nro_8

  “Brian. I found a good quest for us.” Alice called out to me.

  We were in the Pekkers town, ruled by Baron Peks. Uh Bloggs, there was nothing crazy going on in here, the guild had already prepared for the arrival of Mariina and the test she was going to keep, and we had two days to just chill out and do whatever.

  Because of that, our party was at the adventurer’s guild looking at jobs. There was nothing that special, but apparently Alice found something.

  “... this is just a material quest for treant wood…” I ented.

  “Yes. And you have like a ton of it.”

  “... multiple tons, yes.” I mean, just the world treant is like … over 1,000 tons. And I do have an assorted pile of elemental treant corpses from the treant forest floors of HomeBase, with each weighing around 3 tons.

  “So an easy missiht? And treants might not evehat on in this area, so why not? I even asked the receptionist, and she said the quest has been sitting for a while.” Alice expined.

  “... sure we turn it in. I don’t mind.”

  I’m usually a bit against turning in jobs like this, just because I basically cheat through them, and it could cause issues to the local adventurers. I don’t want to steal their jobs after all. But if this one has been sitting for a while, it should be fine.

  “I’ve firmed the requested materials. Will you deliver it to the t yourself, or would you like the guild to do that? There will be a cost if you ask the guild to do it.”

  “We just take it. Could you give us the instrus?”

  “Yes. It is…”

  “So a workshop, huh. Is this really the pce?”

  Wilhelmina’s Workshop read on the sign of the buildiered. It looked … well, dead.

  I think once upon a time this pce was a good smithy, sidering the general looks and the smokestack. But now, it just looked… almost abandoned, at least was it not for the bloom of smoke ing from the smokestack. The building itself wasn’t quite in disrepair or anything, but it still needed some major TLder loving care. Not something I would expect from aing workshop.

  “The name does match, so it should be.” Aliswered. “Let’s just go in and see.”

  We ehrough what I think is the front door and were greeted by a dead storefront. It had racks for ons and other stuff, but no merdise anywhere. The only things left were some broken and worn ons in what I assume is a scrap barrel.

  “Hello!” I called out. I didn’t want to walk into the bas, unless I had to. No point in invading too far into someone's space. “Is anyone here?! We are from the adventurer’s guild!”

  …

  …

  …

  “... is there no one here? Are we really at the right pce?” I questioned.

  “It shouldn’t be. Maybe they are closed today?” Alice questioned.

  “I think the receptionist would have said so, if that was the case.” Lua ented.

  “I smell a humanoid, so I think someone is here.” Agunan said.

  “It could be leftover smell. Besides, how do you smell anything here accurately? This pce reeks of smoke, as well as a mix of blood and sweat.” Ria asked.

  “Just block out the specific smells with magic. It isn’t that difficult.” Agunan answered.

  I didn’t know he could do that, but that does sound incredibly useful. I’ll have to have him teach me that.

  “... then, should I call out again?” I asked everyone.

  “We could also just go in.” Ria offered.

  “Invading private residences is not the most … legal thing to do.” I pointed out.

  “We probably still should.” Alice said. “What if the t is in trouble?”

  “They could also be dead.” Agunan stated.

  … I know that is actually possible, but you don’t have to say it.

  “Let me call out one more time. If we don’t get a response… I guess we go in and look.”

  My sed try went just about as well as the first, so we headed deeper into the workshop.

  After walking through a door leading deeper in, the first room we ran into was not the fe itself, even though there likely will be one sidering that we did see some smoke stacks.

  This one was a much meneral looking workshop, with workbenches and a few tools here and there. But still, the number of tools, files, whetstones and other such stuff was very low, almost as if someone had only kept the most important tools and sold the rest.

  But still, looking at this building, it was clear that once upon a time this might have been a busy workshop with multiple artisans w here. And while most of the workbenches were broken or covered in dust, one of them looked like it had been in somewhat ret use. It even had a drawing on it, as well as a single magic stone. Based on the drawing, it seems like the artisan using this workbench is making a staff, so they must be our t for the treant wood.

  After the main workshop, we entered some of the other rooms. The room we checked was a ste room of some kind, but it was almost pletely empty. There were probably just ten items ie room, mainly a few low ranking monster cores, and some metal ingots.

  After the ste room was the fe itself.But as soon as we opehe door leading to it, a thick bloom of smoke poured out of the room, almost like the entire room was filled to the brim with smoke.

  “Back off, all of you.” Agunan told us. “Don’t breathe that in.”

  “What… how does..?” I questioned how this could have even happened. We did see some smoke ing from the smokestack, so maybe there was a major blockage and most of the smoke came ba or something.

  “The humanoid is in there, most likely.” Agunan stated.

  “We should get them out, now!” Lua instantly said.

  “We ’t go in there. There is a det likelihood we will just colpse.” Ria tered. “You’d have to rely on your nose, because you ’t see anything in there.”

  “Agunan. you survive that?” I asked the dragon.

  “Master, what do you think I am? Non would ever succumb to some smoke. I’ve inhaled volic gasses for lohan you’ve been alive.”

  “Then, would you, please.”

  “Just stay away from the smoke.” Agunan said, before he calmly walked into the room.

  … yeah. That will absolutely be the best idea. The sed best is to get that smoke out of this building.

  Colle. I need some wind monsters. Like this one. But I need a wind monster in the GY for it to work… alright. Let’s just move one Baby Dragon to the GY tab. … good. It went into a death cooldown. Now, let’s just banish it so I .

  “I summon Silpheed.”

  Spoiler[colpse]After the fairy appeared, I gave him his orders.

  “Silpheed, you get that smoke out of this building?”

  “Simple. But Master, are you sure? There might still be a fire ihat room, and I might fan the fmes.” The fairy gave his own opinion.

  “... oh yeah. That’s true. … then maybe just… keep the smoke in there?”

  “Yes. I shall do that.”

  Better just wait funan to return and make a decision then.

  Agunaurned from the smoke soon enough. He was carrying a person in his arms.

  Lua and Alice had already dusted off one of the workbenches and had set out a sleepi on it, so they had Agunan bring the person over a her down.

  … at least I think she is a her, but more on that in a bit. First, Silpheed pushed as much of the smoke bato the other room as he could, and I closed the door behind it. It seems like there might be some sort of magic devi the door, because even though it doesn’t look like it fully seals off the fe room, it does prevent any smoke from ing into the workshop room.

  Anyway. Back to the person Agunan carried out of the smoke.

  I identified her as a she, because she has quite the ra her, enough thought they really are the sed thing that you notice when you look at her. The first is the fact that she has a full beard. Not something you’d normally see on a busty dy. She was also quite tall. Probably a bit taller than I was. Had she been shorter, I’d have guessed she is a dwarf, since female dwarfs do have a beard, based on my oime of experieh that race.

  “Alice, you use a spell to clear the smoke from her lungs?” Lua requested.

  “... I have no clue. I’ve never done anything like that, and I don’t really know anatomy.”

  “Brian!” Lua called for me. “ I borrow your monster?”

  “Sure. Silpheed, go help her.” I instantly agreed.

  While Lua, Alid Silpheed were w on the bearded dy, I spoke with Agunan about the situation in the fe.

  “There is something strange about the fe itself. It is somewhat damaged, likely not something they should have used in the first pce. But coal fire had already suffocated, yet the fe kept billowing out smoke. It doesn’t seem natural.”

  “... well, I would say not our issue, but we are kind of in the middle of this. … maybe I should go check it out?”

  “I’ll have to ask you to resider. Even with as sturdy as you are, Master, smoke like that kill you.”

  “Not like that. I meant having one of my monsters make a smokeproof barrier and then go in.”

  “The me go again. It is more safe that way.” Agunan offered.

  “... but then I won’t get to see… maybe I have a card for that though…”

  I quickly checked my colle for any cards that might help me see better, and I did e up with few. The card I was going to try is The Eye of Truth. I’m ly sure what it will do, but let’s try it anyway.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]After I activated the card, I felt something on my forehead. I wasn’t quite sure what it was, so I pulled out a small mirror from Ste and looked at myself. I now had a ‘third eye’ drawn on my forehead. It looked like the Eye of Anubis that appeared on Yugi’s forehead wheem took over his body.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]With it on my forehead, my vision did most definitely improve. By fog, I could see ‘through’ things. Not walls or clothes or stuff like that, but things that might usually obstruct your view without pletely blog it were something I could see through. That also included smoke.

  … but this doesn’t really solve my issue.

  “Agunan. I’ll use one on you as well. Go in there and search the coal pit of the fe. There might be something there. Then bring it to me so I take it into Ste for analysis.”

  I quickly activated another copy of The Eye of Truth, trying to use it on Agunan instead of myself, and it worked as a ‘third eye’ was soon drawn on his forehead as well. I the him bato the smoke, and as we opehe door, I saw perfectly in the pletely smoky room. But we didn’t keep the door open for any lohan it was necessary funan to enter, so quite quickly, my vision of the room was cut off.

  “Master. I believe I recovered the source of the smoke.” Agunan called to be from beyond the door. I could just hardly hear him, so maybe the insution that keeps the smoke out of this room is actually desigo keep the sound of hammering from this room.

  “Good. Put it o the door, on the side it opens from, and thehe door. I’ll take it into Ste.”

  We did as I said, and soon enough the object was in my Ste. Then I had Agu the fe room, and we closed the dain. After that, I deactivated both of our third eyes, as they were just a bit off-putting.

  (Laura, have the objealyzed.)

  (Already do is a dual stage smoke bomb. At first, it lets out an odorless and colorless sleeping gas, but after a while, it starts to let out a rge quantity of onoxide. It has to be activated by heat over 300°d after use, it will burn up pletely, leavio nothing behind. Luckily we got it before it deteriorated to that point.)

  (... how oh would something like that end up in the fe? For some reason, I doubt that was a mistake.)

  (Could be any number of ways. It could have beehere, and when the fe was lit, the temperature would rise to the point where the device would activate. Or someone could have thrown it into the smokestack, and it fell into the fe.)

  (... so, an assassination attempt? But why do it like this?)

  (It would be nearly untraceable. They would just think she died from onoxide ing from the fe.)

  (I meant why do it to her? To this pce? This pce isn’t worth anything from the looks of it.)

  (I would not know. Perhaps ask the smith when she wakes up.)

  “... Brian… She passed.” Lua announced.

  “... I see. That is too bad.” So they couldn’t help her, huh. We must have been too te.

  “... do you think… we should … resurrect her?” Lua asked.

  “I don’t know. I think so. Theoretically, this could have been a suicide, but still.”

  “Why do you think so?” Lua asked.

  I quickly expihe object Agunan found in the fe to Lua.

  “... Well, I suppose it could be…” Lua accepted my theory.

  “It would expin why something like that was in there.” Alice also agreed.

  “I doubt it.” Agunan stated.

  “... why is that?”

  “She didn’t look like it.” The dragon tinued. “She had a hammer o her and a pieetal on the anvil, so she must have been w on something. Had she phis, she’d likely have set up a chair or something, while looking at the fire.”

  Yeah. There is no way you’d do that if you were actually pnning on … well, offing yourself. And even if this was an attempt for her to … kill herself, I use any number of cards to make that into reality as an apology for ruining this attempt. Or even do something like having Shining Dragon pletely annihite her from existeh Shining Nova.

  NO! Bad brain! Stop thinking of ways of giving people an honorable death. This is the time to live, not the time to die.

  “Alright. The’s resurrect her.” I decided.

  nro_8