CHAPTER ELEVEN: Ridda and Hamsuke Vs. Quaiesse Hazia Quintia
(slightly mature subject matter warning)
E-Rantel was a bit more lively today than usual. Well armed adventurer groups new and old were flocking to the Adventures guild hall, something had happened, something big. Ridda thought it was odd at first, but as she walked in the hall and eased dropped on the various conversations it made sense, well in a way. She kept hearing the phrases "new ruins discovered" but then also people saying things like "came from nowhere" or "seems to have appeared overnight somehow" this sounded odd so she walked up to an adventure with a green metal around his neck.
"Yo!" She greeted him to get his attention. He turned around to see nothing, then looked down to the smiling pink eyed girl in a black cloak. He immediately noted the silver chain around her neck.
"Hey newbie, it's a little above your paygrade, but us veterans are getting ready to explore some ruins or a cave system that has appeared in the hills southwest of the Katze Plain."
"Yeah I know that much but what's with this "overnight" business? I thought all the ruins and stuff like were long discovered?" Ridda asked a little perplexed.
"Well it's still new, but I guess an adventurer group was searching for rare mushrooms or fungus that grow in the cave system that's been long explored. Guess they got lucky or something, one of them fell against a wall by accident and fell into a large chamber, this chamber has given way to a whole new system to explore." Ridda nodded her head, that certainly made more sense than the rumors she'd picked up.
"But why are people calling it "ruins" sounds more like just more caves?" She asked, he crouched down to meet her eyes.
"I'm only telling you this because I know who you teamed with, so I know if you go with Momon you'll be fine... but there is signs of an old crypt or something if one travels down far enough, least that's what the rookie team said, but who really knows right? Anyway, that's why we're all here in line, to fill out the official search request of the people who lay claim to those old caves." Ridda thought about what he said.
She was still a rookie, the silver tag was not a lie. Even if she were to go exploring with Sir Momon... anything that happened would be his doing. She'd just walk behind in his magnificent shadow, no doubt getting to see a whole lot of amazing things, but from the safety of his powerful wings. Also, he was not here, it was odd she thought, is it possible he did not know? She walked to a corner and cast [MESSAGE].
"Hello? Sir Momon?" She asked, his voice answered back.
"Yes, this is Ridda?"
"Yes, uh, I'm here at the adventures guild and..." She started but he answered early in a knowing voice.
"Yes, I have heard of it, unfortunately, I can't go exploring at this time, so I'll be leaving it to the other teams, why?" He explained.
"No, I just thought may... never mind, I just wanted to see if you planned to go down there, is all." She lied a bit, she wanted to go.
"Well that's nice of you Ridda, by the way, how is Hamsuke doing?" She smiled.
"I love her! We get along well, and I'm even working on making her some armor and a weapon for her tail!" Momon seemed pleased to hear this.
"I am glad you made a friend Ridda, and I can't wait to see what you make her... just don't over do it..." he sounded a tad worried.
"I know, I haven't been makign anything over iron, other than my rapier I made,"
"And, how is the bleeding?" He asked, still a bit worried.
"Not a problem, it's fine." She lied, she'd been waking up in the morning, and traces of blood would be found on her nose and pillow, but as long as she drank a health potion every morning, she would feel fine and no bleeding, so it was fine, not a lie then!
"Glad to hear it, anyway I must go..." he was saying politely when the [MESSAGE] spell ended, there was no reason to bother him further, she got what she needed.
"Psst..." Ridda whispered to the man who she just talked to a minute ago and was high up the in line.
"Let me cut behind you..." She said in his ear, he laughed.
"Why? You gonna go all by yourself little one?" He chuckled.
"Uh no! Obviously, I just want to reserve Sir Momon's spot in the adventure as a team member!... I could even tell him you help me!" She said, lying boldfaced to this man. He thought about and looked around, nobody was paying attention, he nodded slightly and motioned for her to jump ahead of him. She would tell Sir Momon this, that part was true. He told her his team name, The Lit Torches they called themselves, after that she tuned out most of what he said.
"Hello, Ridda, you and Momon going into the caves?" The guild girl at the desk asked, she smiled and would always treat Ridda very well. Ridda had only been adventuring solo, well with Hamsuke, for a week, but this woman had gotten her the silver tag she had now much earlier than usual. It was not hard to guess why Ridda received special treatment in E-Rantel.
"Uh, yeah, something like that... what can I sign up for?" She asked.
"Well the beginner teams are making sweeps of the old cave system, the well-explored one, they are testing all the wall and floors for more hidden chambers, so if you are by yourself I'd suggest that, no real danger." She said smiling. Ridda looked at her with a "really?" expression, the lady smiled.
"The larger, or better well off teams are exploring the new cave system, and help to map it. Seems to be huge, so there are a lot of orders coming to escort map makers or just clear out the untreated ground of local monsters, nothing over danger 15 has been reported." Ridda thought about that, escorting missions were slow going, and the people would talk too much... pass.
"Finally, we have the strange building that seems to be a tomb or crypt of some kind. Not too many teams are volunteering for that just now as two mythril teams that went in to do the initial exploration, never returned. We assume the danger level there is very high, but as you'd expect, the reputation for being the first to explore and plunder a new area of interest... but we've heard talks of a possible demonic presence, so if it is demons or undead that are in that place... I'd be sure to purchase or rent one of The Sorcerer Kingdoms mighty Rune Crafted Weapons! Talk holds that just the sight of these weapons, made by a forgot and lost magic, will send fear into the very soul of demons!" The lady spoke with an obvious order to upsell, Ridda had no need of them, she could kill anything instantly after all, so long as they stood still for three or so seconds...
"Okay, sounds good, sign me up for they crypt or whatever." She said, taking the paper needed to fill out the request officially. The girl clapped her hands and smiled.
"So, Sir Momon will be exploring after all? I had heard he did not plan to for whatever reason. I'm glad he's changed his mind! Okay, I'll fill these out for him and you, no need to bog you both down with paperwork right? Will The beautiful princess Nabe be joining you too? Oh, what am I saying, of course, she will! Okay, I will fill out everything for her as well! Just go get supplied and be sure to tell your team leader how helpful I was yes?" the lady spoke very fast and moved even faster, grabbing papers and such. Ridda was just glad she didn't have to lie, the lady had been far too willing to please. A solo adventure would be a challenge, she wanted to try out her powers as well, going along with Momon would just be fun, not challenging.
Ridda did not need to buy food or water, she'd purchased a never-ending water flask that she had in her personal space, also she'd bought five pounds of dried meats, also stored away. She was heavily stocked on potions as well, there was nothing left to do but leave soon as she got her official orders. The lady had obviously pushed Team Darkness to the front, as her orders were finished quickly.
"Here you go, we would like you to search for the two teams that did not return, as well as map out the areas you travel, rough sketches are fine, anything you and sir Momom can a manage!" Ridda looked at the orders and nodded. A rescue mission sounded honorable, and she would give all the credit to Sir Momon, she just wanted the actual challenge! So using his name here was fine as he'd get the credit anyway.
"Okay Hamsuke, I got another order!" She said, waving the paper at her furry friend.
"That is great Ridda! That it is!" The Hamster said smiling. Ridda stopped to think for a bit... she really didn't feel right about using Sir Momon's name the more she thought about it... what if she failed? That would be a tarnish on his name... also he'd been more than fair with her, even when she didn't deserve it...
"Um actually Hamsuke, I think I got the wrong order, I'll be right back," She ran back into the guild hall, explained to the man in line that there had been a mistake, he knew who she was and let her pass, maybe being so young helped with this as well.
"Oh, Ridda you're back? Is something wrong?" The guild lady asked.
"Um, yeah, it turns out Sir Momon can't go after all, neither will his partner... so uh, do you just have something simple that I can do alone?" Ridda said feeling a little embarrassed, she turned over the order.
"Well if you'd like to patrol the route the other adventures will be taking, keeping their travels easy and safe, we could assign you to that alone or with another group of coppers that took the order," Ridda thought, she could easily do this with just her and Hamsuke, there wasn't any beast or bandit group that the two of them could not handle out in the open... if by chance she ran into something strong, she could use her new [MASS FLY] spell so her and Hamsuke could get away.
"Yeah I'll do... four patrols, two each way," the guild girl nodded.
"So that will put you in the road for... she did some calculations... how about, six days?" She asked. With Hamsukes speed that was more than enough time, sounded easy enough, if not a little boring, but she felt better about it. Going behind Nabe's and Sir Momon's back just didn't sit well with her. Ridda ran back to her mount and friend.
"Okay Hamsuke, just more patrol work, let's make sure the path is safe!" Ridda looked at her orders and saw the easily readable path she was meant to take,
"Alright let's get going, you ready?" The hamster nodded and with a few pats, the two girls were off. However, their paths were set to collide with a carriage headed north.
More south and a day later, there was a carriage housing two members of The Black Scripture, Quaiesse Hazia Quintia, and Tessika.
"So now we're heading to E-Rantel? What happened to going to The Draconic Kingdoms?" Tessika asked looking out the window.
"Just following up on some old rumors. There haven't been any new sightings of her in the Draconic kingdom recently anyway, just sit tight, I hate all this travel too." He muttered, his sister had been nothing but trouble his whole life.
"Plus I wanna check out this new E-Rantel, I heard it's quite the sight to behold." He said with a smile. Tessika looked like she liked that idea.
"Okay, that actually doesn't sound so boring, I need to relax anyway..." she said stretching. He looked lazily out the window, but something suddenly caught his eye. He was going to say something to Tessika but she saw it too. Something had passed them at high speeds.
"Was that a girl riding a giant magical beast?" Tessika asked poking her head out the carriage. The large magical beast had just passed them going the opposite direction, they looked to be headed to some hills off in the distance.
"That Magical Beast, that belongs to that Momon guy, yeah?" Quaiesse Hazia Quintia said to his partner.
"Yeah, matches what I heard, who was on top of it though? Maybe that "Beautiful princess" we've heard so much about?" She asked.
"Maybe, either way, let's check up on them..." He jumped out and so did she, he summoned two fast looking horses like beasts but with fur all over them from his ring. They each mounted up and took off after the other Magical Beast.
"So what's the play here? I want that girl!" She said with a shriek of passion.
"Yeah, I figured as much... I want that beast, you can question her however you see fit, just make sure you get answers." He ordered her, she smiled and began going faster.
"Ridda? I think we are being followed, that we are!" Hamsuke said as she slowed down to turn and look at the two riders approaching them.
"Why do you think? Maybe they want to ask about the new caves found?" Ridda asked puzzled.
"They might need directions that they might. Let's wait for them here, but carefully, that was should.
"Is this a bad idea? Should we run for it?" Ridda asked.
"They are faster than I am that they are, we should try to talk to them I think, that we should," Hamsuke told her friend. So they pulled around and waited. As she said, the two were traveling very fast. However, they both stopped around 50 yards away.
"I don't like this, it looks like they are getting ready to fight us..." Ridda warned.
"Yes I agree, we should assume they mean us harm, that we should..." Hamsuke said in a low voice. By now they could see one was a brown-haired girl with glasses and a short skirt and stalkings, she was jumping off her weird beast. She had a weird bag at her side as well. The other was a man who stayed mounted, was blonde and wore an amazing looking white and red robe, he rose his right hand in the air and there came a glimmer from his hand. Then, one after another magical creature after magical creature kept coming out.
"We should run, that we should..." Hamsuke said feeling worried when the number of magical beasts that came forth did not stop.
"No, we should fly!" And Ridda cast [MASS FLY] It was an expensive spell, but she wanted Hamsuke to be safe, and it lasted much longer than normal [FLY] would. Both her and Hamsuke took to the air, but they were met by three giant bat-like creatures that flew above their air space and slashed at them when they tried to take off.
"They mean to capture us, that they do!... these is not killing tactics, that they aren't!" Hamsuke warned Ridda but Ridda was already shooting a volley of blades at the three bats, they took damage but their thick skin did not allow the blades to go too fast, she would like to use [METAL DEATH] on them but she could only use that on a target that was standing completely still for at least three seconds, the fact that they were bobbing as they flapped their wings made them immune to this attack.
"More incoming, that they are!" She heard below her, Ridda shot a glance over her shoulder and saw at least twenty fast moving beasts approaching. Ridda turned to fire off a heavy metal lance but every lance she fired off was dodged, she'd never had to shoot at something moving so fast before. Hamsuke leaped backward with a flip, confident Ridda could not fall off, and fired out her tail, it crushed the head of one of the beasts that ran at them, but they used that attack to bite and grab onto the tail that attacked their pack, without much warning Hamsuke's tail was held down by twelve snarling magic looking wolves and cats.
"Let go of her!" Ridda screamed as she fired out over 700 blades, her attacks slashed and injured the animals but is was not enough to make all of them let go, only the smaller ones fell.
"Above us!" Hamsuke cried, but as Ridda turned to see what she was calling out for she saw. The three bats were taking a strange, tight triangle formation, then all at once, they let out a powerful and loud scream. The screech made Ridda's ears hurts and her vision was fuzzy, she did not fall from her mount thanks to her cloak but she could not see anything nor do anything so long as the blaring siren kept her stunned and confused. Hamsuke was trying to say something but whatever it was did not matter as they were overcome and piled upon by many furry, slimy and scaly creatures, none of them were causing her much pain, but one bit her leg and a numbing sensation made it's way over her as she lost control of her body.
"I... can't...mo.." she tried to tell her friend but it seemed like Hamsuke was also getting bit by the same kind of creature and slowing down. The world around her blurred and she had trouble even making out sounds. Ridda was then aware that dirt was pressed up against her face. She must have fallen off and was laying face down, but her body and mind would not obey her commands, or could not.
"Alright, that should be enough..." Quintia ordered his pets to stop attacking. He'd summoned over 50 of them, it was a bit overkill but he really liked the way that Hamster looked! His collecter spirit was fully ignited.
"So I get the little girl right? Don't hurt her either!" Tessika cried in fear.
"Don't worry, I'm just numbing her, she's all yours," He said motioning to her. All his magical beats vanished back into his rings that he had on his hands. He walked up to the numbed Magical Beast and pressed his hand against her, in a green flash Hamsuke was gone. Tessika ran over to Ridda and rolled her over on her back straddling her. She moved her face close to the struggling but numbed Ridda.
"Yeah... she's super cute! We need to find a place to camp Quintia!" He shook his head.
"Set up your own camp... away from mine, I want no part in whatever you have planned," he said looking disgusted, she was ignoring him and just staring intently at the girl she had captured.
"Are you sure? Look how adorable she looks!" Tessika cried propping Ridda up a bit like a baby. He ignored her, walking over a hill that would be out of eyesight, but he would still be able to hear her if she called for help... unfortunate he'd hear everything else too. Tessik looked Ridda over.
"I have to spend all night breaking this new magical beast... if it's as powerful as it looks, I will need to go all out!" He said with a chuckle, he'd not captured such a specimen in a long while.
"So like what? You're just gonna ride it around all night like a horse?" She asked as she took off the girls boots and gloves.
"No, I'll spend most of the night keeping it in constant pain as it's locked up in my ring, so I'll need to concentrate, try to keep it down with her, yeah?" He pleaded and looking at his prison ring with a smile that made him look very much like his sister. Tessika ignored him as she started to unbutton her own shirt.
"Hmm... too bad your not a boy... but, beggars can't be choosers!" Tessika giggled wistfully as her eyes wandered over the great looking gear she had.
"Well, let's get you out of all this stuff shall we?" She hummed softly as she took off the earrings, necklace and two rings Ridda had on her. She pulled the black cloak off that looked incredibly well made and flipped it next to her. A smirk crossed Tessikas face as she undid the straps of the black bodysuit Ridda wore.
"Hup!" Tessika let out as she pulled the suit off. By this point, Tessika had taken off most of her own clothes as well. She put her shirt in the pile of clothes that contained all Ridda's stuff as well. She was only wearing her short mini skirt and her leg stalkings, nothing else.
"Alright, that's everything... well... almost everything!" She giggled as she looked at the mostly nude Ridda, who was topless and just wearing her lower underwear. She took of Ridda's underwear and tossed them in the pile.
Ridda was aware of everything that was happening, sounds and light were coming clear again. She could tell her gear and clothes were getting removed. She tried to command her body to respond, but even though her mind was awake, her body would not move... She could feel soft hands running all over her body now in a playful but slightly rough manner, caressing her face among other places. An old familiar feeling came back to her as she realized what was probably about to happen and began to panic, but instead of freezing up and retreating far away into her mind like she would all those years ago she thought... her gear was gone, all her mana stores with it, she could cast one spell, she needed to make it count...
Ainz sat at his table, he was reading a report Demiurge and Albedo had put together concerning the World Slug and possible ways to deal with such an entity. Demiurge seemed very excited about the Kingdom that the undead called Test controls, he saw great promise there, he'd have to read more but if Demiurge underlined so many things, he must really be excited.
"Help her Momon! Hamsuke was taken by someone, I don't know where we are at, just that we're in a field... I am being... held prisoner... but I think she is in more danger than me... I think she is close to me as well, fast as possible Momon, please!" A voice cried out in a very loud and panicked tone, it took him a second but realized it was Ridda, and what she said sank in.
"Ridda? he asked as he rose to his feet which made Albedo jump up in surprise. But there was no response.
"That was Ridda..." he muttered as he replayed her message in his head. Albedo's eyes went wide.
"Who is this Ridda person that is sending you a [MESSAGE] personally?" Albedo asked in a very jealous tone.
"It's that girl I told everyone about, the one that can make gold, it sounds lik..." he began but was interrupted.
"A GIRL? RIDDA IS A GIRL!?" Albedo cried, tears welling up as she fell to the ground... how much more ground would she lose in this war? She wondered.
"Albedo listen, I think she is in trouble, and Hamsuke as well..." he told her thinking about the area she had talked about. But Albedo was in tears now, she was asking why someone was using [MESSAGE] at such a strange hour. He just ignored her and cast [GREATER TELEPORTATION] to the Adventures guild after changing his disguise and taking on the appearance of Momon. He appeared a little ways away from the building in a dark alleyway. He made his way to the building and cut the line without even offering an apology.
"Did Ridda of Darkness take any jobs today?" he asked, the lady, taken aback by his tone quickly answered.
"Y...yes, she had some trouble picking which job she wanted, even returned one, but she eventually settled on a patrol job, running this route, why is there..." she was saying but he was already walking out of the door. Ainz was casting [MESSAGE] to Nabe who was in E-Rantel.
"Get to the new ruins we created for the adventures, fly there, check out any plains you pass... I think Hamsuke is in trouble, Ridda too," Nabe affirmed that she would. He promised himself, that he would take personal oversight of their torture if they harmed either of his teammates!