Ichor Cell-Chapter 62: The Return II

Ichor Cell-Chapter 62: The Return II

The last goblin slid off Alex’s sword and toppled to the floor, limp. Alex was tempted to topple with it. He’d spent the last hour hunting the pests through their maze-like underground den, and he had seen enough of the ugly fuckers to last him a lifetime.
“Fucking finally!” His voice echoed through the silent cave system. After shouting out his frustrations, he felt marginally better. “Now, how do I get out of here?”
Alex looked around the dark space, only visible to him thanks to the occasional flickering torch embedded crudely into the walls. Narrow, uneven passages branched off at irregular angles, some sloping up, others down. Bloodstains helped to differentiate them a little, but not as much as he would’ve liked.
He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Great. Fantastic. Love that for me.”
He was undeniably lost.
Alex picked a tunnel at random and started walking, boots crunching softly over stone and bone. He kept his pace steady, senses stretched out as far as he could manage, looking for light, listening for any sounds of the outside.
The caves seemed determined to spite him.
Twice he ended up back in chambers he recognised, once beside a group of goblins he distinctly remembered walking past earlier. He resisted the urge to kick them out of sheer irritation and forced himself to stop, take stock, and actually think.
Although he was sure the goblins weren’t genius base planners, they were still living beings, and had been using these paths for a while now. It stood to reason that the most frequently used paths would be the ones in and out of the den.
And frequent use brings about wear and tear.
When he reached the next branching path, Alex got low to the ground and squeezed an eye shut, squinting at the ground. After a moment of attention, he could barely make out an ever so slight track indented into one of the paths.
‘Bingo.’
He smiled and followed it.
The passage gradually widened, until it could comfortably fit four people walking abreast. The stench thinned too, marginally less suffocating than deeper in the den. After another few minutes of walking, pale light appeared ahead, thin and weak but unmistakably real.
“Thank fuck,” Alex muttered.
The tunnel spat him out into the den clearing a few minutes later.
Alex blinked as the weak, grey light hit his eyes, far gentler than full dawn but bright enough to make him uneasy. The sky above the trees had lightened noticeably, the black of night bleeding into a dull, washed-out blue. He swore under his breath and glanced east, heart ticking up a notch.
“Shit.”
Remus was still there, standing near the edge of the clearing. He turned when Alex emerged, taking in the blood-soaked state of him in a single glance.
“That was longer than expected,” Remus said.
“Maze,” Alex replied. “Dead goblins everywhere. Long story.”
He didn’t wait for further comment. The sky was brightening faster than he liked, and even though the sun wasn’t up yet, he wanted to be inside long before that point.
“We need to move,” Alex said, already walking past him. “Now.”
Remus frowned. “What? Why?”
“I have a condition. You could even call it a curse.” Alex explained very quickly. “Me and sunlight do not mix. Even brief contact will give me some pretty bad burns, and prolonged contact will probably just kill me.”
“Wait, really?” The gold rank adventurer was taken aback, then sent a glance up into the sky. “Then isn’t that…”
“Bad. Yes. Very.” Alex said in a clipped tone.
They made it maybe fifty paces into the forest before Alex’s patience ran out. He glanced up again.
“Sorry, but this is way too slow.” Alex muttered, and without warning, scooped Remus up over his shoulders.
Remus let out a startled noise. “The hell are you doing—”
“Saving us time.” Alex said, breaking into a run. “I appreciate that you’re injured, but I can’t afford to stay out in the light no matter what. Now, do you know which way the city is? I’m a bit lost.”
“You…” Although visibly unhappy with it, Remus suppressed his dissatisfaction and pointed right, almost perpendicular to the direction they were headed. Alex thanked him and corrected his course.
The forest blurred around them as he pushed himself, feet barely touching the ground as he weaved between trees. Branches whipped past, the wind tearing at his clothes, the sound of his own movement drowning out everything else.
The forest thinned abruptly.
One moment Alex was weaving between trunks, branches slapping against his shoulders as he tore through the undergrowth, and the next the trees simply stopped. He burst out of the treeline at full speed and skidded to a halt on open ground, boots tearing up dirt.
Bright light hit him square in the face.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. sightings.
Alex swore violently and lurched backward on instinct, heart slamming into his ribs as he staggered back into the shade of the forest. He nearly tripped over a root in his haste, half-falling before catching himself against a tree trunk. Remus swore at him from his position over his shoulder.
“Fuck—fuck—”
He pressed his back into the shadow, breath coming fast and shallow as he waited for the pain.
Nothing happened.
Alex blinked, confusion cutting through the panic. He glanced down at his hands, half-expecting to see burns so bad they’d killed his nerves.
Nothing.
Slowly, cautiously, he leaned forward and peered back out past the treeline. The sky overhead was already fully bright, washed in pale morning light. But instead of the harsh glare he’d been expecting, it was muted and flat, the light diffused through a thick blanket of low-hanging clouds that stretched from horizon to horizon, heavy and unbroken.
Alex finally set the adventurer on his shoulder down and took a tentative step out of the trees. To his surprise, his skin remained stubbornly intact.
A quiet, disbelieving laugh slipped out of him.
“…Huh.”
Remus brushed himself off and eyed him from the treeline. “You look pleased. I thought you couldn’t be out in daylight.”
“Exactly!” Alex turned, grinning at the man. “Do you have any idea how long it’s been since I’ve been out during the day without being in immense amounts of pain and agony?”
Remus raised a brow. “I’m going to guess… a while?”
“Cloudy days,” Alex said, almost to himself. He took another step, then turned in a slow circle, arms slightly out from his sides like he was testing the limits of reality. “I can just… exist on cloudy days.”
After another moment spent basking in the revelation, he brought his attention back to the gold rank adventurer with him. “Let’s go?”
“Let’s go.” The man grunted.
They set off again toward the city, this time at a calm and relaxed pace. The open ground between forest and walls passed quickly, the city rising ahead of them through the morning haze. Alex acted like a newborn fawn, looking left and right with wonder, as if witnessing the world around him for the first time.
It’s remarkable what several weeks without daylight will do to someone.
The gates were already open when the duo reached them. The guards gave Alex a long look—blood soaked, barely dressed, grinning like an idiot—but Remus flashing his gold rank badge immediately dispelled their doubts, letting them pass through without a word.
Once inside, Alex finally got to see what the city looked like during the day.
Merchants were setting up stalls along the streets, arguing loudly over space and shouting prices. The smell of baking bread drifted through the air, mixing with smoke from early forges and the less pleasant scents of a city just beginning to stir. After hours underground, the sheer amount of noise and movement felt almost overwhelming.
Alex slowed without realising it, head turning this way and that as he took everything in. The light filtering through the cloud cover was flat and forgiving, painting the city in soft greys. He glanced up once more.
‘Never thought there would come a day where I would celebrate shitty weather.’
He marvelled.
‘Also it’s kinda stupid of me that I never realised this would be the case. If a simple wool tarp can protect me, why not several thousand feet of water vapour?’
Before long, the tw of them were standing in the square before the adventurer’s guild. A few people stared at Alex’s blood-soaked state, but no one stopped them. Bloodied adventurers weren’t exactly uncommon, and the gold badge on Remus’ chest discouraged any nosey questions.
Compared to at night, the guild hall was downright packed.
Groups of adventurers milled about the large hall, some eating, some talking, others inspecting the bounty board,
A particularly large knot of adventurers had gathered in the centre of the hall. Even from where he stood, Alex could hear them arguing loudly about where they were going. The words “goblin den” and “reinforcements” came up more than once.
Alex grinned as he approached the group.
“…sun’s already coming up.” Someone was saying. “If we leave in the next quarter hour—”
“Worry not, citizens, because I am here!” He interrupted the ongoing debate. “The job has been finished without you. There is no need for you to risk yourselves.”
The group collectively turned to stare at him and broke out into murmurs.
“Who the hell is this guy?”
“What do you want?”
“Wait, look at him.” One guy said. “Do you guys think he was part of the first raid group?”
The murmurs intensified at that.
“What? No way. They got back a while ago.”
“Yeah but I heard the guild master stayed behind to fight a variant.”
“The guild master is a woman, idiot.”
“You guessed correctly. I was with the guild master, though obviously I am not her.” Alex interrupted them once again. He pointed at Remus behind him. “Me and mister gold rank over there stayed behind after we killed the variant and finished off the rest o the goblins, so you guys don’t need to charge out into the forest anymore.”
The eyes on him subtly widened when they noticed the gold badge pinned to Remus’ chest. Suddenly, their stares were filled with respect, and maybe even a little awe.
Alex basked in their admiration for a bit before getting back on track. “Now, speaking of my friend over there, are any of you healers? Or do you know whether the guild has dedicated healing staff?”
The gathered crowd glanced around at each other before a timid voice sounded from the back.
“I… I’m a healer.” A hand rose from the sea of people, and a young man pushed his way through the crowd, stopping before Alex.
The young man looked barely out of his apprenticeship, staff clutched tightly in one hand as if it might try to escape. He hesitated for a moment longer before stepping forward properly.
Alex gestured toward Remus immediately. “Perfect. He’s been pretending he’s fine for several hours now.”
“I am fine.” Remus muttered.
“You have a literal stake sticking out of your eye.” Alex gave him a wry look.
The healer turned to look at hi and frowned. “You’re bleeding internally.”
Remus opened his mouth to argue, then thought better of it. He let himself be guided away toward one of the side rooms, already shrugging out of what remained of his armour as the healer rattled off instructions and complaints in equal measure.
Alex followed just far enough to make sure he actually sat down.
Soft light flared as the healer began working, mana settling over Remus’ chest in careful layers. The gold rank adventurer exhaled slowly, tension bleeding out of him despite his obvious reluctance to relax.
“That should stop you from making it worse.” The healer said. “Not fix it. You’ll still need proper treatment.”
“Later.” Remus said.
“Of course.” the healer replied dryly.
Once it was clear Remus wasn’t about to keel over, he looked over at Alex. “Stay here.”
Alex raised an eyebrow. “I wasn’t planning on going anywhere.”
“I need to file a ,” Remus continued. “And check on the others who were part of the raid. Make sure everyone made it back, stuff like that.”
“Right,” Alex said. “I’ll just… wait here.”
Remus snorted despite himself, then turned and headed deeper into the guild, healer in tow.
Alex was left standing in the main hall.
The crowd from earlier was still gathered nearby, unsure if they were truly no longer needed or if they had to wait for an official dismissal. He leaned against a nearby pillar and finally let himself relax properly, letting the surrounding conversations flow over him.
“…no body recovered…”
“…huge, I tell you…”
“…finally going home…”
Then someone cleared their throat. “Mr Alexander?”
“That’s me,” Alex looked up. “Can I help you?”
A man he remembered as one of the guild’s guards was standing in front of him, posture rigid and expression carefully neutral. Two more stood just behind him, positioned a little too neatly to just be watching.
“You are to come with us,” the enforcer said. “You are being detained under suspicion of involvement in the disappearance of the guild master.”
Alex blinked. “What?”

Chapter 62: The Return II