Darius was already waiting for me when I returned to the first floor, a backpack held in one hand and a candle holder in the other. I’d been surprised to learn that candles were used as a primary light source when I first saw the candles being sold in the market. Noctus had explained that spells and enchantments that created light required mana to fuel the light, which meant a person needed to feed their mana into it, or it needed to be fueled by a Mana crystal. The candles were a much cheaper option being sold for five coppers each, and the stall holder claimed they would burn for a full forty-eight hours before needing to be replaced.

Leaving the hall, we entered a large, paved courtyard surrounded by a tall stone wall. The courtyard was lit by dozens of oil lanterns which bathed the area in a soft yellow light. At the center of the courtyard was an octagonal pavilion with white marble columns and a domed roof. Inside the pavilion was a thick marble slab covered in golden scripture.

“This is our guild's altar,” Darius said, leading me into the pavilion.

Following Darius’s instructions, I removed my life token from the pouch I’d tied to my new leather belt and laid it on the altar. A soft breeze blew through the courtyard as my life token came into contact with the altar, and the golden scripture glowed for several seconds before fading.

“From now on, if you die, you will return to this altar after a set amount of time. At your current strength it will only be an hour at most, but as you grow stronger, it will take longer for your body to be restored.”

“Well, let's hope that doesn’t happen often, or not at all.” I muttered as we left the pavilion, walking through the courtyard towards a large building which joined onto the main hall in an L-shape.

“This building is the crafters workshop, the upper floors are used by the artisan professions, while the ground floor is used by the blacksmiths, bowyers, fletchers, leatherworkers, woodcarvers, and also a shared workspace used for those who wish to experiment with a profession but have not yet chosen to commit to it.” Darius said as we walked past the building where the sound of clanging hammers and low murmuring voices could be heard from the ground floor.

“This area is where combat training classes are run by guild instructors, times for these classes will be posted on the notice board in the main hall.”

I gave the area a brief glance as we continued down the path, several targets and training dummies were set up along a wall, and there was a fenced area with a sand floor that I guessed must be some kind of fighting arena.

“This building is the bathhouse, which I told you about earlier, and the smaller building beside it is Cook's smoke house, which no one may enter aside from Cook and his apprentices.”

"There are showers in the guild hall, why have a bathhouse?" I asked as we walked past the wooden hut where the scents of smoke and meat wafted towards me tantalizingly.

“It was here when we purchased the hall. Showers were created after Kaledon became accessible to players and digitals. The bathhouse has a large pool, which is accessible by everyone, and a dozen smaller bathing rooms that can accommodate a group of four. You can lock the smaller rooms from the inside, so you don’t need to worry about someone barging in on you.”

I nodded in acknowledgment but was pretty sure I wouldn’t be using the baths.

The next building we came to was a short, round building with a cone-shaped roof. The tower was opened to the courtyard by a high archway and as Darius led me inside I saw a large furnace in the center of the room, the soft glowing embers it held bathed the room in a red-tinted light. Around the edges of the room were benches and shelves piled high with tools, metal ingots and half-finished weapons.

Stopping at the forge, Darius grabbed a large pair of metal tongs and used them to lift one of the fist-sized embers from the furnace.

“This,” he said, holding up the tongs for me to see. “Is a fire stone, and as guild leader I am allocating it for your use. Markion can sulk all he wants, but he doesn’t need six fire stones for the forge as he doesn’t have any ores that require that kind of heat. The more fire stones you use together the hotter the flame they can produce, and for smiths that means they can work with metals that have a higher melting point, which is why your bull-headed brother is hoarding these. We will be in Valonia soon enough, so he can replace it then.”

“You can be the one to tell him that,” I murmured, earning a chuckle from the guild leader.

“The stone, as you can see, is in a dormant state. Here, pass me that poker and I will show you how to use it.” Darius pointed to a rack of four fire pokers next to the furnace.

Handing Darius the poker, I watched as he placed the fire stone back into the furnace and pressed the tip of the poker against it. Flames curled over the surface of the stone, growing larger until the furnace was filled with a raging fire.

“The poker is enchanted along with the firestone and is the ‘key’ to controlling the stone's enchantments. Lighting the stone is a simple matter of placing the poker against the fire stone and pushing the mana from the poker into the stone.” Darius demonstrated by making the fire smaller and larger before returning the stone to its dormant, ember-like state. “The flames will increase with the amount of mana you push into it. To decrease the flames, you need to reverse the process and pull back the mana into the poker. Think of it like how a normal fire can be controlled by restricting the amount of oxygen it receives.”

Pulling the stone out of the furnace once more, Darius handed me the poker and, leaving the candle holder on one of the work benches, gestured for me to follow him toward the far side of the room, the fire stone held aloft in the metal tongs acting as a replacement for the candle.

“The workshop is on the third floor of the tower, as you can see, there is no second floor to allow room for a certain Minotaur.” Darius explained, as he led me to a door which concealed a staircase. “We had to knock out the second floor of the guild hall for him as well because his horns kept dragging across the roof. The floor we now call the third floor, which your room is on, was the fourth floor. Fortunately, we could reuse the materials removed from here and in the guild hall when we built the crafters’ workshop.”

The stairs were narrow, and I knew just from looking at them that Markion would never fit up them, the mere thought of him trying to squeeze his large body into the small landing at the bottom of the stairs was comical enough without imagining him trying to ascend.

Reaching the room at the top of the stairs, I was struck by a coughing fit as the door opening stirred up a cloud of dust. Pulling the door closed, Darius backed out of the room and onto the stairs as we both waited for our coughing to subside.

“I didn’t think it would be so bad,” he choked out, looking at the door and shaking his head. “Wait here, I’m going to go find some people to help clean this up.”

Handing me the tongs with the glowing fire stone, Darius shrugged off his bag, leaving it on the stairs as he jogged down and disappeared from sight. Instead of remaining on the stairs, I risked opening the door once more, but not before I retrieved the black cloth mask I’d purchased at the saddlers store.

The mask was a tube-style neck warmer, which could be pulled up to cover the lower half of my face. It wasn’t perfect, but it would do for now, and if the air purification enchantment Noctus talked about worked to filter out fumes, then all the better.

Leaving the bag on the stairs, I made my way into the room, doing my best not to stir up the thick layer of dust on the floor as I held the fire stone out in front of me like a makeshift torch. The room looked like a replica of the one on the ground floor, except for the benches being bare of any tools and the furnace.

The lower floor’s furnace had a stone circle with four arched openings, allowing for multiple people to work at the furnace. The furnace in the upstairs workspace appeared to be two separate furnaces with one opening. Both furnaces were shaped in a crescent, curving around the chimney of the lower furnace. The three chimneys then joined as they rose towards the pointed center of the tower's roof.

Placing the fire stone in the furnace facing me, I contemplated sneaking downstairs to steal a second one out of Markion’s forge, but decided against it. I could just use a normal wood or charcoal fire in the second furnace for now. Fire poker in hand, I pressed it to the stone which laid in the furnace. I focused on the poker, trying to push mana into it to light the stone.

A burst of heat and fire exploded into the furnace, as flames raged to life in a flash. I scrambled away from the furnace where flames had licked at the edges of the opening, the fire within burning in a devouring, out-of-control manner. Panicked by the thought of the fire escaping the furnace and burning down the forge, I lunged forwards with the poker, mind screaming for the mana to be drained away.

Just as fast as the fire had been lit, it flickered from existence.

Okay, let's try this again.

Focusing on the poker and the stone, I attempted to light it once more. The stone is a bunsen burner, the poker is a match, and the mana is gas. I’m just lighting the burner and increasing the flow of gas.

This time, the flames appeared almost lazy, curling around the stone before growing in size. Pulling back the poker, I smiled at the flames flickering in the furnace. The fire now held the comforting feeling of a controlled campfire, unlike the previous inferno which threatened to consume all it touched.

Footsteps on the stairs drew my attention to the open door, and I saw a pair of men enter the room each carrying two buckets which sloshed water over the sides, leaving a trail of droplets on the stone floor. Behind the first two, was a tall girl carrying mops and another boy who carried brooms. The group of four stopped just inside the door, looking around the room in despair as Darius appeared behind them and proceeded into the room followed by a large green skinned Orc.

“Kadia, my sweet little fairy, come give old Bron a hug.” the Orc chortled, stomping into the room and sending dust flying.

“Uh, Bron? Bron the Gnome?” I spluttered as the Orc yanked me into a bone-crushing hug before setting me back down on my feet.

“That’s right, kid, though as you’ll have noticed, there ain’t much about me that’s Gnomish anymore. It’s good to see you, though, I’m also sad to be seeing you. Darius gave me a brief understanding of what’s brought you to be here, and I want you to know that I’ll always be here if you need to talk.” The Orc said, placing a heavy hand on my shoulder for the briefest moment before he turned to look over his shoulder at the group of four strangers watching us.

“Oi, you lot, no standing about. Get to work, Taurie, Dez, Corby open up the shutters, light some candles, and then get started on dusting from the top down. Roan, go fetch more water. We'll be needing more than those few buckets to get this place habitable.” Bron bellowed, causing me to flinch at the sudden explosion of sound.

“I’m sorry for not asking your permission before talking to Cook. I went to the kitchens for helpers and supplies and when I mentioned you, he forced it out of me,” Darius said, coming over to me while Bron continued barking orders at the group who started rushing around to do as he’d instructed.

I nodded, staring at the big Orc as I tried to picture him as the Gnome I’d known. He certainly sounded the same. Bron had been a retired military cook who’d digitized along with his daughter Yuki five years ago, when she became paralyzed from the neck down after an accident during a gymnastics competition. He was also the guilds head cook and administrator in Avalon, so I guessed he was the same here.

“Oh, and ah, I might have mentioned we were expecting a spice delivery tomorrow to the door guards and Bron overheard. So don’t be surprised if he shows up to inspect the quality of the spices, and your vodka,” the guild leader warned.

“So long as he leaves me enough to work with after he has finished his ‘inspection’.” I replied, shaking my head as I picked up the broom leaning against the wall to start sweeping. “Think Markion will be pissed if I sweep this into his forge?”

“I doubt he’ll even notice it with all the mess in there,” Darius joked as he grabbed a second broom.