Notoriety, page 16
“Hold up, wouldn’t that force us to fight the entire floor at once?” questioned Gale. “Could we really last that long?”
“No, the smiths wouldn’t want all of their protection to leave,” interjected Bula. “Additionally, it would be a mistake to believe that they will work with each other.”
“Bula is likely right,” commented Xeal. “Kobolds lack a true societal thread that connects them to pursue something greater than their small tribe’s prosperity. They will be all too happy to see rival tribes lose members and may even help us by launching raids of their own on one another.”
“So, you think the whole floor is a powder keg waiting to go off,” commented Kate thoughtfully. “But what if it isn’t and we find ourselves in an unwinnable situation?”
“We escape. It will cost us a single drop of phoenix blood as Lughrai will be the one in charge of holding them back after we have portalled out and the other dragonoids escape with the portal,” answered Xeal. “That said one of them will need to use an advanced return scroll here and sit this fight out, just in case we need them to set a portal up here for us.”
“So, just at least a 100,000 gold loss,” commented Kate. “Xeal, I have stayed quiet on your use of phoenix blood as I can see why you would invest the drops you have, but to just throw away one on a gamble like this? Do you believe that there is 100,000 gold in profits to be made for FAE in there?”
“Kate, the estimates from the forges on the 100th floor was 50,000 gold, and this one will likely be around 70,000 to 80,000 gold, but the real value is in the experience we will gain if we succeed. I am not just talking about the points towards the next level, but the growth we will see from surviving, even if we have to escape.”
“I say we vote on it,” offered Aalin. “And if we have to escape, we all pay for the loss of the drop of blood.”
“Nice sentiment, but that is the same as FAE paying for it,” replied Kate. “Still, it is Xeal’s choice if he wants to risk it. After all, his track record is too good for me to stop him on this kind of thing.”
Xeal just gave Kate a sideways glance as she smiled at him, letting him know that she was once more looking forward to him proving her wrong as was normal for her. To her this was just another game of strategy for them to play as she tried to get her first win against him, just as he was still trying to get his first win against her in Go. Xeal still was shaking his head at how bad he was at Go every time she brought out the board and insisted that he work to improve his skills before obliterating him. Still, as Xeal checked with everyone, they seemed ready to just go straight for it and see what happened. So it was that Lumikkei was chosen to sit the raid out while the other three dragonoid women got ready to play rear support once more.
Xeal took point in the formation as he was flanked by Luna and Selene, who would be tasked with keeping everything off of him as he focused on long-range attacks while they were moving. Kate and Alea would be focused completely on sending electricity into him and the rest of the marked would toss their own powers around as almost everyone else focused on protection. The exception was Eira who had the job of guiding them to the area that she had said fit what Xeal was after the best. With everyone ready, Xeal started the charge as he absorbed the first pair of spells and they crossed into the 120th floor, as he sent lightning into every group of kobolds they passed. Before long, they had at least 1,000 trailing after them and they reached the chokepoint that had been chosen beforehand.
It was the entrance to one of the larger forges on the floor and it was currently full of at least 50 very surprised kobolds, who were quick to take up arms. However, before they could charge at Xeal and his group, they found themselves being assaulted with electricity, followed by a poison mist aided by a breeze. When the two waves of attacks had resolved, all of the kobolds found themselves in a state close to being drunk as their bodies were slow to react. When the three dragonoid women charged in to take care of the rest, they failed to even put up much of a resistance before finding themselves all pushed to one corner and hit with three breath attacks. The combination of Lughrai’s sand breath, Malgroth’s fire breath and Ekaitza’s electrical breath was devastating, as the kobolds basically found themselves being assaulted by molten glass while paralyzed.
Trusting that the three dragonoid women had everything under control, Xeal turned his attention back to the front where Holly had already started to build up a wall at the entrance. Past that was a slip and slide as Aalin had frozen the water that everyone had dumped on the ground as they saw the chokepoint. Nanami and Ignis were prepping a joint fire attack as everyone else got ready to handle their part of the rotation that would become their reality for at least the next eight hours. Xeal smiled when Holly finished turning the entrance, which could fit five across, into something that a single person could defend, with a few windows to each side for spells to go through. Following the massive fireball that Nanami was controlling after combining her own with Ignis’s spell had gone through this opening, Amet stepped forward to be the first one defending. Next to him Jinx and Aalin stepped up onto the platforms Holly had made to reach the windows for attacking with magic. Behind Amet was Luna and Selene, who would be taking care of any that got by and facilitating the switching between frontliners when needed and would be doing so until the end of the fight if possible.
Xeal smiled as he saw everything click into place and took the time to recover his stamina, MP and SP that he had used along the way. While he did this, he saw Kate organizing the others based on the current situation, the three dragonoid women looking bored as they continued to kill their kobolds and everyone else looking tense. This made Xeal want to laugh as he thought about how many times he had used this kind of maneuver in his last life and how this was by far a better situation than any of those. After all, with all ten of the phoenixes’ marked working together, the ability that they had to control the battle was insane. They could change the terrain, shift the weather conditions and even attack the mental resolve of the enemy while bolstering their allies. Yet they all looked like they were afraid that they wouldn’t be able to handle such a simple fight due to never doing so before. Though as a few minutes became an hour and an hour became two, they had started to calm down as Amet was relieved by Rina, before Eira took a turn, followed by Clara and finally Xeal. Xeal smiled as he let loose absolute hell with Alea and Kate acting as extra mages for him while Nanami and Ignis used their fire-based attacks as well.
The battle raged as the only break the twins ever had was when Xeal was acting as the tank as the smaller frames of the kobolds let them slip by at the slightest opening. By the time it was time for them to switch, the only reason any of them had any health left was due to a combination of the minor healing and boosts that Violet and Daisy were giving them. Once off the front line, it was all Bula, Gale and Clara could do to keep everyone’s health at full before recovering themselves as they slowly saw their MP slipping. Xeal had to stop Arnhylde more than once from taking a turn as the tank after she used all her MP in conjunction with Lucida. From Xeal’s party’s viewpoint, all they could see in front of them was the thousands of kobolds and the only solace they could take was from the constant infighting that would break out at the slightest instigations from their own ranks. Xeal knew that it was costing his group experience points each time they killed one another, but it was also the only way this plan would work.
About five hours in, the first of any real issues occurred when Aalin called out that a heavily armored and slightly larger kobold was charging, just before it knocked Amet out of position. This was followed by a few dozen kobolds rushing in before Luna and Selene could close the gap, as Xeal rushed back in with only a tenth of his health and only enough MP for a single dragon’s breath. This, however, was enough to blast the large kobold back as he felt lightning enter his body from Alea and Kate once more, that he unleashed upon the kobold as it charged back in. Xeal smiled as he stepped back from the entrance and drew the larger kobold into the room, as it charged straight at the three dragonoid women who quickly took care of it. With that taken care of, Amet got back into position and everyone else finished dealing with the rest of those who had gotten in as the battle continued. The next several charges from the kobold mini bosses were handled by the one acting as the frontline calling out as they let it and a few coincidental kobolds in, as the three dragonoid women took care of it. While this made Xeal mourn the loss of experience, he knew that it was needed to maintain their current momentum. In the future Xeal would want to capitalize on such opportunities, but he knew that his party wasn’t ready for it quite yet.
After about ten hours of each team of three, or five in Xeal’s case, rotating, the fight was finally over as over 3,000 kobolds had been killed in the struggle and they had all gained over two levels of experience as Xeal smiled at being up to level 118 and almost being back on track. He just wished such scenarios were easier to manufacture as if he could recreate it enough times as they grinded in the mines and the Vault of Ucnuc, he could easily reach tier-7 a year or more in ED before the other players did. However, even on this floor it would take at least a year in ED of no players being here for it to recover to this point and jumping from one dungeon to the next to exploit such opportunities would waste too much time. Even so, Xeal was excited at the prospect of seeing how much they had all improved when it was time to take on the final area of the mines after they had reached tier-6.
“Alright, once we are all recovered we need to get moving. We have five hours to be done down here. By my count that means we will be down to four hours once we are all recovered,” announced Xeal as everyone started to relax. “Kate, Alea, Rina, Bula, Gale, Eira, Ekaitza, Lughrai and Malgroth, you are with me on looting detail while everyone else recovers. Everyone else, once you are full on SP and MP I expect you to join us.”
Xeal smiled at the few groans that he got as he set about working on collecting all of the gear on the kobolds. While very little of it was worth more than scrap at this point, it would quickly add up as each kobold’s corpse would net around five gold in loot, once sold. Xeal had to frown at seeing just how much the loot from kobolds had decreased in value in comparison to what he had gotten before players were able to reach a city, or craft better gear themselves. Even with the advantage of being higher-leveled items, they would still fail to attract much value due to the availability of better gear at the same level in cities. Still, with 3,000 kobolds, it would be a sizable haul and that was before they even looted the forges. Xeal had been quiet earlier as he shouldn’t know this, but he fully expected the worth of the loot from the 100 forges to be over 200,000 gold if sold. After all, this was the private forge of those who were just below what would be considered a true master to the dwarves and in a society that centered at least partially around the forge, this made them the aristocrats.
Once all of the dead had been looted and everyone had recovered, they set out cautiously to clear out the rest of the area. As they did, it looked like a war had broken out as at least another 1,000 bodies were found as they went from one forge to another. Many times they would catch and kill the kobolds in the act of looting, as they killed them and moved on after looting the rest themselves. Other times they would come to a forge with at most a dozen kobolds guarding it, as they killed them and took their stuff. Xeal could see the smile on Kate’s face growing as she realized that they were quickly recouping the losses for obtaining the fire phoenix’s mark and then some. The sight of her and Taya celebrating anything they saw as particularly valuable was especially funny to Xeal as they didn’t even care if it was worth more in the long run being used in the forges as they calculated the profits.
Finally, after another 80 skirmishes, gaining another level and looting the whole floor with around 20 minutes to spare, they made it to a safe room and left the mines for the day. For Xeal, this meant that he found himself sleeping in his home in the capital for another night, before returning to the mine to have Darefret look over the loot that they got. Xeal was expecting for Darefret to have known many of the owners of the forges that they had just cleared as he was just a step past them, but still a step away from reaching the dream of being a true master among his people.
The following morning went about how Xeal had expected, except with the addition of Thatram insisting that he be present. Xeal could tell that Darefret had about had it with the entitled prince, who seemed to have completely lost any humility once he left his father’s side. This made Xeal frown as he thought about just how much King Dorrin knew about his son’s true nature and just how much he had allowed it to become what it was. Still, as Darefret found one item after another that he knew the owner of before setting it aside, Xeal could feel the old dwarf’s pain and joy mixing, as even Thatram started to look like he was going to behave. Though Xeal could also see Kate holding in her comments as she saw gold disappearing with each item he took until he was finally done and spoke.
“Well Xeal, I must thank ye. Ye have almost reached the deepest part of my home and it won’t be too long before ye are in my very own forge from before it was all lost. Now about those items I set aside there, I’d be liking to create a monument of a sort to my friends using them, if it be alright with ye.”
“Darefret, you don’t need to ask me. We made our deal a long time ago and they are yours.”
“Aye they are but, I was thinking that instead of finishing the last section of my forge, to create an area dedicated to the dream we all shared using them.”
“Ah, you are speaking about altering the contract. I am fine with it in principle, but I need to know how it will affect things and Kate and Taya would never let me hear the end of it if I didn’t clear it with them.”
“Ah, yes, yer guild has become a fair bit more of a mess since ye first made our deal.”
“It is not a mess,” interjected Kate reflexively before elaborating slightly. “It is simply a complex organization that needs to be managed efficiently.”
“As I said, it’s a mess.”
Xeal just smiled as Kate held her tongue as they discussed the rough idea that Darefret was thinking about. From what Xeal could tell, it would cause them to lose over ten percent of the total slots, but it would create an area meant for platinum smiths to work in that was currently lacking. This area would include the tools that were recovered as a sort of communal item that was available for any platinum smith to use until they reached mithril rank. At that time they would be allowed to take one of the items until none were left. As Darefret put it, he saw it as helping to make his friends’ dreams come true in part at least, as something they held would help another reach what they hadn’t been able to. Xeal wished that the conversation had ended there, but Thatram decided that it was a good time to add his unwanted opinion.
“Hmph, if ye asked me, they would want dwarves tur be the one tur use their tools.”
The look Darefret gave him before responding could have killed someone.
“Ye listen here, ye little git. Ye may be here and ye may be allowed to resettle the mine, but ye are not to tell me what my friends would had wanted. We were the kind to only care about the craft, not who was doing it. They’d want someone that held the same passion before some dwarf with half their passion.”
“Ye misunderstand, or are ye saying that any human can have more passion for smithing than a dwarf?”
“There be a difference between the passion ye have and the passion to smith just to smith. If ye’re what can be expected from yer group, then not a single true smith will be among ye. And why would there be when yer da needs them to work for the war to come. All he be sending here is the weaklings that be getting in the way and prisoners to keep his nobles in line.”
Xeal decided that now was a good time to put an end to the situation before it went any further.
“Thatram, do I need to make a trip to your father about you and your ability to lead?”
“What are ye talking about?”
“If you can’t get along with Darefret, then you can’t do your job and he will need to send someone else to take over.”
Xeal could see him thinking before scowling and walking away with his fists clenched, with Darefret looking at him in contempt until he had disappeared into the mines.
“I think he has not done well in his father’s shadow. Ye best be careful when ye go in the mine moving forward Xeal.”
“I am aware, though I feel as if he will be too afraid if he can’t rally some of the others to join him in attacking me and they would need to reach me first.”
“Aye, they would, but all the same, ye be careful, ye hear. I know ye can’t die, but there are worse things.”
Xeal didn’t miss Darefret looking at Eira, Daisy and Violet as he said the last part, before they returned to talking about the changes to the forging area again. Once they had come to an outline for Kate and Taya to complete, Xeal bid the old dwarf farewell as he went to work on other guild-related business.
(*****)
Morning April 30 to Evening May 23, 2267 & ED Year 3 Days 133-204.
Alex spent his time over the following 24 days in reality continuing his routine for the most part, as he attended the lessons in the morning and spent time with Sam, Nicole, Ava, Mia and Kate in the evenings. This included Sam’s and Nicole’s 33, 35 and 36-week appointments, as they officially entered what could be considered relatively the safe period for delivery in their pregnancies. Meanwhile, Kate had confirmed that there was nothing wrong with the paperwork for Nantan’s capitulation and that not signing it would tank any chance they had in court of getting anything. So, a reluctant Jessica signed it and met with a few financial advisers that Kate had sent her way at Alex’s request. With Background Inc. handling everything regarding the upcoming events back in California that would coincide with him giving a presentation at his old school. Alex had already booked the Brewyses for an early morning flight on the 24th and a late night one on the 25th, ensuring that he would only miss a few days in ED during his trip.
