[Shrubley, the Monster Adventurer] Chapter 129 - Dawn of the First Day

Waking up with the stroke of midnight, the Count yawned and stretched languorously. He expected good news this day. The cousins had been dispatched, and they were fast movers when properly motivated.

Corbin and Styx at least understood the meaning of family. Their… brother… well, he was another matter entirely. Bit of a black sheep, but he was family. You didn’t give up on family just because they were odd.

There was an unexpected knock on his coffin lid. “Maaarthter? There’s… some mail for you.”

“Excellent,” he said, opening the lid and sliding out onto the couch nearby. “Thank you, Igor.”

For some reason that eluded the Count, Igor looked rather nervous. The servant bowed and backed away.

There was something inside the letter. The Count dared to hope that it was the heartwood of that foul shrub. Considering the size, maybe it was just a cutting.

Perhaps he could plant it and grow Shrubley once more, showing him that he could give life and take it away at his leisure. Maybe then the little upstart would leave his precious Countess alone.

But when the Count opened the envelope and stared at the contents, he howled with rage. Inside the envelope were two items. The first was a letter, which hardly interested him after he saw the second item: a slightly pointed ear.

He would recognize that pale ear anywhere (mostly because it was tattooed with “Corbin, (L)”). When you’re a young vampyr who lives out in the windy plains and often forgets to get back to a coffin before daylight, certain measures need to be observed.

The Count whipped out the letter and read it with hateful, hungry eyes. “He dares to mock me?!” he roared with outrage.

Not only had his cousins failed to harm the little beast, but Shrubley had sent a piece of the defeated vampyr back to his master in order to taunt him!

Truly, Shrubley was the Count’s most fearsome opponent, and had quickly become his greatest rival.

“Does your cruelty know no bounds, Shrubley?” the Count whispered into the darkness.

***

Shrubley awoke in the early morning hours, luxuriating in the warm sunlight that streamed through the eastern windows. He had picked this spot specifically for that reason.

He stretched his many branches, even his auxiliary ones. Their range of motion was better than ever before. With this higher density mana, he felt like a new shrub indeed.

The Countess slept far from the windows in one of the private rooms. Like the rest of his party, she was fast asleep. He thought about knocking on the door but then realized not only would she be mad, but she likely needed the rest as well.

Unlike them, she had exhausted great stores of mana keeping them safe on the final leg of their journey. Now that they were within the Outer Ring, things would be much more dangerous and much more interesting.

Fortunately, he had some things he could do before heading out. He took out some enchanting pots from his inventory and checked on the weapons’ progress. Much to his surprise, one of the weapons had improved in rarity.

After thinking it over, Shrubley began to prepare what he now viewed as his lucky pot. He had a scant understanding of fortune and chance, but he had heard it in passing enough times to consider it a rather good thing.

He tilled the soil with his hands, seeping mana through his bark into the dirt to begin the enchanting process. The light-brown, mostly dry dirt began to soak through, gradually drinking up the mana as it turned a rich loamy black.

He concentrated on breathing steadily, evening out the flow of his mana looping through his limbs and funneling into the pot. The capacity of mana the enchanting pot could hold was surprisingly deep.

Shrubley realized with startling certainty that his Copper mana never would have been enough. It was neither dense nor strong enough.

As he channeled mana into his lucky enchanting pot, he began to suspect that perhaps Bronze wasn’t enough either, even with his Willpower and Arcane at new heights after the levels gained from the last Dungeon.

He did not know the limits of this crafting medium, which was a good thing. That could mean that his enchanting might not be restricted by the pot’s quality for some time.

I think that raises the chances that my plan will work! Shrubley thought excitedly, humming to himself.

He was curious what would happen if he tried using his Bronze aura, but he did not wish to risk damaging the pot. It was incredibly difficult to exact finely tuned control over his aura. It seemed to want to overflow with immense power every time he released it.

His Copper aura had been much easier to control.

He did not know how Miranda held such mastery over her Steel aura. Perhaps that was part of what it took to be a Steel Ranker.

I can’t wait to find out!

With the soil filled with mana, Shrubley moved onto the pot’s many lining runes. He studied them, picking out which ones he wished to concentrate on.

Nodding to himself, unaware that Cal–pretending to still be asleep—was watching him with great interest. Shrubley pressed his fingers to a set of three runes and seeped Life essence into them.

The flowing, beautiful script lit up obligingly, forming a linking chain that cascaded through the vessel. Shrubley smiled, quite pleased at the result.

Shrubley unsheathed [Death’s Razor] and studied the weapon. The power that radiated off it did not match his own, but he intended to change that. It seemed only right that the weapon that had been instrumental in his success in saving Taamra should grow with him.

He had earned it from a quest after all. And it wasn’t as if he would need his favored weapon here. Clocktown seemed perfectly safe.

He planted [Death’s Razor] into his lucky pot, hoping that it would improve in rarity. Perhaps when he was more practiced, he could increase its rank too.

Patting the hilt of his favored blade, he said, “Grow big and strong. I shall check on you later. And don’t worry about me. In the meantime, I will use one of the Count’s weapons should I need to defend myself.”

Shrubley did not think that likely while within the safety of Clocktown. The people were very friendly.

Just as Shrubley reached the door to the room, he heard a faint plop, and turned around to see Smudge staring at him. “No dress today?” he asked the slime.

Smudge shook his face back and forth on his gelatinous body. It was hard to shake your head when you lacked a neck.

“You want to come and explore the town with me?”

Smudge nodded.

“Very well, let’s go.” Shrubley opened the door and left the room with Smudge in tow, eager to see this Clocktown that was so wondrous and weird.

***

“This is a very serious accusation you’ve brought me,” Sel said, eyeing the pouch of Grit on her desk. “If I bring this forward, there is no going back. You’ll be looked at as a suspect too,” she added, locking eyes with each of the 4 Steel Rankers in her office. “The Auditors will be looking to see if you’ve some connection to the Grit market and whether you’re looking to use the Guild and the Imperial Court as a means of snuffing out a rival. With all that said, are you sure you wish to go through with this? Once it starts, I cannot stop it.”

Remal stepped forward with the aid of his cane. He leaned as casually as possible upon it. “We’re sure. This is the right thing to do. Jerric was propositioned and seeing that the choices were either to turn down and put a target on our back, or accept and get in deeper to root them out, he chose the harder road.”

“As he likes to do,” Fio said with a snort.

“Be that as it may,” Sel began, “you better be sure your records are squeaky clean. And I don’t just mean the minor infractions you’ve done for angering Silvers. Yes, I read the report. That’s nothing compared to this. Mouthing off to superiors is child’s play compared to peddling Grit. So, I’ll ask one more time, because of your service to Taamra: are you sure you want to go down this road? I can destroy it right here, right now, and nobody else needs to know of this.”

“We are sure, Sel,” Remal told her.

“Absolutely sure,” Jerric added.

Henry grumbled, but he always grumbled.

“Very well, then I will alert the Auditors presently.” Sel made a complicated motion with her hands. A ring of sigils appeared beneath the bag of Grit. With another motion of her fingers, the pouch was absorbed by the sigils until nothing remained. “I have formally admitted the evidence.”

Sel sighed. This was not how her first meeting with the Auditors was supposed to go. When they arrived, they would not only be there to vet the newest Guild Leader, but also to determine the veracity of a very serious accusation backed up by the same untested Guild Leader.

If they’re right, the Auditors will look very favorably on me and Taamra. But if they’re wrong… She didn’t want to think about it.

She sat down, pulled on a drawer, and retrieved several stacks of silvery glass panes. “Now, I’ll need a sworn affidavit from each of you to enter into the report. Please keep your information to the point and on topic. The Auditors will use any excuse they can to pry into your personal life, so the less ammunition you give them, the better. Jerric, we’ll start with you…”

***

Shrubley ran into an alarming issue rather quickly.

“This… isn’t money here?” he asked with a great amount of confusion. If he had a brow, he would have been furrowing it.

The shopkeeper shook her head.

“Pyuu?” Smudge asked, pushing forward a copper coin of his own with a gelatinous hand that loosely resembled one of Shrubley’s.

The shopkeeper eyed the coin, seemingly just as bemused as the two monster adventurers. “Sorry boys, I can’t accept whatever that is.”

Shrubley looked longingly at the roasted [Blackened Chicken] on display. With its blend of fragrant reddish spices and its charred skin, it smelled rich and savory to the soul shrub.

Smudge’s stomach grumbled loudly. He nudged Shrubley and handed something to him.

Shrubley held out a small brass coin in the shape of a clock’s second hand.

“Well, now we’re talking! That’s a currency I can get behind, but unfortunately, that’s just a second. You’ll need at least 3 seconds for this.” The shopkeeper regarded their crestfallen faces with sympathy. “Oh, all right! You can have one each if you don’t mind running a little errand for me.”

Shrubley tilted his head, momentarily distracted from his hunger. “Miss, did you say this coin is a second? As in, one of the smallest units of time?”

“Sure did.” She leaned forward and examined him carefully. Despite the odd timbre to her voice, she had a very pretty face that lit up with delight once she realized that Shrubley was new to town. “Oh, you’re one of the newcomers, aren’t you? Why, hello there!”

He smiled. He always liked friendly people. “Yes, miss! We both are.”

Folding her arms on the small counter at her stall, the young woman leaned in a little closer. Fresh lemony-yellow sunlight spilled across the top of her bandana holding back her platinum blonde hair. A spray of freckles sparkled across her nose. She extended a slim hand to Shrubley.

Shrubley took it without missing a beat. He was used to handshakes now. The first few times… they had been rather disastrous. After he had saved Taamra, everybody wanted to shake his hand.

Now he was well practiced at the motion.

“My name is Eiran,” she said jovially.

“Mine is Shrubley, ma’am!”

“Smudge!” cried the pink slime, extending a stretched-out version of a hand.

If Eiran found this odd, she didn’t show it as she reached another hand under her first and shook both hands at the same time. “Pleased to meet the both of you! Now, seeing as you’re new to town, I’ll let you have this [Blackened Chicken] first, you boys seem trustworthy enough. Besides, growing boys like you need your breakfast!”

She took out two piping hot [Blackened Chickens] that seemed fresh from the oven despite there being no such thing anywhere nearby. Shrubley didn’t think too much about that as he opened his leafy mouth wide and shoved the whole chicken in there.

Shrubley let out a small polite burp, excusing himself.

Smudge copied him, though his chicken was easily still visible as it broke apart into tiny floating motes of energy as the slime broke down his meal. Shutting his eyes, the slime smiled contentedly.

Eiran blinked rapidly in surprise, then laughed with delight at the display. “Now, about this errand I need you to run…”