Chapter 48

Two weeks. It had been two weeks, as near as Wil could tell without a sun to judge by, since he had descended into the ruins.

In that time, he had explored hundreds of rooms and corridors, survived deadly traps, solved riddles, and fought monsters. He had learned from experience about what to expect from the life of an adventurer, how to look for certain patterns and quirks in the ruins to assist his explorations.

For example, nothing was ever as it seemed here, and he learned to look beyond the face value of an object or location.

One notable example had been a treasure chest, tucked amongst a collection of broken crates and debris. Unlike its plain appearance, half rotten and moldy wood, it was actually a monster in disguise, one that would have taken his hand if he hadn’t had a ‘Misty Step’ ready to avoid its teeth.

It seemed the ruins intended to hammer the point home, to always expect the worse and always be on guard. After two weeks in the dimly lit ruins, he had gained an awareness of danger that reminded him of his time in Aachen. Except there he knew that monsters lurked in every corner, here, it could be anything.

A trick he discovered in the ruins was a series of scratched runes that periodically appeared. Whether it was for the test takers, or the Guild when they ventured down here, they often pointed him in useful directions.

After a few, long days of rations and stored water, he had spotted a rune that led to a cache of dried food and pool of clean water. Another had led him to bathing facilities, tucked away in the dark. Hot water springs and safe rest areas with heavy doors to protect him from any wandering creatures.

After two weeks, cleaning spells could only do so much, and his ragged appearance and smell appreciated it whenever he stumbled onto such a gift as a hot spring or place to sleep without worry of interruption.

Wil hadn’t been completely alone during his time down in the ruins. A few times he found himself fighting side by side with another person or group, combining forces to overcome an obstacle or enemy, before parting ways again.

It was like the Guild said, they were all expected to work together to a degree in the future, to put mutual self interest of completing a goal over selfishness or dislike.

Thus, Wil found himself in a safe area, the runes placed by the guild leading him to the area with a dimly lit glyph, spotted high on the ceiling as he walked alone down a passage.

It was one of the largest safe areas he had found, a wide chamber with scattered furniture and beds, crates of food and a fountain of clean running water in the center. He could feel the enchantments in the room settle over him, promising protection and deterrence of evil intentions and monsters.

To his surprise, he wasn’t alone. Over a dozen people were gathered here, sitting together in small groups, or alone. As a whole, they all looked up as Wil entered the room, their hands reaching for weapons, before they saw him and relaxed.

Walking in slowly, with his hands visible to show no ill intentions, Wil looked around at the safe room. In the back, tucked away behind a pile of rocks, he could spot the telltale signs of a hot springs, the steam rising just out of the room’s torchlight.

Relaxing, Wil made his way to the back, eyeing his new roommates with a critical eye. They were a mishmash of races and specializations. He saw a trio of dwarves, speaking in a quiet tone with each other, their deep voices a low rumble.

To his right, a party of four human mages were sitting at a table, a slew of books opened around them as they read, occasionally speaking, and pointing at something.

There were even a pair of Beastmen, a male and a female, the man had wolf’s ears and yellow eyes, while the woman had a white fox tail peeking out of her leather armor.

Finally, there were an assortment of lone humans, like Wil, who seemed to have found their way here together by happenstance.

Shrugging of their stares as they sized him up, as he was doing to them, Wil made his way to the hot springs in the back room. Luckily, the Guild had thought to install a rough curtain of cloth that closed the area off from the main.

Secluded and alone, Wil stripped off his armor and clothing, before easing into the near scalding hot water. It had been days since he had last found a safe resting area that had bathing facilities, and he was grateful again for the guild ignoring realism in favor of small mercies like these.

Closing his eyes, he let the water ease the aches and pains that had accumulated from his time here, until his skin was wrinkled and pruned. Opening his eyes to the dim light, he reluctantly climbed back out, drying himself with a quick spell, before casting the cleaning charm on his armor and clothing as well.

Tired from the hot bath, Wil dragged himself back to the room, finding the bed farthest from the others before he settled down on the soft bedding. Not completely trusting of the others, despite the guild’s assurance that they should work together, he cast the simple spell ‘Alarm’ around his bed and set it to signal him if anyone came close.

Exhausted, Wil fell into a dreamless sleep, the first he had in days.

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Wil came awake to yells and shouts. Bleary eyed and still exhausted, he cracked open an eyelid to see what the fuss was about.

“No fluffy tailed bastard is going to tell my lads what to do. You can shove that tripe right up your arses!”

“And I’m telling you, Dwarf, for your own wellbeing. We have tried your way before, and it has gotten us nowhere!”

“Just because you’re too weak to get pass, doesn’t mean a gods damned thing to us. So, tuck your tail between your legs, mutt, and we’ll get this done!”

Resigned to not getting anymore sleep until the situation was resolved, Wil rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he sat upright, looking at the others.

The trio of dwarves were squared off in the center of the room, facing the pair of Beast People. Although the pair towered over the short, bearded dwarves, they stood their ground. From the feeling of the mana in the air, both parties were evenly matched. The dwarves were all rank 5, but the pair of Beastmen were Rank 6.

The rest of his ‘roommates’ were gathered in a circle around the feuding races, some nodding with the dwarves, although Wil noticed that the group of human mages seemed to be siding with the Beastmen.

“It has nothing to do with strength, you stubborn fool! It is obvious that this portion of the test is about teamwork! A group must hold against the horde of monsters while the others open the gate. You cannot do both and succeed. We have tried for days before you arrived, and it is impossible without the proper numbers.” The wolf eared man said, shaking his head at the dwarves as he explained.

“Maybe for you. But me and the lads are tougher than you lot, and I don’t trust a word you say. You just want the tokens for yourselves! You get all of us to team up, hold off this ‘horde’ of yours, while you sneak in and take them for yourselves!” The lead dwarf yelled, pointing a finger at the wolf man’s face.

“Bah! Maybe you can talk some sense into this Dwarf, mage.” The man said, scoffing and walking away.

Wil turned his attention to the group of mages, as their leader, a young woman, stepped forward to speak.

“We concur with his assessment. The test requires at least 3 people to break through the wards protecting the gate. It would take at least an hour to accomplish, maybe less if they were skilled. If they are attacked during that time, all their work will be undone.”

“Mages! Bunch of milk drinkers.” The dwarf spat, his face twisting with disgust as he stared the young woman down.

“This would not be an issue if we work together. There are 3 silver tokens, and one gold. I am sure we can come to some agreement on even distributions.” The woman said, trying to reason with the dwarf.

“Aye, we can come to an agreement. We keep all of them, and the lot of you are shit out of luck.” One of the dwarves laughed, before moving to leave the room.

“Come on lads, let’s get this done.”

The trio of dwarves left the room, the sounds of their boisterous laughter and the occasional insult echoing through the chamber as the disappeared into the darkness. Wil spotted several of the loners following along behind.

“Would anyone care to explain what in the Twins that was about?” Wil shouted, finally awake and slightly cranky about it.