Now that he was paying attention, Karl noticed that there were a lot of Darklight Host members among the crowd.
“Does the Darklight Host control this village, then?” Karl asked the Mayor as the parents and relatives of the children began to make plans for a grand dinner celebration.
“Not exactly. We’re not large enough to have a control stone like the cities do. But they are the only Guild in the area. The Outreach Workers are everywhere, and this spot started as an overnight rest stop along the road for travellers hunting magical beasts, used to get a decent night’s sleep.
Naturally, the Elves took it over as soon as they heard about it, and now it’s more of an Elven village than a waypoint.”
Karl nodded. “I suppose that makes sense with the rural location in the middle of the forest. Still, this place is pretty impressive to have survived so long in the deep woods with the level of threats that I’m hearing about all around you.”
The mayor laughed. “We deliberately don’t keep anyone who is too powerful in the village. That way we can deal with the minor threats that attack us, but our presence doesn’t threaten the territory of the stronger monsters.
In most regions, they avoid the roads and villages, because of dangerous travellers, but here we don’t get many visitors anymore.
The nations to our North and East are both in the middle of civil wars right now, and with that level of chaos, there is very little trade. Only those with the skills and resources to run military blockades enter there now, and that means not the sort that transport goods down the road.”
“What about the other villages?” Karl asked.
“There used to be one every day’s travel for a passenger carriage. Now they’re at one and three days distance from us, headed northeast. The Civil war spilled a bit across the border at the start, and they hunted a fugitive into the village and wiped it out.
Now, the other outposts mostly do like we do. They just live off the land.
But if we get really desperate, there are edible plants in the stable instance where the children train. We will sometimes send them there to gather food.”
Right, the Elves were all vegan.
A small hand tugged at the Mayor’s pant leg, and he looked down with a smile.
“The Monster Man has wonderful purple tubers. Even better than the ones from the instance.”
The Mayor looked confused, so Karl took one out, which made the Elf laugh. “Oh, you have a Rare Grade Violet Root plant. That explains why the kids all like you so much. What do those taste like to humans?”
Karl shrugged, “Slightly sweet potatoes, similar to a yam.”
The Mayor nodded. “Our children don’t normally eat any refined sugar, but these roots are often used to make spiced cakes. Well, not usually ones this good, the Common Grade ones from the instance, but they taste the same.”
The only thing that came to Karl’s mind when he said that was spicy mashed potatoes, but if they had a way to make that into a cake, he might have to get his hands on an Elven cookbook.
Lotus would love him forever if he found her an all vegan cookbook that could make mashed potatoes into cake.
Far away, Lotus sneezed as she sat in the hotel restaurant in Lithium Mine Town.
“Oh, someone is thinking about you.” Dana laughed.
“It’s our Karl. The Goddess says he’s alive and playing with Elven children. Tiny, cuddly, adorable Elves.” Lotus replied, sounding a bit like she was going to cry about being left out.
Dana briefly wondered if that was the reason that the Goddess had seen fit to grant her the vision. It would calm everyone else’s mind, so they could continue their work. But it would also torture Lotus to know that there were apparently extra cuddly demihumans somewhere that she didn’t get to play with.
She was already going into danger fluff withdrawals without Rae nearby, and the Mage was beginning to worry that the bored cleric would start befriending the Earth Mice that inhabited the town.
Ophelia poked Lotus. “You saw a vision? Is he alright?”
Lotus nodded. “He had his armour on, but he was indoors and surrounded by tiny Elves. I don’t know where they are, but it’s not anywhere near here. It didn’t look like our country, if that makes sense.
I think that he’s in an instance, one of the sorts that you have to finish a quest to exit.”
Tessa sighed.
“That would explain why my power flared an hour ago. We weren’t doing anything, but someone pleased the Red Dragon. If he was finishing a battle related mission objective, that could explain it.”
Morgana made notes of their conversation, while Bob Mackenzie smirked at the War Cleric. “Better him than us. I don’t care we’re all among the top combat talents below Royal Rank, when it comes down to battle, I can’t help but feel like we’re the B team. Backup for his main team.”
Doug laughed, then turned serious for a moment. “Do you think that Dragon that attacked the helicopter came from the Instance? Maybe he’s going to come back with some strange and powerful new beast.
Things that come from eggs seems to be his theme, so I wouldn’t put it past him to bring back a Dragon Whelp.”
“This is bullying.” Lotus complained.
She was a green dragon priestess, if anyone should be getting a baby dragon, it was her.
But if Karl brought back a dragon, she could ride a spider and a dragon. That would be acceptable as well. Perhaps she should be giving prayers to the goddess for him to bring back good things.
Doug gave her a suspicious look, knowing that the little Priestess was up to something strange, but a nervous looking woman caught his attention.
“Excuse me, High Priest. Do you happen to know an Elite named Karl? He has beasts with him. I thought I heard your team mention him.” She asked hesitantly.
Doug smiled at her. “Indeed we do. I heard he was born here, do you know him?”
The woman gave him a thin smile that said she was more nervous than she wanted him to know.
“I do, actually. Very well. You see, I am his mother.”
Doug smiled. “You hear that, Dana? We found Prince Karl’s beloved mother.”
Dana laughed and tapped the table across from her. “Why don’t you join us? I am his classmate, as well as his teammate. We’ve known each other since the day we arrived at the Academy. He has told me a lot about you. However, I only recall him ever calling you mom.”
Karl’s mom smiled, her face leathery and wrinkled well before its time from a life of hard work and exposure to the elements. “You can just call me Ma. Everyone else here does.” She insisted as she took a seat.
An aging miner with tobacco yellowed teeth at the table behind them laughed. “Short for Mary Eleanor. But she’s been Ma since she was old enough to work at the mercantile store as a girl.”
Karl’s mom gave him a shooing gesture. “Drink your coffee. My son has told me all about this lovely young lady, but I never thought I would get to meet her before my own son came home again.
Nothing bad happened, did it? He’s not hurt, is he? They didn’t send a letter or a white robe like they did for Owen’s family.”
She clearly cared quite a bit about Karl, and the contrast to Dana’s own family was a painful memory. The mage smiled gently and flipped her curls back out of her face.
“No, he’s fine. The Green Dragon herself saw fit to give us an update. He’s just on a solo mission at the moment, and we chose to wait in town for him to return.”