DD 203 Ch 18 (Patreon)

Chapter 18

After a fight with four assassins, I knew I wouldn't be getting any sleep. Instead, I invited Elysara out for some tea and set up a table right outside the raid exit. 

"You're just goading him now, aren't you?" She looked at me through half lidded eyes. She was enjoying this just as much as I was, or the ruby haired elf wouldn’t have gone along with me.

I smiled at the elven princess. "What's the fun in winning if you don't get to celebrate?" 

Beside the table were four grotesque trophies: the heads of the assassins, put on stakes. It was admittedly not my favorite ambiance for tea.

However, I wanted to see the prince's face when he saw that his assassins were dead. 

Elysara poured more tea into my cup.

Neldra was nearby, though the royal censor had a knack for not being seen when she didn't want to be. This was contrary to most of the time when she wanted to be seen and wanted the world to know that the princess was being guarded by the best. She thought Prince Albar would be stupid enough to make a move after seeing his assassins dead and Neldra not present. I disagreed. 

"Well, we're winning in multiple ways." Elysara did not seem perturbed by the fact that we were now stuck in a dungeon. Instead, the elven princess was taking it like an extended vacation. 

"And what's that?" I asked. 

"Right now," she poured more tea for herself, "SJS Financial is getting absolutely crippled.” Elysara smirked. “If the dungeon is disturbed, like we expect, that means all of their operations are currently not up and running. And all of our operations related to the dungeon will be able to get trade routes up and running using your ability.” She sipped at her tea to hide a mischievous smile. 

"After we get you back," I pointed out. Besides, I might just deal a lethal blow to them when I come back and claim the reward for the bet with the Prince.

"And after we get me back. And then we need to help Felin and her people." Elysara made a face. "After all of that. It's a lot for you to take on.”

“I thought you’d understand. I have the ability and I want to make a difference. Besides, how much do you think the United Guilds or the elven royal family will pay me to hunt down people of interest?" I flashed her a smile.

She put a hand against her chest. "How mercenary." 

"I prefer assassin," I quipped back, causing her to laugh. Elysara really was beautiful. She had regal poise along with the delicate elven beauty that she and Fayeth shared.

Our conversation was cut short as the other three raid groups began to exit. Machen stopped and stared at the heads before glancing back at me. "Are those what I think they are?" 

"Depends what you think they are," I replied smoothly. "If you think they're the heads of four assassins hired by Prince Albar, then you would be absolutely correct." Turning people against him was going to be easy.

"Slander!" The prince stormed out from between the other adventurers. "You have no proof." 

"Wow, you seem really defensive," I calmly sipped my tea. Everyone else amongst the exiting adventurers cast the prince a wary glance. It wasn't just me, but everyone could read just how sensitive the prince appeared to be to this new development. 

"Don't worry," I said to the prince. "Neldra is still around and happy to help. It would be an absolute shame if you had four hired level 50 adventurers here and instead of helping this entire group out of the situation, you used them in an attempt to kill other adventurers." 

That statement soured the expression even of several of the royal college students. The prince puffed up his chest and got himself back under control. "Baseless accusations. We have so many people who are the children of influential figures; those assassins could have been after anyone." 

"But they weren't," I shrugged calmly and sipped my tea. "Either way, we now know we are assassin free. And I hope it stays that way. Because we have the naga and the dwarves bookending us on either side. It's likely only a matter of days before they wander over and find this raid event. Just imagine the danger that would come down on us if they were to come into the raid while we were all busy fighting bosses."

"We need to organize better, and it would be best if we stopped fighting." I said, coming to a realization.

"Ken is right. It's a real risk that they'll attack us. In fact, I would say it goes beyond a risk. It's not a matter of if they attack, but when." Machen agreed with me.

Hiding was our best option for now. "We should move our encampment into the raid and hide it. The Naga are too strong for us based on Professor Gafar’s experience." I left out the fact that Professor Sai was back. She was going to hide herself for the time being. 

Frankly, if I were her, I would have already stabbed a sword in Professor Gafar's back. But it seems she's a woman of principles and morals that outweigh common sense. She and Helen would probably get along.

"We might be able to do that," Machen frowned, looking over at the rest of the Pendulum students. "There isn't exactly soft ground to drive our stakes for our tents, but that big first room could probably hold everyone's tents if we got real comfortable with our neighbors."

"We might not be able to fit the prince's tent," I chuckled. "Or perhaps he has a more modest one with him."

The prince rolled his eyes and walked further out of the raid. He headed back to the aforementioned tent, which was absolutely ginormous. It was nearly the size of a small house.

Once the classes were all mobilized around the same goal, we became incredibly productive. We moved our tents inside the raid to the large first room. Meanwhile, another group started hauling sand with wheelbarrows, buckets, and anything else they had in their CIDs. They dumped it over the entrance to the raid, attempting to disguise the area as another sand dune. The work was progressing well, but it presented a singular, very troublesome issue. As we finished creating the sand dune, someone would have to stay outside to complete it.

But that issue was resolved when a student from Trusk, and they demonstrated that they could summon sand elementals to finish the task. 

With everything completed, we barricaded ourselves inside the raid. The next task was to start grinding for gears and levels. One group would have to sit out every day, but we agreed to let them farm some of the trash that was normally skipped in pushing through the wings. This allowed us to continue to grow.

***

Crimson flashed through the dungeon until she found yet another safe zone of humanity. As soon as she appeared, the members of the UG practically fell to their knees at the sight of her.

The green vested men and women stared at her with hope and awe that made her skin itch.

"Crimson, where did you come from? Do you know the way back?" 

She put her hands on her hips and cocked them to the side. "Of course I do."

“Please we need to get back.” The manager begged.

She laid down a sheet of paper and began to map out the way back to earth for this safe zone, identifying a few potential risks. In the process of helping the UG remap the dungeon, she had found multiple safe zones for humanity and the elves.

She was helping them get reconnected so they could stay supplied and help each other through the disaster. It wasn't every day that supply lines were quite literally rearranged.

Ken’s Portal ability had essentially had its memory erased and doing this was also a great way for her to recover its use.

Crimson activated Eyes of Wisdom to check on Ken. A line drew from her deeper into the dungeon. He had the elven censors with him. It was unlikely he would run into any trouble for the moment.

As much as she hated to admit it, her time was likely better spent helping out the whole of humanity. Her Eyes of Wisdom were currently the best way that the UG had to quickly reconnect with the safe zones, the hundreds of them that contained adventurers not prepared for a long stay potentially deeper in the dungeon.

It didn’t hurt that this development also had helped her relationship with the elves. They stopped screaming every time she appeared in a flash of red lightning, many of them talking in their language as if she was some savior rather than their boogeyman. 

"All right," she said, sliding the piece of paper over to him. "Do you have any information about the surrounding safe zones?" 

The man shook his head. "Once we realized we had moved, we told all of the adventurers to stay put so that once a way is found, we can help everyone make their way back swiftly." 

He took the piece of paper that Crimson had drawn a crude map on and held it like it was a life raft amid the ocean. "Most of us just want out," he said, staring Crimson in the eye.

Technically she could open a portal and help him out, but that would take time to get the safe zone evacuated. They had a clear shot to the surface.

“Alright, then you have your way out. Good luck.” She nodded and activated Eyes of Wisdom to locate the nearest safe zone for humanity. She then continued down into the dungeon to reconnect everyone.

***

After the colleges had all sealed themselves inside the raid, people extinguished the campfire and started making dinner.

I glanced over at the people in the classrooms from the colleges. As Des came and leaned on my shoulder, she said, "You know, we're probably going to run out of food eventually." 

"I know," I replied. My own CID held several weeks' worth of food at any one time, and knowing we were coming down here for the raid, I had packed a month's worth of food.

I knew I wasn't alone. Even amongst our classroom, there were definitely a few hoarders whose CIDs were stuffed to the absolute brim.

"But I am hoping we have enough to get us through," I told Des. "I think it's time that I worked on my ability to see just how fast I could clear trash in this dungeon." 

A knife came out of my CID and I flipped it over my fingers. "Because we really need to start pulling out all the stops and level as quickly as possible." 

Fayeth came up to me and grabbed my hand. "No brooding, no planning. Let's celebrate the win of sealing up the raid. You can brood and plan later." 

"But that's like half his personality," Des chuckled, following me as Fayeth dragged me over. 

"And we love it so much," Fayeth added. "But Ken certainly has a penchant for brooding." 

I rolled my eyes and followed along. I did feel better knowing that we had managed to kill the assassins and were relatively safe. I knew that if given the opportunity, the prince would certainly want to finish the job.

But he had hired the high level adventurers for a reason. With Neldra here especially, he was highly outgunned.

I looked over to check on Neldra. She was sitting down by Fayeth's fire and I noticed a few beads of sweat on the side of her head. Smiling at Fayeth and Des, I excused myself and went to sit down next to the elven censer. 

"Neldra, is everything okay?" I asked. The woman frowned at me and I handed her a handkerchief in response. "I don't think I've ever seen you sweat before." 

"I sweat," Neldra said. "When I was in the training room with Ely, I sweated every day." She tried to play casual and declined my handkerchief as she wiped it away with her gauntlet. 

"Yeah, but that's when you're artificially putting tons of weight on you," I squinted at the elf. "A high-level adventurer really shouldn't be sweating just by moving around some sand." 

I activated Eyes of Wisdom and asked the ability, ‘Is there anything wrong with Neldra?’ A red line looking much like a wound appeared on her hip and I reached down to touch it.

Neldra quickly spun away from my hand. "What are you doing?” 

“What's under your armor?" I pointed at her hip, answering her question with one of my own.

She looked around to see if anyone was paying attention to us. A couple of my ladies were looking our way, but she, as discreetly as she could, shifted and pulled away a piece of her armor to show a puckered purple cut on her hip. 

"Shit, that looks nasty," I said. There were dark veins leading away from the wound. 

"I'm well aware," Neldra said, replacing the piece of her armor.

"Can't you heal it?" I asked, already pulling out an antidote ready to give it to her. 

"I've tried," she said flatly, "better potions than you have." She put her tongue in her cheek. "Whatever that bastard used on me isn't going away." She looked at her CID as if to read the details of the debuff. "Even if I die and am resurrected, this poison is only going to get worse the more I heal." 

"Neldra, that's…”

“Bad news," she finished for me. "Very bad news."

It seemed the Prince’s assassins were more prepared than I expected to have such a nasty poison on them.

The elven censer looked incredibly frustrated. "I need a high-level healer in order to get rid of this. I used what potions I have, but all it has done is keep whatever poison this is at bay." She grit her teeth.

I made a face to match her concern. "So, if it's getting worse when you're healed…” I trailed off.

“Then I'm not much good for busting through a safe zone of Naga," she sighed. "In fact, I would say I need to be reserved for only an issue that the students cannot solve." She grimaced, and I could tell Neldra was upset with her own weakness. 

"Now I know why those assassins thought they had a chance at killing Ely. Something like this would be able to weaken me or the other censors if given enough time." Neldra put her hand over the wound protectively. "For now, it's important that we hide it." She met my eyes.

"You're not even going to tell the princess, are you?" I asked.

"Neither are you," Neldra insisted. "This puts me in a place where Professor Sai, or even Professor Gafar, could take me out." She let out a little glare of ferocity, filled with enough intensity to tell me that should I go spreading the news of her poison, she would make sure it was the last thing I ever did. 

I held my hands up in surrender. "Secret's safe with me, but the others are going to want to use you from time to time. I'm sure we have a fair bit of adventure ahead of us." 

Neldra gave me a dismissing wave. "We'll just continue to tell everyone that it's training for you to do it yourself. I will be saving my strength for when there's something that can't be used as training for you." 

I looked up at the fake sky above us. "Fine, I won't tell anyone, and you won't go causing any issues."

Neldra held a hand out for me to shake, and I shook it. "You have yourself a deal." 

While we were at it, she tapped her CID to mine, transferring over a few pieces of high-level gear. "If at any point you come across challenges, please do everything you can to protect Elysara." She spoke with such grave seriousness that I found myself getting a little emotional. Neldra did not expect she would not make it out of the dungeon alive. 

"You have my word, but you needn't worry, because you'll be there when she needs it." I patted Neldra on the shoulder, and rather than continue to celebrate, I pointed at Penny, Charlotte, and Felin, beckoning that they came with me.

The four ladies looked confused as I walked away from the campfire and out towards the raid proper. 

"If we go any further, we'll see monsters," Charlotte warned. 

I summoned a dagger in each hand. "Maybe that's what I want. Look, I understand people are celebrating, however, I am interested in continuing to train." I looked around the group. "If the four of you don't mind," I glanced between them.

Fayeth clearly wasn’t about to leave her grill and Penny was a little stronger taking on a single target. "Between two support and a tank here, you could survive long enough for me to get my DPS going to incredible levels." 

"It would go faster if you had haste," Candice snuck up behind us. "And in a small group like this, you would get more experience per monster," Candice added. 

"I was having a similar thought," I smiled at the blonde, she had a knack of getting right to the point. "Your haste might make up for the experience you would leech," I smirked at her. 

Candice straightened her jacket. "It would more than make up for it. In theory, if we--"

I held up a hand to stop her. "We don't need to work with theories when we have actual reality." I looked around the group. "Are you all okay with stepping away from the celebration to grind some trash mobs?" 

Penny shrugged, her sword out and on her shoulder as armor of frost grew around her. "I think partying is a little silly right now," Penny admitted. "It's a celebration that we've survived another day." 

It gave the revelers an excuse, even if I felt more inclined to continue to grind.

Felin punched her fists together. "Only with strength will we live a day more. I want to make us all strong. Our pride will be the strongest," Felin insisted. 

I rolled my eyes but smiled at the Nekorian. "Well then, let's get to work."