Chapter 100: Oracle or Not

  SENA

  For all the things Kenta seemed naive about, his survival skills were the real deal. Sena had never seen someone work so efficiently with so little when setting up a camp. She’d thought she knew survival well, but even though she knew Kenta wasn’t entirely honest about his abilities, she had to admit he could efficiently skin and cook an animal.

  The trip had gone more silent after the important questions were asked. Sena had tried to learn a little more by asking innocuous questions about family and friends, but Kenta had avoided using any names and only described personalities in vague terms. The hints that she did get told her of a culture that was different from anything she knew, and Kenta seemed to realize that.

  If she took him at his word – and she was inclined to believe he told the truth, if not anywhere near all of it – he knew her class, but did not know her actual role in the city government. That was good, but it made his choices all the more puzzling at times.

  The stew that she sipped was quite good, at least. It wasn’t fantastic, but Kenta had seemed hesitant about some of the herbs he’d used. His broad knowledge looked to not cover this area well, but he’d done well enough. She’d had far worse on those rare occasions when she’d had to travel the road without support. Cooking was not a skill she’d had time to hone overly much, so she was glad that he had some talent for it.

  “Are you certain you have control of your flark? He drifted off-course for a while.” It was something she had noticed at the time, but had not mentioned. She was far more interested in trying to pry information out of this man who had seen right through all her skills.

  Kenta himself seemed harmless, at least in his motives… but she wasn’t going to completely write him off as a threat yet. Even if he was merely an eccentric, the skills and powers he’d demonstrated were strange enough that she’d like to learn more about them. He either had no head for espionage, or he was much better at it than she was… so she was hoping she could get something.

  The youthful-looking vaskan looked over at her from where he poured himself another helping of stew. “I know. We had to avoid… hm. I’m trying to be more honest with you so you know I mean you no harm, so…”

  He settled back on the rock he was using as a seat. “We detoured to avoid a new dungeon. It’s still forming, and when they’re new they’re often a little eager to try out everything they can do. Sort of like a child, I guess, though don’t think of them as children. We might have gotten some very weird messages.”

  “You mean Quests,” Sena finished for him. “We’ve heard about it. Dungeons can generate things for us to do, and if we do them we get faster growth. Nobody has quite figured out what the pattern is. I don’t suppose you could shed some light on it?”

  Kenta frowned and poked into his stew bowl. “Hmm. I can, but there is a lot that I don’t think I should tell you yet. I probably know more about dungeons than any person alive here, but part of what makes them interesting is how people discover the details.”

  A pause allowed him to scoop in more of the stew, leading to a contented sigh while Sena scowled at him.

  “We’ve confirmed that not everyone gets a Quest, and they seem a little rare… maybe they’re limited in number somehow?” Sena shrugged. “We don’t know yet. We also know you don’t need to enter the dungeon itself for it to give one. It’s useful but we really don’t know how to leverage it, because it’s only started happening recently.”

  “Mmm.” Kenta looked like he was listening, but Sena could tell he was thinking more than anything else. His movements and eyes were too deliberate for it to be anything else. He did answer, though. “Without saying too much, I can confirm that they are limited in how many they can give out at a time. Not all dungeons can give Quests, either. The more proactive it is, the more likely it can give a Quest. This is why the Dungeon of Warning can’t, because it’s an entirely reactive dungeon.”

  At that, Sena raised an eyebrow. She knew that last part was false, but kept her mouth shut. Either Kenta didn’t know about it, or he knew and for some reason thought she’d never find out. “Do you know everything about dungeons?”

  He shrugged dismissively. “Who can know everything about anything? The world is always changing in ways I’d never expect. That’s what makes it so interesting, right?” He picked up his bowl and the pot, hauling them toward the nearby stream. “Get some rest, Sena. We still have flying to do tomorrow, but we should arrive well before dark.”

  Sena looked up at the sky with a sigh. The deep reddish haze of the fading daylight was deepening, and a few stars twinkled into view already, fighting through the smear of light that normally hid them. It was a moonless night, and would be too dark to stay up casually for most… even if she knew both she and Kenta had excellent night vision from their Totems.

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  The stars would be unfamiliar tonight. A flark could travel fast and far, but this one seemed to have limitless stamina compared to the ones she had ridden before. They were far from Chall, far from her responsibilities and her source of power. It was not… unpleasant.

  Perhaps this is why people chose the [Wanderer] class?

  Sena knew enough magic to refresh herself the next morning. It wouldn’t last for many more days, but for now she avoided the stiffness that came with lengthy aerial rides. Kenta didn’t seem sore at all, to her surprise. Even after her corrections, his posture had been amateurish and his body must have surely been strained. She was not terribly familiar with the [Wanderer] class, though, and it made sense that such a class would have a means to mitigate travel fatigue.

  Trying to pry more information out of Kenta was not happening during the flight. He gave vague answers to anything she tried to question him on, though she was now getting a much better idea of the gaps in his knowledge. The Challenger clearly had a deep understanding of the System – or at least thought he did – but a much more shallow idea of how Chall worked.

  He was hard to get a read on, but Sena eventually realized why. He didn’t really act like a vaskan should, not any that she’d known. All his tells were muddled and confused, and she already knew her skills were useless. That told her more than she would like to let on, but… she did not have too long to think about it.

  As the terrain grew more hilly, then mountainous, she’d expected they’d approach some kind of lair made from a cave set into a mountain. Instead, her senses tickled as she passed through a complex Umbral veil, the likes of which she’d never seen before. She was not a true caster, but something about the tingle through her body was… different, somehow.

  “Now, where to land…?” Kenta mused, the flark descending toward the complex of buildings that had appeared once the veil was penetrated. Sena had never seen anything like them – carefully-shaped, with large domes atop thick columns that left massive open spaces on each side. The structures themselves were smooth and a little too perfect, as if shaped by magic. Which was probably true, this far out in the middle of nowhere.

  Sena squeezed Kenta’s sides while he circled above. “Where do you usually land?”

  He shrugged. “I’ve never been here before.” A glance over his shoulder gave her a quick smirk. “It’s my first time meeting one as well.” He faced forward again quickly, to guide the flark down to what looked like a wide open courtyard. Sena braced for another rough landing, setting her jaw so she wouldn’t bite her tongue again.

  Kenta’s flark went where he wanted, but he was really bad at flying it.

  Sena grunted and released the strange man, swinging herself out of the saddle as soon as she could. Even with her skills, she could tell she’d be sore tomorrow. “What do you mean? How did you even know to come here?”

  The Challenger shrugged at her again, then held up a hand, signaling for her to be silent. Sena scowled defiantly, unused to being ‘shushed’ like that… but then she saw the movement from the various domed structures around them.

  They looked a lot like flarks to her, but she could see the differences right away. The four forms slithered out, instead of walking, each one slightly larger than the flark that she stood beside – already a large member of its species. Their wings were tucked to the sides, and their claws more slender and delicate, the joints more pronounced.

  These weren’t just claws, she realized. They were hands, as well.

  Instead of walking on the claws, the dragons had much longer tails, bulky and with broad leathery undersides that they slithered upon. Like the flark they resembled, each one had a rich pelt of fur down the back and over the chest, but the brown, black, white, and grey of the normal flark was instead a mixture of white, yellow, and a deep purple of varying shades.

  Their muzzles were longer and sharper than the blunt-snouted flark, as well. In some ways they looked more bestial, but Sena could see the way their eyes focused. These were much smarter than the flarks were – those could be described as ‘clever animals’ at best.

  “You do have a way to protect us, right?” Sena grasped the hilt of her sword, but did not draw it. As vicious as her appearance made her look, she was not focused on direct combat. She could beat most of the soldiers she knew in a one-on-one spar, but someone of her level could be much better than she was, and she did not relish the idea of a battle against these creatures.

  Kenta tsked at her. “Please don’t do that. They could kill us both if they see you as a threat. That would be very inconvenient for me, and probably more for you.”

  Very inconvenient, he says. Sena reluctantly released the grip on her sword. It would be futile, anyway. If they were not inclined to be hostile, there was no reason to aggravate them.

  Turning to the four creatures that approached so cautiously, Kenta held his hands up, spreading them wide. She heard what he said clearly – his translation ability must work on them as well, she realized.

  “We apologize for entering your territory without warning! We mean you no harm, and are not here to trouble you!” Then he paused and added something that Sena wasn’t sure translated properly. “We only wish to speak to Tryelesar!”

  The sudden switch to the harsher syllables made Sena’s ears flick, but it also brought the four to a halt. A sibilant series of hisses and small clicks and noises like coughs surrounded her as the creatures began speaking to one another, with Kenta speaking up once more soon after.

  This time, she did not understand him. His words mirrored those of the creatures, in the same language that was not meant for a vaskan throat or mouth to mimic.

  The four paused again, with a rapid series of clicks between them giving the impression of a short, yet fierce argument. Sena’s eyes widened. If Kenta could communicate with these creatures as easily as he controlled his flark, he was far more dangerous than she’d presumed.

  She did not get a chance to truly ponder this. Turning in the most casual manner possible, Kenta smiled awkwardly. “Well, they’ve agreed to let us speak to the elder.” He paused.

  “They just haven’t promised to let us go back, after.”

  Denial of Service