Chapter Twenty One

They were at the peak of the mountain. Where normally there would be a pointed tip, instead there was a flat platform. It was almost as if someone cut the tip of the mountain off with a giant sword. There wasn’t much to see, the only landmark was some brown shape at the other side of the platform, but it was too far away to see clearly.

Are those… sticks? That doesn’t make much sense though, there isn’t a tree up here. Although I guess it doesn’t really have to make sense now that I think about it.

Once Xorvos was fully on the platform and everyone had taken a short breather, Videon readied her weapons and started to give orders again.

“Alright, ready up. The monsters won’t wait for us forever, so we have to be quick with the planning phase. That looks like a Harpy nest over there so keep your eyes on the sky.”

“Harpy?” Shuka asked. “Is that some kind of bird? I’ve never heard of it before.”

“They are a dungeon monster so they don’t exist in the outside world. As for what they are… they are more like people with bird features. Or maybe it would be better to say birds with people features since they aren’t very bright.”

Xorvos didn’t seem to like that.

“Wait, if they are people, wouldn’t that cause problems with our no killing rule?”

Videon let out a sigh and had a look on face that said this wasn’t the first time she had to explain this.

“No, you see they aren’t people. I should have probably worded it differently, but regardless of what they look like, they are monsters through and through. I don’t think they are even capable of thinking, and even if they are then not anywhere close to our level. Believe me, killing them is not murder.”

Xorvos didn’t exactly look happy, but his question was answered so he had nothing else to say. Shuka on the other hand still had things she wanted to ask.

“So I get that they are bird… creatures, but what else can you tell us about them?”

“Well they are about human sized and shaped, but their arms are wings, they have bird legs, and their faces are… different. They can fly around pretty easily, but they have to get in close to fight and their bodies are fragile, more so than even elves. Oh yeah, they also usually fight in groups too, so we will probably be fighting a bunch of them.”

None of this sounds super encouraging. Flying targets are a pain to hit and I can only shoot one at a time. If I get attacked by multiple at once I’m dead. At least it sounds like if I do hit it will actually do something, unlike the gargoyles.

“Now, here’s the plan. We are going to advance in a tight formation with Shuka in the middle. Since they can come from any direction she will just be in danger if we keep her in the back again. Xorvos, watch out for their claws and try to grab them out of the air. They are pretty defenceless once grounded so just get them in a grapple then take them out. Kill them or don’t the dungeon doesn’t care either way as long as you defeat them. Shuka, wait until they go in for a dive before you shoot since they won’t be able to turn as easily like that. Also try to shoot the harpies coming straight at you, both for your own safety and because that’s when you will have the best shot at them.”

Does she think I don’t already know that? I know how to shoot.

“And what will you be doing?”

“The same thing I usually do. Block and Bash.”

I guess I should have expected that. She doesn’t seem to have a very complicated fighting style. Still a lot more effective than anything me or Xorvos can do.

“Also, if there’s a Harpy matriarch, I will deal with it.”

“How can you tell a matriarch from an ordinary Harpy?”

“They are bigger and different colored feathers. Usually purple or blue rather than the reds and oranges they normally are.”

It seemed pretty simple to Shuka. Shoot birds, don’t die. Of course it was still incredibly dangerous, but she was at least starting to get numb to the fear. She didn’t have anymore questions and neither did Xorvos so after a moment they all turned to face the nest and got in formation. True to Videons words, Shuka was in the middle with Xorvos a couple of feet to her left and Videon to her right. They approached the Harpy nest slowly, keeping an eye out for ambushes from behind. It wasn’t until they got halfway across the platform until they came out. There were about a dozen Harpies fly up from over the side of the cliff. They looked like how Videon described them. Humanoid but with wings and feathers. Usually of a dirty red or orange coloration with the exception of one particularly large harpy with a brilliant purple plumage.

That must be the matriarch Videon was talking about. Her feathers look so nice even from this far away, I wonder how good they would be as fletching.

Shuka was brought out of her musings when the harpy in question let out a loud ear-piercing screech. It was loud enough that the young hunter felt like her ears were going to start bleeding. They didn’t, but it still left her stunned, at least for the moment. That was all the harpies needed to begin their assault. In an instant, they all took to the air and surrounded the group with a few of them taking the opportunity to dive at them immediately. Videon was unaffected by the scream and calmly blocked her attacker before delivering her lethal retribution, killing the harpy that went after her. Xorvos wasn’t so resilient, but he at least managed to get his gauntlets up to protect himself from the harpies’ claws. He couldn’t do much more than that though. Shuka on the other hand, had nothing to protect herself with. She protected her face with her arms, but without her friend’s metal gauntlets all it did was change the body part getting injured. Pain lanced through her arm as the harpy left three large gashes in it.

Shit, she didn’t tell me about them screaming my ears off. I could have used a little warning.

The harpy flew off and continued circling the party giving Shuka enough time to knock another arrow into her bow. The gashes in her arm hurt, but the adrenaline pumping through her veins was enough for her to ignore it. another wave of harpies was coming in, but this time there were more. Two of the wretched half-birds went into a dive, aiming directly for Shuka with more going for her companions. Shuka shot one of the harpies, her arrow sticking itself in its shoulder causing it to crash, and tried to duck underneath the other. She didn’t quite go far enough though and got a new set of gash’s across her back. Looking to see how the rest of her party faired, Shuka found two new corpses’ by Videon, and Xorvos with a harpy in a chokehold. Although he also had a few new wounds on him.

Those claws hurt, and I’m not sure if I’m still going to have the strength to draw back my bow if I get hit like that again. Not that I’m contributing much, Videon has taken out more harpies than me and Xorvos combined.

The harpies were circling again, this time with a reduced number, but still enough to easily outnumber the adventurers. And that was without the harpy matriarch who hadn’t moved from it’s spot by its nest. This time, all six remaining harpies dove in unison, with two attacking each adventurer. This time, both of the harpies attacking Shuka were attacking from the front, claws outstretched intent on her death. She had plenty of time since their last attack to knock another arrow, but she knew she could only shoot one before they got to her. She drew back her arrow, with pain and fear almost causing her to mess up her shot. Almost. She hit the harpy on the right square in the chest, sending it plummeting to the ground with a thud. Before the arrow even hit though, Shuka was flying through the air herself, launching herself forward in a dive. She dodged the remaining harpy, managing to not get clawed for once, but with nowhere to land but the hard stone, it wasn’t much of an improvement.

Everything hurt, and all Shuka wanted to do was close her eyes and sleep until the fight was over. She couldn’t do that though so she opened her eyes and found herself staring directly into the eyes of a harpy. Getting to her feet faster than she thought was possible, Shuka found a corpse on the ground in front of her. It was the harpy she had just killed. Apparently, it had landed right in front of where she dived. Now that she was up, Shuka took stock of the current situation. Xorvos had some dead harpies around him and Videon had even more, with both of them still standing. That was a good thing in Shuka’s books. What wasn’t a good thing was the harpy matriarch had finally started moving and there were still two normal harpies left. The matriarch was big enough that Shuka wasn’t sure she could take it out in one shot. Luckily Videon stepped forward and spoke up.

“Leave the matriarch to me. The two remaining harpies might attack, but just focus on surviving if that happens. They should run when the matriarch dies, so killing them isn’t a priority.”

“If the normal harpies just run when the matriarch dies, then why didn’t we just go after her from the start?” Shuk asked. “It would’ve saved us a lot of trouble.”

Videon just glanced at her and replied calmly, and only the slightest bit of condescension.

“Anyone who approaches or attacks the matriarch will get hoarded by the entire flock. You need to be able to take her out instantly for it to work and I simply do not have the range to kill her from afar.”

And she doesn’t think I could do it myself. Besides, she could probably take on the whole flock and the matriarch all by herself.

The conversation ended there, because the matriarch was flying towards them, and fast. The two remaining harpies were flanking it on either side. They were all well within Shuka’s range by now, but Videon had stepped in front of her and was blocking her line of sight slightly. Since she did tell her to leave it to her, Shuka just lowered her bow, but kept it ready. Videon went one step further and hooked her weapon back onto her belt to free up her hand. It wasn’t free for long though as she reached into her pouch and pulled out a round bottle filled with a yellow and amber liquid. Shuka faintly heard her whisper something under her breath before Videon threw the bottle. Apparently, she had pretty good aim, because she hit the matriarch head on. And apparently the bottle was also pretty fragile because it shattered immediately, splashing the liquid inside all over the harpy. A Second later the amber potion turned into amber flames and the matriarch was at the center of an inferno. She screeched an inhuman sound as the fire consumed her, her face twisted in agony. The flames were spreading too, traveling across her feathers to reach every inch of her body. Right before they covered her face, Shuka took one last look at her and thought she looked… almost human. Still monstrous in some places but that look of pain, it was familiar. She had seen it on Xorvos’ face when he suffered Validus’ holy flames. It was probably the face she made when she suffered the same thing. Looking at it now just made her nauseous. Soon enough the fire covered her face too. Now all she had to look at was vaguely humanoid shaped figure rolling around on the ground in clear pain. It wasn’t exactly a pleasant sight, and the horrid sounds she was making wasn’t making the experience any better. Nor was the smell of burnt flesh that had just now started to reach her nose.

Is this what being an adventurer is like? My wounds hurt like hell, and I feel like I’m going to vomit just by looking at a monster die. Whatever I get from the end of this dungeon better be worth it, because I am never entering one of these death traps again.

Eventually the matriarch finally stopped moving and the two remaining harpies had long since fled, leaving the top of the mountain peacefully quiet. Then, as if it had always been there, there was a stone door embedded in a chunk of rock coming out of the ground.

That must be the exit. Thank the gods we’re done.

Shuka started walking towards the door, eager to leave, but Videon stopped her.

“Hold on, we have to check the door for traps.”

“Traps? But we’re done aren’t we?”

“We aren’t done until we pass through that door. Don’t worry though, if there is a trap it would be a simple one and probably non lethal. I can disable it.”

Videon walked up closer to the door until she was around thirty feet away from it and then took a solid steel ball out of her pouch.

How much room does she have in that pouch if she is filling it with steel balls? And how is that going to disable a trap anyway?

As if to answer Shuka’s question, Videon winded back her arm, aimed carefully, and then threw the heavy orb with all her strength. It flew impossibly fast and impacted the door with such a load CRACK that Shuka heard ringing in her ears for a few seconds after it landed. The door was in pieces in the room it led in to. Even standing so far away it was obvious that there wasn’t enough room on the outside to hold the room and that there was some spatial trickery going on. Somehow that was less important to Shuka than how Videon threw the ball so hard.

What the hell was that? Was she always that strong? It didn’t seem like it when she was fighting the gargoyles. And besides, Quanso or not, no one is that strong naturally. Since it couldn’t have been a spell she must have used a magic item. Is that the kind of thing these dungeons give you?

Videon may have destroyed the door, but she still seemed to think a trap had any possibility of existing because she was approaching the door very slowly and with her shield up. There was a tense moment when she finally crossed the threshold but when nothing happened, she turned around and gave everyone a thumbs up..

“All clear!”

That was good enough for Shuka so she made her way over to the room. When she entered, she found it was surprisingly plain. It had wooden floorboards and stone brick walls and that was about it. There was a wooden chest in the middle of the room and a door on the wall opposite of the entrance but nothing else. There weren’t any light sources other than the empty doorframe leading back to the mountain top, but the room was somehow fully lit. While Shuka was taking it in Videon went straight for the chest and opened it up without hesitation. It was the least cautious thing Shuk had seen her do in the dungeon and it threw her off.

“Uhh, aren’t you going to check for traps? Or I don’t know and ambush or something?”

“In here? No. I told you, didn’t I? You aren’t done until you pass through the door. We passed through the door so now we are safe. There have been traps set at the end door, I’ve even encountered one myself once, but never in the treasure room. Not once has the dungeon ever killed someone in here. Now hurry up and get over here and pick up your loot.”

Shuka couldn’t really argue with that so she walked up to the chest and looked at what was inside. After seeing Videons latest feat of strength she was expecting some grand artifact of great power and was… slightly disappointed. Everything inside the chest look mostly mundane. Maybe a little fancy, but nothing too spectacular. The most notable thing there, at least to Shuka, was a quiver full of arrows. Other than that, there was also a pair of sturdy metal boots, a spool of thread, a ring, and three separate coin pouches. Each item also had a small slip of paper covered in writing on them.

That quiver must be mine, and I guess the boots are probably Xorvos’. Did the dungeon really separate the gold into three different pouches though? I mean, its nice we don’t have to separate it, but it’s a bit scary how much this place seems to know. Oh well, lets see what this quiver does.

Shuka picked up the quiver and took the note off it. There was a very useful explanation on it that described what it did. It read as follows.

Quiver of Many Arrows.

This quiver has four compartments, three of which each hold an infinite number of a different type of mundane, but high-quality arrow. The fourth compartment allows you to store up to one hundred of your own arrows. In cases of multiple different arrows being stored in this compartment, all you need to do is think of the arrow that you want and that will be the arrow you will take out of this compartment. The space warping properties of the fourth compartment only works for arrows and any other item stored within it will take up space like normal. The arrows stored in the other compartments are a broadhead arrow ideal for hunting and unarmoured targets, a heavy bodkin arrow designed to pierce armour, and a blunt arrow for non lethal attacks. Arrows taken out of this quiver will disappear after twenty seconds.

All things considered it was a very useful item, with an even more useful description. Shuka should have been overjoyed at getting an artifact like that without even having to experiment with it to see what it did. She just had one thing running through her head though.

What the hell? It has a dimensional space that only works for arrows? And the arrows it can create infinitely disappear after twenty seconds? Why? And if there is already so much magic being put into this why are the arrows mundane? Every single enchantment on this quiver is absolutely insane, but it is being used in the dumbest way! If they just made the fourth compartment without the arrow restriction, it would be both easier to make, and more useful. They just put in more effort just to make it worse.

Shuka had once heard Ralisdor go on a rant about the nonsensical nature of the magic in dungeons. At the time she thought he was over reacting, but now she was starting to agree with him. By this point Xorvos was examining the boots, and Videon had already finished looking at the spool of thread and the ring. When she saw Shuka was done reading she held out the spool of thread.

“Take this. It’s magic thread, just hold it in your hand and say ‘repair’ and it should fix all of your clothing. It doesn’t work on metal though so it won’t fix the gash in your buddy’s armour.”

“Wait, how are we splitting the items? There are four items but three of us, if you give me the thread then all you will be getting is the ring.”

“I’m not giving you the thread; I’m letting you use it. It can only repair so much before it runs out, but if you and Xorvos use it once and then give it back to me I can still sell the rest in my shop. With me getting the ring too, that should be close enough to even for all of us.”

That does seem fair, and I would like to fix my clothing. Those harpies even managed to get through leather with those claws, and I don’t want to look even more run down than I am already.

Shuka took the spool and held it up. It didn’t look particularly magical, but looks could be deceiving so she tried using it like Videon told her.

“Repair.”

The moment she spoke the command word the thread started to unspool itself from the thread and stich together Shuka’s clothing. It fixed cloth and leather alike and when it was done the thread separated itself from the spool and then disappeared, leaving no trace of the repair job. Xorvos had a lot less damage done to his clothing than Shuka, with his armour protecting him from most of the attacks, but he did still have some gash’s on his unprotected sleeve. She handed him the spool and apparently he overheard what Videon said before because he used it without a problem and then handed it back to Videon. All that was left now was to retrieve her portion of the gold. Picking it up from the chest she saw the note simply said ’40 gold’ on it and nothing else. It wasn’t the paragraph the quiver had, but there wasn’t really much to say about a bag of gold. She decided she would examine the arrows in her new quiver a bit later, when everything didn’t hurt so much and she wasn’t so tired.

It's a good thing I didn’t need to use any magic, it would be practically impossible to concentrate on anything right now. Maybe something small, but definitely not my disguise. Wait, shit my disguise! I forgot to put it on, today, but I met Videon with it yesterday.

Just as Shuka realised her mistake she saw Videon turn to her and speak.

“So, while we are still alone, mind telling me why you were hiding your identity yesterday?”