Chapter 89 Danger in the Oasis

I rubbed the healing salve on Olivia’s body while the rest of the group tried not to stare. It was crazy how many we lost so far on a mission that should have been easy, but things didn’t go as planned. We had the Knight captain, Prince, Mercenary Leader, the crippled mercenary, the Roc dropped from the sky, and a random knight who showed up after the initial boss fight. Marcus, the random adventurer, my wives, and I were all fine.

It was honestly a minor miracle that only people outside the village have died so far. The mercenary Rando cried out in pain again as I hadn’t gotten around to healing his broken legs yet. One of my other wives could have easily put the salve on Olivia, but I was in no rush to heal the man’s legs, because it was going to be a long and difficult process.

“I’d just like to let you know before we start. I just learned the bone mending spell, so I might have to rebreak your legs a few times if the heal is misaligned.” He cried out in fear as the pain from his bones snapping and realigning knocked him unconscious.

Hours later, we sat around a campfire all talking. It was now uncertain whether or not we’d even be able to accomplish our goal, but if we did, they were trying to make it harder for us to just straight murder them and take all their stuff after we did, because they had plenty of valuables on themselves, and no one would ever find out if we did kill them.

“I’m a knight of House Braxton. I’ve served the king for most of my years; only recently did I come under the command of his third son…” He spoke the last part in a whisper, as the prince made himself scarce. The best thing he could do to not get himself killed was to not be around people, and the Knight Captain knew that. It also had a subtle indication of who the king favored; sending one of his most powerful knights to protect his third son was akin to declaring his favor for the prince.

I doubted that was the case, though. He most likely sent the knight to make sure his two other sons didn’t outright kill him, perhaps boosting his own power up to be able to fight against the others, so that their position as the next king was less secure, even by just a little bit. Or the king could just be crazy, that’s what the rumors said, at least, the king was crazy and saw threats to his life everywhere.

“Mercenary leader of the merchants' cabal members sent to see if they could get you on their side. My name is not important, but what you’ve accomplished so far is, as I doubt the second prince will want to give up such a strategic asset as yourself.” The mercenary spoke in an almost whisper; his charisma had to be high, because I could see others leaning in to hear him speak.

It was another subtle layer of the game the princes were playing. I didn’t view myself as important enough to those who would become the next king, but two separate factions came to gain my support… If the third prince had only sent the knights, the outcome could have been different, but he was most likely not going to survive the mission to kill the berserk core.

“Oh my god, this roasted Roc and potatoes are so fucking delicious. I’m not a big fan of potatoes, but this meal is changing my mind.” The random knight most likely sent by the first prince ate gluttonously, and he looked on with a happiness I wouldn’t expect in the middle of a dangerous dungeon. The subtlety of the princes fighting over me went completely missed as he ignored the side eyes from the other two leaders.

He would most likely die on the trip to the core, just like the third prince would. He wouldn’t even see the dagger coming for him until it was too late. I just hoped it would happen after the dungeon was destroyed, because he was close to the same combat effectiveness as Marcus. If the four ‘leaders’ were to fight, I wasn’t sure who would win, but a sneak attack would heavily sway the outcome of any of those fights.

I was now the leader of the most powerful faction of my wives and me, so I doubted anyone would attack anyone from our village. As annoying as the prince was, I doubted anyone would kill him, so it only left the knight captain, the mercenary leader, and the random knight who were likely to get killed.

We bunkered down for the night. I yawned as I unburrowed myself from my wives, all piled together in the stone house I quickly built because I had to pee. As I scratched myself, I barely noticed the gigantic water elemental that took up almost the entirety of the water in the oasis. I looked around for the person on watch and didn’t see anyone, until I looked back at the elemental and saw someone inside.

I cried out. “Attack! We got an enemy!” I watched as the water elemental bashed itself on an invisible barrier, which was a safe zone I created; if it wasn’t there, the elemental would have surged into the camp, possibly killing several people before we even knew it was there. The entire party could have been wiped out if it had been quiet enough.

The entire oasis was designed as a trap to kill people who weren’t expecting the ambush predator to be living in the water. I knew the Knight Captain and Marcus checked for one, but the fist-sized core at the bottom of the pond would have been almost impossible to spot. It was the prince who was inside the arm of the extremely large elemental.

I watched as everyone made their way out of their tents, and my wives out of our makeshift home, a purple liquid poured out of the man’s shirt pocket, which caused the elemental to freak out. Whatever the liquid was, it caused the elemental extreme pain, and it sacrificed its entire arm, dropping the prince onto the ground to get rid of the liquid, which was causing it so much damage.

The knight captain yelled out in exasperation. “Are you kidding? Another miniboss? This dungeon must have focused on creating minibosses.” This one was far easier, thankfully. It was an ambush predator, and with the initial ambush failing, it would be much easier to take down than the Roc, which we got extremely lucky taking out of the air.

Once again, we overwhelmed the miniboss with sheer numbers. Each attack would cause water to pour out of the large elemental. The loss of its arm made its body shrink down tremendously, and from there it was only a matter of time as the elemental grew smaller and smaller until its core hid itself in the pond. I watched as Marcus jumped in and started to panic as he had been gone for two minutes, until he came up with the shattered core in his hands.

“There’s a cave at the bottom of this oasis. There’s crystallized mana at the bottom.” My eyebrows rose as crystallized mana was fairly rare. It only formed in mana-dense areas; it wasn’t as valuable as mithril, but it was worth its weight in gold.

The main use for it was to restore the mana for the person who crushed the crystal. It was a way to do so outside of potions, which you could overuse, while you couldn’t overuse crystals. Most of the higher-level mages kept one on them just in case, but as Marcus swam down and pulled out a gigantic chunk, I knew it was definitely enough for all of us to get a piece.