Chapter 517 - Farewell Party
The whole of Sanctuary was currently in a festive mood. It was now nighttime and bright flames illuminated the atmosphere. Here and there one could hear the sound of instruments and music being played.
“Another Romagod, let’s go another!” An orc cheered boisterously.
“Yeah!” “More music!” It was an encore for the one and only Romagod, Son of Romarod the now deceased leader of the tribe of Romarod.
“Alright! Another it is!” Romagod’s tribe had stolen music culture from other tribes and when the Romarod tribe itself fell victim to plundering, music was brought to Sanctuary.
In fact, there was an entire market for music. Shops selling drums or crude string and wind instruments could be easily found dotted around commercial hubs in Sanctuary. Orcs or goblins also tended to play music outside these shops to showcase the instruments to potential customers.
Overall, music culture in Sanctuary proliferated.. The effects of this could only be fully seen in this festival like special occasions, however.
So what was the occasion?
“I can’t believe that human girl is leaving” An orc said with lament. Lots of the orcs and goblins took a liking to Kimani. There were many that still hated the human, but lots of orcs and goblins just found her cute.
Not in a pretty way, but almost like how a pet owner would love their pet. It was a very disrespectful comparison but Kimani’s shy and reserved personality prevented her from becoming an object of fear in the hearts of the orcs.
This could be a positive or negative thing but whatever the case it culminated into the current party.
The fattest of boars were killed for the feast and only the juiciest most mana rich fruits were plucked from the plantations. Many hastily set up game booths which were stationed all around the main road of Sanctuary and also its plaza.
“Kimani, taste this!” An orc said tossing over a piece of seasoned meat.
“Tanks, Goro…” Kimani said awkwardly in the orc language.
“Hahaha, it’s Gorgo!” The muscular chef corrected her with a joyful laughter. Gorgo had come a long way from his time as a boar farmer. Gorgo felt that he should be thanking Dakgu for that. It was only after Dakgu’s misfortune that Gorgo met and caught Ed’s attention.
Dakgu was busy with something nearby, however. There was no way to thank him currently, and even if he was thanked, his mind was elsewhere.
“Who will win!?!” “I bet on…” “Fool! They won’t win” From Gorgo’s outdoors cookout the fight of the century could be observed. Dakgu and Gurln were having their subordinates go against one another.
“Hey! You better not lose!” Gurln shouted to his subordinate who stood menacingly within the confines of a crudely drawn circle.
The burly elite orc who heard Gurln’s shout was then sent spinning by a shockingly powerful punch.
“WOooO!” “What the f*ck!” “I want a refund!” “That’s unfair!” “WOAH!! VICTORY!” The plaza was overcome with noise. All sort of shouts and cheers combined into a restless atmosphere.
“Hahaha! You distracted him!” Dakgu said audibly mocking Gurln. The two of them could not possibly hear each other but Gurln still turned to Dakgu as if in tune. There was unbridled fury in his eyes causing even Dakgu to flinch.
“That’s it! Get in the circle!” Gurln shouted to Dakgu, his declaration quietened the surroundings and Dakgu was taken aback.
“You think you can beat my lightning?” Dakgu said with a grin.
<“What an exciting development…”> A muttered in human tongue. He was sitting next to Kimani so he had to speak in this language to keep her involved.
The familiarity of the orcs and goblins to Kimani was all planned by A in the end. Truthfully, the orcs were not at the level where they would throw a party for a mere human girl but… They were at the level where they would throw a party for anything provided with a good excuse.
“Urgh… This wasn’t in the budget…” Sharog muttered from nearby. They needed a good excuse to please the otherwise stingy Sharog.
“HEY!” “GET HER OUT OF THE CIRCLE!!” What’s going on!?!” A commotion suddenly occurred just as Sharog was lamenting the introduction of currency and more stress for her into Sanctuary.
“Ah! Shel!” Sharog exclaimed frightened. Just as Dakgu and Gurln were ready to fight one another Shel happened upon the ring and in her drunken stupor took their battle ready stances as aggression.
“Die! Die!” The renown blacksmith of Sanctuary began trying to kill the two orc commanders with a wooden beer mug.
<“What a catastrophe- I mean, even more exciting development…”> A said hiding his true feelings.
Kimani noticed the slip up but didn’t dare to mention it. She instead formed a small subtle smile, she was probably getting too attached.
A couple of hours later, it was now past midnight. A good chunk of Sanctuary collapsed from sleep exhaustion or drinks, possibly both and Kimani was at the gates ready to truly set off.
<“Have a safe trip” A said to the young girl. She nodded solemnly and then turned to leave with small steps. Anyone could tell Kimani was still somewhat reluctant to leave.
But as Sanctuary became increasingly distant, Kimani picked up her pace.
She benefitted a lot from her trip to the dungeon. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
Her current equipment was personally crafted by Shel. It was on short notice, so maybe personally was exaggerated but it did receive some modifications that bore her in mind. This armor which suited her well was better than the zero armor she wore previously.
As for her weapon… One was naturally provided. Shel wasn’t very good with swords but the turnout was still decent. The weapon was at least C class in power and possibly B class in durability.
That meant that although it didn’t have much offensive power, the weapon could be reforged by more skilled smiths outside in the real world.
Real world…
It was an odd choice of wording but for Kimani her stay in Sanctuary had indeed been surreal.
But all things good or bad had to come to an end, and Kimani was now heading for the dungeon’s crypt.
***
In the crypt, otherwise known as the much less lively non-desert part of the dungeon, Ed’s skeletons were still faithfully carrying out their orders. They were religiously restocking the white skeletons and adding to the weapon and armor piles.
Outside these duties the skeletons would train and fight adventurers, what else could they do?
The skeletons were facing an unsurpassable wall.
Due to the fact that they were dead, the training could only sharpen their battle instincts and skills. They couldn’t become any physically tougher or learn new skills though.
This meant that whenever an anti-skeleton of any sort was lost in battle their replacement white skeletons were nothing short of subpar.
S P A R
These letters of earth emerged from atop the ground fort walls. The word signified that the skeletons of the main outpost could now move onto the sparring section of the training.
Trench, the earthen skeleton responsible for writing these letters, would be frowning if he had any facial expressions. That was because he was failing to see what more he could do for their liege.
By continuing the same routine they had allowed the humans to adapt. Each subsequent raid on the main settlement saw more and more anti-skeletons killed and replaced by cannon fodder.
The danger in the main outpost was snowballing out of control. No matter how hard they trained, the dungeon spawned skeletons would remain as cannon fodder.
After a few minutes of intense sparring, an alarm rung out within the outpost.
Intruders.
K I L L
Another raid party had come to face their death. Trench began to emanate a terrifying aura just from thinking about the new aggressors.
Unfortunately for Trench however these aggressors came well-prepared. Not even a moment after the alarm a large explosion enveloped one of the outer outpost Portcullis.
“Kill everything!” A mage shouted in command raising their mighty staff.
“”AYE!!”” “”YES!”” This was an organized raid party of adventurers.
As soon as they spoke they jumped into action and even as Ed’s skeletons rained down spells upon them, the adventurers still seemed to flood in with unstoppable force.
Trench who was atop a fort wall was able to get sight into another mage. They wore a dark cloak, their intention to go unnoticed was obvious. But realizing this would imply the mage was noticed first, and thanks to some knights being left to protect this cloaked figure, they had indeed been noticed.
Trench immediately marked down this figure as a target for elimination. The intelligent skeleton figured they were augmenting the adventurers giving them that unstoppable force.
As for the commander mage from the beginning… he was also on the hit list!
Fortunately, Trench was not the only competent skeleton. Vibrant flames illuminated the entire outpost. Blaze’s umm blazes threatened to burn everything included his own allies.
“Brace yourselves!” The human adventurer’s had no choice but to quickly depend on their mages to cast a shield.
“AAARGH!!!” It was too late for a few knights up front however, they were being cooked inside their armor.
A second after the tragic scream the magical shield finally went up.
In a surprising twist of expectation, the moment the attack collided with the shields, the earth shook vigorously. The mages were left shocked by the strength of the undead’s attacks.
As for the caster… Blaze was shocked by his own strength too! The fire skeleton mage now had thoughts of contesting Trench for the position of head lich resurfacing in their head…
But seeing the ground continued to rumble long after the collision, both parties instantly realized that something bigger than themselves was happening.