Luke Everhart
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Chapter 206 - Our Minds
🕑 Added 2025-02-26 11:30:06 +0000 UTC“I think that’s everything,” Kur said.
At his feet, there was a tall, sturdy looking and square backpack, in a color blend of dark and lighter browns. It had been a part of the free, basic package that they had received when they had arrived at the quartermaster, and was necessary to store not only all the harvesting and gathering that the party was supposed to do in the dungeon, which was nothing short of substantial, but also all the consumables they were bringing in with them.
“Are you sure?” Nar asked, his eyes scanning the translucent window that showed above the bag. It was split into a long table, and the first twenty-first slots out of the two hundred contained within the bag’s storare were already filled with just their consumables and an assortment of other gear.
“You keep asking me that, and I’m going to get paranoid!” Kur snapped. “We’ve checked the list five times already!”
“I don’t know!” Nar groaned. “This stuff’s scary! What if we forget something?”
Nar and Kur had spent the entirety of Seventh and most of their free time on First at the table of their party room, as even the Master of Blades had messaged Nar to tell him to take it easy for a bit, and the brief itself had proved simple despite its length. All they had to do was go in, go to A and kill x, then go to B and kill y, and so on and so forth, until they killed the final boss, which was some kind of noxious, big, purple frog.
“Antidotes for the boss. Antidotes for the dusk crawlers. Antidotes for the ankle stingers. Antidotes for…”
“Okay! Okay!” Nar said, stopping him. “I get it!”
Kur glared at him.
“Sorry,” Nar said. “This party leader stuff is insane! I don’t know how you handle it… All this responsibility is crazy.”
“Well, Gad’s a big help, and compared to some of the other apprentices, you guys aren’t all that bad to handle,” Kur said. “But yeah, it comes with the role. You’re half a tank, so don’t forget your own role comes with its own duties and responsibilities.”
“I know that,” Nar said. “But that’s different. Keeping an eye out and standing in the way of damage is fair enough. This though? Ugh… It freaks me out. I hope Gad's here for the next one.”
Kur chuckled, his expression darkening with evil intent. “I don’t know... You did pretty well, man. Maybe we should pull you in more into the decision making. Crystal knows, you’re forced to take the leadership plenty of times…”
Nar made a face. “So, about these boosters…”
“Don’t just change the subject!”
“I’m not!” Nar said, waving him off, and only being half-truthful. “I’m just thinking here… Since we got some for poison resistance, could we get some for mental resistance too?”
“What?” Kur asked. “Why? There’s no mention of mental attacks anywhere in the brief.”
Nar scratched the back of his head. “You remember how you guys went down in the den?
“Yeah… That wasn’t nice. Not one bit,” Kur said, wincing.
“And Viy got hit even harder than everyone else,” Nar said. “And her [Ego]’s only at 2…”
Kur frowned at him. “Did she say anything about it?”
Nar hesitated.
“You started it! Now finish it!” Kur demanded.
“Well, not directly,” Nar said. “But she did mention it once, during training, and although she was laughing about it, I don’t know… I think it really bothered her. Since then, for some reason, I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. And what if something does happen? Aether and physical damage are one thing… But attacks thrown straight at your mind? If you don’t have [Ego], you’re helpless, and that can’t feel nice, you know?”
“Hmm…” Kur said, placing a hand under his chin. “I get what you’re saying.”
“And if you consider how you, Gad, Jul and Viy all got affected, wouldn’t it make sense to carry something that can help us against it, just in case?” Nar added.
Kur tapped a finger against his chin. “We’ve reached the end of the XP fund they gave us to prepare… Anything we buy now will have to come from the party’s common fund, and since we’ve just started it, there really isn’t that much in it.”
The party’s common fund was, indeed, a very recent creation. It had come as a suggestion in their dungeon brief, proposing the creation of a common fund for the party’s needs and uses. The fund was held by the party leader, separate from their own XP, and everyone donated their surplus XP, the leftover in between levels, so that they could collectively afford consumables, gear, weapons and whatever else they needed that alone they couldn’t afford.
Everyone had been on board to do it, and the transfer of XP itself had been surprisingly straightforward and carried out immediately. Gad, stuck in the Tanks Hall, was the only one still left unawares, but no one had any doubts that she would be anything other than enthusiastically all for it, so they’d gone ahead without her just that morning. For now, Kur would hold their party fund, but in the future it could be transferred over to something called a bank account for ease of use and other benefits that had gone right over most of their heads, and no one had been particularly fond of the idea of placing their XP in the hands of somebody else.
Nar sighed and scratched the back of his neck. “Look, I think it’s worth it. Viy’s covering our left flank, and I’d rather not have to step in your shoes ever again, or see Gad or Jul go down either. Or anyone, for that matter. Mental attacks are serious, and I just think that we should be prepared against them.”
Kur grimaced, then stepped forward, towards the tills.
“Kur?” Nar asked after him.
With a groan, he grabbed their preciously filled backpack, and followed Kur to the quartermaster’s tills. The room they found themselves in was more akin to a wide corridor than a room, and the walls were made of dark gray metal, while the floors consisted of a slightly lighter gray linoleum than the canteen and common spaces.
Two rows of black, metal tables comprised two thirds of the room, and they were half filled with other apprentices making ready for their own dungeon delves, just like the two of them. The other third of the room was left for an empty space in front of five tills, through which the apprentices could speak with the quartermaster’s clerks.
“Hi!” Kur said, leaning over the counter towards the metal bars that blocked them, and any potential intruder, from the Scimitar’s precious holdings.
“Hi,” the person said. “You alright? I thought I gave you everything.”
“You did!” Kur said, smiling back.
The clerk who had taken their order was a sight to behold.
Their skin and bald head consisted entirely of a dizzying pattern of blacks, reds and greens, and which was on full display, as the clerk wore no clothes that Nar could discern. At the same time, while the person's shape was vaguely humanoid, or alfin-like as he needed to start thinking, there was nothing on them to indicate their gender. Also, they had no eyes, just the cavity where they were supposed to go, and this was the same for their mouth and nostrils… And more than that, Nar was pretty sure he had noticed their limbs stretch and bend in ways that shouldn’t be possible, completing the look on possibly one of the oddest sapients he had laid eyes on thus far.
“We just wanted to ask if you stock anything that helps against mental and psychic attacks?” Kur said. “Like those vials of poison resistance you gave us.”
“Hmm,” the clerk said, his mouth moving but still being blocked by swirling color. “We do have mental boosting potions.”
“And would they work even if you were already under attack, or do they need to be taken beforehand, like those poison resistance potions?”Kur asked.
The clerk frowned at them, the shape of two eyebrows forming above their hollow eyes where previously there had been none.
“You’d need booster shots, then,” the clerk said, their tone mildly surprised. “Potions wouldn’t do, and you’d need to inject the booster straight into your veins.”
And they raised a strangely flexible limb to point at their neck. “Here, preferably. So that it reaches your brain faster.”
“That sounds exactly like what we need,” Kur said, looking back at Nar, who hesitantly nodded in return. “And can we get them?”
“Uh… You can. But since your dungeon doesn’t register as needing those, you’ll have to buy them from your own pocket.”
Kur winced. “And how much are they?”
“Pffft… Let me see,” the clerk waved away at their table screen for a few seconds. “14,300 XP. Each.”
“Each?” Nar gasped.
“Yup, and they only last for 3 minutes,” they said. “These are only for emergencies, really.”
“We’ll take two, please,” Kur said.
“What?” Nar asked him. “Are you sure? That’s like a quarter of the whole fund!”
“I am,” Kur said. “You’re right. It's a gaping weakness in our party, and we can’t just ignore it. Please, can we have two of them? We’ll pay for them.”
The clerk considered them, their colorful pattern shifting in slow, and varied fractal shapes, their expression, and emotions, impossible to decipher in those patterns.
“Did you guys get hit hard in the den?” they asked.
“We did,” Kur said with a grimace. “Especially one of ours.”
“Hmm… Alright. I’ll be a second, then.”
“Thank you!” Kur shouted after them.
Then he patted Nar’s shoulder, who was still staring down at the clerk’s seat in a dazed shock.
“We’re going to spend all of that XP, just like that?” he mumbled.
“This is what the party fund is for,” Kur said. “And that’s the way it goes. We just need to earn more!”
“I guess…” Nar said. “I just didn’t expect it to be this expensive… Or that you needed to inject it straight into your neck!”
“I mean, I guess it makes sense,” Kur said, shrugging. “Can you imagine trying to drink a potion as your mind unravels in the middle of combat?”
Nar made a face. “Is that what it felt like?”
“I’m being dramatic, but you get what I mean. And if it’s meant to be a very quick and emergency fix, it’s always bound to be expensive.”
“I guess…” Nar said said once more, sighing. “And is that one for you to keep and one for Viy to hold onto?”
“It’s for you, actually,” Kur said. “At that massive 54, your [Ego] is the highest in the party by a long freaking mile! Those psaelis didn’t even tickle you, and that was back when you were at 33 points! If someone is capable of noticing something is wrong and moving fast enough to do something about it, then that’s you. And yes, you will carry this responsibility.”
Nar groaned, but he couldn’t fault his party leader’s logic. “Fine.”
“Good. And yes, the other one I’ll give to Viy,” he said. “And I think that’s the best we can do for now. Hopefully, her [Ego] increases, otherwise, that will always be her greatest weakness. And having gotten mental skills myself, I’m starting to realize more and more just how powerful and impactful these sorts of attacks are.”
Nar nodded.
“Here you go,” the clerk said, getting their attention. “Two mental booster shots, and they’ll work for both mental and psychic attacks. Of course, this is the basic stuff. I’m afraid you can’t afford anything better at the moment.”
“Thank you, that’s perfect!” Kur said, taking the boosters and passing one to Nar.
With this, I can at least put it out of my head, Nar thought, examining the shiny, pink metallic tube in his hand, topped off with a pink cap.
The thought had entered his mind, and even in the depth of despair and chaos of his old memories raging through his brain, it had stuck firmly to him, returning to him several times a day. No matter what, he had been unable to shake it off of him, and now, with the booster in his hands, he felt a sort of relief wash down the back of his mind.
At least I wasn’t being crazy, he thought, storing the booster in his inventory. Kur thought the same thing.
“Just pop off the cap and the needle will sprung out. Then stab straight into the neck,” the clerk said, mimicking the gesture. “It should work within 3 to 5 seconds.”
“Thank you,” Kur said again. “And uh… How do we pay?”
“I’ll just send you a prompt.”
“Oh, I see it… Wait! There’s only 14,300 here?”
The clerk's strange lips formed to smile at them. “It’s good to be careful, and to worry about your party members. The second one is on the house, but don’t expect this again, you hear? Next time you pay in full!”
“Thank you so much!” Kur said, bowing to the clerk, and at his side, Nar rushed to do the same.
“Ah, stop it!” the clerk said. “Save that wacko stuff for your teachers! Now, good luck out there, yeah? Don’t do anything stupid and come back in one piece.”
“We’ll do!” Kur said. “And thank you so much, again!”
“Yeah! Thank you so much!” Nar added.
The clerk laughed. “I like you guys. The name’s Berth. Look for me next time you need somethin, and if I’m in a good mood, I might cut you some deals.”
“I’m Kur and this is Nar,” Kur introduced them. “And yes, we’ll definitely do it. Thank you so much!”
“No worries! Now scram, before my boss hears me making promises!”
“Thank you!” they shouted once more.
“Now do you feel prepared?” Kur asked Nar, as they exited the quartermaster.
Nar grinned in reply. “Now, I do.”
With their backpack stuffed with antidotes, potions, bandages, food, lights and other supplies, Nar felt like he could maybe relax a little bit now.
They had done their due diligence, and for once, they weren’t being thrown blindly into danger. They knew what to expect, at least in general terms, and they had prepared for it as well as they could, gathering supplies, prepping up a new formation, having new powerful skills and gains, and the assurance from Kur’s instructor that they were more than up for the task…
Everything will be fine, Nar told himself. We can do this!
Maybe now he could even look forward a little to whatever everyone kept saying was going to be a mind blowing experience, and one that would show him the real meaning of delving. And it had to be quite something, for everyone to keep harping on and on about it. Even Tuk had said that everywhere he went, people kept hinting that it was going to be something else…
I can’t wait, Nar thought.
Perhaps that wonder and curiosity he had harbored wasn’t so dead after all. He just hoped the dungeon didn’t kill it…
Comments
Lucas Onderwater
Coming up next chapter! ✈️
Tristan A
I think they just haven't talked yet. Unless there was an indication they did.
Mariusz
Talk with Rel was ofscreened? I know she has to go after class but it was not mentioned
