Chapter Sixteen

John

It was going to be a week before the trio was able to raid the dungeon again. Despite Olivia’s belief that most people would give up on raiding the dungeon, it seemed that the prospect of riches was worth the danger for most parties. As a result, John was stuck patrolling the forest and passing time in the settlement.

Most of the time he passed it productively. Training with Camille and Sam, practicing his use of runes, or flirting with Olivia. Today he was indulging in one of his few leisure activities. He was at the newly opened bar drinking some sub-par beer. While there he passed the time by talking to whoever was close by and playing a few bar games.

His favorite bar game was hand ax throwing. Despite the fact that he doesn’t actually use them, it felt a bit like training. Most of the other bar games seemed to have him getting drunk as their only goal so he only played them on special occasions. He was just finishing up a round when he heard some of the settlement's fishermen talking.

“I’ll tellin ya we're gonna get our supply ships early this time around. Everytime I go out on the water the winds blow me straight back into the dock. It's been that way all month.”

“Oh you’re full of shit Mikey. No way you can tell that the supply ship is gunna get here early just from the wind on our little stretch of the ocean.”

“It’s not just the wind. It's the whole ocean, and if you don’t believe me I’ll put my money where my mouth is. I’ll bet a pint of the nicest liquor they got on it that the supply ship will be here before the end of the week.”

The two men clasped hands and shook animatedly as one said

“You're on Mikey. I’ll be eagerly waiting for my free drink”

John saw the break in the conversation and wanted to know why the fisherman named Mikey was so sure about his guess, so he walked over and introduced himself. He reached out his hand and said

“I’m John. I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation. Why are you so sure the supply ship is going to get here early?”

Mikey took his hand and shook it before saying

“Well John, I’ve been a fisherman my entire life. Even if I haven’t been fishing right at this settlement I’ve been fishing on this ocean for nearly thirty years. If I couldn’t tell how the water was moving I woulda starved by now”

“You're telling me the ocean here isn’t different than it is at the mainland?”

“Of course the ocean is different, but the aspects making it up are the same. Whether I’m here or at the mainland a cod is a cod and I’ll know how to catch it. Knowing the ocean is the same, just a bit harder.”

“Do you think about the whole word like that?

The old fisherman smiled as he said

“You could, but the ocean is the only thing I've spent enough time with to really know.”

John sat there thinking about that until he realized that he was about to be late for his meeting with Sam and Camille. He ordered one drink for Mikey as thanks for talking to him and then ran out to meet them at the training ground.

John fell on his back for what felt like the millionth time and winced. Sam's shadow blocked the sun as she leaned over him and reached out a hand to pull him up.

“You alright today? You’ve been pretty distracted.”

John gave a chagrined look and said “Yeah. I talked to somebody in the bar earlier and he said some interesting stuff. I feel like there is something to understand from it, but I can’t tell exactly what.”

“If it's just that then you better get your ass back in gear. Whether we are training or dungeon diving you can’t be letting stray thoughts distract you.”

“You’re right. I’ll give you a run for your money this time”

John lunged as soon as he finished speaking. Sam tried to bring her training weapon up to interrupt John, but her response was delayed since she hadn’t been expecting his attack. He grabbed her wrist so she couldn’t threaten him with the dagger and then pulled her towards him. She twisted her wrist to try and break free but before she could John stepped behind her and then hooked her feet out from under her. She hit the ground with a thump. She reached forward despite having the breath knocked out of her and tried to grab John’s leg to bring him down to the ground as well but before she could there was a blade at her throat.

Sam sat up before glaring at John and saying

“That’s not fair. Who attacks in the middle of a conversation”

John sat down on the ground next to her and responded

“I know. I know. But I couldn’t just go a whole day of sparring without winning a round.. Plus you always have to be ready for ambushes in the dungeon right?”

Sam groaned before saying

“Alright I guess, but I’m still calling it a cheap shot.”

They stood up and this time they both groaned so Sam called out to Camille saying

“You’ve been practicing your healing right? Why don’t you come over and practice some on us? We've got plenty of bruises for you to work with.

A few days after that they reconvened for a trip to the dungeon. They made the hike out and went in as soon as they got there. Sam bent down and went to harvest the poisonous flowers that she knew were safe while John watched the passageway to make sure no defenders came to bother them. Everything was going normally until he heard a scream.

He whirled around to see Sam kneeling on the ground. He called out to her but got no response other than screaming so he picked her up and fled the dungeon. Once outside Camille tried to use her healing and John flushed her eyes out with water but none of it seemed to help much.

Since they weren’t able to help John used his earth rune and carried Sam back to the settlement as quickly as possible. He kept going until he burst through the door of the new healers cabin and yelled

“She’s been poisoned. Somehow it got in her eyes”

After saying that he collapsed to the floor and lay there taking deep breaths as the healers dropped less important matters and swarmed around them. John wanted to get up and see how Sam was doing, but he had really overused his earth rune, empowering himself the entire way back so he just lay on the floor and watched the healers work for a while before slipping into unconsciousness.

Gem

The gem marveled at its newest defenders while waiting impatiently for invaders to come and test them. The lack of serious invaders combined with the death of the two who reached its island allowed it to finally make progress with its defensive plants. The death of the two invaders had been particularly helpful. One of the concepts it managed to snatch from their mind before the connection was lost was cross pollination

That knowledge propelled its crude attempts at getting the plants to crossbreed from hoping to get lucky to successfully having plants capable of defending themselves within a week. The days of invaders ignoring its mana producing floors and reaching its island were at an end. That said, it didn’t want to test these defenses on just anyone. If it used them on invaders that weren’t a threat in the first place it would always wonder if the new plants were just effective because the invaders were incompotent.

With that in mind the gem waited until the invaders that had managed to kill its wolf were present before testing them out. One of the invaders bent down to steal some of the flowers and the gem instructed the plant to strike. As soon as the invader got in range a stream of poisonous pollen was shot straight into its eyes. The invader dropped to the ground wailing and its companions panicked and fled its territory. Pleased with the success of its new defender the gem watched until they were out of its perception and then went back to improving its territory.

It had already spread its new plants throughout its territory, so now it worked on adding creatures that complement them. It started with bugs. Ants, crickets, and ticks started to multiply throughout the entire territory. The ants were the only creature it added with the ability to attack directly, but that doesn’t mean that the others are useless. The crickets are loud enough that invaders will have difficulty communicating among themselves and the ticks will irritate them while slowly draining their strength.

The next defenders that were added to the upper dungeon were rabbits, squirrels, and snakes. They were not the gems best defenders. In fact, it hadn’t used them for defense at all before now. The only reason they were being placed here is because placing the larger defenders on the floor would require a structural change to its territory that it didn’t have time for. With its new plants and creatures ready for invaders the gem sat back and started strengthening them with mana while waiting for invaders to come test them.