was that it?” Reivyn asked. “Just some broken trinket?”

Teilon glanced around at the others, noting the disappointed look in each of their eyes. His shoulders slumped, and he shook his head.

“No,” he answered.

That was all he said. He just stood there with his head hanging down while the others stared at him.

“No. What?” Reivyn asked with a clipped tongue, rolling his eyes.

“No, that wasn’t all that there was,” Teilon answered.

Everyone continued to stare for another couple of seconds before everyone started jeering at Teilon. Even Kefira went so far as to pelt him with some pebbles she picked up from the ground.

Teilon laughed as he tossed the broken gem to Reivyn. Reivyn snagged it out of the air, one-handed. His Dexterity was way too high to fumble such a toss, which is why Teilon didn’t have any concern treating the “treasure” in such a way. Teilon bent back down and lifted another item out of the chest, the chest disappearing after it was removed.

He held the other item aloft for everyone to see. He held in his hands a bone-white staff, about the same height as Reivyn. Intricate runes were carved delicately on the surface of the staff. If Reivyn didn’t have Divine Sense, he wouldn’t have been able to make them out. Three black feathers were attached to a short tassel on the end of the top of the staff. Their colors shifted across the spectrum as Reivyn viewed them from different angles.

He Identified the staff.

[Bone Staff of Dragon Empowerment]
[+30 Mental Stats]
[Miniscule Dragon Essence]
[Channel a Spell’s Mana through the Staff for 60 seconds to imbue the Spell with Miniscule Dragon Essence]

Everyone “ooh’d” as Reivyn read of the properties of the staff.

“This should go to Kefira,” Reivyn said. He could use it himself, but he was more of a hybrid fighter, even in a weakened state. It made more sense to give the weapon to a pure Caster.

“I agree,” Refix added.

“I got no problem with that,” Teilon said.

The others just nodded their heads, Serilla obviously agreeing with the sentiment. Kefira didn’t act modestly and accepted the new weapon. She had her arming sword attached to her hip, but other than that, she didn’t really even have a weapon or anything to channel her Spells through until now.

“It’s beautiful,” Kefira remarked, sliding her hand over the staff. “Oh, there are imprints on the shaft.” She looked up at Reivyn. “Can you tell what they are?”

Reivyn shook his head.

“They’re some sort of Runes. I have the Skill for it, and Deciphering, but they’re both still Level 1. I’ve never really had a chance to improve them up until now.”

“Well, you can study it while I practice my Spell Casting through it,” Kefira said. “Maybe observing what it does to the Mana will help you with those Skills.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” Reivyn smiled.

“Alright, if you two are done planning your date, I think it’s about time we get out of here,” Refix said, a sly smile pulling at the corner of his lips. Kefira blushed a little, but Reivyn just turned to his father and nodded.

“Yeah, nothing more to see here,” he said. “They were pretty clear that this was a 3 boss Dungeon. With the presence of a Dragon skeleton, and the fact it’s in a Tier 4 Dungeon and not Tier 5 or higher, I doubt there’s a secret room with a sleeping juvenile Dragon hiding the Hard Mode, or whatever. The Hard Mode is probably letting the Shamans complete their ritual.”

“That’s my guess, too,” Refix nodded his head. He clapped his son on the shoulder. “We’ll make a professional Dungeon Delver out of you, yet, boy.”

“Uh, huh,” Reivyn rolled his eyes. He was going to get dizzy with all the eye rolling he was doing in this room. “Let’s just get out of here.”

The Party quickly made their way back to the entrance of the Dungeon. There were no hidden rooms or surprise enemy patrols they had somehow missed. It was just a straight shot to the entrance, and it only took them about ten minutes to get there with their movement speed.

They stepped out of the Dungeon Portal into the torch light of the cavern. Soldiers were milling about and lining up for their turns to enter the Dungeons for training and Experience.The lieutenant of the guards standing by a shack built near the two Portals spotted them and jogged over with a grin on his face.

“That was quick,” he said. “Let me guess…” The man tapped his finger on his lips as he appraised the Party members. His gaze lingered on Refix for a bit longer than the others before he snapped his fingers. “I bet you beat the second boss, but turned back after noticing the improved version of the Aura Skill from the final boss.”

Reivyn shared a surprised look with the others. The lieutenant misinterpreted the look as he chuckled.

“Don’t feel too bad,” he said. “Most people have to bow out before beating the second boss on their first delve. You all should be proud to have gotten all the way to the end.

“It’s a bit of a tradition to let each Party experience the Dungeon in all its glory for their first run through. Don’t worry, though, we have Aura Suppressors crafted by an Imperial Elder to bypass the Aura ability allowing us to defeat all the bosses in the Dungeon.”

Reivyn turned his attention back to the lieutenant.

“Ugh, no, you misunderstand,” Reivyn said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. “We cleared the whole Dungeon.”

The lieutenant stared at Reivyn for several seconds before laughing.

“I’m sorry, I think I misheard you. It sounded like you said you cleared the whole Dungeon.” The man continued to laugh like it was a hilarious joke. The Party members just stood around, shifting their feet uncomfortably. The lieutenant finally noticed them just looking at him, not saying anything, and his laughter slowly faded away.

“Wait, you guys really cleared the whole Dungeon?” He asked, shock written on his face. “Do you have your own Suppressor artifact or something? A Skill, maybe?”

Reivyn shook his head.

“No, we just fought normally,” he replied.

“How did you bypass the Aura?!”

“We didn’t. We just fought normally. Once you engage the Brood Master, you have about ten minutes before the Shamans complete their ritual, but the Brood Master will perform a Breath Attack at about eight minutes, extinguishing his Aura and exhausting him. He collapsed after that, and we were able to kill him pretty quickly.”

The lieutenant just stared at the Party, slack-jawed for several seconds.

“You guys cleared the whole Dungeon,” he whispered, more to himself than to the Party members. “Wow… That’s… impressive.

“Huh, I guess you guys don’t need the Aura Suppressor, after all.”

“Yup. Well, I’m glad it’s there, though,” Reivyn said. “I’m not sure my mercenaries would be able to clear the Dungeon without it.”

“Oh, yeah, we’ve had several groups from your Mercenary Corps run the Dungeon already. There was one group that managed to beat the Warchief without the Suppressor, but they turned back at the usual spot, unable to beat the Kobold Champions in the final Boss room.”

Reivyn’s eyes lit up at the information.

“Really? Did you record their names?”

“Sure. Give me a second,” the lieutenant turned and headed to the guards by the shack. After a quick word with one of the soldiers, the soldier handed over a large ledge book to the officer. He flipped through the pages, found what he was looking for, and turned back to Reivyn and his Party.

“For the sake of time, we don’t write everyone’s name down,” the lieutenant explained. “We only record the leader’s name, and you can find out who the rest of the group is with that information. It looks like this group was led by a Corporal Gulley.”

Reivyn noticed the reaction from Teilon as his friend jerked a little at the name, but he just smiled at the officer.

“Thank you, lieutenant,” he said.

“No problem, sir,” the lieutenant nodded. “I hope you know I’ll have to report this to the Commanding General…” The lieutenant trailed off, a worried look on his face.

“Of course,” Reivyn replied. “I wouldn’t interfere with your duties.”

The officer relaxed.

“Very good. Have a good day, sir.” The lieutenant offered a salute.

“You, too,” Reivyn returned the courtesy.

Reivyn turned and shared a look with Teilon as the lieutenant returned to his post. He raised an inquisitive eyebrow at his friend.

“We actually met Gulley and his friends before arriving at Willowan through the teleport circle,” Teilon answered. “In return for helping us find a place to stay while waiting for the teleport, we put in a good word for him with the recruiters.

“Nothing like opening the back door, or anything,” he hastily added. “Just a positive remark on their record to help them get a chance to get accepted on their own merits.”

“I see,” Reivyn took in the information. He didn’t really know what to think about that, but he wasn’t against his friend returning a favor if that’s all there was to it. “That’s fine.”

“I was also the proctor at his Dungeon Run after training,” Teilon revealed. “The group he arrived with had been broken up, except for one other person, and he had managed to secure the spot as squad leader for his squad. They did a good job, as far as I can recall.”

“Interesting.”

“Is this Gulley a man or a woman?” Kefira asked, a suspicious look on her face.

“Man,” Teilon answered. “Though he had a woman subordinate with him, the one that remained in his squad with him.”

Reivyn shared a look with Kefira. She just shrugged her shoulders.

“You think they’re suspicious?” Teilon asked. Reivyn and Kefira hesitated for a moment. “Well, so did I. I’ve had them watched this whole time. It was a little strange they approached me and asked for help getting into the Mercenary Corps, but all the reports say they’ve just been diligently training and acting as Mercenaries. All indicators point to them legitimately trying to gain Life Experience.”

“Huh, thanks,” Reivyn said. “It’s a good idea to know who I’m surrounded by, but at the same time, it would be a huge hit to morale if it got out that I was spying on my own people.”

“Yeah, plausible deniability, and all that, is why I never mentioned anything about them until now,” Teilon said. “But since he came to your attention, it was the right time to tell you.”

“Good job. Keep the surveillance on them until we end the deployment. If nothing happens through the whole campaign, we can pretty much verify they’re just regular people wanting to gain Life Experience through the Mercenary Corps.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Teilon said.

“I’m glad to see you have all of this in hand,” Refix said. “Teilon, I’m proud of your initiative and discretion with this matter.”

Teilon coughed into his hand, a bit of a blush creeping up his neck.

This guy… Reivyn had the urge to roll his eyes once again. He’ll make all kinds of inappropriate jokes and be irreverent, but a little bit of praise is all it takes to make him blush? I’ll remember this.

Reivyn silently filed that bit of information away for a rainy day.

“We’ll tackle the other Dungeon tomorrow,” Reivyn said, getting back on track. “We’ll take the rest of the day to relax.”

The others nodded. They were all headed in the same direction, so they didn’t separate right away, but once they were outside the cave, Teilon and Kimberly took off to be alone. Serilla followed after Reivyn and Kefira, and Refix headed off toward the training grounds.

Of course the way dad relaxes is to train, Reivyn mentally laughed with a smirk on his face. Kefira noticed and elbowed him in the side.

“What’s that look for?” She asked.

“Just my dad being my dad,” Reivyn replied.

Kefira and Serilla turned to watch Refix head to the training grounds. Kefira smiled and chuckled.

“Well, we’d have it no other way, would we?”

“Nope.”

The three returned to Reivyn’s room. Kefira and Serilla had their own room for decorum, but Kefira spent most of her time with Reivyn when he wasn’t on duty. She even mostly hung out in his room when he was.

“Do you mind if I examine the Runes on your staff?” Reivyn asked. “I feel like it would be a good idea to get a basic understanding of them before trying to decipher them while you’re channeling Mana through them.”

“Sure,” Kefira said, handing the staff over.

“Thanks.”

Reivyn sat cross-legged on his bed as he examined the staff with his Divine Sense. He could have examined it while Kefira held it in her hands, but he was also giving her and Serilla a moment to spend some time together. If he tried to look at the Runes while trying to hold a conversation, they would notice as he stared off into space. He didn’t want to be rude, so he just mentioned his intentions up front.

He only spent about ten minutes looking over the Runes. There weren’t any that exactly matched any of the Runes he had seen in Drallo, but he could feel his Skill tickling the back of his subconscious, noticing at least some similarities. He didn’t have any kind of formal education in Runes, so it would be incredibly difficult to figure anything out on his own, but he figured it was a good opportunity to at least Level his Decipher Skill.

He made a mental note to visit the library at the Magic Academy once the campaign was over.

True to his word, Reivyn spent the rest of the day relaxing with Kefira and Serilla. They didn’t even experiment with the staff right away. They had the Stats to have kept going with the other Dungeon right away, but despite his grueling training regimen, Reivyn was a big believer in mental relaxation.

It was healthy to let one’s mind relax as well as their body. Just because they could have pushed themselves harder, there was no need to. They were on their two days off from his duties. It wasn’t just time to take advantage of the Dungeons available to them. It was also their chance to fully unwind.

Even though Kefira didn’t have any official duties as a mercenary, she was still working on her Space Affinity and the maps of the Region in anticipation of the raid they were going to conduct soon. The anxiety of the looming mission was also a point of tension that relaxing and doing nothing would help alleviate.

They were all confident in their ability to succeed with the mission, but there were always jitters before the first real contact with an enemy. They would grow numb to the building anxiety as they engaged the enemy more often, but it was normal to be on edge at first.

After Kefira and Serilla left for the evening, though, Reivyn did return to an exercise he had been putting off for quite some time. He sat on his bed in the lotus position, and for the first time in ages, worked on converting more of his Stamina and Mana into Qi.