It was well before breakfast when Dante woke. Over the past few days, he had fewer disturbing dreams and that relieved a great amount of stress that he didn’t realize he was under, but he was still losing a few hours’ sleep each night. Since Jasmi had started her private conversations with the group, he noticed the vast improvements in everyone’s mood and they were slowly easing back into their normal selves.

Dante didn’t mind the loss of sleep too much though. These quiet hours were a perfect time for him to study the book Dean Marcus had given him. He pulled himself out of bed and turned on the small essence lamp on the desk in his room. Pulling out the leather book from a locked drawer, he opened the book to the marker and continued his study into his family’s history.

He found out quickly what the Dean had meant when he told Dante to stay vigilant. His last name Velis was ancient Kahlean for Vigilant. It was given to his family when they followed King Mason, the first known Essence Mage, across Kahlea, constructing the towers. The Tower of Metris was under his families charge to see finished when the King left to continue the construction of more towers.

Dante was amazed when he read the copied journal pages of his ancestors. They spoke of such reverence at the King’s ability to lead and care for people. Relatives that had stayed loyal to the King had been given new names as the towers were put under their care. This had two specific purposes. The first was to end the Mason family line. The King’s family was spread wide with countless cousins across the face of Kahlea. He wished for those loyal to his dream to never be tempted with the greed that many of his family had succumbed to. The number of relatives the King had to fight and kill were astounding. The second purpose of the new family names was a reminder of what was lost. The other names were not recorded in Dante’s book but if one studied the history of King Mason closely, he could find his long-lost relatives. Dante would need to find a book on King Mason’s life to understand the meanings but he wasn’t entirely interested in looking for his distant relatives.

A knock on his door tore Dante from his study and he quickly put the book away. He opened the door to see a chipper looking Gretta standing before him.

“Dante! Good morning.” Gretta said happily. Dante noted that Gretta seemed unusually cheerful and that was saying a lot since she was normally a ball of happiness.

“Good morning Gretta.” Dante said, amused at the girl’s personality. “What can I do for you?”

She smiled and pointed to the dining table where Dante saw the rest of Serist De sitting. “We received a message from the Guild. We wanted to open it together.”

Dante followed her to the table and sat down as Kelsi held the messenger scroll in her hand.

“Well!” Ferris said excitedly. “He’s up, so let’s open it.”

Dante snorted at Ferris. His friend’s only true flaw was not having a single lick of patience. Though you would never be able to tell during a battle. Dante threw a bread roll at Ferris who caught it easily, taking a large bite and making the others chuckle.

Kelsi opened the scroll and read it first to herself, keeping Ferris in anticipation which made him scowl at the girl. Once she was finished reading, she set the scroll down.

“We have combat training with a man named Everette after breakfast. He will give us a few days of training a week and we can take out novice quests as long as they don’t interfere with his training. As to our stipend, we will receive one hundred gold coin per month.”

Ferris sighed. “One hundred gold?! That will cover food and fixing up our gear when we need but the prices at the shops are way higher than that for anything else!”

“…each.” Kelsi added slyly after Ferris’ outburst.

Ferris’ eyes went wide. “Each? Woohoo!”

Ferris started dancing around causing laughter around the table.

“So, we must have done well in our evaluations.” Dante said with a grin.

“We did more than well.” Kelsi confirmed. “One hundred gold each a month is more than enough to see us well fed and equipped.”

“How much should we put aside for our team fund, to buy food and the like?” Jasmi asked.

Ferris, thankfully, had stopped dancing and sat back down. “I asked around the guild on what teams needed when they went out and Kelsi checked the shops for what we need. If we put aside half of our stipend each, we will have a decent amount to buy supplies and then some.”

Kelsi nodded. “I agree. We haven’t bought enough food to cook here yet so let’s head to the Guild for breakfast and we can pick up our stipend and start our training.”

The group quickly got dressed and headed to the Guild. The Guild never really slowed down, no matter what time it was. As they entered, they were greeted by a raucous as Adventurers were either waking up or just heading to sleep. Merry was sitting behind her desk, going over a book, seemingly not disturbed at all with the noise.

She looked up at their entrance and gave them a smile.

“Good morning Serist De and congratulations on your stipend.” Merry said happily.

Dante leaned over the desk. “You know about our stipend?”

“Oh, everyone knows.” She said pointing to the tables. “They usually bet on the outcome. Just another competition with them but that’s how Adventurers are.”

“Oh.” Dante said. “And who won?”

Merry’s smile turned devilish. “I did.”

That sent the group chuckling as she handed over their stipend and they headed over to eat. Several Adventurers patted them on the back for doing so well in their evaluations though some were clearly annoyed at losing their coin. Offers were still handed out at a nice game of Tower’s Dice which they politely refused and sat to eat their morning meal.

A tall, lanky man with a bald head and steel grey eyes sauntered over to the table as they finished eating.

“Serist De?”

Kelsi nodded. “Yes sir. Are you Everette?”

Everette smiled. “That I am. Follow me young ones. We have a little training to do and then I’m going to send you on a quest. We will do this every morning for a straight week. I am a big believer on knowing by doing so your training will reflect what quest I send you on.”

Everette headed to the training area with Serist De in tow and soon the group was standing in a large and empty room.

“Alight.” Everette said as he reached for a small bag that was sitting against the wall. “First thing we will train is your ability to track your targets. It’s easy to hit something big and slow. It’s much harder to hit something small and fast.” He pulled out a small green wooden ball. “These balls have enchantments on them. There are a few greens, blues and reds. They all will move around you at different heights and speeds. When I call out a color, you hit as many of that color as you can.”

He had them circle up facing out and then threw the wooden balls in the air. They immediately started circling the them. Some continuously changed speeds and others changed height or even direction.

“Watch where your swinging.” Kelsi called out. “Stay mindful of your magic as well. Don’t worry about speed. Accuracy is what we are aiming for.”

“Pun intended?” Ferris blurted out which was followed by a light smack from Kelsi’s staff.

“That is good advice.” Everette said approvingly. “Now let’s begin. Red!”

The training only lasted two hours and they all had a good idea of how to deal with the moving targets. At the Academy, they had gone through similar training and it was easy to adapt to.

“That was impressive.” Everette said as he collected the wooden balls. “Not the fastest I have seen but damn well not the slowest. You all have good instincts. Now for the quest.”

Dante had completely forgotten about the quest and from the looks on his friends faces; he wasn’t the only one. When he thought about the training they had just went through, there was only one type of quest that would coincide.

“Extermination.” Everette said happily. “We have fruit bats that are in the warehouses eating up our new shipment. You all need to get them. Make sure to head to the desk to sign this quest out” He handed over the quest and strolled out of the training room.

“How many bats?” Gretta asked warily.

Kelsi looked up apologetically. “One hundred.”

Jasmi squeezed Gretta’s shoulders as they headed out on their first quest.

“Why is it always rodents and bugs?” Gretta wined.

Francis Castellas looked out over the balcony of his study. He watched his gardeners attend to the grounds with care as he breathed in the flowers that bloomed below his study. Jasmine flowers had been planted there on the day of his granddaughter’s supposed death and even though his trusted friend and butler Esteban had confirmed that Jasmi was alive, it still gave him comfort to smell the delicate flowers below.

A knock announced Esteban as he walked through the door of the study without being told to enter. Francis took one last look at the garden before heading back into the study. Plans were set and waiting. All he needed was confirmation.

Esteban waited for his old friend to sit behind the large dark wood desk before joining him. His friend had come alive in the past year and it warmed his heart to see that the old Adventurer still had his clever mind and quick wit.

“Sir.” Esteban said in his customary butlery voice. The voice drove Francis up the wall but Esteban had taken his role as caretaker for the family seriously since Francis hired him. He hid his smile as Francis rolled his eyes at his friend but allowed him to continue. “The reports are true. Two ambushes at the same time. Both groups untraceable but my sources say that it was the Atahchi Family and the Buchman Family that were most active just before the attack.”

Francis nodded. He had assumed as much. Alistern wouldn’t allow the Essence Mage to fall into another’s hands and Felina was driven incessantly by what she deemed was fair, no matter how ridiculous it sounded to anyone else. Esteban continued quickly.

“They were safely escorted to the tenth district and they are safe for the mean time. I have hired a trusted messenger to contact Jasmi.”

Francis smiled; his gold eyes gleaming. “We will start with Felina then. Start small, this is the long game. Interrupt her shipping and processing. Send in the appropriate saboteurs to start discord and slowly buy any contracts she is delinquent of. Tighten the noose before we hang her.”

Esteban nodded and headed out to meet his contacts. He didn’t care much for the politics that ruled the upper tiers, always preferring the straight fight, head to head. But seeing these families taken down by their own game was satisfying nonetheless.

Teron watched his grandfather eat from across the table. His movements always precise, never wasting time as he methodically cut through the rare meat that could only be found in Essence infused beasts. While the dinner looked and smelled amazing, Teron couldn’t stomach the food. No matter how dangerous the beast had been in its previous life before becoming dinner, it wasn’t half as dangerous as Alistern Atachchi.

Alistern noticed Teron’s reluctance and sneered at the boy, pushing his own plate away.

“Is something on your mind?” Alistern more stated than asked, his cold gold eyes boring into his grandson’s.

Teron sat up straight and shook his head. “No grandfather. Just a sour stomach.”

Alistern kept his gaze on the boy. “Weakness. You will need to be stronger. You are to take the Advanced Trials this coming year. Inform your team and your Instructors.”

Teron looked up in shock at his grandfather’s words but he would not contradict the man. “Yes, grandfather.”

With a nod, Alistern left him without another word. Teron sighed as the door closed behind him.

“Bastard!” Teron cursed quietly. “I screw up and he whips me. He screws up twice and wants to send me to my death.” Teron left the room, his plate untouched, and headed to his rooms. He needed to send messengers to his teammates and the Academy. His team had grown stronger over the past year but they would need to keep themselves motivated. He knew the bait he needed to dangle so they would step in line.

Serist De entered their apartment covered in fertilizer. Their latest quest having them root out an infestation of dung spiders that were feeding off the livestock. The species of spider was not poisonous or overly large but they liked to burrowed in the fertilizer which meant the team had been digging through the smelly piles of animal feces for the entire day, hunting them down.

“Bath!” Jasmi yelled. “Then we burn our armor and clothes!”

Dante laughed. Jasmi had been talking about baths since there first encounter with the fertilizer, though the burning of clothes and armor was new.

“We can’t burn our armor.” Dante called back to her but she had already disappeared into her room. He shook his head and headed for his own room. The Golden Duckling had an amazing cleaning service that would wipe smell and stain from their armor and from the smell he was covered in, he fully intended to use that service.

Once the group had successfully washed the smell off of them, they sat on couches waiting for Ferris, who drew the short straw and carried their armor down to the cleaners, to return.

“What should we do tomorrow?” Gretta asked cheerfully. “A whole day off, plus the money from those quests and our stipend. We haven’t really done anything since our arrival.”

Ferris walked in and sat next to Kelsi who gave him a whiff causing him to scowl.

“I took a bath and washed my hands after delivering our armor.” Ferris growled at the girl who smiled at him innocently.

“I was just making sure.” Kelsi said happily. “We are discussing our day off tomorrow. We should see about buying the storage bag and cooking set.”

“Let’s move in teams.” Dante said. “There is an Adventurer’s Emporium a few building down where we can get everything our team needs. Since Kelsi is in charge of the team’s funds, she should go. I know a place that sells specialty items, it’s a little costly but they make all-weather travel cloaks. If I ordered them today, we could have them by seventh day.”

“Why would we need travel cloaks?” Jasmi asked suspiciously.

“Well.” Dante said with a grin. “There was a quest to go outside the tower next first day.”

“We can’t go outside the tower as novices, Dante.” Kelsi replied. “Those quests are all marked as intermediate or higher.”

“Well yes, all of them are except one.” Dante said. “There is an expedition heading out and they need guards. They are allowing novices to come as long as they have a full team.”

Jasmi reached over to give Dante a hug which he hadn’t expected and left him very pleased with himself.

“I can’t wait.” Jasmi cheered as the group laughed. “And you finally get to see what we have been talking about for the past year. We need to go shopping, now!”

Dante laughed. “Okay, so who is going with Kelsi?” The two other girls immediately raised their hands causing another round of laughter. “That means you’re with me.” Dante said looking at Ferris.

“Good.” Ferris said excitedly. “I want to see this customized stuff you talked about before.”

They were interrupted by a loud knock at the door. Dante stood up and answered, greeting a messenger.

“Sir.” The messenger said politely. “Message for Jasmi Telis.”

Jasmi jumped up and headed towards the door.

“That’s me.” Jasmi said warily.

The messenger handed over a scroll and ran off before they could even say thank you. Dante closed the door and followed Jasmi back to the couches as she unrolled the scroll. Her eyes moved back and forth as she read the letter and a warm smile appeared on her face.

“Who is it from?” Dante asked curiously.

Jasmi finished the letters and smiled at him. “It’s from my grandfather. He sends his best wishes and congratulations to us all and has invited us to dinner tomorrow night.”

“The head of a merchant family is inviting us to his home?” Ferris asked in an astonished tone.

Jasmi shook her head. “No, it’s a restaurant here on in the tenth district. The Headless.”

Dante nodded. “Fancy place. Looks like we will need to update our wardrobe a bit.”

Ferris laughed. “Did you only wine and dine when you came down here with Historian Louis?”

Dante scowled at his friend. “Can you think of a better place to learn to control my Empathy?”

Ferris nodded. “Point, but getting a fancy outfit before tomorrow night?”

Kelis shrugged. “Looks like we are going shopping early. Dante? Do you know of a tailoring place here?” She asked innocently.

Dante rolled his eyes as the others laughed at his expense. “As a matter of fact, I do. Let’s go.”

They jumped up together and headed out, following Dante and pestering him about any sites and shops they could visit along the way. Dante acted annoyed but couldn’t stop the smile touching his lips at his friend’s excitement.

Moments later they walked into a small tailor shop on Silver Street, just a little way down from the inn Dante stayed in during his training. The shop was just barely big enough for the group to fit and they were greeted by an old man hunched over a small vest.

“By the Gods, what are all you young Mages doing in my little shop?” The tailor said with a wisp of a smile and glowing pink colored eyes.

“Good evening, Sir.” Dante said with a bow. “My name is Dante and these are my teammates of Serist De. Historian Louis commented that you were the finest tailor in the tenth district.”

The tailor barked a laugh. “Oh, I’m sure she said just those words! How is my old friend these days? Still biting off the heads of young know-it-all Mages?”

Dante tried his best to hide his blush. What the Historian actually said was that the tailor was barely competent but far better than the other idiots in the tenth district.

“She is very well Sir and we were just under her tutelage along with Instructor Perez and Senior Instructor Williams.”

“Ah yes.” The tailor exclaimed. “I thought I heard about a young group that took the Advancement Trials in their second year.” The old Mage left his project to stand before them. “Now what can old Fisher do for you?”

“We each need a decent outfit for a dinner tomorrow evening.” Kelsi stated.

“We also have need of all-weather cloaks before first day. Heading outside for a week.” Dante added.

“Ahh, a rush job is it?” Fisher replied with a little excitement. “I might be too old to Adventure but this be a challenge nonetheless. My work isn’t cheap though.”

Kelsi nodded. “We have sufficient funds, Sir. Would you please help us?”

“Ha!” Fisher said as he slapped his leg. “Well if three pretty Adventurers, a young man slightly smaller than a mountain and the first Essence Mage in a few centuries need my help, what am I to do? Of course, I can help.”

Fisher proceeded to measure them and poke and prod them about their team emblem. Apparently, he wanted to personalize the clothing. He was energetic and full of laughter and Serist De quickly confirmed that they would be coming back for any other tailoring needs. After an hour or so they were out the door with promises to pick their orders up tomorrow.

“He was so friendly.” Gretta said with a smile. “Why is this area so empty of people compared to the shops near the Guild?”

Dante explained that the shops on Silver Street were all owned by retired Adventurers and they only made to order. The cost almost doubled what would originally be found but the quality was far superior.

They made their way to the Adventurer’s Emporium since they were already out and found the shop quickly as it was twice the size of the shops on either side. When they walked in, they saw shelves upon shelves of different gear. From Essence infused compasses to the storage packs they were hoping to buy. A single storage pack was nine hundred gold. Even with the money from the Academy, their stipend and their quest rewards from the previous week, it would take half of all their coin if pulled together. Thankfully they had already paid tailor Fisher but after a heated discussion, they decided they needed the pack more than the coin.

After perusing through the store, they had picked up basic cookware, dry rations, a non-magical compass, sharpening stones, flint for fire and the storage pack. It left their coin purses much lighter than before but it was an investment that they knew would come sooner or later.

After a talk with their trainer who already had said that the quest would be good experience. They ate dinner, asking him more about the outside and what other things they could pick up that might turn a profit. He pointed out several plants that were valuable and were plentiful just outside the tower. Everette was a library of first-hand knowledge and he happily shared his experience with the team. By the end of the evening, they were set and ready for their first real quest together since Gretta was adamant that extermination quests would never count.