We took a break for a few minutes while Millicent identified the other items in each chest. One was a ring of perfume that gave off a pleasant cinnamon and spice smell, and the other was rope that looked to be only three feet in length, but when it was pulled on could extend to twenty. An interesting, if odd haul.

“I’m really not sure of what to expect next,” said Patience, checking the edge of one of her knives. “I mean, usually I can hazard a guess, but this is getting a little ridiculous.”

I nodded. “I’m not sure either. I mean, the job was just to investigate a cave that monsters were coming out of, but the monsters aren’t like anything I’ve ever heard of, and I doubt they’re the ones setting traps and reading in a study.”

Millicent looked up from a book she’d been leafing through from the shelf. “It’s a wizard. All of these are technical information on spellcasting with a focus on enchantment.”

NIca, who was still attentively watching the cavern behind us, turned half of her attention to us. “A wizard? I thought they lived in towers.”

“Only if they want to be found,” muttered Tib, who was trying to buff a small scratch from his shield.

“So, a rogue wizard up to nasty tricks?” asked Patience.

“Hopefully he’s better at making things than fighting. Easy money that way,” I said.

“There are nobler reasons for this quest,” said Tib, self righteous as always.

“Yep. Being paid to do a job makes me a bad person. You’re going to forgo payment I assume?” I asked

He grumbled and walked back into the cavern.

“Guess we’re moving on?” asked Patience.

“Guess so.” I responded.

“You don’t always have to antagonize him,” said Millicent.

“Tell him that. I’m not just in it for the money either, but I’m not going to pretend I’m better than the people who are.”

She shrugged and went to leave. Nica had already followed behind Tib before we’d started talking. Patience and I left as well, and we caught up to them waiting at the fork in the cavern. I took my spot back at the lead and kept my eyes open to look for traps, unfortunately, just a short distance from where the path forked, I walked right into one.

The floor began moving, underfoot, shooting me forward before I could react. I righted myself just in time to be blasted by a torrent of cold water that hit me from every side. After that I was buffeted by a harsh, hot wind, and finally something was shoved roughly over my head, blinding me. I struggled in the dark for a few moments before managing to draw the dagger at my belt and cut myself out of whatever had landed atop me. I threw myself back to my feet wildly, looking everywhere, but seeing nothing hostile nearby. I looked down at what had been shoved over my head. It was a robe. I lifted it to look at it more closely and just as I did the rest of the party caught up with me.

“You alright?” asked Patience.

I ran the robe through my fingers. It was just a soft, well worn, simple garment. Nothing special about it. “I’m fine. I just didn’t see this coming is all.”

“Why not?” asked Millicent as the rest of the group arrived.

“I don’t think it’s a trap,” I answered.

“What then?” asked Nica as Tib took up a position just a short bit ahead of us.

“I think it’s our Wizard’s morning routine. It showers him, dries him off, then throws a robe onto him.”

“We’ve got incoming,” said Tib, raising his shield and sword.

I heard a kind of skittering coming from the cave beyond us, when suddenly what looked like a massive centipede appeared and slammed itself into Tib’s shield knocking him backwards.

Nica notched and fired an arrow, aiming for the creatures center. She hit it, and the arrow struck with such strength that it bisected it. The creature didn’t stop though, it’s two halves instead moving to attack Tib from both sides at once.

I cast a halved version of stone-toss, sending it toward the one on Tib’s left. Once again, the blow caused part of the creature to break off, but that third portion moved away and started heading toward Nica.

Looking more closely I realized that the creature wasn’t a centipede at all. It was glowing, had a metallic sheen to it, no discernable head, and each segment of it had two legs. The creature seemed to attack solely by using its body as a blunt instrument.

I moved in between Nica and the portion that was heading for her so that she could focus on firing more arrows. It reared up to swipe at me and I sent a kick at it that scattered two of its pieces away. After that I stabbed at the centermost portion of the creature, trying to determine what it would take to bring them down. My blow struck true, and the glow faded from the one in the center as my dagger pierced it. It had gone in surprisingly easily, and I found that the segment was hollow.

“We have to destroy each segment individually!” I yelled, dodging as the two halves fell from the segment I’d destroyed and started jumping at me.

Patience was already on it. She was rapidly dismantling one of the centipedes on Tib, slicing off the ends of it with one dagger, before swiftly stabbing into them with her other one.

That gave Tib the breathing room he needed to start focusing on the other on. With a combination of shield bashes and sword strikes he broke the creature up while Nica cleaned up any individual segments that tried to sneak up on anyone else.

Soon all that remained was four portions connected and throwing themselves at Tib’s shield. Millicent muttered some words under her breath and I felt power build, then release, and four spikes of earth sprung from the ground around the creature, each one perfectly skewering the creature’s remaining portions.

I took a breath and sheathed my dagger, checking my notifications.

Congratulations! You’ve slain a Multipede (lvl 10)! You gain 425 xp!

Congratulations! You’ve increased the skill Daggers!

Nice, I was getting pretty close to leveling again. Things were feeling pretty stagnant since I’d completed my System Quest, but I’d quickly realized that in spite of all the trouble that had been, it had also been an enormous blessing. My new group had been adventuring far longer than I had, but we all seemed to be on about the same level combat wise. I’d told them I’d been traveling for a long time, and managed to bluff my way through any deeper questions than that. As far as they knew I was an adventurer named Cor who was born close to elf land in a far off village. I decided to be a little more careful about who I told my background now that I knew how consequential it could be. I’d been lucky in the caverns, in spite of my stat. Can’t rely on that forever.

I looked over at the rest of the party. Millicent was looking at one of the destroyed segments, and Nica was recovering what arrows she could. I watched as she pulled one out of a destroyed creature, and a pile of nuts fell out of it. Before I could react to that, the one that Millicent was holding hissed momentarily, and opened, revealing what looked to be a loaf of bread inside of it.

We all looked at one another. At a complete loss.

“Does anyone have any idea what’s going on?” I asked.

“No clue,” said Patience.

“Maybe, but I can’t be certain,” said Millicent.

Tib and Nica simply shrugged and shook their heads.

I shrugged too. Then I started making my way to the far end of the corridor. At the end was a plain wooden door. I could feel a pleasantly cool breeze coming from its edges. I held a hand up to everyone behind me, and gently pushed the door open. On the other side of the door was a workshop. There were all manner of tools I didn’t recognize, arcane marks written across various panels and into stone, and the soft thrum of magical power filled the air. Across from all of us, was a short man working on something. He hadn’t noticed us, and was humming a soft tune as he worked.

We all started fanning out and taking positions, with Tib in the front, me and patience close behind, and Nica and Millicent taking up the rear.

Just as we were about to close in, the wizard stopped and turned around. His robe was open in the front, and he was wearing no other clothing otherwise. His eyes widened in surprise, and we were temporarily stunned by the state we found him in.

I’d expected an evil wizard cackling maniacally, and in front of me was what looked like someone’s uncle who didn’t understand boundaries.

Tib stepped toward him with his sword held high.

“Wait,” I said causing him to stop.

“Is there a trap?” he asked.

“No, just… look at him. Maybe we should give him a second to explain himself before we go any further.”

“Explain myself? What about you! What’re you doing in my home!?” The wizard’s voice was whiny and high pitched, and I noticed he made no effort to cover his robe.

“Well your home has been leaking monsters. We were contracted to investigate it,” I responded.

“Monsters? That’s ridiculous!”

“What do you call the horde of chicken snakes? Or the multipede we just fought? Or the chests with teeth and fists?”

He blinked. “I’d call them dinner, my pantry, and an experiment.”

“What about the trap that could’ve flash fried me?”

He looked confused for a moment, then annoyed again.“That would be how I was planning to cook dinner.”

“And the sharp toothed frogs the size of horses that hopped from here to the nearest village and ate half their livestock?”

“That uh… that experiment got a little bit away from me, I’ll admit.”

Tib took a few steps forward, raising his sword again, and the portly wizard fall backward, showing himself and yet another unflattering angle.

“Wait!” I said.

“Why now? This fool endangers people and avoids responsibility. Accidental or not, he’s a menace.”

Tib had a good point, though I was loathe to admit it. I looked at the rest of the group for the opinion.

Patience shrugged, uncaring either way, and Nica maintained her usual silence.

Millicent surprised me by speaking up. “We should take him back to Itlan. Turn him in to the bureacrats.”

Tib’s face hardened. He expected resistance from me, but Millicent surprised him. “Why?”

She shrugged. “He may be reckless, but he’s clearly talented. His whole setup here is very interesting. Besides, he seems to be only focused on enchantment. Otherwise he would’ve thrown a fireball by now.”

Patience smiled. “You want to take a few of his tricks for yourself.”

Millicent returned the smile innocently. “No, I just hate to see such talent go to waste. Besides, mercy is warranted in this case. If his accident had killed a person, it’s another story, but a few llamas? Surely he can pay those people back if he turns his talents toward profit.”

Tib's face scrunched up for a few moments, before he sheathed his sword. “Fine.” He walked over and punched the wizard in the face, knocking him out.

We all looked at him questioningly.

“For the llamas,” he said, completely seriously.