The halfwit halfling a b.., p.14
The Halfwit Halfling: A Bard's Tale, page 14
Patron:—
Condition: Poor Mana Core: Full
Stats:
Brawn: 0.5⇩
Control: 4 ⇩
Mind: 1.5 ⇩
Arcana: 0.5 ⇩
Charisma: 7.5 ⇩
Perception: 4 ⇩
Traits:
Pacifist
Fact Begins With Fiction
Arcane Chords
』
If the debuff wasn’t bad enough, I now lacked the willpower to fight exhaustion. It added to my struggles as I dragged myself back towards Lily. Maybe once she came to, she could keep watch while I got some sleep. Huh. I guess I finally earned the life debt.
I reached Lily after what felt like hours, covered in sweat and fighting nausea. My consciousness was fading fast, so I gave her a good shake. Lily didn’t respond. I checked her pulse. Good. The jelly hadn’t killed her. I needed to rest my head. It weighed as much as my body. No longer thinking clearly, I lay it on her stomach and struggled to stay conscious. However, Lily’s warm and soft body was much too comfortable. Despite my halved Perception, I tried spotting the angler ceiling lobsters. Instead, I ended up counting their luminescent bulbs, and it lulled me into a deep sleep.
Chapter 21
Fresh Air
I didn’t feel as poorly when I woke up. My stomach still complained from not having eaten in who knows how long. However, my stats had returned to normal. Lily smiled down at me from her upright position as my head lay on her lap.
“I didn’t mean to fall asleep,” I said, too comfortable to get up. She stroked my hair, and I enjoyed the feel of her soft fingers on my scalp. “At least we’re okay.”
Lily’s soft breast grazed my face, and I didn’t mind. It wasn’t so bad. Hell, we were both consenting adults: would it be so bad if I gave into my urges? My Charisma and the locket together were enough to resist Lily’s Mind Magic. I’d ensure she didn’t enchant me. Screw it, after what we’d been through. We could both use some intimacy.
Sitting up, I pulled Lily in for a kiss. She leant in without any resistance. Damn. I’d never tasted lips so sweet. They parted as I slipped my tongue in, my left hand pressed against her stomach before sliding up to gently caress her right breast. Damn.
Lily felt good. Despite my hunger and thirst, my trousers tightened as I touched her. Why was I holding myself back until now? Lily’s nipple hardened at my touch. Eager to taste it, I ended the kiss. Then, getting a better look at her, I stopped. Something wasn’t right.
The only light around us came from the mushrooms, angler crabs and the jelly still in the cap at our feet. Lily’s wisps weren’t around us. Now that I was sitting up, I could see her eyes clearly. I didn’t see any life in them. In fact, while my hands explored her body, Lily’s arms hung inert at her sides.
Alarmed, I pulled away from her. Even though she responded to my kiss, Lily was in no state to give consent. What the hell? Did I just molest her? Holy shit! I almost had my way with her!
“Lily, are you okay?” I asked, grabbing her shoulders. I gave her a good shake, but she didn’t respond. Lily continued to look at me with the same placid gaze, her smile not fading. “What the hell is going on? Is it the jelly? Magic backlash?”
My old gaming knowledge was useless in the situation. I didn’t know what to do. Lily didn’t fight me when I forced her eyelids open to study her pupils. Opening her mouth, I checked her tongue. No different. Well, the jelly had stained it purple, but besides that, it appeared normal.
I lifted Lily’s left arm above her head. When I left it there, she didn’t lower it. The limb remained in its position even after I moved away from her. I didn’t like this one bit. Slapping Lily wasn’t an option, I couldn’t afford the debuff again. We’d gotten lucky. I didn’t know what the system considered a full night’s sleep, but it had to be at least six hours. We’d survived in an unknown cave full of strange beasts without getting attacked; we weren’t going to get that lucky again. Besides, I needed to get Lily some help.
Okay. We needed to get out and as far from the caves as possible. I hoped Grog and his wargs weren’t waiting for us beyond the exit. Standing up, I urged Lily onto her feet. She followed my instructions like a merry infant. Taking her hand, I led her down the stream.
I saw movement in the mushroom forest. Its illumination had faded since I last saw it. For the first time since waking up, I noticed the constant crunching and grating had stopped. It wasn’t the time to give in to curiosity, but I dared a peek. I was right. Little Linda wasn’t little after all. A worm as thick as a tree trunk sat feasting on the mushroom caps.
Despite my better judgement, we edged closed to the mushrooms. I needed to have a better look. Gor wanted to make a Covenant with the entity. The worm rose out of the stone floor through a very snug hole. Around it, lay grey sludge. Melted stone? I couldn’t be sure. I should’ve tried learning more about the creature from Gor. If it truly had some incredible power, I could use some of that.
I’d have to come back for it. For now, I needed to get Lily and me to safety. And, some food in my belly. With some coaxing, I pulled her away from the terrifying sight of Little Linda—unless that wasn’t her but a baby. No matter how much I tried, Lily refused to pick up the pace. If I pulled too hard, she’d dig her heels in and refused to continue. After several painful minutes, I managed to get the zombie-like aelf to where the stream disappeared into the cave wall.
“Where now?” I wondered out loud. We stood around where Gor had been looking. Still, I couldn’t see an exit. Letting go of Lily’s hand, I pressed both of mine against the cave wall. I didn’t know what I was looking for, but pressing an ear against the cold, damp surface didn’t tell me anything either.
I couldn’t find a secret lever or a panel anywhere; what was I missing? I focused on the soft breeze. What direction was it coming from? Above? That didn’t help in the slightest. I couldn’t see any surfaces to climb up or any external light to follow.
When I opened my eyes, Lily was no longer by my side. She’d taken advantage of my distracted state and started running. I preferred her when she appeared catatonic. Now, it felt like getting a new puppy.
“Slow down!” I yelled, chasing after her. It’s not that she was running exceptionally fast. The issue was her legs were much longer than mine, and my last meal was two sleep sessions ago.
Then she went around a large boulder and disappeared. Of course. When I got there, she was waiting for me at the mouth of a long tunnel, and I could see daylight in the distance. I guessed her height had helped her see something I’d missed. Maybe she wasn’t completely useless after all.
We had to be extra slow during our descent due to the steep downward incline. Fortunately, we reached our destination without incident. For once Game World had decided to give me a break. We exited through a rocky hillock with a tall mountain behind us. I guessed Blacknail’s Table was somewhere far above. Looking ahead, we saw a large expanse of flat, green grasslands. Eldar’s Plains, I assumed. Best of all, below us, beyond a small thicket of trees, I saw civilisation.
“Good job, Lily,” I said, taking her hand and giving it a light squeeze. I didn’t trust her not to run off once again. The aelf didn’t pull away. I waited for her to reciprocate my gesture, but she didn’t. “It’s alright. I’ll get you sorted as soon as possible.” Since she didn’t understand a word I said, I took the opportunity to vent. “If you were any more of a bitch, I would have ditched you. Gor didn’t deserve any of that. I don’t know what you did to him, but that wasn’t the capper I knew. There should’ve been a better way.”
Airing my grievances to Lily in her helpless state didn’t help. I’d never been one to say ‘told you so’. We pushed onwards. Hopefully, things would soon get better. That’s right. Trying to be optimistic, I studied what lay ahead.
The town appeared much smaller than Blacknail’s Table. Unlike the capper city, its stone walls appeared to be of sound construction. It had a wide walkway for guards to patrol along the top of the ramparts, and several watchtowers for them to keep an eye on the horizon. Come to think of it. The settlement looked more like a fort than a town.
I guessed Blacknail’s Table didn’t need such a defence system due to its location on top of a plateau. From the way Klinkle described it, the city only had one road leading up to the gates. The steep cliffs ensured an opposing force couldn’t sneak up on them, or for attackers to establish siegeworks. I assumed like the city’s residents, opposing forces that meant them harm didn’t know about the cave system either. The cappers hadn’t wronged me. So I had no intention to expose the opening in their defence.
Instead, I analysed the settlement. One and two-storeyed wooden buildings dotted the space around the walls. I spotted patches of green with sturdier buildings bordering them. In the town’s centre stood a sizeable cone-shaped building. With each floor carved into a massive step, it looked like several giant circles stacked on top of one another. Patches of green grew along those floors giving the construction a lush appearance one would expect of a fantasy world. A massive pillar stood at the top, reaching for the sky like an antenna. For a while, I wondered whether the settlement’s residents were friend or foe. Then I realised my only other option was venturing into the wild.
“I reckon we’re more likely to survive if we can reason with whoever attacks us,” I said. “What do you reckon, Lily?”
Lily didn’t respond. Instead, she watched the horizon with a blank look in her eyes.
“Good, we’re on the same page.”
Once again, I had to drag Lily behind me. She was no longer the woman I had met before. As we walked the serpentine path downhill, I theorised what had happened. With my very limited knowledge of the magic system, there were high chances my hypothesis was wrong. Gor said that the capper shamans used the Mana Oyster Mushrooms to help them commune with spirits. What if they did this through astral projection? Maybe Lily got stuck outside her body, or she suffered some sort of shock trying to get back in. It’s likely I was wrong. However, it helped me deal with the strangeness of my new reality.
Now, that we weren’t in any immediate danger, I wondered: what happened to Hruk and Sloane? Thinking about them, helped me push thoughts of Gor’s demise out of my head. I’d never forget the look on his face when the lanterns got him. Just thinking about it made my stomach churn. For a moment, I was sure I saw the old Gor in the moments before he got pulled up into the shadows. Did he feel betrayed?
No. I’d be better off thinking Lily had broken him. If I didn’t push him, he’d overpower me and feed me to Little Linda. Because of what I did, Lily wouldn’t have to spend the rest of her days as a brainless sex slave.
More focused on leaving town, I hadn’t thought about what would happen at our destination. Sloane said we wouldn’t survive the wilderness unless we stuck together, but Lily claimed the fork had a rest stop. Couldn’t we have arranged for transport once there?
Hruk wouldn’t have left Blacknail’s Table if not for what I had said. It had to be more than finding someone who’d find him attractive. Sex and love were great motivators, of course, but I believed we’d become friends. The capper looked like he’d never had friends before. Hruk’s people treated him like an outsider, but I didn’t.
I hoped Sloane would treat the capper well. Sloane and I didn’t get the time to get familiar with one another. He did come across as a standup guy though. I didn’t expect him to take care of Hruk indefinitely, but I hoped Sloane would get him to safety. I didn’t know how the capper would manage. Considering how Lily spoke to Gor, I imagined the more ‘advanced’ races didn’t treat goblinoids well. However, Hruk did have a useful skill. Maybe someone desperate enough for a Scribe would hire him.
Chapter 22
Lily and Hyacinth
“Ho, there!” The guards called when we approached the gates. “State your business, friend!”
“Capper raiders attacked our caravan,” I called. “My friend here is injured. We’re in need of assistance.”
After spending time in Blacknail’s Table, I felt bad vilifying the cappers. However, during my time in the city, I learnt that Grog and his warband hungered for battle. When they couldn’t find a beast to take down, the chieftain would lead his riders to attack passing traders not allied with his city. It made sense using the bit of information to my advantage.
Up close, I realised the settlement was better defended than I assumed. A wide moat surrounded the walls and without the drawbridge lowered, reaching the gate would prove impossible. I assumed they had another exit on the side facing Eldar’s Plains.
“It’s not every day we see an aelf and jovian together,” an older member of the guard said from across the moat. “Your lack of luggage doesn’t instil confidence either, boyo.”
“We had to abandon everything when the cappers attacked. I told the caravan leader, getting this close to Blacknail’s Table was a bad idea, but he wanted to save time and labour cost.” I hoped the humans didn’t have enough Perception to overcome the effects of Facts Begin With Fiction. “Didn’t do him much good though. The asshole cheaped out on guards too. Most of them ran when the raiders came.”
Lily tried to pull her hand free. Looking at her eyes, I could tell she wanted to go swimming at the moat. Unwilling to let her go off in her current state, I tightened my grip.
“You don’t have to let me in,” I told them. “I can try to make it to Eldar’s Port on my own. My friend, though—the cappers fed her something. She’s not herself right now. Let her in and maybe take her to an apothecary, a medicine woman or whatever you have in there.”
The guards huddled together and spoke in hushed tones. I hoped my bluff worked. The guards probably knew a jovian would never make it all the way to the port city on his own. After several agonising moments, the oldest guard opened a door by the gates and disappeared into the settlement. Not long after, we heard the mechanisms within the walls move and the drawbridge lowered to create a path across.
“Don’t try anything,” the guard warned when I led Lily across. He turned to his colleagues. “Take them to Lady Hyacinth. She’ll want a word.”
As soon as we passed the gates, the number of uniformed and armoured individuals took me by surprise. Some patrolled the streets while others stood casually around the shops and eateries.
Lily drew a lot of attention. The dried mushroom jelly had coloured her skin purple and orange. That, combined with her revealing clothes, reminded me of the girls from music festivals on Earth. Ah, I’d miss those scantily-clad lovelies. They were a wonderful bunch.
The open spaces had men and women running drills with their weapons, and the number of blacksmiths took me by surprise. Our guide explained, Hunter’s Watch housed a military garrison. Even though the human-run settlements of Eldar’s Plains were at peace with the Bracken Swamps and Blacknail’s Table, despite the occasional caravan raid, their relationship had always been tense. Hunter’s Watch served as the first line of defence ensuring no military force entered the plains.
As it turned out, they hadn’t used the mountain-drawbridge in close to a decade. Lily and I had taken them by surprise. No one approached the settlement from the mountains. The councils assumed the cappers, kobolds and other denizens of the Wild Lands killed all members of the caravan or took them prisoner. No reputable merchant ever travelled close to capper territory. They either took airships or went around the swamps and sailed down the river.
Good thing Facts Begin with Fiction had done its job. He gave me plenty of information regarding the workings of the settlement and on how to proceed. I regaled him with a thrilling tale of how we fled our pursuers despite Lily’s near-catatonic state and how a crazed capper had tried to feed me to a beast and take her as a sex slave. The man warmed up to me, the more we spoke.
Up close, the settlement’s central structure proved a lot more impressive than before. I saw shops on the individual layers, stables and soldiers sparring. My previous assumption turned out to be correct. The build was some sort of fort. The man led us into the structure and to an elevator. I didn’t expect to encounter such a contraption in Game World, It took me by surprise. We went up several levels, straight into a large circular office.
Armoured individuals stood guard around the entrance and thoroughly checked Lily and me. Once they were done, Lady Hyacinth finally graced us with her presence.
“What have you done to her?” the woman asked as soon as she saw Lily. Lady Hyacinth immediately checked the aelf’s eyes, tongue and pulse.
“He claims capper raiders fed her mana oyster mushrooms, ma’am,” the guard captain explained. “The hounds had a little sniff and went crazy. Don’t think they were lying ma’am.”
“What a shame, she’s such a lovely girl.” Lady Hyacinth tutted. “Who is she to you?”
“No one,” I answered. “I just couldn’t leave her behind. Didn’t feel right.”
She stared long and hard as she sized me up. I couldn’t tell whether Lady Hyacinth believed me or not. I couldn’t disclose we were on the run. What if whatever treaty they had in place encouraged the extradition of prisoners?
“You did a good thing, boy,” she finally said before turning to the guard. “Make sure he’s cleaned, fed and clothed. As lovely as they are, I always thought jovians were cowards. But, you did a good, brave thing. I commend you for it.”
『
By impressing an individual of power or good reputation, you have earned a commendation.
You may keep it to increase your renown in their settlement or redeem it for a favour.
