(Second Book Complete!) Runeblade: A Delving & Skill Merging LitRPG

The smudge on the horizon that was Holsborrough revealed itself to be a small town, stoutly defended with a thick wall of trunks and earthworks.

As they approached, Kaius was the first to see that their entrance to the city had been shut, a full squad of guards watching the gate. Much like the defenders of Deadacre, they were garbed mostly in chain and leathers, with the stout hafts of their polearms standing tall above them. Astute and vigilant, the guards spotted them quickly.

Kaius waved his hand, calling for them to slow their approach.

Clearly, the men were watching for something, and if it wasn’t a fear of the spider that had plagued this very road only a twenty or so leagues away, he would eat his left boot. Sure, the beast did not seem to be the type to roam far, but he doubted the lord of this settlement would have much interest in taking chances with everything that had been occurring.

“Guess it’s back to pretending to be stupid, again.” Porkchop groaned as they walked to meet the guards.

Kaius patted his brother’s back in sympathy. He knew that Porkchop didn’t care overmuch, and that his brother found plenty of amusement in watching the comings and goings as an observer, but it didn’t mean it was an ideal state of affairs.

“Chin up, It won’t be too long until we can go about our business openly. The second tier should be safe enough, and at this rate it won’t take us long at all.”Kaius replied, raising his hand to give the hardened faces of the guards a friendly wave.

“Indeed,” Ianmus nodded. “While your current course of action is wise, greater beasts acting in long term cooperation with the higher races is not unheard of - at least historically.”

Kaius gave the half-elf an interested look. He hadn’t heard of that before. Stories of greater beasts saving wayward travellers on a whim, sure, but not long term cooperation.

“You’ll have to tell us about them some time. Though, for now I should deal with these guards.” Kaius said, before he picked up his pace and approached ahead of his companions.

The guards waited for him stiffly. As soon as they came within speaking distance, the lead man threw up his hand.

“Halt, delvers. This gate is currently closed until we can confirm the destruction of the spider beast in the woods.” The man said. His tone was stern, and hard, but through his enhanced vision he could see the slight sheen of sweat on the man’s face. He was nervous, though judging by the confident looks he gave them, it was far more about the beast than it was them.

Kaius pulled his badge from his belt, the brushed metal shining in the sun. “Then you’re in luck, we diverted our route to Deadacre to let the town know that the assassin spider is dead.”

The guards froze, backs straightening as they looked at him with a mixture of relief, and disbelief.

“Truly?” one asked from where he stood at the back of the pack, before a quick elbow from one of his colleagues shut him up.

The lead guardsman looked at the offender with narrowed eyes, before he gave Kaius an appraising look. “Regardless of his lack of decorum, I would have to agree with him, do you have any proof? While we’ve had no confirmations of its level, the report we received from the Guild placed it at a higher level than our own. I won’t risk good folks’ lives on a rumour.”

Kaius nodded. He understood. Most of the reason they had done this diversion was to give the local communities a heads up rather than lump on additional weeks of waiting for their mission to be confirmed and word to be sent back. That, and it was a good place to rest for an afternoon before they were on their way.

Moving to their bags, he withdrew one of the arm sized mandibles of the spider.

“I’m afraid I won’t be handing this off for a detailed analysis, with its potential alchemical value, but if any of your men here have an appraisal skill, they are welcome to take a look.” Kaius replied, displaying their trophy to the waiting guards.

“That would work.” The guard leader replied, before he nodded to one of his men.

Young and mousey, the man nearly missed that he had been called upon, until his superior cleared his throat and fixed the guard with a glare.

“R..right! Sorry!” The guard replied, taking a few steps out of the throng of bodies to get a clear look at the mandible and fang in Kaius’s arms.

A second later he hissed, eyes going wide. “Boss! I think they really did it! Says it’s a fang and venom sac from an assassin spider that made use of illusion powers!”

“It’s sergeant, idiot. But thank you, back in with the others.” the guard leader replied, waving at the man to rejoin the rest of the squad.

Kaius nodded at the words, stowing their prize, before he went to meet the sergeant who had approached them. Stepping up, he clasped the man’s hand firmly.

“This is the best news I’ve had all year. I don’t know how you did it, and I don’t care - thank you, having that trade route down was making life tough for folks here, let alone everyone who was lost.” the sergeant said, a wide grin splitting his weathered face.

“Just getting paid, sergeant.” Kaius said with a slight shake of his head.

“But you ain’t getting paid to go out of your way to let us know as soon as you could, for that you have my thanks.” the guard leader replied. “Tell me…those that it took, was there any sign of them?”

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Kaius winced, thinking of the shattered ruins of caravans they had had a cursory pick through.

Seeing his expression, the guardsman’s mouth hardened into a thin line. “I see. I’d held out for some slim hope that it was one of those spider types that hoarded their food, but I suppose it was not to be.”

“We don’t know for sure. The only things we saw were shattered wagons lumped in the tree line. No bodies, or remains. The chances are slim though. It didn’t seem the type, in my uneducated opinion.” Kaius replied grimly.

The sergeant sighed, head bowing under the weight of lost souls. “A shame, damn shame. Knew some good men who worked those routes.” shaking his head, the sergeant’s dutiful mask took over once more and his eyes focused with steely intensity.

“Listen man, I know you know how tough things are out here. Without the trade between here and Intshire, we’ve been flagging. Worse, merchant’s from Deadacre ways have been steering clear too - without their main route through these parts, they just haven’t bothered.” the sergeant shook his head, spitting to the side with venom at his mention of the risk avoidance of the traders.

“The goods, are they salvageable?” he said, cutting to the chase.

Kaius tilted his head. While most had been useless to them, there had been plenty that would have been great for the town. Hides, ores, and other sturdy goods had survived the exposure, even if some had been damaged slightly.

“Somewhat. Not much of interest to us, so I can’t comment in any depth because we didn’t look too thoroughly. Food’s gone, obviously, but I saw at least some leathers, pottery, and ores that survived. There was plenty more we passed over after seeing it wasn’t anything worth our while to salvage.” Kaius explained.

The sergeant nodded slowly. “I can work with that. We’ll need to search the wreckage for the remains anyway. That many in one place, I don’t want to deal with undead on top of everything else, as unlikely as it might be.”

He hadn’t thought of that. Large concentrations of people dying in one place could be dangerous, especially if it was the lamentable kind of violent death those people had suffered.

Normally natural undead were only an issue in higher mana zones, and even then, only rarely. Unfortunately, with the changes in mana levels that had accompanied the phase shift, the Frontier might no longer be safe from that particular issue.

Thankfully, most natural undead were unlikely to become a plague. It would be faen luck indeed for one to be ‘born’ that could spread their contagion, or control its lesser kin.

Turning back to his men, the sergeant whistled at one to the rear. A tall and dark haired man weathered by the years, he looked grizzled and - judging by the way his gaze instantly snapped to the sergeant - experienced.

“Erthin, go tell the Captain that the spider’s dead, and let him know I think we need a search and recovery squad.” the sergeant said.

Erthin simply gave the head guardsman a single nod, and jogged for the smaller door set to the side of the gate, rushing off as ordered.

“Thank you for this, truly. I’d be happy to let you into the city, but I’d be a fool not to share that you’ll have difficulty stabling your beast as things are.” the sergeant said, giving Kaius a nod.

Nodding back, Kaius accepted the man’s words easily. They’d been expecting it, especially once they’d actually started to make plans for their journey back to Deadacre. Rarely did smaller towns such as this have facilities for creatures like Porkchop - afterall, there was little market for it when most such bonded beasts would be only stopping through on their way to Deadacre.

“It’s fine, we planned to just stop for lunch - the day’s still young after all.” he explained. “Say, a merchant’s guard we shared the road with said the Plucked Hen was the best place to stop by - just wanted to see what a local thought.”

The sergeant snorted, shaking his head. “Maybe if you wanted to get swindled. Nice enough beer, but stupidly overpriced. Not surprised a traveller told you that - they’re the main marks. Try the Three Barrels just down the road - they’ve got outside seating too, for your bonded.” he finished, nodding his head towards Porkchop.

Then the sergeant nodded to his men, who hurried about the laborious effort of unbarring the main gate and winching it open.

Saying their goodbyes to the guards, Kaius and his companions made their way into Holsborough. It was a nice enough place - clean, with tall wooden houses with steep arched roofs.

The commotion of the opening gate had drawn plenty of interest from the locals, who stopped to watch them as they passed. While it hadn’t been anywhere near long enough for word of their deed to spread, it seemed that two delvers and a warbeast entering town from the direction of a beast that had led to the gates being barred was enough to tip people off.

From there the whispers had spread faster than they moved down the street as people dashed off to tell others of the news.

Before he knew it, people were gathering in twos and threes, lurking in doorways and on corners to watch them pass.

Respect and admiration was plain on the faces of those that stared at them when they passed, conversations lowering as people talked in hush whispers. No doubt half of it was to do with their levels -or rather, the surprising lack of them- but Kaius caught just as many snippets of people giving their quiet thanks.

It was…odd. Kaius wasn’t the most used to people at the best of times, and having such open focus on him was more than a little uncomfortable. A lifetime in the Sea had given him many advantages, but comfort in a crowd was not one of them.

And yet…at the same time, he felt an unexpected level of pride thrumming through his chest. He walked down the street with his back straight and his chin high, a warm ember of accomplishment buoying him through the experience.

They might have chosen this mission because the spider was likely to be of a high level, and was a good enough match up he had confidence in their success - but seeing the relief? The smiles and nods as they walked past?

It felt good. Really good.

“We made a real difference here.” he murmured, turning his head slightly to watch a child who hung halfway out a window as they passed under the building.

Ianmus nodded. “We did, and we should take pride in that. There is more to delving than just the pursuit of power. I think, with the heights we plan to strive for, this is perhaps just a taste of the impact we could have.”

“It is the duty and burden of the strong. The weakest members of the pack rely on you to succeed in your hunt, lest the whole den suffer.” Porkchop replied, accepting the attention they received as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Smiling to himself, Kaius found a little more energy entering his stride despite their long journey. He couldn’t wait for their celebratory beer, he already knew that it would be the best he ever tasted - regardless if the captain was good with his suggestion or not.

He only hoped that their reception at the guild would be as good. Somehow, he doubted it.

The thought of telling Ro the spider’s true level was enough to send a thread of ice shooting through his veins.

That woman was scary.