Chapter 65

 

 

Morning of Day 13 since entering the gnome’s warren;

 

I awoke with a start. This weird feeling of bouncing between the dream state and reality was seriously messing with my head. I shake my head a few times to get the sleepy feeling out of me.

“Whew.”

Somehow I was in the tent again at the gnome village warren.

In other words, I’d gotten back to the gnome’s warren when I’d woken up. Bizarrely enough I did feel like I hadn’t slept well but it worked out somehow.

I got up the others. As yet, I still hadn’t tested out the pheromone power yet. But doing it in the middle of a refugee camp would be a disaster waiting to happen. I’m worried about figuring out how it works in a controlled environment first. What if I got it started with Asakura and Rina and then couldn’t get it shut off?

Having tents for walls wasn’t helpful for keeping it a secret either.

I also had to deal with the fact that if it were on around them, I didn’t own or control the environment around the gnome’s warrens. I was living under someone else’s authority here and that wouldn’t be safe to use for getting it figured out.

So it was a given that it could raise the alarm or make the others suspicious easily.

I better wait, I thought uneasily.

Near me, Asakura was sleeping. I was in the field hospital tent still. The fact that she was here instead of with the other girls was really positive. She’s still sleeping pretty close to me.

“Hey, let’s get up now,” I gently touch her arm and shake her gently. She’s on a cot next to mine.

“Mom is that you?” Asakura mumbles.

“Nope it’s not your mom,” I said. “Sorry.”

Strange.

So did the pheromones act by displacing relationship markers of those they were closest to in their brain? If she’d been closest to her mom…I better not touch anyone I realized. I pull my hand back. And there’s no other explanation for her mixing me up with her mom. Her mom is someone she wants to be around also.

Or maybe it was just my imagination. Yeah that’s probably it. It couldn’t work that fast…

Asakura wasn’t going anywhere so I won’t lose anything by waiting. I needed to go for stability, and not reckless risk that could be undone by bad choices.

But then her hand grabbed hold of my arm before she opened her eyes. After a bit she gets up. She smiles at me.

“Oh, hey Shun!…sorry I mixed you up,” she says. “I wonder why I thought you were my mom? Strange…” she shakes her head.

We agree to hurry and get dressed. We need to coordinate with the others for further defense and cleanup of the gnomes’ warren.

Steve the gnome fills us in later on the details.

“So we think the spiders have decimated the numbers of their den. But it will be a few days before we can get a runner to the nearest dwarven settlement,” he explains worriedly while biting his nails.

The other gnomes are nervous too.

“So what exactly is the purpose of getting a runner to the dwarves again?” Saiya asks.

“Good question, earth child,” he pats her head. It’s obvious they favor her. They’ve even given her special silver looking robes. Their favoritism to her makes me ache inside, since I’d done all the work.

I’m trying not to be jealous inside. For now it’s working. The gnomes’ village and tunnels aren’t where I want to end up living anyway.

I guess I can’t fight that advantage an earth mage would have with them either, gnomes and dwarves are both children of the earth. They also like ore and gems that come from it. I’ll never win against that.

But I have to wait for my manaburn condition to have another day or so of rest before I want to risk casting any more spells. It’s super annoying, partly because I’ve gotten right to the point where I should be the most excited about it and with a lot of abilities. Although technically I was told to wait more than one day…but that was before all the shared mana pool upgrades, which should speed things up.

“We don’t know how long it will take for the dwarven caravan to arrive. They will have some good metalworkers with them, as they always do. In the past we’ve had to have repairs on the gate too, but nothing to this extent. So we basically need to cover the front gate with every man possible until they arrive. And hopefully they’ll bring a few soldiers also and we’ll try to persuade them to stay for awhile,” Steve explains.

“And we have no idea how long that will take?” Akira asks.

“That is correct.”

There’s a big silence as people consider it.

Not only our people are gathered together to hear this, but both the survivors of our group and a group of the gnomes have also gathered to hear what’s going on.

“So basically, we have to make sure that nothing else gets through the gate while all we can do is pretty much stand guard. There is a chance that others may take advantage of this opportunity to probe the strengths of the gate. We need everyone helping with this, gnome and human alike,” the lieutenant explains.

We end up spending the day digging more trenching around the front gate courtyard. We had to borrow gnome picks because the ground is too hard for shovels. But the gnomes feel that making additional trenches and arrow cover fire positions would be a good investment.

The extra digging is, they hope to utilize to heighten any defensive advantage obviously.

They work with extreme urgency. Despite their small size they can work quicker than humans too. In fact they think we’re holding back, but we’re just not used to this kind of labor. The ground is pretty hard here too. You can’t even get into it without special tools. It’s like really solid too, but that helped at least in that the caverns didn’t have a danger of collapsing through soil erosion or shifting.

Sometimes it takes two or three good blows of the heavy headed iron picks to chip a solid small chunk of rock and even that takes strength. It’s almost like the ground is harder than the pick head too. We’re trying the best we can though. But we are slow and not getting very far. But every inch of carved out space is that much reinforcement for our positions.

Naturally Rina and Yumi are useless at the real work. They end up playing around a lot. But still Yumi’s energy shield is highly regarded here so they still like her around some of the gnomes are passing out fresh water on a cart to us through like a big set of barrels and large cupped ladles that are used to drink from.

Still some of the gnomes give us looks of pity at the way they fool around. They almost tipped over the water cart, which would have made a lot of people upset.

I don’t like the idea of a communal cup, so to speak but I can’t complain. They assure us that they clean the dishes everyday and that the water is very fresh. Because it’s from underground it is surprisingly clean and fresh, having come out cold. It tastes crisp and refreshing. It’s like mountain spring water, but the real thing instead of just an advertising label.

I decide the gnomes have a pretty good life except for the wickedly large murderous spiders. I just hoped that was all that was down here.

It’s good honest work. I felt good helping out even though it was only reinforcing the trench to create and repair firing positions.

Of course if we stay here in the gnome colony permanently there will be discrimination and Saiya will be in charge…

What also was interesting to me was psychologically I was able to study from the hard labor who was with whom and who was doing real work. It’s a valuable opportunity to seize. Because there are not enough tools we all take turns. Ideally it’s supposed to be an even split of equal time each but the girls have a hard time lifting the heavy gnome picks.

There is a long trench of basically every survivor in our group chipping in. Some help with guard duty but a lot are doing trenches and spread out with a string of bug lanterns placed along the line.

Akira is an awesome worker. He especially is trying hard to leave a good impression because he hates being called the goat man behind his back. A few others are trying hard too. I have gotten all sweaty from swinging my pick. I also see Akira smack a kid that calls him goat man to his face. The kid is really repentant after he manages to get up, rubbing his sore bottom.

‘Dumb ass, don’t call him goat man to his face!’ is what I’m thinking inside.

I’m careful to watch who is a slacker and who avoids work. That counts a lot for figuring out if you can trust people. Naturally a lot of people also try to start out as a good worker, but end up doing whatever they want.

Despite not being very strong, Asakura is a good worker and honest. She helps me out a lot and stays with me. Actually come to think of it, very few in the whole camp work as honestly as she does.

I haven’t touched Asakura much, so I don’t think this is the pheromone ability influencing her, in how she’s always near me and trying to help me. Perhaps she just is a good person? Or she thinks she’ll survive better by ‘sticking together’.

We continue working like this for some time. Wanting to conquer challenges is part of what keeps me from wanting to quit.

There are lookouts keeping an eye on the tunnels from the hole that’s bent into the gate. They use the most sharp-eyed gnomes for this. Often they are the younger gnomes but I do notice they don’t totally trust the younger gnomes without a chaperon from an older gnome, which you can tell from the longer beards.

But what surprised me was how deadly it is in these underground tunnels.

After lunch there was something like a big shopping cart sized carnivorous beetle with four cutter arms that tried to sneak in and eat gnomes. They killed after a brief fight. No gnomes died, but three were injured. They are expected to recover without any potential disabilities or long term problems. But it was a close one. If we hadn’t been watching…

The gnomes are disappointed I have to wait another day before I can heal. Are they making me work hard here as some kind of revenge, I wonder.

“So what was that thing?” I asked the lieutenant.

He pretends to not here me. He’s still mad that we messed up some of the gnomes’ liquor. But someone else confronts me and asks from the human side.

“They call it the creeping nightmare. They will eat people but work and travel alone. They have only low intelligence, but pretty high attack power in their claws. If that’s the only thing that tries to get through it will be a good day,” he explains.

Gulp*

We continue to work some more. It doesn’t last long before the silence is broken again.

Another set of predators tries to get through.

Wow, it hasn’t even been that long since the other one!

The gnome scouts sound another alarm as some other creatures try to get in. This time I’m not sure exactly what it is, except that all sorts of weird black tentacles try to get through. They grip at the insides of the gate until the gnome sharp shooters as a pack try to shoot them off.

The gnomes are in more panic than before from the other creature. That was the first sign this was a lot worse.

As one about thirty sharpshooters all start pounding them as hard as they can. The sounds of the many metal crossbow bolts ricocheting off the ironwork gates bothers me; and is too noisy and I’m not the only one with this worry. I’m certain it will draw other predators. We sweat from fear because the sound is too loud. It’s like a gong summoning other things to know where the free lunch is.

After peppering the tentacles with hundreds of bolts within a few minutes whatever was there withdraws. But it leaves like bloody sludge slime over the gate. It isn’t the color of human guts though, but something more like what would be left if you smashed a snail that was bigger than your house.

They beat off the tentacle beast. Of course we still didn’t even know what it’s head or body looked like. Only the massively long writhing slimy tentacles were seen. Nobody dares go near the dark damaged gate area now. The snipers stay in position for the rest of the day.

“What was that?” we ask the lieutenant. By now he’s expected that any kind of sound or thing we see he will be asked about. It can’t be helped since the creatures below ground are so strange it’s like being on a different planet.

But the warning in our hearts wasn’t without a reason. Near dinner the fear in our hearts came to realization. Several hours later something else happens.

I wonder if the gnome colony is cursed.

And it does show also they were right about how dangerous it is outside the town area.

Suddenly the gnomes were swearing and cursing. They were gesturing at the others to step up the defense and get more recruits here. They were in a panic all over again. Several messengers are going through the lines.

But they won’t tell us directly what’s up. I think they are afraid we’ll run away.

“Eh? What’s going on?” Yuriko asks. She’s of course letting Akira do all the work. He has been able to pound huge chunks out of the rock with the gnome picks of course, because of his great strength.

“Something is up,” Yumi says.

One by one the others start getting low in the trenches that we’d been reinforcing. Then shortly after, the gnomes are too worried about something to tell us what’s happened. But they are scurrying like ants nonetheless.

Because so many of the gnomes are here its taken time for the messengers to get the messages through and for some reason they want to keep it quiet.

“Something has approached the gates,” the lieutenant says nervously.

It takes some time but eventually sometime of large black box is delivered to the gnome elders. They keep hush about it until after dinner. It was only then that we heard the real gossip.

It seems that goblins were sighted scouting near the gate. They sent some kind of surrender negotiation letter to the gnomes in the box.

We then discover that the reason the spiders had invaded in the first place was because the goblins had painted the outside of the gate with some kind of monster attraction scents similar to what the gnomes had used to lure them into killing positions. Only they’d used a whole lot more of it enough to paint the whole outside of the gate, thus causing the flood of the spiders that had happened a day ago.

Clever…but deadly…

Who knew goblins could be bad ass tricky like that?

Asakura and I discussed it for a few minutes.

I find she’s not the only one who has concerns about staying in the gnome colony. She’d overheard Yuriko and some of the others also worry about staying here. But she’d not said anything because she wasn’t sure how I felt about it yet.

Hmm…

So she’d been afraid to say anything because she knew we needed to stay together to survive?

I should talk to her more often and pick her mind. Unexpectedly she could be quiet but still know a lot about what’s going on but just not want to rock the boat.

I wonder what kind of terms the goblins also wanted? It looked like the gnomes were reading the letter. The gnomes kept it covered up. So I wasn’t able to find out what it was about. That made me antsy too. Wasn’t I supposed to be the human representative? I wondered if the earth mage girl was getting free info instead.