After that, we fought the second group of wolves. Unfortunately, [Resonance Castling] did not reset, but we chose to fight without it anyway, because we thought we could easily handle wolves at levels three to six without too many issues.
We felt the lack of a third melee fighter, and soon made our first mistake. Sure, the wolves were easy to kill, and they probably weren't that much of a threat to me thanks to my immense physical defense stats. But Vespera? She got distracted, a wolf leaped past Elyra's hastily cast shield, and it managed to tear a pretty deep gash in the demon's arm.
It showed us how a moment of distraction could easily turn out to be a catastrophe. In this case, we still finished the fight; the wound was not life threatening, but it still was one that gushed blood all over the place. It was enough to spook us, me and Elyra both, while Vespera tried to act strong and cool.
"I'm okay, spacer boy," she said through gritted teeth.
Back in the safety of the tree's domain, we patched up her wound as best we could. Calyx had some sort of fabric that we could use to keep the wound shut, but with no healing potion, it also meant that any more fighting was out of the question.
Elyra slapped her hand. "Do not touch the wound, Vespera."
She hissed at her. "It's just a flesh wound."
"That's right, your flesh is wounded," I said. "No poking at the wound."
She glared at me before her expression softened. "We suck at fighting, don't we?"
I took a deep breath. We really did suck.
The demon laughed. "I can feel your thoughts, spacer boy. You're thinking them so hard and loud they are almost solid."
"Yeah," I said. "We got cocky because the wolves were easy to kill but… so are we. Well, you."
"You are as well, Sol," Elyra said. "Do not let the numbers you see in the status make you grow complacent."
"Or overconfident," the demon added, lifting her arm with a wince. "Or you'll end up like me."
I took her arm, her good arm, in my hands and massaged her skin. "First your scars, now this…"
She looked at me. I felt the heat behind her red eyes. "Hey, stop that. It's not just your fault."
"We need to return to the city," I said. "Get a healing potion and fix you."
"Can we not stay the night? The sun's setting," the demon said.
"With your wound? It might get infected."
"The potion will fix that too, Sol."
She tried to argue some more, but I wasn't having it. Already I felt terrible about her getting hurt; I wasn't going to pass the night here with her arm half torn open. I doubted I could sleep until I saw her all healed up, and my mind went to the damage-redirection chestplate that sold for a hundred gold back at the city.
Was it a hundred? It might have been more; I didn't recall, and it didn't really matter because it was simply not something we could afford.
Damn it. But then again, I thought about what Elyra said. Even with that armor, even with my stats, I shouldn't let all of that go to my head. Just because there was a game-like System, it didn't mean we were in a game. There was a pile of bones, formerly Buck, right there a few meters away from us as proof of exactly the kinds of danger this world posed.
Sigh. It didn't change the fact that we needed equipment, levels, skill. Plus, it added the fact that we needed experience. All of it cost money. Cores. So much stuff to spend cores on, and we also needed to keep a stash in case I leveled up. I still didn't feel anywhere near close, but I didn't know if I should feel it or not. The last few times it hadn't been a reliable indicator.
"I will wait here for your return," Calyx said when we were finally about to leave.
"Try not to kill too many workers while we are away," I said. It was a joke, meant to lighten the atmosphere, but I realized too late that it had done the opposite. Not only that, but I also realized that I meant what I said.
True, I didn't feel especially bad about it, and it was mostly the unfairness of the riddle that upset me, knowing that people here couldn't possibly solve it. But, at the same time, dying like this… sucks.
"I do not know how to feel about the fact that you cannot tell others the answer to the riddle," Elyra said, sensing what I was thinking.
We crested the hill, and I looked behind me at the tree one last time. I thought about what might happen to the dryad and the spirit should the guild get their hands on them without the protection of the shield and riddle.
"I know how to feel," I said. "And so do you, actually."
"It is true," the angel said. "I…"
"…we were a bit worried," Vespera finished. "Before Calyx cleared that up for us. Fuck 'em guild workers. Buck was the least awful, but he wasn't nice either."
Finally, we saw the city in the distance. There was smoke coming out of a ruined section of walls, exposing the inside of a couple of lithos blocks. The inside was smoking rubble, torn open houses, scattered debris and—it was hard to tell from afar, but it looked like bodies and blood.
From here, and damaged like this, the city looked like a burst-open section of a space station.
There was a buzz of activity near the damage. Ted was also there, shouting orders, no trace of his usual amused grin. The matter was serious. The city almost fell because whoever repaired the wall after the last tide did a shit job.
"Buck had been among them," Vespera sent through the bond. "Think he has part of the blame?"
"Who knows?" I sent back.
"It is a stark reminder that the world waits for nobody," Elyra mused. I felt her contemplative mood. "I wonder sometimes, Sol. Would the world have moved on without us, had you not freed us from our eternal prison?"
Her melancholia was washed away by Vespera reminding her that she wasn't there, in the eternal prison, anymore. She was here, with us. We were all here. Fuck the beast tides. And what if the city fell? Fuck em too. At least, that was what Vespera was thinking, and I felt the appeal of it all.
"Well, as long as it doesn't fall while we are inside," she added. "Speaking of, maybe we should sleep in the downstairs rooms? You never know, flash tides and all. At least if the city falls we can run to Calyx."
She said it as a joke, but I took her seriously. Sigh again. Even more expensive stuff straining our modest finances.
"Hey, lad," a voice brought me back to the present. It was Ted. "Where in the nine circles of underground cave layers have you been? Were you outside when the tide hit? How the fuck are you still alive?"
I told Ted all about the tree and the dryad because I figured he was already our confidant. What would one more secret do at this point? He sighed, leaning back on his stone chair. It looked very uncomfortable, but who was I to judge a dwarf's choice of furniture? At least the other seats in his little foreman tent were normal.
The soundproofing enchantment eliminated all the sounds of the outside, making me feel like we were in a glass bubble.
"Normally, I don't care much for stuff that happens outside the city. This thing you're telling me, lad?" He shook his head. "Makes me think. Think real good… perhaps I should. You saw the damage outside, didn't ya?"
I nodded.
"Well, I don't drink it."
"You don't what?" Vespera blurted out.
"Means I don't believe the official story."
"That would be that you don't buy it," the demon deadpanned.
"I like the drink one better. That's ale I won't be drinking. Catch my drift? See, they might be able to fool normal people, but who do they think I am? Wall was sabotaged; question is by who. Lad, I think something's afoot. I know you don't like it, but unless you're planning on leaving the city to go somewhere else, or hole up at the dryad's, I think you should come to the three-letter club meeting. You still got the address?"
I nodded. Even though my backpack and all its contents were gone—we had to carry the six wolf cores by hand—the address slip had been with Vespera. Same with our money, thank the local gods.
"Good," the dwarf said. "It's just a little initiation. Until you take them oaths, it's nothing to worry about, and nobody expects you to take any save for the secrecy ones on your first meeting. I hope to see you there tonight?"
"We will be there. I can take the girls with me, right?"
Ted thought about it for a moment. "You can, but until you take the full oaths, it's just like the outside. Keep up the pretense and watch your back, okay? Now I gotta head back to work. Got any more questions?"
"Just one," I said. "Why only invite people with a three-lettered name?"
Ted laughed. It was a hearty laugh, like he was laughing at an old joke only he knew, and at our expense.
"Your girls both be glaring at me, lad," he said between chuckles. "I'll let you in on a secret, or I don't think I'm coming out of here alive. The three letters? All a ruse. A little game we play. Was a coincidence with you and I but, just so you know, plenty of people change their names to fit the rule."
"But Buck told me—"
"The truth. We know if you change the name just so you can enter, and the reason it don't work is because you don't get to enter the three-letter club. You get invited to it."
"Anyone could get invited, and only after do they change their names?"
Ted grinned at me. "Well, not just about anyone, lad. And no Chasmers. We ain't freebuilders. We are just honest citizens of the Races, helping each other out. You'll see. Plenty of dwarves and elves there, more than you see roaming around the streets. Gotta go now."
"Same," Vespera said, getting up and pulling me up with her. Elyra too. It was cute, watching her try to establish some sort of hierarchy here even though it was clear that Ted had all the power. She wasn't used to this, not like I was. Besides, Ted was a nice fellow. "We have shopping to do. Healing potions, first thing."
"Ah yes," the dwarf eyed her wound. "Not too nasty and the patch-up job was alright, I guess, but you don't look like your vitality is very high, and if you wanna fight again you gotta heal it."
"That I do…" she said. "Fuck our inexperience, isn't that right? If only we were better fighters, but we can't really afford a guild tutor."
Ted paused. I was pretty sure he knew what the demon was trying to do, and I felt Elyra shrink shyly in secondhand embarrassment the moment she realized—by using the bond to not-quite-read my mind—what the demon was implying.
"Not like this, Vespera…" she whined in our minds, but it was mostly to me. "Too blatant!"
The demon, however, was confident. I was simply amused. Not only because I liked Ted's life philosophy of being amused, but also because I knew Ted was more than a match for her.
Right on cue, the dwarf's gears finished spinning and he grinned. "Well, lads. That'd be easy if you were part of, say, the three-letter club. See ya tonight then?"