“So did you decide to contract with the Diver agency?” Mathew asked me.
“Contract?”
“So you didn’t even know about it, of course you didn’t.” Mathew gives me an exaggerated sigh, failing to contain his smug smile. “You can sign a contract with the Diver agency and they’ll buy your tips and garg loot from you at a better rate than otherwise, give you access to their facilities, like inns they own, or training grounds, or archives, you’ll get discounts at affiliated shops, with various other benefits as well of course, but those are the main things.”
This seemed too good to be true if the only condition was not to sell to other buyers, who’d likely pay less than the Agency anyways. “What's the catch?” I ask skeptically
“Bright one aren’t you? Well the Agency can call on you like a sort of military force if they have to, and you aren’t allowed to party with non-Agency Divers.”
That meant that Mathew wasn’t in the agency then, the whole thing seemed a bit sketchy. I didn’t want to fight for a huge cause, or fight on the front line of some great war. We had the corruption to worry about, and the Agency wouldn’t need to call on me to fight that, I’d march off on my own.
“That seems like a pretty bad deal, why do people even sign up?” Mathew wasn’t in the Agency so he may not understand himself, but I’d ask anyway.
“Well some people do it to join other strong Divers on their journeys, others do it just for the money. War is pretty rare anyways, the corruption has kept humanity out of conflict for much of history, so people don’t think that being called on for war will ever happen.”
I hadn’t heard about many wars between humans, and all the ones I did hear about were from the precorruption age, when almost everyone was a mage and humanity's only threat was itself.
“Has the agency ever called on their powers?”
“Not seriously, no, they do use threats to get what they want from certain governments though, the royalty in many nations may act like they're in charge, but really, everyone answers to the Diver Agency’s chairman. If they do something he doesn’t like, he can basically pull every Diver in his power out of your nation, and leave you to crumble under the pressure of a barrage of corrupted creatures.” Mathew explained.
It's scary that one man is basically the emperor of the entire human race, the benefits the Divers Agency offers must be incredible if it’s brought him so much might from contracted Divers.
That was probably why people in Halsry hated outsiders so much. Since there was no Agency in Halsry, it wasn’t under its power, and they didn’t want to be at the mercy of some outside entity, or be flooded with people who the Agency tossed aside.
Divers made the world go round in a lot of ways, which is why it was so scary that the Agency held such an iron-fisted monopoly of their power, without the massive hunting efforts, the corrupted population would likely overrun humanity, and it had in the past, forcing us back to this single continent, which was something like the last stand for humans. Luckily, life had mostly stabilized when I was born, and I didn’t have to deal with the struggles humans faced building back up society somewhere new.
Divers also contributed a lot to the economy, smiths created equipment for Divers, inns provided space for Divers to travel and hunt, Divers brought in materials for clothes, and tools, and cut costs on needing to defend your nation, if corruption was strong, the Divers would most definitely come to profit off the gargs.
There wasn’t a single nation with significant military might, it almost never went past small armies and private guards for the government. Everyone was too busy dealing with the Deep to fight wars, and massive amounts of death brought on by the corruption made the war even more devastating for both sides. This fact likely contributed greatly to the Diver Agency’s power, seeing as they could mobilize a massive group of pseudo mercenaries whenever they pleased.
Then a thought crossed my mind, Divers wouldn’t just go and fight a war simply because they’re under contract. “What’s the penalty for breaching a contract?”
“Well if you sign with them, and breach the contract somehow, you lose the ability to shop at any affiliated shops, and enter any cities they have power over, which is everywhere that isn't some village in the sticks.”
“So once you’re in you stick with it or be exiled?” I ask, this seems really not worth it.
“There are some exceptions, like you can pay them a pretty hefty sum to cancel the contract, or if you’re injured, or rendered unable to fight in some other way.”
“Other way?”
“Having kids is the only real way I know other than injury, but there may be others, it's not like I’ve studied every line of the contract.”
“Still don’t understand why you’d ever join.” I say flatly.
“The Agency has never called out its Diver army before, and there’s no reason to break the contract other than avoiding war since strong Divers are usually stronger in the Agency and they pay so well for your materials, plus all the free stuff you get from it.”
Well, I’m not hurting for money in any way, and I didn’t have the intention of ever fighting for anything other than what I personally deemed worth fighting for. Of course that’s just me though, it did seem like a tempting offer for an upcoming Diver with no money, no experience, and no party.
Team up with someone stronger, have them show you the ropes, and reap the benefits of the Agency.
“It seems like the Agency’s benefits would be great for someone who struggled with money like you, why not sign?” I asked him.
“Night drilled into my brain that the Agency isn’t to be trusted like that, they’re useful for getting tips, finding parties, and nothing more. A tool, not your friend were her words specifically.”
So distrust in the Agency isn’t unheard of, sure they hadn’t started any wars or attempted world domination yet, but that was more because of the pressure of the corruption, even the apparent most powerful organization in the world had to fear it getting out of control.
“Why did you ask if I wanted to join?” I asked Mathew.
“Just curious.”
As much as he was warming up to me, this guy was still frustrating sometimes, he didn’t even try to answer me there! He’s constantly making fun of me too, when I was definitely stronger than him. Well, if I could hit him I’d win I knew for sure, but could I? I learned pretty quickly that my speed is not nearly enough, and my never having a plan didn’t help either. I also hate that I had to rely on him so much in this cave, but that wasn’t his fault, I guess.
I was ready to show him what I was capable of. “Let’s get going deeper into the cave.”
“If you’re ready, I am.” He responds, jumping to his feet from his previous laying position in an exaggeratedly show-offish manner.
He sure knew how to get me riled up by acting like that, but quickly as we approached the passage that led deeper into the cave, he flipped his switch.
I decided to test something, I wave my hand just in front of his face and look at him mockingly as we walk, for a while he doesn’t do anything, but when I keep doing it, he grabs my wrist, and before I know it, his sword is pressed against my neck.
“Focus.” He said flatly.
“Sheesh, my bad princess.” Mathew gives me an unamused look, but doesn’t say anything and continues walking.
I knew he wouldn’t hurt me, so I wasn’t necessarily afraid, I was surprised, sure, but more than anything I was impressed, this guy sure was quick.
Comforted by the fact that my companion was so reliable, I moved into the new room with him, this one being not nearly as large as the main room we first fought through. It was filled with black mushrooms with deep blood red streaks dimly shimmering like rubies all around the cave. If not for the sinister feel of the cave, it would be quite beautiful. A stream trickled down from the ceiling, the moss on the walls pulsed and made the room feel alive. The Dark Lord’s meditation chamber I dubbed it in my head.
It didn’t seem there were many gargs in here, we spotted some lurking in dark corners, but they didn’t dare approach us alone, even gargs had some form of primitive self preservation.
We walked deeper into the room, when Mathew bent over and tossed some of the mushrooms we found in his pack.
“Will those sell?” I asked skeptically. They are just tiny corrupted cave shrooms, what use could there possibly be for them?
“Lots of medicines can be made from corrupted plants, mostly stuff for closing wounds.” He told me.
The corruption did have the property of clotting all the blood in gargs so heavily that even when they lost limbs they didn't bleed, maybe that was the property they used in medicine to seal the wounds.
I looked around at more of the jet black fauna, there isn’t anything too interesting other than the mushrooms though. I decided to check in the little river that’s flowing into the cave, and came to realise it has gathered into a decent sized pond. I look in the water to check if there’s any fish gargs or anything, since I’ve never seen those, but all I see is a deep black floor.
Since it seemed empty, and it was dark, I reached into the pool to see how deep it was, but I couldn't touch the bottom, so I used my greatsword and poke it in the water, eventually tapping against something hard.
I poked around in the pool a few more times before deciding it was empty. It seems my greatsword pierced something, but I’d lost interest at that point and took my sword out of the water to explore more of the room. As I turned my back, I heard a massive splash behind me. I whipped around, and a massive black mass rose out of the pool, towering over me.
Two eyes the size of my head stick out from a wide flat body, supported by 8 pillar-like legs, while two massive claws rise and clack rapidly over its head.
It only takes a second to piece together what happened. I was tapping the head of a massive crab garg, and I had pierced its shell, causing it to wake and come to attack us.
Despite the unfortunate circumstances, there was some good news, my sword was effective, even against its hard shell, and-
Well to be honest that was really it, but at least I could hurt the beast.
“MATHEW!” I shouted, but he was already running from where he had been inspecting another part of the cave.
“Same thing as the lizard!”
“Right!”
Mathew had gotten the lizard still enough to allow me to land a hit on it and eventually kill it. Of course the plan didn’t work exactly as we wanted, but it worked out in the end.
We had been using the same basic strategy for large single target enemies. Mathew drew attacks and baited for me to catch an opening and deal massive damage. We had a real rhythm going, and we were confident in our ability to take down any single target should we have to.
I rushed behind Mathew, and the crab prepared for our advance.
And so, the battle with the giant crab garg began.
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