Chapter 7 – Down in the Dungeon
After renting a filolial-drawn cart from the capital, my party and I arrived in Lafan by the day's end. Along the way, we didn't encounter any bandits or criminal, probably due to our proximity to the capital and the security provided by the crown's knights and adventurers patrolling the path.
The streets of Lafan were sparsely littered with travelers and adventurers doing business with the locals, exchanging goods such as coins, monster loot, and different kinds of materials.
Just as Myne said, there really was a dungeon located here. According to the locals, it housed many low to medium leveled monsters, which would be really helpful for grinding. Hey, at least that treacherous hag was telling the truth about one thing.
The town was quite small, so there wasn't a wide array of inns to choose from. In fact, there was only one. Frustratingly enough, I couldn't read the language on any of the street signs, but I reckon many of the peasants couldn't either since, you know, medieval era doesn't exactly come arm in arm with high literacy rates.
The inn was quite packed, with adventurers from all around telling tales of their supposedly brave adventures. One, in particular, was bragging about his recent "class upgrade".
From the corner of the room, a man, whose face was covered with a bandana, kept shooting glances at us. In particular, he fixed his gaze on my bow, and then made a hand motion for us to come over.
Curious about what he wanted, I obliged.
"Eda, Welst, Rojeel, could you three book us a room and buy us some food? I'm extremely curious as to what that gentlemen wants from us."
The three of them nodded in unison and headed off in the direction of the receptionist, payment in hand.
"Hello," I asked politely, slightly intimidated by the mysterious man's attire, "Were you motioning for me to come over?"
"Correct." The man responded in a deep, baritone voice. "If my observations prove true, you are the bow hero."
"Yes, I am."
"Well, that is excellent. If you wouldn't mind, I have a problem that I'd like you to deal with in the near future."
"Do tell."
"Ahhh…. Where do I begin? Well, I should tell you my name first." The man orated, lifting his tone and voice slightly. "My name is Jean-Pier Cygnet, and I am the heir of the Cygnet family of the kingdom currently ruled by the tyrant King Strauss VIII. You may not know this, but we have been in a civil war for years."
"I see. That is truly horrible. What caused this civil war in the first place?"
"Before the civil war," Jean-Pier narrated, "We were a prosperous country, not nearly as large as Melromarc but still wealthy in its own right. Our country is located on the most mineral-rich areas in the continent, bordering the Pirineus mountains separating us from Melromarc and we also have bountiful and rich rivers flowing across our fertile fields. One day, for whatever reason, King Strauss raised taxes on the poor and the middle class and spent much of it hiring mercenaries. Although the Estates General, the non-governmental body comprising of all three classes of the country, issued a joint message asking the king why he would do so, our complaints fell to deaf ears. After the country's coffers ran dry, and citizens were starving and corpses were rotting on the streets, we had enough."
Now that I thought about it, this seemed more and more like the French Revolution's backstory.
"The Estates General proclaimed their intention to overthrow the monarchy and restore order and lower taxes, and they were joined by a majority of the citizens. However, the regions around the capital city of Messeblick, less affected by the rampant famines and hordes of monsters swarming the countryside, stayed loyal to the king. So did the city of Seehafen, the prosperous trading post located on the coast of the country. My family, the Cygnets, were a wealthy merchant adventuring family, but since the king's policies were severely hurting our village and our business, we sided with the Estates General. The king, enraged by the proclamation of rebellion, launched a massive army of mercenaries and royal knights at my town. The rebellion, unable to distribute enough troops to defend our village from the royalists, could only watch as we hung on for dear life, fighting hand to hand in vicious street fighting. During this battle, I suffered a massive scar on my back, and I was knocked out. After I woke up, I found myself in a hospital and was told by the rebellion that my town had fell, and the population scattered."
"That's truly horrible!" I commented, empathetic towards the man's situation.
"The Estates General and the other rebels asked me to head south to Melromarc, asking for the queen's support and garnering as many funds as I could to help support the rebellion. For the past year or two, that's what I have been doing, killing as many monsters as I could to sell their materials to travelling merchants and funneling what I could to the rebellion for them to purchase supplies, mercenaries, weapons and other war materiel. Thus, we come to our current situation. The king controls the north and much of the coast, while most of the countryside and cities in the south and east are controlled by the rebellion. The king's popularity has been waning, his treasury is dry, and there is no better opportunity to deliver a finishing blow. And this is where you come in."
"What could I do to help turn the tide? I've just come here, and my level isn't even that high!"
"You are the bow hero. Just by virtue of holding that title, you wield great influence over the world. You should try to raise your level in this dungeon and by killing many monsters as quickly as possible, and preferably head towards the north in a month or two. As soon as you arrive, you should deliver a moving speech, and lead the exhausted and demoralized soldiers, motivated by the speech and your mere presence, towards the capital. The royalist soldiers would probably join you on the way there, and the city guards would toss open the gates at the sight of your bow. Then, the rebellion would be successful."
I had to think about this for a second. I just got here, and this guy already wants me to help out in a war? I mean, I had great sympathies for this rebellion, for they were fighting for a just cause. Justice was unspeakably important to me, so I would have to defend that. But what if I failed?
No. I had to do this.
For my morals. For my ideals. For the poor and unfortunate people of this country.
I was a hero. Protecting people was my job.
I would do it.
"I accept, Jean-Pier. I will help you defeat the tyrannical king."
Tears were streaming along the stoic man's face.
"THANK YOU SOOO MUCHHHH!" The man cried as he gave me a bear hug. "If you truly help us out and defeat the tyrannical king, you'll be a national, no, worldwide, hero!"
The room fell silent. We received strange looks from the people all around us.
But Jean-Pier didn't care. He was ecstatic. It was like the messiah had arrived.
"Jean-Pier," I asked, "Do you want to further discuss these matters in my hotel room?"
"Absolutely!" He replied. "Though, not before I finish this beer."
Downing the whole thing without a second thought, with much of the beer spilling onto his massive and bushy beard, he slammed the mug onto the creaky table and waded off towards where Eda, Welst and Rojeel were standing. Once there, he began instigating a conversation with the three.
I followed him, curious to what they were talking about.
Unlocking the door with the hotel key, we all funneled into the small room. It was quite small, but it had all the amenities a person would need, and it had just enough room for all of us to sleep in.
"Now, Jean-Pier," I suggested, "Mind if you tell your story to these three?"
Jean-Pier recounted his story to the three, but this time in greater detail. By the end of it all, the three were in tears. Even I was feeling quite moved, despite already hearing about this story before.
After this moving tale, we all headed off to bed. For tomorrow would be a day of intense grinding in the dungeons.
After we woke up the following day, Jean-Pier approached me with a question.
"Could I join your party, until we have defeated the king?"
Naturally, there was only one response to that question.
"No problem!"
I sent him a request to join my party. He quickly accepted.
And GOD his level was high!
55! That's insane! The rest of my party and I were dozens of levels below that!
"There's no time to waste. I have been in these dungeons for more months than I can count on my fingers. I know the way around here. Follow me. Here are the best places to increase your level."
Pulling out a detailed map of the dungeon, he picked up a stick and poked at a faraway chamber.
"We should head here first. If we kill monsters at every waking moment in this exact location, you will quickly reach level 30. Furthermore, we will have incredible amounts of materials and drops to sell, which the vendors in Castle Town greatly treasure. They will pay top dollar for such items."
Through the busy streets, lush forest and flowing streams, we had arrived at the dungeon. It was a large dungeon, made of stone and mossy rocks. There was a large, square opening in the front. This had to be the entrance.
"What are we waiting for?" Jean-Pier exclaimed. "Let's go in!"
Upon setting foot in the dungeon, it really was a whole new world. The bright light outside faded as an ominous, dark glimmer filled the room. My eyes went utterly blind for a split second as they struggled to adjust to the new setting. I heard the sound of things moving, and I had a feeling that everything was watching me. Then, I finally realized what was going on.
Strange creatures which would only appear in the lowest budgeted of RPG games were roaming everywhere, attacking and being attacked by adventurers. One man was being mauled by a rabid racoon, the former only surviving because his comrade thrust his sword into the creature's guts, disemboweling it. Another person chucked his throwing spear at a hybrid of a naked mole rat and a giraffe, turning the aberration into a kebab.
As I stood there, taking in everything that was happening around me, a thundering voice interrupted my train of thought.
"What are you waiting for, bow hero! There is no time to waste! Come this way!"
A muscular arm dragged me away, before I could make a single move. As my boots dragged on the ground, I saw a bat with six wings completely destroy a man's face. Obviously, I didn't want him to die, so I shot an arrow at the abnormality.
PFEEWWWWWW!
My shot hit its mark.
I could hear a muffled sound in the distance. It was probably the man trying to thank me for saving his life.
"Jean-Pier, can you release me? It's getting kind of uncomfortable."
"Sorry."
The burly man unhanded me, and I continued to follow him through the dark and gloomy catacombs. Eda and Rojeel were clearing the way ahead, while I stood as the rear guard of our convoy, blindly shooting at whatever that was moving or making a sound. Meanwhile, Welst and Jean-Pier were guarding our left and right flanks.
After what felt like an hour of walking, I bumped into Jean-Pier, almost sending me flying backwards despite the fact that I was a few inches taller than the man. Evidently, we had reached our destination.
And wow, what a place it was.
This place was very different from the rest of the dungeon. There was a thriving ecosystem here, with plants growing out of the sides of bricks and stone watered by the dripping streams flowing from up top. Soil was randomly spread along the ground, with what seemed to be mushrooms and fungi sprouting all around it. Don't get me wrong, this place creeped the living daylights out of me, but at least it was cool.
Jean-Pier swung his humongous battle axe around and marched towards a creature that looked like a mix of a jackrabbit and a platypus.
Might as well join him.
All three of my party members join Jean-Pier, brandishing their weapons and hacking away at the monsters roaming the chamber. I, however, stayed back, as archers generally didn't charge into the heat of battle.
Besides, staying back was safer, after all.
PFEWWWW! PFEWWWW! PFEWWWWW!
Three successive arrows left my bow, skewering three monsters that were clearly not expecting an attack from such a large distance.
One neat thing about my legendary bow was that it could generate infinite ammo, but it also automatically reloaded. This meant that as soon as I released my bowstring and pulled it back, a new arrow, albeit a basic one, would generate in its place. This meant that I could keep firing arrow after arrow without worrying about my quiver running dry. However, I didn't exactly have infinite MP and SP, so I did have to rest now and then to recover my strength. That, and also my arm would get sore after an extended period of shooting.
Man, wouldn't it be great to have a gun or something like that? Something that wouldn't require me to pull my whole arm back after every shot. Sadly, I'm the bow hero, so I can only use bows. But wait! No! I had also been able to copy other weapons such as a super long blow dart tube, so maybe this meant the bow hero could copy all long-range projectile based weapons? Well, we'd have to wait and see. I knew how to manufacture guns, but that would be impossible until the industrial revolution.
Heyyyy! That rang a bell in my head. I'd have to share that thought later, for now I was too busy dealing with these monsters that were roaming about.
I actually felt kind of bad about mass murdering these monsters. They were just sitting around, minding their own business, until these humans just burst in and destroy their livelihoods. But, as Abraham Lincoln once said, you have to do what you have to do. He probably said that one time, didn't he?
Minute after minute. Hour after hour. I kept shooting arrow after arrow, until I was out of magic power.
And the other guys were also out. Except Jean-Pier, who kept hacking away.
"Hey guys," I suggested, "Maybe we should take a small lunch break. I'm completely exhausted."
"Yeaaahhhhhh," Eda groaned, "I'm completely spent."
"You know, he's got a point," Jean-Pier shouted as he stuck his axe into a creature's forehead, "I could really go for some scrumptious grilled monster meat. In fact, I'll show you guys my momma's recipe."
"Well," Rojeel contributed, "Why not?"
I made sure to absorb the corpses of all the monsters that we had killed, unlocking a plethora of new bows.
Walking out of the chamber and into a nearby part of the catacombs, I dropped some wood that I had gathered inside the catacombs. After drying the damp logs with a weak fire spell, that apparently Eda had an affinity for, we slapped some pieces of mysterious meat that we had collected from the dead monsters on the vicious fire, and Jean-Pier began sprinkling some of his special seasoning on the plump flesh.
"That looks yummy," Welst voiced her opinion as she rubbed her rumbling belly, "I want a bite so bad!"
"Patience, patience," Jean-Pier lectured, "The meat won't be any good if we rush the searing."
I fell flat on my back, exhausted from hunger.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Jean-Pier made an announcement that we were all desperately hoping to hear.
"Food's ready!"
Like a pack of ravenous hyenas that haven't feasted for months, we all pounced onto the roasting fire and grabbed the cooked monster steak with our bare hands.
"OUUCHHHH!" The three of them screamed.
"I didn't mean for you guys to do that!" Jean-Pier screamed. "I just told you guys that I was done cooking!"
I, however, didn't feel any pain, as I ripped the tender monster meat to shreds and popped the juicy strips into my mouth.
Everybody was aghast.
"HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE! THAT THING WAS BOILING HOT!"
"Well, fun fact, I've always had an insanely ridiculous heat tolerance. One time I placed my hand on a scooter brake after speeding down a tall hill, and I didn't even give a single reaction despite suffering burns."
"I don't know what a scooter is," Jean-Pier commented, "But the fact you didn't bat an eye before swallowing those pieces of meat proves that you are indeed something special."
"Nah, don't sweat it. It's not an ability that will ever prove useful in any way. Enough talk. Let's eat!"
Everybody liked that idea.
This time, using clean knives that were not stained and contaminated with monster blood, we cut up the monster steaks into smaller slices and had ourselves a delicious meal.
That night, once we returned from an exhausting day of grinding, we swung open the inn's door before I encountered somebody that I desperately didn't want to meet.
It, not she, was the person that tried to frame Naofumi for something the pure soul wouldn't ever do under any circumstance.
It was the person that was willing to screw over the entire kingdom for her own intrigue.
It… was Myne Suphia. Or should I say Malty S. Melromarc, first princess of the kingdom.