Super Senses (2)
When dawn broke, we left Vilpeck City, bound for the Nameless Forest on the northwestern border between the Fifth Lord's territory and the Fourth's.
Another dungeon, then.
I gazed out the carriage window, lost in thought. The place hiding this Mystery would almost certainly be a dungeon as well. Teir had said as much.
The difference between ruins and a dungeon came down to whether there were hazards. If treasure simply sat there waiting, it was ruins. If there were guardians or traps, it was a dungeon — same as when I'd found the Immovable Barrier. This dungeon I needed to find was a complete blank to me, which meant the danger was an unknown quantity.
Teir did clear it and find the Mystery, so it probably isn't that dangerous...
When I'd last seen him, Teir had only been in the Level 20s, so the dungeon was likely around that difficulty. Of course, that was speculation and nothing more. Nothing was certain until I experienced it myself.
I'm getting ahead of myself. I haven't even found the place yet.
Danger aside, I still had to decipher the cipher and actually locate the dungeon first.
Time passed, and we arrived at Oron City, on the northwestern frontier of the Fifth Lord's territory. We'd gotten in fairly early in the afternoon, so after securing lodgings we headed straight to the Adventurer's Guild to hire a guide. If the tree had been described as the largest in the forest, it had to be conspicuous enough that plenty of people would know it.
The guild hall was packed and noisy with adventurers. I swept a glance over them, then raised my voice.
"I'll hire the most skilled guide who meets my conditions. Ten gold."
The noise cut off as if someone had severed it with a knife. Every gaze in the hall swung toward me at once. They all looked like they weren't sure they'd heard right, so I said it again.
"I'll hire a guide for ten gold. Does anyone know the largest tree in the forest along the northwestern border?"
I seemed to throw money around every time I hired a guide. Well, I had more gold than I knew what to do with, and it was the most effective method. So what?
The adventurers glanced at one another, then voices started bubbling up one by one.
"...He mean the Mengrodi Tree?"
"Has to be. What's bigger than that in the northwestern forest?"
Judging by the reactions, it was a landmark everyone knew. Good. At least finding the tree wouldn't be a problem.
"Hire me! I know exactly where the Mengrodi Tree is!"
One adventurer shot his hand up and shouted. That opened the floodgates, and others started piling in.
"Bullshit. Who in this city doesn't know that tree?"
"I'm way better than that guy! I can get you there fast and safe!"
In seconds the hall had turned into a hiring auction. The clerks at the counter looked flustered. I sent them a silent apology. Maybe I'd overdone it.
Then a booming shout crashed down from above.
"Shut the hell up, all of you! He said he wants the most skilled adventurer!"
The gravelly roar, like a beast's, snapped every mouth shut. I looked up. In the same instant, someone vaulted the railing and dropped to the floor below.
A beastfolk woman stood there, several shortswords hanging at her waist, scars covering every inch of exposed skin.
"Your Lordship, I'm the best this city's got. Hire me."
She strode right up to me, smiling with total confidence. Talent above Level 40 was rare among adventurers. A Special-Grade, then?
"Come on, Raylo... you've got named commissions coming out your ears. You're really gonna snatch this one too?"
One adventurer complained. She whipped her gaze around and glared, and he immediately folded.
"What, you dumbasses. Got a problem? Then be better than me. You think that garbage skill of yours is worth ten gold for walking someone down a path? Conscience finally kick the bucket?"
Nobody else stepped up after that. They just frowned or sighed and turned away, giving up. Crude, but she wasn't wrong. Commission fees scaled with skill.
She turned back to me, her smile shifting into something more commercial, and introduced herself.
"Special-Grade Adventurer Raylo. There's no adventurer in Oron City better than me, so you won't regret hiring me."
I nodded and pulled the money from my coat.
"Half up front should do, right?"
Raylo took the five gold coins and grinned.
"I like a client who doesn't hold back. When were you thinking of leaving?"
"Right now, if possible."
"Fine by me. Let's go."
And just like that, I'd hired a highly skilled guide in record time.
The forest was a fair distance from the city, so we took the carriage. Raylo was the only extra passenger, so it was no issue.
"Whoa, it looked ordinary from the outside, but this is a seriously high-end carriage. I've never ridden one this smooth."
Raylo bounced in her seat across from me as she spoke. Ashel sat beside me in her usual silence. She always looked expressionless, but I'd spent enough time watching her to pick up on the faint differences. Right now she was clearly in a foul mood, irritated by Raylo's racket.
"Ah, I was being too loud. Sorry."
She had enough social sense to quiet down after that, and started watching the scenery outside. A little later, she asked me:
"So, can I ask why you're looking for the Mengrodi Tree?"
Asking that now? Normally you'd check who the client was and what the job was for before taking it. You wouldn't just snatch up random commissions without knowing what kind of trouble you might be walking into. This Raylo must have been that confident in her own ability. Given her level, she had reason to be.
I was about to give her a vague answer, then changed my mind. Was there any real reason to hide it this time? She might even help us find the dungeon. And if she tried anything, Ashel was here.
"Have you ever explored a dungeon?"
Raylo blinked at the sudden question.
"A few times. Why?"
"That's why we're heading to the Mengrodi Tree. To find a dungeon."
"Ah... I figured as much."
She nodded.
"Honestly, I had a pretty good idea. When a lord hires a guide to some random spot in the middle of nowhere, they're usually looking for ruins."
She sounded like she'd taken plenty of jobs like this. I asked again.
"Is there something related to the Mengrodi Tree called a lifeless branch?"
"...A lifeless branch? Can't say I've ever heard of that."
Raylo tilted her head, then her expression turned intrigued.
"So that's a cipher pointing to the dungeon, huh? Dungeons with riddles are always more fun to hunt down."
She muttered "lifeless branch" under her breath, thinking hard, then shook her head vigorously.
"Anyway, a dungeon hunt makes this a lot more interesting. Once I get you to the tree, mind if I stick around and help? I'm not looking for extra pay."
"I don't mind, but if we find the dungeon, you're not coming inside."
Raylo chuckled.
"Just throw me a bonus if you think I actually helped. And honestly, I'm not expecting much. Ruin-hunting's a bust ninety-nine times out of a hundred, you know."
Fair enough. I'd been succeeding at Mystery hunts so consistently that I'd started taking it for granted. Dungeons weren't actually that easy to find.
Once we reached the forest, we left the carriage and continued on foot. Varos had to stay with the carriage, so we left him at the treeline. Only Ashel and I went in, with Raylo leading the way.
"You know, it's kind of funny when you think about it."
"...?"
"Dungeons are supposed to be where ancient mages left their legacies, right? So why not just hand it all down to their disciples like normal people? What's with the rotten habit of building dungeons and slaughtering every moth that comes looking?"
Well, maybe they were mages who didn't have disciples to inherit their work. Or maybe they were just eccentric and bored. I'd never thought that deeply about it — it was just game lore. Slap on a plausible backstory and call it a day. An RPG without dungeons would be the weird part.
Deeper in, monsters started appearing. A giant rat bigger than a person blocked the path ahead. A Giant Rat, probably. I didn't actually know what kinds of monsters lived in this forest. Even I didn't have every nameless ordinary woodland memorized.
"Ugh, I was already feeling restless."
Raylo cracked her neck and walked toward the Giant Rat. The creature let out a grating screech and lunged. In the same instant she kicked off the ground and swung her fist — without even drawing a blade. A wet, bursting crack. The Giant Rat went tumbling through the air, its skull caved in, dead before it landed.
Looking a little more refreshed, Raylo shook out her fist.
"Shall we keep going?"
We barely ran into any other monsters after that. The ones we did were trash mobs around Level 10, same as the Giant Rat.
Doesn't look like this forest has much of a monster population to begin with.
By the time the sun was setting, we'd arrived. It hadn't been that large a forest to begin with, so it hadn't taken long.
"Here we are. The Mengrodi Tree."
I looked up at the colossal tree and felt a flicker of awe. I'd expected it to be big — largest in the forest, after all — but it was far larger than I'd imagined. Dozens of meters tall, and so wide that ten people holding hands would barely encircle the trunk.
I ran a hand over the bark, then looked up at the sinking sun.
The sun's going down, at least...
The largest tree. The hour when twilight has fully settled. The lifeless branch. Those were the three keywords for this dungeon hunt.
The largest tree — not completely certain, but we'd found it. Night was almost here. That left only the "lifeless branch"...
What the hell is a lifeless branch supposed to be?
I looked up at the chaotic sprawl of branches reaching from the Mengrodi Tree. Ashel and Raylo started scanning them too. Then Ashel spoke.
"There. Look at that."
She was staring fixedly at something, pointing. I followed her finger but couldn't see anything special. I frowned. What was supposed to be there...?
Then my eyes went wide.
One branch, tangled among the dense foliage. Looking closer, it was different — because that single branch had not a single leaf on it.
...A lifeless branch. Could that be it?