Vol.4 Ch.2 – Challenge

Chapter 2: Challenge

By the time King Luke and I were done talking Queen Emilia had finished giving her briefing to Annabella and called us over.

“Now," she said once we were all assembled. “Regarding your payment.” I was curious how she would react. We had been promised a bonus for taking care of the problem ourselves. We had, except one of the perpetrators had managed to escape, so technically the mission had not entirely been fulfilled. But then again, we had also stopped a potential threat to the entire capital in the process of stopping those cultists from defiling the dungeon.

But before I could think about it more, the queen reached into a bag of holding at her hip and pulled out first a hefty bag of coins and second a scroll.

“As agreed, a sum of coin for your trouble.” I was about to open my mouth, even knowing that that was bad form, but she continued. “Do not be alarmed, I have not forgotten our agreement. After this audience Annabella will lead you to the treasury, where you will be able to peruse at your leisure and trade the coin in for magic items.”

I calmed down at that. That was exactly what I had been worried about.

“Furthermore," she continued, holding out the scroll, “for your extraordinary service of not only investigating but stopping the threat to the dungeon and the capital, here is the favor you requested. I am curious what you intend to do with it, but I will not pry. And with that, you are dismissed.” She gave me one last considering look as she noticed how close Annabella was standing to me, but then nodded and Anna led us out of the throne room.

**

“I haven't pried so far," Anna said as we were out of earshot of most of the guards, on our way to the treasury, “but what do you intend to do with that favor? Mother does not hand those out often. In fact, this is almost unprecedented.”

I thought about how much to tell Anna. She was part of our group and there were no secrets left to keep from her, but this was still the royal palace and just because we couldn't see or sense any prying eyes and ears didn't necessarily mean there weren't any. And the matter was very delicate.

Syr, the woman whose spirit had taken refuge in my mind, would need a pardon once we freed her body from the grasp of the Holy Maiden. Nobody would believe us that it hadn't actually been her that had committed all those heinous crimes and that it had all been the work of a body snatcher. So I had asked the Queen for an open favor, one I could use as a pardon for Syr, to absolve her of the crimes her body had committed without her.

I was surprised that the Queen had given the favor to us at all, though, given that we hadn't really accomplished the goal in its entirety. But the Queen had seemed beyond relieved that we had managed to slay the corrupted boss before it could overrun the capital with conjured creatures loyal to the Black Goat and so she had handed us that favor anyway. And the favor wasn't even our entire reward. There was also the sack of coin.

Honestly, the coin seemed rather paltry after all the rare materials and gemstones we had obtained while combing through the dungeon. Each floor of the dungeon had had a treasure room at the end and in addition to magical fruits, each of these treasure rooms had held a pile of gemstones and at least three of these piles had been more valuable individually than the amount of mun the queen had promised us for the mission.

The real prize was the ability to trade the coin in for magical items. The royal treasury was famous for hoarding just about any type of magical item and thanks to some careless remarks from the queen I now knew why. The royal family owned a magical artifact called a Duplicator that would, as the name suggested, duplicate any item placed in it. Because of that, they could keep a vast trove of magical gear. If they duplicated each item in the treasury they could hand one out and then still keep the spare to replace the one they'd given away. Thus, if one was allowed to trade with the treasury, one could gain access to magical items that nobody in their right mind would trade away under ordinary circumstances.

Ironically enough, even that paled in comparison to what we had gained in the dungeon. It wasn't just the small mountain of gemstones that would make even my rich merchant of a step-father seethingly jealous and it wasn't just the piles and piles and piles of rare monster materials and fruit seeds we had obtained along the way, it was also the mystical fruits we had been able to eat at the end of each dungeon floor, each of which had made us more powerful. Stronger bodies, better senses, more Qi to use and purified pathways to channel that Qi through, all of it combined to make us more powerful than I ever imagined I could become. I was still coming to terms with all of the changes, all of us were, really. The ability to behold my beautiful women through eyes better than a human was supposed to have, the ability to shrug off blows that would have crippled me before and the ability to use Qi techniques stronger than anything I could naturally have gained access to. Yume had already promised to teach us techniques she had thought we'd never be able to use and I was beyond excited for that.

“Felix?" Anna asked. “You alright?”

I snapped back to the present, shaking my head to clear it of the thoughts. “Sorry," I said. “Lost in thought. I'll tell you later, in private.”

She nodded, immediately understanding. She didn't like court politics but that dislike wasn't based on a lack of understanding. She hated court politics precisely because she had spent most of her life either dealing with it or trying to avoid dealing with it.

Anna had met Syr, had spoken to her, and I was certain that would be enough to make her understand why this pardon was such a big deal, but nobody else here would understand and so there was absolutely no good reason to speak of it within these walls. Even with an illusionist like Yume present, there was always the possibility that someone might overhear. And while we hadn't actually done anything wrong, the fact that we were so close to the original owner of the Holy Maiden's body would not endear us to many people.

“And here we are," Anna said, stopping in front of a door so nondescript it had to be deliberate.

It was a clever tactic, simply making the treasury not stand out in order to hide it from intruders. Despite that, or maybe because of that, I half expected to find the room emptied and its guards slaughtered, Wilhelm having taken a few souvenirs before he'd fled, but thankfully that expectation turned out to be false as Anna led us into the room, two guards almost crossing their halberds in front of her before they noticed who had entered. She paid the guards no mind and immediately addressed the man sitting behind a simple desk.

“Treasurer.”

The man stood up shakily and gave a little bow. “Your highness," he said. He was an older man, with short white hair and a neatly trimmed full beard.

The muscles on his body told me that this man used to be a member of the royal guard and the slight twitching of his left leg implied that an injury had taken him out of active duty at some point. That was further proven when he walked out from behind the desk and I saw that the man had a peg leg. Under normal circumstances such lasting injuries just didn't happen. Healing magic and miracles were very good at fixing anything not outright fatal, so I could only imagine what had ravaged the man's leg so badly. Maybe he'd been lost without help for weeks somewhere and by the time he got to a healer there was nothing more that could have been done. It would have to have been a bloody long time though if even a time mage couldn't wind him back to before the injury. The man must have had a will of iron to survive whatever had done this to him.

“What can I do for you today?" he asked and I was glad he was too busy with the princess to have caught me staring.

“These adventurers just finished a quest for the queen and are allowed to trade their rewards in for items from the treasury," Anna explained to him.

“Ah," he said. “Will you vouch for them or do I need to accompany them as they peruse the shelves?”

I could see Alisha wincing a little bit, the thought of this poor old man exerting himself despite his old injury clearly distressing her. “I shall vouch for them," Anna said. “In fact, I shall accompany them.”

“Very good, your highness," he said and sat down again, not quite managing to hide the relief as he took the weight off his leg.

And so we gained access to the royal treasury. As I had expected, every single item was there either in duplicate or in triplicate. The treasury was much smaller than I had expected, or so I thought until I noticed the stairs leading up and down.

“I guess this is going to take a while," I said quietly as we descended the stairs and found a room about four times as big as the original room above us, also filled with showcases and racks full of magic items.

“Not really," Anna said. “The middle floor is for lower tier magic items. The upper floor is for medium tier magic items and spell books. But this floor is for the higher and legendary tier items. With all those enchanted gems we found in the dungeon I doubt you want to waste your time looking for anything less powerful.”

She wasn't wrong. The enchantments on those gems could be extracted, recombined and then added onto other pieces of equipment until you had a high tier magic item. So anything below that was simply not worth bothering with any longer.

I smiled at her. “You already know me too well.”

She gave me a quick smile back and then pointed down the hall. “Weapons are that way. To the right are accessories and to the left is armor.”

I nodded and made a beeline for the armor, Yume and Anna coming with me while Alisha and Selene went looking for the accessories. All of us had weapons we were satisfied with, so none of us even glanced at the weapon section. Selene had an enchanted suit of armor and Alisha didn't wear any armor, which was why both of them went for the accessories first. I, meanwhile, had found out the hard way that I was a bit lacking in protection and so I was going to remedy that. As for Yume and Annabella...

“What are you two looking for?" I asked.

“I'm just following you," Anna said. “I don't really need anything here. Especially not after picking up that ring in the dungeon.”

On the fourth floor we had found a set of five legendary rings that had seemed tailor-made for each of us. I thought of them as the dungeon's gifts. Dungeons were alive and aware and the Crystal Crown's dungeon in particular liked Anna's family so I was certain the dungeon had deliberately spawned those rings for us, to help us fight the corruption that had taken over the boss of the fifth floor. Out of all of them, mine was the weirdest one, a ring that gave a chance to strike weakspots in an enemy's defense depending on the wearer's Luck. I'd always considered myself a pretty unlucky guy but ever since picking up that ring I found my attacks hitting the perfect spots as if guided by magic. While fighting the corrupted Hebba on the fifth floor, a giant monster made of wood, it was as if my sword was always sliding in between the layers of wood, finding fault lines with every strike.

Yume, meanwhile, kept looking around and finally said: “I was hoping I'd find some enchanted bracelets, something that might make me stronger or tougher.” It was always funny to hear her say such things, but it actually made perfect sense. Yume was a tiny person, the pointed fox ears on top of her head barely letting her reach five feet. She was toned but not muscular and yet she was probably the strongest of us thanks to her mastery of Qi techniques, the abilities that used life force to augment physical actions she'd been teaching us. With the roiling ocean of Qi inside her she could wrestle a behemoth to the ground and jump high enough to poke a giant's eyes out, but when it came down to it, Yume was not a particularly tough or muscular person. Her abilities simply increased her power exponentially. As such, if she wore an item that made her stronger or tougher, her Qi techniques would grow yet stronger as a result. “I need something to keep up with you all.”

Now I let out a snort. “Even if our Qi got stronger thanks to those fruits you still have decades of experience on us," I told her.

“I know," she said a little smugly and then stepped in front of me and tried to brush her long fox tails over my face but she was so small that they couldn't reach that high.

In response I wrapped my arms around her stomach and pulled her close, lifting her off the ground a little and squishing her fluffy tails between us.

“You shouldn't tease so much," I muttered into one of her big fox ears. “Otherwise I might decide to ravish you.”

“You say that like it's a bad thing," she muttered, pressing her ass into my crotch.

“Let's save that for tonight," Anna said quietly, reminding us that we were, in fact, still in the royal treasury.

I let Yume go and looked around me. Apparently for once I wouldn't need my appraiser's loupe because everything was clearly labeled, not just the names of the objects but also lists of their abilities, sometimes fairly lengthy descriptions if the ability was particularly confusing. The first really long description that caught my eye was for a leather breastplate that got tougher and made the wearer stronger while it was wet and the description included a lengthy explanation of what precisely caused the effect to activate and how much more effective it got. Apparently it was tougher than plate and made the wearer twice as strong when soaked and a shirt with a water enchantment would trigger that effect constantly, at the minor downside of the wearer being permanently wet. Well, the downside might have been minor if you never ventured outside when it got cold. Yeah, probably better to pass on that.

“Ooo," Yume said from beside me. “This looks promising.”

I turned to look at what she was eyeing. The thing was called a Brawler's Bracelet and enhanced the wearer's strength by 25% on top of lessening the damage dealt to the wearer's forearms while punching or blocking.

“Would this combine with your Qi Hardening?" I asked.

Qi Hardening was the next Qi technique Yume wanted to teach us, the ability to briefly use life force to toughen up skin, muscles and bones. It was too demanding to use for long periods, but if used at the right moment it would let someone deflect what should have been a lethal blow and it was the technique that allowed Yume to punch solid rock without even scraping her knuckles. Before we had found her a proper blade she'd been very reliant on punches and kicks and even now that she had a weapon that suited her she still often fell back on unarmed combat. Her katana was amazing at cutting, but not so much at pushing a giant monster back.

“That's the idea," she said.

“Sounds good," I said. She smiled and grabbed one of the two bracelets. It was a fairly good looking piece of gear, small and subtle, a not quite complete loop of metal, a thin gap allowing the wearer to bend it into shape. It was made of solid silvery metal with runes etched into it that I couldn't decipher but that I thought looked familiar. Then I realized that I'd seen the runes in the dungeon we'd spent the last few weeks in, that strange runic alphabet that, to my knowledge, no civilization in the known world used. In fact, all dungeons I remembered had these runes plastered all over them. I wondered idly what that meant until I was pulled out of my musings.

“So, what are you looking for?" Anna asked me.

“Ah, right," I said. “I was looking for some thin yet tough armor.”

And so we went looking. I found a leather cuirass that would have been perfect but one quick check-in with the treasurer told us that we'd be using up all our earnings on that one and I wasn't going to deny my women any gear. While Anna and I checked in with the treasurer Yume had found me something else, though.

It looked at first glance like plain dark clothing, fairly unadorned and not particularly magical, but a closer look revealed that the material wasn't cloth but chainmail with a mesh so thin it looked like cloth, made out of a material I'd never seen before. Inlaid into it were thin armor panels and according to the description it was as tough as plate but as comfortable as cloth, which sounded just about perfect to me. Even better, apparently this was technically not even a magic item, just a very weird mundane item found in a dungeon. According to Annabella the elite of the royal guard wore this stuff under their armor. And because the suit didn't technically count as a magic item that meant it could be enchanted, making it incredibly valuable. I honestly wanted everyone to have one of these but Yume berated me for it. The only ones who truly needed armor in our group were Selene and me and our paladin already had some. I argued that Yume could do with some armor as well but the way she explained it even the slightest increase in weight would mess with her movements and she preferred not to have anything holding her down. So I surrendered and picked the suit of armor, knowing that it was a little on the expensive side.

Once Yume and I were both satisfied we decided to check in with Selene and Alisha, who were already coming to meet us, holding their own picks. Alisha was holding a ring with a black jewel inlaid into it and Selene had a small silver earring that radiated so much magic that even I could feel it.

“So, what did you pick?" I asked.

Selene kept quiet, waiting for Alisha to begin:

“It's a Memory Stone," the elf explained, showing off the ring. “A cleric can infuse it with a miracle so they can use it another day. You know how I've been holding back a miracle every day for an emergency Homeward? If I place the Homeward miracle in the Memory Stone I can free it up, essentially letting me cast one more miracle a day.”

“That's really good," I said. “But does that even work? I mean, the miracles come from your goddess, right? Can you store them like this?”

“Only if the deity is willing to cooperate, but I am certain my goddess will be willing to help with it.” Alisha prayed to Brigid, goddess of hearth, home and the forge of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and even though most gods didn't like me Brigid had been fairly accommodating of Alisha's desire to stick with me. I still didn't quite know what the fiery goddess thought about me but from the bits and pieces Alisha had shared Brigid was a nice goddess who respected strength and altruism and thus was predisposed towards me. I was known as the Godsforsaken but that didn't mean I deliberately went around pissing gods off and Brigid had given me no reason to antagonize her yet.

“That's good then," I said, then turned to Selene. “What about yours?”

“Right," she said. “This is a Force Ember. It lets the wearer hit harder and swing faster. I'll never reach your or Yume's level of experience but this should help me bridge the gap.”

I wanted to shake my head. Selene simply did not seem to understand how gifted she was. Her abilities had grown by leaps and bounds since I met her and at this point I was fairly certain she was even stronger than I was. She was a quick study and quickly internalized all fighting techniques I taught her. I was better than her at learning new Qi techniques and I simply could not fathom why that might be the case. She was smart, much smarter than most people gave her credit for given that she'd grown up as a farmer's daughter, but for some reason it took her quite some time to properly internalize new Qi techniques. Although, to be fair, according to Yume she was actually much faster than average at learning new techniques. I was simply even better at it.

“Sounds good," I said, then looked over our haul. “So, a magic earring for Selene, a ring for Alisha, a bracelet for Yume and the armor for me.” I looked at Anna. “Will that work out?” Her eyes went out of focus for a moment, then she said:

“You're a hundred mun over, but I'll speak with the treasurer.”

I smiled. “Thank you.”

“You're welcome," she said and we followed her to the treasurer.

As it turned out, he didn't need much convincing. Not only was Anna a princess but we also weren't actually overstepping our bounds too far. Technically speaking none of the items in the treasury had a price and honestly we weren't even taking anything away from the treasury, they just needed to use the Duplicator four times to replace the spares we'd taken. Of course, it also helped that I gave him slightly more than the additional one hundred mun that were required. Even with the bribe added in, these items were worth every coin, especially considering that some of them were things I'd never seen before in any store.

As we exited the treasury with our new gear we began discussing our plans going forward. While King Luke had given me the concerned dad speech Queen Emilia had been briefing the girls about Anna's missions and what she expected of her daughter. We had a couple days to relax before we needed to set out for the forest the Wood Elves resided in and, allowing for a week to return from that trip, we would have another few days before we needed to set out for the Atalanta cult in the Southeast.

“Hold on," I said. “Last I checked that cult was quite a ways away from the capital. How will we reach them so quickly?”

“Mother has sent word for a messenger from a nearby town to travel to the capital," Anna explained. “So once we're done dealing with the Wood Elves we can return to the capital, wait for the messenger to arrive, and then Alisha can use Homeward on the messenger they send.”

I nodded in understanding. The Homeward miracle allowed a cleric to instantly transport their group to whichever place the target thought of as their home, so if Alisha cast that miracle on a messenger we would be able to arrive at the messenger's home within moments. That miracle alone made travel incredibly convenient as it essentially eliminated the need for return trips, but thanks to the royal family's reliance on messengers and clerics we would be able to cut out the first leg of the journey as well.

“Couldn't you use the miracle on yourself to transport us to your tribe?" Selene asked Alisha, who promptly shook her head, her long pointy ears flopping back and forth.

“The Homeward miracle hasn't been able to send me back there for a long time," the elf said. “Last I checked it would send me to our room in the inn.” I had expected a claim like that to sound sad or resigned but she seemed happy about it. And honestly, so was I. Our little elf considered our little group and the life she'd made with us more her home than she did the place she was born in and it warmed my heart. Of course now that we had moved out of our room in the Plucked Cockatrice and into Annabella's private abode our definition of home was sure to change, but that would take time.

I was pulled out of my musings when I heard a man's voice ask: “Anna, are you alright?”

We turned as one to see Prince Richard approaching her.

“Richard," Anna said, her tone apprehensive. I couldn't fault her. We had only just found out that it had been Wilhelm who had tried to kill her but before that revelation Prince Richard had been our primary suspect.

But he didn't seem to be any more murderous than before. He looked worried. “I just heard about Wilhelm," Richard said. “Is it true? Did he...”

“Yes," Anna said quietly and Richard rushed forward to catch his sister in a crushing hug.

The last time we'd seen him he'd acted like a grade-A asshole towards her but it was becoming increasingly clear that he legitimately cared about her, he was just a little bit too protective of her. But even so I still kept my eyes on his hands in case he tried to pull out a knife or a poisoned needle or something. Just because Wilhelm had been the one who had tried to kill Anna didn't mean he was the only one who wanted her dead.

“I'm so glad you're safe," he whispered into her ear.

I thought it was a really sweet moment and looked over to Alisha, Selene and Yume, all of whom seemed to agree, so we just stayed back and let the two siblings have their little moment. Whatever issues they had with each other, they truly did care about each other.

Wait for it, I heard Syr say from right beside me. It used to make me jump when she did that but now I was used to it, used to there being one person in our group who was only with us in spirit and even then not all the time.

I was wondering what she'd meant when Richard said: “Do you see now that it's too dangerous for you to risk yourself like this?”

Ah, that's what she'd meant. As I said, Richard was a little overprotective of Anna, which caused most of the friction between them. Anna was an adventurer who hated court intrigue and Richard wanted to keep her safe and pampered.

She instantly stiffened and pushed him off her. He was thrown for a moment and then looked back at her. There was fury in her eyes as she said in an icy voice: “You would like that, wouldn't you?”

“Whoa, Anna, calm down," he said. “I didn't mean...”

She cut him off. “I've been doing some thinking, brother. Every single one of us siblings has had a combat instructor from the Southern realms teaching them how to fight, except for me. And for some reason the magic of the royal family is weaker in me than it is in all my siblings and that's why it's oh-so-dangerous for me to go out adventuring.”

Richard had a great poker face but he stiffened, just a bit. “What are you saying?" he asked, barely keeping his voice from wavering.

Anna nodded her head over to Yume. “Funny story. I just spent a month in the company of a powerful fighter from the southern realm and now I finally know how those two facts are related.”

He swallowed.

“So I've been wondering, Richard. The instructor who was supposed to teach me died in a," she put the most sarcastic emphasis I'd ever heard on the next words, “'tragic accident'. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?” It made a sick amount of sense, him arranging for the instructor to be killed so that his sister would be weaker and therefore less likely to put herself into danger.

“What?" he asked, genuine shock on his face. “Gods above, Anna. No, of course not.”

“Really?" she asked and crossed her arms, the skepticism clear in her voice.

“Yes," he said. “Gods, I'm not a fucking murderer, Anna. I will admit that I had planned to bribe the man to leave once he arrived...”

Anna bristled at those words but before she could open her mouth he continued:

“But I swear upon my power that I had nothing to do with whatever happened to the man.” The oath settled into place with an audible pop... and nothing happened. Had he lied during such an oath his power would have started to rebel against him but it hadn't so he had been telling the truth. Well, at least that was something. But then again...

“And yet, even if someone hadn't murdered him you would have still tried to deprive me of his assistance," Anna said in a bitter tone.

“Because I want you to be safe, damn it!" he yelled. “Just listen to me for a moment. I care about you. Is it really too much to ask that I want to keep you safe?”

“Did it occur to you that getting stronger is a way for me to stay safe?" she hissed. “I'm stronger now than I've ever been. I've survived things that none of our siblings would have. Not even you!”

“Yeah, but only because you had people fighting alongside you to protect you!”

Anna flinched as if he had slapped her. I was about to jump in and tell him he was full of shit, that Anna had done at least as much as any one of us but before I could she replied, in a much calmer tone of voice than before: “Alright. Let's put it to the test then. A duel.”

He blinked at her.

“I challenge you to a duel,” she spelled out. “If you win then I concede. I admit that I'm not strong enough to survive on my own. But if I win then you finally pay me some gods damned respect and admit that you're wrong.”

“Do you even realize how ass-backward that is?" he asked. “You want me to fight you in order to protect you?”

“That's my condition," she said. “If you think I need to be coddled, prove to me that I need it.”

He thought about it for a while, then said: “Alright. Fine, damn it. When do you want to do this?”

“Give me half an hour to change into proper clothes and meet me in the courtyard.”