Preparations

For a long moment he simply stood and watched, horrified at what he was witnessing. While he was too far to make out any faces, the bodies of the slain were clearly dressed in the livery of house Dennavar, and there were enough of them to account for nearly the entire crew.

The pixie’s high pitched voice snapped him out of his paralysis, “Put your light out idiot.”

Realizing the danger he was putting himself in, Azalon nodded and quickly doused the magic lantern. From his vantage point on top of the cliff it was clear the town was being searched by the watchmen. If they were involved then the adventurer’s guild itself must have orchestrated this. But why? It didn’t make any sense. House Dennavar had come to negotiate supply contracts. They weren’t any threat to the guild, unless there was some ulterior motive he wasn’t aware of. Did the guild find something to make them turn on his house? Why send someone to assassinate him in particular?

The fox stood silently staring at the town for a long while before Willowing again tried to snap him out of it, “Um, so how about that escort? Must seem like a pretty good option now right?”

Azalon nodded dumbly. For a brief moment he considered going back. Maybe someone had survived. Lili, Cornell, or any of the others; they might have been able to hide or escape. But then what could he do? He couldn’t fight. He couldn’t even hide particularly well. Unless there was a book to translate or some artifact to appraise there wasn’t much he could do.

Cursing to himself he turned to the fairy, “Fuck. You’re right. We need to hide. Once they realize their rat isn’t coming back they’re going to send someone looking for him… for me as well.”

Willowing nodded and grinned, “Course I’m right. That’s why I’m in charge.”

Shaking his head grimly Azalon turned and looked up at the black silhouettes of the mountains to the south. “Well, at least getting torn apart by monsters will be fast.”

The pixie laughed and flew a circle around him before starting to lead the way back into the gloomy crags, “That’s the spirit! Wrong though.”

Azalon sighed as he started walking after her, “How so?”

“Hmm, well depends on the monster. I mean sure, a skeleton will just stab you, but get caught by a kelpie? They’ll keep you alive for days, until you’re too loose to be of any use to them.”

The fox shuddered slightly, his encounter with the rat still fresh on his mind. He had heard that certain dungeon monsters preferred torture and sexual abuse to outright killing. The rumor circulating around town was that the Rhysh dungeon was unusually… rapey, as they had put it. Or at least that’s what people had seen thus far.

Seeing his worried expression Willowing cheerfully added, “But a well trained sex slave is too valuable to just kill right? So just make sure to behave and everything will be fine.”

“I’m not your slave,” the fox barked back, “You haven’t bound me in any way.”

“Oh… you like bondage. Got it.”

He sighed, knowing it would be pointless arguing with her. The pixie seemed to have some destination in mind as she led Azalon through the maze like mountain crags. Once they were a fair distance from the town overlook he lit his lantern again, keeping it pointed at the rocky terrain to limit the amount of light that could be seen from a distance. It had grown fully dark by the time the fairy came to a narrow crack between two rocks.

“In here,” she said, “it’s a good hidey hole.”

Azalon nodded and squeezed his slender body through the rocks. The space beyond wasn’t quite a cave given that the sky was visible above, but it was surrounded by high rock walls that formed a secluded enclosure. Numerous animal bones littered the ground indicating that something had made their lair here once, but there didn’t seem to be any recent sign of whatever it had been.

The fox sighed and slumped against the wall, feeling completely dejected. The more he thought about his situation the more hopeless it seemed to him. His companions were dead. He was trapped inside of a dungeon. He had a few emergency supplies on him, some basic tools and food enough to last a week. Not nearly enough for even a basic delve. At least it was relatively safe near the town. Dungeon monsters would sometimes wander down this way, but they didn’t seem to spawn anywhere nearby. He couldn’t stay here though. Someone would eventually find him, and if they didn’t he’d simply starve.

He hated to admit it, but he needed Willowing’s help. The fae were notorious tricksters, but at least they could be bargained with. Once they made their way to her home perhaps he could negotiate with the fairies there for sanctuary. With her as an ally, he might even survive getting there.

His thoughts were interrupted by the pixie, “Hey, don’t look so glum buddy. You know, a quick wank might do you some good.”

Azalon kept his eyes closed as he shook his head, “Really not in the mood. You know, everyone I came here with being slaughtered and all…”

She tapped her chin thoughtfully, “Hmm, yeah, that is a bummer. You’re still alive though right?”

“For the time being.”

The pixie’s voice suddenly turned angry, “Don’t give me that shit!” The fox frowned as he looked up at her shaking her tiny fist at him, “Oh woe is me! I got my ass saved and now my mistress is making me walk places. You’ll be fine. Cheer up, you might even enjoy the trip.”

He sighed and shook his head, “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly an adventurer.”

“So? You’ve got magic. I saw you cast something at that ratten to throw him off balance. Just… keep doing that and get better at it.”

He frowned up at her, wanting to rebuke her but then realized she was actually right. He did have magic. He had been so focused on his career he had forgotten that the Scholar archetype actually was an adventurer class, just not one that anyone used. The Arcanum of Secrets wasn’t just for research. There were spells to find traps, ambushes, hidden paths, secret doors. His other arcanum, Delirium, was full of powerful psychic attack spells. He just needed to invest and train in them.

He nodded resolutely, “You’re right. Perhaps this isn’t as hopeless as I thought. I can get better.”

She grinned down at him, “Course I’m right.”

He smiled slightly at what was becoming her catchphrase. He reached into his coat pocket and withdrew all the money he had on him, laying it out on the stony ground in front of him. The world had standardized on mana as the universal form of currency centuries ago. Because mana could be used to generate anything of value it was actually the purist representation of value itself. Mana was also power, both in the literal sense, and because the Akasha used mana to refine a person’s skills and abilities.

Commonly, mana was converted into a liquid form and sealed in bronze casings called bars. While the bars were normally just used as money, in a pinch they could just as easily be used as mana potions. He had been saving his bars to unlock Eidetic Memory, a skill that would give him a near perfect memory. He wasn’t even close to that, but with the mana he had he could learn a few attack spells at least, maybe level them up a couple times as well. The question was what was the most efficient way to go about it?

He had about eighteen hundred bars to work with. With that in mind he opened the interface to his Akasha and began flipping between his two arcanum and his own personal attributes. While it was tempting to invest in several spells at once, it might be better to learn one or two spells and put what was left into making them stronger. There were also a few skills like Potency which were expensive, but would make every spell he cast more powerful.

In the end he decided to learn Blind and Suffering, increasing them both to the third level. The spells that did direct damage were too expensive for now, but spells that inflicted status effects were often better anyway. With an opponent blinded he could get in close with a dagger and Suffering would amplify whatever damage he managed to do. He decided to unlock Danger Sense from the Arcanum of Secrets as well. It was relatively cheap and the sort of thing that might end up saving his life one day. Finally he raised Daze up to level two with what he had left. It didn’t apply a long lasting effect like his other spells, but it was cheap and he knew how useful it could be when timed right.

Feeling slightly better about his chances of survival he nodded up to the pixie, “Okay. I think between your illusions and the few spells I just learned we might have a chance at this. So, tell me about this place we’re going to.”

Willowing nodded happily, “We need to get to the Undergrove. It’s the big forest beneath old Rakenhold.”

“Old Rakenhold?”

“Oh right, you’re not from around here. That’s the name of the old city in the mountain just south of here. The kobolds have taken it over, and I don’t know what they call it. It goes pretty deep, but once you go deep enough you’ll get to the grove.”

Azalon nodded. It sounded like she was talking about the mountain tunnels just south of town, the ones that the adventurer’s guild were having trouble finding a way through. But if she’s from beyond them she must know the way. He felt like he could probably handle a few kobolds. They were relatively weak after all, as long as he didn’t find himself fighting a group of them.

The fox shivered slightly and reached into his inventory to pull out a thick overcoat. Now that the sun had fully set the temperature had dropped to below freezing. He had at least had the sense to carry some winter clothing with him. The small lantern threw out a little heat and they were sheltered from the wind, so he was fairly confident he wouldn’t freeze to death out here. Sleeping on the rocky ground was going to be uncomfortable, but at least he had a spare set of clothing to lay on and a towel he could use as a pillow.

He found what looked like the smoothest patch on the floor and laid down with the cave wall against his back. He decided to take a final look in his inventory, in case he had overlooked something that might help keep him alive. Besides an embarrassing wealth of sex toys though he didn’t have much. The bondage rope could be used as regular rope, he thought, even if it was purple. In addition to the trail rations he had a pair of waterskins and a couple bottles of wine, a few tools like his spyglass and a magnifying glass, and three more healing potions. Besides his small utility knife though the only weapons he had were the ones he took off of the ratten, the enchanted dagger and a long stiletto.

All of this was done mentally of course. Most everything he had was stored inside of the Akasha itself, within an extra-dimensional space he really didn’t understand the workings of. There really wasn’t any point in pulling anything out he didn’t intend to use, and he really didn’t want the fairy looking over all of the various sizes, shapes, and species of dildos he happened to be carrying either.

To Willowing though Azalon looked like he had just closed his eyes and laid down. “So I guess you must be pretty sleepy right? Going to bed?”

The fairy still seemed pretty energetic, flitting about the fox’s head. Perhaps she expected him to fulfill his duties as her sex slave, though he still wasn’t quite clear on how that was supposed to work given that she was less than a foot tall. He nodded, giving her an affirmative grunt while keeping his eyes closed. “Mmm, can you keep watch? I wouldn’t want us to be surprised if whatever it is that makes its lair here comes back.”

She crossed her arms and let out a little harrumph, “You know, a slave isn’t supposed to be making demands. I guess I do need to keep my property safe though…”

“Not your slave. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight slave.”