Chapter 632 – Strange Tremors.

“Hey, wench, bring me another mug of that ale.”

“Why settle for a mug when we can get an entire pitcher?”

“Damn, you are right.”

The three adventurers cackled at their own brilliance and slammed their empty mugs onto the wooden table while shouting for the waitress. The Red Dragon Inn was loud that night, louder than usual. The adventurers had just returned from a long expedition to the more dangerous outskirts of the dungeon, and they were eager to brag about how close they had come to dying. They wanted to savour their escape from what they insisted had been certain death.

The waitress approached with a tray tucked against her hip. Her dark hair was braided, and her features were sharp for someone no older than her mid-teens.

“My name…”

She said with clear irritation.

“Is Millie. Not wench. And if you slam your mugs and they break, you are buying them.”

The closest adventurer, an unshaven brute with far too many knives on his belt, grinned when he heard her speak.

“Fiery one, are you not? Come on, Millie, do not be like that. We are just having fun.”

“Your idea of fun.”

She replied, dropping the fresh pitcher between them with a solid thud.

“Usually ends with vomit. Vomit that I am the one who has to clean up.”

The adventurers roared with laughter, more at her frustration than at their own jokes. Millie did not find it nearly as amusing. She turned on her heel at once, eager to get away from the reeking table of half-drunk adventurers. As soon as she stepped away, a sudden quiver ran down the wooden floor.

A ripple, subtle but unmistakable, moved through the inn’s floorboards. Mugs rattled. The chandelier above gave a sharp clink, and several adventurers’ coin pouches jingled. Then, just as quickly as it had come, the tremor faded. Confusion spread across the room.

‘What was that?’

The knife-belted brute muttered the question as his grin vanished. The second man lowered his mug in mid gulp, overseeing the room as if waiting for something.

“An earthquake? Do not tell me the monsters are rampaging early?”

A few other patrons in the Red Dragon Inn cut their conversations short and looked around with growing unease. Even the bard stopped playing his lute as everyone tried to understand the tremor.

“It cannot be a monster rampage. It stopped too soon.”

One adventurer said while scratching his head.

“If it is not the monsters, then what caused it? We do not get ordinary earthquakes here.”

The adventurers slipped into an argument as they tried to make sense of what had happened. Whatever shook the inn had to come from somewhere.

“That was not an earthquake, and it was not a monster rampage.”

They stared at the young girl who had interrupted them.

“And how would you know, miss Not a Wench?”

“Because earthquakes do not feel like that.”

She tapped the floorboards with the toe of her boot.

“That was a shockwave. Deep. Something must have exploded.”

The three men exchanged looks of disbelief and then burst out laughing.

“An explosion? Strong enough to do this in the dungeon?”

It was clear they did not believe a word the girl said. To them, she was nothing more than a waitress whose job was to clean the tables and carry their mugs of ale. They were all tier three adventurers, and if they could not figure out what had happened, then she certainly could not either.

“Haha, I am sure some mage blew himself up, and the explosion reached all the way here, girly.”

Millie did not laugh. Her brows drew together, and for a moment she looked furious. She was about to give the man a sharp retort when a voice called from behind her.

“Millie, the tables need cleaning up. Please take care of it.”

She looked back to see a woman standing behind the counter. The two resembled each other closely but she was clearly much older.

“Yes, Mom.”

She answered and finally pulled her attention away from the laughing adventurers who had already forgotten about the strange tremor. Millie, however, could not help wondering what had caused it. Most people thought she looked like a maid or someone with a cooking class, but her class had come from her father’s side rather than her mother’s. That alone made her think the disturbance had been caused by a powerful explosion.

‘But there had been no shockwave or sound. What could it have been?’

She drifted deeper into her thoughts as she tended to the tables. Her eyebrows furrowed again as she looked at the mess another group of adventurers had left behind.

‘Why do these people always treat us like this?’

She lived among powerful combat class holders, and to them, people like her were nothing more than servants. She knew she was stuck here and understood that if she wished to survive, she needed to play her role. Her father was gone and the protection she and her mother had relied on was fading. It was best to stay quiet and hope that someday she and her mother could leave this place.

*****

‘I think I might have to create something better to absorb these underwater shockwaves…’

Roland watched the explosions ripple outward as his torpedoes tore into the clustered sea serpents. The bursts of light appeared muted beneath the water, yet every blast sent a violent surge through the lakebed. Dark clouds of blood spread through the depths like drifting smoke, and severed scales drifted slowly toward the bottom. He had set up a spell to dampen the shockwave and managed to prevent a full heavy earthquake, but it was still not enough.

The creatures thrashed in pain, but the frenzy that had drawn them to the lure kept them from fleeing. Several serpents coiled in confusion and whipped their tails across the lakebed as their panic grew. They could not identify the source of the attack because Roland remained hidden behind an array of concealment spells.

‘This is quite the shooting gallery.’

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Roland kept his distance while watching for any sudden movement. His cloak of mana held firm, and the serpents paid no attention to him. They focused only on the glowing orb and the strange substance it released. The lure placed them in a trance-like state, and they continued to swallow it while being torn apart by his new weapon.

‘This lure is better than I expected, it even has a sedation effect on them…’