Chapter 299

I was happy to find that despite the state of the town, the inn we were staying at still had a functioning bath. It went a long way toward refreshing me after the sex and long nap that followed it. It was already evening and our group was preparing to leave the blacksmith shop to meet up with Raksha'va at the adventurer's guild. Tenna had already copied down the enchantments and returned their weapons, so we were just getting things settled before leaving.

"Are you sure I don't owe you anything?" Torien asked as she hefted a large case of arrows over her shoulder.

"No, don't worry about it. I know that arrows are scarce in the city, but you're family now. I would feel bad taking anything for these. Just come back safely," Meena replied.

Torien smiled. "Thank you."

"I'll carry that for you!" Mimi came over and touched the case, making it vanish into her pocket dimension.

Meena giggled. "I suppose I shouldn't have forgotten that you could do that, considering you delivered that Mithril for us. Last time you were in the shape of a sword though!"

Mimi smiled. "I'm happy to help. Carrying things for everyone is easy!"

Meena laughed and pulled Mimi into a hug. "You take care of yourself too, Mimi! It was nice getting to know you. Come back safely, okay?"

Mimi nodded. "I'm tougher than I look!"

"I'm sure you are, but that doesn't mean you can't be careful!" Meena replied with a smile.

After a bit more prodding, our group finally left the shop and began to head to the guild building. This time when we entered, there was something going on. Nearly everyone was standing up and talking in hushed voices, but all I could see from the entrance was Raksha'va's back.

"What's happening?" I asked as I walked up next to her. When she stepped to the side, I saw a familiar face. An elf man who had been Raksha'va's second in command the last time I had seen him was lying on the table next to her. He was breathing raggedly and was covered in bruises and scratches.

Raksha'va quickly looked over our group until she found Bella. "Ms. Belladonna, now that you're here, will you please heal Brominn? I called for a healer already, but you've returned first."

Bella nodded. "Of course. Nelly, come over here and help me," she said while approaching the elven man.

The two of them got to work and layered their healing magic over him. Nature healing and holy healing worked a bit differently, and both had their strengths and weaknesses, so the two of them working together made the healing more efficient. Soon, the man's breathing had evened out and he looked a lot healthier.

"He's healed up, but he's also exhausted. It might take some time for him to wake up," Nelly commented. She pulled a few ceramic bottles of her milk from the bag at her side and set them on the table next to him. "He can be safely moved to a bed now. Have him drink these when he wakes up."

"What are they?" Raksha'va asked while looking over the bottle.

"It's... a potion. It tastes like milk, so it should be pleasant for him," Nelly replied.

The tigerkin narrowed her eyes at Nelly for a moment before turning to me and giving me a questioning look.

I nodded. "It'll help. You can trust her."

"Fine," she said with a huff. She turned around and waved us over to a map. "Come have a look at this."

She unrolled a messy page of vellum on the table. The edges of it were covered in blood, but it only took a moment to recognize what it was. There were landmarks drawn out on it with markers for various things. In the center of the page was an X and the words dungeon written under it. It was a crude map, one that was drawn in haste. Raksha'va shifted the page until it lined up with the map underneath it. The transparent vellum allowed us to see where the dungeon was roughly located. The scale wasn't perfect, but it was close enough to get a good idea of where the marked dungeon was.

"This is another part of the area that had gone mostly unsearched because of this ravine here," Raksha'va said, pointing to the map. Her finger trailed along the edge of a natural barrier that separated the town from the indicated spot. "Until you returned, we hadn't considered there could be more than one dungeon involved. We had assumed that they were summoning all of them from the same place. We hadn't thought to search this area since there were so many land-bound demons attacking us, but Brominn apparently found one there."

"A ravine like that wouldn't stop a horde of flying demons though," Silva commented.

Raksha'va nodded. "We think the number of land-bound demons has eased up. What we're seeing is probably just the remnants of the loose demons in the forest finding their way to the city. The banshees and other flying demons haven't reduced in number at all though. There have been few enough that we've been able to handle them, but we're running very low on arrows and crossbow bolts now. It's not as bad as it could have been, since the land-bound demons are more manageable now, but this siege will be considered over if we are able to knock this second dungeon out too."

I leaned over the map. "If this ravine is impassible, how would we even get there to deal with the dungeon?"

She shook her head. "It's not impassible, the path would just be too much of a bottleneck for the numbers we were seeing. There's a pass along here," she said, pointing to a line on the map. "It would ordinarily be a safe path, but with the number of flying demons in the area, I think it would be much more treacherous to cross."

"What is the terrain like?" Lori asked.

The tigerkin sighed. "It's a rocky path along the side of the ravine about three of my arm spans wide. It feels comfortable to cross in small groups, but you would need to be careful of getting too close to the edge of the ravine if something attacks you."

"So, you're asking us to go take care of this dungeon too?" I asked.

"I wish I didn't have to, but yes. Brominn's scouting group was among the highest level people in the city, but they weren't much of a combat-focused team. We sent them out to search for traces of any dungeons before things got as desperate as they have. Despite the condition he returned in, I'm glad to see him alive. It had been too long, I was worried that he had gotten killed out there... even now I don't hold much hope for the rest of his party." Raksha'va looked up at me. "You're the only one that I can send at this point. I would go myself, but I have to hold things together here. Your group has proven to be strong, more than I could have hoped for. If you can tackle this dungeon too, it'll break the siege and we can eventually clean up the rest of the demons in the forest and put out the fires."

I leaned back, away from the map. "Let me discuss this with my group."

Raksha'va sighed. "Of course. You may use one of the open meeting rooms to discuss it," she said, gesturing to the stairs.

Everyone followed me up to the meeting room and I snapped up a quick [Zone of Silence].

"Is there really anything to discuss?" Silva asked.

I shook my head. "I don't want to agree to things without even consulting all of you."

Torien shrugged. "Is anyone here against doing this?"

There was a pause before Sibyl took a step forward. "I don't think Raya should come along."

Raya scowled. "I'll never get stronger if you coddle me. I've been able to deal with the banshees just fine on the wall. That demon in the last dungeon was terrifying, but I managed to help there too."

Sibyl sighed. "I'm not saying that you aren't helping, but you and Nelly are the weakest two among us. I don't want you to be in danger like that again."

"I went into the last dungeon! It was fine!" Raya said as her irritation flooded the bond.

Sibyl frowned. "And it was incredibly dangerous. Much more dangerous than I had expected. Not to mention the cultists before that."

"My illusions helped with the cultists! And I've already been able to pick up some of the spells in my new book!" Raya nearly yelled.

I knocked on the table, getting their attention. "We'll vote on it then. Once for Raya and once for Nelly. Raise your right hand if you want Raya to come, left hand if you want her to stay." I raised my right hand.

The numbers were surprisingly close, Raya coming along won by a single vote. Silva, Torien, Sibyl, Kal'daeryn, and Lorriene voted no. Raya, Morrigan, Bella, Mimi, Nelly, and I voted yes. It was mostly split by experience.

"Raya comes with. Now, should Nelly join us this time too?" I asked, raising my right hand again. The votes came down along the same lines, except Silva and Torien both voted for Nelly to come along this time, making this vote more decisive.

Raya let out the breath she was holding. "Good, then it's settled. We're coming with."

Sibyl sighed and shook her head. "Fine."

"Are there any other concerns? We're agreeing to take this mission, right?" I asked.

I looked around, but no one seemed to have anything else to add and everyone agreed that we were going.

"Good." I stopped leaning against the table and dropped the [Zone of Silence]. I led the group back down the stairs and leaned over the map where Raksha'va was waiting for us. "We'll do it. All of us are going again. What's the best path for us to take?"

Raksha'va's tense shoulders relaxed and she let out a breath. "Thank you, all of you. Take care of this dungeon and come back safely. I'll owe all of you a debt when you return." She pulled the vellum away and traced the map with her finger directly so the path was more clear. "Based on the fires marked on this map, your best path will be along this way..." We spent the next half-bell going over our course. There was no need to take a flare this time. The dungeon was marked on the map and it would serve us better not to give up the element of surprise for the cultists that were undoubtedly waiting for us there.

When there was a lull in our planning, I stepped away to where Raya was sitting all alone. "Are you alright?" I asked.

Raya turned to me with a frown before sighing. "Yeah... I know Sibyl was trying to protect me, but I didn't appreciate being blindsided like that. If she didn't want me to come, she should have talked to me privately first."

"Would it have made a difference?" I asked.

Raya groaned and leaned back in the chair she was sitting in. "I don't know. Maybe? Now I want to go more than ever though. I know that it'll take a while for me to catch up with all of you, but I won't ever catch up by playing everything safe all the time. I want to be an adventurer. That's why I'm here in the first place. I know it'll be risky, but I can handle it. It should be my choice to decide how much danger I'm comfortable with, not hers."

I shrugged. "I agree. But you can see her perspective, right? What if she were the weak one?"

She closed her eyes. "I understand what you're saying. But I think I would want to support her. It's not my place to tell her what she should and shouldn't do, and I don't think it's her place to tell me what I should and shouldn't do. As long as she wasn't totally out of her depth, I would support her."

Raya glanced at me warily. "Don't say I'm out of my depth."

I laughed. "That's not what I was going to say. I'm just making sure you're actually confident, and you're not just doing this because we are."

She paused for a moment before nodding. "I know I can help. I can do this."

I patted her shoulder. "Good. As long as you're sure."

She smiled at me. "And Lilith... thanks for believing in me. It hurt a little to see some of our friends vote against me coming... but you were the first to vote with me."

"Well, I was the one who started the vote..." I said awkwardly.

Raya grinned. "Just take the compliment."

I laughed. "Fine, I'll take it. I voted for you because I also think it should be your choice. Just be careful, okay?"

She nodded. "Okay."

Since we had rested and slept most of the day, this time we were going to leave at night. With a majority of the land-bound demons gone, it would be easier to avoid getting surrounded or getting drawn into fights, but we would still need to be careful. The most significant hazard for us would be the terrain as we made our way past the ravine.

I looked over my stats quickly and decided to switch my class to [Apprentice Magic Swordsman]. I was a bit disappointed I wouldn't have the opportunity to equip [Priest of Knowledge and Innovation] to get the Will stat, but [Apprentice Magic Swordsman] was just too many stats to give up right now, and I was going to need them.

I stared up at the three moons that hung in the sky, each at a different phase. It was probably going to be another long night, but I hoped that this time we would finally break the siege for good.