Chapter: 126

“Did you finish polishing and cleaning all the goods?”

“Almost, sir.”

“What? You should’ve finished by now!” Bertram sighed “It needs to get done!” he said with a poisonous voice as Hess left the room with his head lowered.

Leaning back in his chair, he had a puff from a cigar. Clearly, he wasn’t as angry as he led Hess to believe – but for some reason, he had an extremely short temper with Hess, while he would never yell angrily at anyone else. Perhaps because he knew he could get away with it.

Bertram turned his chair and looked out the rose glass windows of the inn. He knew that a military escort was coming, bringing with them even more naïve adventurers – these were Bertram’s prey.

Losla was the third village the military escort would stop at before travelling to numerous others in the region. They will have been traveling for three days by now, and would need to rest and resupply for a day or two here at Losla.

“I’m going to make so much money this year,” he smiled, blowing out smoke “Maybe the soldiers will even buy a few of my better weapons… after I reveal them.” he snickered.

Bertram planned to use the same trick he did with the Losla adventurers – sell them overpriced, low quality weapons, then the next day display much better weapons while allowing them to trade the old weapons for a small price reduction.

Having worked as a trader for most of his life, Bertram knew what people were like. He planned to display the better weapons on the very last day the soldiers were planning to leave. This would force them to make an impulsive decision and buy his goods.

A triumphant smile appeared on his face “Ah, it’s so easy being me” he laughed, before taking another puff on his cigar.

– – –

Creaks of wood sounded throughout the empty, dark forest, echoing back and forward. Jay and his skeletons crept through with their swords at the ready – he felt like he had been watched since before they even entered the dungeon.

Something wasn’t right here. Even the air felt strange, it felt thicker somehow – he felt as if his body and footsteps were being held back or slowed down by it – yet when he looked at his feet, there was nothing there.

The party kept walking cautiously along a dark-dirt path that winded through the trees, still in a triangle formation..

Jay noticed his steps kept getting harder to take, it was as if something was pulling him back.

“Is the dungeon doing this? Maybe I’m just tired?” he wondered.

Suddenly, Jay’s shield squeezed his arm – looking left, he only caught a glimmer, a sliver of something white disappearing into thin air.

“What the…” He raised his shield, ready for the attack – yet after waiting a moment nothing happened.

“I guess not…” he lowered his shield slightly.

He squinted into the sea of trees looking for any signs of movement, but found nothing.

With his shield slightly lowered, he slowly kept walking through the forest. As the trees continued to create croaking and knocking sounds, Jay thought this was a little too tense for a level one dungeon. The anticipation was starting to get to him.

The sounds of creaking wood continued as they walked, causing hairs to rise on Jay’s neck. Jay’s shield squeezed his arm periodically, causing them to stop, readying themselves for an attack – but every time, nothing happened.

“This is annoying…” Jay shook his head, completely lowering his shield now. He felt like he was being teased.

Shaking his head out of frustration, and because it was a level one dungeon, he just decided to just ignore the warnings from his shield, Deathwalker’s Sentry, and keep walking at a normal pace.

[Stress Response Activated – +5% Melee damage]