77 - Found

The miniature avalanche of rock-chunks and other earth debris splayed outward in a steep incline. A good portion of the cliff above the once-cave-entrance had sunk inward too. The structural damage seemed fairly comprehensive.

“I’m not sure there’s gonna be a cave left at all, after whatever they did,” Sable said. It might have been filled in entirely with debris.

Which, she realized a second later, had maybe been too callous of an analysis. Quintin looked troubled and didn’t disagree with her. Did he know these three adventurers? Odds were high. Sunstone wasn’t a big town, and it seemed the sort where everybody knew each other. Within an hour of setting foot inside, Sable’s arrival had spread to the public; a town with that little going on obviously knew everyone else.

“But they also have an earth-based class, so they’ve better odds than most,” Sable said. “And there’s no point theorizing.” She set off toward the pile of debris, then hiked up it. Her mage’s robes weren’t the easiest things to move in, with the fabric sometimes snatching on rocks, roots, or whatever else.

Halfway up, Sable started banging on a rock with her staff. As a level ten weapon she’d taken from Skatikk’s armory, it was fairly durable—more than capable of being slammed against stone without splintering.

With her enhanced strength, too, the noises she made were fairly loud. She tapped away in a pattern, hopefully something the adventurers—if alive and conscious—would recognize as human made. She didn’t bother calling out. If they couldn’t hear her banging, they certainly wouldn’t her voice.

After smacking away for a few moments, she pulled her staff back and listened. No response came. Sable frowned.

“Think they could hear that, if they’re in there?”

“I’ve really no clue, miss,” Quintin said.

“Should we dig it out anyway? To be safe?”

“Can you?”

Sable pursed her lips. She appraised the pile of debris.

“Maybe,” Sable said. She had impressive strength by default, considering her level and passive race boosts. “I could cast an enchantment to boost my strength, too. It would probably give me enough strength to handle it.” Even well-lodged like much of this mess was. Hopefully. She wasn’t sure. “It would be an effort and a half, though.”

And she didn’t particularly want to spend all that time on a possible dead end. They still had no clue whether Quintin’s theory was correct—that the adventurers had collapsed this cave entrance in a desperate scramble to escape the troll. It might simply be coincidence the troll had been camped outside the entrance, not that it was guarding them.

Sable started banging on the rocks with her staff again. She put a little more heft into it, and, to her surprise—and Quintin’s—chips of rock starting flying away with the impacts. Quintin sent her another look that bordered on wariness.

“Never seen a mage that could crack open a boulder before,” he said.

“Hm,” Sable replied.

She stopped banging and listened.

She strained her ears.

Her eyes widened. She heard something. Muted, but definitely there. Inside the cave-in, someone was responding: tap, tap, tap.

“They’re there,” Sable said. “I hear them.”

“You do?”

“You don’t?”

Quintin raised his eyebrows, and Sable realized a level five [Trapper] didn’t have the supernatural senses she did.

“Right,” Sable said. “But yes, they are.”

Which meant she needed to excavate fifty tons of rock—and possibly trigger a second collapse in the process. She wrinkled her nose.

“Any better ideas than just digging them out, though? I’m worried of causing a secondary cave-in.”

“Without aid from the city?” Despite his doubt being plain on whether Sable really could dig them out, he still spent a few moments considering. “No, I can’t come up with anything. I think we have to hope for the best. And if they’re awake, they ought to be able to step away to safety.”

Sable shrugged. “I’ll get to it, then. Stand clear. This might be messy.”

Quintin climbed off the pile of debris to a safe distance away. He watched curiously—probably still doubting whether Sable could really tackle such a feat of strength. She was a mage, not a fighter-type class.

Then again, she was a mage with a specialty in enchantments. She’d used strength boosts on Aylin and Granite and several others, and so had some practice with the spell. Still, it would cost a fair amount of mana to boost her enough for what she needed to do.

Wincing at the waste of mana, she poured a good fifty points in—which would be two hundred in dragon form. It was the strongest strength enchantment she’d cast, and a gigantic waste, in her opinion. But necessary for the task ahead of her. Energy suffused her, and she flexed her hands, feeling the power thrumming underneath her skin.

“Huh.”

Climbing to the top of the debris pile, Sable eyed a large chunk of rock. She set her staff aside. Wrapping her arms around and digging her fingers into the side of the rock, she forcibly gripped the unwieldy object. She grunted as she ripped the miniature bolder out from where it’d been lodged, and rocks and dirt shifted all around her. With another grunt, she tossed the object. It went sailing farther than she’d expected—like a rocket, it slammed into the trees all the way at the end of the clearing, splintering wood and, comically, even toppling a tree over entirely. Sable paused, then glanced at Quintin.

Who, reasonably, just stared at her.

Sable shrugged and got back to work.

She didn’t have to excavate the whole pile blocking off the interior of the cave—just a tunnel through the top layer large enough for a person to crawl through. Truthfully, with her strength empowered to such a ridiculous level, she had little difficulty dislodging the rocks; she’d probably wasted mana with how much she’d empowered herself.

The bigger concern was causing a secondary cave in on either herself or the adventurers she was trying to rescue. Fortunately what structure that had survived the cave-in seemed to be surviving Sable’s digging-around too. Bit by bit she worked deeper in, and while she had to deal with some small reshuffling of debris, no catastrophic events occurred. She dug along at a steady pace, tossing both small rocks and boulders over her shoulder.

Whoever was inside kept tapping against the wall, and the noise grew incrementally louder as Sable burrowed forward. Sable could swear she even heard relief in the frantic rhythm—it seemed to be picking up in speed, excited, as the noises of Sable’s excavation neared them.

Soon enough, she dislodged the last large chunk, and the first bit of open air revealed itself. Sable peeked through.

There, huddled in a group, with one woman unconscious—though not dead, Sable could see—were the three missing adventurers. A lantern-light illuminated the space, though dim. Sable would have been able to see either way.

The man, Ethan, Miss Draper’s son, held a rock in his hand, having been the one to be tapping away in response to Sable’s efforts. He stared at her, having frozen at her arrival. Or, rather, her appearance—most people seemed to be reacting that way to her, and that had been out and about in town, not digging her way through a cave-in. She assumed she was an even more disorienting sight to him than usual.

“There you are,” Sable said. “Here, let me finish up.”

She pulled her head back out and tossed away the last few blockages. They’d have to crawl through, but the cramped tunnel had been easier, quicker, and hopefully less prone to collapsing. With that finished, Sable shimmied out, then slid down the piles of rocks and dirt to come to a rest at the bottom of the inside of the cave.

The tunnel winded forward, going deeper into the cliff, but Sable assumed they’d already explored that way, and it eventually turned into a dead end.

Her eyes turned back to Ethan after making sure her direct surroundings were safe—an instinct at this point.

“What’s wrong with her?” Sable asked, gesturing at the woman.

Ethan, and the other woman—Velvet, Sable thought she remembered—were both stunned silent by Sable’s arrival.

“Uh,” Ethan ineloquently replied. He shook off his surprise, glancing at his companion. He frowned, and some of his practical nature returned. “She’s injured. And strained herself.”

“Will she live?”

“We gave her a heath potion. So yes. But she’s not in a great spot. She needs real treatment.”

Laying unconscious on the ground, despite days having passed, did indicate that.

“Did the guild send you?” Velvet asked, also finding her voice. “We thought we were done for.”

“No. Ethan’s mother did.”

They both paused.

“I’m sorry?” Ethan asked.

“Miss Draper. I was passing through Sunstone. She asked me to help. I agreed.” Sable waved her hand, telling them it didn’t matter. “Do you need me to carry her? How are you two?”

Ethan frowned, but, as expected of an adventurer, corralled his confusion and interest in Sable and focused on the task at hand. “We’re fine,” he said. “Been better, but fine.” He glanced at the exit hole Sable had made. “How did you do that?”

“By digging. Here, I’ll carry her.”

Sable approached, but Ethan stepped to block Sable. He paused, then sheepishly moved back out of the way. Sable was more amused than offended, though it made it clear that he didn’t fully trust her. That was undoubtedly because of her appearance: horns, tail, pale skin, long white hair. She was an unusual sight. Still, Ethan recognized that Sable had come to save them, and so had overruled his instincts.

“And the troll?” Velvet asked. “It left?”

“You knew it was outside?” Sable asked.

“It was trying to dig its own way in for the first day. And a few more times, too.”

“It’s been dealt with.”

They didn’t seem doubtful of that claim, having seen her forcefully rummage her way through a cave-in with her bare hands, and in a matter of a half-hour or less. That was clearly the more difficult task than killing a troll.

Sable arrived to Merry’s side and studied the unconscious woman. Her skin was pale and clammy. Her stomach was bandaged, her shirt removed. “I have spare health potions,” Sable commented. “Does she need one?”

“Yes, but she’s at her limit. Can’t take another. We’ve been giving her paralysis health potions.”

“Sorry?”

“They leave her unconscious, but have better healing effects than usual.” Ethan seemed surprised Sable hadn’t heard of them.

“I see. Well, regardless. Let’s get going. She needs proper treatment.” She knelt down and gently scooped the woman up. “Go ahead and lead.”