Syl

Chapter 225: Siren

We were casually strolling around Dhoggurum, minding our own business, when suddenly, a strange high-pitched noise began echoing throughout the city. All the non-dwarves looked around in panic, but the stout dwarves all abruptly stood at attention as if they’d been prepared their entire lives for this moment.

Some of the humans were eventually calmed down, but everyone seemed to be on edge, waiting for the blaring siren to cease and answer the question on everyone’s mind.

"Attention, citizens!" a magically amplified voice echoed throughout the whole city. Once again, the non-dwarves were surprised, and those who panicked were hushed to shut their yaps.

"Attention, citizens!" the magical voice repeated. "Dhoggurum, our mighty city of rock and stone, is under siege!"

Gaps echoed throughout the crowd, followed by angry jeers from the dwarves.

"I repeat. Dhoggurum is under siege. A vile force of darkness, spawned from the depths, is en route. The accursed kobolds have forgotten their place and seek to harm us! It’s up to us to stop them and put them in their rightful place!"

Cheers and thunderous stomps of feet could be heard echoing throughout the city.

"Brothers, sisters! Those who wish to defend our home head to the nearest garrison—we will not yield! Our allies and visitors, if you wish to aid our cause, we will accept any help, military or otherwise. Adventurers! An emergency quest has been issued; seek the guild for assignment to earn your riches and glory! For Dhoggurum!"

"For Dhoggurum!" the dwarves chanted in unison.

"Well... I guess the kobolds are coming for us!" Trixie said mentally.

"This seems like a pretty big deal..." Vee mumbled. "I assume we’re going to help?"

"If there’s any chance at killing a lesser dragon, then I bet this is it!" I replied excitedly. "The only thing we need to ensure is that we don’t get assigned to a squad or party. Otherwise, we will need to hold back or risk blowing our cover."

"And here I was hoping we could sit on the wall and play tower defense..." Vee grumbled.

"Just so you’re aware... I can’t actually attack them," Trixie pointed out, casually dropping quite the bombshell on us.

"As in... You can’t actually attack?" Vee questioned. "Are you all smoke and mirrors?"

"Trixie has [Water Magic] and [Nature Magic]," I swiftly answered. "So I’m guessing it’s something else?"

"Bingo!" Trixie replied. "I can throw out some support from the sidelines, but officially, I’m not really allowed to attack and kill things directly."

"That sounds stupid..." Vee muttered.

"Is that why you’ve never joined my party?" I asked. "Even back on the island..."

"Bingo again!" Trixie giggled. "It is a bit stupid, but rules are rules, and as a spirit, I need to take them very seriously."

"An oath?" I asked.

"Something like that," Trixie said with a shrug. "Also, you really shouldn’t mention those to others."

"A bit late to that," Vee snickered.

Trixie stared at me with quite a judgemental look plastered on her face.

"Er... I sort of took an oath with Vee," I answered.

"How? You aren’t a spirit. Explain!" Trixie demanded.

I gave her a brief rundown, and Vee confirmed it. Trixie looked absolutely flabbergasted, and it actually took her a while to recompose and snap back to reality.

"You took an oath... To the gods!?" Trixie screeched.

"Yes?" I confirmed hesitantly.

Trixie was tearing at her hair before she slumped and sighed.

"Well... As oaths go, that one isn’t that bad," Trixie admitted, although her tone was still venomous.

"As the receiver of said oath, I’m delighted with it," Vee admitted. "And while I know now that Syl would have probably never used that [Order] thing on me, I’m still glad to have utter certainty."

"The content of the oath is fine... Like I said, it’s got no glaring flaws other than the fact you can’t use the positive benefits of [Order]," Trixie once again admitted. "My concern is bringing the gods into it. You don’t want their direct attention on you for silly nonsense."

"Uh... I hate to break it to you, Trixie, but the gods are very much involved with the both of us," I pointed out.

"Yeah, we’re both [Experiments] for two different gods," Vee added.

"There’s even a third god if you count Unc, although he seems to be a bit of a loose addition compared to Gramps or Mother," I further added.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Trixie scrunched her face up tight before relaxing it and letting out a massive sigh. "You’re right... I guess the gods, and you were already mingling long before this. Just... Be safe, okay?"

"Well, as safe as I can be," I chuckled, hoping to lighten up the mood. "After all, I plan on jumping directly into whatever this kobold fiasco is!"

"Oh... Right, we should probably hurry, or Lukhek might get mad," Vee said.

With Trixie on my head and Vee secured on my shoulder, I hastily headed towards the guild. The turnout was absolutely massive, and I almost wondered if we weren’t even needed.

"Wow... I almost feel sorry for the kobolds with this many adventurers," Vee joked.

We stood in line and watched as everyone came and went in a remarkably orderly fashion. There were a surprising amount more humans in the area than I had previously seen, which struck me as slightly odd.

"Definitely making me slightly rethink revealing the truth..." I admitted. "Were all these adventurers just hiding in the pubs, or what?"

Vee chuckled nervously, "Yeah... Please don’t, or at least give me enough warning so I can teleport to safety."

"Definitely not a good idea," Trixie agreed. "You might have better luck telling the elves the truth, although they might ask to bond you on the spot!"

"Unless they’re willing to swear a similar oath, I don’t think I’ll be accepting any bonds, thank you very much," I grumbled.

"How the heck would that even work?" Vee asked. "Like... Do they get me for free? A bond-chain or what?"

Trixie shrugged, "No clue... It’s definitely uncharted territory."

We kept waiting for our turn, a slightly surreal experience. When exiting, quite a few humans seemed to shoot dirty glances my way.

"Are they upset I have a pixie on my head?" I asked as I recalled Trixie saying humans hated her kind.

"Oh no, I’m invisible," Trixie answered. "Poofed as soon as I saw so many of them. Just now, one of them whips out a pixie cage and catches me."

"Surely they can’t do that in the dwarf city?" I asked.

"Oh, it’d certainly be a diplomatic incident," Trixie agreed. "But I’m still not taking any chances. What happens in a creepy dark alley stays in the creepy dark alley."

"Yeah... Better to be safe than sorry," Vee said approvingly. "They’re probably glaring at me; I am a creepy spider, after all."

"No way! You’re an adorable shrinking spider!" Trixie vehemently objected.

"Well, I doubt they’re glaring at the super hot elf," Vee countered.

"Maybe they hate the pointy knife ears?" Trixie joked.

"No way, the pointy elf ear thing is super cute. I’m pretty sure I knew people who would kill to have real-life elf ears," Vee objected.

Trixie gasped in shock, "Why would anyone want elf ears? Do they eat them or something? That’s super creepy!"

"No!" Vee shouted. "As in, they wanted elf ears in place of their own on their head! Not amputated off. I swear you-"

Vee’s rant was interrupted when she saw a familiar smirk and stifled giggles coming from the pixie. She swatted at the pixie, and there was a bit of a slap war going on between my head and shoulders.

This probably looks absurd to everyone else, with Trixie being invisible.

When we finally got inside, the layout differed from what I recalled. The booths had been changed in an improvised manner, with a sign advertising either a role or a task, and adventurers would head toward the one they wanted or best suited them.

A desk for healers, fortifications builders, wall defenders, tanks, ranged damage dealers and partied groups were just a few of the many designations on display.

"I think that one probably suits us best," Vee said, pointing one of her little legs forward.

Following her motion, I saw a desk labeled "Strike Squad" and figured that definitely was the closest to our needs.

"Damn, I was hoping we could’ve been wall defenders," Trixie said sarcastically.

"I guess with your [Nature Magic], that could have been very useful," I replied.

"An army of Branch Sprites!" Trixie gleefully giggled. "Although I think that would violate my restrictions. Not to mention, I don’t think there’s enough wood for that unless we start breaking some furniture."

We headed toward the desk, the dwarf assigned to the post seeming slightly surprised.

"Are you here to register for your party?" the dwarf asked.

"Nope, just me and my [Bonded Companion]," I answered,

"Alright..." the dwarf grunted. "Would you like to be assigned with an open party?"

"No thank you, I’d like to be able to independently operate," I replied.

"Of course... Another glory seeker," the dwarf sighed. "Well, whatever, do you need me to explain your role?"

"I assume it’s to take out high-value targets or disrupt the enemy directly?" I asked.

The dwarf nodded, "More or less. The key targets are warlocks, as there seem to be quite a few enslaved monsters in their army. Otherwise, go for healers as the next priority, followed by any other spellcaster. Can you handle that?"

I nodded, "Sounds good to me. I have two movement skills and some upgrades for [Sneak Attack]."

The dwarf’s expression brightened. "Great! It sounds like you’ll be a perfect little mage slayer."

I received three quests, two of which provided locations. The dwarf explained that the first location was my top priority to roam for targets, and then I could move on to the other location if targets ran out or if the quest was completed.

None of the quests had completion conditions, so their completion had to be manually controlled. When I asked, my suspicion was confirmed.

"If the third quest completes itself, you should immediately return to the city!" the dwarf warned me. "Otherwise, just kill as many kobolds as you can see!"

I thanked him for explaining, and he handed me a badge indicating my task. The dwarf explained that if I showed that to any of the guards, they would assist me to the best of their capabilities within reason.

"That’s rather clever of them using quests as a sort of impromptu communication system," Trixie pointed out.

"Sucks you guys don’t have phones or something to talk with. It’s a form of long-range communication," Vee commented.

"While we don’t have these phone things you mentioned, we do have a few magic items that allow communication," Trixie explained. "Dungeon rewards or crazy inventions from artificers. Although most of them are quite cumbersome. You could also uncap the [Telepathy (Greater)] skill and get some pretty immense range!"

"Did you uncap it?" I asked curiously.

"Gods no!’ Trixie rejected it immediately. "That’s a one-way ticket to being the errand pixie of some bigshot, doing nothing but facilitating communications all day, every day. Can you even imagine how boring that would be?"

"A magical call center... Now I’ve heard everything," Vee chuckled dryly.

Dhoggurum was abuzz with dwarves forming rank and file and heading toward their set locations. Judging by the massive defensive formation surrounding the city, I doubted the kobolds were even capable of breaching its defenses.

The location I was heading led to a new district and eventually a gate. The dwarves on duty were momentarily confused by my presence until I explained and showed them the badge I had been given.

"Hunter squad ’ey?" one dwarf grunted happily, giving a toothy grin and thumbs up. "Be sure to kill many of those scalie bastards for me!"

"For Dhoggurum!" the dwarves chanted in unison as they opened my exit door.

All three of us gasped in synchrony at the environment opening up before us.

The clang of metal echoed off the stone walls as the dwarves stood shoulder to shoulder along the battlements. As I peered out into the dim expanse of the cavern, the flickering light of torches painted the approaching kobold horde in a chaotic dance of shadows. Their crude war cries—a shrill cacophony—ricocheted through the cavern.

"That... Is a lot of kobolds!" Trixie gasped.

And I had to agree; this was simply unbelievable.