Chapter Two Hundred and Fifteen - Un Mist Takeable

“I really don’t want to split up,” I admitted.

Howard actually nodded, even though he was the one that told us we’d have to. “I know what you mean. But it makes it easier.”

I scrunched my nose in distaste. I didn’t want to be apart from my friends. “How?” I asked.

The fishman scratched at his rubbery neck. “If you go with someone, you’ll be split up anyway. One moment you’ll glance away, and your partner will be replaced by the Mist-folk. You’ll look back, and they’ll be right where you think they are. Then they’ll attack you. Same for your friend. They’ll be following you. Between one step and the next, they’ll walk through a door and be in another part of the town, or they’ll turn a corner and be alone.”

I shivered. That was way too spooky.

Amaryllis patted me on the shoulder. “You’ll be fine,” she said before walking past me. “Come on. I’d like to get this entire thing over with sooner rather than later.” With that, the harpy moved on ahead of us, aiming for a staircase cut into the side of the hill leading into the town.

I sighed. “Fine,” I said. “We just need to get some keys and wait by some well, right?” I asked.

Howard nodded. “Just keep walking, you’ll get there eventually. And remember not to trust anyone.”

I grumbled a bit at that, and jogged up to follow Amaryllis. The others followed after me too. It was a bit strange that we were talking about having to split up, but were all bunched together while climbing the stairs.

This whole thing felt very forced, and I didn’t like it one bit.

So, maybe I was in a bit of a grumpy mood when I reached the top of the stairs and looked over the town.

It didn’t even have a name, as far as I knew. It was just a little fishing town, with sparse woods around it, and some three dozen homes dotted here and there around a crooked road.

“Stay safe,” Awen said.

“Indeed. If you’re in any sort of trouble, just call, and Emmanuel shall be there!”

I nodded, mostly to Awen. “We’ll see each other in a little bit,” I said.

I stepped up ahead of everyone. I might not like... anything about this, but I was still our sorta-leader. I had to set the example, and it wouldn’t do for that example to include me being very grumpy.

Now, if this dungeon ended up hurting my friends, I’d be showing it what-for, that was for sure.

I slowed down as I reached the main road. It wasn’t all that wide. Maybe some three metres across. Too narrow for car traffic, but maybe not for carts and horses and such. The ground was shrouded in a thin mist, only-just tall enough to reach my ankles.

“This isn’t that spooky,” I said. I’d seen worse watching horror movies just before my bedtime.

I glanced back and saw my friends moving behind me. They were keeping a few paces between each other, but we were hardly split up yet.

Sighing, I put my spade over my shoulder, made sure my bag was on snug, then started walking ahead.

The homes were wooden, with fronts made of overlapping bare planks. The windows were broken on a few homes, and it looked like there were some flickering candles in some others. Mostly, it looked like the houses here needed a lot of maintenance.

It looked... fine? A bit boring even.

I reached the middle of the street and looked back. Awen was half a dozen metres behind me. She noticed me looking, then waved. “Um, hi?”

“Hey,” I murmured. “Did the others go down other roads?”

She blinked, then looked behind her. “Oh.”

“Uh,” I said. “I guess we keep going?”

“Yes?”

I nodded. “Okay.”

“Right.”

We both hesitated. Then Awen took a deep breath, balled her fists, and walked past me. I watched her go until she turned a corner. Then she was gone. Her footsteps on the gravelly road cut off between one step and the next, and suddenly I was alone in a bubble of silence.

My grip on my spade tightened.

I started to look around again. There was something off about the town. Not just the general B-movie creepy vibes I was getting.

The house to my right didn’t have a door. It had steps leading up to a wall that looked like it should have had a door, but there was just more wall. The lights in one of the houses across the street were flickering, just the normal waver of a candle flame, but the shadow cast by that light on the ground was perfectly steady.

“Okay, I’ll give it to you, that is a bit creepy,” I said to the town. “Like, more uncanny than really creepy though. I’m not spooked, I’m just kind of confused.”

The town, of course, didn’t say much to that.

I shrugged and walked on while raising my hand to my side. I cast one of my favourite spells, Fireball. The small globe of burning light helped illuminate the town a little better. Of course, the shadows moved in the wrong direction as I walked.

I rolled my eyes. That was a bit overdone.

Someone screamed. Amaryllis!

My heart thudded in my chest, almost as if trying to escape from my throat, then I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

“Stupid dungeon,” I muttered. “Amaryllis is too proud to scream. Maybe if it was Awen... or Emmanuel.”

I was in quite a huff.

I stomped ahead. I didn’t like being in a bad mood, but this place was pressing all of my buttons. I’d just have to find one of those Mist-folk and give them what-for.

I spun around a corner, and squeaked to a stop just before bumping into someone coming my way.

Amaryllis and I stared at each other. “I heard you scream,” she said.

“I heard you scream,” I replied. “But I’m pretty sure it was a fake thing.”

‘Yes, a fake thing,” she said. Her eyes narrowed. “Say, Broccoli, I happen to have a bit of mud on my shoes.”

I looked down. Her feet weren’t visible through the mist on the ground. Also, Amaryllis didn’t wear shoes. “Uh.”

“I want you to use Cleaning magic, you dolt,” she said.

“Oh, right,” I said. I had my spade in one hand and a fireball in the other. That made it a bit awkward to use magic. Then again, I didn’t need to use my hands for something like Cleaning magic. I just poured more mana into my aura and let it wash over Amaryllis.

She rubbed at her jacket where there might have been a stain. “Right, so you’re real. Now I just need to confirm that I’m real too.”

“Right,” I said.

She looked pretty real to me.

Amaryllis huffed a sort of impatient ‘why do I have to do this’ kind of huff, then she flicked her hand out to me. A little wire shot out from her talons and wrapped itself around my wrist.

“Huh,” I said. “That was neat. I didn’t know you were getting that good with your puppetry stuff.”

“I’ve been practicing,” she said. “Now, that obviously isn’t enough proof.”

“It isn’t?” I asked. Could the Mist-folk fake wire and that kind of fluid control? I wasn’t fighting it or anything, of course. Still, it was very impressive.

“Sorry,” she said.

Three jolts of magic zipped along the wires and snapped at me. It was like touching a handle after walking on a carpet with wooly socks on, but at three places at once. “Ow!” I said. It didn’t really hurt much, but it was surprising.

“There, that should be sufficient proof.”

“I believed you were real already,” I muttered with a pout.

“Yes, but you’re an idiot,” she said. Her wrist twitched and the wire came apart.

“How do you do that?”

“Wirework. I haven’t quite gotten it to where I want it, but it’s at disciple now. Quite handy.”

“Cool,” I said. “So we’re both real!”

She shook her head. “You say it as if you doubted your own real...ism?”

I shrugged. “Sometimes I wonder. So, uh, now what?”

“I haven’t gotten a key yet. I think we continue on our way. Find one of those Mist-folk and kill them. Basically, do what Howard told us to.”

“Right... Hug for the road?”

Amaryllis was a much better hugger when no one else was around. We broke up, and we both reluctantly continued our trek. Amaryllis went around the corner I’d just come from, and when I peeked around, it led to a different part of the town.

Annoying.

I continued onwards. The moon above made the mist hovering over everything shine a rather pretty silver. If I forgot that I was in a creepy dungeon without my friends, it was almost nice. Like heading out to take a stroll.

I was bored within a minute.

Broccoli Bunch was not an impatient sort of girl, but this whole thing was frustrating to the point that it really stretched my patience.

“Come on, silly dungeon, do something,” I said.

“A strange thing to ask.”

I jumped and looked around. I’d wandered into an alleyway, somehow. I had been going down a street and... maybe I wasn’t paying all that much attention. Was there something in the air that made it hard to focus, or was it just part of the dungeon’s illusion? Was it an illusion? Howard hadn’t been clear on that.

I shook my head and looked around, until I saw Bastion coming out of a door set in the middle of the alley wall. A weird place for a door, but then everything was weird here.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hello,” he replied. “I heard you. So far the only sounds I’ve heard on this floor are calls for help. Well, and one conversation with a Mist-folk.”

“You found one?” I asked.

I eyed Bastion up and down, but the sylph didn’t look unusual. He smiled a bit, and tugged a small key from a pouch. “I did. A false Howard approached me.”

“Oh, well done!” I said. I grinned at him, then brought my spade around. “I’m going to stab you now, okay?”

Bastion stared. “Ah, right. I had forgotten about that. Could you maybe verify your own identity first?”

That was fair. To identify me, no one had to be stabbed.

I looked for something dirty, found that nearly everything was, then let loose a burst of Cleaning magic at the nearest wall. The dust and grime peeled off. “Taa-daa,” I said.

Bastion nodded. “Very well. Now, about this stabbing, could you perhaps not?”

“Nope, sorry,” I said with a bit of a cringe. “It really is the only way to know. Reach your hand out, I can just make a small cut. It’ll be a clean cut, so it’ll heal just fine.”

Bastion sighed and reached an arm out towards me. “There,” he said.

I smiled at him, set my spade against the wall, then left my fireball hovering in the air. The last was a bit tricky, but I managed.

I had a little camp knife in my bandoleer, which I removed as I approached Bastion and leaned down over his hand. “Just a little cut,” I said.

“Quickly then,” he said. “This place is dangerous.”

I nodded, then swiped my knife forward.

Bastion’s finger bled fog.

I gasped and moved to turn back, but Bastion’s form was already shifting, billowing out into a thin monster with long claws. “Die,” it said in Bastion’s voice before its arms came swiping down.

I jumped up, ramming my forehead into the monster’s face with a dull crack.

It stumbled back, which allowed me to reach back with my mana and fling my fireball forwards.

The Mist-folk danced around it, then leapt at me again.

This time I was a little more ready, and when it came close, it earned my shoe in its face.

The monster stumbled back, wavered, then puffed into mist.

Ding! Congratulations, you have swept away ‘Mist Taken One’ Level 8!

A key clinked to the ground, and I found myself standing there, panting with my heart beating like a bunny that had seen a hawk.

“I really don’t like this place,” I swore.

***