Chapter 60: Last Meal

  They were shoved inside the pit without ceremony. One of the guards clattered the iron-bar gate shut behind them and walked off without a glance back.

  Above, torchlight flickered. Beyond that, deeper in the tunnels, came the unmistakable sounds of music and laughter. Kobold voices raised in celebration. Crude flutes, drums, the crackling of a fire pit, the occasional cheer, the feast had begun. But not for them, not for the humans.

  He sat down heavily, back against the cold stone wall, wincing as his calf throbbed again. Someone had hastily wrapped a strip of shirt around the gash, but it was soaked through. He wished he could bandage it properly, but his extra supplies were in his backpack, which he left in the forest, tucked under some brush near the tunnel entrances.

  Most of his other gear, which had he brought with him for the rescue mission, was already taken by the kobolds. At least they hadn’t taken everything.

  His bracelet , still hidden in plain sight, sat innocently on his wrist like a chunk of river rock. His ring , the vine-like one, curled around his finger. Neither looked like anything more than scavenged junk to kobold eyes. At least that was what Alex still assumed.

  Everything else—his belt, pouch of stolen crystals, gear, his dagger—gone. He let out a breath. Allie knelt next to him with a worried look. “Let me see that leg.”

  “I’m good.”

  “You’re very much not.”

  Tom-Tom plopped down nearby, his own tiny legs crossed with his tail curling around his feet. “Human wounds are squishy. You don’t clot right.”

  “Appreciate the commentary,” he muttered, as Allie began untying the shirt around his calf to inspect the wound. Alex caught her eye and gave a weak smile.

  She didn’t return it.

  “Can you understand him?” Devon asked with wide eyes. “Like… fluently?”

  He nodded. “I think the magic helps bridge some of the grammar. I’ve been picking it up better and better every time he speaks or whines.”

  “I do not whine!” Tom-Tom objected. “I declare with enthusiasm. ”

  “Great,” Eric grunted from the corner. “So now we’re relying on Alex to be our translator and our champion. No pressure, right?”

  “Oh! That reminds me,” with a flick of his wrist Alex accessed his bracelet’s storage and pulled out the pouch Sylvaris had given him. “I have presents for everyone. Be careful when the other kobolds are around though okay.”

  “Oh my goodness, Alex. Yes, yes a thousand times yes!” Garret shouted when Alex handed him his own ring. Alex ignored him and continued, tossing the enchanted rings to everyone. With rings on fingers, translation duty was off Alex’s shoulders and now everyone could finally talk with their little scaled lizard friend.

  As he was handing out the rings, Tom-Tom gawked at him. It seemed the little lizard was taken aback by what Alex did. Since he didn’t appear to be an ultra powerful space mage, Alex could only guess at what Tom-Tom’s mind was thinking.

  To avoid confusion, he showed the little guy his bracelet and how it works. Luckily, Alex still carried the most valuable items in his bracelet. Glyphcrafting stylus and other tools for one thing, the potions he bought from Celeste for another.

  Drinking one of the healing potions now was certainly tempting, but he couldn’t do that. He just wasn’t sure how he could explain his sudden miraculous recovery when the kobolds came back for this Dark Den trial. He would have to suffer his wounds for now.

  All the money he still held on to was also in his bracelet, a lesson learned from the last time the Kobolds scavenged him dry. And of course the final gifts he had for everyone else, the spell tomes.

  Smiles as well as “ooh’s” and “aaah’s” filled the pit as Alex performed his Santa Claus act for everyone. Kate was especially surprised when he pressed a tome into her hands. She looked at him with suspicious eyes, the bruising around her nose almost gone at this point.

  “Just take it,” Alex said. “We are in this together okay. Get stronger, maybe you can pay me back for that nosejob.”

  The woman scoffed but took the scroll before walking off. Zach eyed him sternly during the whole exchange but said nothing when Alex handed off another tome to him. Next was Lance, Holly, Peter, everyone got a spell that he had hand picked for them from Celeste’s stash; of the ones that he could afford anyway.

  “Alright, everyone read your tome. I don’t recommend trying them in here, but you can at least learn them now. I’m guessing everyone is behind on experience points, but where are you all with stats?”

  As he had guessed, everyone had fallen behind in terms of raw stats as well. The mining labor had helped a little on the physical side, but not much. Their mental stats weren’t doing too bad though, as everyone had plenty of time to cultivate their cores, not only increasing their mental stats overtime naturally, but pushing their core attunement up with amazing speed.

  That wasn’t all.

  There was an attempt made by Alex to teach everyone the triple braided version of the [Condensing Spiral], but no one could pull in enough of their element’s nature to supply more than one braid of aether. It looked like Sylvaris was right in saying this was a unique advantage Alex had from his lack of element now.

  Once everyone got their gifts and learned their spells, there was a round of sharing and comparing information, Alex telling his side of his journey, and them telling theirs.

  “So you felt Alex had a dragon inside him?” Holly laughed as Tom-Tom told his side of the rescue mission story, and how he had stopped the Chieftain from killing him.

  “He’s not exactly brave you know.” Allie added in.

  “Hey, I volunteered to be the first in the ritual circle that Doudra set up.” Alex tried to defend his honor.

  “Only because you needed to get closer to study the glyphs. You even said that.” Holly countered.

  “That was part of it, yes. But that wasn’t the only reason.”

  “Watch it now, Holly, he did save you from the Den Mother.” Lance came to his aid.

  “You say that, but I didn’t see him saving anyone.” Eric said. Alex was unsure who’s side he was on.

  “That’s because you were already knocked out against a tree at that point, captain.” Garret came in this time, nudging the captain’s shoulder and chuckling. “Don’t worry though, I was in the same boat there. We did our best, am I right?” Garret held up a palm to Eric, once again trying to get one of those high-fives that he kept ranting about.

  Eric ignored him. Hank grinned.

  “That’s true,” Holly bit her lip. “Thanks again, for that.”

  “Forget it,” Alex waved her off. “Like I said, we are in this together, we save each other. That’s a given.”

  “So you are truly brave?” Tom-Tom was back leaning next to Alex’s shoulder as he sat on the ground. The smell of mushroom really was strong.

  “No,” Alex insisted, “I’m just the one who had the opportunity to try something. That’s it. Its the same even now, I’m not doing this test in the Dark Den because I want to, but because I have to.”

  He got some nods, and some side-eyes, but everyone let the topic drop. From there Garret started asking Tom-Tom various questions about how kobolds cook their food. It was a conversation that Lance happily jumped into after a moment. Allie and Holly began chatting with Henry about something that Alex didn’t really care too much about.

  He really had other things he had to look into and check on before this whole ‘Test’ business started.

  First, he checked his quest.

  The System hadn’t decided he failed the quest, which was the least he could hope for. He doubted the mysterious rewards for the quest would be as good as if he succeeded in his first rescue plan, but that wasn’t his priority. Getting everyone out alive was his priority, and he might be able to still manage that.

  Next, Alex had to look over his status screen and see what he had to work with.

  His skills had progressed a bit due to all the enchanting prep he had done for his break-out plan. Meanwhile his stats had minor increases. Probably for the same reason, as well as from the ass beating he got from the Chieftain.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  He was most happy to see that increase in his aether attuned body. Even one measly percent was a huge boon if it meant he could hold more energy in his body, or even bring him to another threshold for a stat increase. That ability might turn out to be Alex’s biggest secret weapon, more than even his [Aether Sight], more than his [Demon Asura Style]. He was excited to see where it would take him later on.

  He swiped away his status screen and looked around at all his friends. Right now, there was still a lot to do. As he listened to the sounds of the kobolds and their feast echoing in the tunnels, he realized he also didn’t know how much time he had either. Better get to it then.

  ***

  “Okay, so this ,” he said, squatting beside Devon and drawing a tight spiral with a piece of charcoal, “is the base glyph for ‘bind.’ It stabilizes a spell into an object or surface. Without it, your rune explodes, or melts. Or, worst case, screams until your ears bleed.”

  Devon starred down at the sigil. “Cool. Cool. Can you repeat that last part?”

  Alex grinned. “The screaming?” Devon nodded. “Yeah. Learn the binding glyph.”

  “I’ll try, Alex,” Devon muttered, hunched over a cobbled-together stone slab. “But your handwriting looks like a spider with caffeine withdrawal.”

  “You think this is bad,” Allie muttered, lying flat on her back nearby with a pillow made of rags. “He left me instructions for mixing a painkiller tincture that almost caused internal combustion.”

  “In fairness,” Alex said, “your pain did stop.” Allie just groaned.

  He had spent the last few hours trying to teach Devon [Glyphcraft], and Allie [Alchemy]. They were the only two skills he had experience with, and he thought the more people with the skills, the better.

  No one else seemed interested in either of those options. Garret insisted he wanted to do blacksmithing. Henry said something about gardening, which threw Alex a curve-ball since he wasn’t even sure that was a skill. Obby insisted there was something like herblore or the like, but it required lots of time and resources. No way it could be practiced down in the prison pit. Alex also thought about teaching some of them the [Demon Asura Style], but he doubted that anyone had a knack for the style, and he didn’t have time to properly teach them anyway.

  All the others simply practiced their spells, or worked on attuning their cores. Eventually everyone sort of did whatever they wanted.

  Across the pit, Garret and Lance were crouched near Tom-Tom, who stood on a loose bone pile and held a tiny stick like it was a royal scepter.

  “I am King Tom-Tom, Grand Scholar of the Deep Stacks, Destroyer of Ritual Cheese, and Son of Dirt-Mother!” he proclaimed, voice squeaky and proud.

  Lance gave a mock bow. “My liege, we’re honored by your greasy presence.”

  “I knight you Sir Tall-But-Not-Smart,” Tom-Tom said, bopping him lightly with the stick. “You may rise, and stop drooling on the dirt.”

  “I wasn’t… okay, that’s fair,” Lance said, laughing.

  Garret leaned in. “O Great King, what is the true meaning of kobold feasting day?”

  Tom-Tom puffed up, clearly delighted by the charade. “We honor the breaking of the Spine of Behemoth and the first Taste of Bravery. It is the only day we are allowed to wear fancy rags, drink tunnel-wine, and yell at ghosts without penalty.”

  “I love kobolds,” Garret whispered.

  On the other side of the pit, Henry sat in a lotus position, hands resting lightly on his knees, meditating. Peter was beside him, not meditating but pretending to. His eyes were closed, and lips twitching. Every few seconds he cracked one open to glance around like a spy.

  “You’re not meditating,” Kate said from nearby, her arms crossed but relaxed for once.

  Peter smiled with his eyes still closed. “I’m vibing.”

  Kate didn’t smile, but she didn’t glare either. “Better than yelling.” Her eyes flickered to Tom-Tom and Garret.

  Zach stood beside her, his shoulders square, and his posture tight. Watching... listening. After a moment, Alex wandered over and dropped beside them, wincing as his sore leg hit the stone. “Thanks for not killing my team when they got captured, by the way.” Alex whispered.

  Kate quirked a brow. “I considered it.”

  “But you didn’t,” he said. “So there’s gotta be some kind of a nice person hiding inside you somewhere.”

  Zach spoke and he sounded mildly surprised. “Why kill them outright? You’ve got good people. They are untrained and loud. Stupid, sometimes. But loyal.”

  Alex glanced at him. “That was almost a compliment.”

  Zach shrugged.

  Kate sat beside them, slowly, like it was a cautious act of trust. “They follow you.”

  “They follow each other, I just try my best at staying alive and not letting them die to things.” She huffed at that. Maybe it was a laugh, Alex couldn’t be sure.

  “You’re alright, Pierce.” She said.

  Alex blinked in surprise. “Wow. I should mark that on the wall.”

  Kate rolled her eyes. “Don’t get clingy.”

  Back near the rune slab, Devon finally lifted his tool with shaking fingers and pressed a palm into the glyph. Nothing exploded. The rune simply pulsed softly with light.

  “I- I did it,” Devon breathed. “It worked. Alex! It worked!”

  “Told you,” he said, proud. “You just needed to stop overthinking it.”

  Devon looked at his trembling hands and laughed once. “This is the coolest thing I’ve ever done. It’s like coding and magic had a baby.” He held the stone slab up to the light to admire the many lines and runes of his work. Alex didn’t fault him, the first successful glyph is always a real thrill.

  “It’s like tech and magic had a baby, and the baby is puzzle mini-game to an obviously murderous AI system?” Allie said without opening her eyes.

  “Metaphorically,” Devon said. “Yeah. A little.”

  Garret jogged over, plopping down beside Allie. “Hey, doc. You still pissed about the rat soup?”

  Allie’s eyes snapped open. “Yes! You fed me rat.”

  “You said the broth was good!” Garret whined.

  “That was before I knew—”

  Garret held up a finger, a band of vines wrapped around the digit. “Before we had the translator rings.”

  Tom-Tom looked smug. “I said it was ‘bone beast with tail,’ and none of you asked questions.”

  Allie threw a pebble at him. The little lizard freak simply caught it in his mouth and began chewing, loudly. “Thanks!”

  As laughter rolled through the pit, Holly sat off to the side, quietly watching it all. Her arms were wrapped around her knees, her chin resting on them. Alex noticed her all by herself and silently moved to sit beside her without asking. Just close enough that their shoulders brushed. “You okay?” he asked.

  She nodded once. “Yeah. Just… tired. Of the caves, being hunted, of not knowing if we’ll make it.”

  “Same.”

  She looked at him. “Still think this world is trying to teach us something?”

  Alex smiled faintly. “Yeah. That we’re harder to kill than we thought.”

  There was a long pause where neither of them spoke. Then she leaned into him just a bit more. “Then I hope we all survive long enough to find out what else we’re good at.” She said.

  “I’m sure we will. Have you tried that spell yet?”

  The spell Alex had picked out for Holly was a weapon augmentor spell. It essentially enchanted the edge of a weapon with her air element aether, making it cut or pierce far more easily. It was a nice spell to get through armored targets.

  “Yeah, its rather good,” She smiled at him. “Thanks for that.”

  “No problem.”

  "Between saving my life and buying me gifts, seems you’re trying to get on my good side,” she said, her tone was soft amid everyone else’s banter.

  Alex looked at her, really looked, and something in the moss-light caught the curve of her face just right. Her eyes illuminated, reflecting the green glow that surrounded them, the tension of the past few days loosening a notch in his chest. She didn’t look away, neither did he.

  Tom-Tom’s head popped up between them, eyes wide. “Oooooh. Is this courtship? Kobolds do this with tail knots. Very romantic. Sometimes ends in biting.”

  Alex sputtered, while Holly covered her face with a groan.

  “Go sit on a rock, Tom-Tom,” Alex shooed the lizard away.

  Tom-Tom sauntered off with his tail wagging behind him. “Humans weird.”

  With the moment now lost, Alex looked about the chamber awkwardly. He coughed and then stood up, stretching his arms and back. “I should go check on Devon’s [Glyphcraft] work to make sure he doesn’t blow us all up.”

  “Yeah, you go do that.” Holly smiled then closed her eyes, beginning to meditate.

  He walked over to Devon feeling far more stupid than he ever had in his life. He distracted his mind with glyph-work instead. Before long, he was immersed in the lines Devon was trying to draw on a new rock slab.

  “Hey, Alex, you hear this?” Garrett called out to him, then turned to Tom-Tom “What do you mean he’s a blood dragon?”

  Alex smiled. It was annoying to have Garret pulling his attention away every few minutes, but after being basically alone for almost a week, he realized he had missed it. “What’s up man?”

  “This lizard dude says you’re a dragon. Can you believe that?”

  Tom-Tom perked up, his stance proud. “Yes! Dragon-Blood-One. That is his title.”

  Allie frowned. “Wait. His what?”

  Tom-Tom huffed and looked around at the group, then tilted his head. “You do not know your names? Oh! Tom-Tom thought you did. You have names. Very important names!”

  “Oh this should be good.” Peter said as he stepped closer. He wrapped an arm over Lance’s shoulder in a half hug. “We get kobold names.”

  Tom-Tom nodded enthusiastically. He pointed at each of them in turn with a clawed finger.

  “You, are Soft-touch,” he said to Allie. “You heal, and comfort, and soothe.”

  “That’s it? Rude,” she muttered, but didn’t argue any further.

  He pointed to Devon. “Stuff-smasher. You are very smart with machines. Like goblins, but less green.” Then he turned to Garrett. “Big-mouth!”

  Garrett gave a little bow. “A pleasure, as always.”

  Henry got “Stone-Eyes-Silent-Fist.” Eric was “The-Silver-Fork,” which caused a moment of confused silence before Tom-Tom explained it meant “one who gives orders but has never cooked a meal.” That got a lot of laughs. Kate was Glitter-hair, which made sense, even though she obviously hated the name based on her reaction. Zach was Mean-statue. Cole was Broad-arms. Even Peter, still soft spoken and mellow, was “Soft-Words-Snake.”

  “Wait, what?” Peter asked, eyebrows raised.

  Tom-Tom just shrugged. “You whisper. But not always true things. You are very polite though. Kobolds like that.”

  Alex couldn’t help it, he laughed. It hurt, but it felt good.

  Then the mood shifted as Tom-Tom’s tail slowed. “You will go to the Den soon,” he said softly.

  Everyone quieted.

  “What is it?” Alex asked. “What is the Dark Den, really?”

  Tom-Tom’s eyes flicked toward the ceiling. “The Den is a Place-Between. They say that once it was just old tunnels, old war rooms from when kobolds fought the rock giants. But then the gate came. Death things came. It stains the stone, speaks in dreams, makes your thoughts not yours.”

  He sucked in a breath.

  Tom-Tom continued. “Sometimes… it lets people come back out. If they are strong. If they are smart. If they are not already dead when they go in.”

  Allie grabbed Holly’s arm instinctively. “And they expect Alex to go in alone?”

  “No,” Tom-Tom said. “With gifts. After the feast, the tribe gives him things. One chance. Trial of Bone and Dark Death.”

  Eric leaned forward. “And if he survives?”

  “He is friend. Not meat.” Tom-Tom raised a single clawed talon. “He is accepted as one of us and his pride will become that of the tribe.” Silence fell again.

  “I need prep time,” he said.

  “What do you mean?” Devon asked.

  “I don’t know what they’ll give me,” Alex said, “but I need to rig up whatever I can. If I can get some aether crystals or metal scraps, I can enchant a few runes manually. Maybe rebuild a usable weapon. Maybe more.”

  “I can help with that,” Devon offered. “We won’t have tools, but I’ve got wire and a few metal plates from a lantern I’ve be playing with, and if I snap the right pieces off my broken comms-”

  “Do it. We’ll make it work.”

  “I sneak crystal. You use that yes?” Tom-Tom chimed in.

  “Yes, I can use any that you bring me.” He patted the lizard on the shoulder, which seemed to please it as Alex could see it’s tail whipping about quickly.

  Peter raised an eyebrow. “And what if they send you in with nothing?”

  Alex looked down at his ring. Then at the bracelet.

  “Then I improvise.”

  Tom-Tom smiled, fangs glinting. “Now you sound like a dragon.”

  As the pit settled into conversation, small fires lit in their circle. People began to settle in for the night, the exhaustion of the day finally catching up to them. Alex lay on the stone, his arms used as a pillow. Garret sat next to him, his head dipping periodically as he began to fall asleep. The others all circled around. Peter recited old Earth war songs in baritone. He was a surprisingly good singer. Henry joined him, Allie rounding out the performance.

  Eventually, he too succumbed to the call of sleep.