65. The Survey Returns Again
The Survey Returns Again
He was at the smokehouse before sunrise, building the morning's batch under the racks.
The herbs in the kitchen had finished drying.
He took the bundles down and pressed them into jars while the smokers caught.
Sage. Thyme. Rosemary. The mints. He labelled the lids in pencil and stacked them at the back of the shelf.
Kain slept solidly that night, and didn't wake up until long after the sun had risen. When he did, he felt refreshed, ate a quick breakfast, and made his way up and into town. There, he found Sasha working the bar, who nodded to him as he walked inside.
"How's it going." Kain asked. "Was the night too bad."
"Honestly, I was probably asleep before you made it back to your house. I finished sweeping in the main area, and decided that it was worth leaving everything else for the next day."
"Seems like you were up early, then."
"I was. That group that came through yesterday. The Bear Swords, or whatever." She shrugged. "They left here at something like five-thirty this morning. They all demanded breakfast at four-thirty, and were shocked when I told them I didn't normally fix food before seven."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. My point was I was just fine going to bed. I got a good night's rest, and I've been up for a few hours now to get things done." Sasha shrugged. "Warriors tend to sleep late. Which is nice."
"At least the C-rankers."
"You keep saying that. All the C-rankers I've seen have tended to fit a personality trait. Does it really change when you hit B."
Kain slipped around behind the bar and helped her get things ready for the broader breakfast crowd that would start coming in.
"Like I told you. You can blow through F and D in about a year.
C-rank takes between three and four years, maybe five if you're moving slow.
By the time you make B, you've probably had time to mature.
You understand the cost. You understand you'll be there a long time.
Staying alive and seeing it through matters a lot more than just cleaving through everything in your path.
" Kain paused. "That said, they now have the strength to cleave through most everything in their path. So there's that."
"How long does it take to get from B to A."
"Honestly." Kain put pans out on the stove and tossed butter in. "Most warriors stall at B. If they make A it takes ten years or more. Most dungeon warriors retire by their mid-thirties. The trade's hard on the body."
"So you won't hit A until you're forty."
"Unless you're really good, yeah. S-rank is a pipe dream for the average person. You don't hit S unless you happen to be born lucky."
A warrior came stomping down to the bar. C-ranked, but on the wiser side of C-ranked. "I'm coming in on the tail end of a conversation, I can sense it. I'll chime in. I had a good buddy when I was a kid. He's S-ranked now."
"Really." Kain turned and nodded. "What was he like."
"Driven." The warrior shook his head. "Very driven. Killed his first monster at seven. He was C-rank before I'd entered the circuit, and B-rank by the time I made D-rank. After that he just climbed. Made S around the time he turned thirty."
"Sounds about right. I've seen it happen. If you can start the climb early, you can really go places."
"Yeah. Always made my head hurt looking at what he could do.
I'd be happy if I made B by thirty-two. Got a sweetheart back in Greyhaven.
Need to put a nest egg together. She doesn't want to marry me while I'm still a warrior.
I don't know how to do anything else. So I push through, get what I can together, and settle down. "
"I wish you all the best." Kain filled a mug of coffee and toasted him.
"And I wish you the best with all your endeavors. Good talking to you."
Kain served him breakfast and threw himself into the cooking as the day wore on. The morning rush ran into the lunch rush, the late-rising warriors blending in with the early-rising farmers around eleven. It died down around two. Kain wiped his brow and kept moving.
「Skill Updated: Cooking B → B+」
He spent the rest of the day at odd jobs around the Kettle. When the evening came on, the door was flung open and the green-and-red Bear Swords came in.
One of them went up to the bar to order. The rest took a long table in the back. The leader turned and looked Kain in the eye. While his man ordered drinks, the leader came over and set a piece of paper on the bar in front of Kain.
"You're the one they say is in charge."
Kain looked the man over. Tall, broad at the shoulder. B-rank by the patch. Eyes narrow and weathered. He had seen his share.
"Folks say a lot."
"I'm not here for word games. I have a map of the dungeon and a technical readout of what we found inside. Mana concentrations. Traps. Spawn points. Should I leave it with you, or find somebody else to give it to."
"I'll take it." Kain picked the papers up. "Anything I need to know."
"First floor's been cleared regularly. Not much on it. Beetles and stone crawlers as you know. The second floor is nearly formed. Most spawn points haven't set. We found the staircase to the third floor. Found the opening chamber of the third."
"That shouldn't have formed yet."
"I concur. My only conclusion is the dungeon is forming faster than the original survey anticipated." The man pointed to the map. "We surveyed the second floor. B-rank monsters are spawning at an alarming rate. Spawn ratio is one spawn point for every three rooms."
"What sort of B-rank monsters."
"Stronger beetles. Stronger stone crawlers. A new monster I've never seen before. I've not seen it referenced. I intend to take word back to the Guild to consult their books. They have volumes that go back generations. It's possible this is one of those."
"What is it."
"We're calling it a Root Crawler. The system labeled it Unidentified Monster until one of us called it a Root Crawler. The system updated itself. Plant-based. They erupt from the dungeon walls."
"Plant-based."
"Big snarl of roots. Nasty. Can only be killed with a thrust to the heart at the center of the body, surrounded by the roots."
"And the roots are the tentacles."
"Exactly. They took a couple of us by surprise. We were saved because there were eight of us and we followed proper protocol. Most C-rank squads would be wiped out. With your permission I'd like to put flyers up around town. Get the C-ranks familiar."
"Fine by me. I'm not."
"Very well. Our mage did some sensing of the latent mana concentrations. Are you familiar with Mana Seeds."
"More or less. Each floor of a forming dungeon will have a seed in the center of where the floor will be. The seeds mature into the full floors."
"Exactly. Bit more complicated. You clearly know your stuff. She detected sixteen seeds below the top three floors."
"Nineteen floors. I thought B-rank dungeons hit fifteen at the most."
"This one's unusual in a good many ways. She was able to detect the flow of mana from the Dungeon Core. Located far below the ground. Based on the size of the seed and the channel of mana coming up from it, she estimates full dungeon maturity in three months."
"Three months. That's faster than we'd expected."
"Fully ready by midwinter. Sorry to deliver the bad news."
"You're a credit to the trade. Thank you."
「New Contact: Bear Sword Leader」
「Class: Adventurer (B-Rank)」
The man gave a small bow.
"I grew up in a small town not unlike this one. Adjacent to a dungeon. We were always getting stomped on by the warriors that came through. I became a warrior, in part, to protect the town. Since then I do what I can in such situations."
He bowed once more and walked back to the long table.
Kain lifted the notes and looked them over.
He carried them out at the end of the night and rode home.
He sat at the table by the hearth and lit a small lamp. Ghost padded inside and lay down at his feet. Kain spread the notes across the table.
"I'll have to tell Sam about this."
Sleep tugged at him. He read the notes again. He read them again.
A year earlier he had sat in that chair reading Mark's notes. Now he sat in that chair reading his own notes, copied off the warrior. The chair was the same chair. The man in the chair was the same man. The notes weren't the same notes.
"Why do you always have to do this to me, Mark."
He balled his hands into fists. Then he rose and walked into the bedroom.
It was dark at the window. Off to the north a faint blue haze pulsed against the sky like distant lightning.
From that window he could see the corner of the property where he had buried the flask.
He had made a promise to his brother to farm the land.
He was also now part of a community that was about to need more than a farmer.