78

--TheirWorld--

The whole area was loud. Not just in volume, but in color.

There must have been at least a hundred voices and costumes all competing and clashing with one another as they crowded together around the tree and the quest givers at its base. And they were all after one of two things: groups, or information.

“Level 29 ranger class, LFG!”

“25 mage class, LFG!”

“Group of five, LF Heals! PST!”

“LF Tank for [Den of the Corrupted Rift Dweller]!”

“WTB Info on [Den of the Corrupted Rift Dweller]! Will make gold offer based on value!”

“LF info on Corrupted Dark Wolf!”

Pushing and shoving — mostly done by BronzePaw — through the crowd got them closer into where they could see more details of the area. The closer they got to the tree, the more roots they saw rising up from the ground, giving a more stable place for them to stand — though it seemed that many of the roots were also damaged and decaying. Whether that had happened before or after all these people had come, Guin didn’t really want to know.

She was too busy looking up at the tree.

The first time she had fallen behind the group, Star had doubled back to take her hand and placed her firmly in between Bahena’s back and her. Tea at her left, holding her arm in his, and Drakov at her right, Guin let them lead her along like they were her bodyguards. They seemed to think that her falling behind was connected to her anxiety, but she didn’t bother to correct them. There were other things on her mind.

What was the Tree of Dreams doing here? Did it have such a power as to move locations? Was it a different Tree of Dreams that just happened to look the same to her imagination and memory? Afterall, it was quite a lot more ...dead... than the Tree of Dreams she had seen before.

Guin wanted to take out a web browser to look it up, to see if maybe every forest had a Tree of Dreams. Or only forests with Great Beasts. Or maybe Amikavi wasn’t the only one to have followed the Prince Octarius.

Was she ready to face a corrupted Tethaigou?

“There,” Drakov pointed forward with his chin, pulling her back from her wandering thoughts. “That guy, sitting with that two hander. BronzePaw, head towards him.”

A glint of sun catching armor caught Guin’s eye through the sea of people, and then she saw the purple and gold of the Noble Clan’s Imperial flag. She could hear horses, neighing, pawing at the ground — but she gave up on trying to hear the differences in voices and tones as the world was filled with such dizzying amounts of sound.

If only there was a way to turn her hyper-hearing off.

She wasn’t sure it was possible, but there appeared to be even more people gathered around the Captain than there were trying to fit into the glade. A tall, older looking warrior tapped on BronzePaw’s shoulder and stuck his thumb behind him.

“Line to talk to Captain Othren starts about two groups back,” he said.

The group nodded and headed back, where they confirmed the end of the line with a soft-spoken jikak woman.

Her group was a full six member party of frightening apparent race-class combinations. A burly jikak paladin was at the head of a tivarys druid, a garuli warrior, an eararian mage, and a valkyrian ranger. As a cleric, the jikak woman was the only one who seemed to be more of an unorthodox choice, but her manner, kind, with a regal air, gave Guin a pleasant feeling that made her feel instantly comfortable around her.

“You are here for the dungeon, I presume?” the cleric asked with lilted tones and a peaceful expression. “There are a great many people who seek to do the same. I hope we get to go in today…”

Looking around, BronzePaw nodded. “I have little idea what this ‘dungeon’ thing is about, but it seems like its a very popular sort of event.”

The paladin — who was a good two feet shorter than Paw while being at least three times as thick — snorted through his flat, pig-like nose. “Who cares?” he said gruffly. “As long as we bring death to the enemies of Gruth, there shall be glory.”

“Oh, shut the bloody hell up about ‘Gruth’ and ‘glory’, you overgrown sausage.” Over behind the cleric, the eararian mage yawned, then continued in a bored tone, “No one cares, and I’m not in the damn mood for it.”

Guin and the other two girls exchanged a glance as the paladin shifted uncomfortably.

The valkyrian ranger sighed and plucked at his bow. “Don’t get your wings all twisted, Heed,” he said. “We’ll be outta here soon enough.

“We’ve been in this line for like an hour,” the tivarys complained. She was kneeling on the ground picking at flowers. “People talk to much.”

“He’s just cranky because it’s daylight hours,” the female garule said, turning to Guin’s group. “Sorry about them. Most of us are just waiting to talk to the guy so we can look at starting the dungeon tomorrow, at this point. Moral is pretty low, between wait times, and well… news.”

“We must take that low moral, and raise it to the heights of the Kon!” the paladin rose a fist in the air, but aside from the Cleric, the others rolled their eyes. “We shall feast upon the flesh of our friends and foes alike, and bring them to glory!”

“News?” Drakov asked, eyeing the large jikak with a fair amount of uncertainty. Guin wasn’t sure if she was supposed to see him as a role-player, or if jikak were really like that.

The cleric nodded. “Oh yes,” she said in a worried tone as she took the Paladin’s arm. He deflated a bit, blushing as she smiled up at him, then shyly scuffed at the ground with his feet. “Everyone’s been talking about not only the monsters, but the dungeon itself. They say that it’s an ever-changing maze. A few people have at least made it to the first boss, but they’ve yet to defeat them.”

“What’s more interesting is that some Veil sight people from the River Clan say that they know who the first boss is, not that it matters too much,” the tivarys said. “They’re pretty upset about it, though.”

“The Dark Wolf?” Guin asked. “What do you mean they know them?”

“I’m guessing that by now most people fighting the corruption know how it works,” she went on. “The River Clan say that the Dark Wolf boss is a corrupted form of one of the important spirits from the river lands, a Beach Wolf named Harmony. Harmony was not just one of the main quest givers for the Veil Quests in the area, but was the voice that carried messages from the Dragon King of the Rain River Estuaries.”

Guin bit her lip and looked back up at the tree.

“If that’s the case,” BronzePaw tilted her head. “Then could you shed some light on the powers we might be expecting to face?”

“And why would we tell you anything?” Heed the earar sneered.

Star glared. “How is it that every earar we have met has the exact same personality defects?” she asked. Guin snorted. Except for the fact that Grim was considerably less aggressive than this earar was, they were very similar to one another.

“I should think that that reflects on you, not on us,” he went, his nose scrunching into a growl.

“Heed!” the valkyrian bit, the sighed again. “If you are meeting an earar in the daytime, its likely they’re all gonna be cranky. They are nocturnal, after all — and some are better at making the adjustment than others. As for Harmony, she was a kind of water spirit. Now though, they are saying that her attacks are all ice-based.”

The earar laughed. “And look at you all, without a mage!”

“I’m a mage,” BronzePaw said indignantly, causing the other group to look at her curiously.

“That’s true, but you’re not the kind of mage, that he’s talking about, Paw,” Drakov said, patting her shoulder. “He’s talking about someone with fire spells.”

“Oh,” Paw said sheepishly, then blurted, “Well, that doesn’t mean I can’t learn any!”

Tea raised his hand. “I don’t know if it helps, but I have a song that makes everyone’s weapon damage into fire damage…”

“I have a couple of fire spells, too,” Star said with a shrug.

Guin nodded. “It may not be as efficient as a dedicated mage with true fire spells, but I’m sure we’ll manage.”

“Maybe in twenty levels,” the earar snorted,

The paladin let out a burst of a laugh. “That is the spirit! Fight with everything, against all odds! Fight, and die in a blaze of glory!”

“Well I can’t really argue with that first part,” Bahena nodded. “But a pointless death is still pointless.”

The jikak paladin huffed, saying, “Glory is the center of all things!”

“Now, now, dear,” the cleric went in her sweet voice, patting him on the arm. “That’s quite enough.”

Heed snorted, the smirked over at Guin and her group. “You all seem to think you’re gonna be real successful, huh? You all. Without a healer? Or a tank?”

“Success is in the eye of the beholder,” Drakov went, his eyes narrowing. “How exactly do you do define it?”

“Why don’t we make a little bet, huh?” the mage went, leaning over into Tea’s face. “What do you say?”