[Shrubley, the Monster Adventurer] Chapter 133 – Dawn of the First Day V

Just as Shrubley and Smudge were coming out of the clock tower, they ran into Miranda as she was about to storm the place. Cal followed on her heels.

“Shrubley!” Miranda snapped. “Where have you been, young man?”

Without a word, Shrubley pointed at the tower.

“Oh.”

“The clerk was telling the truth,” Cal told her.

“Yes, I can see that, Cal.”

“Just making sure, Countess. He was awfully scared.”

“Maybe,” Sose said, giving the skeleton some side-eye. “Could have been boring ‘em with trashy romance stories in there!”

“We have a quest!” Shrubley told her. Smudge quivered like a bowl of jelly on top of Shrubley’s head. He kept looking this way and that, as if expecting another Smudge to somehow jump out of the air at him.

“All right, maybe not,” Sose finally admitted.

“A quest?” Miranda put her hands on her wide hips. “What about our other quest? You know, the one that will stop a war from breaking out among monsters and men? That seems a little more pressing, don’t you think?”

“Another one?” Cal asked, just as perplexed.

“Yes, well…” Shrubley began. “Clocktown only has 63 or so hours left to be saved.”

“Pyuu!”

Miranda raised a hand to stop him. “We’ll talk about it back in the room. Where I can be sure we’ll be left in peace.”

A great number of citizens were watching them with anticipation. They tried to make it seem as if they were going about their everyday lives, but what they were truly doing was plain, even to Smudge.

True to her word, the Countess wouldn’t talk until they were back in their suite. She glared at the clerk and maids, who breathed a sigh of great relief after seeing Shrubley.

Once they saw the brass artifact of Secundus in his hand, they began to whisper fiercely. Shrubley could hear the hope and awe in their tone.

He hoped he was up to the task of saving both Clocktown and Almora. He knew it was a lot for one lone shrub to handle, but fortunately, he had his friends.

Konko, still fast asleep, was snoring when they entered. She started and fell out of bed when the Countess slammed the door behind Shrubley and Smudge. She rolled and flopped off the edge, landing hard on the ground with a tired groan.

Unprompted, Konko yawned and dragged herself to the table and sat down. Nobody said anything, so she figured it was okay to be there.

“Sit, and tell me everything,” Miranda told them.

Shrubley and Smudge did as they were asked. The entire time, Shrubley never let go of that strange golden thing in his hand.

When he finally got to explaining Secundus, Miranda understood why.

He was afraid of something happening to it, which meant he wasn’t likely to ever let it go.

“What will we do?” Konko said in bewilderment, running her fingers through her messy hair in a futile attempt to detangle it.

One good thing about living with monsters? They didn’t care if your hair was a mess, or if you couldn’t afford makeup.

“What do you mean?” Slyrox asked. “We save town. We are hero adventurers, yes?”

Shrubley nodded at that. Even Smudge did, though he did glance around as if expecting that existential dread to creep up again.

It didn’t. Smudge was safely within the aegis of ignorance once more.

Unfortunately, his once-impenetrable redoubt of ignorance now had a crack in it.

“But how can we possibly save both?” Konko said. “There’s no time for it all!”

“A couple days is plenty,” Shrubley said. As he thought it over, he began to see the issue. “Although…”

“Three trials!” Cal cried. Shrubley could tell his friend was becoming overwhelmed. “That’s too many! And in just 60 hours? Plus the Dungeon Dimension! We don’t even have the last card yet. How can we possibly do all that while also eating and sleeping?”

“I suppose Cal does have a point.” Miranda drummed her fingers on her thigh. Sose snuck beneath her hand to steal some inadvertent pets. The oppa looked quite pleased at the result. “If we save Clocktown here and now, then we risk dooming everything else to the afflicted Dungeons.”

Shrubley looked down at the brass relic on the table. Secundus beckoned to him, to use its powers, to test the limits of his skill and control.

He looked up at the others. “I have an idea… but I do not like it,” Shrubley admitted.

“Go on then, out with it,” Miranda said when Shrubley wasn’t immediately forthcoming.

“Slyrox would muchly like to know as well,” the koblin added, wagging her mitt in the air.

His lamplight eyes rested on Secundus, the last artifact of Clocktown. “I… believe with this, I can find the next Dungeon,” Shrubley said slowly. “I know it is not the intended purpose of the relic, but I believe it can be done at great cost. Not only can it find it, but it can open the way directly to where we wish to go. This thing is a key of sorts, I think. It can bind and unbind, lock and unlock all manner of things, if you are willing to pay the price.”

“What sort of great cost, Shrubley?” Cal asked his friend solemnly.

“That is the thing that troubles me,” Shrubley admitted. “I know it will exact a great price, but I do not know what that price will be. I feel the cost is commiserate with the task asked of it. A lesser task will be a slight cost, perhaps inconsequential, but something that is as important as seeking the Dungeon we are after?” He shook his head.

“Then you cannot use it,” Cal told him. “You cannot agree to pay something when you have no way of knowing what the cost might be. What if it was your life? Or your essences?”

“Methinks Cal is muchly wise in this,” Slyrox said.

“Can you lose such a thing as essences?” Konko whispered, horrified.

Miranda watched the little shrub. “It is Shrubley’s choice,” she said solemnly. “Am I right in thinking that this artifact will work for none but you?”

Shrubley nodded, but just to be sure let go of the clock hand and slid it across the table.

Miranda touched it, lifted it into the air and swished it around. “Nothing,” she said. “And I don’t mean just that it has no Shardscript. I feel nothing from it, as if it were no more magical than this plate here.”

One by one, each of the party members touched Secundus, but none of them could feel anything from it.

The relic had chosen its champion.

The only one who had any sort of reaction was Sose, and that was another loud tail rustling sneeze. This definitely didn’t land the oppa in chosen champion territory.

“How can something so powerful have no Shardscript?” Konko asked. She looked around, but no one had an answer. Not a good one, anyway.

It struck Konko that the Countess was oddly silent. She seemed to be thinking of something else, but what that could be Konko couldn’t begin to guess.

Cal rubbed his bony chin. “That is a mystery for the ages.”

“It is the only way,” Shrubley told them, taking Secundus back. “We have no idea how long it will take for Dungeonley to contact us, if he ever will. He has a daughter to care for. If they are smart, they will steer clear of any such influences ever again. And that means rolling the dice and hoping we come across a Dungeon that is influenced before it has a chance to harm another town.”

Miranda frowned. “I do not like this.”

“Neither do I,” Shrubley admitted. “But do we dare sit idly by while a Dungeon out there appears and destroys a town? What if it is too late by the time we come across it? And even if we do, how can we search for the Dungeon while helping Clocktown? Are their problems any less important simply because fewer people will be harmed as a result?”

“There is a utilitarian philosophy about this,” Cal mused. “Should we help those who are in the most immediate need, eschewing the greater threat that may or may not be solvable right now, or do we chase the bigger issue with the most potential for loss of life? And in doing so, we will have to hope that, on the balance, the ends justify the means.”

Everybody turned to look at him.

Miranda smacked him upside the bony head and rifled around in his cloak until she pulled out a book on philosophy. She shook the heavy leather-bound tome at him. “This book has far too many ‘-isms’ in it for my taste!”

Having been caught red-handed, Cal at least had the sense to be embarrassed.

“He is right,” Shrubley said. He turned to Miranda. “And that is his book. He is trying to better himself, Countess. The mind is as much deserving of training as the body.”

Grumbling, Miranda gave the book back. “I get that you want to prove you’re learning, but tone it down a little!”

Sose dooked in agreement.

“Yes, Countess,” Cal said, tucking the book away. He winked one necromantic fire at Shrubley as thanks.

“As I said before, Shrubley,” the Countess began, “I do not like it, but as it is your choice. I will not stand in your way. You wish to use this… Secundus to gain access to the last Dungeon?”

“Yes. By acting as fast as possible, we have the greatest chance to minimize the potential loss of life,” Shrubley said. “If the potion led us to the entrance, it would be another matter entirely. It is not as if two potions would do any better, would it?”

It seemed the only way to poor Shrubley.

As Cal had put it, if they waited for the next Dungeon, Clocktown might be doomed. They had placed their faith in him, and he had told them he would help. Who was he to go back on his word simply because the going got tough?

His father would be ashamed to see Shrubley turn his back on these people, even if the greater threat loomed on the horizon. It was a hero’s burden Shrubley had chosen to take upon himself, and that burden included both the celebrations and happy times as well as the sad and lonely times.

I have not been lonely since I fell into that chasm, Shrubley thought to himself. Here, around me are my friends. My family. They care about me.

It nearly brought dew to his eyes.

“Are you sure, Shrubley?” Cal asked.

“I am,” Shrubley told him.

Konko looked at them all. “At least let me prepare you a potion or two, okay? I’m not going with you this time. I’m not that dumb. I’ll be safe here, especially since you’re going to save this place after all, right?”

Shrubley nodded.

“Then give me an hour and I’ll have a couple of potions whipped up, okay? I know how to do that much at least.” She ran her fingers through her hair and headed toward the door.

Smudge looked at Shrubley. “Pyuu?”

“Oh… you are right, Smudge. Yes, please.”

Smudge bounced out of the room after Konko.

“What was that about?” Cal asked.

“The people here do not take our currency,” Shrubley explained, spilling out tiny metal clock hands of brass, titanium, and platinum. “Instead, they use these. If she is seeking to buy ingredients for potion making, she will need some of the currency Smudge and I received for protecting the town earlier. I… may have forgotten to mention that.”

Cal reached out and picked up several of the brass pieces. “Such strange materials to make coinage out of,” he mused while staring at it. “Why do I get the distinct impression that I can–”

The osseous form of Cal fuzzed around the edges. He streaked across the room as a bony white and blue smear of color that reminded the Countess of long-exposure photographs.

All color and motion condensed into a continuous shape. It was really rather pretty.

Cal’s voice dopplered as he screamed around the room like a demented banshee.

Cal suddenly appeared again, his boots smoking as they left long black streaks on the hardwood floor. He stared, wild-eyed all around him. “WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!”