Chapter 14
“HEY! You think we might get anything good from this?”
Mira was still imagining the impending wave of new summoners when Zef’s voice rang out. Looking over, she saw him rolling the demon’s corpse over with the toe of his boot to free the war scythe from where it lay on the ground.
“It’s even crazier up close.” Asval stooped down to look at the demon’s body, inspecting all the various wounds and scars. Tapping it with his knuckles, he sighed at the strange resilience of the monster’s hide, wondering if he would have even stood a chance against it.
He glanced at Emella, and her hand reflexively drifted to the pommel of her sword as the same doubt raced through her mind. She decided to double her training from that point onward. As images from the battle lingered, she couldn’t quell the worry that this would not be the last time she would encounter such a foe.
While the adventurers got a closer look at the corpse, Tact hid himself behind Mira. She gently squeezed his hand and offered reassurance. “Don’t worry. It can’t hurt you now.”
Flicker loitered behind, watching the scene and calculating the best moment to snatch Mira’s other free hand.
“So…problem,” said Zef, stooping down to grab the scythe. “I don’t think I can carry this.”
Reaching down to assist, Asval immediately regretted his decision. “Oof! How can it be that heavy?”
Using both hands, he managed to get it in the air for a moment before it came crashing back down. The blade shrieked as the tip buried itself in the stone.
“So what do you think?” asked Zephard.
“It has to be some class-specific item. I’m a warrior and I can’t use it—and I doubt the little miss needs a weapon. She’ll probably get a pretty coin when she sells it.”
“Right? Between this and all the Mobility Stones, Mira’s made out like a bandit. You think she’ll give me a cut for being her loot caddy?” Zef smiled jokingly.
“What kind of nonsense are you talking about?” Mira’s sudden response wiped Zephard’s smile off his face. Then she continued. “Naturally, we’ll all get equal shares. Numbers aren’t my forte, so someone else, figure out what the split is.”
The members of Écarlate Carillon stared at her in shock. Between the Mobility Stones and the scythe—an actual demon’s weapon—this raid would be worth a small fortune. By all rights, the lion’s share belonged to Mira, since she had carried the party—but her turn of generosity had granted them a sizable boon.
“Are you sure about that, Mira?” Emella asked hesitantly.
“We’re a party, aren’t we?”
Both she and Emella stood and looked at the other in confusion.
That was the opportunity Flicker needed to strike.
“You’re so wonderful, Mira!” the purple-robed mage cooed as she lunged forward and pulled Mira into a hug.
The summoner visually pleaded with Emella for assistance, and soon a rain of chops fell upon Flicker’s head.
“You’re just full of surprises, Mira,” Asval said with a grateful nod.
“I’d have to agree,” said Emella with a bemused smile.
“I’m just not all that concerned with matters of money.” Mira waved her hand as if to say that the treasure was nothing—but in the back of her mind, she knew that if her own funds dried up, she could always mooch off of Solomon.
“Considering the hotel you’re staying in, that makes sense,” said Emella with a distant look in her eyes. She toyed with the idea of splurging on a few nights of luxury after she cashed out.
“Oh, that’s right,” muttered Asval.
“You did tell us about that,” said Zef. He and Asval recalled the glittering décor and the lavish feast. “It’d be nice not to have to worry about money.”
“Well, there you go. Like I said, money isn’t an issue.”
“Are you absolutely certain?”
“Drop it. And if there’s anyone in your guild who you think might make use of the scythe, it’s theirs. Better that it goes to someone who will get some use out of it.” Whenever equipment was found in the game, it went to the party member who could make the most use of it. It was how things had been done in her day, and she saw no reason to change it.
Flicker, who had just come to, looked on in confusion. “We’ll have to get it appraised, but this alone…”
“I insist. It’ll always be worth more to a friend than the money I would have gotten for it. I don’t want it—would any of your guildmates?”
“Hmmm. We do have a dark knight in the guild. He might be able to wield it.” Asval said.
“Oho, a dark knight? Well, there you go. Give it to him.”
“No, but… Mira, we’re grateful for anything that helps out the guild,” Emella protested with a blush of embarrassment. “But we can’t accept this. We just can’t.”
“She’s right.” Asval nodded. “We appreciate the offer, but I’m just not comfortable with taking it like that.”
But Mira didn’t need the scythe or the money, and she shook her head as she refused to be swayed.
“Look. I know I can trust the Écarlate Carillon. I’d rather see it stay with allies then swap it for cash and face it in the hands of an enemy on some other battlefield.”
She may not have known them for long, but she had no lingering doubts as to the guild’s character. The fact that they’d tagged along just to ensure Tact’s welfare told her enough.
Her gaze shifted from the scythe back to Emella. As their eyes met, Emella looked stunned, but gradually her expression brightened. Mira offered her hand.
“All right, then! We’ll take care of it!” Emella shook the summoner’s hand.
With a grumble and a roll of his eyes, Asval bent down to pick up the weapon. Zephard grinned and bent over to pick up the other end.
“Seems a little hasty to me,” grumbled the big warrior as he and the rogue hauled the weapon over to the vice captain.
“If anything happens, I’ll just come back personally to retrieve it—how about that?” Mira asked wryly.
“Fair.”
“Well, then, as it’s now our responsibility, I’ll take care of it.” Emella opened her Item Box and loaded the scythe inside. Visible only to her, the capacity counter increased dangerously toward her User’s Bangle’s max load. “Oof. Close fit. Maybe with the cash from this raid, I can upgrade my storage limit.”
“I can take some of your excess equipment if you need to make room,” Asval offered.
Mira tilted her head in confusion, then stepped a little closer to get a better look at Emella’s bangle. “Hrmm… You have limits on your carrying capacity?”
“You don’t?” Emella responded, equally puzzled.
Zef stood with a stunned look on his face. As the designated looter, he was often forced to make hard choices about what to keep and what to leave behind on their adventures.
With a sudden concern that she’d missed an incredibly important difference between the game and the new world, Mira opened her own Item Box to check her inventory. She didn’t seem to be carrying any single thing that was particularly heavy, but she was carrying small stuff…lots of small stuff. The sum total of her odds and ends weighed close to half a ton.
There wasn’t any indicated maximum capacity, but if there was, then she was confident that it was quite high.
“Hrmm… I’m carrying a fair bit, but I wonder—”
“The guild must have said something about the capacity,” Flicker interjected.
“Yeah,” said Emella. “That’s always part of the rental agreement.”
That reminded Mira that none of the Écarlate Carillon had been with her at the Mages’ Guild. In a moment of panic, she wondered if she had just blown her cover by asking about something as mundane as inventory management systems.
“Ah…you see,” she said haltingly, “this was entrusted to me by my master. All he taught me was how to use it.”
Emella nodded slowly. “Ah, well, I suppose that would explain it.”
In her head, Mira ran through other follow-up questions the party might ask, trying to hedge against spilling any more of the truth. She decided that to simply profess ignorance would be the best path—her master had kept her away from the world, thus she only knew what Danblf knew.
Flicker narrowed her eyes. “Even so, running out of carry capacity could be a nasty surprise when you least expect it. You may want to get that checked at some point.”
“That’s very true,” Mira said with a vigorous nod of her head. “Wise counsel. I’ll have to make sure to do so.”
Certainly not with the Mages’ Guild, though. Mira made a mental note to take the issue up with Solomon next time they were behind closed doors. But the specter of doubt still loomed over her.
“Say, would you all mind helping me run a field test…just to be sure?” she asked.
The rest of the party looked at one another and shrugged before agreeing.
First, they transferred the scythe into Mira’s Item Box. Though it took the help of Asval and Zephard to move the weapon once it was out of Emella’s inventory, the scythe went neatly into Mira’s Item Box and left her feeling no heavier. Next were multiple pieces of heavy equipment from Asval’s inventory, and even the massive war hammer he carried.
The rest of the party seemed very impressed as she returned the stock, hoping that her curiosity hadn’t given any of them further clues about her true nature.
As the experiment wrapped up, Zef called out in shock, “Whoa! It’s burning!”
The rest of the party spun and saw the corpse of the demon engulfed in black flame.
“What happened? What’d you do?!” Asval asked as he approached where Zef stood near the edge of the flame.
“Me?! I didn’t do anything! I was just looking at it, then this happened.” Zef shook his head, the flickering fire reflected in his eyes.
“Don’t worry about it. That’s just what demons do a few minutes after death,” Mira said, looking slightly bored before amending, “At least, that’s what Master Danblf told me.”
“Th-there’re some things left in the fire,” muttered Zef, cautiously poking at a black object with one of his daggers.
Once they had cooled, he carefully placed the items into his inventory.
***
With their final tasks completed, the party ascended from the bottom floor of the dungeon. None of the monsters had yet returned, so the journey was long and uneventful. Finally passing through the ward at the top of Ancient Temple Nebrapolis, they all took a moment to savor a few breaths of fresh air.
“Phew. This moment always feels so good.” Emella exhaled deeply and stretched—even the oppressive atmosphere in the ritual hall was a relief, compared to the dank, gloomy levels below the surface.
Asval and Flicker took a moment to relax, while Zef muttered in pain and held a hand gingerly over his cheek. A red handprint was still visible from where he’d taken his teasing of Emella a step too far on the lowest set of stairs. Tact scanned the party members, committing the moment to memory and resolving to become an adventurer himself.
Crimson rays spilled in through the cracks of the partially collapsed temple entrance.
“Well, we finished that earlier than I’d expected,” Emella said cheerfully, before her expression clouded. “We might be able to make it back to the city before the sun goes down.”
It took just under an hour to walk back from the Ancient Temple Nebrapolis to Karanak—but Emella had planned for a quest that would take at least two days and one night, with the party having to camp in one of the middle levels of the dungeon. Her Item Box was still packed full of food and camping gear that was no longer needed. To make matters worse, all of it was in disarray after being displaced by the bulk of the scythe.
“All the way to the bottom of the Ancient Temple and back in under a day,” Asval mused, turning to look back at the temple. The statues on the cliff wall cast dark shadows in the waning light of day, their expressions more ominous at dusk. “This’ll make for an interesting yarn to tell at the pub.”
“Encountering a demon is definitely exciting material,” Zef said with a grin.
Flicker’s expression darkened as she cast the rogue a dubious look. “I don’t think exciting is the right word for it.”
“Fair enough.”
The demons had been banished ten years ago. News of their reemergence would surely cause panic.
“Maybe we should keep this to ourselves.” Emella pursed her lips and placed her hand on the hilt of her spirit blade. “We’ll tell the captain before we make any big decisions. In any case, let’s get the heck out of here.”
The party voiced their agreement, including Zef, who was notoriously loose-lipped around the ladies. He looked crestfallen as he realized he couldn’t impress any girls with stories of his adventures this evening. Then he stopped and looked back at the Ancient Temple.
With a sigh and a tear in his eye, he wished he could go back to the fifth level just one more time.
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