This Quest is Bullshit - Chapter 157

Chapter 157 - Forgetting Someone?

By the time she awoke the following morning, Eve knew the others had already left. Her reasoning had nothing to do with any confidence in Wes or Preston’s ability to wake up earlier than she, but everything to do with the hideously blue box floating before her eyes as she blinked them open.

Legendary Quest Milestone Reached: Go Solo!
+ 2.144t exp!

Level Up!

Statistic Growth Upgraded!
+5 Willpower/Level

Eve sighed. Two trillion exp would always be welcome, especially in the form of her increasingly valuable milestones, but she could’ve done without waking up to see a giant glowing billboard of her new solo status shining into her eyes. She dismissed the notifications.

Taking a few moments to let out a tired groan and groggily force herself out of bed, Eve went about the task of washing up and donning her mistler hide armor, stopping to down a glass of water in the hopes of aiding her aching head.

She did wonder how a manifestation of pure Mana could get hungover without the necessary chemical functions for such, but the same question applied to getting drunk in the first place. It probably had something to do with the fact her body was wrought by her consciousness, making her hungover because she felt she should’ve been. It certainly fit with the general shittyness of the morning so far.

Her armor donned and griffin bone club tied to her back, Eve slung her pack over her shoulder and moved to leave, thinking she’d stop at the kitchen to grab some food for the road before starting her long run across the continent. The cursed ring weighed heavy in her pocket, and she was eager to finally be rid of it.

Any thoughts of breakfast, however, stopped short when Eve swung open the door to her suite to find three glowing lights floating just outside. She blinked.

“Lumy? You’re still here?”

Believe me, I’m not happy about it either, but somebody has to make sure you don’t get yourself killed.

Eve scowled. “That’s not very nice of—wait. I can hear you!”

Oh no.

“Fuck yes,” Eve cheered. “After all that I’ve spent time chatting at you, you can finally reply!”

Yeah, about that, Lumy sent, you do realize I’m not an accredited psychiatrist, right? Cause you really need one.

Eve laughed. “Classic Lumy.” She clapped her hands together. “Does this mean you’re coming with me to the Broken Marsh?”

That wasn’t a…  Lumy sighed. Yes, I’ll be coming with you. It wouldn’t be wise to let you adventure without adult supervision.

Lumy’s tone was starting to bother Eve. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

You have a tendency not to take things seriously, especially when your life is in danger.

“No I don’t. I’m plenty serious.”

I watched you spend two hours using Ethereal Manifestation to draw dicks on your skin. Two hours, Eve.

“Right.” Eve reddened. “You, um… you were awake for that, weren’t you?”

Yep.

“In my defense,” she argued, “we weren’t actually in danger then.”

Lumy changed the subject. I spent the night in the keep’s library doing some reading on this crystal willow you mentioned. Apparently it’s—

“Wait, reading? How can you even turn the pages?”

Well, I can’t, but there’s nothing stopping me from passing through the book. I can sense everything that’s within the few feet of my form, so I just need the book to go through me and I can perceive all the text on it.

Eve raised an eyebrow. “You can do that? But how do you see? If the book is closed there’s no light on any of the pages.”

I don’t have eyes, Eve.

“Right. Right. Sorry. It’s early. You were saying?” As she prompted Lumy to continue, Eve took off down the hallway, listening telepathically to Lumy’s explanation as she led the way to the kitchen.

Do remember those fish people that were at Alvin’s wedding? The Zandith?

Eve scowled. “The hive-minded ones?”

Lumy flashed blue. Yeah, them. Apparently the crystal willow isn’t just some tree; it’s their capital city.

“They have a city? Interesting.”

The hive mind has gotta be located somewhere, Lumy sent.

Eve nodded. “Makes sense. So you think the Zandith have this vault?”

Assuming your employer wasn’t lying, it’s definitely there. Whether or not the Zandith know it’s there is another question.

“Mister Moist did say the vault was underground and long forgotten,” Eve reasoned. “They probably don’t know about it.”

Most likely, Lumy replied. Though I did find something interesting in my reading. One of our books had a map of the crystal willow in it, and right on the ground floor is this.

An image flashed into Eve’s head, one of old parchment with fading ink. It showed a city block—or what passed for one under Zandith city-planning standards—occupied by a single structure with a curious label.

“They have a bank?” Eve’s eyebrows shot up. “Why does a hive mind need a bank?”

That’s what I want to find out. We’ll obviously learn more when we’re there, but if we’re looking for a vault, a bank seems like the best first stop.

“Alright.” Eve smiled. “How about the Zandith? Are they hostile? I imagine they can’t be too mean if they were invited to the wedding.”

Well, some human was able to get in to draw that map, so presumably? Lumy sent. Nothing in the books mentioned any conflict with the Zandith, but there’s no indication they’ll be particularly welcoming either.

“So we don’t know,” Eve said, stopping as she reached the entrance to the kitchen.

We know some.

“I’ll take some. Some is more than I had twenty minutes ago.” She stepped inside, pausing her conversation with the phantasmal remnant to ask the kobold within for the morning’s batch of scones and whatever dry rations she had on hand. Three minutes later, she returned to the hallway with a pack full of goodies.

Ready?

“Ready as it gets,” Eve replied. “We running or flying?”

Lumy flashed a dull yellow. Whatever’s faster.

Eve looked up at her. “Can you keep up with me?”

I’m a ghost, Eve, Lumy sent. I have no surface area to collide with the air, and no mass to provide inertia. I’m only tangentially attached to this plane of reality in the first place; where exactly I am is more a matter of opinion. I think I can damn well keep up with you.

“You know, I’m sensing some pent up frustration right now,” Eve said. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

Try spending a year following you around and being completely unable to interact with anything. Frustrating is an understatement.

“Well, it’s a good thing I can hear you now, huh?” Eve instinctively went to pat Lumy on the back before remembering the phantasmal remnant didn’t have one. She lowered her hand awkwardly. “We haven’t even left yet and you’ve already been a big help.”

Only because without me you would’ve charged right into a city full of monsters you weren’t expecting to be there.

Eve grinned. “Exactly.” She stopped at the double doors leading out of Dragonwrought Hold, pulling one open and holding it for Lumy. “After you.”

Lumy floated directly through the still-closed other door.

“Right. Ghost. Duh.” Eve stepped outside, shutting the door behind her. “To the Broken Marsh, then.” She pulled her pack off her shoulder, bundling it up so it would fit within her crown’s storage space. She kept the cursed ring wrapped up in her pocket, not daring to stow it. Eldritch magic had a bad habit of doing weird shit, and Eve didn’t want to begin to think about what it might do in her storage space. It’d probably have been fine, but it also might’ve corrupted the crown, or worse—since she absorbed the Ar-gold to access the storage—her.

Supplies gathered and packed, Eve set her sights on the southward path down the mountain, and took off at a run. She kept slow at first, wanting to confirm that Lumy could indeed keep up, but as she watched the remnant float effortlessly along at whichever pace Eve set, she felt comfortable hastening a bit.

She didn’t bother Charging, the running-speed boost on Defiant Body enough to keep her moving at a solid two hundred miles per hour as she weaved around the trees of the northern woods. While her enhanced reaction time and traction made the journey possible, the latter especially reached its absolute limits against the forest floor. Even magically empowered, moist dirt didn’t hold up well to someone turning on a dime at two hundred miles per hour.

Any adventurers who wandered upon Eve’s path after she passed might’ve wondered what great beast had passed as to leave such violent footprints.

It was as she ran that Eve came across another advantage of telepathic communication. It worked at high speed.

Without opening her mouth to be dried out by the roaring wind around her, Eve could continue her conversation with Lumy as they traveled. Better still, for the first time in their year of nightly one-sided conversations, Eve listened.

And that’s when I told Preston, “I know I said you needed to stop worrying about the little stuff to focus on the big things, but Wes’s big thing isn’t what I meant.”

Eve laughed so hard she crashed into a tree. The ancient pine exploded as she slammed right through it, taking ten thousand Mana’s worth of damage in the process as various chunks of wood and bark flew off in all directions. She slowed down a bit to let herself finish giggling.

Lumy, that’s hilarious, Eve sent. So you’re why Preston went all red in the middle of that high-stakes tic-tac-toe game.

I still don’t know what that gambler imp was thinking, Lumy replied. The whole drawing issue aside, tic-tac-toe isn’t even a betting game.

Eve shrugged. I’ve found it’s best not to question these things. Wacky shit is a given in this line of work.

You don’t question them, Lumy sent. Sane people do.

Well, they’re not gonna stay sane long if they keep doing that.

Lumy flashed dull blue in defeat. Fair point.

They journeyed together for a few hours before finally turning north towards the mountains. Eve had made the obvious choice to run through the woods rather than crossing early and having to traverse the Dead Fields, but that did leave them with the issue of getting over Xandria’s Teeth without a convenient mountain pass.

Good thing Eve could fly.

Thirty minutes and a few Jets later, she and Lumy stood atop ridge, looking down upon the brown and green landscape of the Broken Marsh. Ancient bits of stone and metal framing peeked up from various bogs where buildings had long sunk into the swamp, the whole place a graveyard of civilization. Where once had been cities and mills and farmland and lumber yards, now only untamable marsh remained.

Except, in the distance, one city remained. Eve had to squint and dump hundreds of Mana into enhancing her sight, but there, on the horizon, something glimmered in the afternoon sun. On foundations kept stable by roots, shaded from the hot sun by leaves, the Zandith capitol stood steadfast amidst the wild landscape.

It was with a grin that Eve and Lumy stood there, gazing out from the very top of Xandria’s Teeth, and laid eyes for the very first time upon the brilliance of the crystal willow.

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