Advent of Eternity - Chapter 49 (Patreon)

“Do any of you know what this arch does?” Knell asked, pacing around it while keeping a healthy distance. “It’s clearly a portal of some kind, but I don’t know anything about portals inside dungeons.”

“I’ve seen it before,” Cyll said. “Some dungeons were connected to other ones. It’s not super common, but it’s not very rare either.”

“Is there a range limit?” Knell asked.

“Not that I know of. I kind of just went through them. A lot of cities used them for transportation and bringing in supplies when they couldn’t afford to bring the Portal Guild in,” Cyll said. “Are those blokes still around?”

“They are,” Knell confirmed. “Mostly in major cities and obscenely expensive. They’re also on friendly terms with the gods, and traveling through their portals means putting yourself in their hands. A terrible idea for us.”

“Ah. Didn’t think about that,” Cyll muttered. “So, we going through this?”

“Do the portals work both ways?” Knell asked. “And what about any sort of cooldown? Can we go back through it instantly?”

“Yes and yes,” Cyll said. “Unless something has changed since I last used one. I don’t know about that bit.”

Knell pursed his lips. On one hand, there was really no reason to press onward. The bandits were almost certainly gone if they had a transport like this. There might even be an ambush waiting for them on the other side. As far as getting stronger went, there were probably hundreds of other opportunities that would work better than hunting a bunch of murderers.

At the same time – the villagers. Knell’s brows tightened. “Do you think you can quickly enter the portal and then come back over to us?”

“Sure,” Cyll replied. “What if I don’t come back out?”

“Make sure you do. You should be able to just hop in and out, right? You said there was no cooldown.”

“Right. Don’t get caught,” Cyll grumbled to himself. “Oh, what if they follow me back?”

“That would be perfect,” Knell replied. “We’ll be waiting. Just make sure to yell really loud and duck when you return.”

“Noted,” Cyll said. He approached the portal and plunged into it without an ounce of hesitation. There was a zap and a sputtering hiss, and he was gone. Stix kept her daggers raised, lowering her stance in preparation to jump.

Cyll burst back out of the portal a moment later. “All good.”

“Where did it lead?” Knell asked.

“I think it was a town,” Cyll replied. “An active one. There was a sign that I didn’t get a chance to read, and it looked like the portal led into a large storeroom of some sort. Maybe they just clear the dungeon out constantly and use this as a waypoint?”

“Interesting,” Knell said. “I wonder if it was an entire town of bandits. That doesn’t seem very likely.”

“I’d think they’d just pass through it, right? Maybe it’s a town with laxer laws that is more willing to allow bandits to use it,” Stix said.

“So? Are we going?” Cyll asked, rubbing his hands together. “I bet they’ve got food. And things to kill. My two favorite things, and they aren’t even mutually exclusive.”

“What do you think, Stix?” Knell asked.

“Me? Why?”

“You’re part of the crew,” Knell replied. “And I genuinely don’t know if this is the right path. I’d like to follow the bandits to figure out where they’ve gone and what happened to the villagers, and I don’t believe they pose us a significant threat considering their level and abilities, but it’s still a risk we don’t need to take.”

Stix chewed her lower lip. “I think I’d like to try to save people, if that was a possibility.”

“Then we’ll go,” Knell said. “And scout the area out at least. Cyll, were there alternative entrances to the room?”

“I wasn’t in there too long.” Cyll shrugged. “In and out, just like you said. It looked like there was only a single way out, though.”

Knell grunted. “Let’s go, then. No point mulling over it any further. At the first sign of someone being hostile, we attack and retreat. I don’t want to get trapped in some strange area.”

The other two nodded, and the three of them stepped into the portal. Energy coursed over Knell’s skin as he touched the magic, tickling his body like he’d stepped into a pool of electricity.

As soon as the sensation started, it was over. His foot hit stone and Knell blinked, his surroundings completely different. They stood in a large stone room, just like Cyll had said. A sign at the edge of the room named it as Brickvale, and a cobbled path led up to a pair of double doors. Light streamed in from behind them, showing that they weren’t too far underground.

“That was weird,” Stix said, glancing back at the portal behind them. Knell nodded. The portal looked identical to the one they’d stepped through. The dull roar of chatter came from above them, as if they were just below a market square.

“Doesn’t seem like much of a dungeon,” Knell said. “But I suppose we should check the area out. You first, Cyll. There are definitely people here.”

“Logically,” Cyll replied, walking up the path to the doors. Knell and Stix kept to the shadows as the immortal man pushed the doors open, flooding the hall with light. “Huh.”

“What?” Knell asked, squinting.

“Lots of people. A few looking at me,” Cyll replied out of the corner of his mouth. “But nobody seems to care much.”

He headed out. Knell followed after him, his staff tapping against the stone. Cyll was right. There were a lot of people. His thought about a market square had almost been completely correct.

They stood in a large, open square surrounded by ramshackle houses made of stone and wood. People had all gathered in the center of the square, around a huge auctioneer’s stand in front of a long, stone house.

A man at the stand was belting out prices, and people from the crowd were bidding in a mad fervor.

“I wonder what they’re selling,” Cyll said. “They seem pretty excited to get it.”

Knell was less concerned with that than with how people reacted to the newcomers, but it didn’t look like anyone could care less. Some people at the outskirts of the crowd glanced in their direction but quickly returned their attention to the main attraction.