The group of commanders around me began moving quickly through the settlement as a large cloud of dust filled the air behind us.

“Damn, sis, when did you make dynamite?” My brother asked as we jogged to catch up to our departing guild members.

“It’s not dynamite.” I informed him with a broad grin.

“What is it then?”

“Just something I mixed up in the lab.” I said evasively, grimacing slightly as I remembered the fire that had swept through my lab and consumed my last fire stone, leaving nothing behind.

Such a waste.

The explosives I used had been created during my experiments with the fragmented remains of a Firestone. I’d been trying to break up one of the stones with a hammer, having had the idea to make smaller stones that I could use like Bunsen burners.

When I slammed my brothers forging hammer down onto the Firestone, it exploded with such force that I died before I could even comprehend what was happening.

After reviving, I gathered up all the fragments, and found that inside the Firestone were smaller crystals which had formed in the hollowed center of the stone. The crystals were fragile, and crumbled easily with the slightest bit of pressure, leaving behind a fine, red powder.

This powder was extremely volatile and I almost killed myself again when trying to ignite it with the fire poker. Any contact with mana would cause the powder to explode, as would contact with heat or fire. Mixing this Firestone powder with charcoal, saltpeter, and sulfur resulted in a working black powder mixture, though a very weak one.

While mixing the crystal powder into the mixture of saltpeter and sugar to make smoke bombs had resulted in a smoke bomb that released a loud explosive sound. Similar to that produced by a flash bomb, just without the flash.

The ‘Not for Tink’ sticks, as Noctus jokingly called them, had come about when I mixed the fire stone powder with saltpeter and sugar, but instead of cooking it as I did with the smoke bombs, added water to create a syrupy substance.

Then, under the watchful guidance of Zosimos, I dipped cotton strings into the mixture, where they formed tiny, red crystalline granules on the string. After scraping off the crystals, I packed them into a vellum tube with a mixture of powdered sugar, before sealing the tube with wax to form an airtight seal.

Our guild's departure through the settlement was subject to more than a few wide-eyed looks, but we kept our heads high as we left behind a pile of rubble.

“I reckon we’ll be seeing a bit of trouble from the Primordial Brotherhood from here on out.” Roderick commented as we strode past the line of gathered guild members to the front of the group.

I had seen my team amongst the gathered guild members, but when I moved to rejoin them, Darius had shaken his head, gesturing for me to remain with the commanders.

“Is that who those guys were? That’s an interesting name they’ve chosen for themselves.” I snorted, glancing back towards the settlement.

Corvus made a sound, somewhere between a snort, and a huff. They’re a newly formed guild of only players who’ve been getting a strong reputation as swords for hire.”

“I was kind of hoping I’d kill a few of them in the explosion, but I guess they survived.” I said with a sigh, ears drooping as I thought about all the power I could have gotten from killing those men.

“I’m sure you killed most, if not all of them.” The lion assured me in a low murmur, as Darius moved to stand in front of the gathered crowd.

I shook my head. “I didn’t feel the rush of power I normally do when I kill something.”

“That could be due to two factors, which would be your distance from them when they died, or that it was an indirect kill.” Corvus responded.

I nodded, not verbally responding as Darius began addressing the gathered guild.

So, bombing a building or city won’t give me a mega power boost. Good to know. I mentally noted, crossing that off from my list of ways to increase my strength in the fastest and easiest way possible.

Why did Darius want me standing here with the commanders? I’m only a craftsman, which is the equivalent to a knight when compared to those of the fighter ranks. I’m nowhere near the point where I should be standing here. I edged slightly behind my brother's large form, while Darius spoke about claiming land outside the settlement.

Once Darius finished addressing the gathered guild members, he called for Conrad to join us. After speaking with the water mage in a low voice for a few moments, we began a long trek across the desert.

For almost half an hour we walked in the dungeon's direction, before Darius turned to the left and led us in that direction for another ten minutes.

“Here,” Conrad said, and Darius stopped walking.

“How far down?” The guild leader asked.

“A thousand feet give or take.”

“Kads, can you dig that far?” Darius asked, looking over at me and I shrugged, having absolutely no idea what either of them was talking about.

“Maybe if I know why, and what I’m meant to be digging.” I grumbled in annoyance, feeling frustrated by the heat of the desert and the fact that I hadn’t been able to ride Arion, as he’d been turned into a pack horse carrying bags of supplies.

“The aquifer that feeds the oasis is a thousand feet below us,” Conrad explained, pointing a finger down at the ground. “I’ve been scouting the area around the settlement, and beyond this point the aquifer is much further down.”

“What about closer to the settlement and the oasis? Wouldn’t it be closer to the surface there?”

“It’s about the same, the oasis was artificially made by the dwarven earth mages and a druid the Whispers hired.” The water mage explained.

Staring down at the dirt beneath my feet, I thought about how deep he said the water source was.

“It’ll take me weeks to dig that deep,” I said with a sigh. “Just building the wall took me all night.”

“The wall only took you two hours,” Corvus corrected. “Most of the time you were just sitting around waiting for your core to refill.”

“It still took me all night because I can only use my transmutation magic for about ten minutes before I drain my core. I’m only able to last that long due to it being a basic level transmutation, which is changing the stone to something it’s already close to on a molecular level.”

“If we were feeding you, could you do it faster?” Darius asked, and I sent a questioning look in his direction.

“How is eating going to make my core refill faster? Bron said he hasn't discovered any food that gives buffs.” I responded skeptically.

“He means feeding you mana, Kads.” Markion said with a chuckle.

“Explain.”

The high elf water mage smiled, patting his chest. “Mages like myself can feed each other mana, similar to how you would absorb mana from a slain foe, but in this scenario you would be absorbing mana we’ve willingly released from our core.”

“Think of it like a magical battery pack,” My brother added. “You use the other mage's mana to fuel your spells, and when they run low, swap 'em out for a fresh one.”

“I didn’t need you to dumb it down for me,” I grumbled, annoyed that he’d guessed that I’d been struggling to understand how Conrad was explaining would help me dig the well.

“How many mages do we have that can keep Kadia going?” Roderick asked, looking at Corvus.

“We’ve got twelve,” The lion answered. “If we time it right, we can have enough time for the first to recover by the time she burns through the last.”

“Can we put some tents up before we continue this conversation?” I whined, undoing my water flask as the commanders began talking about what order to set the mages up in.“I’m sure everyone else is hot as well.”

Holding up my flask, I gestured over my shoulder to the nearly eighty people staring at us, waiting for some kind of orders from the officers.

As Darius gave the order for tents to be pitched, and the commanders split up to oversee the setting up of the new encampment, I headed to find my team.

“Kip, time to earn your keep.” I called out as I spotted my team heading towards me.

Pia’s face lit up with glee as she bounded forwards to meet me. “Oh! Are we pimping him out for coin? Cause I know a few chicks who’d be interested, so long as we gag him first. He ruins his good looks the moment he opens his mouth.” Pia asked excitedly, pulling a strange-looking ball with leather straps attached from the pouch at her waist and waving it around in the air.

“What? No,” I spluttered, at the same time Victoria smacked Pia over the back of the head, almost sending the Faun face first into the sand.

“What’d you need, Foxy?” Kip asked, sending a glare towards the Faun before turning his attention to me.

“I need you to help me broker payment,” I informed the Dwarf, who looked like I’d just told him he’d won the lottery.

“Payment you say?” Kip drawled, twisting his braided mustache around a finger. “I might be able to assist with such a task.”

“Consider this a test, do well, and I’ll give you a few things to sell that even Darius isn’t aware of yet.”

“Jeez, Foxy, don’t say stuff like that to him in public. He’s about to cream his, oomph, ow, Vicky.” Pia whined, rubbing her head with a pout.

“Cream his, what? Oh, that’s gross, Pia.” I exclaimed, my already sunburnt face burning even more when I realized what the Faun had been insinuating.

“It’s best to just ignore her when she’s like this.” Rainy said, letting out a sigh.

“Right, well, my brother said we can bunk in his tent until we’ve got somewhere else to sleep.” I told them, moving to take Arion’s reins from Victoria.

After leading my team to where Markion was pitching his tent, I introduced them all to my brother. Once the tent was pitched, and we’d set our bags inside, Rainy, Victoria and Pia left to take the horses to where a pen was being set up.

This left Kip, Markion and myself to work out the sleeping arrangements in my brother's tent, which was difficult considering Markion and Victoria were both larger than a normal person. Though Victoria's six-foot-eight frame wasn’t quite as large as my brother, who was just over eight feet, not counting the horns.

As I argued with Markion over who would sleep where, and tersely informed him I’d be smothering him in his sleep if he snored as loudly here as he did in the real world, someone called out from the entrance of the tent.

“Excuse me,” called a leather clad woman who I vaguely recognize.

“Craftmaster Kadia?” She asked.

I blinked in surprise. “Er, it’s Craftsman actually.”

The woman returned my surprised look with one of her own. “The guild leader requests your presence in the command tent.”

In response, I looked at Kip who stood from where he’d been kneeling in front of a saddle bag. Smoothing out his shirt, and running a hand over his hair, the dwarf nodded to himself before striding over to me.

“Let's go get ourselves some gold, shall we?” He asked, a broad grin on his face.

“Mana crystals.” I corrected, and he chuckled, giving me a wink.

“No reason we can’t have both.”

“I don’t want the guild’s gold Kip, it’s needed to prepare for future endeavors. We’ll make gold elsewhere,” I told him as we left the tent.

“Ah, fine, but don’t tell them that. Let them think they’re getting a good deal giving you the crystals and not gold.” Kip coached in a low voice as we followed the female guard to the command tent.

Reaching the tent, I saw Darius, Corvus and Roderick already inside. I wasn’t surprised Markion wouldn’t be joining the meeting, even though he was a guild commander, and one of its founding members, my brother preferred to stay away from the administrative side of things.

“Guild Leader Darius, commanders.” I greeted formally, as I entered with Kip following just behind me.

“Craftmaster Kadia,” Darius responded, looking a little amused by the formal greeting. His amusement only grew when I was unable to conceal my surprise at his using a much higher rank to address me.

Since when did I get promoted to Craftmaster? And what happened to the Journeyman rank in-between Craftsman and Master?

“This is Kip Kirkland, my financial advisor.” I informed them, gesturing to Kip who gave a little half bow.

“Good day to you officers,” Kip greeted as he rose from his bow. “Shall we get down to business?”

It didn’t take Kip long to prove himself a skilled negotiator; the look on Darius’s face when the Dwarf declared we’d be charging a medium-grade mana stone per hour of work was priceless.

“We can hire an earth mage for less than what that would equal in gold.” Corvus announced, with a frown.

“You could,” Kip agreed, inclining his head. “And an earth mage would get the job done in half the time Kadia will take.”

“Are we done here, then? I’ve got some experiments to work on.” I said, feigning impatience as I pushed my chair back from the table.

“No, we’re not.” Darius interjected, giving me a stern look, and I shrugged.

I’d made it clear that I didn’t want to do any of the work the officers showed me on their plans for the encampment, and I certainly wasn’t building the tunnel they wanted. According to Corvus, the buildings we saw on the surface of the Whispers guild encampment was nothing compared to the extensive compound they’d built below the settlement and near the dungeon. The Whispers even had a large tunnel connecting their two encampments, which the lion hinted would be useful for our own guild.

The two earth mages hired by the other guild took three days to construct both encampments and the tunnel. This was an awe-inspiring feat, if the underground encampments were as extensive as Corvus claimed. From what I learned during this meeting, many of the Whispers guild were vampires, with the guild leader Van having turned most of his guild upon their joining to grant them the ability to move through shadows. Considering the guild prided themselves on being information collectors and thieves, I could see how they’d find such abilities useful even with the drawback of being affected by sunlight.

“Hiring outside mages isn’t an option,” the guild leader continued, softening his expression as he looked at me. “Kadia, we can’t afford to offer you that many mana stones. We also want to avoid bringing in outside mages. Having non-guild mages work on the encampment puts us at risk of details about our encampment being sold to others.”

“This is too much,” I complained, shoving the piece of paper containing the proposed layout of the encampment at Darius. “I won’t have any time for my own work if I have to do all this. What do you need a room that large for, anyway?”

Darius looked away from me, shifting his gaze to stare at Kip for several long moments.

“You joined from the feeder guild, did you not?” The guild leader asked, and Kip nodded.

“I did,” the dwarf confirmed. “If you're concerned about my loyalty, don’t be. I’m on a Medi-pod, and all my savings went to pay for my digital life plan. Without a guild bringing me over to Kaledon on their guild membership plan, I would never have been able to make the transfer.”

“I’d like you to leave while I discuss confidential matters with Kadia,” Darius said, his tone polite, but firm.

“You good, Foxy?” Kip queried.

I nodded, not taking my eyes off the guild leader as Kip left the tent.

“What’s the room for?” I demanded the moment the tent was empty.

“The Sarin desert wasn’t always a desert.” The guild leader began, gesturing to Corvus who pulled a map out of his bag.

“The sand sea, as we call it, was once an inland sea, connected to the ocean through a narrow channel.” Darius said, pointing out a section of the map that was covered in water.

“And the sea dried up when the barrier was put in place.” I theorized, staring at the marker on the map which marked our current location, that was once covered by water.

“Exactly,” Darius said with a smile, pushing the encampment plans back towards me. “The Whispers guild also have a room like this in their encampment, as do the Arrows in their own encampment closer to the coast.”

“You’re planning to build ships secretly underground, hoping when the barrier falls this region will once more become flooded with water.” I concluded, the reason for the room being so large making a lot more sense. “How are you planning to get the ships out?”

“An earth mage will need to open up the roof and raise the stone beneath it to lift the ship up. Or we can allow the room to flood, lifting the ship that way. That is why the workshop is so close to the surface.” Corvus explained.

“We have two guild members training as earth mages in the mages academy in Airus, but they only began training two weeks ago.” Darius added, a grimace forming on his lips.

“I’m surprised you haven’t recruited or had an existing guild member train as an earth mage before now.” I muttered, chewing on my thumbnail as I looked over the plans for the encampment with more seriousness now that I knew it wasn’t something being built on a whim, but would serve a greater purpose to the guild.

“We did,” Roderick said, his voice dark and angry. “All four of our earth mages were poached by various other factions.”

“Not surprising, I’m guessing with their ability to build through magic, earth mages are in high demand.”

“Correct, but becoming an earth mage isn’t easy. As with all magic classes, it requires study and training, for earth mages this involves an in-depth study of soil composition.” Corvus said, making quotation marks in the air as he spoke the last part.

“Soil composition? As in inorganic minerals, organic matter, water, and air? I guess that makes sense, different regions would have different soil compositions because of the environmental factors.”

“Right, and all that studying isn’t something most people are interested in, unless they’re like you.” The golden-haired commander quipped, and I glared at him in response.

“We planned on waiting a few months until Fenton and Holín had gotten some more training and were able to leave the academy to build this encampment.” Darius said, leaning back in his chair with a sigh. “But with our previous encampment gone, we’ve had to move our plans forward.”

“Well, if you never intended to stay there anyway,” I said airily, in an attempt to gloss over the fact I’d been the reason we’d lost ownership of the encampment.

“It was our intention to sell that encampment to fund the building of this one. That land will be worth a lot of gold once more people arrive and the settlement grows into a town.” Corvus hissed.

I ignored him and the pang of guilt building in my gut in favor of looking at the encampment plans. “Why such a large encampment? I mean, if this area gets flooded, so does all this. It’s a waste to build something this big.”

“We’ll be moving the majority of the guild crafters here, leaving only those needed in the cities. The Whispers plan on constructing a tunnel from here to Hathus once the settlement grows, with fees for use of course. Once the area floods, we’ll be on the ships ready to sail.”

“Is this the secret third guild hall you wouldn’t tell me about?” I asked, raising a brow.

“You remember that, huh?” Darius asked with a chuckle, and shook his head. “No, we have a location near the coast where we’ve been working on ship plans. However, that area is merely a decoy where our shipbuilders have been practicing their craft in preparation for the real thing.”

“What if there is no flood when the barrier falls?”

“We make one.” Corvus said with a grin. “Plan B is to use earth mages to open up the ground in order to flood the area using the aquifer beneath us and deepen the channel from the ocean. We’re only two days from the coast, and our allies also have ships being built in this region. We’ll join together to ensure we get our ships out.”

“Are we joining the Arrows and Whispers to build a city wherever we end up then?” I asked, snatching a pen off the table to make some changes to the encampment plans.

“We’re discussing it,” Darius confirmed, lips twitching as he saw what I’d added to the encampment. “I’m not paying for that.”

“That’s fine,” I agreed, not expecting to be paid for building my own lab. “I’ll build the wall, stock yard and these sections of the encampment, which should provide enough living space for everyone here. The ship room, and other living quarters can be finished by the earth mages.”

“You might want to add the forge to that,” Darius said as I pushed the blueprints back across the table.

“If Markion wants a forge, he can negotiate with me personally.” I said with a wicked smirk, which got a round of amused chuckles in response.

“Shall we bring your little friend back to continue discussing labor cost, then?” The guild leader asked, and I shook my head.

“I’ve already told you what I want.”

Darius sighed. “We can’t afford to give you that many mana crystals, and you’re refusing gold. What else would you accept? Are there any alchemy components we can send people to find?”

I pondered that for several moments, trying to think of something I wanted aside from mana crystals. I didn’t want weapons, or armor, and any items I wanted I’d already gotten. I’d also written out an extensive list of plants and creature parts I wanted, which I had posted on the guilds quest board before leaving for the desert.

“Transmutation circles, books and anything related to that class of magic.” I said.

Darius nodded, looking thoughtful.

“We can see if the Whispers have knowledge of any transmutation circles,” the guild leader began, his words trailing off as Corvus tossed a leather journal onto the table.

“I looted this off some shit-head transmuter in the dungeon a week ago, I figured Noctus would have some interest in it.” Corvus said.

I flipped open the book with interest, my eyes going wide as I did so.

“This is Nadir’s,” I exclaimed, seeing the familiar name scrawled on the inner page of the journal.

“Nadir? Why is that name familiar?” Darius asked, as I looked through the book.

“He’s the transmuter I met in Hathus, the one who taught me the water circle.” I reminded the guild leader, frowning as I saw most of the pages in the journal looked blurred.

“This is damaged,” I declared with a scowl, throwing it back at the lion.

“It’s not damaged, it’s protected. This enchantment on the cover is used by the magic academies. It’s used to prevent the spread of academy knowledge to those who aren’t academy mages.” The lion said scornfully, as he caught the book and put it down in front of himself.

“What a stupid fucking system,” I growled, crossing my arms over my chest. “How are people meant to learn if knowledge is hoarded by these academies with their excessive fees? Nadir said a month's tuition is five thousand gold. The reason he was at the dungeon was to try and raise money for his next month's tuition.”

Darius rubbed a hand across his chin, his expression thoughtful. “Noctus has been working on a way to break the enchantments, as have many other enchanters. He has reached a point where he can weaken the enchantment to where the text can be read for a brief interval.”

“How brief?”

“A little over thirty seconds.” The guild leader said.

I scoffed at that, crossing my arms over my chest in annoyance. They wanted me to slave away for days building the encampment, in exchange for a book that I could only read for thirty seconds at a time?

“I also have these.” Corvus said tauntingly, placing a leather pouch on the table.

My ears twitched in response to the sound of something crinkling and rustling in the pouch as it hit the table.

“Are those transmutation packets?” I queried, remembering the paper packets Nadir had shown me.

“If transmutation packets are little bits of paper, with what looks like different enchantments drawn on them, then yes.”

“Gimme.” I demanded, making a grabbing motion with my hand outstretched towards the bag.

Opening the bag, Corvus slid one of the paper packets across the table towards me, and I snatched it up in a quick motion. The paper packet was square, no bigger than two inches, and consisted of a folded over bit of paper which had been glued together with something solid sealed within the paper.

The fool actually put the activation phrase onto the front. I thought with glee, as I saw the words Fire Strike written on the paper.

“Are they all different?” I asked, as I ran my fingers over the words.

Nadir told me that because the circles needed a catalyst to activate, battle transmuters would make these paper packets with the catalyst inside. Thus, there was no need to go digging through pouches during fights looking for things like feathers, stones, or whatever it was the circle they were using required.

“There are six different types,” Corvus said, placing a hand protectively over the pouch when he saw me looking at it. “I thought they were some kind of enchanted talisman, but I couldn’t get them to activate by saying the phrase or pushing mana into them. I opened one, it was filled with sand, and there are symbols drawn over the inside of the paper.”

“Circles need the correct type of mana to activate them, which requires a transmutation amulet. The amulets allow a transmuter to change their mana to the correct alignment. When I transmute sand, I use mana that is aligned with the earth element; when I make glass, I use earth and fire.” I explained, reaching for my own amulet and lifting it up for the lion to see.

“So, all we need is a necklace like yours and we could use these?” Corvus asked, eyeing the amulet I wore with interest.

“According to Nadir, a transmutation amulet is crafted by each transmuter and is something that took him a month to create. It is attuned to their core and can only be used by the one who made it.” I explained, releasing my amulet.

“Then how did you come by yours?” Roderick questioned.

I looked at the red scaled Draekin in surprise, having forgotten he was there. Glancing at Darius who gave a nod of his head, I responded to the Draekin. “Trismegistus, the god of Alchemy, Astrology and Transmutation bestowed it on me after I gave him a grimoire in offering.”

“We’re getting off track,” Darius said, cutting off Corvus who was about to ask another question. “Kadia, will you accept the book and these transmutation packets as payment?”

I hesitated, before shaking my head.

“It’s tempting, as I really want to learn more circles, but-” I trailed off, eyeing the lion in anticipation, waiting to see if he had anything else to offer.

Come on, flea bag, I’m sure Nadir had more on him than that. He’s an adept level transmuter from what he told me, so he surely had more than just a journal and those single use packets.

“That's all there was,” Corvus said, crossing his arms over his chest and staring at me with an unblinking gaze.

Meeting the lion's stare with one of my own, I re-crossed my own arms, determined not to leave this tent without every scrap of loot he’d taken from Nadir. I had been contemplating killing the other transmuter in Hathus, even scouting out the location of his tent with plans to sneak inside and hit him with a poison dart, but in the end decided against it.

Nadir hadn’t needed to give me the information he did, and he’d shared the water circle with me after being given it by Trismegistus. I wanted to keep a good relationship with my fellow transmuter, something I wouldn’t be able to do if I killed him and looted all his stuff.

Ten minutes later, I left the command tent, carrying a book and two pouches. The first pouch was filled with dozens of square paper packets, the second contained flat stone discs, each with a transmutation circle on the outside and what I presumed would be a catalyst hidden inside.

“So, how badly did they screw you?”

“Huh?” Confused, I looked up from the stone I was admiring to see Kip approaching.

“They got rid of me so they could talk you down on cost, what’d you agree to? You stuck to our plan, right? Nothing less than ten medium grade crystals.”

“Er, not exactly.” I said, biting my lower lip.

“How many mana crystals did you agree on then?”

“Well, that, er, none.” I mumbled, looking away from the Dwarf who was gaping at me with a mixture of shock and horror.

“Damn, I knew I shouldn’t have left.” The dwarf moaned, pressing a hand to his forehead. “I thought you’d be able to handle them, you seemed so determined. I didn’t think they’d be able to break you down so easily.”

“They didn’t break me down,” I exclaimed indignantly, holding up the transmutation stone for him to see. “I got this, see, much better than a mana crystal.”

“An enchanted rock?” The dwarf asked unenthusiastically.

“No, no, it’s a transmutation stone.” I informed the Dwarf, who snorted.

“Enchanted, transmuted, it's still just a magic rock, and not the kind you were meant to be getting. I swear, if you start selling potions for beans instead of gold, I’ll have a brand new fox fur coat.”

Why would I sell something in exchange for beans? Well, maybe I would if they’ve got alchemic properties. I mused, as we headed towards my brother's tent.