George was suddenly startled awake. He realized it was just Nora getting out of her bed when he looked around with a dagger in his hand. Having someone else in his room will take some getting use to. Even in college he had a single dorm room.

“Morning.”

Nora nodded while she dressed and used the basin to wash her face. It sounds sexier in his head than it actual was. Having a pretty woman get dressed in front of him that was. However, with an inventory one can switch a whole set of clothes on their body without revealing anything. After she finished George washed up and then they both wordlessly went down to get something to eat. Nora ordered eggs, sausage, and toast, which sounded good to him. Then she got a drink called Karva, which from her description sounded like a caffeinated drink. He got one as well and it tasted a lot like coffee. Nora added cream and honey to hers, but he just stuck with cream. It woke him up better than coffee. Nora explained it must be strong or the System caused the status effects to wear off quickly. George hadn’t considered that side effect of how quickly they healed. After they finished breakfast, they make their way to the dungeon where it cost them one silver each to enter.

The entrance was a set of wide stone stairs that led down to a cave entrance. After entering the cave, they found themselves in a large cavern thirty feet across and sixty feet long. The ceiling was irregular some fifteen to twenty feet high. The end of the cavern tapered down to a tunnel ten feet wide and tall, that continued seventy feet before turning to the right. This was the perfect place for them to practice and with the time acceleration of the dungeon Nora should be able to get to an endurance of fifty quickly. George used Earth Shaping to make three stone circles for her to cast Ward on. With the assorted sizes she will be able to switch to larger circles when her Mana Manipulation improved. Nora took one of Iron Will potions out and George hurried down the cavern to avoid the smell.

He started to cast Fire Bullet down the tunnel, which struck the tunnel wall where it bent to the right, with a small boom. George wanted to get his Fire Bullet up to Expert, so that he can significantly increase his damage output. While he did ok with Fire Dart during the ambush he may not be so lucky next time. They both cast for six hours before breaking for lunch. Nora is dragging, even with the potion. After she finished lunch he stopped her from beginning to cast Ward. He had a new idea he wanted to try first. By using Chain Cast to cast the Ward spell together, he would be able to use the Chain to push mana into her mana pool. Then when her mana pool was full he could cast Minor Heal on her. This should get her mana and health back to full within two minutes. That would allow her to cast the ward every six minutes instead of every half an hour. She just stared at him with much the same expression that he must have given the Captain during his training. They both knew getting her to a higher endurance would give them a lot more options, so she nodded yes even though she was not to enthused by the suggestion.

They got comfortable and George placed his hand on her shoulder. Nora started to cast while he Chain Cast with her. He watched her mana and health deplete until her health dropped under 25%, which took about two minutes. Then he channeled mana into her. The Ward completed, and her mana pool started to rapidly fill. Awesome, it worked like he thought it would. Once her mana pool was full George switched to casting Minor Heal until her health was fully restored. Shortly after that she woke up. Then George begun to rest to regenerate his mana, which only took two minutes. They then started the cycle again. After one hour they managed to repeat the cycle ten times. This almost exceeded what she accomplished during the morning training.

With this success they continue training for the next five hours until dinner. George was extremely bored, but he didn’t feel right complaining, since Nora suffered so much. After they eat Nora collapsed on her bedroll totally burnt out and George went back to casting Fire Bullet for the next four hours. He did keep an eye on her, but even the sound of his Fire Bullet impacting the wall didn’t wake her. After he finished he felt a great sense of satisfaction. They planned on being in the dungeon for four days, which would only be one day on the outside. Nora wouldn’t get to fifty before they had to leave the dungeon, but she would make some great progress.

When their alarms wake them the next morning they continue the new pattern of Chain casting to refill her mana pool and then Minor Heal for her health. They only took breaks for their meals and her endurance continued to shoot up. She was averaging four endurance points per day, which got her to thirty by the end of the fourth day. On the morning of the fifth day they departed the dungeon. Their next stop was the Rider Guild. The guild was supposed to have their money from the bandit equipment available today.

While we walk over to the Guild Hall George noticed Nora seemed to be less tense and had more spring to her step. Probably because she was getting a break from training. She led the way into the Guild Hall and stepped up to the reception desk.

“Hi, I am Nora, and this is George. We are here to see Master Rider Hank.” Nora smiled at the young man sitting behind the front desk.

“Hi, my name is Samuel and we are expecting you. Please have seat and I will contact someone to escort you.”

They both took seats in comfortable leather chairs as Samuel’s eyes become unfocused for a moment. He was probably using party chat or something similar.

“Justin will be down in just a minute to escort you up.” Samuel said as his eyes focused on us again.

It was just a minute before Justin walked up and introduced himself. George inspected him. His skill told him Justin was a level sixteen Rider with a secondary class of Animal Handler. He asked us to follow him probably not even noticing I used Inspect. They went up a set of stairs to the end of the hall. George took in the Guild Hall while they walked to the Master Rider’s office. It was very nice, with polished wood floors. The walls are highlighted with brass magic lamps providing the lighting. There are rich tightly woven carpets on the floors and large framed paints on the walls. The paintings appeared to show different animals the Rider Guild has dealt with. Justin led them to a solid oak door with a brass plate engraved with Master Rider. He knocked and opened the door without waiting for a reply. Then he ushered us in and closed the door behind us.

Hank stood up from his large comfortable looking leather seat, behind a polished dark wood desk, to greet us. He indicated they should take the two seats in front of his desk. When they do so George took in the view out the floor to ceiling window behind Hank’s desk. It looked out on a snow covered peak that dropped down into a snow sweep valley, where small houses dot the sides of the valley.

Hank caught George looking. “It is beautiful isn’t it? It is my home village in the mountains to the north. I only get to visit every other year or two, but I have this view to remind me.” The rest of the office is filled with shelves covered with interesting knick-knacks from his travels.

“I am glad you both stopped by. We sold the bandit equipment to the city guard for twenty-seven gold, which we split equally among the twelve riders.” He opened a trade window with each of them and put two gold and twenty-five silvers in his side of the trade, which they accepted.

“The bandits were wanted by the city guard and there was a ten-gold bounty. The guild decided it should go to both of you for your outstanding performance.”

After trading the gold to them. “We also wanted to extend an offer to you both to either join our guild or we have two sister guilds, the Jade Knights and the Flaming Arrows. I would be happy to recommend you both.”

Nora: Can I answer this one?

George: Yes, please do.

“We are honored that you would offer us both a place in your guild and a recommendation for others after the short time you have known us. However, we both have commitments to family that we must address first before we could accept such an offer.” Nora can carry the conversation much better than he can, George thinks. It is probably from her royal upbringing.

Hank nodded and looked happy at her response, which she will hopefully explain to me later. “Very well, please let us know if you will be free to take us up on the offer when you have had a chance to talk to family.”

“We will do so, hopefully we will be able to discuss this with them after we reach the Capital.”

“Ah, that brings me to our final topic. We will be escorting the Taraven as part of a caravan to the Capital in two days. If you are interested in another position as rider and guard. Food will be included along with two silvers each on reaching the capital. We will be camping out and should reach the Capital in four days, which is fairly quick, but the caravan is carrying some goods that are wanted in the Capital quickly that will not survive a teleport or gate.”

Nora and George look at each other.

Nora: This sounds ideal for us. Do you agree?

George: Yes.

Nora turned to look at Hank. “It would be our pleasure to travel with you again.”

“Excellent.”

He reached into his desk to pull out two pins made of bronze in the shape of Taraven for us to wear. “These are temporary badges that will let everyone know you are trusted and employed by the Rider’s Guild. It will also allow you free access to the Dungeon, if you want to continue to avail yourselves before we leave. Your lodging and food are still covered at the Tavern as we discussed. Please meet us in the morning at 6AM outside the North gate by the Taraven pens, in two days.”

They all get up and shake hands before wishing Hank a good day. Before they leave Hank fastened the pins on their shirts. Justin was waiting in the hall outside Hank’s office and escorted them to the lobby where he wished us well.

While they walked back to the Tavern they continued their discussion in party chat.

George: I should be happy with the invite to the guild? Also, why did Hank take your turning him down so well?

Nora: This was an amazing offer. Especially since we have known them for such a short time. The Rider’s Guild doesn’t have many pure combat classes and gaining two skilled fighters would be a great asset. Typically, they farm out the need for guard to their two-sister guild, which are the ones he would recommend us to. He accepted our reason for deferring his offer, because we did not actual turn the offer down. We just indicated there are prior commitments. However, we showed we took the offer seriously by stating we would discuss it with our family at the earliest opportunity.

George: I see. So, what now?

Nora: Well we have two days and as much as I am not looking forward to it, if you can continue to help me, I would like to continue to level my endurance.

George: If you can put yourself through the training the least I can do is continue to help.

Nora: Let’s get more food from the Tavern and then go back to the dungeon.

After stopping at the Tavern and getting eight more days’ worth of food they head back to the dungeon. The guards in front of the dungeon eye the pins Hank gave them and then wave them through. After setting up in the cavern again and Nora drinks another potion of Iron Will. It takes seven long boring days, but she finally makes it to fifty in endurance. Since they have some time remaining they decide to go through the dungeon. With all the training she did her next level should give her a lot of attribute points to make up for the last several levels she rushed through. Also, George could use more XP for the Deck of Fate. This dungeon is rated for up to a group of eight at level fifteen to complete. It’s first level was for level eleven adventurers and it has five floors, with each floor one level more difficult. The dungeon is mostly stone tunnels and caverns without traps, but with groups of four to eight creatures. The first level in populated by goblins in groups of four, level two has individual slimes, next level has pairs of spiders, followed by Gnolls on the four floors in groups of six to eight, and finally individual rock trolls on the last floor.

Nora and George equipped their swords and stealth before entering the main dungeon. Only a few minutes later they spotted four goblins which have not noticed them. George gestured and hit two of them with three fire darts each, which does double damage from stealth killing them. They wait with their swords ready while the remaining two goblins run at them. While fighting they tried to dodge as much as possible. This resulted in them taking more hits, but that’s the only way to improve dodge. This is fairly safe against such easy opponents. Also, this will let them earn some strength and agility with their next level. Even with all the dodging they both kill their goblin after about fifteen minutes of fighting. George cast Minor Heal on them and they enter stealth to hunt their next batch of goblins.

When they finished their twenty third group Nora got her next level. This earns her +6 Intelligence, +4 Wisdom, +2 Constitution, +1 Strength, and +1 Agility. She smiled ear to ear with that accomplishment, which goes a long way to offsetting the low number of attribute points she earned up until now. With her level we turn back and leave the dungeon. They both want a break after days of training. They have a late lunch at the Tavern and talk in party chat. After lunch they stopped by some of the stores to get supplied for the trip. George was thinking he wanted some more quivers of arrows, food for emergencies, rope, and some drop cloths to be able to setup a better camp. The first store Nora took him to was interesting. It was a potion shop and has an incredible selection versus the small shop in the Starter Glade. Nora wanted to get some healing and mana potions. He lets her do the talking. When we enter the store a small Gnome walks out from behind a display case.

“Greetings, we are two poor adventurers looking for some quality healing and mana potions.”

“You are in luck I have a new batch of minor healing and mana potions that are only five silvers each.”

“Five silvers, surely I misheard you. You must mean greater healing and mana potions.”

Laughing. “I must thank you, I haven’t laughed so hard in weeks.”

“I am glad I could bring joy into your life.” Nora said smiling.

They both resemble wolves while they verbally spar with each other. It wouldn’t surprise George if they started to circle one another as they looked for an opening to exploit.

“Because you have made me laugh I could go down to four silvers.”

“I would laugh myself if you were not trying to steal us blind.”

They continued to go back and forth for nearly an hour before agreeing on five silvers for three potions. Nora bought twelve potions taking six each mana and healing. George would never have had the patience to haggle that long. Their next stop was for general supplies, which Nora didn’t even bother haggling over for the drop clothes, rope, and dry rations. He asked her about that and she said the General Stores rarely have much markup, so it is not worth trying to argue down a few coppers.

Finally, we stop in a ranged weapon shop full of different types of bows. Nora talked them down quickly to one copper an arrow. They got 200 arrows to split between us. There was still some time before dinner, so she took George to one place the city was famous for. There was a line of people and they had to wait about an hour to enter the walled garden. Apparently, a powerful mage courted the daughter of the baron running this city over one hundred years ago. She liked music, so he created a crystal garden that would play different songs. She married him and years later they moved to the south and the garden was opened to all. They only allow twenty people in at a time to listen to one song. On their groups turn everyone moved in quickly before the next song started. The garden has a beautiful mixture of crystal and rare plants.

The music is more complex than George envisioned. It sounded a lot like several pianos playing at once from different locations in the garden. It is very nice and relaxing standing there listening to the music. He wished they could stay and hear the other songs, but they are rushed out to make way for the next group. Both happy with Nora’s choice they take their time walking back to the Tavern for dinner. It is nice to unwind after the stress and boredom of leveling Nora’s endurance. For dinner they get a local dish that is very spicy. This one doesn’t cause any damage, thank goodness. He really liked it and the pudding like desert they serve with it. After dinner, they just relaxed chatting about nothing important. It hits George that he has been really enjoying his new life, even the boring parts, because he has had someone to share it with. He never had any close friends in his old life and definitely no one he would kill to protect. He shook himself out of that line of thought for now as they both went to their room to get an early night’s sleep before hitting the road tomorrow.