Rune Seeker

Chapter 70: A Familiar Town

The group made good time, Hiral insisting on being in the lead with Left and Right, Seena’s party trailing fifty feet behind, and Seeyela’s party a similar distance further back. Dr. Benza had said groups of six or less were more likely to avoid the Enemy’s notice, and he wasn’t willing to keep Left and Right inside him.

The more eyes watching for unknown threats, the better.

“Terrain is changing,” Left said, his Atn just as high as Hiral’s. “And, is it my imagination, or am I seeing a path between the trees over there?”

“I see it too,” Hiral said, the spacing between the trees far too even to be natural. “Looks like our path will meet up with it ahead,” he added, pointing along the twin glowing roots running on the ground. “Maybe that means the dungeon is close.”

“We’ve barely been jogging two hours,” Left said. “You really think they’re that near each other?”

Hiral looked up at the rain—the worst of the storm had passed, for now—then back ahead. “We have to catch a break eventually.”

“When did you get so optimistic?” Right asked.

“Trying something new,” Hiral said as they reached the intersection between their path and the other one.

As soon Left’s foot touched down, he slowed to a stop, then crouched down and ran his hand under the water.

“Find something?” Hiral asked, joining his double and dipping his fingers under the water.

There was muck there—of course there was, it was a swamp—but underneath that? No mistaking it… Stone. Worked stone.

“This is a road,” Hiral said, looking up and down the new path. The roots they’d been following toward the next dungeon now ran on both sides of what had to be the edges of the stone road. It was only about twenty feet wide, so not a major causeway, but it was the first stone road he’d seen other than the small town.

Is it the same? Does it connect? Even if it does, we’ve come pretty far.

“Right, go tell the others what we’ve found,” Hiral told his double while he wiped aside the muck to get a better look at the stone underneath. Not the same as Fallen Reach… which means it’s not the same as the town. Still, it feels like I’ve seen this somewhere before. “Left, does this look familiar to you?”

Left pushed more of the mud aside to get a better look, peering at the stone in the dim light of the glowing roots. While they’d gotten used to seeing by it for most things, it wasn’t made for close inspections of details.

“Yes,” Left said. “It’s the same as the road from the dungeon. The one where we were farming Lizardmen.”

“I thought so,” Hiral said, Seena and her party catching up to them by that point.

“Right said something about a road?” Seena asked.

“Yeah, and made by Lizardmen, I think,” Hiral said.

“We haven’t run into any yet,” Yanily said, almost sadly. “Actually, we haven’t fought a single thing since we left the dungeon. I’m never going to get to C-Rank like this.”

“Everything was scared off by whatever destroyed the dungeon,” Vix said.

“Which is pretty impressive when you think about the huge snakes,” Nivian said. “And also means we shouldn’t dawdle. The path is pretty clear, and a road means we’re less likely to come across sinkholes, right?”

“I’m still going on ahead,” Hiral said.

“Do any of Left’s tattoos help with being sneaky?” Wule asked.

“Being… sneaky?” Hiral asked.

“Uh, stealthy? Our usual scout has abilities that make him tougher to notice. If you’re going to be separated from the group, shouldn’t you have something like that?”

“Maybe you missed the S-Rank weapon slung across his back?” Yanily said. “Don’t think he needs to worry about it.”

“It’s powerful against other E-Ranks,” Hiral said. “D and above… I’m not so sure. But, to answer your question, he has the Way of Shadow… if we can unlock it. Until then, not much else.”

“What’s the holdup?” Seeyela said, her party catching up and making the group uncomfortably large.

“Lizardman road,” Hiral said. “Sorry for the delay, I’m going now.”

“Be careful, since you can’t be sneaky,” Seena said before glancing in Wule’s direction.

“Yeah, whatever,” the healer said, pulling his hood further over his head to hide from the never-ending rain. “It was a valid question.”

Hiral turned and left the group again, his eyes scanning between the trees for any health bars or flashing warning notifications. Nothing so far. Was it connected to the storms? Both times he’d seen the Enemy, the weather had been really bad. Were they safer when the rain was lighter?

No, he couldn’t get complacent.

He jogged for another half an hour before he slowed again, the pattern of the roots ahead changing. For the most part in the swamp, they ran along the ground or wound around the trees. Further down the path, he could see them branching out as they climbed straight up something flat and ran off in both directions.

“A wall,” Hiral said.

“More than a wall,” Left said, pointing straight down the path.

Hiral pulled his attention from the sides and looked through what had to be the gate. “Another town,” he said, unable to make out if it was a Lizardman town, or one like they’d found earlier.

“If it’s a Lizardman town, we could run into trouble,” Left said. “Around or through?”

“Through,” Hiral said, drawing both his RHCs. “The dungeon could be in there, for all we know.”

“And I think we’re in pretty good shape to deal with trouble,” Right said, cracking the knuckles of his right hand.

“You’re spending too much time with Yanily,” Left said dryly.

“And you sound too much like Vix,” Hiral said with a shake of his head, then did a quick check behind him. Seena and the others had slowed when they saw him stop, so he gave them a wave—making it clear he had his weapons drawn—then took off down the road again. “Be ready for anything.”

Hiral kept his eyes on the top of the wall for scouts as he ran, picking up speed in case they got spotted, but nothing moved other than the falling rain. As he got closer, he saw a missing chunk of wall there, the uneven top here, and the general disrepair of the thing as a whole.

“Same as usual,” he said before the trio passed through the gate to the other side of the wall, Left and Right spreading out on his sides to cover his flanks, while he aimed his weapons straight down the street. The buildings on both sides were little more than ruins, nothing standing closer than a hundred feet to him.

Glowing roots wrapped the debris like small, illuminated hills, and climbed what looked to be still-standing buildings in the distance. The whole thing was almost surreal, with the layer of water covering the ground, reflecting the lines of light, but blurring in the falling rain.

“Clear on this side,” Left said.

“Ditto over here,” Right added. “No Lizardmen here for a long time, I’m thinking.”

“Doesn’t look like it,” Hiral said, eying the sides of the street and what looked to be small alleys trailing off between the ruins of the buildings. Wait, alleys? Hiral pushed the image of the rain out of his mind and reconstructed the buildings, then overlaid a street that looked far too similar from his memory. The two images fit perfectly. One more touch, a fireball-tossing Lizardman at the end of the street, and there was no mistaking it. “This is the town from the dungeon.”

“The original one, or are we back in the dungeon somehow?” Right asked.

“Probably the original. You see it too, don’t you, Left?” Hiral asked.

“I do. And it’s making me nervous we’re about to get blasted,” Left said.

“At least we know where the alleys are,” Hiral said.

“We should wait for the others before we go any further in,” Left said. “And…” he started, before a not-so-distant flash of lightning lit the sky.

One second, two, three, four… and thunder rumbled.

“Another storm,” Hiral said.

“Or the same one. We don’t actually know how they work,” Left said.

“Seena,” Hiral said, turning to the party as they jogged up, “this is the same town from The Mire dungeon. Or, at least, it looks like it.”

“Any Lizardmen?” Yanily eagerly asked.

“Long since abandoned,” Right said, breaking the news to him.

“That’s not important now,” Hiral said, pointing at the sky with his RHC at the same time another flash of lightning lit up in the distance. “Both times the Enemy has shown up, it’s been in the storm. We need to hurry.”

“What about finding shelter here?” Wule asked. “There’s got to be at least one standing building that has an intact roof.”

Hiral looked at Left. “They still found us back at the inn.”

“And in the dungeon,” Nivian said.

“Odds might be better than out in the open,” Wule said. “We’ll just stay still and quiet until the storm passes.”

“Couldn’t hurt to dry off for a bit,” Seena admitted.

“I really think we should keep moving,” Hiral said. “The sooner we get to The Troblin Throne, the sooner we can clear it and unlock the Asylum.”

Seena wiped the water off her face while she thought. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. Find a building we can all fit in—our party and Seeyela’s—then see what they have to say about it. No, Hiral, I know what you’re going to say, but Wule does have a point. It might be safer to stay dry and quiet.”

“That’s fine,” Hiral said, eyes back on the clouds as lightning flashed. “I want to keep moving, but you might be right. I don’t know if that’s the best thing to do any more than you do. Let’s see what the others have to say.”

“Thanks for not arguing about it,” Seena said.

“He’s not Fitch,” Yanily said quietly.

“Fitch only argues if it’s with Hiral,” Vix pointed out.

“True.”

“The building straight down this street looks like it might be intact,” Hiral said, pointing in that direction with his weapon. “Right behind where the Scholar would’ve been. Why don’t you try there?”

“And what are you going to do?” Seena asked.

“Check to see if there are any better options,” Hiral said. “If we do decide to stay, I’d like to have a good roof over my head.”

“Hiral…” Seena started.

“…don’t do anything reckless,” he finished for her. “I know. I won’t. I’ll see you before the storm hits.”

With that, he jogged off into the town just as the lightshow in the sky grew more intense, lightning bolt after lightning bolt arcing across the dark clouds.

“I don’t like the idea of staying,” he said to Left and Right as they moved down an all-too-familiar alley. At least no Lizardmen jumped out of the shadows at them. “But… maybe they’re right. Being out in the open wouldn’t be any safer, even if we were moving.”

“We could go on ahead, see if we can find the dungeon,” Right suggested. “What? Don’t look at me like that. If I’m thinking it, so are you.”

“If Hiral died, the others wouldn’t be able to get into the dungeon. It’s too big a risk,” Left said.

“Plus, we don’t know how far it is,” Hiral said. “And why are we even having this conversation? If we’re all thinking the same thing, we’ve all come to the same conclusion.”

“Because you needed to talk it out to agree with it,” Right said. “That’s just how you are.”

“How we are,” Left said.

“And we’ll probably need to have the conversation five or six more times for it to stick in that head of yours,” Right went on.

“Now you’re just being mean,” Hiral said as they slowed at the end of the alley. He peeked around the corner, looking up and down the new street.

“Am I wrong?” Right asked. “This way looks clear.”

“No, you’re not wrong, and that’s the worst part,” Hiral said. “What about that building over there? Looks like it’s three stories, and…” He trailed off as lightning lit up the sky behind the stone building. “And there’s no roof or floors,” he said, the lightning visible even through the windows.

“I see a possibility down this way,” Left said, pointing further down the street.

Thunder boomed again and again, each time sounding just a little bit closer, though maybe it was just his imagination.

“Uh… actually, maybe you should take a look in this direction,” Right said, and Hiral turned to look at him.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Straight down the end of this street,” Right said cryptically.

“The Enemy?” Hiral asked, gripping his weapons tighter.

“Just wait for it…”

“Wait for…?” Hiral started, but then lightning flashed to illuminate a break in the wall at the far end of the street. What’s so special about the breach? Another flash, and Hiral saw what Right had to be talking about. A massive briar patch—shrouded in something like living darkness—towered out beyond the town.

“We must’ve walked right past it,” Hiral whispered quietly, another streak of lightning illuminating the intimidating silhouette of the briar. “How did we not notice it?”

“No roots on it,” Left pointed out. “We’ve gotten so used to using them to judge distances in the darkness.”

“Do you think the Prince is still sleeping in there?” Hiral asked. “The real Prince?”

“Let’s not find out,” Right said. “We don’t know if those totems in the dungeon actually exist, or if they were part of the encounter Dr. Benza built to test us.”

“I agree with Right on this one,” Left said.

“Of course you do; I’m right,” Right said.

Hiral sighed. “I wondered how long it would take for you to make that joke,” he said dryly, but another crash of thunder overheard reminded him he had more urgent problems to deal with. Still, his eyes lingered on the briar as the lightning lit it up again. Maybe his other problem was more urgent, but that could be bigger… if it woke up. Just another reason not to hang around the town too long.

“We’d better hurry,” he said, and the trio ran down the street to check the building Left had pointed out earlier.