"…Merrily we sailed along
Though the waves were plenty strong
Down the twisting river Rhine
Following a song
Legend's faded storyline
Tried to warn us all
Oh, they called her Loreley
Careful or you'll fall…"
The pleasant voice of the carriage driver sounded as the ox-driven carriage slowly made its way towards the meadows.
All around them were fields of corn, potato, and other vegetables Sen wasn't able to recognize.
Sitting at the front of the carriage was the peasant driver. They've met him after they exited the area of the continent where the weak kingdoms were located. Mainly, Grandor, Azurite, Salis, and Flasa.
The three kingdoms were far apart from each other; not to mention the vast shattered forest that was located right in the middle of them, so their journey took about three weeks of walking. The first two were spent passing by cities and villages of Grandor – capitol included- and that of Salis kingdom that had a deal with the Grandor kingdom of exchanging Nivera with the chance to enter their low-level dungeon.
Dust had wanted to visit the dungeon, but unfortunately, they had to reach the congress of magic as soon as possible lest Elaila moves location.
The third week, however, right after they exited the boundaries of Flasa kingdom, they did not meet a single village or a living being, just forests, and valleys. Even the carriage they had stolen broke down and they had to set the horse free.
Sen also did not have anything that resembles a carriage in his void space, so they had to walk for an entire week before finally reaching a village and meeting this generous man who agreed to transport them.
It had to be said that the difference of treatment between Grandor and this place was like heaven and earth. This human farmer was just surprised to see their appearances before agreeing to transport them. No hostile behavior or disgust was seen in his eyes.
"Oh, don't worry about it. When I was a kid, my village was attacked by bandits, it was a group of dotas passing by on their way to the shattered lake that saved us…" the driver hesitated, "I can't speak for other towns and cities, however, it would be better to disguise yourselves."
Answered the driver when they asked him about his friendly treatment. They gathered from him that slavery is strictly abolished in this kingdom and that dotas had rights of citizenship, but there were still a few people with bad intentions.
At the moment, inside the carriage,
"Dis…is…a carej…" Sen weirdly said.
"Very good" Nivera applauded him. "Now this one" she pointed at the next sentence written on the leather paper.
"Mai… name is… Sen!"
Dust and Nivera clapped their hands as they looked at Sen. Sen, however, felt a bit foolish. He is a grown man, how can he not be embarrassed when the two are teaching him like he was a little kid?
To explain this situation, the story goes back to one week before right when they left Flasa through a beast valley. The valley was filled with saber-tooth monsters and they were vicious and strong. Of course, the monsters weren't a match for the group. But the problem was that there were many of them at once.
They fought and defeated each group that came their way for a days before they met a strange humanoid beast. Sen had the idea to communicate with it, so he took out his linguistic orb and used it on the beast. The beast looked intrigued as he approached Sen. Sen was happy and reached out to stroke it when suddenly, the linguistics orb flashed, startling the beast into instinctively smashing it with its huge arm.
…next, Sen discovered that he could not understand what Dust and Nivera were saying, nor can they understand him…
So after a long night of gesticulation, Sen finally conveyed what he wanted to say to the two and they understood. That is why Nivera and Dust took it upon themselves to teach Sen the language of this world.
One week later and Sen managed to grasp the essentials, though his speech is still somewhat weird and he can't fully understand what they were saying if they spoke fast.
"So where are we once again?" Dust asked as he laid back on the small window frame of the carriage, watching the stretching fields of corn.
Nivera fished out a leather map that's been enchanted by Shieda's Vallas magic. It covered the entire continent and the map itself was large as when Nivera unfolded it, it almost covered the entire carriage.
"We are here" she pointed at a certain location, "the shattered lake is still quite a long-distance away. This country has a dungeon though."
"Dungeon?" Sen inquired, he understood the gist of the conversation since they were kind enough to speak in simple words and slowly. "We go dungeon now, okay?"
"You want to go?" Dust and Nivera looked at him. To be honest, they really wanted to try the one in Salis, but they refrained from doing so considering that they were accompanying him on his journey. They thought he wanted to reach the congress of magic as soon as possible.
"Yes, want to try all. Be prepared if danger happens, congress, magic."
"Oh," the two nodded. So en wanted to make use of this journey to gain as much experience before reaching the congress of magic.
"We need information then. We know nothing about this place, except that according to the map, the dungeon is on our way to the shattered lake."
"Elaila said Salis dungeon had rules about their dungeon," Sen added.
"Let's find a place to rest here tonight and then gather what information we can."
As the three were conversing, the carriage driver knocked twice, "we're here."
They stepped off the carriage and looked at their surroundings. It was a normal village with a creek, hills, a forest on the horizon, and wooden huts scattered all over with few, small, vegetable fields next to every house. Occasionally, they would see a cow or a few chickens passing by. It looked like a peaceful place
The driver, whose name is Jart, offered to let them stay at his house. He had a wife and two children. It was dinner time so they all gathered around the table to eat. Sen provided a few loafs of Frostiz bread to thank them for their hospitality.
"A fairy!" the two little children had just walked through the door when they saw Dust hovering over their table.
"You came from Grandor?" Jart's wife asked as she put down a plate of hot sweet potatoes. She was a short and chubby woman, a typical farmer woman.
From the looks of it, this's family's life was stable. The village also was peaceful and rich in fertile soil.
"Yes ma'am" Dust politely answered.
"That sure is a long way from home, what brought you here?"
'Cough'
Jart coughed in his hand and his wife suddenly realized something. She hurriedly shook her hands apologetically. "Oh silly me, I'm so sorry. We've heard about the countries there at the south.no wonder you left that place"
Sen, Nivera, and dust took a while before realizing that the woman probably thought that they escaped slavery from Grandor. They did not correct her. Even if they found these people hospitable, it is never safe to reveal too much about oneself.
The dinner was pleasant and simple, especially after the Frostiz bread was added to it.
"Mister Jart," dust spoke, addressing the man of the house, "we've heard that Ester kingdom has a dungeon, is that right?"
Jart looked up, surprised a pixy's words, before remembering something. His wife placed a hand on his.
"Something the wrong?" Sen asked, his speech weird, but he can still read their expressions.
Jart's wife looked at them. "The dungeon, we don't mention it in this house."
"What happened?" Nivera asked softly and Jart's wife ushered her children out of the room to go to their own room.
"It was more than ten years ago…the dungeon…. it collapsed"
"What?!" Nivera and Dust were surprised. Sen understood what she said but he did not understand the implications.
Nivera recovered from her shock and turned to Sen. "although a dungeon is nowhere near as strong as a labyrinth, it almost never collapses. The last dungeon that did collapse was over fifty years ago and that was in the Frojlay continent."
"Umm… dungeon…collapse, what it means?" Sen asked.
"Oh right. Dungeons are born from a mysterious core called the Ember. This ember contains unlimited amounts of pure Mana. Just like the ones with frozen lady, only, it is impossible to find this core in a dungeon so it only exists in theory."
Dust took over "in my time, no one knew how or why does a core explodes, I assume it is the same now?" he directed that question to Nivera who nodded in affirmation.
"Only, when it does explode, the dungeon collapses and all existences within are set loose"
Jart nodded, "that's exactly it. twelve years ago, I was still a child, Black oak dungeon collapsed, and the monsters within escaped, destroying many cities and villages. It took a while before the royal army was dispatched to subdue the monsters. But by that time, the monsters had already reached this village, killing my parents and siblings right before my eyes. My mother had hidden me in the cellar at the time, so the monsters did not find Me., but they…they did not survive"
"….I'm sorry" Nivera asked. She knew what it was like to watch your loved ones die before your eyes.
"Anyway, it was a long time ago," Jart forced a smile. "Nowadays, the town where the dungeon was located now became the somber oak mountains. Many monsters from the dungeon still dwell there."
"Yeah, hunters from nearby countries have been coming in great numbers, hoping to find the collapsed dungeon's Ember."
Sen turned to Nivera "the Ember that exploded?"
"Well, rumor has it that when the ember explodes and the dungeon collapses, the ember only splits into shards. Each shard is a source of pure Mana. But no one has ever found one yet. It only exists in the records since even the existence of the ember is only in theory."