Dungeon Annihilation 29

Good Saturday morning everyone! I hope you are all being safe out there!


  

Louella

Leaving the dungeon and the marquis party, my party went to get a meal at one of the restaurants that had opened in the town. I felt they had earned a good meal for their work in the dungeon. Along with a raise.
“Once we all had an ale in our hands, I held mine up. “Good work in the dungeon today. Thankfully, we did not lose Tez. That made my heart skip a beat. To our success!” I cheered and then we all chugged our ale before slamming our mugs on the table. 
The night passed quickly as we all got drunk. I had never partaken of this much ale before and was finding it quite enjoyable. It was late in the night before Ezal managed to drag me back to the manor.
“Bruce is quite the man. *hic* Neldor has him beat on looks, *hic* but Bruce gives you a sense of security nobles just don’t give you *hic* anymore,” I stammered as Ezal half carried me up the walk to the manor door. Just the thought of those two made me want to start drooling. I wouldn’t admit to anyone that I wanted to run my hand down Bruce’s muscles.
“I know mistress. I found myself quite taken when them as well. For now, we need to get you to sobber up. Tomorrow we have a lot to do. You’re already going to have a nasty headache.”
“You can’t have them! I want them!” I said shaking her but found the world started to spin.
“I think they would have a say in that matter, mistress,” Ezal said laughing. We got through the entrance and Ezal brought me to my room. The last thing I remember was the bed rising up to meet me. 
A ray of sunlight shining directly on my face woke me in the morning. With an unlady like grunt, I sat up and almost immediately fell over from the headache that managed to make the rest of my body ache. I felt like I was about to hurl.
Ezal walked into my room without a knock. “Good morning mistress. How did you sleep?” Ezal said barely above a whisper but it still hurt my head. I grabbed my head as it felt like it was splitting down the middle.
“Wat…er,” I said though it was more of a groan due to my mouth being dry.
“Here.” Ezal handed me a glass of water. I drank it in nearly one gulp and felt a small amount of relief wash over me. “A priest is waiting in the sitting room. Normally, I would want you to learn from this, but you have important duties to attend to today.”
I struggled to nod without feeling like my brain was going to fall out. Ezal helped me up and out into the sitting room. The old priest that took care of the people of the village before the dungeon sat there with a knowing smile. Ezal placed me on the couch and he moved over laying a hand on my head.
There was a soft glow and relief flooded through my body, quickly followed by embarrassment. I hoped that there weren’t too many people that saw me like this. I knew Ezal could keep her mouth shut but others not so much. I would just have to pray to Lelune.
“Thank you, Father.”
“No worries, child. Plenty of people indulge in drink. Mortals like to escape into a bottle every now and then.” He patted my shoulder then walked out of the room. He had gotten much busier since the dungeon’s arrival. I did feel bad about the changes to the village since my coming here, but it would have happened either way.
“Never let me drink that much again,” I said leaning back in the couch. Even though most of the pain and discomfort was gone, my stomach still felt a bit queasy. I vaguely remembered it being fun at the time, but if this was the cost. I wasn’t sure I wanted to partake again.
“I will endeavor to make sure you stay sober,” Ezal said with a mocking bow. “Now we have a meeting with the Adventurer’s Guild about the Tournament as well as the weekly status update on the dungeon. After that, we need to go to the Builder’s Guild to launch a formal complaint about the airdocks. Finally, we have a dinner planned with the Marquis.”
“I’ll go get clean up.”
With only a tiny bit of annoyance, I made my way to my room and the washroom. I didn’t mean to, but I ended up staying in there for close to an hour. The bath having lulled me to sleep several times. Ezal eventually had to come help me or it would have reached two hours. 
With her in charge, I was ready in less than ten minutes. A simple dress with a few protective pieces underneath. As the town and valley prospered so would the likeness that someone would try to remove me from the picture. I probably should always walk in my diving attire, but that would be outlandish.
When we left the manor, a group of Golden Dawn guards were waiting for us. I raised an eyebrow at Ezal but she just shook her head. The leader saluted before addressing us. “Lady Ezal and Baroness Louella. Commander Yin wanted to assign extra protection to you for the next couple days. The tournament is attractive a lot of attention and we can’t be sure of everyone entering the valley.”
“I see. Thank you…” I let the word hang as I didn’t know his name. 
Thankfully, he realized what I was wanting. “Lieutenant Jerash, Ma’am.”
“Thank you Lt. Jerash, I’m sure we are in good hands then.”
With that settled, we moved out onto the street and turned towards the adventurer’s Guild. While the two guilds were about equal distance from my manor, being on opposite sides of the town. I wasn’t sure how the builder’s guild was going to happen, and we decided to handle that one second.
The road leading to the dungeon had turned into the city’s main street. If you were to look at it from the air, the city would look like a giant tree. With two main branches, the passes from Thonaca and Lecazar, with a lot of smaller branches that lead to the trunk, the road to the dungeon.
With Thrad’s help it looked like a properly designed city. Though, I would need to double check that later today. If I didn’t like what I heard, I would be demanding a refund. Him and his little group weren’t exactly cheap. Like hell would I pay for substandard work.
The road leading to the dungeon was wide enough for nearly eight carriages. A crowd of hundreds of people could move with relative ease. The side streets and alleys were much more normally sized, but still wide enough for two carriages. The further from the center you got, the denser the structures were planned. 
“It grows every time I walk the street,” I said looking at the new buildings that had appeared in just the two days since I walked this part of the town. We had taken a roundabout route to get to the dungeon yesterday.
“Indeed. I don’t think I’ve ever seen gold flow as fast as it does here,” Ezal replied. 
We drew a few eyes, but no one appeared to want to risk the guards ire to mess with us. Not to toot our own horn, but Ezal and I were considered beautiful back in the capital. Here surrounded by adventurers made us appear like roses in the middle of a thorny bush. 
Once we got to the adventurer’s Guild, we found a long line outside. When we enquired, they were signing up for the tournament in a few days. I was hoping a few lightning mages joined so I could get a few hints on how to develop my magic further. Tier two mid was the max, but even a tier one might give me an insight to become stronger. 
We bypassed the line and joined the few adventurers making their way inside. There was a small tavern with a large board that took up half the wall with requests on it. I moved over as I wanted to see what was being requested. There wasn’t too much to look at. Only about a third of the board had requests at the moment. With only five floors explored there wasn’t much to ask for yet. Information appeared to be the biggest draw. The only thing that matched it were missing people notices.
“Lady Louella. Cassandra is ready to see you,” a receptionist called while I was reading a request for Goblin eyes.
Ezal and I made our way up to her office. Cassie was buried under a pile of paperwork. I literally couldn’t see her from my side of the room. Suddenly, there was a yell and one of the stacks was tossed the ground revealing a crazed Cassie who had just pushed it off her desk.
“Alright there Cassie?”
“Alright!? Do I look alright to you!?” she demanded harshly pointing at her face. Taking a closer look, it did look like she hadn’t slept in a few days. Her eyes were bloodshot and there were large shadows under them. 
“What the hell happened?” I asked moving around the desk to help her over to the sitting area. Cat beastkin were naturally lithe but she felt almost like she hadn’t been eating. “Ezal run and get her some food.”
“I’m not hungry,” Cassie said but it sounded more like she couldn’t eat rather than she didn’t want to eat.
“I’m not taking no for an answer. You need to eat something before you collapse,” I glanced over to the pile of paperwork on the floor. “Again.”
I pressed Cassie down on the couch then moved over to the water basin on a side table. Wetting a cloth, I moved back over to her and wiped her face down. I couldn’t help but notice that she was hot to the touch.
“I have too much to do. I can’t take it anymore,” she said before breaking down in tears and burying her face in my chest while wrapping her arms around me.
“Tell me what’s wrong.” This just didn’t seem like the woman I met a few months ago. She had been filled with confidence and even just last week appeared fine. There must be something driving this.
“I’m going to lose my Guildmastery,” Cassie said her voice muffled by my chest.
“Can that happen?” I couldn’t remember a Guildmaster ever losing their position. This had to be an incredibly rare event if someone of my schooling hadn’t heard of it happening. 
“Yes. Adventurer Guilds are about the only guilds that it happens in, because it doesn’t rely on one’s mastery of their craft,” she replied pulling her head from my chest and taking a shaky deep breath.
“Why? What happened that would make you lose your position?”
“Too many people have died in the dungeon without there being enough profit to show for it. If the rank must go up again, I will no longer be qualified to manage this location. The average level of the adventurer would be too high for me to, as they say, control. If you could truly control the adventurers.”
“What are the chances of the dungeon’s rank going up again?”
“A group of B rank adventurers are going to be coming to challenge the dungeon. If they can’t make it to the fifteen floor in a week, then the rank will be raised to C rank and I will no longer qualify unless I can either dive further, or take a test back in the capital. A test that costs thousands of gold and happens over the cross of three months. Thus, even if I do take it, my position will be filled before I can finish.”
“Damn.” I concentrated on Cassie’s aura. She was much higher than I was but still in the tier two ranks. I would put her at High or End. I would ask her but that was considered rude unless you were looking to party up. That was an idea! “Cassie. You said you needed to dive the dungeon to prove yourself?”
“Yeah. The further the better.”
“What if you joined my party and we dived it! That would help us both out. We’d get a strong addition to the party and you would get to keep your position.”
Cassie looked at me for a long moment without saying anything. She reached out and took my hand. “I would greatly appreciate that.”
I patted her hand with my free one just as Ezal walked in carrying some bread and soup. “If that is the case, we need you strong. You need to eat,” I said as Ezal placed the meal in front of her. Cassie’s stomach gave a massive growl as the smell of the food filled the room. She gave me a crocked smile then dug into the food with gusto.
She managed to clean her plate in less than a minute. The soup had still been hot, but she appeared not to notice. “Thank you. I won’t disappoint you.”
“I don’t think you will. On to another topic. How is the tournament coming?”
“Everything on that front it is moving along just fine. We have cleared a space near the dungeon to allow for damages. The stands will be a ways from the action but the mage’s guild don’t have any good mages with barrier magic. We discussed separating the mages and warriors but decided it wasn’t worth it.”
“That’s good to hear. Not sure I like the idea being near the dungeon but given there is still quite a distance thanks to the cliffs we should be fine.”
“Other than that, we’re just getting volunteers signed up. As I’m sure you saw outside.”
“It looks like it will take a few days to finish the qualifiers,” I said glancing in the direction of the entrance even though there was a wall between us.
“Most definitely will take a few days.”
Cassie and I chatted for another hour with Ezal joining us once I told her Cassie was joining our party. We had to cut it off there as Cassie had her duties and we had a meeting with Thrad. I was excited for the next time we dived the dungeon. It would be great if we could reach something new.
Thrad was waiting for us with the red-carpet treatment. Sitting down at a beautifully crafted table that had to be worth several platinum coins, he launched into an apology that had to have been rehearsed. I tried to take it all at face value but given that we all could have been sentenced to death I found it hard to believe him.
“And in that vein. I would like to offer you a third off all transactions going forward. As well as a twenty percent return on all the coin you’ve spent so far.”
“That is quite a lot of coin you’re going to lose out on. If the buildings are already being built half-assed then if less coin is moving wouldn’t that just make it worse?” I asked tapping my fingers on the table.
“Many people would see it that way, I suppose. I do want to say that I believe the bad egg has been dealt with thanks to the good marquis.”
“How about this. Enter a magical contract with me and I’ll only take the twenty percent return.”
“What sort of contract?” Thrad asked much more guarded. Magical contracts did result in death in the event they were broken. Unless otherwise specified of course.
“Why, that you’ll serve as my city’s Infrastructure advisor for the next, oh I don’t know, forty years. I feel that should work out well.”
“Forty… forty years you say. I… I would have to think about it. That is quite the commitment.”
“Sure. Think about it, but I want an answer by the end of the tournament. Just know that depending on your answer I will be pulling the Builder’s Guild out and calling in the Construction Guild.” 
The Builder and Construction guild had been rivals since their creation. Mainly one operated out of Thonaca, and the other Lecazar. As I was technically a Thonacan noble, I had called the Builder’s guild. To get my way though, I would not hesitate to call Lecazar’s Construction guild.
“Those pigs,” Thrad said with a frown. I thought he wanted to spit just thinking about them. 
“Those pigs,” I said with a nod. “Think about it.”
I gestured to Ezal and we moved to leave. Thrad sat there with his thoughts etched on his face. I hated to do this considering it was one of his men that paid the price, but I had little political pull. I had to collect pieces to the game that was politics in whatever way I could.