ShanDeRad
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Chapter 19
🕑 Added 2024-04-20 17:40:39 +0000 UTCThe rest of Shaun’s day went by quickly, the first thing he did was have a bath, the water was cold but he didn’t mind, he hadn’t been able to properly clean himself in over a week and when he left the water he felt like a new person. Afterwards he explored Ruin, everyone he met was very welcoming, some even stopping to talk to him and would tell him about how great it was to have somewhere safe during such a terrible time. He didn’t see any children around, which he supposed was a good thing, hopefully they were in a much nicer tutorial then the one he had been placed in, similarly everyone seemed to be in prime health, he didn’t see any elderly around either.
When he got food from what was designated the mess hall he sat alone and listened in to the conversations occurring around him, there were a few groups of hunters and scouts around and he was able to pick up a bit of information on the different areas surrounding the city. The hunters were apparently ranked and split into two different groups, those with a class above level 10 and those under, the higher levelled teams were sent towards the tunnels leading further down into the cave system, apparently if you went though specific exits from the city they led to tunnels that would take you to a deeper level and that was where the higher levelled monsters were. The lower level teams were sent throughout the other tunnels on this level till they got their new skill and would then either wait for the rest of their team to level up and they would all move to the higher levelled areas or they could choose to move to a different team.
The scouts only worked on this level and they apparently had a system of which tunnels to search and for how long before moving to the next tunnel. Shaun had to admit it was all very well organised, everyone knew what they were supposed to do and when, making it so no one was left without a purpose or job to focus on. Once Shaun had finished eating and he wasn’t hearing anything new from the chatter around him he started to get up to leave but not before spotting the rest of his group come in, they noticed him nearly immediately.
A few of them started to make a move to the table that Shaun was still sitting at, as it had plenty of room for other to join him, Gabe and Eric among those headed his way. Rather than have to endure what was bound to be an awkward and uncomfortable conversation he just got up and headed to the exit without a word. He couldn’t avoid walking past them to leave and although a number of the group said hello and a few tried to engage in conversation with him, he just told them to enjoy their meal and kept walking until he had left the mess hall.
“Shaun, you can’t avoid us, please can we just talk?” Turning around Shaun saw Gabe and Eric standing behind him, apparently having followed him out rather than get food.
Shaun considered what to do, if he just walked away he would only be putting off this conversation, they would eventually corner him, either at the building he was staying in or maybe the next time he was having a bath or getting food. Better to get this over with now I guess. “What do you want?”
Gabe and Eric shared a look before Gabe decided to take the lead in the conversation, “We know that the past few days haven’t been……easy. We both cut you off after what happened. We have had some time to think about it and finding out more about those people from Tegan and Mitchell really put things into perspective. We just wanted to apologise for the way we acted, for treating you like we did. Hopefully we can move past it, as friends? Maybe even form our group again?”
Shaun didn’t really feel anything during Gabe’s apology, he had already processed the betrayal he felt and decided to just close himself off from the situation and the group in general. Instead of getting into any kind of lengthy lets hold hands and sit in a circle BFF moments Shaun decided to just end the conversation as quickly as possible so he could leave. “I told you once before Gabriel, people just tend to disappoint you when you need them most. It’s easier being alone.” And not even waiting for a reply Shaun turned and walked to his house.
Shaun wouldn’t say he slept well, his dreams being haunted by memories of the past, different foster homes he had gone through, his time in the group home and finally the day he found out about his Dad, but when he woke up he felt good enough to get on with his day. He was already at the building to meet Edward before the first bell rang, eventually the others joined him at the same time Edward showed up with a few different people.
He soon found out that the extra people with Edward were going to be the people that looked after the different teams that they would all be split into. Richard was going to join those who were rebuilding Ruin, Danielle was joining the healers, while the rest of the group were forming up, either joining a different hunter or scouting group or forming their own. None of them had hit level 10 in their class yet so they were going to be on this level while Shaun was going to join a team to travel deeper into the caves.
“Before we all go our separate ways, there is one final thing we need to do.” Edward said, “To keep Ruin running, and to make sure everyone has what they need, we ask that everyone provide what meat, loot and potions they have. The meat will obviously go to feeding everyone, the loot goes to where it is needed, I am sure you have seen our leatherworkers utilising the skins we receive from monsters. The potions are then provided to those who need them most, we make sure that Mana potions are kept in store for the healers and mages who go out to risk their lives fighting, the same for the health and stamina potions. If you have chosen to stay in Ruin and not join the hunters and scouts there will be no need to have any potions on you. For those of you who do go out into the tunnels, the leader of your group will be given an appropriate number of potions to make sure you can be well looked after.”
Everyone in the group did as asked and when it got to Shaun’s turn he considered what to do. He refused to give up everything he had, but again he was in a situation where he would need to show that it looked like he was complying. He handed over half of his stock of loot, he had built up a huge collection anyway and didn’t need it at this point, he kept the heating stone, the Mole Rat claws and all of the gear he had looted from the 3 scouts he had killed. He handed over his Mana potion as well as one each of his health and stamina potions. This left him with three health potions and one stamina potion left.
They were all then split up and a man approached him, “My name is Liam, I am going to be the one that you will be reporting into. I have already heard a lot about you.” Shaun was not getting the feeling that the things this Liam had heard were good things. “I have chosen a team that I think will do you good, they all report to me and in turn I report directly to Alan, you know who Alan is, don’t you?”
Shaun nodded along to what Liam was saying, letting the implications of what was said settle in. There was no way that Shaun should be looked after by someone so close to Alan unless they had a reason to want to keep an eye on him. The only thing he had done which might have raised unwanted attention was having dealt with the three people that had attacked and tried to kill him. So, either they wanted to make sure that he wasn’t unhinged from doing what he did or there was more going on and people were not as understanding of what happened as Tegan and those in her group.
“Good,” Liam continued, “You will be going down into the higher level areas, from what we have seen these areas are generally full of creatures at level 4 up to level 7 with the occasional level 8. We don’t have many teams that venture down into these areas as before we put the rule in place around having to have a level 10 class to go down there we lost a lot of people to the higher levelled monsters, even now it’s a risk. Most hunter groups chose not to go down there at all, even if they are higher level, they have seen one too many people die down there and figure it better to live and level slower than it is to die. I doubt you will be one of those that decide to just play it safe though.” Liam gave him an assessing look but it was clear he wasn’t waiting for Shaun to respond, just trying to gauge his reaction.
Once they had walked through Ruin and gotten to one of the tunnels exiting the city he could see just by looking into it that it did slope downwards, standing at the entrance were four other people, each geared up and looking ready to head out.
“Phil, team, this is Rogue Shaun. He will be joining you from now on.” Liam said to one of the warriors of the group. “Shaun this is Phil, he is in charge of the team while you are out hunting monsters and will have hold of the potions, he is the one to judge if they are needed or not, he is obviously a warrior. The rest of the team are Archer Louis, Mage Sophie and Warrior Will.”
They all looked at Shaun, some gave him a nod, others said hello, but none seemed shocked that he was joining their team. They had obviously been well informed ahead of time about everything that was known about him from either Tegan, his own group or both.
“Shaun, this is your first and last warning, you listen to Phil, if you step out of line you're out, you do something stupid and someone gets hurt or killed and you're out, you don’t follow the rules of Ruin you're out. No second chances. Understood?” Liam said right at Shaun.
“Understood.” Shaun replied, not even seeing the point to try and argue.
With that Liam turned around and left, leaving him alone with his new team. Shaun focused in on the people standing in front of him, they didn’t seem friendly but neither did they seem openly hostile. “How do we do this? Do you have a specific formation you like to hunt and travel in?” Shaun asked them.
“We do, but we might need to change it up a little bit. We have never had a rogue in the team before, they usually level really slowly or die pretty quickly before even getting here. Tell us, how do you usually fight?” Phil asked him.
“When travelling as a group I scout ahead in stealth, report back when I find anything and then we set up positions before attacking. When I am alone it's similar except I cut out the retreat to inform the group.” Shaun said. The team nodded along with what Shaun said, the way Shaun worked had a lot of benefits, that was clear to anyone that listened.
“Good, we can work with that. We will let you scout ahead, no fighting on your own though, you report back to the rest of us always, otherwise, like Liam said, you're out. And not just from the team.” Phil turned back to his team and asked them all if they were ready to move out, once everyone confirmed he turned back to Shaun. “Well go on then Rogue Shaun, lets see what you can do.”
He smiled back at him and rather than say anything more just walked past the team and straight into the tunnel putting every ounce of confidence he had into his walk. Just as he had gotten far enough ahead that they could barely see him he went into stealth, completely disappearing into the shadows.
“Holy shit! I can't even see him anymore! What level is that stealth skill even at?” He heard Louis exclaim from behind him. That put a smile on his face. He doubted that they even knew he was still close enough for him to hear them.
“I don’t know, but you know what Liam said, we have to be careful around him.” Phil whispered to his team, “We watch him and report on what he can do and what he is like.”
That lines up with everything I assumed Shaun thought, this isn’t just some normal hunting party, they have another job to do, spy on me.
Not wanting to delay any longer he pushed forward into the tunnel, leaving the rest of them far behind. He was excited to find something new, a different monster he could train his skills against, something stronger that he could fight to raise his own skills and level.
It took nearly an hour by Shaun’s reckoning before he came across his first monster, during that time the tunnel kept a downward angle and seemed to continue to loop around to the right, like a spiral going down, there were no splits in the tunnel during that time and he couldn’t make out any obvious differences to the tunnels he had been in before.
As Shaun was checking on the monster he could see that it was different then anything he had encountered before, it stood as high as his chest and looked like a giant rat. It was digging at one of the walls, making good progress as nearly half of its body was now in the wall. He quickly identified it as a level 5 Giant Mole Rat. Before he could make a move to report back to the others he caught two more presences with his detection skill coming up to the Mole Rat he could see. Waiting, he saw two more Mole Rats, another level 5 and a level 6, come up and join the one that was digging into the wall. He couldn’t feel anything else around him over the next few minutes, but did get a good understanding of how the monsters moved and seemed to communicate with each other through little squeaks. Having gotten all the information he needed, after a moment's hesitation, he moved back to inform the team.
Once he found Phil and the group again he dropped out of stealth, scaring all of them by his sudden appearance, they had even started aiming their weapons at him. He told them about the three monsters he had found and they all made their way to where they were now located. Phil had told him that it wasn’t uncommon for the Mole Rats to make their way up the tunnels from deeper down, they liked to explore and you would occasionally see the smaller tunnels that were made from them.
When they were close enough that they could hear the monsters up ahead Phil indicated for them all to retreat back so they could talk.
“Shaun, we want to see what you are capable of, we haven’t seen you fight yet so we aren’t sure what kind of skill you have in fighting monsters. Usually……. we would never let someone fight three Mole Rats of that level solo, but if you are willing to give it a try, with us as back up of course, I am happy to let you have a go.” Phil said to him with nods from the others.
Seeing as the entire point of me being in your team is so you can see what I can do Shaun thought, why not put on a little show. He just smiled at Phil, “Sounds like fun. I will let you know if I need help.” This was going to be interesting.
