The group split up, but only briefly. They were about to leave Leone for a very long period of time. Fang was in charge of finances. He appraised the loot, identified it as well, at huge discounts to boot, and then sold it. Whether he got a fair price or a great price, he didn’t say, however he did mention in the group chat that they would be able to live comfortably for a while.

Nissa picked up everyone’s equipment from the armorers and the weaponsmiths. She also picked up a magical tome for Cassandra. For Cassandra, tomes were very important — almost as important as her sceptre. Unlike Aren’s shadowblade, Cassandra’s foci had, for the most part, only aliases, and she was fully expected to construct the magical sequences by herself. Thankfully, with tomes, she could do that. It was fairly trivial to record a macro on paper — although, for full sequences, magical parchment for scrolls was much better — and to recall them at any time and load them into the buffer.

The others had their own tasks. There was a lot to do: Pick up the rewards from the Guild and Army, get one last training session in, pay off any outstanding debts and to say one’s farewells.

The final task was given to Estella. It concerned Moira Silverleaf, the person who made Aren’s shadowblade, although the specifics of her task were not shared with the group. It wasn’t something Fang did on purpose, as if he was giving out spy missions. It was just, at the time, everyone had already left. Even Aren was not present to hear the details.

Aren’s task? Stay in his room in the Tavern. Fang even said he had the most important task. Aren was not pleased. Not about the nature of his task — it was obvious that he shouldn’t walk around freely and risk exposing his secret — but the fact that Fang said it was the most important task, as if Aren was a child and stupid.

Then again, when all their fortunes were on the line, and the risks were so high, it couldn’t hurt to be careful to an additional degree. Even just considering the current state of things, they had to leave Leone. They simply couldn’t stay here any longer. It never occurred to the group that training might be free. Vendor discounts, warm greetings, excellent quests, these were all things that could, more or less, be explained or excused. But how many things were there that couldn’t? They didn’t know, and they couldn’t risk finding out the hard way. Not yet.

In the meantime, Aren studied his profile. He wanted to be useful, as well. His vision gave way to a phantasmal scroll that revealed his status, skills and abilities. There wasn’t much change, other than the addition of the progress bars. The thing he hadn’t noticed before was that he had a new skill set. After his training session, he had only checked his [Lightning Blade] skill set, and not the whole list.

He found [ ??? ] with a progress bar that was at 71%. It was so very descriptive and helpful. The only real hint towards its nature was the fact that it was under the heading of [Calamity].

The other thing that was bothering him, but not to the point of obsession was the perk [Favor of Luna]. It simply said that Aren now had Luna’s attention, and that the Goddess would bestow him with a blessing if he could continue proving himself to her. But how does someone prove themselves to a Goddess they know nothing about? Yes, she was the Goddess of Death and Fate, but what does that even mean? To begin with, he had not even seen a temple to Luna in Leone; did that mean that she was a Goddess of the Dark Pantheon?

For good reason, Aren had put the perk out of his mind, ever since he received it. It was mostly useless to him and it was something he had intended to discuss with the group when they weren’t fighting for their lives, or running for their lives. Maybe once they return to Rakab.

In the end, in his search for new powers, his mind returned to the lightning blade. Without a trainer, the only thing he could do — at least the most realistic one — was somehow find a lightning blade. Receiving a shadowblade was such a huge boost of power that Aren felt foolish for thinking that he didn’t need one. The more specific variation could not be a small to mediocre boost either.

The problem with the shadowblade was the fact that the macros and aliases were element agnostic. What this meant was that a Spellblade could use any type of magic they wanted, and those planar energies would go through the same modifications, somewhat-smartly, and take shape.

For example, many of the macros were packed with enchantments on the shadowblade to regulate its temperature to prevent it from melting or becoming too brittle when cold. Not melting was good; not freezing was useless. Then there were constructs that dampened sound vibrations, prevented the blade from becoming dull, or twisting. One of the aliases resolved the coordinates of the blade’s pieces, which were then used in a macro to fortify and anchor its position in space, presumably to stop it from breaking or flying apart. That one hurt Aren’s brain quite a bit, but he did eventually figure out what it did.

The bottom line was, half of the stuff in the shadowblade was either not useful, or completely useless to Aren. Then there was the load time consideration; even the useful macros were so bloated with routines that were not useful to Aren that it increased the load time of the whole thing. Aren used relatively simple arcane abilities, so he hadn’t noticed the lag effect yet, but in the future, Aren knew that it would become a devastating weakness.

He needed a lightning blade. He was more convinced of that fact now than ever before. In fact, he may have just become enlightened to it, and become a converted believer in the Pantheon of: right tool for the right job. In simple terms, he was using a wrench to hammer nails.

Aren also understood that one of his skills, potentially [Lightning Manipulation] improved his understanding of the arcane. Because, to Aren, it seemed like he pulled the knowledge about what was in the shadowblade’s sub buffer out of thin air. He had never seen such formulas or symbols before, and yet he knew what some of them did, and how they affected each other. Perhaps, at some point, Aren thought, it would be possible for him to create his own lightning blade, and load it with his own macros and aliases. He could even test this theory if he taught Estella [Lightning Manipulation]. If they had the same skill, then it would be boosted by Unity. But that brought its own set of concerns. Aren was not allowed to lose access to his main class. He felt that this meant he was supposed to keep the class’s unique status, no matter what. But surely, [Lightning Manipulation] was a common skill.

Then, there was another thing. Elzo said that no one made elemental blades anymore, implying that they were made in the past. Perhaps there was one still in existence somewhere.

Eventually, Aren had to pack up his thoughts and put them away. Fang’s summons had arrived.

The group was to meet at the Adventurer’s Guild to declare their intention to form a clan, and to sign papers and make oaths to Binders. Binders, Aren heard, were entities from beyond the universe of Singularity who enforced agreements between two parties. They were basically living contracts, except, unlike contracts, they could mete out punishment and physically enforce the letter of the agreement. They could read minds, manipulate fate, interact with adventurer inventories and bank accounts — nothing was barred from them.

Aren had his own concerns about the Binders, like, for example, what if they found out he was a Calamity? Would they interfere in the matters of mortals, or not care?

Aren was the last to arrive. The whole group was there, dressed in new clothes and shiny new equipment. In terms of equipment, the group had learned quite a bit from Rakab. Shiny new equipment was just a qualitative term; in reality, there was no lustre to any of the armor or weapons. Cassandra wore a dark, wine-colored robe. Nissa’s leather armor was matte black. The cord through Fang’s lamellar armor was no longer red, but a dark black and the plates themselves were dark grey in color. Even Estella, who wore plate armor so clean and pristine before that one could see their own reflection in it, now looked more like a Dark Pantheon paladin, with a dull grey and black breastplate, and even the plates on her skirt were of darker colors. Even the hairpins in her hair were no longer silver, but made of black gold, with no gems of any sort.

The group learned quite a bit from the goblinoids of Rakab — their method of fighting against stronger opponents by using ambush tactics and being nearly invisible in the dark was a sound tactic, and judging by the changes in the group’s equipment, it may have also been a blow to Fang’s confidence.

Aren received a bag from Nissa, in which was his own repaired equipment, although he had not put in any special requests to change its color or improve it in any way. Luckily, it was already dark to begin with, so no problems there.

The Adventurer’s Guild was a large structure. One might call it a small palace, were it not for the gigantic Citadel in the center of Leone that served as an example of a proper palace and a fortress. Compared to the Citadel, the Adventurer’s Guild looked like a poor Baron’s manor.

The entrance was a wide hallway with dozens of columns supporting the ceiling that was at least six meters high. Aren had seen it before when he picked up his reward, but it still struck him with wonder and awe. He imagined one day having a holding like this one, and he imagined he could explore it for a week and not find out all its secrets. Compared to the packed living conditions in the Arcologies, this much open space was a sight for sore eyes and poison to the stomach. Being in such an open but closed space did wonders on someone’s mind — especially a mind that was used to living in small spaces.

It wasn’t that strange to see people stumbling around, turning for no reason, or keeping an eye on the exit. There was a very real fear involved with being in this place, even for those who did not have phobias of wide-open spaces. It was simply so alien that it was intimidating.

Denizens had no problems, however, and it was easy to tell apart adventurers from denizens here.

Except Estella. She showed a cold confidence in her mannerisms, and ended up in the lead of the group, strutting as if she owned the place. She had to slow down for the group to catch up, as each one of them walked like a newborn deer, legs trembling as if the ground might give way at any moment.

Either Estella was so familiar with the various regal structures that Adventurer’s Guilds used for their business, or in the real world, she had an interesting background.

It wasn’t just Aren with such thoughts, but everyone else watched Estella with an inquisitive and curious expression.

Reaching the Main Hall, even though it was still a large, wide-open room, the feeling was different. For one, it wasn’t a long death tunnel that made one think that the deeper they go in, the farther they were from the exit. On the contrary, the exit was always nearby.

The Hall was full of denizens and adventurers, though with enough space to make each an island unto their own. Some argued, others discussed calmly, with the various representatives, each seated at a table in groups. There was some kind of enchantment over each table, it seemed like, because even though Aren could hear them speak, and the emotion in their words, he could not hear the words. It sounded like either gibberish or the howling of the wind in his mind.

Last time Aren was here, it was fairly early in the morning — or late? It was hard to tell — so there weren’t many people present. Aren was also in a hurry, so he didn’t stop to look around.

But this time, circumstances were different. Fang immediately stomped towards the main reception desk and spoke. “We would like to register a clan.”

The girl’s eyes widened when she saw Fang and stood up from her chair. “Yes, yes, of course,” the girl giggled so hard, she nearly started hyperventilating. “Please, take a seat, someone will be with you shortly.” The girl gestured towards a nearby table.

Fang took a step back with a nod, but couldn’t go very far when a voice from the back joined the fray.

“What are you doing, idiot!? Don’t you know who those people are? Give them the special room!”

The girl went pale. “Yes, I am sorry. I am so sorry. Please forgive my rudeness,” she said. “Please come with me. This way. Wow, I cannot believe my luck. I am Tilly.”

It turned out that a combination of high fame and Beloved rapport made for a deadly mix, and that was before considering Fang’s handsome appearance. The girl was positively beaming at the sight of the whole group, but her eyes were mostly on Fang. Which was unfortunate for Damien, because he also had an enamored expression, focused on Tilly. Tilly was a short girl, with brown hair and green eyes. Aren wouldn’t say she was drop-dead gorgeous, but she was fairly attractive. But that probably wasn’t what caught Damien’s attention. Estella and Cassandra, it could be said, were gorgeous fairies sent by the Heavens to tempt men, but Damien wouldn’t give them a second glance. Nissa also had a mature allure to her, but Damien didn’t seem to care about her either.

It was frustrating. What was it about Tilly that caught Damien’s eye?

Either way, it was a useful distraction from the fact that several denizens and adventurers turned their heads to regard the group and the source of all that ruckus.

What kinds of famous heroes wanted to create a clan? This was important, not simply because they could see and meet someone famous, but because such clans tended to turn the world upside down. One day, soon perhaps, such a clan would become an Alliance, conquer a region and tax access to its resources to hell and back. Sometimes, those regions would already be held by another Alliance. New Alliances had advantages in the fact that their fighting methods and tactics were largely unknown, therefore, it wasn’t that strange if an old, established Alliance were to be pushed back to the point that they lose control of their own regions.

It was very important to make friends and learn about such new clans, made of famous heroes, to avoid disaster in the future, or, better yet, enjoy benefits in the future.