Steel smashed through bone as the animated skeleton crumbled, leaving Bria speechless at the sight of Kro-ahnk shouldering the hefty pan. He grinned back, completely unbothered by the ferocity of his own assault.
Bria’s own blade clashed with the undead bones and rusted steel of her latest adversary. She’d gotten lucky after the initial chaos of the ambush, catching one off guard when it was focused on Krow, but now she was having to fight it out with a monster several levels higher than her own.
[Skeleton Warrior LV. 7]
Not quite as dangerous as the Magitech machine or Shadow Demon, but underestimating an enemy was a quick way to wind up dead. Bria lacked a shield, and barely knew how to fight with her new sword, but she was stubborn and [Enhance] lived up to its description. It let her match the monster blow for blow, and thankfully the undead appeared to be just as unskilled as she was.
For each hit she took, Bria scored one in kind. Bones chipped, or even fractured, but the monster kept coming. A slash scraped against her armor, cutting into the leather and the flesh underneath, but Bria pushed through. Her shoulder slammed into the skeleton, sending it tumbling back. With a ragged cry, Bria brought her blade down on the monster with the strength of both arms. The monster shattered, leaving nothing but a comforting ding resounding in her mind.
“Hey, not bad Bria, you got two of them!”
Panting, she surveyed the battle, finding it to be over. True enough, she had managed to take down two of the level seven monsters, but that was paltry compared to the number that her friends decimated. All around Krow, skeletal remains littered the ground. They were all that remained of the dozen attackers that had swarmed them the moment night fell on their first day outside of the shrine. Yet, she had gotten experience from each enemy despite all of that. They gave twenty per kill on each of the ones she personally downed, but those killed by her party gave considerably less.
[Heal] flowed over her, restoring the lost health and closing the wounds she had taken. [Mend] and [Cleanse] followed, patching her clothes and hopefully removing any disease or poison that might result from being cut by the rusted blades.
Neth-amii was dusting off her sleeves, with three destroyed skeletons nearby. That still left at least seven at the feet of the terrifying Merchant that had joined them. Krow hummed happily as he sorted through the remains, taking a few bits here and there before squirreling them away in his pack. Bria herself was eyeing a mostly intact shield, and lifted the hunk of wood and metal. The heft was considerable, but her stats made it comfortable enough to hold in her off hand.
“An intact shield from the Feld-amin era!” Kro-ahnk exclaimed. “Such an incredible find.” A surge of magic washed over the shield from the Merchant, and his already glowing expression turned blinding. “Its worth nearly a thousand bronze cores! Splendid!”
“Just say it’s worth ten gold cores,” Neth-amii said with exasperation. “There’s no need to make someone do the conversion.”
“But most people don’t carry gold cores,” Kro-ahnk said. “Even silver cores are rare enough. A hundred silver cores might be relatable to the masses, but the bronze core is simply a more common denomination.”
“I suppose,” Neth-amii said with a heavy sigh. “How are you holding up, Bria? Need anything?”
“I think I’m okay,” she answered. “Still getting used to this whole life and death thing.”
Krow practically bounced over, several small orbs in hand. “Did you live behind the walls prior to this?”
He reached down, plucking another such orb from one of the skeletons at her feet, then casually moved on, picking up yet another. Vaguely she was aware of the bronze coloration each held, but more importantly, she wasn’t sure how much to share with the friendly merchant.
“Something like that,” Bria settled upon. “My home doesn’t have roaming monsters. The only ones I’ve encountered were deep underground so far, and that was just a few days ago.”
The less she thought about the Magitech machine and how terrifying the fight had been, the better. At least here she wasn’t alone. Well, Boris and Nikolai were technically with her for that one, but they had been next to useless in the fight.
Sitting down, Bria looked up at the brightening horizon. The skeletons had waited until she was the one on watch to attack, assuming they could get the jump on a weaker foe. Thankfully Neth-amii was a light sleeper, and her own magic had gotten Krow up and into the fight quickly enough to avoid being overwhelmed. Now, they sat around a fire as bacon sizzled away in the skillet that only moments ago had been shattering skeletons. She couldn’t imagine it being hygienic, and only hoped that [Cleanse] worked on contaminants.
Breakfast was a quiet affair, and soon enough they were back on the road. Bria watched the countryside pass along from the back of the cart while Neth-amii sat beside her. They hadn’t talked much since her little revelation that shattered everything Bria thought she knew about herself, but now that she’d had a moment?
The magic of this world really was turning her into a girl. It wasn’t instant or anything, but with each level the changes were coming more quickly than before. Bria’s chest was starting to grow, and they not only ached. They itched. Like holy cow, how did girls keep from rubbing at them all day? The urge to cross her arms and try to get even a hint of relief was almost overwhelming.
At least nothing seemed to be happening downstairs yet, though that was harder to tell. Bria didn’t like to look at that part of her, so she couldn’t be certain if anything had truly changed. Which, thinking on that, was probably another sign that Neth-amii was correct.
Clutching at her now much longer hair, Bria wanted to scream. Of course things couldn’t be simple for her. As if falling into a world full of magic and monsters wasn’t enough, it had to be fundamentally changing her body on top of that. Yet, no matter how much she tried to think of the changes as a bad thing, she couldn’t.
For the first time in years, Bria felt right. If this small shift had removed so much of the fog that had settled over her life, just how would she feel once the changes were complete? Level ten felt far off, especially with how the experience needed kept increasing with each level, but she had also gained five levels in under a week. Supposedly most people who lived within the walls of a city peaked around the same level.
Speaking of the walls, she could see them in the distance. Sitting between two stretches of mountains were sweeping walls that blocked off the entire pass. The buildings were too small to truly make out save for the single stone structure standing tall above the settlement beneath it.
“Ah Brookvale,” Kro-ahnk said. “She’s still hours away, but what a sight to behold. Nethy’s shrine has one of the best approaches to the city indeed.”
“I can see that,” Bria muttered, focused on how her voice sounded. It had definitely lost some of the depth it once held, but the change remained subtle enough she couldn’t say for certain. “What would you suggest we buy that we couldn’t get from you?”
“Rations,” Kro-ahnk said immediately. “I’m a traveler, which means anything I have will cost a premium over where it is grown or prepared. I would also suggest leather goods made locally. Watch out for anyone hawking imported goods, you’ll pay a premium.”
All sound advice from what she understood of logistics. Neth-amii nodded along, and looked away when Bria caught her watching. There was something going on there that she couldn’t quite understand. Maybe once they were away from the merchant she might open back up about what was going on with Bria’s body.
Neth-amii had made it sound like she went through something similar, which couldn’t be true. She was too beautiful to have ever been a man. Bria knew she was going to end up ugly by the end of this, no matter the magic involved. Really, it wasn’t fair that some unseen force had just decided that she needed to transform into something else like that.
The journey continued without interruption, right up until they reached the crest of a hill that overlooked a fork in the road. One led up towards the looming city, well worn and maintained, while two others curved around the mountains.
“This is where we must part,” Kro-ahnk said. “Unless you wish to join me at the Silent Abbey, but the monks there aren’t exactly talkative.”
Glancing at Neth-amii for details, the woman chuckled. “They all take a vow of silence while studying a visual language not shared with outsiders. Quite interesting people, but not exactly conducive to our goals.”
“Honestly, that sounds like something I’d love to see,” Bria said.
Laughing, Neth-amii nodded. “We can stop by before returning to the Shrine. Would that be agreeable?”
“Absolutely,” Bria said, then turned to face the Merchant as she racked her brain for what best to say to the man. “Krow, I thank you for all the help offered, and wish you safe travels and profits.”
“Profits are a given!” the man declared with a hearty laugh. “I hope you find what it is you seek, little Bria. Trust Nethy to keep you safe! May the winds of fortune find your back.”
With that, the cart lurched into motion, just without the pair seated upon it. Kro-ahnk rode off into the distance, leaving Bria alone with Neth-amii at last. Only after he was out of sight did Neth-amii let out a heavy sigh and slap her cheeks.
“Finally,” she said, looking skyward. “I love the oaf, but I just cannot handle that much of his energy at once.”
“I know what you mean,” Bria said, chuckling weakly. “He kinda reminds me of mom when she’s entertaining the tourists.”
“Tourists,” Neth-amii repeated, feeling out the word. “Does it mean guests? Does your island get many visitors?”
“A bunch come every summer,” Bria said, still impressed by the magic that was bridging the gap between their languages. “The ruins are considered one of the unsolved mysteries of the world. Everyone born there has dreamed of being the one to finally solve it.”
“Including you,” Neth-amii said with a smile.
“Of course. I’ve been out there for years just poking at various walls to see if something might happen. It never had, until after coming here.”
“I imagine that it was your exposure to mana that changed things,” Neth-amii said as they walked towards the city walls. “Curiosity is well and good, but I fear the reason our ancestors built upon the lands you now occupy.”
Right, it was probably some ancient horror from beyond that needed to be sealed in order to prevent an apocalypse or something. Despite that, Bria still wanted to see what could be learned. She had no intention of releasing anything, but then again, neither did any of the characters in Dungeon Heroes. The antagonist managed to trick the heroes into defeating the guardian and letting him walk right in and release the beast upon the world.
Would the same thing happen to her?
“Mister Ruiz can never come here,” Bria said, repressing a shudder.
Neth-amii hummed. “Should he find a way across, I shall slay him.”
“I wish I had that level of conviction,” Bria muttered. Could she kill another human as easily as she did the monsters? Probably, but she didn’t want to be that kind of person. “I’ll keep growing stronger, and hopefully, he won’t ever get the chance.”
“Well, this city will be a good first step,” Neth-amii said. “Hopefully we find something useful in the archives. Maybe it will even be a dungeon that’s unexplored!”
“Are those rare?”
“Quite,” the Shrine Priestess said. “The Guild usually claims those found quite quickly and charges a fee just to access them, then taxes anything uncovered within. It is why Ri-durak keeps trying. He wishes to claim the dungeon I protect.”
Well, that made a bit more sense. Greed was an easy motivator, but that dungeon didn’t really have much to claim, now did it? How many monsters did Bria fight during her time down there the first time? Even days later the number of monsters hadn’t fully recovered. If it took a full week to replenish, then there wasn’t much profit to be made for something so far from the city.
“I feel like I’m missing something,” Bria finally said.
“Perhaps it is the lack of familiarity with the economy,” Neth-amii mused. “While cores are a fundamental part of how we trade, it isn’t the only currency. Just the one used by most with average means.”
“There’s something beneath bronze cores then,” Bria said in understanding.
“Yes, shards and chips of cores can be traded just as easily. The valuation gets murky, but a single bronze core can feed a family for a week.”
Then Kro-ahnk wasn’t kidding about prices when trading. His goods were simply more expensive because he traveled.
As the walls grew closer, Bria finally understood the scale of them. This wasn’t just a large town, it was a proper city. She’d dreamed of traveling, and now, she was getting to do exactly that. The gate that would admit them had a line, which Neth-amii moved to stand in.
“They charge a fee for travelers,” she said, pulling a piece of metal from her pack. “Residents have something like this that permits regular travel, but visitors either buy a pass or pay a fee anytime they return.”
“Makes sense,” Bria said.
She’d never seen anything like it in her games, but how fun would it have been to pay a fee anytime she entered a city from the overworld? Obviously a city would want a return on tourism and trade. A gate fee was easier than trying to tax people on each sale made in the streets. She wasn’t sure how taxes worked on the island, but knew that it wasn’t like things were on the mainland.
The line moved quickly, and when they finally reached the guards, Neth-amii held up a stamped piece of metal. The guard nodded, then his eyes fell upon Bria. She felt small under his gaze, and quickly checked his level.
[Human Lv. 8]
Not too different from reading someone back on the island. They just had a proper level added on. Not the weirdest thing, but still felt odd to her. Would he become a Guard properly once he hit level ten? Would he ever reach it? His hair had clear gray in it, which suggested he was getting old enough to be unsuited to such dangerous work.
“One bronze,” the guard said.
Before Bria could answer, Neth-amii had paid the entry fee and gave the armored man a grin. He waved them both in, leaving Bria in awe of the bustling streets that unfolded before her. Nothing like it existed on her island, and it was how she always imagined places like New York or Paris might be based on the pictures she saw.
“Shall we find the archives?” Neth-amii asked.
Nodding, Bria followed along, wondering just what awaited them within the walls of Brookvale.