Dungeon Life-Chapter Four-Hundred Thirty-Two
Rhonda
The goblin girl looks around the table at her companions, the magic light dim. All her friends are there. Lucas sits on the table beside her, her jumping spider familiar settled onto the wood rather than his favorite place atop her wide hat. Next is Freddie, her best friend and one of the youngest paladins of the Crystal Shield. Beside him sits his own companion: Fiona, the ogre-faced spider that stands beside him in battle, and who tends to ride around on his shield when not.
On Rhonda’s other side sits Rezlar, the young elven mayor of the city. After the business with his disgraced father, he doesn’t see much point in trying to keep his adventuring persona separate from his actual self, though he still dresses in his more ordinary adventuring gear when out with them. In a little pot beside him sits Rose, Rezlar’s living vine companion, gained only about a month ago now. She’s usually quietly sitting on his lapel, but right now she sits in her pot, looking attentive.
Next to her sits Pul, the newest member of their party and already a dear friend to them all. He’s still disguised as an elf, the changeling preferring not to give away the truth. He doesn’t have a companion yet, and though they’ve all talked and argued about what he should try to tame, that’s not what this meeting is for.
No, this meeting is for something far more serious. Rhonda does her best to ignore the chuckles coming from the hatch to the first floor, she and her companions sequestered in the basement for this while her mentor Old Staiven tends to the shop. Rhonda tries not to huff as she telekinetically shuts the hatch, and does her best to pretend she can’t hear his cackling laughter through it.
This is too important. They know what the keys are for. Guildmaster Karn has suspected since he first saw the one they found, but Jondar of the Calm Seas confirmed it: Thedeim is making a raid boss. As one of the few groups that found a key, it’ll be hard to argue they shouldn’t come to the eventual raid, but she and her friends have been silently asking themselves a question: can they pull their own weight?
They’ve never voiced it because the answer is clear: yes. They can quest in the Forest of Four Seasons and even climb the Tree of Cycles. They can surely get through the raid. But they want to do more than simply get through it, do more than simply not drag the others down. So the meeting now is to answer the question worth asking.
“How can we get strong enough to actually contribute to the raid?” she asks, looking around the table. She frowns and points her staff at the hanging magical light, giving it just a little more fire to brighten things up. If they’re going to be drawing up plans, they’ll need proper lighting.
Pul answers first. “We… could delve a bit more, but we all basically have advanced classes now. I know you and Freddie started with them, but they’re definitely worth at least the first advancement tier,” he says, looking at the two.
Rezlar nods in agreement. “And we wouldn’t be able to get to the next tier before the raid happens. I think our best option is to get better gear.” He motions at his friends in turn as he continues. “You have your robe and staff, Rhonda, and though they’re potent, they’re all you have. Freddie has his hatchet, I have my rapier, and Tupul has his karambit, but little else,” he explains, remembering to use Pul’s alias as he’s in disguise.
“We’ve got a lot of stuff stockpiled,” muses Freddie, the young orc thinking over the loot they’ve all collected together. “The three of us might be able to upgrade our weapons with it, but I think it’d be a lot more helpful for us to focus on armor and accessories.”
“Do you think we can ask Thedeim for a quest for a set of his new armor?” asks Rhonda. “I think we have enough damanascus to make you some armor with that, but I don’t know if you want to wait or not.” Rezlar and Pul both nod, knowing their frontline should have the best armor they can get for him.
“Maybe. We can ask,” Freddie admits. “And I could see about commissioning someone to make a shield out of the damanascus. Enchanted crystal is the tradition, but that usually involves a pilgrimage to go see the Bearer in Stasis. I want to someday, but I’m not ready yet.”
“Would there be enough left over for me to get a cleaver made out of it? I like the versatility of the karambit, but some of the tougher denizens have been making me feel a bit lacking,” suggests Pul, to nods all around the table.
“We could sell what we have left after to the guild, too,” points out Rezlar. “I’m sure Karn would love to have more to commission more emergency gear with. Unless you’d like some, Rhonda?”
Rhonda shakes her head. “It’s great for weapons and armor, but gems work better if all you’re after is magical conductivity, which I am. Do we have any good hides or cloth?”
“I’ve been slowly stockpiling widow silk,” offers Freddie. “We don’t fight them often, but squeezing out the glands after we kill one nets me a little bit. I think enough for a shirt or pants, or maybe several gloves?”
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“I’d love to get something made from wyrm or basilisk hide,” dreams Pul, before looking at them all with focus. “Did you hear Thediem got drakes, too? I bet their hide would make great boots or even armor for me and Rezlar!”
“I was going to suggest going after one of Hullbreak’s sharks for my own armor, actually,” speaks up Rezlar. “Magma affinity doesn’t agree with me, I’m afraid, and I wouldn’t want to ruin the armor or throw off my performance.” He pauses for a moment in thought. “Some boots would probably be fine, though,” he admits, probably equally tempted by the protection as the look.
Rhonda wouldn’t mind some nice boots, either. She pulls out her notebook and notes down a shark and a drake to hunt for materials. “What else? I bet if we get a good pearl from Hullbreak, we could make a ring to boost your water, Rezlar. Did we keep any?” she asks Freddie, who nods.
“I made sure to keep a few. I was looking to try to get some aqua affinity pendants eventually, but a ring for Rezlar would be more useful, I think. I also have a few other gemstones for other affinities. Are you going to try to get a new one, Rhonda?”
The goblin taps her finger on the table as she thinks. It has been a while since she got a new one. She’s feeling comfortable with her ice, fire, and kinetic now, so she really should look into studying and figuring out how Rocky got into thunder. “I’ll look into it, but I don’t think I’ll get there before the raid. Rocky has thunder, so I should be able to watch him to figure out what he’s doing, but I think the raid will happen before I make much progress.”
Silence descends for a moment before Rhonda’s eyes widen. “Oh! Master Staiven’s been showing me a mana regeneration potion lately. He says it wasn’t popular because the dungeons around here weren’t ones that should be encouraged, but with how things are now, he’s looking to reintroduce them.”
The others look confused, with Freddie voicing it for all of them. “Hasn’t he been selling those for a while?”
Rhonda shakes her head. “He’s been selling mana recovery potions, not regeneration potions. The recovery potions act like a health potion, but for mana. They’ll top you off, but the effect is instantaneous. A regeneration potion, on the other hand, stimulates your natural mana flow, letting you do more with it! It also apparently stirs up mana even more than normal casting does. It can cause problems if there’s not a dungeon nearby to settle it back down. It gives the dungeon extra mana, basically, so they’re usually pretty regulated. Anyway, I want to see if I can make a ring with that effect!”
“Wouldn’t that be regulated, too?” asks Pul, but Rhonda waves him off.
“I’ll make sure I can turn it off. In fact… if I set the runes correctly, I can give it an internal buffer, too, so it can slowly leech my mana to fill it without disturbing the ambient flows.”
“Would that work for us, too?” asks Rezlar, the others looking interested, too.
“Um… if I can get the runes right? I’m not sure what we’ll need for it, though.”
“Damanascus?” suggests Pul, earning a thoughtful hum.
“Maybe? Its properties are weird, but it might work.”
“What kind of gems would they need?” asks Freddie.
“Hmm… Zircon is great for holding mana in a lab, but it’s kinda fragile to take out adventuring. Opals might work. They don’t hold as much, but they’re tougher if properly taken care of. There’s a few others we could try, but the clarity they need makes them really expensive.” She looks to Rezlar for his opinion.
“I know how to care for opals, so that won’t be a problem. I’m unsure if Lord Thedeim has any opal nodes, but Violet or Hullbreak may.”
Rhonda nods and jots it down, then holds the notebook up for everyone to see. “So we need a drake for its hide, a shark for its hide, miscellaneous gemstones for other enchantments, and some good opals for the mana rings. And we have enough right now to make a cleaver and a shield. I want to keep enough to use for the rings, but the rest we can sell to Karn.”
The others nods as Rezlar speaks. “We could return to my estate to talk to my smith. He could get started on the shield and cleaver while we go delve for materials.”
They all agree to that, and soon climb out of the basement laboratory, where Master Staiven warmly greets them. “Secret meeting all done, hmm?”
They nod as Rhonda speaks up. “We’re gonna go to Rezlar’s then delve. Do you need anything from the dungeons?”
“Oh, you know I never have enough alchemy ingredients, my apprentice,” he answers with a smile.
“I want to try to get the ingredients for the mana regeneration potion, too. I want to learn how it works and try to make it into rings!” she explains, earning a surprised look from her Master, before he laughs.
“I’ve heard of such an enchantment, but I’ve never actually tried to make it before. Do you have plans for restricting or disabling the effect when needed?”
She nods eagerly. “I think we can invert the rune and attach it to an opal, letting it slowly leech mana instead, and store it for later!”
Old Staiven beams at his apprentice. “Ah, an ambitious solution. Give me a moment to get the ingredient list, and we can practice it once you get back. Even if it doesn’t work, it’ll be good practice for your alchemy and enchantment anyway!”
It doesn’t take him long to give her the list, which she gives to Lucas for safe keeping, and they’re off to Rezlar’s place. They’ve come a long way in just over a year. She and Freddie were classless orphans, Rezlar was isolated and timid, and Pul was under the thumb of the thieves guild. And now here they are, preparing to face down a raid boss, and not only are they not terrified, but they’re eager to face it.
It wouldn’t be the first insurmountable hurdle they’ve cleared together, and it certainly won’t be the last.
