Chapter 216

◈ Chapter 216:

Pickle scratched her chin and examined the wall.

It was a fairly normal looking wall, all things considered, built from cream white stone, like a cleaner and newer version of the city slums above, lacking the grime and stains of millenia.

What was decidedly less normal about it was that part of a couch was protruding from the wall part way up, half of the thing sticking out into the air as if that was a perfectly normal thing to happen. It even had couch cushions strewn across it, although one had fallen down to the cobble below.

Pickle examined the fallen cushion thoughtfully, and then stretching out one small leg, poked it with her toe.

Yep, definitely a real cushion. It was quite nicely sewn too with lots of floral patterns.

Real. Explainable.

On other hand, why the couch it belonged to was merged into a solid stone wall wasn't something she could explain at all. Maybe the person it belonged to liked to sit on their couch… outside… half way up a wall…

Strange. Very strange. But then that was all of this strange town that she had discovered beneath her home, an entire place that was, well, mostly empty from what she had seen, but already it somehow looked so much better and more homey than the slums!

There was no smelly horse poo strewn across the streets here for example, or piles of garbage, or homeless hurt by the dungeon, or scary people with knives, which meant Bean wouldn't need to chase off anyone if they approached home.

The cleanliness wasn't the only peculiarity about this underground wonderland she had spotted. There were buildings here and there that seemed to be missing doors, or windows, or occasionally entire walls, the insides visible from the street. It was like someone had scrawled a drawing of a house with no care for any of the mistakes they made. The buildings she'd seen from afar, at the edge of this town, she wasn't even sure could be called buildings, more like haphazard shapes.

But then who was she to judge, maybe the monsters (Monsters!) who lived here liked that kind of thing, maybe that was their style?

She pondered that thought a bit.

She hadn't gotten to interact with monsters much in her life after the bad times. There was the ultimate fluffy boy, obviously. Then the green girl. And then finally the occasional slime monster that new father brought home. She liked prodding them with sticks and watching them wobble and burble.

The monsters here though were many and varied, and if she were honest, a little intimidating.

She had survived in the dungeon on her own, she knew what a real threat was. These were and weren't that. She would be fine, as long as big fluff kept everyone in line as the big boss. But she also knew that given the chance, they would kill her and eat her, because that was the way of things in the dungeon.

She paused by a stair as she pondered many important things and glanced up. A face was looking down at her, peering from a window missing all glass and wood, just a dark rectangular hole. The owner of the face appeared to be clinging to the ceiling of the room inside.

She waved a small paw as Bean oozed and slithered out from the hole, scuttled down the wall, and slipped down into the shadow by the stair. A long black tongue darted from his mouth and glazed his eyeballs with saliva.

Bean was good people, she nodded confidently, as Bean writhed on the spot, razor thin talons scratching at his scale-less pink-red flesh.

It was also why she had brought bean tasty food, because bean deserved to try some!

She held out the plate with the slab of steaming salted meat on it, the juices dripping down the sides.

Bean narrowed his eyes, and then sniffed, nostrils flaring. He made a grimace and pulled back, shaking his head.

"Is good!" she exclaimed, outraged that he was refusing the tasty.

Really, Bean's diet which consisted mainly of sneaking into unsuspecting people's bedrooms and drinking their blood as he licked their eyeballs clean was hardly healthy. He needed meat to grow up big and strong!

But he wouldn't have it, and despite Pickle's attempts to thrust the plate into his hands, he managed to squirm away like an eel coated in oil.

She gave up with an exasperated sigh.

Bean gave her a look.

And then he glanced around meaningfully.

She understood him perfectly of course.

"Big fluff's!" she said. It made sense that such a crazy place would belong to big fluff considering big fluff was very large. It only made perfect sense he had a very large home too, this entire cavern was clearly his house.

Bean wrinkled the bridge of his nose in doubt. Then gave the plate a distasteful glare.

Well, maybe that was to be expected, Bean's taste was very odd. She carefully set the plate down on the step and then licked her paw clean where some of the tasty sauce had splashed on it.

Bean made a gurgling noise in the back of his throat, and glowered at her, but then seemed to let out a sigh, his shoulders slumping.

"Hmmp?" said Pickle tilting her head in question as she licked.

Bean gave her a studying look, and then his gaze shifted, looking over her, out from the alley and into the square beyond.

There a crowd of monsters were milling about, or sitting at tables that the intimidating snake woman had sculpted from the ground. Pickle didn't understand the snakey one, but new father seemed wary of her, which in Pickle's experience was no way to judge someone. New father didn't like a lot of people, including the ultimate fluffy boy, which was clearly madness, in her opinion.

Above the crowd could be seen the massive form of said big fluff. He was making his way through the monsters toward the green one and the cloud one.

Pickle glanced between big fluff and Bean, her brow furrowing as she took in the way Bean was looking at him.

"Why?"

Bean blinked and turned to her.

He opened his mouth, seemingly trying to form words, struggled, then gave up.

Instead he settled for shaking his head

Pickle frowned. "Safe. Fluff safe. Still same."

Bean shook his head more firmly.

"Not." she said, "Not afraid."

Bean made a gurgling sound of frustration.

"Stop!" said Pickle, increasingly frustrated. Why was it always so difficult to make friends be friends? Bean and new mother despised each other. It shouldn't be like that, they should be good friends and curl up in front of the fireplace together!

Pickle turned to go, determined to prove that the ultimate fluffy boy was fine, but Bean darted out a hand, grabbing for her wrist, and pulling her up short.

She half stumbled and nearly fell with the suddenness of it and turned to glare at Bean.

"Let go!"

She struggled for a moment, and then cried out as one of Bean's needle like talons accidentally dug into her forearm.

Bean recoiled at the sound, looking genuinely afraid for her for a moment.

Pickle rubbed at her arm and winced.

"S'fine."

She reached out and patted Bean on the scaleless snout.

"Just see."

She turned and left, and Bean watched her go. His gaze followed her path, finding the broad back of the wolf monster.

Bean shivered.

Something had changed.

—

Rain passed below the entrance and trotted down the grand stairs. Like the rest of his mansion Quistis had made it outsized, meaning the steps were almost comfortable to descend, his broad feet pads not spilling over the step edges like they might on a standard stair.

The stairs led down into the earth, down below the mansion, and at the bottom, waiting for him, were a giant pair of bronze doors, doors marked with a wolf design, doors that were already open.

Inside he could see Lyra and Opal entering ahead of him, the both of them standing carefully as the floor of the room was carpeted from end to end in gold coins. The both of them had long since returned to normal stomach size, and after he had told them that getting at Brax was… quite urgent, they had moved to act without question, trusting his word.

That had led them here, the place Lyra had emptied her wool of its treasures, and where all of Quistis's collective wealth had ended up.

Columns rose from the mess of gold that led up to the arched ceiling, supporting the grand space of the vault's hall. Columns, he realised after a moment, that were crafted from solid metal.

It made some amount of sense, he supposed, the lamia could make unstable transformations of material with ease, why not make the mansion's vault from metal instead of stone?

He stepped out on the gold, gold coins spelling between his toes. Real actual gold coins, not the lamia's transformation Skill.

Quistis could create so much, yet she valued the real thing far above all.

He couldn't help but wonder if she was hiding something about the full extent of her Class considering how much value she placed on real wealth. She had experienced terrible backlash and consequences from her powers in the past, but he couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to it than that.

The giant golden egg Rain had found in the Abbatoir's arena had taken pride of place at the top of a small hill of gold, which apparently bothered Red, as the kobold was busily trying to move it off to one side but struggling with its immense weight. He apparently didn't appreciate having the fake gold of the living egg amongst his real gold coins.

Opal and Lyra were to the side of that, pouring over the only table in the room, a heavy stone thing. He approached and peered over their heads.

There were three cleaning potions on the table. Clearly this table was meant for the most valuable of their possessions.

Along with the three remaining cleaning potions there was a rolled up map, the map that Lyra had bought in the Orc camp during their journey to Florens. It was a very useful kind of map, if you were outside of a city that is. Rain had examined it while inside Florens and it simply lacked the detail to be of any real use, separation by district was the most it could do. Not at all useful for this new monster town which it wouldn't show, and even less so for what he had asked them to prepare for, the infiltration of Brax's estate through Floren's dungeon, especially when they had Opal with her inherent abilities as a scout.

Next was the dimensional bag, looted from Bane's manse. The dimensional bag was an incredibly useful thing, quick access to any manner of important objects… such as cleaning potions, and… he glanced to the side to see a pile of swords and other sharp instruments piled up beside it, some he recognized, like the thorny rapier, all were part of Opal's collection of pointy things.

He wasn't sure how useful Opal's idea of preparation was, there was only so much they could do with a hundred swords in any practical sense, and he certainly wasn't bringing along anything greater than a small group for this. This was supposed to be an assassination, not a minor invasion.

And then, finally, was the Inkerchange, a pair of books, one smaller than the other, an item stolen from Bane. Something of an extreme rarity, albeit something they had found limited use for, especially as so much of the books had already been filled with writing.

A gasp of surprise came from behind, and he turned to find Warwick limping into the vault. His face paled as he saw the glittering carpet of gold.

Rain felt a bit bad for him, the old veteran had gone through a lot of shocks of late. Seeing that the gold that had made his family wealthy was only a fraction of Rain's true wealth had to have been another knock. Hell, there was still a lot of gold left in Lyras woolspace, even this ridiculous amount wasn't all of it.

Rain had become as wealthy as a noble.

He wasn't sure how he felt about that, or if he felt anything at all. It seemed somehow less than it should have been to him, less important to him as a monster than it might have been as a human.

Warwick finally found his words.

"I strongly protest."

"Protest what?" said Opal, looking over at him with one eyebrow raised.

"A-All of this! Everything!" he cried, gesturing broadly around. "You put a damned town underneath my house and filled it full of monsters! Evolved monsters! And then this!" he seemed to gather himself for a moment, drawing in a slowing calming breath. He looked at Lyra. "I fear to hear it from you, but… what is all of this for? What are you intending to do?" He almost seemed as wary of her and Opal now as he was of Rain.

"Well first we're going to hunt down a human leveler called Brats Fathorn," said Opal, turning back to arrange her favourite swords on the table.

"Brax Fenhorn." Gravelled Rain, correcting her.

Warwick winced at the words.

"I… I know of that family, they do good in the slums, charitable work, feeding and clothing the poor, paying for the treatment of those wounded by the dungeon, and you want to kill… their son? You want to murder him?"

"He isn't what he seems." growled Rain, disliking the accusation. The grain of truth to it stung.

Warwick looked up at Rain, his expression becoming serious, "I was wrong to set you on the Abattoir, I should never have done such a thing. I can't help but feel this will be so much worse. The Fenhorns are nobility, the Abattoir is nothing compared to that, a spec to this city. I'm telling you, with all my experience, don't do this."

"No."

Warwick remained silent for a moment.

"If this brings harm on my family wolf, I will skin you alive." he spoke, his voice cold as winter steel. "In fact, when this mad plan of yours is done with, if you live, I want you gone. Stop coming near my family."

Rain turned on him hearing that, yellow eyed gaze focusing fully on the old veteran.

Warwick, took a small step back despite himself.

For some reason Warwick was suddenly very aware of just how large and threatening this monster was.

Rain reached out a paw, a paw large enough to enclose the old veteran's head.

And Rain would, he would take hold of Warwick's head, and in one motion rip it from his torso.

Prey did not tell him what to do.

Prey died.

Warwick drew a hooked knife from the air and Rain paused, blinked in confusion, and abruptly realised he was about to kill Warwick.

He withdrew his paw slowly, unsure of himself, unsure if he could even trust his own mind anymore.

Had he really been about to…?

Not just seeing 'prey' everywhere, but defiance was enough to cause this now too?

He shivered, a feeling of helplessness crawling up his back, which was a strange thing to feel considering his size.

"I don't have a choice." he managed to get out after a moment. "At this point, there is no other way."

Warwick stared at him, the old veteran's instincts screaming 'Danger!' 'Threat!'. His hand drew tighter on the knife's handle, a white knuckle grip.

Lyra looked between the two with alarm.

"Hey! You two better not be fighting!" she said, hands going to her hips.

"I was not—" Warwick blew out a breath and the knife vanished from his hand. He straightened up. "I was not fighting. I'm only here to implore you to not do what you intend to. Don't do it."

Opal made a scoffing sound, "This will be easy compared to the fancy leveler party now we have snakey. Just in and out. Five minutes and we're gone. Simple!"

"I doubt it will be that simple, but yes," said Rain, "And… we should go, now."

Things felt… urgent.

—

Pickle watched from the entrance, using the great open bronze doors to hide behind and peek inside.

She watched big fluff reach for new father before a moment later recoiling. He seemed to struggle with something, his expression pained, troubled.

There was… There did seem to be something different about big fluff, aside from growing even bigger and acquiring even more fluffy fluff.

Maybe Bean had a point…