24: Van
After a few days of formulating plans and continuously re-checking their dungeon supplies, Aidan locked the door to the store with Haley waiting behind him.
He looked up at the store, now his own home after living there for so long, with a bit of longing. But it was time to branch out and explore the outside world. He used to often travel a bit back in his old world, particularly thanks to his delivery jobs, but he hadn’t done so much in the past days since he started living here.
“Today’s the day, huh?” Haley said, sounding a bit nervous despite already wearing her iron set of armor. “It’s kinda nerve-wracking.”
“Just stick to the plan and it’ll work out,” Aidan said, mostly for himself as well as for Haley’s sake. “Not much to do but to do so.”
“I hate it when you’re right,” Haley said, letting out a sigh. “Come on. This armor is getting pretty hot under this weather.”
“Well who told you to wear it before we even get to the dungeon?”
“I didn’t want to put it on right before! Also, couldn’t you, I don’t know, make it so that you can control the temperature or something?”
“Like hell I can do that,” Aidan added, but his mind paused at that revelation. Could he do so? That was something to experiment with later.
Though he couldn’t really say much considering he was also wearing the leather armor he created for himself. But it was comfortable to wear and had more breathing room compared to the iron armor. Luckily it came in parts, and the spatial storage pack Aidan carried contained the rest of the armor she could put on for later.
The spatial storage pack was definitely something he can no longer live without now. According to Nina, it was an absurdly expensive pack that required materials that were hard to come by, such as the hide of a powerful monster that could control space magic and using its core for the enchantment on it. Not only was it extremely difficult to craft, the chance of finding the monster that had space magic was rare enough as it is. Yet despite that, Nina managed to get a second pack, albeit smaller than her own, for Aidan to use.
Of course he also had the quartz gem on hand in case it was needed in the dungeon. Alongside that, he had plenty of supplies and materials in case he needed to make a quick Crafting session inside the dungeon. Still, no matter how much he prepared, he still felt like he was going in naked.
Normally when dungeon diving, you need more people to explore the dungeon with, having several different roles to act as a group. They only had himself and Haley, both of whom didn't have much fighting experience.
Even then, he still had his shortsword strapped to his hip, and with that, he willed himself to move forward. Leaving the store, the two traveled along the streets of the town, bypassing some of the regulars. They stopped and greeted them, asking them where they were going in a gesture of neighborly friendship.
It wasn’t hard to explain, simply disguising it as just going on an errand run, but the people were mostly curious about Haley leaving rather than Aidan himself. He completely underestimated Haley’s popularity, some people believing it was her store rather than his.
Don’t know how to feel about that, but it’s not like it matters.
All the while, Aidan was already using Sense Vibrations all around him to keep a steady lookout. They weren’t in any danger right now, but it was better to keep this skill active at all times so that it could eventually raise ranks again.
That was where he noticed someone coming towards them. They had a rising voltage in their soul, as though their heart was hammering against their chest in accordance to the beat of the rhythm. He sensed they were frantic, or perhaps even panicking as it approached the two ever closer.
What the–
“Haley! Is that you?!”
The two stopped in their tracks before Aidan turned around to find a rather tall man breathing frantically, sweat pouring down his temple as he probably ran to get here.
He also wore armor, though it was a mixture of leather and bits of metal plating across his chest and shoulders. He carried a longsword with a buckler strapped to his back, and Aidan’s scan showed that he was a Warrior at a decent level.
Warrior, Level 10.
But what got his attention the most was the look of surprised on Haley’s face.
“Van…” Haley uttered, her voice low. “How did you find us?”
“Haley, where have you been all this time?” The man, Van, approached carefully, raising his hand with a frantic look on his face. “You told me you found a job to pay off your debts. Why are you wearing that suit of armor? Where are you going?”
“L-Listen Van, it’s complicated…”
“Complicated? My sister who never fought before in her life is wearing a suit of armor and you tell me it’s just ‘complicated’?”
Aidan already figured out what was going on, and it wasn’t good. Of all the times for Haley’s brother to find her, it had to be in a rather awkward situation. Then when Van turned his gaze towards Aidan, his instincts kicked in, telling him that it was going to get a lot more troublesome.
“Who are you?” Van asked. There was no more care in his tone like earlier. Now there was this rapid feeling of hostility rising up from his soul. “Where are you dragging my sister to? What exactly did she do to make you force her to wear armor?”
“Bro, I told you, it’s complicated,” Haley walked up to the frazzled man, raising her hands. “I can’t explain it to you right now. I need to go and–”
“No way in hell I’m letting you go anywhere like that,” Van demanded. “Answer me, or I’ll do something about this myself.”
“Van!” Haley shouted. “You can’t! It’s way outside of what you can do!”
“You expect me to just leave you like this and pretend I didn’t see anything? How the hell am I supposed to sleep at night, knowing you’re out there doing God knows what in a suit of armor of all places? With a man I barely know?”
“T-That’s…”
The more they argued, the worse it was becoming. Aidan was already seeing some of the folks around them starting to gather at the noise they were making. Some were whispering to each other, saying something like a lover’s spat or perhaps something more disturbing.
Aidan figured it was time to step in.
“Hey,” Aidan spoke up, catching both of the sibling’s attention. “Listen, this isn’t something we can put off. We’re both tasked to go to a dungeon for an investigation.”
“An investigation? In a dungeon?” Van scoffed, making a mocking tone. “And you’re dragging my inexperienced sister with you?”
“She has abilities that would be perfect for this,” Aidan simply said. “I’m sorry, but we need to be going now.”
“Like hell you are!”
Van rushed in and grabbed Aidan’s collar, hauling him up to his face.
“Van!”
“Listen here, if you don’t tell me what’s going on, I’ll make sure you never see the light of day again,” Van warned, his eyes warning Aidan with hostile intent.
Meanwhile, Aidan only just realized how similar the siblings look, right down to their hair color and eyes. He wasn’t afraid, even though Van could have higher stats and could actually hurt him.
What he was more afraid of were the people beginning to clamor and make some noise around them, and he could hear some of the folks beginning to call the guards for the dispute. Haley was trying her best to grab her brother’s arms, but it looked like he put more focus on his Strength attribute than she did because he wasn’t budging.
Aidan closed his eyes, seeing the situation derail further and further in his mind’s eye. Without hesitation, he acted, Van’s face contorting into pain.
“Wha–”
Aidan slammed his hand against Van’s mouth, stopping him from screaming. Van’s hand let go of his collar, and instead Aidan grabbed Van’s shoulder and forcibly dragged him with him.
“I’ll explain, but first, let’s get out of here. I don’t want any more eyes on us. This is for your sister’s sake, too.”
Van looked at Aidan who made his silent threat with venomous eyes, but Haley followed it up with an insistent wide-eyed glare telling him to just do as he said.
Knowing that it was Haley’s brother, he only slightly pierced Van’s feet with a few earth spikes to stop him from holding him up. Though they weren’t really spikes, but blunt earthen stumps that would disturb anyone and make them falter. As soon as he took over the situation, he returned the blunt spikes to normal and dragged Van over to the side of the alleyway where there weren’t many people around.
Aidan kept dragging Van over with Haley supporting him by continuously pushing against his back, following Aidan’s direction as he used his Sense Vibrations to get away from the other people as much as possible.
They soon reached an empty part of the alley, surrounded by the other buildings and creating a shadow over the scenery from the sunlight above. Aidan pushed Van into the center of it with Haley beside him.
“You bastard!” Van shouted. “Who are you? What are you doing to my sister!?”
Without saying anything, Aidan lifted his hand and commanded the stone around the walls to comply. The stone shivered around Van before stone constructs wrapped around him like rope before pulling him into the wall, trapping him in his place.
“W-What is this?!” Van shouted, clearly struggling but unable to be released as the material constricting him was made of solid stone. “I knew it, you’re bad news! What’s going on!?”
“Van! Stop it!” Haley shouted, her voice reaching a high pitch. “Please, just stop. You’re just only going to make it worse!”
“What’s with you, Haley!? What did they do to you to make you act like this? First you disappear on me for days, then I find you hanging around with this dude… I need an explanation!”
“I will! Just cool your stupid pig-head or else Aidan might really hurt you!”
“I won’t,” Aidan assured, looking over to Haley. He could tell that her soul was screaming at Van to cease, her worries overriding even her own safety and emotions. She was more worried about Aidan actually harming Van more than what Van might do to him without proper explanation. “Van, I’m gonna need you to cool down. Or else you’ll be stuck there for a long while.”
Van gritted his teeth, trying desperately to release himself from his bindings. Aidan noticed that the stone constructs binding him were actually beginning to crumble, small cracks unveiling themselves the more he struggled. Just how high was his Might stat to make that kind of damage to the stone?
He quickly wrapped more of the constructs around Van, making him yell out in frustration before beginning to breathe rampantly, then slowing himself down according to the puppy-eyed look Haley was giving him.
Seeing that the man hanging around his sister wasn’t doing anything else, Van closed his eyes tightly before letting out a big breath.
“Alright… alright, I’m calm,” Van said gruffly.
“No, you’re not,” Aidan said curtly. “I’ll give you a minute to actually cool down. Then, I release the restraints one by one. You deserve to know, but you’re not going to like what you’re going to hear.”
Van glared daggers at Aidan, and his soul was soaring with rageful intent to harm him. Aidan, however, wasn’t afraid nor did he blame the man.
He was just looking out for his little sister who found herself entangled with a stranger going to a dangerous place wearing armor. If it were Aidan, he would do the same, except with his powers, he could actually do some damage.
Not to mention that despite it all, Van’s soul was remarkably the same as Haley’s. He wasn’t sure whether it was solely because they were siblings, but Aidan could tell, only slightly, that Van was a reasonable person–he just needed to let his emotions ride out of his soul before continuing the conversation forward.
The moment Aidan felt Van’s soul finally resting, the high pitch tones reducing to a mere hum, Aidan retracted the stone constructs around Van, finally letting him go. Haley let out a relieved sigh before going over to check on Van’s state, patting him on his arms and chest.
“Oh thank god… Thanks for understanding, Aidan.”
“Hey, you’re the one that’s gonna have to explain everything,” Aidan said. “I can tell you didn’t exactly say the whole truth to your brother, did you?”
Haley grimaced, looking over at her brother who now sent his vicious glare at his sister.
“Explain. Now.”
“Ugh… look, here’s the thing.”
…..
“You what?!”
Van shouted after Haley explained the reason why they were going out, and eventually landed on the dungeon word that made Van snap like crazy. His eyes nearly bulged out of his skull.
“You’re heading into the Crystalfang Dungeon, the very same dungeon that parties actually struggled and died in? The same one that Red Riot is in charge of Are you insane?! You could get killed!”
“Van, I told you. I have no choice. Aidan’s like me–we got caught up by the Key Slinger and forced to sign a contract. I didn’t want you to get involved in this so–”
“So, what? You think you can just toss me to the side and just head out to your own death?” Van interjected. “This is crazy. I’m not gonna let that happen.”
“What exactly are you gonna do?”
Aidan finally stepped in, his arms resting beside his body in a show that he didn’t plan on doing anything else. Van glared at Aidan, but he kept silent as Aidan continued.
“Even if you don’t like it, you can’t force Haley to stop. That would go against her contract. I don’t know how it works myself, but I’m pretty sure it’s a bad idea to force her to not go.”
“And you think I’m gonna let you drag my little sister into something so dangerous? I don’t care if she’s wearing armor–she’s not going into any dungeon as far as I know.”
“Van! There’s nothing we can do about this,” Haley shouted. “Please, I’m begging you, just let this go. I promise that I will be alright, and then I’ll go home. We won’t be there for long–just about a week and it should be fine, right, Aidan?”
Aidan frowned at that. Considering that the dungeon was pretty far away, and on top of the strange request Nina gave him, a week doesn’t feel long enough to assure safety. However, there was no way he could say that aloud when her frantic brother was already at their throats about this.
“Goddamit,” Van cursed. “If it’s going to be like this… then I’m coming with you.”
“What?” Haley nearly reeled back in shock. “No, you can’t!”
“And you think it’s smarter to let you go by yourself? Nuh-uh, I’m coming, whether you like it or not.”
“You can’t just come! It doesn’t work that way!”
“Try me.”
“Van!”
Haley was practically begging Van not to go, pulling him by the arm and hounding at him to reconsider. However, Van was resolute in joining, ignoring his sister’s pleas.
Despite all of this, Aidan furrowed his brows. That actually didn’t sound like a bad idea. He was worried about going in with only just two people, so having another person around wouldn’t actually be a detriment. Not to mention that Van seemed like a very physical type of guy, his earlier show of high Might proving too enticing to ignore. And according to Haley, Van had some experience as an adventurer as well.
Basically killing three birds with one stone. He liked that very much.
“...You know, that’s not so bad.”
“What?”
Haley looked back at Aidan who answered all of a sudden, surprising the two siblings. Aidan shifted his direction to Van, staring him up and down as he considered.
“You heard what Nina said, right? She said we can let other people join us, just not enough to bring eyes on us. And I was thinking we were gonna need some backup anyways. So, if you’re up for it, we can go together.”
“S-Seriously, just like that?” Haley asked, sounding more distraught according to her soul. “You’re going to drag my brother into this too?”
“Does it look like he was going to let you go like this?” Aidan asked, putting Haley’s own situation up against her. She instantly frowned, knowing what he meant perfectly. “It doesn’t look like he’s going to back down from this, so I say let him join. As long as he doesn’t get in the way of what we need to do, it should be fine. Can I get you to promise to do that?”
“As long as you don’t put my sister into anything ridiculous, fine,” Van said, his tone making it clear that his words were absolute and shouldn’t be denied. Aidan only raised his hands in a calming gesture.
“I have no intention of making your sister fight. The armor is just to protect her, nothing else.”
“And that weapon?” Van pointed at the sword strapped to Haley’s hip.
“You’re saying she should be better off without anything to protect herself with?” Aidan asked, raising his brow.
“...I figured you wouldn’t have given her a fine sword just for insurance,” Van muttered, looking back at Haley in consternation. Aidan gathered that he thought that the sword was too high quality just to give it to someone with no combat experience.
“Well, we got everything we need here,” Aidan said. “And you? We plan to go right now, but do you need to get anything?”
“No, I was just heading out to the guild to pick up some work. This is perfect.”
“Bro…” Haley let out a sigh. “God, you’re always so stubborn. This is going to be dangerous, you know.”
“All the more reason why I should go with you,” Van stated. “Besides, I still don’t trust this guy. With just you two by yourselves, who knows what he might do to you?”
“I’ve been working with him these past few days. Nothing’s happened,” Haley assured. “Now stop acting like an idiot and let’s just go.”
Van muttered to himself, saying ‘I’m just trying to look out for you’ before the siblings went off to get out of the alleyway. Aidan followed suit, wondering just what the hell happened these past few minutes that got him a new party member for their dungeon dive.
He didn’t like practically forcing the big brother to join up. But thankfully he went in on his own volition as the self-made party left the town together without preamble, heading straight towards the western side of the forest for the dungeon.