Chapter 12: Town of Rivendale

“What do you suggest we do, Mumbleton?” King Jarius asked.

Mumbleton, Dragonhold’s Grand Magus, stood before the throne with his staff in his right palm. He was much older than the king, with long, flowing white hair and a full white beard.

The king had already told Mumbleton about Ursla’s findings and how he had personally verified the authenticity of the discovery.

“Right now there’s nothing much we can do, Your Grace, except choose carefully who we share this information with,” Mumbleton replied.

“This is not something that must travel beyond these palace walls, but at the same time, best we prepare for the day when the worst comes to pass. The moment your enemies discover that Thyrak has gone missing, they will come knocking at the gates of Dragonhold.”

The king shook his head, hating that this was Dragonhold’s current predicament.

…

The Companions and Aiden were somewhere between their journey to Xathia when Aiden decided to ask Alaric a question. This was mostly because one of his daily quest details required that he do so.

“Hey Alaric, what would you say is the best thing about Xathia?” Aiden asked.

Alaric scoffed and replied, “It’s not arguin’ over marryin’ more than one bird in Xathia.” He chuckled and added, “Got two wives meself, just gotta make enough to keep ’em both happy.”

Aiden made a weird face because frankly, that was an odd thing to know about a kingdom. Then certain golden screens materialized again before him.

[Daily Mission: Learn One New Fact About Xathia —> Complete]

[You have gained 150xp]

[+1 Stat Point to Intelligence]

“I guess that was a new fact enough to complete the mission,” Aiden murmured to himself.

“Eh? What you sayin’, kid?” Alaric asked.

Aiden startled slightly and said, “Oh, nothing, nothing. Good to know I can have two wives in Xathia.”

“Heh, in Xathia you can have as many as you want,” Alaric replied, then laughed heartily.

Aiden said nothing more since he didn’t need to continue the conversation about wives and polygamy. That wasn’t even in his direction of interests for the time being.

Soon after, they arrived at a cliff where they could see the small town below, filled with little red-roofed houses.

“Welcome to Rivendale, lads,” Alaric announced.

Aiden, who sat behind Alaric, took one heavy breath and let it out. This was the town with the dungeon situation.

The Companions and Aiden eventually rode down through the cliffs and soon found themselves within the village. They rode casually through its roads while the townspeople watched from their houses as new strangers entered their town.

Alaric motioned to one of the passersby. It was a woman who carried a basket on her head and held a young child on her left arm.

“Sorry for stoppin’ yer, but where’s yer town’s chief at?” Alaric asked.

The woman made a puzzled face hearing the accent, but she understood that he was asking about their chief and pointed toward the general direction he needed to go.

“Thanks, love,” Alaric said, and then he and the rest continued on their way.

Their path led to a building much larger than most others in the town, and in front of its porch stood an old man, at least middle-aged, who appeared to be waiting for them with a staff in hand.

They all climbed down from their horses, and Alaric walked up to the old man.

“Alright, old fella, safe to say you’re the village chief, eh? We’ve come to sort that dungeon out,” Alaric said.

The old man sighed and replied, “At this point, it feels like I’m just sending people to their deaths. You’re the third party today and the seventeenth one in four days. I already sent word to Lord Oberon, so don’t worry, capable Xathian mages will come handle it.”

Alaric chuckled and said, “Sorry yer only got weak ones before, but my lot’s got two proper strong mages.”

The town chief replied, “The other parties said they had mages too, but alas, it was all lies.”

Alaric then turned toward Aiden and said, “Oi, go on kid, show ’em.”

Aiden quickly understood what Alaric needed him to do. He raised his hand slightly upward and made little flames float above his palm.

Alaric then turned toward Tam and simply nodded his head. Tam rolled his eyes but stretched his hand forward toward Aiden’s flame and added his wind magic to it, which made the flame rise up even further.

Aiden’s eyes widened slightly as the enhanced flames reflected in his gaze. Magic truly felt beautiful.

Alaric turned back to the old man and said, “See? Told you we got magic.”

The old man muttered, “Hmm…” still considering whether he should give them the go-ahead, but Alaric didn’t wait and pushed further.

“Now you’ve seen it, remind us again how much the town’s payin’ for the clear?” Alaric asked.

The old man sighed and said, “A thousand gold pieces to the party.”

Alaric grinned and said, “Sweet. Now point us the right way.”

The old man did as asked, describing the path that would lead to the dungeon that had appeared close to their town.

The party then headed out on their horses, and after a few minutes of riding, they arrived before the dungeon. Then they all dismounted.

“Right, lads, we’re here,” Alaric said with a grin on his face.

Dungeons looked like mausoleums. They rose up magically from the ground at random places around the continent, and each kingdom was generally responsible for the ones that manifested within their territory. When someone accessed a dungeon and walked through its doors, they were basically walking through a portal to another dimension where hordes of monsters waited.

Each dungeon had difficulty ranks that matched the same system used for magic rankings, starting from E-rank. Besides rank, one could also guess the strength of the dungeon based on the height and size of the “mausoleum” structure.

The size of the dungeon was what regular people without magic who believed in their combat prowess would sometimes use to determine whether they should enter or not.

Normally, it wasn’t advised for people without magic to enter these dungeons, but humans being humans would throw themselves in if an affected town was willing to pay heavily. Sometimes they did it for the purpose of selling monster parts to make good money from gold coins.

There was however one reason why towns with a dungeon situation feared these dungeons. If dungeons remained uncleared, the doors leading into these dimensions would break and the monsters it held would be unleashed into town. And these ruthless creatures would massacre every living being on sight.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep