hotmtlnovel Chapter 42: Newbies
Chapter 42: Newbies
Chapter 42: Newbies- Excerpt from , Third Edition
Teagan
Teagan nervously readjusted her leather vest. It had been a gift from her grandmother when she had earned her class and she had been super excited when she first tried it on. But it chafed uncomfortably under her armpits, clearly not designed to be worn over a dress.
“I’ll go first,” Braden decided, securing his buckler to his belt before hauling the grate up off the hole in the ground. He lit his torch. It was just a rag tied to the end of a stick and dipped in cheap lamp oil – cheap enough that it made a sooty flame. “Follow me, everyone.”
“Don’t fall on your face, o mighty warrior,” Willow said, lighting her own torch and following him down into the hole, her blonde braid somehow never tangling with the bow slung across her back.
The ladder leading down into the sewer was nothing more than a set of rusty iron staples jutting from the stone wall. She reached out and stepped on the first one, holding her breath as she began her slow descent into the dark sewers. Well below her feet – entirely too far down – the light of the torches danced and bounced around as Braden and Willow reached the bottom.
Darkness closed in as her head passed below the street level, and immediately the muffled crashing and thumping of the Goblin siege weapons faded, leaving only the soft sounds of dripping water, and the clanking of Basil following her down the ladder, showering her with rust and dirt with every step. He acted even more timid than her.
Teagan finally placed her bare foot on the cold, damp, and rather slimy brick of the sewer tunnel floor and stepped aside for the Herbalist’s apprentice, Basil. This ‘adventure’ had been his idea – apparently, someone had claimed to see mushrooms growing down in these sewers, and he had insisted on posting a job on the guild quest board.
Normally, the Guildmaster would have vetoed them taking the quest since they had only just reached level two before the Goblins had arrived – using the quest board required bronze rank – but there was nobody else. The garrison was so low on resources that Vivian Ross finally relented and asked them to escort Basil to collect whatever could be used for the defense of the town. In theory, they were still within the town down here, and it should be safe, but Vivian Ross had insisted they were to run if they found any monsters above their level.
Honestly, she had been excited just to be doing something – anything – that might be useful. Sitting around during a dungeon-break and doing nothing, even though you had unlocked a combat class, was beyond frustrating. But now, standing in the dank, smelly sewer and hearing the trickle of water in the darkness, she was suddenly not quite so sure of herself.
“Come on, let’s go,” Braden announced and began walking down the sewer tunnel, holding his torch high above his head to light the way. The normally soft metallic clinking of his well-worn chainmail shirt sounded unnaturally loud down here.
Brown-haired, stocky Braden liked to play leader, but Teagan knew he would happily lead them into a forest without a map and get them hopelessly lost. It would be Willow that had the wits to remember the way back.
Willow – a tall Human from Hickory Hollow, deep in the great southern forest – had been struggling with her Beast Tamer class. Nearly half her initial skills required her to form a bond with a companion beast, but she hadn’t found anything suitable yet. But that would mean facing monsters. She shivered, then forced out a giggle.
She let Braden and Willow take the lead, keeping up the rear with Basil.
she reminded herself, taking her place. At least, the Guildmaster had been more than thorough about drilling them on the basics of adventuring. She followed along in silence, choking back an urge to gag as the fetid odor of the sewer channel assaulted her nose. She glanced back to check on Basil, but he didn’t seem to be much of a conversationalist – certainly not like Willow and Braden. He followed along in silence, his eyes
Aliandra
Once again, Ali wished the sewers didn’t smell quite so foul. She felt as if she had made a bit of a breakthrough discovery with her mushrooms, but with the Goblin siege and all the sudden work, she hadn’t had nearly enough time to claim the entire sewer yet, nor experiment with the effects she had noticed earlier.
Things in town seemed to be getting worse. She had paired up with Malika for her patrol this evening because Calen had taken a job shooting from the battlements. The sounds of Goblins screeching outside the walls had been unceasing, interrupted only by the periodic explosive reports of fireballs or lightning as the elite Goblins took potshots at the guards on the battlements.
Their patrol had been quiet, with almost everyone respecting the evening curfew. Only a few criminals braved the streets, and those had been weak enough that they had simply fled when she and Malika approached.
“I’m looking forward to some food and sleep,” Malika said as they walked the dark tunnels by the light of Ali’s occasional barriers.
“I still need to make some more arrows before bed,” Ali grumbled. The Guildmaster had personally asked her if she could make more. Apparently, the garrison was using them up at a furious pace, and it wasn’t like it would be easy to retrieve them from the Goblin horde camped outside the gates.
Her meandering thoughts were suddenly interrupted when she bumped into the back of Malika’s leg.
“Shh…” Malika hushed her before she could ask any questions.
In the silence, Ali heard muffled shouting and banging coming from up ahead. Ali peered around Malika’s leg and the corner of the sewer tunnel.
A little way down the tunnel, a discarded torch flickered on the mossy ground where it lay. A brown-haired boy wearing a chain shirt at least three sizes too big for him waved his sword and shield, cursing as he struggled against the roots from one of Ali’s runic circles.
Her traps were for Goblins, not people.
On the far side of the channel, a blonde human girl wearing brown leather armor darted and weaved, jumping like an excited grasshopper across the channel while firing arrows at one of her Toxic Slimes. A second slime bore down on a red-haired girl who looked to be frozen in terror. She was barefoot and wore an impractically long, flowing forest-green dress with a hem stained from being dragged around in the sewers. A leather vest had been awkwardly strapped over the dress.
Cowering behind a large pile of rotting trash, observing the debacle, was a fourth. A boy that Ali instantly recognized as the one she and Calen had rescued.
Even she had not been that much of a liability in a fight – she hoped.
Ali tried to step past Malika, but she felt her friend’s hand settle on her shoulder.
“Wait,” Malika whispered.
“I have to tell my slimes to stop attacking them!” Ali replied with an urgent whisper.
“I recognize them. They’re newbie adventurers from the guild,” Malika said. “I think this might be their first solo fight.”
“My slimes are going to hurt them.” Ali trusted Malika, but right now she didn’t understand why the other girl was suddenly being so obtuse.
“I think they’ll be ok,” Malika insisted, her gaze intent on the unfolding scene. As if on cue, the boy, now freed of the roots by the presence of a strange wooden totem emitting vibrating nature magic, charged the slime and earned himself a face full of toxic spray. He screamed.
Ali glanced at Malika in concern.
“If we get involved, they won’t earn any experience,” Malika cautioned, apparently unmoved by his shrieks. “Watch, I think the redhead is a healer.”
The previously terrified, barefoot girl was now wielding her magic. Ali’s eyes widened in astonishment as the nature mana burst from the girl’s hand flowing out in a swirling streamer of brilliant green to connect her with the hurt boy desperately trying to stab a slime he clearly couldn’t see.
Ali immediately recognized it. While it was quite different in composition than the druidic restoration magic that she could create with her runes, it bore enough similarities that she could tell simply by looking.
Ali realized, seeing similarities in the fundamental class skills. Her mana was Nature, not Lightning, and the totem was wooden instead of metal, but the mechanism seemed similar. The girl threw totems, used healing beams instead of lightning bolts, and wielded a shield that glowed with nature magic.
And a few moments later, both slimes were dead.
The boy complained loudly about the lack of loot while the blonde girl excitedly shared that she had leveled up. Ali’s simple use of Identify confirmed that all of them except Basil had just leveled.
“They just got level three,” Ali whispered.
“Don’t they just remind you of us when we first got our classes?”
“Were we ever that scared?” Ali asked. She thought about some of the early fights she had had. “Actually, don’t answer that. I think I was way worse.”
Malika snickered lightly in response. “No, they take the prize.”
“Hey, he’s picking my mushrooms,” Ali complained. It had taken most of the day to plant everything and now Basil’s excited voice echoed through the tunnel as he uprooted her mushrooms and stored them in a bag.
“Listen,” Malika whispered. “He just explained that those two are good poisons.”
Ali concentrated on their conversation and caught them talking about how the Glowcap mushrooms could be used to make mana potions.
“Perhaps you can sell some of those too,” Malika suggested.
“They’re going to search for more?” Ali asked incredulously as the party of four retrieved their discarded torches and packs and headed further down the tunnel.
“Looks that way.”
“What should we do?” Ali was still trying to unpack what had just happened. “They’re killing my slime sentries and stealing my mushrooms.”
“Let them continue? They’re level-three adventurers. This is probably their very first quest. I’m sure they’re just trying to help the town with some of the jobs and earn a little experience along the way. Besides, didn’t you say Basil is cute?”
“No!” Ali squeaked crossly. Ali didn’t share Malika’s positivity, but she followed the other girl as they headed off in the opposite direction, unnoticed by the novice adventurers.
“You can just make some more later, right?” Malika asked. “Did you see how effective your Grasping Roots trap was? The slimes just ignored that warrior and went straight for the healer. If she hadn’t freed him, they might have been in some trouble. I like that redhead shaman – she seems sharp.”
Ali thought. While it would be annoying to replant, it didn’t seem like too much of a chore. The guild and the herbalist would get some good materials, the town would get some mana potions, and the three adventurers had just grown a little stronger.
Perhaps it wasn’t such a bad outcome after all.