Chapter 31: Chapter 31.

Drupford was a lakeside city built up on a slope of a hill. Down in the distance I could see the lake, still frozen. The rising sun peeked over the hills, the same direction we were heading, to Arina’s library.

The architecture in this city wasn’t different from the other cities. The same stone buildings, the same roofs. It could have been any other of the cities if not for the surrounding geography and the cold. All around, snow was packed on the roofs. Water dripped from the edges, created streams flowing down the street. Nothing green was in sight, and I couldn’t find a single bamboo tree, just their stumps.

With Dandee and Arina about, I didn’t need to pull out my disks to deal with the roaming undead. Though the frost didn’t kill them, it sure made them slow and easy to put down. I assumed the undead had found their way up from below over the long six month night.

“This city has crypts underground as well?” I asked.

“Crypts?” Arina asked. “Sure. Every portal city had started underground and slowly expanded over the hundreds of years. That’s why the underground is so vast. Hundreds of thousands used to live down there. Eventually they built the portals to link the cities.”

A group of undead shambled out the side street. Dandee and Arina dropped their backpacks and leapt into action, competed for kills. Like a dog-walker, Summer followed after them to scoop up the jaws and other parts. I seriously considered whether it was worth the effort and storage space for a few silver. I grabbed their backpacks to help us move along. I didn’t recall seeing them having so much stuff that it would require the added backpacks. Just what did they have inside?

We turned around the corner and walked into a scene of destruction. Debris laid scattered across the road. Bricks, roof tiles and shattered furniture. Was there a missile strike, or maybe a dragon attack?

Out of the three, the one in the center was leveled down to rubble. The buildings on the sides were half gone. Roofs were missing, the walls closest to the middle were rubble too. Walls further away were still standing. It looked as if Godzilla took a bite out of the place.

“Oh .. no!” Arina cried.

“What happened?” I asked.

She held her head in her hands. “My … my library. Fuck!”

We approached to inspect the damage. Inside, the walls were charred, and burned bookcases protruded out from snow piled up high. This library was smaller compared to her other one, and was nestled between two others. I looked around, but beside the three none of the other buildings in the area had suffered any damage.

“What happened?” I asked.

Summer rolled her eyes. “Mana crystals, that’s what.”

Arina ran inside, clambered over the rubble. “That fucking Carvell! I told him this would happen.”

“I don’t understand,” I said to Summer.

“Carvell is her neighbor, an alchemist. He had a storage full of mana crystals, but not any longer.”

“Oh wow. They explode?”

Summer pointed to the destruction. “As you can see for yourself.”

“What makes them explode?”

“Fire, or hitting them real hard would do it.”

As unfortunate as this was for Arina, it sounded promising for me. Maybe the mana crystals could be used as gun powder, or a satchel charge? I made a mental note to find an intact Alchemist’s shop and ask around.

“These buildings would need to be torn down and rebuild from scratch,” I said.

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“She doesn’t have money for that,” Summer said.

“How much would it take?”

Summer scoffed. “Eight hundred crowns? Probably-”

“Oi, let’s go ice fishing mate. I always wanted to try it.”

“Now isn’t the best time for that,” I told Dandee.

Arina was up to her knees in snow, crying in the rubble. Summer went to console her, which made me glad. I was no good when it came to dealing with crying people. But, at least I knew how to be supportive. I pulled out several swords from my backpack and made a few shovels.

I handed one to Dandee, and we both got to work clearing the snow out of the ruins, tossed it out to the street where it could melt. It took some time before Arina wiped the tears from her face, sniffling all the while. She looked at me odd when I asked her about insurance.

“What about Carvell? Is he going to pay for it?” I asked.

Arina gritted her teeth. “Oh, I’ll make him pay alright. One way or another.”

It wasn’t all that cold outside, and I had worked up a sweat with all the shoveling. Still, I wasn’t sure how long I’d want to stay in this cold. And sleeping here in the open wasn’t a serious option, not unless we could make a campfire and obtain some thick sleeping bags and blankets. Arina’s other library was out of the question too. Hillmoor was about to go dark.

“How much does a room at an inn go for?” I asked.

“A spot at a dirty warehouse is five silver each” Summer said. “But a room at cheapest inn would go for about fifty, something decent is a hundred or more.”

“That’s a bit expensive,” I said. “Any other options?”

“There is,” Arina said. “We should head out to Eldwood and camp out in the forest while the weather is nice. I have done it before. It’s also where we have to find the hatchery.”

I pointed at the rubble. “What about this place?”

Arina sighed. “It’s not going anywhere. Once its warmer I’ll pay to have a wagon come by to clear out the rubble. There’s always a few buildings that don’t survive the night.”

I returned the shovels back into packed steel and stored them away inside my backpack. Buying the fur cloak wasn’t a total waste, it would serve well as a sleeping rug. Besides, I kind of looked forward to camping in the woods. It brought back good memories.

We walked back to the portal in heavy silence, killed a few more undead along the way, but all the excitement was gone. To get to Eldwood, we took three portals back toward the sun-down position. All of a sudden, we were overdressed and hot for the weather.

Before heading out of the city, I found an Alchemist shop. It was a small place, and heavily packed with shelves reaching to the ceiling. A dusty, medicinal scent hung in the air. All the vials, jars, powders and mixtures were labeled, but none of it was familiar to me. I went straight to the section with the mana crystals.

The blue gems varied in size and shape, from as small as a shirt button to as big as a fist that went for a hundred crowns while the smallest started at 20 silver. They increased in price with the size. For the tests I needed to run I bought three small ones. They came in a small padded pouch.

For potions, I noticed a selection of healing, mana, strength, regeneration, and a whole assortment of poisons. The antidotes stood conveniently right next to them. I decided not to buy anything of that yet, as it didn’t appeal to me.

An older lady took my silver at the counter. She wore a flowery apron and seemed much too happy to see any customers in her shop. I smiled and waved.

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