perizou
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Chapter 265 - Living Fence
🕑 Added 2021-06-23 13:00:10 +0000 UTCHera and Blue felt helpless while watching the lines of people move around inside the kitchen. The cooks all worked on their unique dishes, calling out for plates and changes of stations. It was the same with the servers, they took box after box from a room in the back without stopping for a single moment. The entire kitchen was made of different stones, and it all had a blocky feeling about it. Looking around, Hera couldn't find a single round shape in the design of the ovens, the furniture, or any part of the architecture.
While the two just looked around, feeling lost. Vetek's butler approached them.
"Good morning madams. I understand you might be a bit lost in the situation. However, my master has prepared a list of issues that must be taken care of before the ceremony. Do you wish to see that list, or would you rather deal with everything by yourselves?"
"Oh, yeah. That would be great!" Blue replied.
"Certainly," the butler pulled a small journal and passed it to the humans. When Hera touched the journal, a notification appeared in front of her.
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You have found a list with a few tasks available in the dungeon.
Complete as many tasks as possible within the time limit. Some available tasks are not on this list.
[ ] Remove the weeds from the venue
[ ] Set up the tables for the dinner
[ ] Prepare the courtyard to receive the guests
[ ] Find a place for the band
[ ] Set up decorations for the ceremony
[ ] Decide the order of the menu
[ ] Deliver the bride's dress.
You are required to complete a certain number of tasks to complete the dungeon quest. However, your completion rate will not be revealed until the end of the ceremony.
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Hera let out a relieved sigh. Having a to-do list made things a lot easier, and some tasks didn't seem too bad. For example, finding a place for the band shouldn't be that hard, and delivering the dress should be something quick. However, it was very likely that removing the weeds would the most important part. Not only was it the first thing on the list, but the dungeon itself had weeding in the name. That couldn't be a coincidence. As she considered where to start, Hera noticed the butler was still staring at them without saying a word.
"Thank you for the list. Do you have any suggestion about what we should do first?" Hera asked.
"I'm afraid I'm not knowledgeable enough to give my opinion, but the master seemed particularly worried about the vines that covered the venue. It might be productive to remove them before proceeding to the next task," the butler replied.
"Yeah, it's a good idea. Thanks for the information. Oh, and what's your name?" Blue asked.
"My name is no longer necessary, for I am Lord Vetek's butler, and that is all that matters," the butler replied.
Blue made a confused expression, "You lost your name when you became his butler?"
"It wasn't a loss, but an honor to have my name stricken from the records so I could become Lord Vetek Rimmok's butler," the butler replied with such a proud expression that Blue felt she couldn't say anything back.
"I see.." Hera chimed in, "You must be very proud of your work. We will be sure not to bring any shame for your lord and his house. Now, if you excuse us, there is much to do, and we don't have much time."
"Right, about that. How long do we have until the wedding again?" Blue asked.
"The guests shall arrive at sundown. You have until then to prepare everything," the butler replied.
"No, no. I got that, but how long will that be? Like how many hours?" Blue continued.
"What is an hour?" the butler asked.
"Oh no," Hera turned to the butler, "Do you know what a clock is?"
"What is that? Something the common folk use, I assume."
"Nothing of much importance, don't worry about it," Hera replied with a smile before pulling up her tablet and starting a timer.
"What are you doing? Do you have a way to find out what time it is?" Blue asked.
"I'm gathering information. We are the first ever to come here. If we can tell others how long they have to do everything, it will be much better for them. And, no. I don't have any way to find out how long we have. I might be able to make a sundial, but we need to find a place where we can see the sun first," Hera explained as she made a few notes about what was going on.
"Right," Blue turned to the butler, "How can we get outside?"
"Just head out those doors and turn right. It won't be long before you reach the outside of the palace."
Hera and Blue followed the directions. Just as they left the kitchen, there was a long corridor with people still moving about and carrying more boxes. Despite being a dwarven building, the hallway seemed to be 5 meters high and at least 8 meters wide. The decoration was simple yet elegant, and the entire building seemed to be made out of white rocks that were remarkably similar to ivory. However, there was a single streak of black stone in the middle of the corridor, almost like a long carpet one would see in a gala.
They moved towards the end of the hall and turned right, going through the next set of double doors. After crossing them, the amount of work they had to do became evident. The room after the corridor was a large ballroom with a set of stairs that started at the end of the room and circled around towards the second floor. On the small midsection of the stairs, just before they turned into a curve, there was a massive painting of a golden mountain adorning the wall. It would be a beautiful place if it weren't for the overgrown vegetation covering most of the room. The entire second floor was filled with unkempt hedges that spilled out from the banister. The vines and roots climbed the walls and crawled through the ceiling before coming down and blocking half of the main entrance.
"Ok… so that's the first thing we have to do, right?" Blue asked.
"I have no clue. Let's look outside first, but this seems like a big issue," Hera kept staring at the mess that was caused by the vegetation.
"I mean, fire could work, but I don't know," Blue mumbled.
"What?"
"Stormcloud suggested we could burn all this, but I don't think that's a good idea."
"Let's leave that as a backup plan. We still don't know how bad this is or if it would end up causing a massive fire. Also, try not to talk with Stormcloud near other people," Hera replied.
"But there is just you here. Everyone else is part of the dungeon."
"Yeah, but it's better for you to get used to it already. Remember what we talked about? If people find out about your legacy, things might get complicated," Hera stared at Blue's eyes.
"I know, I know. But I still think you are overreacting. No one is going to try to hurt me just to get a legacy."
"Blue, please. Just be careful."
Blue waved her off, and they left the ballroom. Outside, a sprawling city greeted them, made of stone, lying on the side of a gigantic cave. The way the houses were set up reminded Hera of modern-day Greece, with several buldings almost on top of each other following the natural inclination of the ground. Most houses seemed to have a singular bright color, some were red, while others blue or green, but none mix of colors in their structures. Looking to the side, the city went on and on, and the houses became less colorful. It seemed like some of the citizens kept the natural color of the rocks used to build their homes. However, if that was an actual choice or just the lack of materials to do something different, was something Hera had no way of knowing.
In the distance, to her left, there was a small orchard basking in the sun. She looked up, and there was a sizeable hole in the cave's ceiling. They could see the sunlight coming from it and even the sky, and that was the only place in the entire cavern that had an opening to the outside. It was a shame that it also meant Hera had no way of making a sundial. Those types of things only worked when receiving sunlight constantly. Besides, she wasn't even sure if she could be dextrous enough to create a sundial using her available spells.
Hera and Blue turned around to see the venue better. It was a two-story-high white building decorated with several columns around it and a couple of hammer statues in the front. Unfortunately, vines and roots covered most of the right side of the structure. People were calling this place the palace, but in reality, it was just a small annex. Behind the building, there was a massive castle with eight golden towers and a high wall encircling the entire structure. For a moment, Hera even considered that this wasn't part of the palace, but looking back, she noticed a secondary set of walls splitting this area from the housing zone.
This felt a bit too much like a way to keep people away from the nobles. It wasn't like the castle was in a position where it would be easily attacked. Even if someone invaded, they would have to go through the entire city before arriving here. The one exception was the hole above the orchard, but if someone tried to get through that, it was more likely that they would be discovered.
"Are you ok?" Blue asked.
"Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking about some random stuff," Hera replied after coming back to reality. This wasn't the time nor place to consider the whys of an ancient kingdom.
Blue and Hera walked over to the side garden to check on the plants. Apparently, all this growth was caused by four single potted flowers. The roots were all coming from those pots, crawling on the ground before climbing up the building wall.
"This seems unfair," Blue sighed.
"What?"
"This, I mean, if I try to make a flower grow, it dies because there was too much oxygen or something stupid like that. But these things are just screaming, 'hell yeah, concrete!' and growing like that."
"Hey, don't be like that. I'll help you take care of your next plant. I promise."
"It's not the same, but anyway. What should we do? Start cutting?" Blue asked.
"I think it's a good start. I really hope that works, and we don't have to climb the whole place to get rid of these things," Hera looked back to the building. It could be just 2 stories high, but it was enormous. A place like this could easily be considered an entire neighborhood.
Hera got closer to one pot and cut a piece of the roots. Since this was an effect caused by a spell, she was worried that attacking the roots would cause some unforeseen effects. Luckily, that didn't happen. As she sliced part of the root, the rest didn't react in any way. Since things seemed ok, Blue and Hera cut the roots that were coming out of the pots. They had to start somewhere and doing it like that would at least make it so if more grew it wouldn't push the current vegetation forward.
After finishing that, Hera turned to Blue, "Should I just try to burn it? Just a little to see how much it actually burns."
"That might not be a good idea, but it's your call," Blue replied.
"I'll make the weakest fire arrow I can. If it starts burning too much, can you make some rain?"
Blue stopped for a moment, "I just realized… Mark is going to give me so much shit about that."
"About what?"
"I can literally make it rain."
Hera chuckled, "Yeah, you're screwed. Can I do that?"
"Yeah, sure. I'll get ready."
Hera sent a small fire arrow towards the edge of the roots. When the spell impacted, most of the vines that were climbing the wall of the hall glowed in red and orange and burst into flames.
"Shit!" Hera gasped as Blue quickly sent a large cloud that instantly started to pour rain over the area. Hera tried to help, by using her soil spell to suffocate the flames. Thanks to their quick response, there wasn't much damage, and a large part of the vines was gone after putting out the fire.
"Well… it kind of worked," Hera scratched her head.
"Sure, but let's not try this again, shall we?" Blue sighed.
"Yeah, let's go back inside to see what we can do."
Blue nodded, and they went back to the ballroom. Things seemed to be a bit more complicated than they first thought, meaning that completing this dungeon on the first go might not be as easy as it seemed.
##### Author's Note ####
Hell Yeah! Concrete!
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Comments
Perizou
Thanks for the corrections. I put the wall thing to 'climbing up the wall' since I had just used the crawling up thing
Aldous Russell
Thanks! "worked in their unique dishes" should be "on". "firsts ever" should be "first". "how long, they have" shouldn't have a comma. I think "reach outside the palace" would be better as "reach the outside of the palace" or maybe "reach the gardens". "stairs that would start at the end... circle" should be "that started... circled". "adorned the wall" should be "adorning". "coming down and block" should be "blocking". I think "look outside before" would be better as "first". I think "things might be complicated" would be better as "get". I think "places almost on top of each other" might be better as "buildings". I think "nothing had any mix of colors" would be better as "none". I think "part of the people" might be better as "some" and possibly "residents" or "citizens". I think "before coming up in the building wall" should maybe be "crawling up the". I think "doing like that" should maybe be "doing it like that". "Herra" should be "Hera".
