chsdbacks Chapter 328 My Calling
Chapter 328 My Calling
After the Demon's Stomach finally reopened mysteriously and by itself, business returned to the town that surrounded the entrance. With the return of adventurers, so too did the traveling merchants and wandering warriors who wished to test their mettle.
The dying and slow streets of the last several months disappeared and were once again filled with people. Berk could barely walk through his hometown without almost bumping into a dozen people. Though the large crowds were obnoxious, he could not complain too badly.
With the return of adventurers and warriors venturing into the dungeon, he had been granted the opportunity to retrain his exploration skills. As a former dungeon guide, and one of the most prolific, he would team up with adventurer groups and guide them through the different levels of the dungeon.
The first ten floors of the dungeon were the same layout constantly, but after the tenth floor whatever mysterious magic maintained the structure would change the floor layouts. Though creating maps of any floor from the eleventh onward was useless, dungeon guides like Berk understood the signs and patterns of the floors.
With the help of people like him, adventuring groups would be able to focus on fighting and collecting resources while trusting their guide to lead them through the depths.
Along with Berk's return to the dungeon, his business partners in his bar offered to buy his portion out. They were concerned that in the event of his death that they would lose a partner. If he passed, it would be harder to file to take ownership of his remaining portion as they would be required to try and locate his relatives before being able to take over his claim.
Berk laughed in their faces because he had no remaining relatives. He happily agreed to sign a form that stated they would be able to take over his claim at cost. The proceeds would then be donated to an orphanage in the capital that cared for children left behind by parents who passed in the Alorek War.
Today he was supposed to guide a duo of adventurers into the dungeons. According to the contract delivered to him at the Adventurer's Guild, the pair of fighters were looking for a long-term contract with a guide. The last few contracts he took were single delves and with his bad luck, all of these single-delves were with groups who backed out of future visits.
They were young fighters who thought they could survive the difficult fights that awaited them below the depths.
Though he hoped the young warriors would return to delving one day, they were clearly better suited to standard adventuring. Berk had no clue who these two new people were, but the fact they wanted a long-term contract gave him hope that he would be able to more frequently and reliably venture deeper into the Demon's Stomach once more.
Berk entered the doors of his bar and approached a table in the corner of the main floor that the guild advised his new charges would be waiting at. The two people sitting at the table gave him pause. There were two women, both were average looking, despite the fact that half their ancestry appeared to be elven in nature. It looked like they took more after the human side.
"Aye," the larger one agreed, "Same rank here, but I use the axe. Got the Axe Arts and Berserker Arts. Neither of us are spring chickens. Helena here is an experienced hunter with... an undisclosed number of years under her belt. Likely more than you've been alive."
Berk sighed and looked between the two women. They were certainly half-elves which meant that the small one easily could have been twice his age without looking a day over twenty. He gently lifted his mug and chugged the entire contents. When he placed it back onto the table with a loud slam, Mar'Eeyen's face grew a wide grin.
"Atta' boy!" She shouted with uproarious laughter, "A full round for the table! To our newfound partnership!"
Berk smiled. The woman reminded him of some of his old friends and his brother. Their memories struck a painful chord in his heart, but he refused to let it show on his face. This was a new job and a new chance. He needed to remove the rust from his blade and once again return to the dungeon with fervor. After all, he had a goal to meet.
Any day could be the day that he would finally be able to enact his revenge.
The three of them drank well into the night. Even Helena's quiet demeanor lightened in the mood of their jubilant party. The two women regaled him with tales of their travels, both separate and together. Helena had apparently served a powerful noble family in their personal guard for a few decades keeping the peace on the outskirts of Keinydd.
Mar'Eeyen on the other hand had many tales of fights at sea against others of the Far Shores who fought over minerals and mining rights of islands. Many of the details on where her adventures led and what they did specifically were left shrouded in mystery.
Though the woman had turned her back on her homeland to achieve a life of adventure away from the sea, she still had the same elusive pattern of story-telling that any of those who came from her homeland possessed. It was as if there was a silent agreement amongst her people to not share what existed outside of the mist that surrounded the continent.
"Aye," She said, "There are many unknowable things in the world that exists outside. Things that I wouldn't repeat were my life dependent on it. I'll tell ya' what, you find your way outside the mist that protects you from the world outside, and I'll share all my stories and every gory detail."
Berk nodded along in mock understanding. He had no intention of leaving Arcadios in his life time, let alone traveling the waters surrounding their continent and figuring out a way beyond the mist that kept their world contained.
"I'll pass." Berk said simply with a sad smile on his face, "This world is all I ever knew and all I care to know. I'll leave the mysteries of it to people more adventurous than me. I live, breathe, and die by the dungeon. It is my calling."