Buttopia
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Chapter 48: Smithtown
🕑 Added 2024-12-17 03:04:05 +0000 UTC“Thanks, Timon,” Mel said.
“No problem at all, man, just remember the deal. No one mentions where I am to my ex-wife, bitch is crazy,” the giant mantis said. I blinked several times, trying to shake the odd sensation in my brain. Had she tried to eat his head? Did mantises really do that, or was it a thing we just heard they did? I wasn’t an entomologist, so I had no concrete idea there. The situation was somehow too surreal for me, despite everything else.
“Dave, you doing alright? You look a little strange,” Cecile asked.
“Sorry, I’m fine, just a random weird thought, don’t worry about it. Hey Timon, how long until Smithtown anyway?” I asked; I was suddenly very eager to get off the bus.
“Another hour or so,” Timon answered. That wasn’t what I wanted to hear.
“Mel, what happens when I get to level two-fifty anyway?” I asked, needing a distraction.
“Core strengthening, but it’s best we leave that until you get there. It’s a bit odd, and I'd rather walk you through it once you can do it. There’s a lot that won’t make any sense until it’s staring you in the face, but what I’ll say for now is we have to improve your core at that point if ya wanna go any further,” Mel explained. I had been wondering about that. I knew improving your core took a ton of work, but the specifics weren’t exactly covered. I’m guessing because I hadn’t been looking in the correct place.
“Oh, fair enough,” I said. From there, the conversation turned into Cecile and Elicec talking about their own animals back home. Apparently, they had a creature that was something like Chip but had four arms and four legs, and a lot of time was spent keeping them out of mushroom patches. I zoned out for a lot of it, but that much made it through. The bus coming to a stop brought me back to reality and I caught the tail end of Cecile saying something about eels.
“Alright, we’re here. I’m gonna go find a place to park the bus. You all want to stay on or go do some information gathering?” Timon asked.
“We’re gonna go find someplace to stay, something a bit more comfortable than the bus. I’ll leave a messenger for once yer parked to let us know where yer at,” Mel said. I wasted no time getting off the bus for some fresh air. For whatever insane reason, Timon just pushed me past a sense of reality. I knew I’d have to get used to him, but I think I was allowed to take it slowly with how much I had already accepted. I watched a mini-Mel break off before he and the brothers joined me near a pathway into the village.
“So where to?” I asked, guessing we just followed the path for now.
“There should be a place somewhere in the village center where we can get a room for a few days while we figure out just what this dungeon is; then, you boys can go handle it while I dig into those items you recovered a bit more,” Mel said.
“So is a town like this in any trouble with the archive closing? I assume it only exists because people cared about the knowledge aspect of this world, not the resources,” I asked, looking around at the inhabitants we passed. They were shorter than most humans and a bit mole-like, and they seemed to keep to themselves. I saw a few heads turn our way, but for the most part, they minded their own business, working on the various projects they were engaged in. Several buildings were being constructed, and that seemed to be their primary focus.
“Depends on the town, looks like this place was started by a group of reltleons, so they’re probably fine. I doubt they were expecting any trade in the first place and are likely only here, as no one else wanted the space. Their home world has been gone for a long time, and that’s never a great place to be for a people,” Mel explained. We reached a building with a sign outside that said rooms for rent, which was apparently what Mel was looking for as he turned and entered the door.
“Welcome travelers to Smithtown,” said a voice from behind a large counter the moment we entered the building.
“Hey, we heard about the dungeon problem y’all have been having. I know there hasn’t even been any official scouting done yet, but I figured we’d take care of that as well. Rent some rooms for a few nights and get it all taken care of nice and neat. Any chance you’re the guy that can help us with this?” Mel said, getting right down to business. I had the feeling he didn’t want to be here any longer than needed. I wasn’t sure I bought his claim about how little danger we were actually in, considering the vibe.
“I can get you set up with rooms, absolutely, but I’ll have to get the mayor to stop by later. He has all the information that’s been collected about the dungeon so far,” the man said.
“Good enough, put the rooms on my account,” Mel said, showing the man something on the back of his hand. Was that the equivalent of a debit card? Just show someone your details, and they can pull up your banking info. It was that far off where things were headed back on earth anyway; hell, take into account biometrics, and we were already there. Were there any worlds that had knowingly rejected magic and entered into what was essentially an arms race using technology?
“Second-floor room seventeen, it connects to four bedrooms, sorry we don’t have anything with just three beds,” he said after looking at Mel’s hand for a few seconds.
“No problem, it won’t be an issue,” Mel said, immediately heading for the stairs and straight to the rooms. The second he had the door closed behind us, several more of his mini-Mels broke off while he glared at Cecile, who had just opened his mouth. We waited ten minutes in silence before they all joined back into his main body, and he spoke again. “Something’s wrong; the drone should have been back by now.”
“Wrong as in Timon and the mini you is kidnapped, or wrong as in it’s been destroyed?” I asked, not sure just how much information he got back from his drones.
“What did you call my messenger drone? No, wait, we can deal with that nonsense later. Gone as in kidnapped, it’s still functional. I’ll know when it's destroyed, but there’s no reason it should be missing, either. For one thing, Timon can handle himself reasonably well, so whatever got them both is a big new problem,” Mel said, shifting back to what I was pretty sure were colors that signaled his anxiety.
“Alright, clearly, we need to go find Timon. Cecile, Elicec, you two stay here with Mel. Mel give…” I started to say before my words were cut off by a loud, frantic knocking at the door. Cecile, who was still near the door, opened it, revealing another one of the relteons.
“Who the hell are you?” Mel asked, fury bubbling into his voice.
“Damn, am I too late? Did something already happen?” The newcomer asked.
“It sure as hell did; get yer ass in here and tell me who the hell you are now!” Mel said. His color had shifted to dark red.
“I’m Glunderlin, the mayor of Smithtown,” he said, walking in and shutting the door himself before continuing. “What happened? From what the clerk said, it doesn’t look like anyone is missing yet…”
“Well, yer damn wrong, someone is missing, and we know is there’s some unscouted dungeon that you idiots reported. Somethings telling me yer about to say it’s a lot worse than we know, and then I’m going to get even angrier about an inaccurate report!” Mel interrupted furiously.
“I’m sorry; if I had known anyone was coming, I’d have sent a warning. It’s just I assumed with the change in planetary affiliation, we weren’t going to see any help any time soon,” Glunderlin explained, the words leaving his mouth at lightning speed.
“Fine, ya got a point there. Just tell us what ya know,” Mel said, sighing loudly and starting to shift back towards his usual green.
“What we initially thought was going on was that we had built the city on an existing undiscovered dungeon. We even found a series of caves that seemed to back up this theory. That was when we sent word of the possibility of a dungeon. We weren’t overly worried at the time, as we had the entrance barred and guarded at all times. Then, more people started to go missing. We went into action, and some of our best fighters at the settlement went deep into the caves, trying to find if there was another way out we couldn’t find from the surface. That was a week ago, and they still aren’t back, but while they were gone some of the initial victims reappeared, seemingly mostly okay, they just couldn’t remember what had happened. They were checked out by our healer, and he thought everything was fine, too. It wasn’t. I don’t know how they were changed by whatever had taken them, but three days ago, they made their move and captured Traveler Thirty-Two. If they managed to corrupt him and establish a tunnel, all our settlements are in danger, and while I’m deeply sorry you’ve already lost someone, we desperately need any help you could give,” Glunderlin said.
“Well, shit. I don’t think you had a dungeon here at all, well, at least not initially; youu might if something happens to that core of yours, and a multi-universal dungeon at that. That’ll be a real big problem if it happens,” Mel said, his anxiety colors coming back.
“Wait, I think I’m missing something here, what is going on exactly?” I was lost on what Traveler Thirty-Two was or even what Mel thought was going on.
“It’s one of the damn seedlings; they take root and slowly start to replace people until they can gain the real access they want. A way off the planet, and the reltleons just happen to have their own little network used to attach their cities together. Dammit, Glunderlin, how could you let a seedling anywhere near of yer dungeon cores, especially after the core was attached to yer network. We have two, maybe three days at this stage to stop the seedling infestation before someone a lot more powerful than us does it the easy way,” Mel said. I didn’t remotely like the way he had phrased that.
“What’s the easy way exactly, Mel?” I asked, having a feeling I knew the answer.
“Bye-bye planet and everything already attached to their corrupted Traveler when it happens,” Mel answered, glaring at the reltleon mayor.
The reltleons are one of the only people to have had some amount of growth following the loss of their home world. Their development of unique pathways through chaotic space alongside dungeon cores turned allies are a rare example of something truly new in the Spiral. Luckily for them, their paths represent something all of the factions desire and they sit safely, for now, in the middle of the cold war.
Factions, Dynasties, Royalty, and the Holdings by Trig Plunderscan
