Many bridges to peaceful futures were burnt because of paranoid scouting parties. This, in turn, led to endless death and suffering which could otherwise have been easily avoided.

Suko Ryo - Interspecial Expert - Humanity and the Other Races

____

Silas woke up in agony, his head in particular feeling like an up-and-coming sculptor with everything to prove had taken a chisel to it. Groaning endlessly, he didn’t know when he came to his senses, but as he did, he noticed he was no longer in the swamp.

He remembered his meeting with Raven, their journey to the swamp, and facing off the trolls. But that was where his memory stopped, and he could only guess at what followed from the clues on his body: he must have taken a nasty beating as a number of his ribs were broken; he must have fought hard as his palms were chafed raw; and he must have (stupidly) drunk a lot of swamp water as the bitter aftertaste remained in his mouth. While none of these were ideal, at least he was still alive.

Crawling up from the cold, stone floor, he tried to get a sense of his surroundings. It was dingy, with the only light coming from the corridor blocked off to him by metal bars. There was an aura of arcane to this place, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. The metal bars made it clear he was a prisoner somewhere, his room fitting this narrative as it was small and stunk of dried faeces. The stench had assailed him at first, but after spending a few hours here (he assumed, at least), it lessened from being unbearable to simply revolting.

Although the cell across from him was empty, he figured he was in a prison block as he could hear grunting and squealing and all kinds of noises from down the corridor. Either they had a freak show down there, or the prisoners had been held here for long enough to make them go crazy. Silas gulped at the thought but refused to let his hope drain just yet; whatever the case, he wasn’t completely helpless as he still had his strength.

His captors had stripped him nude, but he didn’t need any weapons to be deadly as he still remembered Aengus’s lessons on unarmed combat. All he had to do now was wait for the right moment.

****

“Silas, you up, mate?” came a voice.

He gulped, his heart racing - this was the first comprehensible voice he had heard. It had been a handful of minutes since he had woken, and he had spent the time analysing the arcane aura, deducing that it had some sort of preventive property but failing to go much further.

“Silaaas,” it came again, a little lower as if they feared the wrong person overhearing.

Closing his eyes, Silas thought on it for a second and realised it was Faris, the Mounted Archer. It sounded like he was in a nearby cell. “Yeah, I’m here. What happened?”

“What happened?” Faris repeated shrilly. “What happened is we got royally fucked, mate. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t expect a journey with babes to end like this.”

If he had the energy to joke, he was probably alright, Silas figured. “Are they okay?”

“Not a clue - we got separated, I guess. Unless those grunts I’m hearing are from Raven, in which case, wowee!”

“Do you know how we got here?” Silas persevered.

“Nope. Well, I’m guessing by the rhino-man’s hands, but no guarantees there.”

“What?” Silas asked, feeling more curiosity than fear, although he could tell Faris didn’t share the sentiment.

“Earlier, one of those cunts was squealing real loud, and I saw a rhino-shaped shadow come down the corridor. The squealing stopped abruptly. Make of that what you will.”

“Wait, can’t you have your horse go down the corridor for you? Maybe it can report back?” Surely it was worth a shot, at least.

“Winnie?” Faris replied. “Oh, I tried her already, but it seems she’s prison shy. That, or this cell is somehow disabling my ability, but I put my money on Winnie being a four-legged Judas - I always suspected she was waiting for me to fall into a sticky situation, so that she could buck me in the face. Funny story, actually, when I first summoned—”

“Quiet,” Silas suddenly urged, his ears picking up on a heavy footfall. Just like Faris had said, a horned shadow fell over the corridor, its footsteps dull thuds against the stone floor. It was certainly in no hurry as it took over a minute to arrive at Silas’s cell, but as it did, he wished it had taken longer or at least been an actual rhinoceros instead of the monstrosity in front of him.

A head taller than him, it was a hulking beast with a paunch ten times his belly, the corridor squeezing around the sheer size of the hairless creature. Its large, moon-like eyes peered into his cell, its nose a squished tomato, its lips puckered and pale. It wore brown boots and slacks, its upper body bare except for the bright yellow tribal tattoos decorating its shady-grey skin, appearing to dance in the light from the corridor. Faris had clearly mistaken it for a rhinoceros because of the broken stump of horn in the centre of its brow.

“Silly-us?” it said. “You are the Silly-us?”

Gulping, Silas realised that there was not a chance of him out-grappling this beast. Perhaps with a spear, but certainly not unarmed, not when its hands could easily wrap around his waist.

It raised a hairless eyebrow at him and inspected his frozen figure. Scratching its bald head, its giant shoulders rose and fell with a shrug. “I think you the Silly-us.” It tapped the door on his cell with its nail, and the door flung open. “Come now.”

****

The suns bore down on Riverside, causing Josh to sweat profusely as he walked beside Iris.

“How are you not hot under all that?” he asked her, referring to her newsboy cap and the jacket over her armour.

She shrugged, wearing a look on her face that he had dubbed I don’t know what you’re talking about.

He sighed but didn’t have the time to think up a witty comment as she pointed ahead. Following her gaze, he spotted the group of three waiting for them by the river.

The foremost of them was Tessa Flowers, a middle-aged woman with strawberry blonde hair, and the leading Alchemist in Riverside at level 16. Josh had met her days after his arrival on Idroa, and thus felt quite close to her.

The other two were recent additions to Riverside, and people Josh hadn’t gotten to know yet.

The first, Yuri Dmitriev, was a grey-haired Cleric with a muscular physique wielding a hammer. He was known as a religious nut and evidently a dangerous one. The second was Natalie Svoboda, the Cryomancer. Her hair was snow-white and her skin almost as pale. The only splashes of colour on her body were from her bright blue eyes and her frosted, sandy armour. Although she had only a dagger, he had the feeling she didn’t need much else as there was an aura of shimmering condensation around her, markedly pointing at her potent powers.

Iris waved at them and Josh joined her, offering a warm smile. Tessa smiled and waved; Yuri nodded in their direction; and Natalie blankly stared at them. Shortly greeting each other, they followed the river northward, walking along its bank.

Josh spoke freely with Tessa whilst Iris stuck by Natalie, seemingly engaged in a silent conversation that he couldn’t wrap his head around. Yuri largely kept to himself, muttering prayers under his breath as he followed the others.

“I heard some people saying Silas went off with Raven. Is that true?” Tessa asked, her words dipped in worry.

“Yeah, man,” Josh replied, chuckling. “She hooked him in one go with some talk about trolls. The rest of us were a bit drawn back, but whatever floats his boat, I guess.”

Tessa clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes. “I’m sure there’s more to it - I heard he was asking about trolls for his quest the other day. Although, I can’t say the same about the company he keeps - I’ve heard nasty things about that Raven girl.”

Deciphering her comment, Josh gave Tessa an exaggerated frown. “Wait a minute, I’m part of the company he keeps.”

“Precisely,” she replied, playfully punching him in the shoulder. “I worry about what will happen if he takes fools like you seriously. He’s young and impressionable, and Raven is twice the rotten apple you are. Imagine the pressure he’s already under having such great responsibilities at his age,” she said in a motherly manner.

“Oh, he’s fine,” Josh said, dismissively waving his hand. He recalled Silas’s outburst but figured these guys didn’t need to know about it. Even if Raven was up to something, he didn’t think she quite understood how hot a fire she was playing with. “He’s tougher than he looks. Besides,” Josh continued, simpering, “He’s now got Elise taking care of his load.”

Tessa immediately groaned - he knew she was less than happy with some of the restrictions Elise had put on the apothecary. “Oh, get off it. I bet the whole village will be all over us once we make our first potion, anyway.”

____

Emmanuel Baasch, the Alchemist, was originally a high-profile chemist from Germany. He passed the normal tutorial without any notable accomplishments and joined Dresden on his arrival on Idroa. Ruled by Wolfram Baumann, Dresden was in combat on several fronts from its very origin. Emmanuel kept low-key for a time until he gained his class, at which point he began practising alchemy using local ingredients.

He developed several extraordinary items in quick succession, most notably performance-enhancing drugs which are said to have played a large role in Wolfram’s class upgrade from Slayer to Mad Dog. Either way, Emmanuel’s status exploded in Dresden because of his inventions, and the settlement, which had originally been struggling, quickly razed down two nearby villages, one belonging to the Order of Tyr and the other to the Mycelia.

Soon after, Emmanuel became Dresden’s mayor and the settlement built its teleporter, allowing his goods to flood the global market, in particular his K-9 pellets. These pellets induced terrible bloodlust within its users whilst also temporarily gifting them with incredible strength and agility. Although it had the side-effect of melting their muscles into goop after repeated use, this could be largely remedied by Ambrosia, another of Emmanuel’s best-selling goods.

Stefan Sommer - the Chronicler - Heroes and Villains of the First Age