I couldn’t stop myself from shuddering as I left the shop run by Rhasozsa of the Araneae. The same half-spider-half-human race ran the shop I had met before. After stopping at a multitude of shops, I found the spider folk almost always had the best prices and didn’t haggle. I enjoyed that. I sold every core I collected from the past two days, only keeping three of the Azure Cores for emergency Mana.

We walked out of the store a hundred and twelve gold richer. Two of the Jade Cores had been Rank S and fetched ten gold apiece. I also offloaded the six antlers with them as well. We were on our way to turn in the multiple quests worth of leathery sacks that contained the Fyree’s flammable gel at The Guild.

Draf seemed to have the night off, so we turned in the hundred and eighty pristine bile sacs to a shorter woman who barely spoke. She never batted an eye at the amount I pulled from my backpack. She just sighed and began to count the small sacks and began to toss them into another sack. Every thirty got their own sack, and once finished, she hauled them upstairs before returning with our six gold.

She finally spoke when she said the ninety GCP was added to my account and that I had a total of a hundred and fifty now. I thanked her, and we headed back to the inn for food, hot baths, and sleep.

The following day, Hiroaki wanted to hear about our journey to the plains. When I didn’t show up the previous morning, he had figured something came up. He had me back to training on the sword for the day but was interrupted mid-way by a small man, no taller than a meter. The short man spoke incredibly fast and informed Hiroaki a raid boss had spawned on the seventh floor. Two groups who found it had become trapped, unable to access the teleportation stone.

Hiroaki excused himself and ran into The Guild’s hall. No less than a minute later, what was this world’s version of a flare shot out of one of the spires of the building. It glowed bright blue and hung in the sky, not falling and not burning out. I noticed a glare of blue on my lower vision and looked down at the white-four-stared Guild Badge that hung around my neck.

The badge was glowing the same shade of blue as the flare hanging in the sky. I picked up Hiroaki’s wooden sword from the ground and stored them in their places.

Heading into the hall, it was a scene of chaos. Members of the Adventurer's Guild were lining up in rank and file, facing the large pillar at the hall's center. More and more people were running into the hall from the street and then getting flagged down by what I assumed were their party members before joining them.

“Invite coming to each party leader!” shouted Hiroaki from the center of the building.

The commotion calmed down a bunch, but someone shouted something about death, and the timer started. I watched as Hiroaki moved to the pillar and placed his hand upon it before a portal snapped open behind him. Then the nearest line of people began running through, then the next, until everyone was through, all except Hiroaki, who looked around once more, locked eyes with me, nodded, and then went into the portal. As soon as the man was through, it snapped closed.

I then watched two of the receptionists run over to the portal and, with what looked like a key, open up a panel on the pillar and begin placing cores inside before closing and locking it back up.

The hall was practically empty now, and I spotted Draf over at his desk, reading a book like nothing had happened. I walked up to the tattooed man, and he seemed to sense me and placed his book down.

“It’s rare, but sometimes raid bosses spawn down at the higher levels. They can take up to eight teams of five to defeat, and the fact two other teams were already down there forced Hiroaki to scramble to put together the raid and hope to save the other two teams. Once they join with them, they’ll take down the threat.”

“That makes some sense. What do they get for taking down a raid boss?”

“Depending on what it is, high-grade materials, higher cores, sometimes the dungeon rewards rare Traits or Skill books.”

“How often do these raid bosses spawn, as you put it?”

“This is the first one this year. It doesn’t often happen on lower rank Dungeons.”

Commotion from near the nurse’s office pulled me away from Draf, and I watched as Vylria and a handful of her underlings began placing cots in rows at the side of the pillar. One of the assistants screamed for more, and they began to frantically set up a medical field in the middle of the hall.

“What’s going on with them?” I asked.

“Vylria and her students are in the raid. They can see who’s hurting or, worse, dead. They are preparing as best they can for when they take down the threat, and the injured are brought back.”

I wanted to go to the library and head over to the crafters district, but seeing what played out when they returned kept me around. Luin and I went over to the bar and ordered some lunch. We took a seat at the table and waited for the raid to return while we ate.

Over thirty minutes later, the same portal cracked open, and Hiroaki stepped through first. The Beastkin looked like shit and began waving, people thought. Everyone who walked through was helping another into the hall and over to the cots. When most of the raid had come back, those who looked to be uninjured returned through the portal, and two of them would return with a limp body, bringing it over to one of the cots.

Vylria and her students then went to work on what I assumed to be the dead. Bright flashes of light lit up the hall before the next body was placed on the cot. I counted eight raid members brought through and placed on the cot. Shouts of pain and misery rang throughout the hall when it was discovered that two of the members hadn’t made it back in the thirty-minute timelimit to be resurrected.

I wanted to ask questions, but the atmosphere was odd. I didn’t want to intrude. I would ask Hiroaki about it in the morning. We left the hall quietly and walked toward the crafting district. I found a small leatherworker’s shop and bought myself the basic kit for leatherworking. The tools were inside a nice leather roll and included; a knife, a small mallet, an edger, a hole punch, thick thread, and a thicker needle. I also purchased a couple of rolls of cheap leather.

We made our way over to the tannery to have the massive hides of the Mongacuda prepared and treated. The large man agreed to do them for free if he could keep the sixth hide for himself. I agreed, and he said they would be ready in a week. I was glad I had bought the rolls of leather now. I had no idea it would take that long to turn the hides into leather.

Luin forced me to buy some snacks of meat-filled sticks on the way to the library. I wanted to know where she stored it all. I didn’t mind, as every street vendor we’ve come across had been an absolute delight.

When we arrived back at the library, the same older man read away at the desk. He didn’t bother to look up until we were basically atop him.

“Ah. Have you returned for a membership, yes? With the Adventurer’s Guild discount, the basic membership will be forty-five gold.”

I handed him the coins. “That’s just the basic membership? What does that include, and what are the others?” I asked.

“Basic will allow you access to the entire ground floor. The next rank allows you on the second floor and to check out books. There are no discounts for that rank, and it will cost you a platinum or a thousand gold if you don’t understand the conversion. The last rank isn’t for sale, I’m afraid, and can only be given out to special guests.”

The man counted the coins slowly. “Your badge, please.”

I was confused about what he meant but pointed to my Adventurer's Badge, and I felt stupid. I removed it from around my neck, and he placed it under some odd contraption before pressing a lever. My badge glowed for a moment before he handed it back to me. On the back of it, on the opposite side of the stars was now a black outline of the building engraved into the metal.

“Don’t lose it. The Guild will replace it for you, but we will not. You may go inside, please make sure your pet doesn’t damage anything, or you will replace it.”

“I understand, thank you,” I said as I walked past the man. He seemed very angry or spiteful for some reason. I couldn’t fathom what his issue was.

Past the doors, my heart skipped a few beats. There were rows and rows of books on shelves lining the walls and on some free-standing bookshelves at the center. Multiple people sat at the tables spread throughout the library with stacks of books in front of them. It reminded me of my favorite place back at the academy.

I found an empty table and asked Luin to take a seat. I explained I'd walk around for a bit and asked her if she was interested in anything I could find for her. She refused as she climbed up on the chair, lay her head down, and began to sleep. Shaking my head, I looked around for some kind of receptionist to ask questions but saw no one that fit the description.

I began to wander, looking at the shelves. Almost every book had nothing, no title, even words on the spine, and I had to remove a book from the shelf to see what it was called. I couldn’t make heads or tails of how the books were organized as I did the first lap around the library, then the second. On the third lap, a young Dwarf tapped me on my arm.

“You need some help, boy? I’ve watched you circle the damn place thrice! What are you looking for?”

“Hello. Boy? You look younger than me.”

“Ha! Not much time around us, have you. I’m pushing a hundred. I’ll be leaving my parent's house soon, and making my own way. Now, what are you looking for, lad.”

“What? You look so young, for a hundred. I’m trying to find anything on magic and the magic schools.”

“That be on the second floor. Everything down here is history, family trees, and law books. Anything worthwhile, you’ll need to fork over that shiny platinum coin. If you thought you would find an easy way to access magic, you’re wrong, lad. You’d be better off getting into one of them magic schools.”

“What? Are you serious? I spent all that money to read history books?”

“Pretty much. Oh, there are also some Vocation texts, but almost all of them are being read at any given time. I’m here, trying to find some new blacksmith technique or skill path. I’m almost done for the day. Want to read the book I have?”

“No, thank you. I might be interested in a book on leatherworking, but I had my heart set on magic.”

“No worries, lad, You may want to chat with the young man over there. I think he gets here first thing in the morning to grab the leather books.”

I thanked the Dwarf but decided to leave instead. I was pretty pissed about the amount I just spent on getting almost nothing. If I ran into issues or had more free time, I’d check out those leatherworking books.

I shook Luin awake, grabbed my stuff, and we headed out the door.

“What? Find nothing to your liking?” said the old man at the desk as we left.

I wanted to stab him with an Ice Lance but thought better of it. We headed back to the Tallow and Flame, Luin wanting an early dinner, and I agreed. Finished, we went upstairs, where Luin lay on the bed and passed out. I pulled the leather rolls and the leatherworking tools from my backpack and started planning the first Spatial or Void bag I would create.