Chapter 22: Chapter 22: The Keep of the Pale Lady

The three had taken another quest. Between entertaining the children every day for half-an-hour and their training, they had no time to relax. But, Morris could now break into Novice locks, Dorian could cause sparks to flare in his left hand, and Leander could do an arrow barrage, but only of about three arrows at a time.

So, to compensate, Morris had learned how to bash locks open with his axe. If that caused an explosion, he was not going to do it. He was a pretty good mana sensor, so, he knew he would sniff a trap a mile away.

Dorian forced the sparks closer together. Which would help him in close range. He also knew a beginner wind spell that he could use to fan the flames.

And Leander turned his mana paralyzing. It had been a process with many errors, but he had found a way to imitate mana disruption by forcing the arrow to splinter inside the victim.

They were not ready for something big, however. So, they took another E quest. There were rumors that the Keep of the Pale Lady was haunted. It was an old watchtower at the outskirts of town. There were squatters inside, or so the quest description had said. The job of the three was to politely ask them to get out. And, failing that, to just hand them the court fine.

Honestly, the three were of the mind that the quest shouldn't even have a rang. But it paid well. A whole of three gold coins per person. And they could take another easy quest the same day, if they timed their trip right.

The children they were "training" send them off all the way to the tower. Then, they lined like soldiers on inspection in a single line and looked at the three teens expectantly.

"Right. Your task is to let no one pass this point," Morris said. A cricket chirped, and the children looked at it.

"Not even crickets?" Little Robert asked, hopeful. He liked chasing things.

"I meant people. As in, humanoid," Morris corrected himself and Robert's face fell.

"Sir, yes, sir!" Screamed Rita, who still wore her hair in two pigtails. The other children chorused her, and the three teenagers left.

"I still can't believe their parents let them tag along with us everywhere," Dorian mused out loud. It was a novel experience for him to be looked up to by children. They even helped him sell his wares together with Morris and Leander. Morris's axe tricks being too enticing to the girls to pass up.

"We are free nannies. Cost-effective, if I do so say myself," Leander's voice was a bit insulted, but he had a smile on his face.

"And we are the best nannies!" Morris did a fist pump in the air and the other two chuckled.

The watchtower looked to be falling apart. Honestly, they didn't want to go in and didn't know what the squatters were even thinking. 

Still, they entered through the hole in the wall, as the door was locked and probably the only sturdy thing about the Keep of the Pale Lady.

"Hello? We are here to inform you that you can't stay here," Leander called into the darkness. Then, he saw something familiar on the ground. A hamster, bright ginger and with narrowed eyes.

"You have to be kidding me," Leander cursed as the hamster charged.  Morris kicked at it before it reached Leander, but the hamster jumped over his foot, did a backflip, and continued to run towards Leander.

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Dorian pulled out his shield with a chuckle and tried to bash the mob. But the hamster stepped back at the last moment and sidestepped the shield. Its little legs carrying him towards Leander's pant leg.

The hamster latched triumphantly on the pant leg and began to chew. It did not, however, try to bite into Leander's leg.

"Why isn't it biting you?" Dorian asked, and he went and picked up the hamster. It snapped and trashed. But, as soon as its teeth reached flesh, it pulled them back.

"Ok, little fellow. Is there a dungeon core in here?" Morris bent to the hamster's eye level and smiled at it. It spat in his face.

"I think if it could speak, it would have said: I'd rather die than tell you," Dorian said between chuckles. Morris wiped hamster spittle off his face and looked to the direction from which the hamster had come.

"I can feel mana coming from there," Morris pointed at a small mouse hole and the three, plus the thrashing hamster, went to it. Morris reached inside and pulled out a small, marble sized dungeon core.

"Is this the hamster core?" Morris gave the core to Leander, who brought it to eye level.

"It looks bigger.," the hamster had stopped trashing by then and was looking at Leander pleadingly. "I kind of feel bad. The only thing it wants to do is make hamsters."

"We can't ignore the possibility that it could get dangerous, one day. But, how did it get out?" Even if Dorian said those words, he didn't believe that they could ever come true.

"Fluffs got me out," a voice came from a dark alcove. There was a naked teen there. He was curled into a ball and shaking.

"Are you...the core?" Leander asked. He rummaged into his bottomless bag and pulled out some clothes. The core was thin, almost dangerously so, so he was sure that his clothes would be more than enough to cover him.

"You can't hand me over to these people again! They are killing me!" The teen cried and the hamster, who Leander imagined was named Fluffs, began to squeak, as if it was pleading.

Dorian let go of the hamster, and it rushed to its creator. Getting in front of him and patting the ground with its paw.

The three adventurers huddled together.

"He is a human — now. He made himself a body. What do you think they'll do to him? I have never heard of such a thing happening," Dorian was conflicted. He knew that most of the dungeon cores which were captured had it coming. But, did this one?

"I don't see a dungeon core. I see a starved teen," Morris stated, and Leander nodded. "A squatter. We are going to get him out of here and make sure he recovers."

They turned to the teen, who was trying to put the shorts over his torso, and they all sweat dropped. Finally, remembering that the dungeon core had no knowledge of the human world and knowing full well that it was going to show.

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