Chapter 19: CH19 Barbarian Expropriation

Alex froze. He didn't want to provoke the group. He knew that if he moved they might attack him. Also, the fact that he was surrounded by dirty men who were dressed like they could be cavemen was not what he was expecting. For lack of anything else fitting to say for the situation he stammered, "Um, Hello? I'm Alex."

"What are you doing here?" demanded the man holding the spear.

"Just moving this metal plate out of the basement." Alex nodded his head towards the plate.

"Why are you here?"

"Would you believe I am here to defeat the demon queen?" Alex tried to say something that might get a positive reaction.

"You're lying."

"I guess you don't believe me. Would you believe I'm from another world?" Alex said.

"Are you trying to pretend to be some kind of hero? Do I look stupid? What tribe sent you here?" A barbarian shouted with narrowed eyes.

"Guys guys calm down please. I really don't know anything about tribes or any of that stuff. I've only been here a couple weeks." Alex said as his voice was cracking.

The barbarian punched him across the face sending him flying back. The blow was so fast he didn't even have a chance to lift his hands to defend himself. He fell to the ground and slid a few feet.

"Boy, don't you lie to me! You better start talking." The man spat.

"Don't hurt Alex!" Fufi shrieked when Alex took the haymaker.

"Fufi, stop." Alex said as he got up and dusted himself off. He wavered a bit, seeing stars. Even with his old muscles he wouldn't have been able to keep up with this guy. People in this world were just that much stronger.

"He's only been here a couple weeks. He doesn't understand what is going on." Fufi said.

"Well miss bird, maybe you'll start talking. Who sent you here? How did you get the dungeon working again?" The man approached Fufi who was still restrained by the net.

"I was sent here by goddess Luna. She is the one who recharged the dungeon. We didn't do anything to you, why did you hurt Alex?" Fufi demanded.

"He's a liar. I know it. You expect us to believe some goddess none of us have ever heard of descended from the heavens to visit this abandoned ruin? Has anyone even heard of a goddess Luna?" The man growled. He looked to the other men to see if they had heard of said goddess but they all shook their heads.

"I know Luna. She is the goddess of cuteness. It is her duty to protect the cute things in the world." Fufi explained.

"Cuteness?" the man asked with a sneer. "There is nothing cute in this wasteland, only the destruction left after the demon queen's army ravaged this area decades ago. Now tell me, where is the slime?"

"Do you promise not to hurt her?" Fufi pleaded.

The man chuckled, "You are in no position to make demands. Slimes are an 'it', they don't come in boy or girl. Is it just one slime? Hey boy is that slime your tamed beast? Are you a tamer?"

Alex coughed as he said, "Please don't hurt Fufi. Merumeru is in the bathroom. Just take what you want. We don't want any trouble."

Two barbarians went to search Alex. They were perplexed that the only thing he had on him was a feather duster and a card of a cart filled with stuffed animals. They gave him a weird look and tossed the two things back at him.

Alex remembered his encounter in the first dungeon. He tried to give the same look the cuddle bear gave him after he punched the bear and became overcome with guilt because of the stare. None of the barbarians he stared at faltered at all. Maybe he wasn't cute enough to use the same thing the cuddle bear did on him.

"Bathroom? This isn't some noble man's manner boy. And I see you didn't answer all the questions. What is your class?" The man pointed the spear at Alex.

"I'm a lumberjack." Alex replied.

"A lumberjack? With those puny muscles?" The man asked.

"Fine. My class is magical girl. I'm not a tamer. " Alex answered, sounding ashamed.

"You mean you're a magical girl? You must be joking. That would be the most ridiculous story I have ever heard. Why would a magical girl be in the middle of the wasteland? And a lumberjack too. Are you sure your class is not [fool]? You run away from home to go on some adventure?" The man laughed.

"No. No. I'm serious. I'm a magical girl. I was summoned by Luna and she told me to defeat the demon queen. I can't do it alone though. Fufi and Merumeru are my friends. Friends help one another." Alex explained.

"I can't believe this. I can't believe that some god from the heavens came to this forsaken place. I can't believe that some magical girl is even your class. For starters are you not a boy?" The man pointed his spear at Alex again.

"Yes I am." Alex answered, his voice cracking.

"Then how can you be a magical girl? You know what? Don't answer that. You are giving me a headache. You two stay here while we kill the slime and secure the dungeon." The man ordered.

"No wait. Please. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to lie. I'm really a magical girl. I was sent here by the goddess Luna. She is the goddess of cuteness. She is the one who brought the dungeon back to life. You can take the dungeon we'll leave, just don't hurt Merumeru." Alex begged.

"Shut up! I don't want to hear any more of your lies. If you don't want to die then shut up and let us deal with the slime." The man said as several men tied Alex and Fufi in ropes then headed into the Adventurer's guild.

Alex continued to beg until someone slapped him to get him to shut up. About a half hour later the barbarian search party came back. Alex couldn't make out what they said but the one who seemed to be in charge didn't look happy.

The annoyed barbarian ordered, "Take these to and dump them by the river." He then looked at Alex, "It looks like your slime ditched you. Now this is our dungeon and if I ever see you or your bird back here don't expect to get off with just a few bruises like this time."

The barbarian turned to the others, "Let's get out of here. We've got work to do."

Two stinky dirty men grabbed Alex by the arm and forced him along until they were outside the ruined town. A few minutes later they were left, still tied up, at the shore of the river. One barbarian spat in their general direction as he left him and Fufi.

After they left Alex said, "They didn't even bother to untie us or cut you out of your net Fufi. What do we do?"

"I think I have an idea." Fufi said.

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"What?"

"How sharp are your teeth?" Fufi asked.

"Not very. Please don't tell me your plan was to chew through the rope." Alex sighed.

"Maybe." Fufi said, sounding less confident.

"Well, I don't think that can work. If you can't bite through them with that beak of yours I don't think I can either. We can try to loosen each other's bonds though with my arms behind my back I can't get much until I get them free. Though if you can get close to my back I might be able to loosen the net you are trapped in. We have to get free so we can save Merumeru." Alex said in a worried tone.

"About that," Fufi replied, "She is probably okay."

"What do you mean?" Alex asked.

"Well, we have contingency plans." Fufi calmly stated.

"What's that?" Alex queried.

"A contingency is something in case the main plan doesn't go right." Fufi explained matter-of-factly.

Alex rolled his eyes and said with exasperation, "I know what a contingency is. I mean what was the plan?"

"Oh, well the first contingency was my summoning magic. If you get in trouble I can just use the magic to summon you back to me. This didn't work though because I was careless and let my guard down. If I flew away then both of us could have gotten away." Fufi explained.

"Yes, I'm glad you didn't do that. It has side effects." Alex shuddered. "But what about Merumeru?"

"Well, when we were playing adventurers guild I told her that if we get split up and can't go back to the guild then we should meet up by the river and go from there." Fufi said with pride.

Alex just sighed and continued to struggle with his bonds.

***

While Fufi and Alex were awkwardly trying to free themselves, a cute slime girl was on her own epic mission. Merumeru, queen of pipes, had vanished into the ground tunneling towards the fountain to create a water line to the Adventurer's Guild. That is when the stomping of many feet could be felt overhead. Being a cunning slime, Merumeru made a peep hole into the floor of the guild and spied on the intruders. There were many of them and her surveillance showed that they had come to capture the dungeon. She didn't like that.

A head on attack wouldn't work because she wasn't a big slime. But she was a smart slime. After confirming that they were not going to do anything drastic to Alex and Fufi she got to work. She would defeat the intruders using the power of plumbing. While the barbarians were busy stealing their metal plates, swords, axes and even food, Merumeru created pipes in strategic places. The barbarians activated the dungeon portal and were excited that they would be able to use it for their tribe and only the tribe. They had plans to let everyone use it until all the magic that kept it going was spent.

This would not happen, not if Merumeru, queen of pipes had her way. By the time night fell Merumeru had completed her pipe powered plan. Some of the barbarians were sleeping in their home while others were keeping watch.

"Hey Olk, do you hear that? It sounds like running water." One barbarian said to another.

Olk put his head to the floor, "Yes it sounds like a fountain below us but there wasn't one in the basement. What is that splashing?"

The two went down into the basement to see water pouring from the walls. The basement was flooding.

"How do we stop this?" Olk asked his friend.

"It can't keep going for ever as soon as the water crystals run out of power the water should stop. We just have to get everyone out and wait for that." The friend replied.

"Okay. Let's go." Olk said.

"Wait. I am not a good swimmer." 

"We just need to wake anyone sleeping up. Come on. We'll get everyone out of here and then we can figure out how to fix it." Olk said.

"Okay. I'm coming." Said the friend.

The two walked down to the basement and used a torch to light the place. Several people were already scrambling to gather their now sopping wet things and wade through the water to get out of there.

Olk shouted, "Everybody out we have to get away from here until the trap is spent."

One person who was making his way up the stairs said, "But two rookies already went in the rift. We can't go in after them to tell them."

"Then we have to wait for them to come out." Olk said.

"But I don't want to go in there again. It's too dangerous. At the rate the water is coming this whole place will be submerged in 15 minutes" The man said.

"Well, we don't have any other choice." Olk said.

"How can they get out of the basement if the portal leads to a dark flooded basement?" His friend asked.

"I guess we'll find out. Unless someone can handle this deluge they might be stuck for a while" Olk said.

"I don't want to go in there. I don't want to drown" The man said, sounding shaken.

The people in the dungeon were trapped throughout the night. Strangely, the water did not stop. It continued and started flowing out of the trap door and the front door of the adventurer's guild turned into a stream. When they were able to get some light coming through the water by tearing off the trap down as the sun rose the trapped tribesmans were able to swim their way out. Luckily no one drown. Oddly, the water did not stop as expected. Olk figured several hours of water flowing with this intensity would drain any water crystal but it didn't stop. Scouts were sent to the chief who agreed to wait it out. But after a whole day of waiting no one was quite sure how much longer that would be.

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