Chapter 22: Chapter 22: The hardest part is the waiting

Chapter 22: The hardest part is the waiting

Thomas was in the forest, playing a hectic tune on the harp. It was Lucius's theory that, if he didn't play anything relaxed, the plants were going to go to a frenzy.

Roots and vines twitched all around him, his stomach kept on growling. It was just ten am, and he needed to wait another two hours before he got some deer meat and a cucumber to eat. Nearly doubling over when his stomach was gripped in a particularly sharp pain, he shook his head.

With all the fat deposited on him, he could go days without food, much less a couple of hours, most of which spend sleeping. He knew that this line of thoughts held up in theory. Yet, now that he was putting it in practice, he found his temper ready to snap.

The hunger was present now. Had been around since ten o'clock last night. For the little time he had been on the zone, he had gotten used to eating every four hours. Now, the hunger was everything he could think of.

Letting his anger fuel, him, he began to play more erratically. A jumble of tunes that made no sense. One string fueled by his hunger and his anger at himself.

How had he gotten to this point? To get this fat, to let himself have so little endurance? A vine rose from its place on the ground and began to wrap around a bush as if it were a python who had found prey. Thomas only noticed when the bush was uprooted from the ground, and thrown to the other edge of the clearing.

Thinking that all it took was to fuel anger in his music, he began to think about all the instances when he was bullied.

"Look at him, sir Piggy," a girl he had a crush on said, after he had asked her out on a school dance. Everyone had laughed. Everyone always laughed.

The same vine as before wrapped around a tree. Thomas snorted. It was not like it could uproot the tree. Some scratch marks were the only thing it would be able to damage the tree with.

This vine was much like him. His tunes become even more bitter at the realization. Weak, the vine tugged at the tree, becoming torn up itself. Worthless, the vine glowed, and then repaired all the damage. It was not giving up. Not deserving to exist, with one swift movement, the vine split the tree trunk in two.

Thomas blinked as the tree fell. The vine rose like a snake and then fell down. Now that the music was no longer working it into a frenzy, it was just another vine.

"This is..." the dark-haired man had no words. The vine, which was nowhere as thick as the tree, had cut it in half. Thomas began to repeat the same tunes, as quickly as he could.

The vine rose again, and it whipped at a different tree. Leaving a big gash behind. Thomas played like that for hours, trying to memorize the erratic tunes that were giving such a result. The faster he played, the frenzied the vine became.

By the time Rina came to call him for dinner, the vine was completely out of his control. It whipped at the archer, who jumped over it. Thomas immediately stopped playing, and the vine fell down.

"What was that?" the elf asked, and Thomas held his harp high.

"Lucius had a theory that this could attack as well. But I can only make the vegetation fight, not control them. Plus, only one at a time," he told her, and she nodded.

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"This would be dead useful for when you are cornered," she turned around, and he followed her back to the farm house. There was a table already set in front of the house, and Owen and Lucius were already seated.

"Lucius, you should have seen the clearing where Thomas practiced. It looks like a giant threw a tantrum in there," Rina said, as she sat down.

"You got the vegetation to attack?" Lucius asked Thomas, who nodded.

"Just one vine. I think I memorized the tune I used. The harp is turned into a weapon when I play in anger," the dark-haired adventurer told the vampire, and he sat down as well.

There, on his plate, was a single slab of deer meat. Half of what he had eaten hastily in the clearing. To add some fiber, there was also half a cucumber.

"I will be leaving tomorrow," Lucius told him.

"But, didn't you say you had five days?" Thomas asked. He didn't want to see Lucius go. The vampire had much more to teach him.

"Yes, well, it will be a big quest. I will be going as a part of a platoon. Before I go, I need to set my house in order. Place the more valuable things in the safe. Set up the watering system for my plants. The usual," Lucius took a cup filled with blood, and he took a sip.

"You will be missed," Rina said. Then, she looked to Thomas. "I heard a rumor about a quest that we can go on."

"Such as?" Thomas was ready to go just about anywhere, if given half the chance.

"There is a dungeon around here. One with ten levels. People have gone missing around it," Rina looked hopefully at Thomas. If he thought that they were not ready, someone else was going to clear the dungeon.

"Lucius, do you think we are ready?" Thomas asked the more experienced adventurer.

"With Karl, you are ready for great many things," Lucius said, and he looked to where the slime-dragon was eating a whole cart worth of cabbage. "I suggest you let him level the entrance to the cave first."

"That is no fun, I want to see the inside of the dungeon," Rina protested. Lucius snorted.

"If you end up dead, you will see that such a move is a folly with your low rankings," the vampire helped himself to more blood. Thomas nodded to the vampire. They just needed to get to the dungeon core. Nothing else mattered.