Last Words chapter 67 (Patreon)

It took about four hours to get a response back from the brownies. Ron had long since returned by then, and once they were back, we compiled the data they’d retrieved, narrowing down our map substantially. “So we’re looking at this building,” I pointed out a specific spot on the map. “For the shard. The tennies are here, the big monster is here, and the brownies saw a few knights in black armor we THINK are working for the Lord here,” I indicated each spot in succession. 

“And this area,” Connie said, pointing to a large circle. “Is where the bone creature you asked me to find is waiting. Considering where the shard is and the fact that it’s probably standing guard, we can assume it’s here,” she pointed at a spot where the circles overlapped.

“Well, that’s all the info we’re likely to get soon,” I frowned as I studied the map. “And it’s enough. We should head out if we want to meet your brother at the entrance of the tunnel. Or what will be the entrance. Ron, you ready to roll?” My friend and lieutenant hefted the assault rifle on the strap on his back with a nod. “Alright, then off we go.”

We headed over to the door, and I held out a hand, getting the key from Ron and unlocking the thick metal barrier. Pulling it open, I stepped into the tunnel for the first time.

It felt…cold. Not physically, but spiritually cold. I frowned. When I’d gone down to the fellbarrows personally through the tree entrance I hadn’t gotten this same feeling. This was different. Deeper. Whatever was on the other side of this tunnel wasn’t natural.

Connie frowned as she stepped in past me. “Wow, that is DEEPLY unpleasant.”

“What is?” Ron asked as he finished checking the tunnel for threats via his rifle flashlight. “Something happen?”

“Yeah, I stepped into this creepy ass tunnel,” she said bluntly. “I feel like there are spiders all over me.” She turned to look at me with a frown. “Wait, is this a me thing? Maybe some kind of side effect of my word or divination skill?”

I shook my head. “Not the skill, I’m getting it too. Chances are good it has something to do with us being speakers.”

Despite knowing the reason behind the sensation, I felt it get heavier the further we progressed. Every step down the tunnel was a step closer to my doom, and I squeezed the grip of my pistol tightly as we walked, careful to keep my finger off the trigger, even if I made sure it was close enough to reach in a crisis.

We walked for what felt like an hour moving down, down, down, until finally, we stopped. I consulted the map of the tunnel. “I think this is it,” I said hesitantly.

Ron took the map, reading over it before shrugging. “Hard to judge distance down here, but we should at least be close. So, how are you going to do this?” He glanced up at the roof of the tunnel. “No offense, but I’m not super comfortable with this whole idea. It seems dangerous.”

“It shouldn’t be,” I assured him. “If we were expanding out, I’d agree, but we’re going to be tunnelling up. If any of the dirt comes loose, it’ll be the stuff above the section I removed, and I was going to get rid of that anyway. But just to be safe, we go slow. Start out take just a bit at a time. Watch my back.”

Stepping up to the wall, I reached up and put a hand on the ceiling. Focusing on the dirt, I triggered my sell skill, specifically the dirt in a three foot circle, and six inches up into the earth. I figured six inches should be enough to see what we were working with, but not enough to dislodge too big of a load of dirt in case it went wrong.

Sure enough, a few inches of dirt in a three foot circle vanished off the ceiling, revealing…more dirt. I studied the edges of the hole, running my fingers along the rim. It was surprisingly smooth. I poked at it a bit, just to be sure, but when nothing happened, I let out a relieved breath. “Looks like using precise measurements, combined with the pressure down here, has the dirt pretty firm. I’m going to continue.”

Everyone nodded, stepping back but keeping an eye out. I sold another six inches. When nothing else happened, I sold another foot. Then a third. Reaching down, I triggered my purchase skill, buying a wooden board. Pressing it against the wall, I bought a driver, then a lag for each side. Remembering Paul’s lessons, I got foot long lag bolts and drove them in at an angle to ensure good purchase. Once the first one was done, I did a second, then a third. I put them about six inches apart, ascending slowly and building myself a stable ladder.

When I got high enough to step onto the first rung, I was careful, putting a slight pressure and then increasing the weight until I was standing on it. It held, seemingly pretty firm. And so, I started to climb.

Foot after foot of dirt, board after board, I couldn’t begin to say how long I’d been working. The dirt was decent quality, and there was a lot of it, so I made a bit of cash, but the cost of the bolts and the wood, I wasn’t actually turning a profit. Beyond that, once I got about ten feet up, I realized how unsafe this whole thing was. Reinforcing the walls would be the work of weeks, even with my powers, but if I fell that wouldn’t matter. I bought myself a climbing harness and a carabiner, using the same lag bolts as I was for the wood to attach myself to the shaft well every ten feet or so.

Finally, after about two hours of brutal, terrifying, spinetingling work, I sold off ten feet of dirt…and saw light. I drove in the last few boards, poking my head out of the shaft carefully, and noticed that I was surrounded. 

Luckily the men surrounding me were red feather knights. I looked around with interest. “Well, this isn’t where I parked my car.”

Rolling his eyes, Alistair extended a hand, which I grabbed, and hauled me the rest of the way up and out. “We thought you might have gotten lost,” he admitted, peering down the shaft with interest. “That’s…fascinating. How long did that take you?”

“Not long enough for me to be comfortable calling it safe,” I said dryly. “I plan to build out a tube of stones and mortar, preferably with spiral stairs. But that’s for another time. For now we need to get going.” I unhooked my harness, passing it to him along with the cable connecting to topmost carabiner. “There are connection points about every ten feet.”

He pushed it away. “Appreciate the forethought, but you might be overthinking this. You have climbing gear, do you have any REPELLING gear?”

I blinked, then glanced at the large trees nearby. “Huh,” I said slowly. “That…might work.”

As it happened, I did have some repelling gear. I bought a long static climbing rope, we drove two of the lags into the tree and then wrapped it through for stability, and then one by one, they descended the shaft I’d made. The wood ladder on the wall did end up being helpful for providing footing. Once most of them had gone Alistair gestured for me to go.

“Not yes,” I told him. “I’ve got to clean this up. Don’t worry too much, I’m right behind you, just tell me when you’re all the way down.”

He agreed, then descended, calling up when he reached the bottom. I sold off the lags in the tree, the ropes I’d bought for repelling, and then redonned the harness that was still connected to the carabiner below. Climbing down partway into the hole, I looked around mentally measuring. I sold off about an inch of dirt in a ring around the top, then bought a wide wicker lid like you would find on a laundry hamper. Checking that it fit into the ring snugly, I set it partway into the divot, then focused on the space above as I lowered it down.

Once I was a step or two down I let it thump into place, enjoying the satisfying feeling of weight from the inch or so of dirt and grass I’d bought to sit on top of it. I reached up. Shuffling it around a bit to make sure the cover would hold, and then I bought a bit more soil to fill the cracks, coughing as it rained down through the edges before finally sealing it all up.

Resuming my climb down, I reached the bottom a lot faster than I had the top. “Alright,” I said as I brushed myself off, trying to get rid of the dirt coating me. “I sealed up the shaft. It’s not perfect but unless someone steps on it, which is unlikely, or is crawling around on the forest floor, they’re not likely to notice it.”

I checked my financial resources. 293,000. The dirt had been worth more than the tools, especially with some of them being resold. It wasn’t that it was overly valuable, but that I’d sold so fucking much of it. It had been exhausting to do though, and had netted me almost no experience in my sell skill. As potentially lucrative as selling like that could be, dirt was not the cash cow that would solidify my future.

Turning to the others, I held up a hand. “Give me a minute,” I asked. “That took a lot out of me.”

I’d never felt much limit to my speaker powers before. My mana was limited, and it said so on my stat sheet, but my speaker powers had always seemed more like blatant reality manipulation. It seemed they DID take a toll though, even if a relatively minor one, and prolonged use could really wipe me out.

But that wasn’t bad either. Knowing my limits would teach me how to push them, and how not to go past them. Hell, I might even be able to figure out how to train whatever this energy was, and wouldn’t that be useful?

After a few minutes of rest though, the fatigue receded and I was fighting fit. Drawing my gun, I nodded to the others. “Alright, sorry. I’m good to go.”

Alistair shook his head. “It’s fine,” he said with a wry smile. “I’m not surprised you had a bit of backlash after so much work. No power is free, even if ours is a little cheaper than most. You sure you’re good?”

I wanted to ask him about that, but it didn’t seem like the time. I just nodded, and together, our group continued down the tunnel, headed for the underground city in the cavern.

Down, down, down we went. The angle of the tunnel wasn’t TOO steep, but the tunnel itself was long and based on my observation, curved to lengthen the journey slightly, though the curve was gentle enough that it was hard to notice while we walked.

Finally, we arrived at a door. Set into a stone wall, the door was the same heavy metal design as the one ot the other end. Sure enough, fishing out my key I was able to open it easily, letting the others into the building beyond.

Ron walked over to a table where a series of drones sat, checking on them just to be safe. Once I got his nod, I looked around at the others. “Everybody settle in, we’re going to do some short range recon. Once I’ve updated the maps, Connie can do another scrying session to confirm our information and then we move out.” No one had any problems with that, they all scattered to examine the basement. As for me? I got to work. There was information to gather.