Chapter 14: House Emberwind

Chapter 14: Chapter 14: House Emberwind

The guildmaster tapped the desk once with a finger.

"Now that you have the rank, we can talk more clearly. The Hollow Root is restricted because something escaped during the scout expedition."

Allan’s expression changed. His thoughts roaming around the dragon.

"Escaped? What exactly escaped from there?"

"No information. I wanted to go down there myself and take out the root of the problem myself, but..."

"Too scared?" Allan asked.

She glared at him but calmed herself down. "...duty, Oakwood...duty."

"So, as busy as you are, why am I being called again? Or to be more exact, what do you want from me?"

She smiled. "Getting right to the point, huh? Do you remember, I didn’t ask anything about your level? Your status?"

Allan stayed quiet, knowing what was coming.

She is cunning, adding more to her strength.

"Information," she muttered.

"You want me to go into the Hollow Root to find out what has happened in there. Find out what happened to the scouts who went in previously. And what has caused their disappearance."

Clap! Clap!

She gave a soft clap of acknowledgement. "Oh, how much I wish we had more adventurers like you. Brawn...and brains."

"Cut the crap."

He wanted to go. In actuality, he wanted to go there badly. The whole point he took this examination was to be able to go there. Bothering to take the hit, to hold that B-rank.

But he didn’t like how she was using him, or trying to.

"...And if I refuse?"

"Oh, simple. Your F-rank level won’t change. You’ll still be banned from the Hollow Root."

Allan knew then and there the woman knew more than what she let on. She knew he needed to go to the dungeon.

"Okay then, consider it done."

The System appeared.

[Investment Opportunity Detected.]

[MAGISTRESS KAEL]

[Investment Multiplier: ???]

[Danger Level: BEYOND CALCULABLE.]

[Recommendation: EXTREME CAUTION.]

He stared at the notification.

Magistress Kael. So that was her name. Or at least part of it. The System still could not fully catalogue her.

He closed the window.

"I think we both know I would accept in the end..."

She smiled.

"Good. And Oakwood, one more thing. Diva requested permission to join you on these future expeditions."

His stomach tightened.

"Why though? Doesn’t she have more things to do?"

Kael walked toward the window.

"Because she doesn’t ask often. She also fights like someone who has been given a second chance at the world. And apparently, she recognized that in you immediately."

She turned back to him.

"Both of you are cut from the same cloth, a dangerous cloth."

The room fell silent.

"I feel like a storm is brewing, Oakwood, and for some reason, I think you are in the middle of it. You and...her."

Allan gazed at her in surprise at those words. Like she knew the whole plot, what? Because she was right. Partially.

I don’t know about myself, but Diva, she is the storm.

Three days had passed since Allan was promoted to B-rank, and as planned, he set off for the Hollow Root alone.

Lira had immediately declared that she was going with him to the Hollow Root, but he had laughed at that and said no.

He had explained to her that after his promotion to B-rank three days previously, things had changed. And as things were at the moment, thanks to Amelia Arclight’s political protection, the name of the Oakwood family was suddenly being considered by many merchants.

And as for now, Allan explained, they should be busy in the middle of managing the warehouses that were being built, signing contracts, and ordering supplies. The very first of Bela’s potions were also starting to attract interest.

So, for once, he had left them behind.

"Sorry, girls. I need to do this...alone."

As Allan stepped into the entrance of the Hollow Root, he realized straight away that something was wrong.

There were no adventurers at the entrance, preparing their gear or arguing over missions. Instead, there were the usual hanging tapestries and numerous scattered crates of items from previous adventures.

But most noticeably of all, there was no bustle of activity. None at all. The guild must have implemented some kind of restriction on the entrance to the dungeon, and the warning must have been enough to deter most of the adventurers who would normally be queuing up to get in.

He walked silently through the first few sections of the Hollow Root, paying particular attention to the details of the passages and monsters that lurked within.

Back then, as he had delved deeper into the roots of the ancient tree, he had always been able to detect some sign of life, be it the occasional growl, or the scuttling of creatures through the tunnels, or even the distant sound of something breaking.

But this time, as he traveled through the same passages, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of unease due to the complete and utter silence that seemed to surround him.

It didn’t remain quiet for long, though.

Of course, just as he was thinking that nothing would happen today, a creature burst out of a side passage.

Its claws scraped against the stone as it launched itself at Allan, but the B-ranker sidestepped just in time, plunging his sword into the creature’s exposed ribs.

"Feel that?" he asked the beast. "That’s a professional adventurer’s sword, piercing you. Be glad." He muttered.

The creature let out a scream of pain and collapsed to the ground.

More creatures poured out of the passage behind him, and before Allan knew it, he was surrounded.

Yet his body began to move without him even realizing it. He remembered how the axe-wielder, the A-rank adventurer, had planted his feet before every heavy attack, how the twin-blade woman had shifted her weight between every strike, and how Diva had moved with almost no wasted motion at all.

Allan copied them, or tried to.

Allan changed his stance to a low center of mass. The creatures that seemed to jump at him began to behave as if they were falling rather than jumping, and instead of dying under the edge of his sword, they began to fall around it.

Now every attack resulted in the fall of another creature, until they had all fallen around him.

Huh.

Allan looked at the bodies.

That was different.

Of course, Allan’s stats had solved all the problems in the game world for him, but that was different from the real world. There, even the strongest were merely strong if they knew how to use their strength.

Maybe watching those guys wasn’t completely useless. I feel like they used more than just simple maneuvers. Skills, perhaps?

He continued deeper.

More human bodies continued to appear in the underground passages as Allan proceeded deeper into the Hollow Root.

Some of them belonged to monsters, while the rest were clearly those of travelers. Their bodies had been torn apart, while others had been stabbed. Some had simply collapsed to the ground, their travel gear scattered all around them.

These weren’t monster attacks.

He knew what monster attacks looked like. The wounds were too precise, too deliberate, and it didn’t stop there. The bodies continued.

One.

Then three.

Then an entire group.

The Hollow Root had become a graveyard as Allan slowly stood, his expression hardening.

"Even the hobgoblins weren’t this nasty."

Something had happened here. Something recent...but what?

There is only one who might know.

The dragon.

Following the same secret passage, he continued on, checking out every nook and cranny as he made his way to the hidden entrance.

Once he had reached the secret passage, he flicked a switch on the wall and went through the entrance. The old stone staircase continued on down into the dark below. The same chains in the walls. The same ancient stone with its strange markings.

"Seris and Lira would kill me if they knew I was going back to the dragon again."

He descended. The temperature dropped with every step, like usual.

And eventually, the enormous chamber came into view. The dragon was exactly where Allan had left it.

Its golden eye opened the moment Allan entered.

"Player."

"Dragon."

A deep rumble escaped the creature.

"You came crawling back. What is it now? I hope it’s not another set of questions."

"....It’s another set of questions."

The dragon’s gaze immediately shifted to the empty hands of Allan.

"Key. You bringing it, or just wasting my time?"

"No key, Dragon. It’s not that easy like you think."

"Then what the fuck are you doing here? Stop wasting my time. I want to sleep."

"Answers. That’s it. Then I will leave you in your quiet slumber."

The dragon stared at him for several seconds before releasing a long breath.

"Humans."

Allan raised an eyebrow.

"Haven’t even asked yet."

The dragon lowered its enormous head.

"Blood," the dragon said.

Allan’s expression became serious.

"Yeah...Blood. What are we doing here, talking in riddles?"

The answer was so simple that Allan almost laughed.

"Blood. Man butchered man. Straight up."

The dragon’s golden eye narrowed.

"So it really wasn’t the beasts."

Allan’s smile disappeared.

"You sure about that?"

"Sometimes I can smell human men using magic. And now I smell it. Lots of it. Human stink. I can tell the difference between beast stink, monster stink, and human stink. And this hasn’t come from any beasts."

The dragon gave him a tired look.

"I believe it’s one of your human politics shenanigans. Same old shit, Player."

Allan blinked.

"That’s it? That’s the whole answer?"

"Usually is. Your kind’s always been gifted at carving each other up over things you could have settled with a conversation and a drink."

Allan rubbed his chin.

"Thanks, I guess. Then I’m heading back up."

The dragon suddenly growled. "Player!"

Allan turned back as the dragon continued.

"Don’t die on me." It said, keeping its stare at him. "I still need you breathing."

"For the key, right?"

"Among other things."

Allan smiled faintly. "Relax. I’m a pain in the ass to kill."

The dragon settled its head back onto the stone, back to sleep.

"Keep walking into shit like this half-blind and sooner or later you’ll run into something your raw power can’t just smash through." It murmured.

Allan’s expression changed as he, of course, listened.

"It looks like you have something to say. You think I’m not strong enough?"

"I’m saying you are strong. Like all players, but..."

The dragon paused.

"But strength without skill is just a bigger, juicier target. And that’s it. All I see in you is strength, not even a single skill is wretched up in your body."

That sentence followed Allan all the way back up the stairs.

Hmm...the dragon’s right. My instincts and experience are carrying my swordplay until now, but how long will that last?

I need actual skill, like them. Like Diva and the others.

He had been focusing greatly on his stats and money up to this point. The fact that he was an Investment class and had knowledge of Yggdrasil granted him a huge advantage. He could earn returns greater than normal from those he invested in and turn a profit from opportunities that others would not.

Only those thoughts roamed.

But he didn’t actually possess many proper combat techniques.

And that could be a problem.

Allan stopped in the middle of the corridor.

Skill books.

Skill enchantments.

Combat techniques.

Anything that could transform my attributes into combat techniques. I still have enough stat points to learn them.

The problem was that he didn’t know where to get them.

Then he smiled.

"Actually...I do."

Diva.

In the original game of the Hollow Root, beating Diva at the end of the strip of three houses awarded a single combat skill book, which was generally a very high-value reward for a fight of that length and of that amount of difficulty to get.

But now Diva wasn’t a boss, yet. She was a person.

Diva, a person with a future so much greater than any of the treasure chests in the Hollow Root that Allan couldn’t even think of them in comparison to her.

The Investment skill already had marked her out as an opportunity.

Allan slowly grinned.

"The reward for beating you was good...but."

He looked toward the darkness ahead.

"But the return on investment is way better. Way, way better. Then I should conquer her quick and early then. Shouldn’t wait for the right time...wait, the guildmaster said Diva wanted to join in with me for the Hollow Root investigation...wait, what if?"

He had had another thought. He turned around and returned to the dragon.

The creature opened one golden eye.

"You again."

"Yeah."

"Forget something?"

"No." Allan crossed his arms. "Wanted to ask you something."

The dragon waited.

"You’re obviously powerful and intelligent. Wise old dragon shit. Yeah, that’s it. You know shit about this world that I don’t."

"True enough...why?"

"What if you weren’t?"

The dragon’s eye narrowed.

"What?"

"Play monster for me, oh wise one."

Silence.

Allan continued.

"Also, I need to understand how this dungeon actually works. What sort of things scare people in here, and what sort of things happen when someone pushes things a bit too far."

The dragon stared at him.

"You want me to play monster."

"Exactly."

"And why the hell would I agree?"

"Because if I ever get that key, you’re going to need someone who can actually use it."

The dragon’s golden eye gleamed. Allan smiled.

"And because you’re bored out of your skull."

For several seconds, nothing happened. Then the dragon laughed. The sound shook dust from the ceiling.

"You really are one strange player."

"That a yes?"

"Perhaps." The dragon lifted its head. "Now go. I already heard your murmurs when you were going up."

Allan raised an eyebrow as the dragon continued.

"When you come back, we’ll see if you’re still stupid enough to walk into my domain. I will destroy any and everything, including your...partner."

Allan grinned.

"Deal."

He climbed the staircase again.

Before leaving the Hollow Root for good, Allan searched every inch of the upper passages, finding more and more bodies and more broken and shattered weapons, in addition to evidence of many other different groups having been involved in the Hollow Root’s final battle.

A knife. Not an ordinary one.

The handle was engraved with a tiny silver emblem. The metal of the blade was unfamiliar to Allan. The knife looked very expensive, and for a moment he considered leaving it where it was.

Almost.

He picked it up.

"Maybe it’s worth something."

Allan finally left the Hollow Root. By the time he returned to Oakwood Manor, the city had changed.

Socially.

No longer would he get strange looks from the citizens of Oakwood. Now he was just another face in the crowd.

Now he would get greetings from the merchants and occasional nods of acknowledgement from the workers. Even ordinary citizens would now approach him to talk to him.

One man stopped him outside the estate.

"Lord Oakwood!"

Allan turned.

The man smiled awkwardly.

"Lord Oakwood! My brother has gotten a job at the warehouses you’ve reopened."

"Oh, he passed the interview? That’s good."

"Yeah. Says the pay’s better than most places."

Another woman nearby joined the conversation. "My husband got work with one of your carriages, Lord Oakwood. Thank you."

Allan blinked. "That’s good...sunny."

She nodded.

"Really, thank you, Lord Oakwood."

Allan watched them leave.

For once, his actions were producing something that couldn’t be measured in gold.

One of the working men saw him and saw the blade and asked once again.

Allan watched, trying to understand the man’s confusion, and pulled the knife free.

The man’s expression changed immediately.

"Lord Allan...where the hell did you get that?"

Allan pulled the knife free.

"This? Found it in the Hollow Root. You know about it?"

The man’s face went pale as he stared at the blade.

"That’s not just some knife, Lord Oakwood."

Allan’s expression changed. The worker swallowed.

"My lord, that’s the crest of House Emberwind."

Allan looked down at the tiny emblem engraved into the handle.

"Emberwind?"

The worker nodded slowly.

"House Emberwind. The barony next to House Arclight."

"Oh...thank you for the info." He said, walking back to the manor.

Hmm...House Emberwind and House Arclight. What is happening here?