Duskbound

Things went about how Velik had expected them to go. Giller didn't argue about leaving the inn, and neither did Jensen. Sildra wasn't thrilled with the idea, but she didn't put up a fight either. Aria, on the other hand, was a problem.

"Look, this is simple," Velik told her once he got sick of arguing about it. "Too many people have already seen us, so we can't just hide out and leave you behind to pretend you're still waiting for us. As soon as Emberson's team comes back, they're going to hear that we've arrived, and if you're still in the building, you'll be questioned. If you want to be part of this, it's time to go. Otherwise, you're on your own, and you can do whatever you want."

The revolted look on Aria's face would have been comical if Velik wasn't the one stuck dealing with her. Everybody else had conveniently disappeared shortly after the decision had been announced, leaving him standing in front of the hearth while Aria lounged in the same chair she'd been in when they'd first arrived.

She was showing no signs of moving, but that didn't mean anything. She had no luggage to pack back up, and had a skill that literally let her teleport, as well as bring others with her. She could leave in an instant if she wanted to, but Velik doubted there was anything else he could say to get her going. At this point, the decision was on her to make; he was just waiting to hear what it was.

"Look, you're overthinking this," Aria said. "We don't need to go set up camp in the woods outside of town. All we really need is access to the dungeon. I can take us there from here."

"Except for the part where we also don't want to run into anyone from the Monster Hunters Guild," Velik said.

"Do you think that I can't keep an eye out for them, too? I've been watching the mine all morning. We'll have ample warning when they decide to take a break, which honestly might not even be today. They still haven't come out, and it's been two days since the last time they went in."

That long? For an experienced hunting party, it should only take a few hours to clear a dungeon. Did something happen to them?

His own experience with a multi-day dungeon clear had been the result of him going in by himself—though he hadn't realized he'd been entering a dungeon at the time—and it actively working to keep him trapped in there. That wasn't exactly a normal occurrence, but if there was any dungeon that could behave similarly to the one Velik had killed, it was this one.

"Have you looked inside to see what's going on?" he asked.

"Some," she admitted, "but dungeons are mana-dense areas. It makes it harder to see."

"Which means you could be missing them," Velik said. "Unless you're watching multiple places at once."

"I'm not missing them," Aria snapped, annoyed. "Don't question my abilities, Velik. I'm a gold-ranked hunter for a reason."

He wished the others hadn't run off. Velik was no leader, and he knew he wasn't nearly as smart as some people. He was good at finding and killing things, not telling people the best thing to do. Giller was right about Emberson reacting poorly when he finds out Sildra is here. No one outside of our group knows our names though, so he won't know for certain unless they see us. That means she needs to leave town just to be safe. Jensen won't let her go alone, and Giller won't let him go without her. Me being here just causes problems… and I'm right back where I started.

"Stay if you want," he said, throwing his hands up. "I don't care. I wasn't expecting your help to begin with. The rest of us are going. If you're so good at spying, you can catch up when we make our way into the dungeon. I'm sure you'll know how to do that."

"You're overreacting, but fine, go play in the woods. It makes no difference to me, so long as you aren't trying to drag me along."

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What a pointless argument. I don't know why I even bothered.

* * *

The four of them walked out of the inn as a group and immediately started walking out of Granite Peak. The town only had three points of entry, with their west wall lacking a gate because the slope of the mountain was too steep there. Even the wall itself was half the height it was everywhere else. There simply hadn't been any reason to build it up, not when anyone who could approach from that direction wouldn't be hindered in the slightest by something as simple as a wall anyway.

The mines were to the west, however, which meant they needed to leave through the north gate and circle around the valley in order to reach it. Tree cover was sparse at this altitude, but Velik could see a few isolated stretches of forest stubbornly clinging to life amidst the rocky soil.

"So we're just leaving her behind?" Jensen asked as they walked down the street.

"And good riddance," Giller muttered.

"It's her choice. She's not part of our team anyway. I can't force her to listen to me," Velik said.

"You can't force any of us to listen to you," Giller pointed out.

"I also didn't ask you to be here," Velik told her.

"Somehow, here I am anyway. I'm almost as thrilled about it as you are."

Velik was about to say something—what exactly that was going to be, he wasn't sure—when a man caught his eye. He was dressed like a local, just walking down the street ahead of him, and completely ignoring the group of out-of-towners. To all appearances, he was of no interest.

But the thing about having a high mental was that it gave an eye for details, and having his boosted so drastically all at once was causing Velik to pay more attention to what his senses were telling him than usual. He could guess the townsman's height down to a fraction of an inch, and his weight with similar accuracy.

The system made it hard to judge people on appearance alone. Someone capable of ripping apart a brick wall with their bare hands could appear scrawny, though usually a high enough physical started refining their appearance and adding muscle to their frame. What it didn't do, however, was adjust their weight.

The townsman was too heavy. Velik could see it in the tracks he was leaving with every step. There were an extra thirty pounds of weight, and the man had nothing on him to account for that discrepancy. If there's nothing on the outside…

"Sildra," he said. "That man up there, in the brown coat. Make sure you walk past him when we go by."

"Why?" she asked, peering ahead at him. "What's going on with him?"

"He weighs too much."

That got him exactly the reaction he'd expected, which was to say confusion and incredulity. "What does that even mean?" Giller asked.

"Hopefully, it means nothing. Maybe, it means he's heavier on the inside than he should be."

"Heavier from—oh!" Sildra let out a small gasp. "You think he's—"

"Maybe," Velik said again. "Your job is to find out. If he is, just keep walking and don't say anything. We'll have to check the whole town and it'll be easier if they don't know we're on to them."

The group lapsed into silence as they walked, with Sildra slowly drifting to the right side of the group to be closer to the man. He nodded politely as they passed each other, and Jensen returned the gesture.

Velik hoped the man didn't have any good perception skills or a high mental, because Sildra was not good at keeping her expression steady. And that answers that. The corruption has spread to the town, at least partially. We're going to have to clean the entire place up, and make sure to hit any mines or quarries in the area, too. If we're lucky, we won't have to kill these people like they did back on the frontier.

It wasn't particularly surprising to find the locals had been corrupted, but it did make him question why the guild hadn't sent Sildra out to check on them when they'd dispatched a team to destroy the dungeon. His only guess was that they didn't care, that the priority was to prevent new agents of corruption from being created, not save the people who'd already been infected.

He knew he wasn't being fair to the guild. It wasn't that they wouldn't save the townsfolk if they could. It was that Sildra was their only way of finding and removing agents from hunters. Guild leadership had obviously prioritized their business in Cravel over saving random people hundreds of miles away. It made sense, but Velik didn't like it.

Once they were past the agent pretending to be human, Velik asked, "Did you get close enough to everyone at the inn to confirm none of the staff were also infected?"

"I did," Sildra said unhappily. She glanced over her shoulder at the man walking away. "I could free him right now."

"Not yet," Giller said in a harsh whisper.

"We need to get out of this town and make sure no one's spying on us," Velik decided. "I'm going back to get Aria. We'll catch up in a bit."

Giller started muttering curses under her breath, but nobody argued. They kept on going north, and Velik circled back, running as fast as he dared in town, until he reached the inn a minute later. He walked in to see Aria already standing from her chair. The book she was holding vanished.

"I'll portal us to the rest of the group," she said. "Come with me."

She really was watching us, Velik realized. I suppose that at least this way I don't have to convince her.