Locke and El (Part Four)

The Christo Hills lay on the edge of the Malichu Plains, where they met the Tidani Mountain Range. They also formed a buffer zone between the Forde Commercial Alliance and the Dwarf Kingdom. Legend held that, in the Age of Magic's Decline, the remaining mages had opened a portal through time and space for the sake of humanity's future on Galintea, sending every other intelligent race to other planes. Somehow, they had overlooked a dwarven tribe in the Tidani Mountain Range. Over the next two thousand years, that tribe had gradually flourished and established the Dwarf Kingdom around the mountains.

The dwarves were the only intelligent, civilized race resembling humans that had been discovered on Galintea so far. They preferred to live in the high mountains. Though they had contact with humans, there had been no real conflicts between them; instead, they traded from time to time.

The Christo Hills nominally fell within the Commercial Alliance's territory, but the Alliance could not effectively divide or govern the region. To put it bluntly, the mountain folk were fiercely independent and quick to fight. A joke or an accidental bump could spark a bloody brawl involving whole villages. For now, the Commercial Alliance had adopted a policy of appeasement. There was even talk of dividing the hills into fiefs for those who had rendered service to the Alliance, though the proposal was still under consideration.

After three days and two nights, Fatty Shi brought Lorist and the others to their destination: a small village called Baka. Waiting to welcome them was the man who had hired them for this private job, Baka's village chief and mine owner, a middle-aged man named Bam.

Bam was an alumnus of Dawnlight Academy. His father had fought against the Krissen Empire's invasion of the Commercial Alliance. After being wounded, he had returned home. Having seen more of the world, he wanted to lift his village out of poverty, so he scraped together the tuition to send Bam to Dawnlight Academy. Bam studied there for three years, specializing in resource prospecting and mining development. Unfortunately, those subjects had always been unpopular at the academy, and their instructors were hardly experts. They taught straight from the books, with no practical experience. The academy eventually discontinued both programs.

After returning home, Bam spent five or six years combining what he had learned with experience in the field. At last, he found an ore vein beneath a hill near Baka. Mining revealed it to be a mixed silver and tin deposit. Though its output was modest, the small mine became the lifeline of five or six nearby villages. Thanks to it, no one in those villages had starved to death in over a decade, and they could generally keep themselves fed and clothed. Bam also used the mine's profits to send talented village children to study in Molent City, hoping they would have better prospects when they grew up.

After talking with Bam, everyone came to admire their senior. Not just anyone would give up a future in Molent City to return home and fight poverty. What was more, after opening the mine, he had spent his earnings on the village children's education. Lorist and Yuri knew all too well that supporting several students in Molent City was no small expense.

Bam spoke frankly. They had first spotted signs of Gold-Eating Rats deep in the mine a year ago. As a Black Iron Swordsman, he had taken a few men down and killed two, after which things had been quiet for a while. Whenever the rats reappeared, he had led patrols into the mine himself. Over the year, they had killed around a dozen. Then, two months ago, the rats had attacked miners at work, killing three and injuring five. Realizing the danger, Bam gathered everyone in the surrounding villages who had awakened Battle Qi. Including himself, they had three Black Iron Swordsmen and eleven Bronze Swordsmen. They went into the mine to wipe out the rats.

The attempt failed. Nearly a hundred Gold-Eating Rats launched a frenzied attack on Bam's group. Caught off guard, all fourteen were wounded. They killed more than thirty rats, but could not withstand wave after wave of attacks. They barely made it back to the surface, with nine of them seriously injured.

By then, Bam knew the rats had become an infestation. His only option was to post a job and hire mercenaries to exterminate them. Money was tight, though. After paying compensation to the dead miners' families and covering his men's medical bills, he had fewer than thirty gold coins left. The mine had been closed for over a month, bringing in no income, and he still needed money to buy grain for the nearby villages. He could offer only a little over ten gold coins as a reward. What he learned at the Mercenary Guild was disheartening: the guild's commission alone on a job like his would be five Gold Fudes. The remainder would not be enough to pay the mercenaries.

Then Bam remembered that students at Dawnlight Academy often formed adventuring parties and took jobs to earn extra money. He asked the children studying there to make inquiries, and they found Fatty Shi.

Once they had heard Bam's story, everyone relaxed. This private job should not be too dangerous, and they trusted Chief Bam. Fatty Shi assessed the situation for them. Based on Bam's account, there were probably two to three hundred Gold-Eating Rats in the mine: a small colony growing toward medium size. If it had been a large colony, at least a thousand would have attacked Bam's party. With three Silver Rank fighters and two Black Iron Swordsmen, the five of them could handle an attack by a hundred rats. Even if they could not kill them all, they could kill the queen and force the survivors to leave the mine.

The eighteen Gold Fudes Bam offered were a little less than the job deserved, but still enough for everyone to earn a tidy sum. Bam would also send two Bronze Swordsmen along as guides and to carry their gear, at no extra cost. Most importantly, everything the adventuring party found during the job would be theirs. Valuable metal ores could often be found in a Gold-Eating Rat nest. Someone had once found a large gold nugget in one, and that was worth having. All in all, the venture was worthwhile. They would rest for the night and set out tomorrow.

"...Generally speaking, Gold-Eating Rat meat tastes a little sour, but it's safe to eat. It tastes better made into smoked jerky. Throw away the blood and organs; they contain heavy-metal toxins. The most valuable parts are the two big front teeth. They're incredibly hard, and each one sells for a small silver coin. The fur's useless, though. You can never get rid of the smell. However you tan it, it still stinks like a sewer and attracts flies and mosquitoes, so people just throw it away..."

Inside the mine, El had been sent ahead to scout. Fatty Shi, Yuri, and Telman walked in the middle, while Lorist followed with Bam and the two Bronze Swordsmen carrying iron cages. As they walked, Lorist showed off what he had learned in Magical Beast Lore. "Gold-Eating Rats hate the smell of pine, especially pine roots. The solution we smeared at the junction back there was extracted from old pine roots. It'll stop the rats from scattering by cutting off their escape routes..."

"Yes, that's right. The research was published last year. It was the latest discovery by Professor Snade Borg, the Magical Beast Lore instructor at our academy. He won the Forde Research Prize for it—two hundred thousand Gold Fudes. Made a fortune overnight. It's a godsend for mine owners. Apply it regularly in the tunnels, and the rats will stay away from the mining area."

"It's not expensive. A large barrel costs only three Gold Fudes and lasts a month. In fact, after you've used it for a while, the mine will retain the pine scent. After a year or two, you won't even need to apply it anymore. It's a bargain! Think it over, Bam. If you want some, send me a message. Demand outstrips supply, and the academy can make only so much. You can't get your hands on it without an inside connection, but for you, I'd make sure of it."

Lorist was pleased with himself. If Bam took the bait, he would earn a one-Gold-Fude commission on every barrel. Twelve barrels a year would mean twelve Gold Fudes without lifting a finger. That was a fine deal. Perhaps, once they got back, he should visit the other mines and sell the solution.

They went deeper into the mine and encountered two groups of rats. More than two hundred Gold-Eating Rats fell beneath the party's swords. Fatty Shi, El, and Telman's Silver Rank strength was impressive enough, but even the performance of the two Black Iron Swordsmen, Yuri and Lorist, left Bam and his Bronze Swordsmen dumbfounded.

Yuri stood in the center of a triangle formed by Fatty Shi, El, and Telman. As the rats swarmed them, he did not lead the attack. Instead, he picked off any that slipped through, leaving the other three free to cut loose without worrying about their backs. Lorist was even more outrageous. Standing apart with a single sword, he killed one rat with every stroke. He cut down dozens without getting a drop of blood on himself, and he was no slower than Fatty Shi's group.

Bam and his men felt ashamed. When their fourteen-man group had faced a similar number of rats, they had been thrown into a panic, chased out of the mine, and left with nine serious injuries. These men made killing the rats look as easy as sword practice.

After those two fights, Fatty Shi called for a break so everyone could catch their breath and collect the spoils. Yuri took a pair of large pliers and started pulling the rats' teeth. When Bam learned that no one wanted the carcasses, he remembered Lorist saying the meat was edible. He sent one of the Bronze Swordsmen back to the village to fetch people to haul the bodies away and give the villagers some meat.

After eating some rations and taking a short nap, Fatty Shi decided they would split up. He would take Telman and Yuri down the left branch, while Lorist and El took the right. There should not be many rats left. They only had to find the nest and kill the queen to finish the job.

Lorist carried a bag of rat-repelling solution on his back, smearing it here and there as they walked.

"What are you doing?" El asked.

Lorist briefly explained what the solution did. Since El did not own a mine, Lorist saw no reason to give him the full sales pitch.

El doubted it worked, and the two began bickering again.

They walked for a long time without finding anything. The main tunnel ahead was nearly at an end, and they had not seen a single rat. "Let's go back," El said. "There's nothing here."

He had barely finished speaking when the rock wall ahead bulged, then burst apart with a crash. A huge black head thrust through the opening. It seemed to sniff the air a few times before lunging straight at Lorist and El.

"What is that?" Lorist was so startled he dropped his torch. The thing was enormous. Its head alone was two meters across.

"Run!" El grabbed Lorist and spun around.

"Damn it, I knew running into you meant trouble. The last two times were bad enough. When you insisted on coming along this time, I kept wondering when disaster would strike. Well, I can stop worrying now. We came to kill rats and found that thing. That's as unlucky as it gets." Lorist complained as he ran behind El.

"You could thank me for pulling you away," El shot back. "Otherwise it would've swallowed you. You were so scared you even dropped your torch."

"I just remembered the legendary Unicorn Rock Python from that mine incident. I was afraid that was what was behind us. When I saw its head and long body, the thought made me freeze." Lorist's face grew warm. He really had frozen in fright. Luckily, El had grabbed him.

El glanced back as they ran. After a moment, he said, "I don't think it's a Unicorn Rock Python. It's not very fast. Its head is round, I can't see any eyes, and it doesn't have scales..."

"No way. You can see all that in this pitch-black tunnel? Don't treat me like a child. Do I look that easy to fool? And slow down! Neither of us can see where we're going. We'll run into a wall," Lorist said.

"Haha!" El laughed smugly. "You know I train in Dark Attribute Battle Qi, but you didn't know it gives you night vision, did you? It may be dark in here, but to me it's like daylight. That's my special talent. Impressive, isn't it? Envious? Unlike you, I don't go blind when I drop my torch."

"Damn it, I have plenty of gold. I can afford lamp oil, unlike you, who never lights a lamp..." Lorist was envious despite himself. El's night vision did not seem much worse than his Dynamic Vision, and at night it gave El a huge advantage.

"So when you wandered into the women's bathhouse that day, you must've had quite a view. The lighting was dim, but that wouldn't have bothered you," Lorist asked between breaths.

"Can we not talk about that day? I really was facing the wall. I didn't look at those old women..." El grew flustered at the reminder of those dreaded words. Distracted, he tripped over a rock.

Lorist hurried over to help. El grabbed his arm and got to his feet. "Huh? Locke, are you hurt? Your clothes are soaked."

Startled, Lorist felt himself up and down. "Oh, I'm not hurt. The bag of solution broke and spilled all over me. Are you all right? I think I hear something behind us again."

"I'm fine. That thing's catching up. Let's go."

Before long, they spotted Fatty Shi and the others waiting where they had rested. Lorist and El were too winded to speak, so they waved frantically for everyone to run. Fatty Shi's group thought their flailing was hilarious and stood there laughing—until a huge creature came rumbling after them. Then everyone scrambled toward the mine entrance as fast as they could.

Fatty Shi was the fastest despite his size and charged out of the mine first. Yuri, Telman, Bam, and one Bronze Swordsman followed, with El and Lorist bringing up the rear. Outside, the other Bronze Swordsman and the villagers preparing to load rat carcasses onto carts stared at the breathless group in astonishment. What had happened now?

"Run!" Fatty Shi shouted. "Spread out! Get away from the entrance! There's a magical beast coming!"

Everyone scattered. Fortunately, the creature seemed afraid of the light. It reached the entrance, then retreated into the mine.

Fatty Shi let out a breath and turned to Lorist and El. "What was that thing? How did you run into it? Ugh, Locke, what's that smell on you? Did you piss yourself?"

"No. I spilled the solution on myself—the one Professor Snade Borg at our academy invented to drive off Gold-Eating Rats. Since we came here to kill them, I brought a barrel."

"Damn it! You brought that stuff here? Now I know what's in there." Fatty Shi nearly jumped out of his skin. Furious, he raised a fist at Lorist.

"Wait, Fatty Shi, explain! The solution drives off Gold-Eating Rats. Isn't that good?" Lorist asked, dodging him.

"Good, my ass! It drives off Gold-Eating Rats, all right, but it attracts Earth Dragons. That thing in there is an Earth Dragon, and your solution lured it here."

"Do you even know what an Earth Dragon is? It's a mutated, magically transformed earthworm, and it loves that pine-root solution. If you don't believe me, dig under a pine tree and see how many worms you find. People at the academy are already using the solution to hunt Earth Dragons."

"Professor Borg thought he'd make a fortune with it. Instead, he drove off the rats and brought in Earth Dragons. He had to pay back every bit of that two-hundred-thousand-Gold-Fude prize. The solution he made is piled up at the academy because nobody will buy it. You didn't know? Damn it, only a fool like you would fall for the professor's pitch!" Fatty Shi was beside himself.

Damn it. No wonder the professor had promised him a one-Gold-Fude commission for every barrel sold at three. How could a deal that good have been real? Lorist crouched on the ground, holding his head. "Go ahead and hit me. Everyone, take a swing. You'll feel better."

No one hit him. Now that it had happened, they needed to work out what to do. Compared with other magical beasts, an Earth Dragon was fairly easy to deal with. After a long discussion, they decided their best bet was to hook it.

An Earth Dragon was essentially an enormous earthworm: a fairly docile scavenging magical beast that feared water and light. It did not actively attack lively prey, in part because its massive body made it slow and clumsy. With help from Bam and the villagers, Fatty Shi's group spent six days making a thick rope nearly a hundred meters long and a huge iron hook shaped like a ship's anchor. To make up for his mistake, Lorist went into the mine alone, carrying the hook with the rope tied to it.

As he walked, he noticed someone beside him. It was El. "What are you doing here?"

"Keeping you company, of course," El said. "If Fatty Shi hadn't needed Yuri and Telman to help pull the rope, they'd be here too. We're companions."

Lorist's eyes filled with tears.

After a while, El said they had gone far enough. They set down the great iron hook and wrapped it in rags. Lorist poured the remaining half-barrel of solution over the hook and cloth.

Soon, a heavy, rasping sound came from deeper in the mine. "Run!" El said, and they sprinted for the entrance.

Before they reached it, the thick rope on the ground leaped into the air and pulled taut a meter above them. "It's hooked!" Lorist said with delight.

Outside the mine, Fatty Shi directed the villagers as they used several large wheels to play tug-of-war with the Earth Dragon. They pulled from morning until afternoon before finally dragging it to the entrance. There, it braced itself against something inside and refused to budge. At last, with everyone shouting, "One, two, three—pull!" Lorist saw black, foul-smelling blood and slime gush from the tunnel like a flash flood. The iron hook flew out, trailing tubes and strips of flesh of every size.

Fatty Shi went over for a look and nodded in satisfaction. "Good. We pulled out all its organs. The Earth Dragon's done for. Tomorrow we'll go in and drag out its hide."

Earth Dragons had remarkable regenerative abilities and could easily recover from external wounds. But because they swallowed food whole, straight into their guts, people had devised a way to hunt them with hooks. Pull out an Earth Dragon's organs, and it was finished.

Little else on an Earth Dragon was valuable, but its thick hide had its uses. People cut it into pieces and boiled it into a powerful adhesive. Mixed with sand and soil, it could be used to build walls and lay foundations. Once dry, the structure became a single, exceptionally sturdy whole.

Since Lorist had caused the trouble, Fatty Shi gave the Earth Dragon hide to Bam, who was delighted. With adhesive made from the hide, he could build a number of decent houses for the villagers.

Over the next three days, Lorist and his companions cleared every Gold-Eating Rat from the mine. They hung iron cages in the corners, each containing a rat carcass left to rot naturally. Any rats passing through later would smell the warning of death left by their own kind and avoid the mining area.

With everything taken care of, they said goodbye to Bam and set off for the city.