Silomar the Voyager cursed the delay, but he had to let his guards loot and it was only polite to move the carrion off the road. Still this was a good result.

Garostein looted the bandits he’d killed and picked out the best of the bows with a full quiver of arrows then he went in search of Patsy. He had been asked to keep an eye on her after all.

He found her gazing into nothing, looking dazed. “Your first fight?”

“Y-yes – I gained a class, I’m a Ranger! How – Slicer’s a Rogue so why am I a Ranger?”

“Congrats, ‘cause in your first fight you acted as a Ranger. ‘Cause The System has a bizarre sense of humour. Here I got you a bow. Better than a sling in the woods.”

“Thanks Garostein,” she blinked, “guess I’d better see what loot’s available.”

The caravan arrived at Parvaane with no further incident, the pay for the trip plus the bonus she’d earned allowed Patsy to clear her debt to Slicer, of course that meant that she was once again rather short of funds. Patsy updated her guild records and badge at the local office. They didn’t check the board for quests as they’d agreed to continue scouting for Silomar’s caravan. At full pay this time.

* * *

Shal was getting frustrated, lots of things were happening because of her involving several nations and she only knew about it because of Loki’s amusement. She did get to see the sights of Moscow after persuading her guardians that they could gate back to the embassy at a moments notice. She got to see the sights under heavy guard which attracted notice, and the insides of several well guarded offices. She found several people that she thought would be able to learn how to form a gate after progressing as mages and two that could learn immediately due to direct experience gained during the Empire of Light’s invasion.

So, Nadia Alextranovna Moldagulova began a daily commute to Moscow, teaching the little magic she knew – or rather admitted to knowing.

After one particularly long question and answer session regarding magic and teaching she decided to throw the cat amongst the pigeons and asked: “Why don’t you post a quest on the Adventurers Guild asking for teachers? There is one branch in Feira dos Namorados in Portugal.”

That led to more questions, learning how to utilize the System for clarification, and the frustrating limits inherent in that usage. And Major Alexander Manukov found himself on his way to Lisbon with an interpreter, whilst the embassy was asked to do some discrete enquiries.

Two days later Major Manukov and his interpreter were driven into Feira dos Namorados by an embassy driver, Alexander filed Portugal as yet another country where they drove like maniacs.

The address they had was of a building site, the building in question showed promise of being rather large and was quite advanced. There was a small sign by the gate with a contact phone number. Alexander rang it, his called was answered by a woman, he greeted her in Russian before starting to curse himself for stupidity but the voice answered him in surprisingly good Russian.

About five minutes later a modestly dressed woman and a flamboyantly attired elf stepped through a portal in the building yard and walked out of the entrance and greeted them.

Alexander’s jaw tightened at the realization that Nadia wasn’t the only person, well her and Illya now, on Earth who cold cast Gates. They relocated to a local bar restaurant to continue their discussions.

The Guildmaster, Lilly, agreed to get the quests from the Russian Federation posted at appropriate sites on a few other worlds and replied favorably to the possibility of opening a branch of the Guild in Moscow.

* * *

Ashes was supplied with several special tutors to bring her up to speed, she was woefully ignorant in all academic fields, English was the first language she learned to read and write. She worked hard having decided that she wanted – desperately – to belong to this world and nation that seemingly offered so much to so many. Even the few beggars she saw looked far healthier than the ones she knew back in Foraville.

When, out of the blue they asked her about the Adventurers Guild she gave them the rats eye view of the guild, full of cynicism and suspicion of their aims. The US probably gained the best overview of the Adventurers Guild of any of the nations of the Earth. Her honestly stated suspicions and doubts meshed well with her interlocutors paranoia.

So the Ericksons took a vacation to Portugal, they took an excursion up the coast to where a new island was rising to the sea, they figured they would be lost in the crowd as that excursion had become popular recently. As they sailed up the cost one of the local agency agents currently posing as a crewman taught ashes how to use binoculars.

Ashes for her part felt uneasy as the got closer to the island, something felt familiar, “God we’re in a Dungeon!” she exclaimed going white.

Moonbeam caught the word dungeon and sent one of the squids to keep an eye on the boat in question.

Ashes looked around frantically, then froze as she spotted their new attendant. Just the body of the squid was twice as long as their boat! The others in the cabin-cruiser with her marveled at the sight and the agent began filming the animal.

As soon as they crossed back out of Antonio’s domain the squid’s flanks ripples with luminous color and it sank back into the depths.

* * *

The press gradually gave up on a major story in Oslo and dispersed leaving a few local hires in the hopes of gaining a shot of the mystery girl whilst the more senior members infested the more important capitals and the United Nations. Slowly things appeared to settle down whilst events simmered under the surface. The five worlds of the Empire of light seethed with revolts, civil war and invasions. Murderous politically motivated gang warfare raged in the civil capital Foraville.

Three months passed.