Bronson retired to his rented room in the village inn. Normally, the small undecorated room with an even smaller bed would have made him scoff. Currently, though, his mind was racing, and it didn’t even pick up on the state of the room.
What was that? He was, of course, referring to the obvious threat that Derek had given him. Bronson thought back to all the time he spent with Derek throughout the day. The man’s attitude and personality had switched constantly. He couldn’t put his finger on which was the ‘real’ Derek. One thing is for certain, he is a dangerous man.
What about his beast companion? What kind of class and level would one need to have to get that kind of result bonding with a regular Horned Rabbit? That thought made Bronson shudder. He had never seen a purple element before. At first, he thought it was a more powerful lightning-type element, but when he saw the bolt of lightning hit the boar, his opinion changed.
The boar had died on impact, but the skill hadn’t left a mark on its body. Bronson even paid attention to the boar while the bunny was ripping it apart. There was no apparent damage to the boar internally. It’s almost like the attack extinguished the soul of the creature. It was the only possibility that Bronson could think of. The only reason he even knew that souls existed in the first place was because of Maria and her powers.
Before the bunny attacked, Bronson had thought that Derek had a class that focused on physical ability. How else would he have been able to stop his greatsword with one hand? Up to that point, Derek had given no indication otherwise. He had, of course, used some type of healing or restoration spell on his hand, but Bronson figured the spell could have come from a scroll or dungeon.
Then he saw the bunny’s transformation and its attack on the boar. Still, Derek had shown none of his personal skills. Well, until his threat at the bar. His purple irises had stretched to cover the entirety of his eyes. Looking into them, Bronson could only imagine his soul shuddering.
Then there was the teleporting. He wasn’t even sure if he should call it teleportation. There was no time between when he was in one chair, then the other. Bronson had seen people teleport before, and it was never as instantaneous as what Derek had displayed.
Above all else was the pressure from Derek’s aura that Bronson felt when Derek gave his warning. Bronson had only felt a pressure like that once in his life, when the City Lord’s father visited from the capital and brought a guest with him. That guest was another advisor of the king.
Bronson sat on the small bed in the cramped room and went over what he was going to report to his master. At this point, the death of Wallace and the birth of a dungeon that rewarded storage rings had been moved to the back of his mind. That night was one of the most restless nights in his life.
Derek opened his eyes and sat up. He reached out his arms and yawned while he stretched. I haven’t slept that good in forever. After leaving to his room the night before, he had slept like a baby. After stretching, Derek looked back at his pillow. Silvi was curled up, snoozing against the headrest. She had basically slept on his head the previous night.
Derek transmitted Silvi a message to wake her up. ‘Wake up. It’s time to go. We’ve got a lot of travel ahead of us.’
Silvi opened her eye and glared at Derek. ‘Can’t. Must sleep. So comfy,’ she sent back.
‘Nope, no sleeping in today. Come on,’ Derek said. The bunny stared at him before giving up and rousing itself awake. Then she flew into his arms.
‘You carry. I will allow. I sleep,’ she said.
Derek shifted Silvi into his left arm and left his room. He looked at the room that Bronson stayed in the previous night and wondered if he was still there. He walked over to the bar and asked Bart, “He left the inn yet?”
“Nope, you’re the first one up,” Bart replied.
“That’s good. I have some things to take care of before we leave. By the way, I’ll be headed to the city with him today. I don’t know how long it will be before I come back.” Derek stuck out his hand for a handshake. Bart grabbed it. “It was nice meeting you.”
“You’re welcome here any time,” Bart said.
Derek nodded. “When he wakes up, tell him I’ll meet him at Rayna’s place.”
“Will do.”
Derek left the inn and walked towards Mal and Brandi’s place.
He rounded the corner to the courtyard and saw that either Brandi had worked all night, or she woke up very early. She was in the middle of making some piece of clothing. Derek waited for the girl to finish what she was doing.
Brandi held up the small shiny cloth over her head so the sun could catch. She nodded her head and released a breath. “What’s that?” Derek asked from behind her, startling her out of her daydream.
After calming down, the girl spoke. “It’s a cloak for Silvi. She’s just so cute. I thought she needed something more.” She handed the cloth to Derek.
Derek took the cloth. The cloth was smooth, almost like a mix between silk and cotton, and purple—almost the same shade as Silvi’s mane but darker. “How did you get the color?” he asked.
“Oh, that’s one of my Alchemy skills. It lets me take any plants and make dyes the same color. The tricky part was getting the black hide to brighten up so I could make a color other than black. Finally, I just made a white dye, then used the purple dye after. It worked pretty good, right?” she asked.
“Very good. I’m sure she will love it.” He smiled, then took Silvi and sat her down on the bench.
‘Why? Was so comfy,’ she sent as she woke back up.
“Look at what Brandi made you.” Derek held up the small cloak. Silvi sniffed it and asked what it was for. “It’s a cloak. It will keep you warm and give you a little extra protection.” He took the cloak and tied it around Silvi, just under her mane. ‘Well, what do you think?’ he asked.
Silvi hopped around the area. The cloak rose and fell with each hop. ‘I like. Am I elegant?’
Derek laughed at her question. ‘Yes, very elegant indeed.’ He looked over at Brandi and gave her a thumbs-up. “She loves it.”
“That’s great!” Brandi said. “Hold on, I have to go get yours,” she said and ran inside the house.
Oh, I wonder what she made me. It wasn’t long before the little girl came running back out holding two identical pieces of clothes.
“You said you were running low.” She held out two dark black T-shirts. They seemed to be made of the same material as the cloak Silvi was wearing. She had gotten the shape and form very close to the shirts that Derek usually wore. “I couldn’t get the feel any closer. I don’t know what material whoever made yours used. I made these out of the bats I picked up. The hides had to be softened, so I used my tailoring skills a lot. They lost a lot of armor because of the skill, but I figured you don’t care a lot about the armor, so I used the skill until they stopped getting softer.”
Derek took the shirts and examined them. “Thank you! They’re great!” He wasn’t being overly kind, either. He really was running low on T-shirts, and he was genuinely thankful for the girl’s gifts.
Brandi beamed. “You’re welcome!”
Derek couldn’t imagine what another Leathersmith would think about the girl using hides over level 100 to make shirts like this. His shirts were even softer than Silvi’s cloak, so she must have used whatever tailoring skill she had much more on his. He wouldn’t have it any other way.
Soon, the mood changed, and Brandi started pouting. “Do you really have to leave?”
He patted her on the head. “I do, but I will be back.” Then he moved in a lot closer. “And if things go like I hope, I can bring you with me.”
“Really?” she asked in surprise. “What about Mom?”
“Her too. It would be better that way,” he answered. “But first, I have to make sure that it’s safe. Remember, you have to keep your skills a secret. The storage rings, too.”
Brandi nodded.
“I’m going to go say bye to your mom, then Rayna. After that, I’ll be off to the city. You be good,” he said as he walked to the front door of the house.
He knocked and waited for Malorie to answer. The door opened, and she invited him inside.
Not long after, Derek walked out of the house with a steaming hot biscuit in each hand. And, since there was food, Silvi had once again made an appearance.
After some begging, Derek finally relented and gave one of the biscuits to Silvi. According to her, it was the best food she had ever tasted. It took Derek some time to convince Silvi that she still had to follow him and that she could not stay with the ‘Wonderful. Beautiful. Delicious lady.’
After that, he headed to Rayna’s residence to say his goodbyes to her. That was also where he planned to meet back up with Bronson. He would stop by Thomas’s house on his way out of the city. He wanted to give the boy as much time as possible to say his goodbyes to his grandparents.
When Derek arrived at the village chief’s house, Rayna was already at the door waiting for him. “Come on in,” she said, then she turned to lead him inside.
Entering the meeting room, Derek looked around to see some familiar faces. Richard was there, along with Leon and his wife, Sana. Delilah was not there, but Derek figured she was spending every second she could with Thomas. Surprisingly, Bart had made his way from the inn to the meeting room, too.
Derek looked over at the small group of people. “This is surprising,” he said. “I was only expecting Rayna. To what do I owe this honor?” he jested.
Sana stood and spoke first. “I heard you were leaving and possibly not coming back. I know I thanked you before, but I needed to thank you again for saving Leon and all the other survivors.” She bowed at that.
“There’s no need for that,” Derek said, quickly raising her back up. “I was there. It was well within my power to help, and there were no downsides to doing so. Also”—he looked at Richard— “I’m not trying to make light of your tragedy, but it was a good learning experience for the kid. He was naïve—and still is to a certain extent. What happened to the village opened his eyes to some more of the dangers in this world.”
Leon laughed. “Here I was going to thank you, too. After that speech, I don’t feel the need to anymore.” He walked over and stuck his hand out. Derek shook it. “I’ve had my reservations about you, especially with the… monster thing. But, from everything else I’ve learned about you—which still isn’t a lot, by the way—you seem to be a decent man.”
This ‘meeting’ was uncomfortable for Derek, to say the least. He was caught off guard by the people, then even more by the gratitude they were showing. He typically avoided situations like this, but he powered through.
“You’re not too bad yourself,” Derek answered. “But you need to do what you can to help Rayna and Richard run this village after I leave. It won’t be long before the city, and others, catch wind of the storage rings rewarded from the new dungeon, and with this village being the closest to the dungeon, I’m sure it will become lively. Though I don’t believe there will be very many people coming back from the dungeon.” He smirked.
Derek was really the only person who had experienced the dangers of the undying dungeon. Sure, the other four had been there, but they didn’t see the number of ghouls and couldn’t understand the dangers of the acid and poisons they could inflict. Derek didn’t think the skeletons would prove too much of a challenge to adventurers at or around level 100, but once the second wave began, he suspected they would realize that they had bitten off more than they could chew.
Eventually, word would get around about how hard the dungeon actually was. Who knows? Maybe someone would even come out alive. For all Derek knew, there could be a scroll that would allow a person to leave a dungeon instance without completing it. But when word got around, especially to the Gracefalls, Derek needed to have built up a certain reputation.
It wouldn’t take long for everyone to figure out how unlikely it was that Wallace actually completed the dungeon, even if he died in the process. And when that secret was out, Derek, and this little village, would become the first suspects. Hell, Derek wasn’t even sure of how much of everything Bronson bought into.
After thanking Derek, Leon and Sana both left. They said their goodbyes and wished him safe on all his travels. With that, the room was left with Rayna, Richard, Derek, and Bart.
“Well, hell. I just wanted to see ya off. Not often that I run into someone who can keep the ale down and maintain a conversation at the same time. I’ll let yous three have at it. Yer always welcome at the inn.” Bart got up and patted Derek on his shoulder. “Take care, ya hear?”
Derek chuckled. “Will do. And be careful of whoever you sell that piss to. Wouldn’t want you dying over some noble choking to death.”
Bart just snorted and left the three of them behind.
“And then there were three,” Derek said.
“I don’t exactly know what you and the others did while you were gone, but seeing their strength and knowing about how Wallace Gracefall saved the forest, I have some ideas. Hell, the boy is stronger than me now. I couldn’t discipline him even if I wanted to,” Richard complained.
Derek smiled at that.
Richard then became serious. “He’s been talking about going with you all night. I don’t think Delilah or I got a lick of sleep because of it. I know we’ve let him wander around with you, and he’s all the better for it, but we always knew he would be back—and soon. Now he’s saying that you’re both leaving, and he doesn’t know when he’ll be back, if ever…” Richard’s serious tone broke, and he began showing emotion.
“Just promise me you won’t let anything bad happen to him. Take care of our boy,” Richard said. “And when you see Delilah before you leave, do your best to reassure her. She’s going to be more broken up than anyone else.”
“I can’t promise you that nothing bad is going to happen to the boy. Hell, I can pretty much assure you he will go through a lot. What I can promise you is that I will do my best to keep the boy alive. That’s not to say that I won’t let him get hurt because I will. I may even be the one to hurt him. But I will keep him alive to the best of my ability,” Derek replied. He would not lie to the man.
With that, Richard stood and walked by Derek before turning around and saying one last thing, “And if you do ever decide to come back, see if you can’t bring me a new map.” He left the room.
Derek laughed out loud. “He’s still worried about that map.” He shook his head and looked at Rayna. “Should I tell him that Bronson retrieved it and plans to give it back to him before we leave? Or should I just let Bronson keep it?”
She giggled. “That would just be cruel. Taking his grandson and his beloved map.” She shook her head. “Nope, you have to make sure he gets it back before you leave.”
Rayna then looked down at Silvi, who had been surprisingly patient throughout the meeting. “I guess that this is your companion that Thomas told Richard about.” She bent down to pet the void bunny, but Silvi disappeared and reappeared on the table behind Rayna and snorted. Rayna’s eyes went wide in surprise.
“Yup, this is Silvi. She doesn’t speak, but she’s every bit as intelligent as a normal person. Not to mention that she could probably destroy everything and everyone in this village—and that’s including Bronson,” Derek said.
“That strong? Is it because of your special… condition?” she asked.
“You can say that. When you bond with a companion, it seems as if they get a percentage of your stats based on your class rarity. 75% for my legendary class. Though Bronson said that if your bonded companion dies, it damages your soul, and I don’t really know what that means, and I didn’t ask,” Derek explained.
Rayna did not bat an eyelash at his casual mention of his legendary rarity class. “So, a legendary class gives a whole 75%?” Rayna mumbled, thinking about something. “So, you’re saying that this little bunny has three-quarters of your strength?” The absurdness of that idea finally hit her. “Holy shit!” she exclaimed.
‘I the best. So strong. Almost strongest,’ Silvi communicated to Derek.
‘Yeah, ALMOST the strongest. And don’t you forget it,’ he said.
Rayna snapped out of her daydream. “I’ve heard a bit about broken bonds. The ‘soul damage’ is actually worse than it sounds.” She narrowed her eyes at Derek. “For most people, at least. It probably won’t be too bad for you. When your soul is damaged, your body can’t output all its strength, and you lose XP based on how bad the damage is.”
“Okay. So you just need to earn the XP back?” Derek asked.
She shook her head. “It’s not that easy. The problem is that your level will stay the same. Say your soul damage reduces your overall strength to half. The problem with that is that when you are a certain level higher than your target, you will no longer get any XP. So, your strength is reduced to half, but you still have to fight enemies that are around your level to get XP. In your case, I don’t think it would be a problem, but for a normal adventurer, it’s devastating.”
She was right. It wouldn’t be a problem for Derek. If his stats were reduced to half, he would still be stronger than basic monsters at his level. It may take some time to get the XP back, especially with a legendary class, but he would eventually get everything back.
“Anyway, the reason I came here, besides saying goodbye.,” Derek broke the silence. “is that I hadn’t thought that Bart would come before me, so you may already know. I’m pretty sure I scared the shit out of Bronson last night and gave him a pretty clear warning. I don’t think anybody, at least from the Gracefall side, will cause you any trouble. But err on the side of caution.”
Rayna nodded her head. “Bart said that you pulled some neat tricks last night.”
Derek chuckled at that. If only they knew. He then spoke again. “Also, keep an eye on Brandi. She’s a bit too excited about her class. Try to keep her contained. Only a few people know about her class, and it needs to stay that way. I would rather not come back to find that someone has kidnapped her to work as a slave for some noble house that would soon cease to exist. I plan on making nice with some people, intimidating others, and possibly worse, just to have a place for her to practice her craft without worry.”
After that, Rayna hugged Derek without warning. “Thank you for saving everyone. Thank you for saving me. And thank you for everything else you’ve done. If the village runs smoothly after everyone finds out about the dungeon, or if the king decides it’s best to send an overseer to take over because of the valuable dungeon, I may go with you when you come to get Brandi… If you’ll have me.”
Derek smiled. “Of course. You would be most welcome.” He hugged her back. There wasn’t anything between the two. In fact, Rayna reminded Derek more of a sister than anything else. She was just about the only person who would scold him and didn’t constantly look up to him in reverence. “Now I have to go. I heard Bronson arrive a couple of minutes ago. He’s waiting patiently outside.” With that, Derek turned and walked out of the house.
