Chapter 8: 8 – Midnight Stroll

After my nap, I had a couple things I wanted to work on after getting a good feel of my armor. The first is making a place for me to carry my new falchion. Ideally, I would like it on my back.

Using my thick sword belt as a guide, I mark and cut a length of wolf hide. Putting my armor back on, I use the new strip to go from my belt, over my shoulder, and back to my belt. Marking where to cut it and where it will attach to my belt.

After cutting it to length and drilling a square of four holes with my dagger into both spots on the belt and both ends of the shoulder strap, I loosely thread a thin length of leather through. 

With it loose, I peel the pieces apart just a bit and reheat my glue mixture and dab some between the pieces before tightly cinching them together. Once that dries, it should hopefully hold pretty well.

Then, with the belt on, I hold the falchion in its scabbard on my back along the length of the shoulder strap to get a good idea of where to attach it. 

I use a few thin strips of leather to tie multiple longer strips onto the strap, allowing me to securely affix the scabbard to it.

Taking a couple of the rusty iron daggers I received, I started playing around with earth magic. Being metal, I should be able to manipulate them a bit.

Focusing my magic on the blade, I was able to get rid of the rust as well as smooth the surface of the blade. It just took a lot of mana to even manipulate something as minor as that.

After trying a couple times, I also came to the conclusion that I can't use magic to put a decent edge on the blades yet. Maybe at a much higher level, but not right now.

Giving up on that, I grab a chunk of rubble and form it with my magic so that it's flat with a bevel on the edges. I also made the surface as consistent in mineral type as possible to avoid as many scratches or chips as I can.

Taking the dagger I was working with and creating some water on the stone periodically, I began to use the DIY whetstone to try to get any sort of edge on the blade.

After drying the dagger off, I grabbed a strip of leather and used it as a strop. Feeling the edge afterwards, I'm pleasantly surprised at the results. Iron will never hold a great edge for long, but it's at least something.

I spend the rest of the night cleaning and sharpening all of the metal blades I have. Even my steel blade has dulled and has a chip from its constant use. Finally, I fall asleep with a pile of sharp weapons.

A new night and a new dungeon level. A couple new daggers attached to my greaves, vambraces, and on my belt. A sharpened short sword, falchion, spear and pack. I feel like I'm ready for most of what could come. 

Heading through to the fourth level, I was a bit surprised at what was in front of me. I was on a hill, overlooking a small village surrounded by a wooden palisade. It was the dead of night with no moons out. The wall looked to be about fifteen feet tall, and the edge of the village was just less than a quarter mile away. 

From my hill, I could see the village is situated in a valley between a couple other hills. Besides some bushes, everything was pretty open. 

From small torches, there appeared to be multiple patrols walking around the wall. I could only see one visible opening in the wall, and there were multiple creatures standing around a small fire at the opening.

I could also make out movement from and around some of the buildings with the walls.

(What's up with this floor, Navi?)

(This looks like an extermination setup! Take a look at the larger building in the center of the village. Notice anything familiar?)

After looking at it for a few seconds, I did. (Is that a wooden boss door? But why does it look like it has bars going across it?)

(Yup! And that would be because you haven't met the condition to enter.

(Once the condition is met, the bars will disappear and you will have access to the boss.)

(Sounds simple enough. Any idea on the condition?)

She hums for a moment. (With this type of setup it's usually full extermination. Once every monster outside of the boss door is killed, you'll get access.)

That sounds relatively straightforward. (Any specifics I should be aware of? Like, do I have to go through the entrance? Can I go over things? Etcetera.)

(Not really! Dungeon setups like this are made to be as realistic as possible. Whether you charge head first through the entrance, assault buildings with explosions, or sneak around everywhere, so long as you kill everything, the condition will be met,) she explained. (One thing to note is that in a realistic setup like this, none of the bodies will dissolve until the boss door is unlocked.)

So if I don't want to get caught, hide the bodies. Got it. (Well, until we get more information on what we're facing, we can't really come up with a plan. Let's go check out the wall at least. Maybe they're some loose posts or a second entrance.)

With that, I went around out of sight of the entrance and walked as stealthily as I could, keeping an eye on the patrols. Once I got close enough, I could actually see what I was facing.

Lesser troll - level 9

Damn. And that was just one of the guards? Looking at the monsters patrolling in pairs, I could get a sense that this floor will be a bit harder than I thought. 

Five to six feet tall, average build, and wearing tunics, pants, and boots. Carrying a spear or a sword with a torch in hand. If it wasn't for their bald heads, long ears, greenish-blue skin, and short tusks, I would have never thought it was a dungeon made monster.

After watching a couple of the patrols go by, they looked just like any other people would. They would yawn, seem to joke with each other, and behave just like people.

I stop to think this through. (This'll be an interesting challenge. Based on just this, I doubt I'd have much luck going through the front entrance. I assume if they see me, they'll alert others and cause a bunch to come after me. I know we took on a bunch of skeletons, Navi, but I think having quicker and more intelligent opponents swarming would end badly.)

(I think so too. So what now Lia? You gonna go all Solid Snake on 'em?)

Thinking about it, that may be best. (I think that would probably be easiest. I guess if I was ever going to get experience being a rogue it would be now. I'm pretty sure we won't be able to finish the level on this first run, so, let's just focus on sneaking up and checking out the wall. Maybe see if there's a weak point.)

(Nin nin!)

For this run, I waited until a patrol was passing by and quietly shadowed them. Using the bit of dark magic I could use, I obscured myself slightly. At this level, it's only like I'm standing in shade. Not much help, but something worth practicing when I can.

I approached behind the pair and took out a dagger. I shot a rock bullet at the back of the head of one and at the same time covered the other's mouth and cut its throat. 

Quickly finishing off the newly unconscious one with a large head wound, I cast a bit of water magic on the torches. I placed their weapons on their bodies, and dragged them by their shirt collars closer to the wall with me.

Using a couple small bushes, I stashed the bodies for what I hope would be long enough to check out the wall. After taking a drink from them of course.

Level up

I move on after tossing a stat point in STR and STM, bringing both to 16. 

Creeping up to the palisade, my hopes of finding a weak point were dashed. This thing was built solidly. Every section of the wall had angled support beams. There wasn't even more than a few inches between the stakes.

Looking through the gaps, I saw what I assume would be normal activity for any village. People walking around grunting at each other. Some in dresses carrying bags. Even troll children chasing other children. 

(What the fuck is this Navi? Why the hell are there kids?)

(The dungeon built this to be as realistic as possible. They may look like children but they are still mana constructs of the dungeon.)

Fucking dungeon. (Are they counted in what needs to be 'exterminated' for the boss to open?)

(They are.)

Not even any jokes from Navi this time. Having my memories, and knowing me better than anyone in this world, even she knows my hesitancy. Killing a cruel adult? Sure, whatever. Killing corrupt priests or nobles? Fine. Even killing someone who attacks me out of desperation or that is just on the wrong side of a battle. I have my head wrapped around that and can come to terms easy enough. 

Call me heartless, but after being in the hospital for so long and watching many others in similar positions to me die, I don't hold much value for life. It's cheap, and even if I someday have to kill someone 'good,' or a bystander to clear this damn god-given quest, I will if I need to. I won't take pleasure in it, but I'll do what needs to be done.

But kids? Even if in my head I know they aren't real. That they are monsters that will dissolve. That they are just imitating life. I know that. However, in my heart? Fuck. I've always liked kids since they haven't been ruined by the world, and this floor is going to kill something inside of me. The imitations are just too damn good that it's hard not to imagine they're real kids, and emotions aren't rational.

Deciding I've seen enough, I slink away from the wall, back up the hill, and go back to my stair room. Half a plan in my head and a weight on my heart. Back in the stair room, I take a bit to gather what I know to form a plan.

The village inhabitants were all active like it's daytime. However, they don't seem to have good night vision. The patrols all had torches, plus they didn't notice me. There were many small fires lit around the village where most of the trolls gathered and interacted near.

The walls are solid, so no going through. My magic isn't good enough to dig a hole and I don't know how far the wall goes underground. I'll have to go over. 

The buildings were close together and had a gap only every few buildings. Walls were a mud brick with thatch roofs. The space between the wall and buildings was almost all shadow, and the main thoroughfare on the other side was open and lit.

The few spaces between buildings were a tossup on darkness depending on where the fires were. The buildings I could see seemed to have open wooden shutter type windows, some being on the side. I did have some options on skulking around and potentially infiltrating some buildings. 

Killing any trolls in the main area is where the biggest problem is. I can't help but feel at some point this'll turn into a melee unless I can get a distraction to split the trolls.

Priority kills before being discovered should go to the patrols, entrance guards, and as many combatants inside the village as I can get.

To get over the wall, I need a rope. Let's start there tomorrow. For tonight, let's just go to sleep and try to forget about needing to kill a bunch of child-imitating monsters.

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I wake up with part of a plan for the rope. Because rope can be extremely helpful to have around and use for various things, I decided to make more than enough and always keep some on hand. 

After continuing my morning magic practice and stretching my storage, I ran the second level a couple times for more wolf leather, practicing my stealth skills when possible.

Because I plan on wearing my black robe when I assault the village, I wanted to get used to wearing it with my armor. Thankfully, the robe was oversized enough that even over all of my armor there is still a bit of wiggle room.

I'm honestly glad I can't sweat or get heatstroke with all this fur and leather on. I feel a touch warm, but it's a comfortable, cocooning yourself in a comforter on the couch watching TV, type of warm.

Now that I have more fluffy furs than I know what to do with, getting more wolf furs would be best. Having extra leather and strips of it has come in extremely handy. Prepping and cutting a good stack of pelts into strips, I got to work on making a leather round braid rope.

I knew that to get the rope to braid properly, I needed one strip as the core and then four strips to wrap/braid around the core. That was the max that I remembered from the one summer I was sent to church camp as a kid, though. Honestly, I'm surprised I even remembered that. Navi's memory seems to match mine, things I've forgotten included, so asking her isn't helpful.

After fucking around with the strips for a couple hours, I finally got the braid down. Now to just repeat this rope braid damn near endlessly, hour after hour. 

When I was getting close-ish to the end of my first strip, I cut the strips at varying lengths to limit where a weak spot in the rope might be. Using a knot I learned while fishing to tie a leader onto a line without it slipping, I attached new strips to the first one.

Then I continued the rope braid again. Over and over and over. Until at last, after a couple days, I had two coils of thirty-foot rope, capped with resin glue. With that now done, I wanted to increase my sneaky skills some more.

(Navi, since I have a skill called Sense Presence, does that mean there's a skill called Hide Presence or something similar?)

(Sure there is!)

(Why haven't I gotten it yet? I've been hiding from the goblins on the second level to sneak up on them.)

(Well yeah, you've been sneaking. But you haven't hidden from them enough to seemingly blend into the background for them. Think like a stalker. If you're watching your prey, they might get a chill or feel eyes on them. But it's typically so small that most ignore it.

(If you want to really be a top notch stalker, you need to blend in. Make your target so comfortable with you that they have no clue you are stalking them. Then just follow them back to their apartment. Take out a lock picking kit-)

(I'm stopping you there, you creepy parasite. So just stalking something for an extended time should trigger the skill?)

(Probably!)

Ok then. If I'm going to assault the village, I'm damn sure going to do it right. So let's find some prey. Heading out of my little cave/dungeon, I quietly walk around for a bit until I find a goblin.

The little bastard is sitting down munching on what might be a rat. Whatever its meal is, this will be my first target.

Keeping some distance between us, I squat down and just watch. As it moves along, I follow as quietly as I can, going from tree to tree and bush to bush. Keeping some focus on my dark magic to slightly obscure myself as much as I can, I just follow along.

Every dozen minutes or so, my target comes across other goblins. Sometimes single ones, sometimes multiples. Most naked, but some with crude weapons.

As we wander out past the courtyard and into the old castle town, there're just as many of the little fuckers here. The fucking cockroaches just keep multiplying. I have no idea if they have a language at all. They almost remind me of when you see a dog loose from its yard. Just wandering aimlessly, poking its nose into bushes, checking random things out, and moving on from other dogs. 

At one point, an ork was even in sight. The goblin didn't run or hide, but it did give it a wide space to pass and showed quite a bit of deference. The ork was a level lower than the one I killed, but still not something I want to purposely mess with yet. 

Through the night, the sounds of some small animal being caught somewhere mixed with the natural rustling of the wind and insect noises. After hours of following this one goblin, I turn around to head home before the sun rises. On the way back, I keep well aware of my surroundings.

Dodging the path of goblins at times, other times waiting for some to pass. Even silently killing a couple when I got hungry.

Eventually, I made it back home. When I let my focus on hiding wane, I got the notification I wanted.

Skill learned - Hide Presence 1

Nice! If I can spend the next few days working on stealth and assassination skills, I'll be even more ready.

That's how I spent my nights for nearly a week. I ended up getting a pretty good idea of the entire layout within the tall walls. From what I could make out and guess, the way I came originally was through a small town like I had thought. The rubble hills had some clear line of sight paths between them at some points for what probably were roads. There was a lot of unused space inside the walls.

The courtyard was mostly clear of rubble but I did find what might have been a fountain in one section. It was near what may have been a small pond but is now a small marsh-like area.

The castle sat on the backside of the town. There was probably only a single road with buildings behind the inner wall and the larger outer wall. There's a gap in the wall for a gate on this side of the wall, and presumably there was an eastern and western gate to the town.

Overall, the castle's footprint, inner wall included, took up about half the area within the tall wall. The castle really was large. The remaining space outside of the inner wall could easily have a city of more than a couple thousand if they didn't need fields within the outer wall.

Tonight while stalking and assassinating goblins and avoiding orks, I decided to try something different. I haven't been outside of the large walls since I came here, so I thought I would explore a little.

My skills have definitely increased. I can move noticeably quicker while still being silent. Taking a look at the clock in my vision, I want to wander outside for four hours, then head back. That should give me an hour leeway if I get delayed. 

Enjoying the freedom of being out while also enjoying training, I make it to my four hour mark around the base of a hill. Deciding to just check out the surroundings while on top of it, I quickly head to the top and look around.

Just a bit past the base of the hill on the other side was something that caught my attention. It was hard to make out what it was, but it stood out in nature as being man-made.

Looking at my clock, I should still be fine if I go directly back to my home without messing with goblins, even if I take a few minutes to check this out. Quickly and cautiously, I make my way down and see something I didn't expect.

Wreckage. And recent wreckage. Two horse drawn wagons, both with wheels completely busted and horses nowhere in sight. The harnesses were remaining on one of them. There were multiple small tents. A couple were burnt, one collapsed.

One wagon held its shape with a solid door on the back. The other had a torn and shredded heavy canvas covering that collapsed.

Because the only buckles I have are what are on my belts, I use my dagger to quickly strip the harnesses of their hardware. Dried blood was covering the ground and on the harnesses.

Looking through the canvas remains, there isn't much left. Only a couple water skins, a rusted cast iron pan, and other little odds and ends remained. Not much use to me now but they could be in the future. Listening to my slight hoarder tendencies, I toss it all in my rucksack and keep looking.

Walking up to the solid wooden wagon with the closed door, I stop. It smells absolutely terrible. Like old roadkill.

Having a terrible feeling about what I will find but still having the urge to look, I take a deep breath and open the door. Almost immediately the breath I was holding left my body like someone punched me in the gut. 

Multiple bodies behind an iron bar gate halfway inside the wagon. The smell alone is awful, but taking a few seconds to look at the scene, my stomach drops. 

These all appear to have been women. All naked, and all of the bodies have arms or legs chewed or clawed off from something trying to pull them through the bars. 

I quickly head away from the wagon and calm myself as much as I can.

(What the fuck is this shit, Navi.)

(From the looks of things, most likely slavers or bandits of some sort. Humans don't venture into the monster lands without being the worst of the worst, or absolutely desperate.)

I can understand that, (But why are they out here? Wouldn't being a slave trader make more sense to be where people are? Why be way the fuck out in monster infested lands?)

(That, I can't say for sure, Lia. With how this looks, I doubt we'll find out. There's a lot of blood on the ground around here, but any bodies who could give a clue have already been dragged away by animals and monsters.)

(Well, fuck. Let's just finish up scavenging and get going. I'll need to keep a quick pace to get back by sunrise.)

Poking through the burnt tents by flipping the thin linen away with my spear, I only find a utility knife.

Arriving at the final collapsed tent, it actually doesn't look in too bad of shape. The linen is thin and all three tents were dyed a dark grey, so I could probably sew some spare clothes with it.

With that in mind I start folding and rolling it up. It should be small enough to fit into my larger magical storage space along with my rucksack as well. With those stored, I can make decent time.

As I'm approaching the end, air pushing out like normal when folding tents, I hit something solid. 

Peeling the tent from the other side so it rolls out, I immediately freeze with tears instantly coming from my eyes.

Laying in front of me is a naked woman. Dirty blonde clumped hair. One eye black and swollen shut. An ear completely cut off and scarred over. Mouth slightly opened with chapped lips and what looks like half a tongue. Shackles on her wrists with fingers twisted in different directions. Bruises covering her body, especially her stomach with a slight bulge. Her entire body was emaciated. Scars on the back of both ankles with obviously cut tendons.

That one eye just stares at my tear stained face, seemingly without fully focusing and without emotion. Closing her eye, she seems to have drifted off while still faintly breathing.

(Navi … What ... What, who ... Why, Navi?)

I can only mutter incoherently in my mind as I try to take in this situation.

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