It took a few minutes for the brothers to cool down enough from the battle to begin reducing in size. It was a slower process than the growth, which happened in a few seconds, whereas this took almost a full minute, but when it was done, the three were mostly back to their normal stature, and we assembled at the beach, watching the small, and now still, lake of poisons, as we gathered what bones we could, before they slid back into it.
It was slow going, trying to avoid the lake, and I was shocked the bones themselves didn't turn to dust at our touch. In fact, they felt rather firm, when, at two hundred years old, that should be fragile. Still, magic was magical, and I didn't voice that opinion as we finally got what we could, and then stared out at the lake's mirror like sheen, breathing hard, but feeling like the work was only half done.
"I've heard rumors that monsters like this can sometimes come back, if they have a second crystal core or the like, somewhere on their bodies, but to check that, we'd need whole barrels of holy water from the church," said Ray, as she looked over a particular bone she had salvaged, a full plate like thing she could use as a shield.
"Wow, holy water can neutralize poisons?" I asked, and she shook her head.
"Anyone can neutralize poison with the right potions. The thing that makes this a matter for the church is the source. An undead contains a powerful curse, and it lingers. Even if it's not coming back from this, we need them to break it, before it can spread from here now that the source containing it is gone," she said, and I nodded, as I looked out on the lake, and then dusted myself off.
"Well then, since I donated little to the battle, let's see if I can help with the cleanup at least," I said, and the other watched me as I approached the lake edge. None of them stopped me, which was good, though Lucia looked a bit worried as I stepped right up to it, and then began to shift my Bow through a few forms, finally settling on the (Holy Writ) Bow I'd unlocked via the holy water from the Pope. It was a gleaming, alabaster thing, and when mixed with (Stage 2) it looked like it radiated an inner light from silvery decorations it gained.
A moment later I loaded up as many multishots as I could with one of the lesser arrows I'd gained the ability to unlock from the (Curse Dispelling Holy Water). It was technically weak, but boosted by not only (Multishot*10), as well as the form mixture, it had a good spread of holy power, the bolts themselves turning into golden lances as I lifted my arm, and aimed for the center of the lake.
"(Curse Break Arrow)!" I shouted, and fired, watching the bolts splash against the surface of the stuff, and then start to fall backwards, given that was most of my remaining SP. Luckily, Strong and Souka were behind me, the pair grabbing me to keep me on my feet, as I nodded at them in thanks, before turning to watch what my handiwork achieved, and to be fair, the light show was cool of nothing else.
The bolts, golden lances of shimmering power, seemed to hang above the water, which roiled and bubbled, the clouds beneath it gathering at the points of light touching it, as if fighting them. They sparked, and even crackled a few times hanging there, as the darkness tried to hold them off, a surge of it emerging at one point in a small geyser all around the bolts, trying to force them back or consume them with its turid surface.
The edges of the lake soon began to clear, however, as more and more of the poison-filled mire had to join in the defense, obviously losing now, but not giving up. The bolts, dimming as they lost power, were no surrendering either, of course, and so they fought on, the war between purity and corruption fought before us, leaving both sides at their weakest, the darkness pooling beneath the light, and looking like it might win out through sheer stubbornness
Then the bolts exploded, like firework, the light from within them scattering, not into the air, but into the water, with motes of their essence swirling into the dark poison, and where they fell, its rallied flesh burned away, leaving only crystal blue waters behind. A half an hour was what it took, but in the end, the lake was clear as air, and we could see the piles of bone gathered up on the bottom of it, some already looking like they were trying to assemble into smaller versions of the hydra.
When it was over, I was at least a bit recovered, and smiled to myself as I walked up to the edge of the water, and with a bit of nervousness, poked my finger into the liquid, watching the surface ripple and move out from that small motion, and then leaving me to turn to the others, whom I found looking rather gobsmacked. Apparently, for all that I'd been impressively bringing the boosts, cleansing a lake of undead poisons was beyond the pale.
Luckily, they recovered, and as the sun overhead sank down out of sight, forcing us to make a campfire, we began to trawl the lake bottom, diving into the liquid, and pulling out the bones as we found them, even having Souka hold up a torch as high as she could to give us additional light, and later she made a small lantern from some iron she salvaged from a small pile of weapons, one with an opening that let her make beams down into the water.
It was, as the moon came up, and my body felt sore beyond words from all the swimming that I called a halt for the evening, and we returned to the fire…fires really, as Souka, with her breath, which could indeed be fire as I found out, had set several of them, so we had a nice ring around ourselves of them, one for drying clothing, and one for drying ourselves, as well as one behind a rock specifically for the females of the group to get away from our prying male gaze.
I was about to protest that none of us would have been leering, but Shadow placed his hand on my shoulder, a look of concern on my face as he shook his head, and I realized I should probably not imply to a woman able to tie me into knots that she, and her friends who were equally able to fry me, were not beautiful. To be fair, they were, in their own ways, but I decided instead to take my leave with the brothers to another fire and warm myself as we waited for them to finish.
An hour later, the whole of the group, stripped down to our undies in the case of us who normally wore clothes, were around another fire, watching as the lake sparkled with moonlight coming from above. It was a sight to behold, and as we ate a few bits of trail rations, none of us spoke, just enjoying the afterglow of victory, and the sights of a wonder that had not been seen in more than five hundred years by mortal eyes.
"You know, when I suggested this place, I was expecting us to be forced to retreat," admitted Ray as we looked out onto that shimmering pool of starlight, breaking the silence at last, and then passing out cups of things from a skin she kept in her pack. The stuff smelled strongly of alcohol, and I decided, since the morning was far enough away, and I doubted she had too much more, to accept it with a nod in thanks.
"This thing has been on the Adventurers Guild's books for longer than some kingdoms have existed. Even with a Hero backing us up, and with my swords and the skills we have, this should have been an impossible task," she continued, as she sat back down, and stared into the fire.
"And yet…it's dead. For the first time in all these centuries, people can dwell here again. The buildings…some of them anyway, are still standing, so we even have a basic start on a good sized city," she said, tilting her cup towards some ruins on the other side of the gorge, away from the lake. Everything right up against it was trashed, but she wasn't wrong that some buildings at least had a wall or three up.
Not that they would serve as good homes now. They'd all need to be torn down, and that meant work, and effort. But with the Waves assaulting the world, this place would be one of the most defensible positions. It would need some way to seal off whatever cavern the hydra had used to slip in under the lake, but that wouldn't take too long, either collapsing the tunnels, or otherwise just some kind of dam-like structure.
Of course, they'd also need to clean up all the boney remains of the hydra's body. They were…extensive, as it turned out, and even with him growing the three brothers back to twice their height, it was slow going, moving the bulk of its form out from the water. They'd probably have to spend most of tomorrow doing it too, unless he just said forget it and grew them to titans again. That might work.
"So, that does leave another question. Who would be the lord of this land now?" I asked, knowing how politics at a kingdom level worked, and that there needed to be one. To my surprise, before I had even worked up a jab at something, all six of my party members pointed at me.
"I…wait…what?!" I shouted, and got some laughter in return, as Ray took a long pull on her own drink, before finally answering.
"The first thing offered when that hydra took up residence was lordship of the village, and that was five-hundred and some odd years ago. Since then, the bounty has only gone up," she explained.
"In fact, didn't the current Queen's great-grandmother up that to a demesne, with all the rights and privileges therein?" asked Lucia, and Ray nodded.
"Two more greats, but yeah, she was the ruler when that idiot poisoned the thing and made the problem worse instead of better. She'd hoped it would encourage people to try harder, the Guild even threw more money as part of the bounty, but no one's been able to claim it, so it's just been sitting there," she said, and I held up a hand to interrupt.
"I'm sorry, but I'm unfamiliar with the term, demesne?" I asked, and Ray took another pull, as Lucia scooted forward towards the fire.
"A normal lord rules their land for the crown, a sort of appointed position, and one the crown had take away at any point of their choosing…technically, we all know if they tried it to an established lord or lady, they'd probably take exception to the attempt and fight to hold onto it," she began, and I nodded along with it.
"A demesne, at least as far as it goes here, is almost a kingdom unto itself. The one who rules that rules without the crown really being able to say a damn thing. Sure, you have to pay the proper taxes to the crown, but after that, you can pretty much be a law unto yourself. The land, the resources, and the people belong to their lord, property for their amusement," she explained, and I had to stop at that third thing, as that was most certainly not what I wanted…but it did open up some possibilities.
"That…sounds far too good to be true," I said, and Ray shrugged as she placed her now empty cup down.
"To be fair, it kind of is. There hasn't been a demesne holder in three-hundred years in this country, or anywhere else, plus since you're not inheriting anyone already living here, you'd have to convince people to join up, which means convincing them you'd be the sort not to abuse that kind of authority," she said, eyeing me, like she was judging if I was or not, I shook my head at that.
"You act like this all goes to just me, but we as a party, were the ones to take this thing down, doesn't that mean you all get a piece?" I asked, and she shook her head at me.
"You were the party leader, that means you're the one to get the reward. We'll take our cut of the power from the EXP, of course," she said with a smirk, as I looked up at her character sheet. She'd said she'd been level fifty-two for almost the entire three years she'd been the keeper of the Capital's Adventurer Hall. Now she was almost fifty-six, after a few days and one major boss fight.
The others weren't much worse off. Souka had been level twenty-two when we started, and was now mid thirties, most of that thanks to the hydra on its own, actually. The brothers were already knocking on the door of fifty, and while Lucia was behind them, she was still not that much behind. Heck, given another fight like that, and I'd be mid forties myself, well on my way to unlocking the portal function of my Bow.
"That…is not how we play this. You helped, and I'm not one for ruling, so I'm going to need advisors, and the like…though we first need to make sure all that's still up for grabs. It would seem to be right up Myne's alley to convince her father to rescind the offer before we can take it," I commented, and they nodded. It would be, admittedly, a bad idea to have someone succeed at something like this, and then take away the prize at the last minute, but she might think herself talented enough to get away with it, after cheating in an official duel between Heroes.
"What about other rewards? The crown put up stuff, but it seems to me you mentioned the Guild had a bounty on this thing too," I said, pointing towards the large crystal, still sitting where Fast, when he'd been giant size, had left it.
"Yeah, there is. A lot of one too. You don't have a monster like this living somewhere they want without nobles, the merchants, or the Guild itself putting up some money. And they tend to sweeten the pot every decade or so. I think the current prize is a bit over one-thousand gold, and some items," she said it with such a casual air that it really was startling, especially as everyone else, even Lucia and Souka, seemed taken aback by that announcement.
"One-thou…," said Lucia, trailing off as she stared into the fire.
"That…is a lot of gold coins," said Strong at last, and Ray shrugged.
"It is. One of the top twenty bounties, actually. And that's not including what we can get from the bones, and that crystal will be worth a fortune, if we want to sell it. All total, with the city, the remains of the hydra, and the general rewards, this was calculated to be a job worth almost as much as one of my blades," she said, patting them, and I goggled at that, both because my (Insight) said either of her swords were worth five digits in terms of gold coins, and also because that was bonkers.
"I told you, Hero, on our way here, this has been a job waiting five-hundred years for someone to do it. Did you think the reward for something like that would be small?" she said with a sarcastic tint to her words. Privately, I had to admit, I kinda had. I still wasn't sure how long that was for these people, since they talked more of the Waves as milestones, and the last one was a bit over five-hundred years prior.
"It is a grand reward then. Tomorrow, we'll finish cleaning out the lake, and see how many other gem cores are inside the bones, and how much bone material we have to work with," I said, motioning towards the three besides the big one we'd already found, as well as the several large piles of bones that were gathered at the lakeshore.
"Then, when we've got them all nice and neat, we'll decide where to go. You said twenty gold was something you didn't have on hand in the Capital, and while Thud certainly had more, I'm going to hazard a guess and say this is well beyond their means to pay as well," I said, and Ray nodded.
"It is, but it will have the stuff to declare you killed it. From there, it will take a few weeks to get everything in order to both give you the money, and more importantly be declared lord of this place," she explained, and it was my turn to nod.
"Then in the morning, Souka, if you would be so kind, start upgrading our gear as best as your supplies allow. Then, start making more pearls, and when we leave here, you can have a full bag of them. We'll see what my Bow can use after that, and then leave the rest for the Guild," I said, laying out the plan for in the morning, and the others didn't have an objection, as we sat around the fire, and began to discuss more specific things we would do in the morning.
Soon enough, we divided up for nightwatch duty, with me taking a middle shift, as the others curled up in their various ways. From Lucia and Ray in their bags, to the brothers huddling together against a rock, and Souka using her breath to warm a patch of ground to sit on for her first shift. I just leaned back against a rock(still better than the barracks in the capital), and drifted to sleep with a smile on my face.