Chapter 24: Chapter 24 Pressed-Dirt

“So, my men tell me that you said the bandit that attacked you last night escaped. And you didn’t hear anything after?”

“No father, though I was focused on the wounded soldier; However ‘escape’ is not accurate. He retreated from Jay’s grotesque skeleton creatures.” Anya took a bite of her muffin as she looked out the window by Sullivan’s side, sighing and shaking her head after remembering Jay naming one of his creatures ‘Muffin’.

Sullivan folded his hands under his chin as he put his elbows on his desk “Seems like we may have found the source of these attacks. Perhaps I’ll need to question Jay” he thought to himself, before deciding to send Anya to talk to Jay.

“Anya, head to Jay’s place. He lives above the butchery… Tell him to withdraw his skeletons from the forest or there will be consequences.”

Anya looked at her father with a confused and concerned expression “What do you mean consequences? What are you going to do with him? And you think he is the one behind the dead animals?”

“We shall see. Go.” Sullivan waved his hand as the door opened by itself.

Sighing, Anya leaves the room “See you later”.

—

Jay was jolted awake by the sound of loud knocking coming from his front door.

[72 Exp]

Jay waved away the notification with a smug half-smile before responding to the door-knocking..

“Hold on, I’m coming!” He put on some pants before heading downstairs, almost stumbling.

Opening the door, he found Anya standing there with a slightly concerned look on her face “You live here?”

“I gotta live somewhere, why are you here?” skipping the small talk, Jay reminded himself she wasn’t worth the effort – he was merely a tool to her.

“The guild master has a message for you. Can we talk inside?” Anya said as she looked around for anyone listening.

Sighing, Jay stood back and gestured her in. After shutting the door, Anya was the first to speak.

“Sullivan thinks you have skeletons running around killing things in the forest and he wants you to stop.” She got straight to the point.

At this point, Jay was walking to the next room with Anya following behind as he grabbed some water and splashed it on his face.

“What?”

“You have to stop killing creatures in the forest.”

Jay paused for a moment as he put the pieces together. “Is this what the meant by the ‘situation’ happening in the forest?” Jay smiles “the animals dying?” He chuckled slightly at how much they were over-reacting.

“Jay, they’re not just dying, they’re being brutally disembowelled. One animal was found with it’s ribs caved in after being beaten to death with a glade deer’s head. The villagers would be scared if they found out, even some of the veterans come back to the guild looking white as ghosts because of the sheer brutality. If it’s your skeletons, it needs to stop.”

Shocked for a moment, Jay willed his feeble creature Muffin to stop hunting and go into stealth – as stealthy as it could be – and to wait near the wolf’s quarry dungeon.

“Ok. If it is me, it will stop… so the strange things happening in the forest have been brutal animal deaths?”

Anya nodded as if it was obvious. ‘Ah, Duh!’ she thought, but didn’t say aloud.

Jay lightly chuckled as he took a sip of water “Well, is that all?”

Surprised at Jay’s lack of hospitality she made her way to the front door again “No… I’ll see you next time.”

Anya didn’t show it, but she was a little disappointed in how distant Jay seemed, though she hid her internal frown as she left.

“Well, since I’m up I may as well get started” Jay said to himself as he finished his water.

Making his way back upstairs to put on the rest of his clothes, including the Molodus coat which seemed to almost slide itself onto Jay, he began thinking about how he would sneak off into the woods. He decided to pack a shirt, pants and a hooded cloak which he would use to dress up one of his feeble creatures to cause a distraction if need be.

Losla village wasn’t a walled settlement, it had 3 main roads with a gentle stream running around the north-west side of the village, which went under a bridge on the north road.

Jay thought the guards probably wouldn’t stop him, but he decided to play it safe and sneak out anyway, heading towards the north-west side of town, he crossed the stream and headed into the forest.

Normally, the forest was thick enough to conceal someone after going a few meters into it, however this was winter and the only thing with any leaves were the evergreen’s, which forced Jay to walk an extra few minutes into the spindly, cold forest.

Making his way to Wolf’s Quarry dungeon, he decided to wait until he was inside before summoning the rest of his skeletons. It wasn’t long before he came across Muffin.

“Wow, you’re quite bloody.” Jay thought. Muffin’s entire knife was crimson red, along with it’s bottom jaw.

Looking at Muffin, Jay realised that it probably was his skeletons causing all the trouble; he could only imagine what Muffin did to become so bloody. All of the skeleton’s bones had at least a few splatters of blood on them; none were left undefiled.

Approaching the entrance of the dungeon slowly, Jay hid behind trees and rocks. Keeping low to the ground and quiet, there appeared to be no one nearby so he didn’t unsummon Muffin, simply sending Muffin to the dungeon entrance.

“Surely someone would scream, shout or attack if they saw Muffin” he thought.

It seemed like the coast was clear so Jay did a crouch-run to the dungeon entrance.

The entrance was what Jay expected – a makeshift mining site with a few tools and a rope-pulley going into a dark hole. A large wolf skull was inside a slanted mining tent among some tools.

Trying to grab one of the shovels lying around, it seemed like it was somehow stuck to the soil somehow.

“Odd.” Jay raised an eyebrow as he bent down and gripped the shovel with all his might and tried to pick it up, yet it wouldn’t even budge. “Seems like these are a part of the dungeon’s entrance”. Jay tried to pick up different objects a few more times, including the wolf’s skull – yet to no effect. He pursed his lips and scratched his head as he moved towards the dark mining shaft, receiving a notification.

[Wolf’s Quarry – Level 5 Dungeon]

[Instanced][Unlocked]

[Enter Wolf’s Quarry?]

[Yes/No]

Jay braced himself as he hit yes – he guessed that he would have to go into the hole somehow and he was correct, a strange gravitational force began to drag him into the hole. He didn’t resist – it did seem like some other adventurers did in the past though as there were finger marks on the ground from people trying to stop themselves being dragged in.

After Jay’s head was below ground level, it was suddenly total darkness, as if the entrance had been blocked by a large boulder.

Jay and Muffin began falling, the wind whistling past them. Soon they began to slow down and levitate, while a gentle glowing light appeared, flickering below them, a beacon in the darkness. They were dropped off by the side of a slow-moving underground river – it was so slow that it produced no sound at all, neither were there lapping waves against the rocks; “It must be incredibly deep” Jay thought.

It was incredibly quiet in this huge, cavernous dungeon. Every pebble movement created a tiny echo – however this was quickly drowned out by the clanking bones of Muffin; though this caused Jay to smile a little.

An abandoned slanted mining tent with a lamp hung on a pole was nearby – the lamp being the only source of light in the cave, the one which they saw when they were falling. Jay summarily grabbed the lamp and was glad to find that it wasn’t ‘stuck’ to the tent like the tools around the dungeon’s entrance.

A single pressed-dirt path led along the side of the river and into the darkness.

“I’ll summon the others before I move on.” Jay thought as he shifted his ring into its orbital form, summoning the other two feeble creatures – both of them level 2. The creatures waited patiently as Jay pulled out the bone daggers and tossed them on the ground for them to pick up.

Jay was beginning to feel like a noble brat as he could’ve easily handed the daggers to them, but decided this small gesture wasn’t even worth the energy; besides, they weren’t truly alive so it would’ve been unappreciated anyway.

“Here.” Said Jay as he handed Muffin the lamp, commanding Muffin to walk by his side while the level 2 feeble creatures acted as a vanguard of sorts, walking a few meters ahead of him on the dirt path, the level 2 creatures being slightly enshrouded in the darkness. Only Jay needed the lamp as the skeleton’s could see in the dark; a huge advantage compared to other adventurers.

The path curved along the river as the feeble creature’s bones all created echoes as they walked. It wasn’t long before a golden pair of eyes greeted the four of them from the water before causing a small splash and disappearing again. Jay was creeped out by those glowing eyes while all four of them paused and assumed a fighting stance.

Deciding to walk on the very edge of the path that was further from the water, Jay had Muffin acting as a barrier between him and the water while equipping his buckler in case something attacked from the darkness on the other side of the path; though nothing happened. Soon the path turned away from the river and descended into a crevasse in the wall.

“A little more advantageous for me” Thought Jay as he squinted, beginning to walk downhill into the narrow cavern. He could now see the walls on each side, but not the ceiling – it could’ve been either 20 meters above or hundreds of meters, there was no way to tell.

Jay equipped his own bone dagger with his buckler ready in his right hand; Muffin on his left side was holding the lamp high in it’s right hand with a bone dagger in the left hand. The level 2 feeble creature’s were prepared at the front – each dual-wielding daggers of their own and ready to pounce at the slightest movement.

“Here we go.” Jay whispered to himself, squinting at the darkness with a smile.