A Soldier's Life

Chapter 163: Gnolls, Bunnies, and Bears, Oh My!

Raelia tentatively picked up the large sapphire necklace. “No, I do not know what any of these items do, but they are all clearly artifacts.” She turned the necklace in her hand, studying the fairies and birds on the chain, shaking her head in disbelief. “This jewel is perfect. It must be worth…” She did not voice her opinion and instead put it down to pick up the large pink stone ring.

She examined the rings artwork, muttering, “It is beautiful.” She stepped back, clearly tempted. “Do you have any other artifacts?” I raised an eyebrow, signaling that I was not going to share my secrets.

“No, we’ve just picked these up in the rooms we have cleared.” I picked up the sapphire necklace and the pink stone ring.

“From my experience, dungeons do not work that way, even old ones. Maybe one in five rooms will have an artifact, and one in three creatures will yield an essence.” Her tone was accusatory as if I were hiding something from her. “Every gnoll gave you a major essence,” she stated flatly. I had already explained that the dungeon had not been delved into for centuries, and I was not going to tell her that my collector was special.

I shrugged, ignoring her plea for an explanation. “If you don’t know what they do, I’ll put them away.” Both items vanished, leaving just the rings. Raelia looked longingly at my empty hands. I guessed all women, regardless of their race, liked jewelry. “Can you get the thermal stone?”

I had let her carry it in her backpack. I placed both rings on the stone and channeled aether into it. As the stone glowed red, tiny symbols formed on the inside of the rings. I had no chance of reading them, but I hoped my trick would work. I focused on one ring at a time, turning the stone with a knife three hundred and sixty degrees while I concentrated.

Seeing me work, Raelia asked in astonishment, “You can see that and understand the runes!”

She distracted me, and I turned the stone again, studying each ring before answering her. “No. I was just looking.” I knocked the rings off the stone to cool. Raelia immediately picked both of them up before I could stop her.

She said haughtily, “Enchanted rings do not get hot in fire. They are extremely difficult to destroy. You would need to toss them into a volcano at a ley line nexus to melt them down, or perhaps have an ancient dragon melt them with its fire breath.” She was too smug with her knowledge. I held out my hand, and she huffed, dropping the rings into it.

“Maveith, can you keep an eye on me while I sleep for a bit?” I asked the goliath, who was setting up his bed.

Raelia scoffed. “We are in a safe room. Nothing can attack you in here.” Her voice trailed off at the end, realizing I wanted to be protected from her.

Maveith moderated, “I understand, Eryk. We will work on preparing a meal for when you wake.” I then brought out all the ingredients he wanted, and he set up with Raelia on the far side of the room. I produced the weasel pelt and my griffon down pillow to get comfortable. I lay down with the dreamscape amulet hidden from Raelia’s sight.

Entering the dreamscape, I spent a good amount of time playing a game of therapeutic fetch with Oscar. I had to ignore Konstantin and the others as I focused on creating the rings: one silver and one gold.

I started with the silver ring from the frost salamander, enlarging it to ten feet across so I could stand in the middle of it. It did not even need to be heated for the spell forms to pop up in glowing blue script. I could not believe it had actually worked. My subconscious had been able to read the details in the real world and replicate them here.

The dreamscape amulet was much more powerful than I had originally thought. I had gotten the idea since it seemed to recreate books from Earth in perfect detail, which I had read a long time ago. Now, the challenge was figuring out what the rings did based on the books Castile left behind. Three hours later, I was still working on the silver ring.

As best as I could decipher from some of the spell forms that matched in the ring with Castile’s books, the ring granted the wearer resistance to cold. How much resistance, I could not determine. Perhaps the ring was a reward for defeating the blizzard lizard, so you would be immune to its cold breath the next time you fought it. This would be useful, especially if we had to leave the dungeon and traverse the ruins in the snow. Should we risk trying to obtain another one?

I repeated the process with the gold ring next. I found this ring near the abandoned merchant wagons when we took the old trade road after heavy rains had washed the barge transport away. The runes here were much more complex.

After hours of studying and comparing, the best I could figure out was that the ring allowed the wearer to influence another person’s disposition positively. How powerful it was, I did not know. It made sense that a trader would wear such a ring. I exited the dreamscape and was welcomed by the smell of roasted meat. I had gotten lost in my work and had not tracked how long I had slept. “Maveith, how long was I asleep?”

Maveith looked over, and I could see the two had been playing checkers. “Six hours, maybe a little more.”

Raelia huffed and announced loudly, “Maveith, can you watch me while I sleep and make sure I am not molested?” She went into the stone alcove across from mine to get some sleep.

I ignored the upset elf and went to get some food. It was a beef stew with potatoes, onions, and bear meat. It was really good, but after a large bowl, I found myself full. Raelia lay on her side with her back to us, and I assumed she was sleeping. “Maveith, this ring will keep you warm in the cold.” Raelia twitched, and I assumed she was not actually sleeping. “See if it will resize to your finger.”

Maveith took the ring and was amazed. “It is working! The ring is getting larger.” Raelia pretended to stretch and rolled over, but her eyes appeared to be closed. It took Maveith nearly ten minutes to slide the ring onto his finger. It thinned out a little, conserving mass, but eventually he said, “I can feel it working. The air around me feels slightly warmer.”

Stolen story; please report.

After being trapped in the freezing city for so long, I had not noticed, but the dungeon corridors and rooms were on the cooler side. Raelia’s eyes opened slowly, and with a hint of accusation in her voice, she spoke. “I thought you said you could not read the spell forms on the ring.”

“And I thought you were sleeping?” We stared at each other for a moment before the elf rolled over, putting her back to us again, and tried to sleep.

“Maveith, I’m going to scout the next room. Will you be safe waiting here with the elf?” I asked half-seriously. The elf pulled her bedroll tight around herself but did not respond to my jest.

Maveith was fingering the silver ring and looked up at me, then at the elf. “I think I will be fine. Can I have the rest of the stew?” I nodded, and he eagerly grabbed the pot to finish it off.

I walked down the corridor cautiously and arrived at a T-intersection. I went right, and the corridor curved for a good long while. Finally, I arrived at another room. It was not large—maybe sixty feet across. A hilly range of dark gray and black stone made up the floor, and the room had a twilight feel to it, with less light than usual light coming from the ceiling. I remained vigilant but did not see movement. I decided not to risk entering.

It was a long walk back to the intersection and the other corridor. I hoped we could find Castile soon, as I wanted to avoid spending eternity in the Shimmering Labyrinth. The other corridor was much shorter, leading to a room with a hilly meadow covered in grass and small flowers—maybe seventy feet across. A fat rabbit stared at me as I approached the room. As I got closer, the rabbit darted into a burrow, and a massive bear appeared from over the mound, furiously digging in the soil, trying to reach the rabbit.

The dark gray coat of the bear shifted with muscle as it dug, but it was not as large as the fire bears. Taking a chance that it was the only creature in the room, I stepped in and removed its chest cavity while its back was turned to me. I paused just inside the room, listening for other creatures. The fat rabbit popped up on the hill to see what was happening, its ears perked up in attention. It quickly ducked into another burrow.

I moved farther into the room and spotted the stone chest, which made me relax. I was about to step toward it but paused. Would the dungeon trick me with a reward chest to make me lower my guard? I cautiously entered the room and noticed no fewer than three rabbits poking their heads up. I shattered the stone chest and took out eight silver coins, a potion of greater healing, and a potion of stamina.

So far, every bear I had killed had rewarded me with a greater healing potion in this dungeon. Was this a coincidence, or would this continue? A greater dungeon healing potion was valuable. An alchemist’s major healing potion was worth fifty gold but had a shelf life. Dungeon potions had no such limitation from what I had been told. I thought it might be time to try milking the room for this healing potion since the safe room was just a ten-minute walk away.

I suspected this was a stone bear. The bear’s hide was coarse and difficult to cut. I harvested some meat with an elven dagger claimed was from the armory. It was not Raelia’s, as I had told her I would not use it. I waited for enough aether to retrieve the collector, stacking up the best cuts as I went. I had learned a lot about harvesting game from Maveith, and I thought he would be proud of how much I had improved.

I was not surprised when I harvested an apex strength essence. I was slightly disappointed, though, as the apex essence probably meant no one from the company had reached this room yet. The rabbits watched me from a safe distance the entire time, their instincts telling them I was the new apex predator.

As I walked through the smaller chamber, I saw only grass, clovers, and small wildflowers for the rabbits’ diet. I considered exploring further but realized I had already been gone for almost four hours, by my estimation. So, I stored everything in my dimensional space and returned to the safe room. Maveith looked up as I returned and told Raelia, “Told you he was okay. Eryk can take care of himself.”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Raelia replied quickly, “I was not worried. I was just asking if we should check on him.”

I ignored the exchange and told them what I found. “The corridor forked. There’s a simple meadow room with a stone bear.” I produced fifty pounds of bear meat next to Raelia’s bed. “There are some quick rabbits in the room, but I couldn’t catch any of them. Maybe we can get some with a bow. I did not enter the room at the end of the other fork; it had uneven rock terrain, and I didn’t see any threats, so it could be an ambush predator.”

“You killed a stone bear by yourself?” Raelia said, astonished, then added, “Of course you did.” As if it were not a big deal. Then, irritated, she moved her bedding to ensure the blood from the meat did not reach it.

Maveith looked disappointed. “Is this all you harvested?” I added the kidneys and liver to the pile, and he cheered up. Not that I would be eating either.

Next, I handed Maveith the apex strength essence. “It’s a strength essence, Maveith. Take it next. We’re going to clear the gnoll room again after the dungeon restocks it.”

Raelia’s eyes watched the essence jealously as it passed from my hand to Maveith’s and then directly into his mouth. “Why are we fighting the gnolls again?” Her tone was challenging.

“Because I said so,” I said, sitting down, relaxing near my bed. Maveith shot me a look to be nicer, so I added, “Partly for the essences, but mostly because of the potatoes and the water from the stream.” That explanation seemed to placate the griffin rider. “Maveith, I got two potions as well. A greater healing potion and a stamina potion. Keep them accessible, and you can give the elf one of the lesser healing potions.”

“Maveith already gave me back one of my healing potions. A greater dungeon healing potion?” Raelia inquired, suddenly highly interested and moving closer.

I frowned at Maveith, but I suppose it was his right to give the lesser healing potion to the elf. I just wished he had told me. “Yes. So far, the reward chests in this dungeon for bears seem to give a greater healing potion every time.” I thought for a minute. “This was the fifth time I had killed a dungeon bear, and the reward chest had a greater healing potion each time.”

“You have five greater dungeon healing potions! They are worth five hundred gold each!” Raelia exclaimed.

“No, that’s the only one left. Maveith got one, Konstantin got one, and you got two,” I said, doing the math.

“You gave me two greater healing potions?!” She exclaimed in shock.

“Yeah, you looked like a dragon’s chew toy, and I only wanted to give you one, but Maveith insisted you needed another to survive,” I replied. If Maveith was interested in the elf, the least I could do was make him look good.

Raelia was quiet for a moment before she whispered, “Thank you.” But I did not know if she was directing it at me or the goliath.

We returned to the gnoll chamber a half day later to find the eight gnolls restored. Raelia was able to take out six in a single fireball, which made the room extremely easy. It was time to start squeezing the bears and gnolls for essences and loot.

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