Chapter 492 - Little Lord (Patreon)

“Stop,” came a voice from nearby.  Pausing mid-stride, Zeke whipped around, ready to destroy the new threat, but relaxed when he saw Talia crouching behind the low wall that encircled the estate. 

“What?  How long have you been here?” he asked.

“Seven hours,” she answered.  “You move much more slowly than I do.”

Zeke knew as much, but still, he hadn’t expected it.  Clearly, he should have, if she’d beaten him there by seven hours.  “How did you survive the fall?” he asked.

“I am durable enough to survive a fall.”

“Most people at this level are,” Eveline supplied.  “I’m more surprised that she didn’t get ripped to pieces by those enormous insects.”

“Me too,” Zeke agreed.  Then, aloud, he asked, “Why haven’t you gone in?  Were you waiting on me?”

“That is one reason,” Talia admitted.  “But I am more concerned with the fact that it is obviously a trap of some sort.  The moment we step inside that gate, something is going to happen.  Perhaps it is a monster we will be forced to fight.  Or it could be situational.  Environmental, maybe.  But it is clearly nefarious.  Given that, I thought it prudent to observe and plan before walking in there.”

Zeke blinked.

In the back of his mind, he’d suspected the same thing.  Yet, his reaction hadn’t been to engage in reconnaissance.  Instead, he’d fallen back on his normal strategy, which was to charge in and adjust to whatever foe presented itself.  And while he knew that there was a time and place for scouting, he also recognized that those activities tended to stretch his patience to the limit.  He found it tedious in the extreme, and what’s more, it usually proved unnecessary.  Rare was the situation where he couldn’t simply overpower or smash through the obstacles in his way.

It was just further evidence that his way was not the only way, regardless of how effective it had been for him. 

“What did you find?” he asked after a moment.

“Not much,” she admitted.  “There are creatures in there, but they were too far away for me to identify.”

“How big?” he asked.

“Varied.  Some are as large as you in your alternate form.  Others are smaller than me,” she answered.  “I could not see more than that.”

Zeke nodded, then looked around.  Clearly, the mansion was their destination, which meant that they’d have to enter the grounds at some point if they wanted to conquer the dungeon.  However, just because that was true, it didn’t mean they had to follow the script and enter via the most obvious route. 

With that in mind, Zeke said, “I’m going to circle the grounds.  There might be another way inside.”

“Wait,” Talia said, reaching out to stop him.  “The water is –”

“I know,” Zeke said.  “I can take a lot of damage.  I’ll turn back if it gets to be too much, though.”

After that, Zeke left the path and waded into the water.  Before he took more than a few steps, he resumed his [Titan] form, which served two purposes.  First – and most importantly – it made him much sturdier.  He didn’t know precisely how to quantify the difference, but it was significant. 

“It makes you about fifty percent stronger and more durable,” Eveline provided.  “Your agility and dexterity increases as well, but to a much lesser extent.  I would say around ten percent at most.  Probably a little less.”

“That much?” Zeke asked.  He didn’t question how Eveline knew those things.  She was an incredibly intelligent entity with a wealth of experience.  As such, she could infer things much more easily than he could. 

“Those are estimates, but yes,” she said.

The other benefit of his titanic form was that, with his added size, the water only extended a little past his ankles.  It didn’t prevent the destructive aura from eating away at him, but it did make traversing the pool of tepid water that much easier.  Regardless, it only took a few steps before the slight tingle of destruction became something far more potent.  However, Zeke quickly discovered that, so long as he remained close to the low wall encircling the area, it didn’t continue to escalate. 

He continued on until he’d made a loop around the grounds, but he’d found no other obvious entrances.  More importantly, when he’d tried to bypass the wall by simply stepping over it, he encountered a barrier that reminded him of the one he’d found in the centaur trials.  That made one thing abundantly clear – they had no choice but to enter the grounds via the gate. 

“That makes it pretty obvious that the undead girl’s prediction is going to turn out to be true,” said Eveline as Zeke approached the original path.  “Which means there is likely to be something deadly in store.”

Zeke shrugged and mentally said, “What’s new?  This was always going to be dangerous.  Honestly, I’m just ready to get to it.  Sneaking around like this just doesn’t sit right with me.”

“You’ve done it before.”

“I know,” Zeke said, casting his thoughts back to the troll caves where he’d made a habit of stealth.  Yet, since then, he’d moved further and further away from that sort of tactic.  Perhaps it was simply his nature, but there was a chance that his class and Path of Arcane Destruction had affected him as well.  After all, colossi and titans weren’t exactly known for flitting from one shadow to the next.  Instead, they conjured images of unstoppable juggernauts who never let anything get in their way.

“I think you may be attributing your own traits to those of mythological creatures,” Eveline pointed out.

That was possible as well.  Zeke had never studied mythology, so he couldn’t be sure.  However, it still felt right, so he was going to just run with those assumptions until something proved him wrong. 

When he reached Talia, he climbed out of the water and said, “I didn’t see another way in.  I think this is our only option.”

“Unless this isn’t the end of the labyrinth,” she pointed out.  “This could be an elaborate dead end.”

Zeke hadn’t thought about that possibility, but considering how long it had taken to find the place, he didn’t want to go exploring for other routes unless it was absolutely necessary.  “I think we should cross this off our list before we start looking for other paths,” he said. 

Talia agreed, and at last, Zeke stepped through the gate.  It proved a bit anticlimactic, because it prompted no change.  Indeed, the area past the gate was little different than the outside. 

He looked back and said, “Seems fine.”

“Welcome, traveler,” came a raspy voice that made Zeke shift his focus back to the grounds.  That’s when he realized that he was entirely surrounded, and not by anything remotely human.  “We seldom host visitors.”

The speaker was tall.  At least fifteen feet, and painfully slim.  He was dressed in an old-fashioned tuxedo, with a ruffled shirt and long tails.  His arms and legs were incredibly long, especially compared to his much shorter torso.  However, Zeke was more focused on the creature’s head, which looked like a poorly sewn together rag doll with buttons for eyes and ragged stitching for a mouth.  Atop his head was a tall top hat. 

He wasn’t alone, either.  Zeke counted ten more creatures – some were female and wearing what looked like servants’ dresses – but he suspected there were many more he couldn’t see. 

“What do you want?” Zeke asked as the gate clanged shut.  Thankfully, Talia had already entered, so they weren’t separated. 

“Want?  To serve, of course,” the doll-like creature answered.  “Would you like to join the Lord for tea?  It is quite good.  Only the best for the little Lord.”

Zeke glanced at Talia, who shrugged.  At the same time, Eveline said, “Just kill them all.  We don’t need to participate in this farce.”

For his part, Zeke wasn’t so sure.  Anytime he’d tried to bypass dungeon mechanics, it had made things much more difficult.  So, he suspected that the case would be similar in this instance.  Perhaps the goal was to slaughter everything, and if it was, he would gladly participate.  However, it was just as likely that the situation was similar to the riddle room he’d encountered in his first dungeon. 

“That was stacked against you,” Eveline reminded him.  “Those hags never intended to let you through.”

He couldn’t argue with that assessment.  Back then, he’d answered their riddles, but he’d still been forced into a seemingly unwinnable battle against his own reflection.  Perhaps he’d find himself in a similar situation this time around, though he hoped not.  There was no Pudge to bust down the door and save him.  Maybe Talia could play that role. 

“That sounds good,” Zeke said.  “Lead the way.”

Only then did he bother to [Inspect] the creature:

Raggedy Jack – Level 91

“Uh…good thing you didn’t attack him,” said Eveline.  “He might be more than you can handle.”

“But you said –”

“Let’s not get into what either of us may or may not have said,” Eveline interrupted.  “Let’s focus on what comes next.”

As it turned out, what came next was a tour of the grounds, and in the course of seeing everything it had to offer, Zeke’s choice to go along with the scenario proved to be the right decision.  Because every creature he inspected was at least level eighty, which meant that he had almost no chance of winning a battle. 

“I think you’d surprise yourself,” Eveline said.  “You could at least manage mutual destruction.”

“That doesn’t help.”

“I’m just saying…”

Eveline continued to babble, but Zeke paid her no attention.  Instead, he focused on the situation.  There were hundreds of the raggedy people, but they all seemed entirely peaceful.  That would change if he attacked, but so long as he kept his hammer to himself, he suspected that they were only meant to add flavor to the scenario. 

“And now, to the big house,” said Raggedy Jack, sweeping his hand to indicate the giant plantation-style mansion.  It was an impressive structure, but up close, Zeke could see that time had clearly taken its toll.  In many places, paint was peeling, and there were even some signs of rot.  However, it still seemed sturdy enough.

Raggedy Jack led them inside, and the interior of the mansion was just as impressive as the outside.  Yet, it was beset by many of the same issues.  The carpets were moldy, and the paintings on the walls were so faded that the subjects proved incomprehensible.  The paint on the walls was chipped and peeling as well, and the fixtures were dull and tarnished. 

In short, the place looked like it had been long abandoned. 

“Pardon the mess,” said Ragged Jack.  “Our cleaning staff has been a bit lax of late.  Be assured that they have been punished, but the little Lord was a tad too exuberant in his discipline.  So, we are a bit understaffed at the moment.  Good help is so hard to find, I’m sure you agree.”

“Uh…yeah,” Zeke muttered. 

“Come, come.  The little Lord is waiting.  He does so love to share his tea with visitors.”

Zeke and Talia continued to follow the odd creature through the house until, at last, they reached a large sitting room.  Decorated with moldy chairs and rotting, wooden tables, it displayed many of the same issues as the rest of the house.  However, Zeke was far more focused on the…child at the center of the room.

“Hello!” he chirped. 

To Zeke, the child looked no different than any other toddler he’d ever seen.  At a height approaching three feet, with pudgy cheeks and straw-colored hair, the child looked entirely out of place. 

“Let’s have a tea party!” the young man said with age-appropriate exuberance.  “Sit!  Sit!  Tell me all about your adventures!”

Zeke glanced at his companion, then turned his attention inward and asked, “What the hell is this?”

“Inspect him,” Eveline said.

He did as she suggested, and when the results flashed before his inner eye, he couldn’t suppress a shudder.

Little Lord Liddle – Level 100

“We shouldn’t have come here,” he said in his mind.

Then, the creature before him grinned broadly and said, “Don’t be silly!  We’re going to have some fun!”