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A Soldier's Life - 169 - Something Brewing
🕑 Added 2024-03-27 20:38:57 +0000 UTCChapter 169 Something Brewing
Through the pain, I kept trying to tell myself that it was not as bad as when I consumed the apex earth essence in Macha. Maveith’s voice echoed in the back of my mind as he tried to communicate, but the pain was taking all my focus. I bit my tongue, the metallic coppery-tasting blood filling my mouth. As the pain ebbed away, my clenching muscles relaxed. I rasped out, “How long?”
Maveith was kneeling over me, “Less than a minute. Are you okay, Eryk? That looked unpleasant.”
There was no way that was only a fucking minute. I moved to a sitting position, every part of my body aching. “Shit.”
“What is it, Eryk? You smell horrible, like rotten eggs, and your skin is slimy.” Maveith voiced his concern but still backed away.
“Yeah, I shit myself too. If I ever do this again, I am going to make sure I have purged both ends before I start.” I spat the residual vomit from my mouth and tried not to move my ass too much. My throat was sore, and I used some healing on my damaged tendons and ligaments from clenching so hard. The fouled clothing and shitty underclothes were going to be left behind in this dungeon.
I recalled the conversation with Kolm, “The harpy room had some water. At least they said they were fishing there. We should be able to get past the earth drake as it hasn’t been a day yet. There should also be a reward chest to claim in the harpy room.”
“I will walk ahead of you,” Maveith said, scrunching his nose. I was going to retort that I had put up with his body odor for a long time, but then again, my own odor was making me nauseous and causing my eyes to water at the moment. We climbed the stairs, which was not fun with the soiled clothes. The dead earth drake was still here, and we crossed cautiously into the other corridor. The corridor curved slightly before arriving at the harpy room.
The harpy room had a mix of short green trees and tall deadwood trees. I didn’t see any sign of the legionnaires, and the stone reward chest was visible next to a large pool in the center of the room. Without my armor on, I had Maveith lead, “You go first, Maveith. I have enough aether to handle one problem.” He nodded, and we passed the short trees with red berries on them.
Maveith ate one of the berries and immediately spit it out. “This is bitter, Eryk, don’t even try it.” I picked one of the berries anyway and inspected it. It looked like a small cherry, but it obviously wasn’t. I squeezed the small fruit, and a bean was inside the husk. The bean was white and looked oddly familiar.
“Maveith, I think this is a coffee bean. We have them in Tsinga.” I didn’t know if that statement was one hundred percent true. From my reading, I found there was a dessert beverage that was described like it was coffee. They roasted, crushed, and filtered water through seeds to create a black, rich beverage. It had certainly sounded like coffee. I hadn’t found coffee in the Telhian Empire, but many tea varieties were available.
We both walked to the pond in the center of the chamber and looked into it. It was maybe 20 feet across. And Kolm had been correct about there being fish in this room.
This variety of fish was smaller than the eels or other fish I had already discovered. These fish were rotund and just larger than my hand. They bobbed to the surface before diving deep into the depths of the pool and disappearing. I guessed the needed air to breathe, and that gave the harpies a chance to swoop down and grab them from their perches in the dead trees.
I gratefully stripped, tossing my underclothes in a pile for the dungeon to reclaim. The water was cold as I tested it with my foot. A sheen of oil spread across the surface of the water from my exposed leg. Whatever my body had extruded was oily in nature. The fish also seemed to oppose my scent as they suddenly stopped coming to the surface.
As I settled into the water, there didn’t appear to be any threat. “Maveith, why don’t you check the chest in the center of the chamber while I clean up.” Surprisingly, the goliath didn’t seem as excited about treasure as most people. He nodded, accepting the task reluctantly.
I started scrubbing as best I could in the water with a sock. With no detergent left, it was difficult for me to clean myself. Soon, the entire surface of the pool was covered with the oily film from my efforts. I scrubbed my skin raw, trying to free myself of the foul stench.
While I was bathing, Maveith returned with 12 silver coins and a potion, handing them to me. I studied the runic script on the potion before announcing, “As best as I can translate, it says see in the dark. This is a potion of night vision.” Maveith looked impressed, “Keep it, Maveith. Dungeon potions should be good for years.” I did send the coins to my dimensional space so he wouldn’t have to carry them. I put the fishing kit on the shore for him.
Maveith looked disgusted at the pond that now had an oil slick coating it, “Eryk, I don’t know if I want to fish this pond.” I looked into the water, and it looked like some of the fish were having trouble swimming. Whatever impurities had been released from my body had fouled and poisoned the water.
“Can you harvest the berries for me? I think they have a use.” Maveith looked at the two dozen coffee trees and nodded. I think he was happy to find an excuse to get a good distance from. I continued my efforts, getting as clean as possible before dressing in clean clothes. A few fish were bobbing in the water, clearly dead. I tried the collector on three small fish, and only one gave a minor essence of constitution. I handed it to Maveith before putting my armor back on.
My legion armor was not in great condition. The red lacquer on the metal helmet was peeling. The leather pieces soaked in resin had warped slightly. The armor even had gouges from the talons of the harpy. It looked like whoever had worn this suit had been through a lot—the poor guy had been frozen, burned, and battered. I had a new set of legion armor in my space, but I couldn’t wear it or risk revealing my expansive space to the company. I helped Maveith fill a large tarp with the coffee berries before tying the corners together and sending it to storage. I had no idea how to turn the small berries into actual coffee, but what you had a lot of in the dungeon was time.
There were two exits from this room. The one to the left led to Flavius and our legionnaire companions. The one to the right was probably where the goblin had come from. I had to make a choice. Should I reunite with Flavius and the others or search for Castile? We still had hours before the harpies would respond.
I debated internally for a long time before announcing to Maveith, “We are going to go that way.” I pointed in the direction in which the goblin most likely came from. Maveith looked back at the entrance that led to the legionnaires. Then, back at the entrance, I chose for us. His confusion made me feel I needed to explain myself. “Flavius cannot know that I have the collector, and the extent of my other abilities need to remain a secret.”
Maveith understood. “I will take your secret to my deathbed, Eryk,” his deep tone was reaffirming, and I was a little worried. He said it too loud like he was making an oath, and I glanced at the corridor, relieved that no one was standing there. After my decision, we didn’t waste too much time leaving the harpy room.
As we went, the corridor curved left and right, but the familiar flowing lights on the ceiling and floor were reassuring. I wondered where the goblin had come from and why nothing was pursued from the room we approached. When we reached the end of the corridor, it opened into a wide sandy room. Little dust devils of sand dotted the room.
“Maybe there is something underneath the sand?” I guessed to Maveith to my right.
Maveith was studying the sand as well. His deep voice speculated, “There certainly are a lot of environments within this dungeon. I traveled the Scorching Waste before. There were carnivorous beetles, scorpions of all sizes, and different varieties of elementals. Those sand swirls could be minor elementals.”
I studied the swirling clouds of sand more intently. They didn’t seem to move, and I could recall no books that referenced elementals. “If the goblin was able to pass through the room, should we try?” Maveith looked behind us, probably considering there were five legionnaires and the Scholar back there. He eventually returned to look at the sandscape.
“If they are elementals, they should be affected by our runic weapons,” Maveith said. I took that as a yes and stepped out onto the sand. The chamber suddenly felt hot, like I was in a scorching desert, and the sand eddies started moving toward me. Maveith stepped behind me, “They are not elementals, Eryk. Something is moving in the sand beneath them.”
Maveith was right, and the sand formed a mound moving toward us. It was easy to get distracted by the mini tornados. They moved with a decent speed and were spread out and coordinated. “Back out of the room, Maveith.”
We both exited to the corridor’s safety, ready to retreat to the harpy room. All five mounds converged on us and stopped by the entrance. A dog-sized beetle emerged from the sand, impressive mandibles snapping in the air in frustration. It appeared uncertain about leaving the sand before submerging itself once again.
We both stood ready, but the beetles slowly moved away. Maveith’s baritone sounded, “I think they are sand scarabs. I have never seen them before, but sand scarabs use aether and earth magic to burrow in the sand. If you try to fight them, they can quickly sink you in the sand to attack you below the surface while you are immobilized.”
“That sounds utterly horrific. Getting trapped in the sand and then being unable to attack them while they use those mandibles on your legs—and other parts.” I shivered and could see why Flavius and the others had not tried this room.
“They are also fast, so it will be difficult to avoid them,” Maveith noted.
“We don’t need to avoid them, Maveith. They won’t leave the protection of the sand.” I stepped into the room and waited for the first scarab to reach me before pulling a deep column of sand under the vortex into my space. My aether bottomed out, and the resistance of the beetle was strong, but I still succeeded. I stepped back into the corridor with Maveith.
We were both ready as the other four scarabs hovered outside the corridor, but they were still unwilling to enter and leave the sand’s protection. I smiled at Maveith, “Now we just have to wait until I can do that again. It usually takes me about two hours, but it is closer to an hour and a half in the dungeon.”
About ninety minutes later, a second scarab was killed by my efforts. They traveled about a foot under the sand, but the small swirling sand above them made it easy to track their movements. After killing a third one, the last two surprised us by leaving the safety of the sandy room. Maveith was not caught off guard; he crushed one with his hammer, and I was able to pierce the other between the mandibles with my black blade. This was good as I could use the collector on the last two, getting a major earth essence from both. I tried the collector on the other three scarabs, getting one additional earth essence and one minor earth essence. The first scarab had been dead for too long to yield anything.
We knew the room was clear of the scarabs by the stone reward chest appearing in the center of the micro dessert. “Easy peesy, Maveith.” I smiled at the goliath, who gave me a doubtful look as he tried to figure out what peesy meant. I approached the modest chest and shattered it. Silver coins spread out, and a leather-bound tome was on top. It smelled strongly of seasoned leather as I opened it.
Inside were pages of layered spell forms for some type of spell. I couldn’t understand what the spell actually did without the Latin script telling me what I was looking at. After the first few pages of spell forms, the runic script that followed on the following pages probably went into some detail about the spell, but it would take me hours to puzzle out the translation in the dreamscape. I noted a few symbols that seemed to indicate it was related to the earth affinity. I held the book to Maveith, “I think it might be an earth affinity spell. Do you want it?”
“No, I inscribed my earth affinity already, Eryk. And I can not learn actual spells.” I shrugged and gathered up the silver coins on top of the book. I stood balancing the coins as we looked around the room. There was just sand filling the oval room.
“Let’s move to the corridor, Maveith. This room was not very difficult for us, and I wouldn’t mind returning to get more earth essence later.” We walked into the unexplored corridor, and it was not a long walk before arriving at the familiar-looking room with two long, wide stone shelves.
Maveith grunted happily, “A rest room.” It was a safe room but was unique in that there were three different exits, not including the corridor we were standing in or the oily black door tempting us to exit the dungeon for good.
We moved in and started to unpack, but I noticed almost immediately, on the wall next to the faded elven script, that there were dark letters in Latin. It read: Castile’s group went this way, clearly written in charcoal, with an arrow pointing to one of the corridors. We were close, but how long ago had that been written?
I turned to Maveith, who couldn’t read Latin, “Castile’s group was here.” His eyes went wide with excitement. He was clearly ready to get out of the dungeon. “Don’t get too excited. We don’t know how long ago they came through here. Why don’t you get some sleep first. I will stay up and prepare some food.”
I pulled out the elven tablet table and some ingredients, including a handful of coffee berries. Maveith made himself comfortable and was soon snoring. With Maveith sleeping, I grasped the edges of the table and activated the device. It was time to see what the major illusion essence did for me.
Comments
cnjsd dsjncsdk
I probably am but he really bugs me, I can tell im the odd one out based on reading everone elses comments
C
You have the right to be wrong, and you are very wrong on this take, my friend.
cnjsd dsjncsdk
maveith just irritates me, the guy is a ultra simp for the elf girl and is just feeding off eryks loot in exchange for preparing the food
Unwired Rob
I am a little surprised Eryk doesn't have a real plan on his magical attunement / possibilities. I mean, he is getting all kinds of essence and it seems like he would be like - I'm gonna boost this one to xx/yy and that one to zz/aa or something. Instead it seems a bit random. Or, I'm going to unlock all of them first, then build.... Same thing with his physical which he knows he can boost in both ways. He could be pushing for something super powerful or shoring up his weaknesses, depending on how much these really effect 'real life'.
ImYou
Lmao reminds me of that one shrek scene
Doug Bagwell
Thank you
Erick Thiemke
2 chapters a week on Wednesdays are moved over, Seraphim has future draft chapters, they get 4 a week
Doug Bagwell
When or where will the last chapters be posted?
J S
He’ll also have a lot of money if needed.
J S
Hmmm
MatchaDemon
If he got some space essence and he got his space affinity to a 100 will his dimensional space get an upgrade?
Karnnie
Even if he meets up with the rest of his team and has to go back to not using the Collector, he has A LOT of essences and will increase his power DRAMATICALLY. I have been waiting so long for this moment!
Karnnie
I think he was happy to find an excuse to get a good distance from. I think he was happy to find an excuse to get a good distance from me.
Erick Thiemke
so please contribute to discussions
Erick Thiemke
you are welcome! just realize the Seraphim chapters are draft chapters. Some lack flavor adjetives and I am using feedback from the patrons to refine the plot in these advanced chapters
Dark Chaos
Mr. Author, Yesterday I realized that there were even more characters available here! Reading this book has been a blast. Thank you for writing.
Erick Thiemke
correcting now
Erick Thiemke
he thinks coffee is a dessert beverage in Tsinga
Otto Kovar
It reads "I kept trying to tell myself that it was not as bad as when I consumed the apex earth essence." so it only says that he is comparing it to his last experience consuming an affinity essence to which he had no affinity before. (Eryk needs to also increase his affinity here for some nice earth-magic shenanigans) Other mentions of Earth Essence are in relation to the newly acquired ones from the scarabs Author did no wrong here unless he already edited that out, though i do remember reading it like that and i read the chapter the minute it was released.
Otto Kovar
It reads "the first scarab to reach me before pulling a column of sand before the vortex into my space" not mentioning whether he got the entire beast or only a part, but implying it by trying to only get the front of it.
Lemes
Believe me, if he knew how much work it takes to prepare coffee beans to the point where they are ready to drink, he would give up and go find an isekai Starbucks. Clean the grain, ferment the grain, dry the grain, adjust the roasting point, grind the grain! Drinking coffee is good, preparing it is a pain in the ass!
BubblyGhost
I would definitely say this experience would incline Eryk to be interested in the life of an adventure, definitely seems to be the most lucrative and rewarding things you could do in the world without being a noble. Also the impurity thing is neat, wonder what happens once he gives himself the affinity for everything.
BubblyGhost
I don't think Castille would do that, she does want Eryk as a trusted confidant.
Erick Thiemke
Maveith knows the first rule of fight club is you don’t talk about fight club
Silver Beard
If the first scarab was in his space...why didn't it have any essence? Wrote like he took most of it into space as creature wasn't very big.
Silver Beard
Little worried about admitting they have been through a lot of rooms..going to lose a bunch of items possibly.
Eriach
My legion armor was not in great condition. The red liquor on the....The red lacquer
Silver Beard
Looking forward to status update. He's been eating well; all his numbers should be up
Erick Thiemke
When the room resets it will. Silver beard asked about it since the fire bear disappeared before a day but I am editing that to have it there but the meat will be spoiled because he did a hack job harvesting it
Lemes
Still not understanding why the dragon's body hadn't disappeared after almost a whole day.
Erick Thiemke
The author just probably got confused because he made notes about earth essences
Blorcyn
Last chapter he swallowed an illusion essence iirc, but this chapter he says it’s an earth essence as it opens. However, the chapter ends saying it’s an illusion essence again. Otherwise fun chapter. Very close into running into the summoner or Castile I feel.
Erick Thiemke
My favorite coffee is the coffee in tiramisu
Adunn
Coffee just isn’t worth the effort imo. But everyone needs a hobby I suppose.
Wiggles1
Nah
Erick Thiemke
damn autocorrect again. you get one letter off and it guesses what you mean
Otto Kovar
yeah but i would like it to be a one off thing, unless he get into territory where coffee is a thing
Otto Kovar
"The red liquor on the metal" should be lacquer
Erick Thiemke
well the first time would be without cleaning to beans. which makes horrid coffee. the second time would be burning the beans - resulting in horid coffee. the third time would be the charm - quest for the perfect brew
Otto Kovar
it would be nice if he managed to roast a handfull or more of coffee beans, actually roasts them and having some terrible coffee, contemplating if that was worth it, sometimes things just do not work out
Erick Thiemke
is it too tacky to give the MC coffee beans?
Erick Thiemke
1st of 4 for the cycle. prob another chap tomorrow.
