Chapter 32

Bedecked

Janus just stood there, processing. He had never really relaxed after he hadn’t found his father in Crow Station. The secretary had just given him the best news possible.

“He’s alive?” asked Janus.

“When the refugees came here, we had them verify themselves. If his name is on the list, it should be because he told them himself.” The secretary smiled.

“Thank you for checking. After the attack, this is the best news I’ve gotten.”

“Of course.”

-

The rest of the day was restful for Janus. He walked around the office district of Bear Station, taking in the sights, and getting a better feel for what was near the Delver’s Guild.

Janus was a little worried that Hashilli never seemed to be home. He knew that the other [Enhancer] was likely busy with jobs and other responsibilities, but he had hoped to copy more spells.

As the day went on, Janus became more and more excited about his first official job as a delver. Pella and the others were completing all sorts of writs, and he didn’t want to fall behind. With thoughts of delving on his mind, Janus struggled to sleep, finally succumbing after hours of shifting around in bed.

The next morning, Janus visited the tailor. His robe had been completely repaired, but he noticed a strange patch near the neckline. It depicted a roaring bear surrounded by a green laurel.

Janus shifted the robe around in his arms. “What’s this patch? This wasn’t here beforehand.”

“Ah, yes. That’s the emblem for Bear Station delvers! I thought I’d sew one on for you.” The tailor winked.

“Oh, right. Thanks?”

It didn’t really bother Janus that the tailor had done something extra. He was mostly worried that the shrewd merchant would manage to charge him more for it.

“This won’t cost me anything, right?” asked Janus.

“Ah, no, the patch is on the house. We need more delvers representing Bear Station! Stars, I even up-charge anyone I see with an Eagle Station emblem.”

I know the others mentioned a rivalry between Bear Station and Eagle Station, but I hadn’t realized people cared this much.

Janus bid farewell to the merchant. There wasn’t much more he could do to prepare for his upcoming job. Once he had made more money from delving, he would be sure to invest in more items like the [Focus] that Dario had given him. Most people could use up to three magic items at once, but Janus only had the one.

That night, Hashilli had finally returned before Janus went to bed. The two of them spent much of the night experimenting with [Spell Weaving]. Janus could now create a calm stream of water, create a small gust of air, and produce fire from his fingertip. Hashilli was insistent that they try to modify the incredibly simple spells, but Janus needed to get to sleep. His first job started in the morning.

-

Janus, Tara, and Rowan stared into a tunnel. Strangely enough, this tunnel was not part of the delver’s guild network. It actually left Janus with a feeling of unease. Privately created tunnels tended to not appear on delver maps. He thought back to his trip here from Crow Station. What if there were a tunnel that just went straight from one station to the other and he didn’t know about it?

Best not to think about that.

Work had actually only just started on the tunnel they were looking into. In their debriefing, the foreman explained that this tunnel was created to find new sources of metal and gemstones. The diggers would go for about a week, by the foreman’s estimates.

Their job was to travel with the group of earth manipulators until the job was done. If any monsters or other complications arose, that was why Janus and company were there.

“They seem like fine enough lads,” remarked Rowan.

Tara was sulking. “Yeah, yeah. We could have been hitting a dungeon or something.”

“Well, I kind of prefer this for now. Although I’m not that eager to spend a bunch of time in a tunnel again….” Janus winced.

The digging crew had already gotten to work. It was slow going from Janus’ perspective. They were only planning to dig about a mile a day, but even that was considered a breakneck pace to many earth manipulators.

It reassured Janus that they would never be that far from Bear Station. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to be weeks out from civilization again.

The trip started with Tara and Rowan’s usual bickering throughout the first day. Janus guessed that Rowan really was missing Hashilli.

I guess I’m not as fun to mess with for some reason. Oh Stars, I hope he doesn’t feel sorry for me.

The digging was going well. This team even reinforced their tunnel and added [Torchstones] along the way. It slowed them down quite a bit, but Janus preferred this approach.

He mentioned it to Tara, and she only shrugged.

“Bear Station has some regulations about tunnels within a certain distance. Since we’re not going that far, these guys probably have to reinforce the tunnel. I don’t know about the lights, though. They might just be extra.”

“I see. I guess Crow Station didn’t really have any regulations for tunnels. Most of them weren’t reinforced at all,” said Janus.

“Yeah, well, you can only have so many cave-ins on people before it becomes a real problem. I guess Crow Station was small enough that it hadn’t really mattered.”

Her explanation felt a little cold to Janus. Surely if there were a cave in that hurt people in Crow Station, they would have acted swiftly to regulate tunnels the same way Bear Station had. Janus simply couldn’t remember a time that a collapsed tunnel was mentioned on his runescribe.

The days passed in a calming, monotonous way. Janus was slowly acclimating to the tunnel as they journeyed onward. Tara and Rowan helped manage his anxiety through their inane conversations. He was starting to learn a lot about the both of them.

Apparently, they had been childhood friends until Rowan moved to Eagle Station. It had been almost ten years until the pair reunited as delvers. They had been on jobs nearly every week for the past couple of years. Rowan helped reign in Tara’s penchant for danger and adrenaline while Tara kept Rowan out of trouble with the station authorities.

It surprised Janus to learn that Rowan was somewhat of an accomplished thief. His first 100 writs had been garnished in an act of “community service.” But the redhead seemed to have preferred that over time in jail.

After learning so much about the others, Janus was almost disappointed that he had so little to share about himself. His life had been mostly mundane. Originally, he planned to study enchanting and mechanical engineering. He wanted to do what his dad had been doing and help build the stations.

At least that had been his plan until Dario showed up. He still remembered the day that he ticked the box on his college application, indicating that he was interested in combat training. At the time, it was a silly gesture. He always wanted to be a delver or to protect the stations like a hero in the novels he read.

Thankfully, Rowan and Tara hadn’t ridiculed him when he revealed this. They were very surprised to learn that Dario Wall had been his teacher. Janus never realized that he still hadn’t mentioned the man to the others.

I guess I just hope he’s still out there.

-

It was starting to look like a peaceful venture until a group of [Giant Moles] beset them. The digging team must have attracted the monsters from a nearby nest or dungeon.

Fortunately, they were easy enough for Janus and company to defeat. In fact, Janus was pretty sure that any one of them could have handled the monsters on their own. Even though the encounter was quickly resolved, he was still feeling uneasy. The attack was a stark reminder that they were here to do a job.

“Bah, barely got my blood going.” Tara spat.

Rowan pounced on the opportunity. “Not that time of the month, aye?”

Tara’s fist was already raised when everyone froze.

[Your party has triggered a new quest: Find the Heartstone]

“What the fuck?” whispered Rowan.

“We are turning around boys, not getting mixed up with this shit!” the foreman shouted from behind.

Janus wasn’t entirely sure what was going on. He had never heard of the System issuing a quest before.

“What’s going on?” Janus asked as the group put away enchanted items and the diggers pulled back from the end of the tunnel.

“It’s a quest. I’ve only heard of this happening a few times.” Tara looked conflicted as she watched everyone pack up. “I want to stay and check it out—“

“Absolutely no way.” Rowan interjected. “You know what happens when people trigger a quest. We need to move out of here as fast as we can.”

The foreman pushed through his workers and informed the trio that they would follow behind the rest, acting as a rear guard. Janus and the other shifted their packs and started following behind the nervous digging team.

“Can one of you explain what exactly this means?” asked Janus.

“Quests have been poppin’ up for a little over a decade. Sometimes the System changes or grows. Makes havin’ metamages a blessing, for sure.” Rowan shrugged. “But these quests are always trouble. Tons of monsters appear and other weird stuff goin’ on whenever a quest is triggered.”

“Yeah, it’s like a dream come true for me to complete a quest.” Tara sulked.

“Well, it’s a dream of mine to keep on livin’. Anyway, we need to keep this digging crew safe, aye? It’s our duty.”

Janus couldn’t tell if Rowan actually cared about the digging crew’s wellbeing or not. More likely, he was just trying to convince Tara to go with them. If the quest was as dangerous as Rowan said, Janus could hardly blame him. If Tara stayed behind on her own, she could die.

Janus didn’t have much longer to think before a crashing sound erupted from the end of the tunnel.