Chapter 96 – First Job

Name: Trey Bon

Level 43

Class: Infernal Summoner, Horror Crusader

Name: Izumi Yoshida

Level 10

Class: Blacksmith

Jason Foreti

Level 10

Class: Alchemist

Ashe Landry

Level 34

Class: Rogue

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Your Predatory Symbiote: Sithis has finally matured from the chrysalis stage, and into maturity. Now that your symbiote has reached this point, it is able to possess and acquire the body of a demon-class enemy, giving you a new minion. When this possession has finished, the Predator Symbiote’s bonuses will remain - but the symbiote entity itself will no longer be bound to the master’s body.

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***

They were still in the tomb. Celebrating wouldn’t necessarily be the word to use, because they’d lost a lot getting here… but aside from the deaths of Trey’s minions it was a victory. And they were simply thankful to be alive - so they’d taken to drinking… isolating themselves from the newcomers on the other side of the room. The Game Master had already informed them that they’d be protected by Xil if they were attacked in this dungeon now that they’d completed his games, so they felt relatively safe with a hulking monstrosity of a machine and a lich watching over them.

[English Dialect] “Stop staring at her!” whispered Ashe in a drunken state after sipping yet again on the hard liquor. She passed the flask to a giggling Izumi, who still was wearing the colorful fancy cloak she had attained hours earlier. “That’s so creepy!”

Trey blushed as he was caught in the act yet again while staring at the sleeping succubus nearby. [English Dialect] “Sorry…”

“You are so NOT sorry!” giggled Izumi. “You gona make her do dirty things to you now that she’s your slave!?”

Ashe made a gagging motion and Izumi giggled much harder as Trey rolled his eyes. Jason tried to envision it himself and immediately got jealous, but he wasn’t the only one. Rivia didn’t like that kind of talk one bit and the scowl on her features was evident.

“So unfair.” said Jason again.

Ashe whacked Jason hard and took yet another swig of alcohol. “IT WAS A JOKE! Men are such perverts! You’re disgusting Jason.”

Jason sighed loudly as he was handed the flask. He suddenly looked very sad. “You know, if Elise was still here…”

“Stop.” Izumi quickly got serious. “I know that you liked her Jason, I know it must have been so hard to go through what you did. But you need to let her go.”

Elise. The girl Jason had first met here on Nagochus when he’d first arrived. She’d introduced him to her family, and had made quite an impression on the Earthborn man. He’d not been sure of it at the time, but he’d fallen in love with her despite the short amount of time having known her. Perhaps that was a personality flaw of his, to let his emotions linger like that, but it was something he couldn’t help.

“You need to move on.” agreed Ashe with a slight nod of her head. “It isn’t healthy to dwell on the past like that when there’s nothing you can do to fix it.”

“But there might be a way to fix it!” replied Jason defensively, folding his arms and frowning. “If we find a skilled necromancer we might be able to bring her back! Right Trey? We’ve been talking about this recently and he thinks there’s a chance.”

Ashe and Izumi stared skeptically at Trey and waited for his input, but Trey shuffled awkwardly. He knew what it was like to cling on to something he shouldn’t have, a lot like Jason was doing… Trey’d done exactly that with Amanda. Hell, he still thought about Amanda. How was he of all people supposed to break it to Jason that Elise wasn’t coming back?

“Well… I did say we would try. I’m not saying it’s impossible Jason, but I don’t actually know whether or not it will work.” Trey paused to glance quickly at Ezdeath again from the corner of his eye - catching another glare from Rivia. “It’s definitely a long shot, but again… we’ll still try.”

“There’s no harm in at least trying right!?” replied Jason with a half smile as he leaned back against the stone wall underneath one of the mounted coffins. “If it could work, it would mean so much to me. Thanks man.”

Trey nodded sheepishly, feeling Rivia’s hands fold in around one of his own, but he really didn’t know where this newfound friendly attitude Jason had was coming from. It definitely struck him as odd. Jason had always been the one to remain negative, so this new optimistic attitude threw Trey off. “Of course. Just… don’t get your hopes up too much.”

Jason shrugged and crossed his feet. “My hopes were never up to begin with. But thinking about it is one of the few things that makes me happy again.”

Ah. There it was again. The familiar depressing attitude Jason always had.

“Oh just stop!” Ashe crossed her arms and her pretty fox-like features had a look of disappointment written across them. “We’ve all been taken from our homes and gone through some serious shit Jason. We all miss our families. Izumi and Trey were both repeatedly killed over and over again. Izumi and I were raped by guards repeatedly in that dungeon before Atharost came and saved us all. You lost people you cared about. I get it, but we have all done our best to move on except for you. If we find a way to bring them back, then great! Until then you should NOT be counting on it.”

Jason met her gaze - then looked down, defeated.

“Not that I’m trying to gang up on you Jason, but I’ve got to agree with the ladies on this one.” Trey put a hand on his friend’s shoulder and gently squeezed reassuringly. He and Jason had finally made some very recent headway in their friendship, and he didn’t want to put him down now… however, he didn’t want Jason to cling to straws either. “The resurrection miracle Rivia has doesn't really apply if the souls are long-gone from the bodies. I’ve already asked her. I don’t know if there’s even a way to bring souls back. I assume so, but I don’t know how to locate them if it’s possible. It might not be possible. From my limited understanding of the void, it is absolutely immense. Immeasurable almost. We would probably have better luck winning the lottery nine times in a row before finding individual souls there. And everything else aside, it seems that some souls permanently vanish after death or during their time in the void. However, as I have said many times before, if we find a way to do it then we will.”

Jason didn’t respond and refused to look any of them in the eye. Trey felt badly for him, and he had liked Elise and her family for the short time he had known them, but Jason holding on like this was very likely only going to slow his recovery down. Maybe he was too judgemental though, after all he didn’t know whether or not his family was gone. Would he be the same way if he had known his family had died here in the Nirvana worlds - and that he may have a chance of bringing them back? What if they WERE here?

The thoughts shifted towards the man crossing the large tomb while his glowing crimson eyes settled on the approaching figure. In turn, everyone in his group also quieted down to watch with him.

The hooded man was headed directly towards them at a slow pace with an ethereal phantom orbiting him overhead, while some of the others in his group watched from afar. Upon coming closer, Trey could see that the man was about his height with brown hair and an awkward smile across his handsome, youthful face. He held up his hands to show that he carried no weapons, and even turned around once before approaching again.

[English Dialect] “May I join you for a while?” asked Taen hesitantly - looking rather nervous as he did.

Upon hearing English spoken, all of the other Earthborn immediately perked up with laughter.

[English Dialect] “OH SHIT, ANOTHER ONE!” laughed Izumi in a drunken haze while the others drew surprised looks across their faces. “Where you from homie?!”

Well. That was easy enough. Taen had been outwardly terrified of the idea that they would refuse his advance, and let out a sigh of relief as he saw they seemed to be accepting of him - at least for now. “Dallas, Texas. How about you?”

“NO SHIT!” exclaimed Trey as he leapt to his feet. “SO AM I! What a small motherfucking world huh?! And don’t mind the horns or tail. It’s a long story.”

Trey laughed excitedly and even Taen was a little taken aback that they had originated from the same place.

Taen grinned as well and was already beginning to feel at ease, taking Trey’s outstretched hand to firmly shake. “Wow! That’s really weird actually!”

“Sit down man, you’re more than free to drink with us!” Trey exclaimed and slapped him on the back, glancing up at the high-tier undead hovering overhead. It was formed in the shape of a woman, with gray ethereal wisps trailing out behind it as it gazed its dead eyes down onto the rest of Trey’s party. “I need to catch up to these guys, so you can join me. We have more than enough alcohol, a couple backup flasks are over there in our bags.”

“We’re alcoholics!” winked Ashe. “Welcome to the new world, right?!”

Izumi snickered, and even Jason smiled a bit as he tried to pull himself from his current depression.

Taen grinned wider, setting himself on the stone to join the ring of people on the floor. “I’m used to having alcoholic friends.”

Rivia was quick to lean up against Trey as he leaned back against the wall next to Jason, while Napoleon, Piggy and Telipe were all preparing food with a small fire not far off. Ezdeath was fast asleep on the floor a few yards off under a blanket Trey had supplied her. Juila and Atharost were still dead but would respawn soon, and Grimy the thief was off looting coffins by himself. Otherwise, everyone else was there to talk and greet the newcomer.

“So did you hear us speaking in English and decide to head over or what?” asked Trey as he acquired a second flask of rum and started to drink. He then passed it to Taen as the others listened intently.

Taen took a swig and gurgled before downing it. He choked and coughed as the hard liquor hit his insides, and the other Earthborn chuckled. “Yeah that’s one way to put it. Saw you all drinking too and decided it would be a good way to calm my nerves before these so called ‘games.’ This kinda sucks.”

Trey briefly failed to inspect Taen’s stats and shot Izumi a look.

She caught the hint. She was already better at identifying things than he was, and pulled out her goggles to identify what she could of Taen’s HP points - then noticed the zombies in the background. Along with the phantom, a ghoul soldier, and the giant flesh golem on the other side of the room, their HP bars were also associated with Taen’s and grew a light green to indicate as such.

“Are you the necromancer controlling all those minions? What’s your name by the way? It’s only showing you as: ‘Adventurer’ on these goggles. They won’t tell you the name of the person until you get to know it yourself.”

Taen raised an eyebrow in surprise, admiring her funny top-hat before answering. “Yes. I am a necromancer, and those are all my minions. Undeath is kinda cool in my opinion. Those goggles can identify things for you though? My name is Taen, but where’d you get them?”

“They only show the HP and title of a person, but they’re registering those creatures as belonging to you with the glow of their bars lighting up to a similar color that yours is. It’s similar to the way that Trey’s minions show up when I look at them, so that’s how I knew. Usually it’s just a basic red color.”

The other people there introduced themselves before Izumi cut them off, introducing herself loudly and then continuing back to the conversation.

“Anyways, I found the goggles!” replied Izumi proudly as she puffed out her chest and tapped on the lense. “I’m a lot lower level than almost everyone else in our group, but that’s because I spend a lot of my time investing in blacksmithing. Hold that thought!” Izumi stood up a little too fast and drunkenly stumbled over to her bag. She rummaged through it for a time before pulling out a makeshift book. Scurrying back over to the group, she opened it up and scooted over next to Taen.

“Wana see some of the schematics I’ve found!? I’ve only built some of the smaller ones, bought a bunch more from my old forge master before he died in an attack on our old compound, but I have plans to create more of them in the future!”

Izumi didn’t give Taen a chance to reply before excitedly flipping the book open and rummaging through the pages. The book was filled with various schematics, and she stopped at a set of armor with instructions of not only how to forge armor, but also how to apply certain types of enchantments into various pieces of the armor - along with additional trinkets or items needed to complete the set. “You watched us fight in the games right!? That backpack ‘Ripper Cannon’ I was using is in one of these schematics, so I can replicate it and sell them eventually! Unfortunately they take a long time to load and recharge, but they pack a real punch. The ‘Ripper Pistol’ is a lot faster to reload but doesn’t have as much power behind it.”

The necromancer took a once-over glance at the gun holstered on Izumiu’s belt. It looked very much like an old pirate’s pistol.

“Wow. Impressive!” said Taen, who truly was impressed and not just brown-nosing. He leaned back on his arms and stretched his neck out to look up at the ceiling, sighing with contentment as the buzz kicked in. “I only know how to fight. I wish I could build stuff like that, actually it seems like it would be a lot of fun.”

This only encouraged the petite Japanese girl. “I’ve been trying to find a good shield schematic, but none of the ones I’ve found are anything that I’d want to make. Pretty lame and ordinary shields for the most part. But here, look at this bad boy! I’ve been able to make handheld bombs too! Did you see me use them in the fights we had!? They work a lot like grenades. I also have some schematics for noise dampening tech we can add to the soles of our boots, and a magic detection compass that can tell you where the magic is coming from. It can detect traps and whatnot, I’ve been working on this one in the spare time I have on our travels.”

Izumi pulled out a sleeved brown glove fitted to her hand perfectly on the left side with a compass built into the dorsal side. “I haven’t gotten the configuration right just yet, but it works sometimes. Not anything you’d want to bet your life on in case of a magical trap, but it’s a work in progress.”

Taen was now seriously impressed, even moreso than earlier. “Have you found ALL of this technology - er - have you found all of these schematics within Ornthas?”

Izumi shook her head. “No. My forgemaster was a dwarf and he taught me the basics of smithing. Again, he died in a recent attack on our compound… We had to leave Teretog after that. Before that happened I gave him some of the schematics I’d found, and he lent me some of his own along with letting me buy others that he’d not let out to the public yet. The noise dampening tech and magic identification tech are dwarf technology. The goggles, grenades, traps, buildings and guns are from Ornthas.”

“We’re going to make a killing off of her smithing skills when we finally settle down to form a guild.” commented Trey as he cracked open a nut and tucked it into his mouth. “Jason does a lot of alchemy too, though he’s slowed down lately.”

“I’ll get back into it eventually,” said Jason somberly. “Just had a lot on my mind.”

“Guild?” repeated Taen.

“Yup!” exclaimed Ashe in drunken stupor. She spilled some liquor onto her pants and laughed stupidly while her fox tail went wild with wagging. “WE are a GUILD!”

“Well not yet exactly,” stated Jason. “We might as well be. But we haven’t come up with a name for ourselves, nor do we have a guild hall or a base of operations. And we only have four members total if you don’t include all of Trey’s minions… minions don’t count towards the guild number apparently. There’s me, Trey, Ashe, and Izumi. If you do include Trey’s minions after Ezdeath killed four of them before joining us...”

Jason glanced at the sleeping succubus hesitantly. “Then there’s Ezdeath herself, Atharost, Napoleon, Rivia, Piggy, Juila, Grimy, and Telipe. Atharost is the ifrit who died, he’ll be back though after his ‘Life of Phoenix' ability resurrects him and he also has a fire serpent elemental as a familiar called Boxamoth. Boxamoth doesn’t speak at all but it’ll come if you call it by name. Napoleon is the imp over there in Izumi’s lap. Rivia is the priestess, Juila isn’t here either because she was sacrificed in that fight to turn Trey’s other minions into shadows. Juila was a human once, but Trey took on a quest that gave her an evolution… anyways she’ll be back soon too. Piggy is that brunette elf making stew over there at the makeshift fire Napoleon set up, the one with brown hair. Grimy is a thief… black guy with a quirky grin all the time, but I have no idea where he is now. He doesn’t come associate with us much. The other blonde demihuman is an enchantress Trey got from the slave market.”

Taen frowned at the words ‘slave market,’ but kept his cool and didn’t mention it.

“Forming a guild actually sounds really cool!” exclaimed Taen, remembering his days of playing MMORPG’s where he would get online with his friends and sit in front of a computer screen for hours to help his guildmates level up. It wasn’t too different from this, except this was a real life and death deal.

“You could always join!” hiccuped Trey coolly.

Taen was taken aback and caught off guard by the comment, and it showed. His eyebrows raised, and his jaw was set to be a little lax “You’re asking me to join your guild after just having met me?”

Trey laughed and slapped his thigh - definitely drunk. To his right, Ezdeath began to stir. “Well not now. We’d have to get to know you first obviously! But seeing as you’re from Earth like us, I’m sure we have a lot in common! I sure as hell trust you a lot more than many of these people in the Deadlands and elsewhere. Let’s just say we’ve had pretty bad experiences with many of the locals.”

Ashe threw up a hand. “Agreed!”

“I third the motion!” exclaimed Izumi excitedly. “I’ve been wanting to recruit new members but Trey says we have to get stronger first.”

“Is Trey your guildmaster then?” asked Taen half jokingly.

Trey rolled his eyes. “We’re not even really registered as a guild with the All Spirit yet so no.”

“Definitely is.” Jason stated. “I don’t think anyone else in our group would fit that position.”

Piggy called out to interrupt the group meeting with a radiant, content smile. “First round of food’s ready!”

The pretty brunette elf was carrying a tray and walked over in her plain green dress to start distributing out bowls of soup, utensils, and slabs of cooked meat with bread. Telipe, the blonde wolf-girl - who was still wearing those same chains she'd come in from the slave market and otherwise nude - was doing the same as she helped the slightly older woman distribute the meal to their master’s friends.

“First round?” repeated Taen with a good sniff of the delicious-smelling morsels. “Seriously?”

Ashe’s stomach loudly growled as she bit into a bread loaf, moaning as the freshly baked bread melted in her mouth. “Mhmm…”

“Piggy is a great cook.” Izumi noted, taking one of the wooden spoons from Telipe with a smile of appreciation before the two slaves politely bowed and walked back over to the station they’d set up with Trey’s imp to get on to prepare the second course. “But back to the topic on hand - Trey’s definitely the guild leader. No question.”

“Shucks!” Trey said feigning embarrassment, chuckling as Rivia laid out and rested her head in his lap while stuffing her face with the thoroughly cooked meat. “Y’all are too kind!”

He swiveled his head as a loud crash sounded out from where Grimy was looting coffins, and shook his head as the thief began swearing profusely. The thief had accidentally dropped the stone coffin’s lid on his foot, and was hopping up and down in a ridiculous manner while making a scene.

“Are you sure he’d be a good minion for me?” Ashe asked curiously, a heavyset frown on her face as she looked Grimy up and down from afar. “When I become a summoner, he’d better be worth the slot.”

The other Earthborn all laughed loudly and continued to drink as Ezdeath blinked her eyes a couple times and sat up to look about. Her black, demonic armor shimmered in the dim red light of the large room - outlining the pentagrams and glowing orange sigils even more than they’d been in their first encounter. She was still wearing the form-fitting platemail armor and Trey wasn’t sure how effective the blanket atop her had been considering her outfit - but nevertheless she’d used it.

“Master?” Ezdeath yawned, pushed the makeshift pillow of blankets out from under her head and stretched out her arms. Her wide golden eyes focused in on him as she brushed her silky snow-white hair out to the side, and politely smiled.

Trey grinned her way. “Hey Ezdeath. Have a nice nap?

She yawned again, stood up, walked over to the others and sat down next to him opposite Rivia - with the priestess immediately scowling and sitting up to latch her arms around Trey’s left side.

Ezdeath ignored the priestess’ scowls entirely, the slender warrior-woman. “You seem to be having a good time. What’s that you’re drinking?”

Trey curiously eyed the woman up and down. “Rum… want some?”

“What is… rum…?” asked Ezdeath with one raised eyebrow. “I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of rum before.”

“You speak English too!?” said Trey who snapped back into reality for a brief moment before Ezdeath’s looks got the better of him again.

The succubus chuckled. “Yes I do. I have already told you that I speak many languages.”

“Don’t do it Ezdeath! It’s a trap!” hiccupped the drunk blonde Earthborn woman sprawled out on the floor.

“It gets you drunk, as you can see here from exhibit A.” said Trey as he pointed to Ashe. “Have you ever been drunk before?”

Ezdeath’s eyes lit up and her gauntlets clapped together. “YES! Can I have some!? I haven’t had alcoholic beverages in many hundreds of years!”

From a few yards away, Piggy called out to Napoleon come help keep the fire lit; and the imp hopped off Telipe’s shoulder to oblige. Piggy shot Trey a grin and winked his way as she head-bobbed over to where Ezdeath sat, but otherwise didn’t say anything and returned to cooking and talking with Telipe.

Trey began to hand it to the woman before he pulled it away swiftly and smirked back at her. “You’ve gotta call me Trey from now on though. I do have a question for you though… What is a ‘Warden of Necranoc’? And what was the Oath that came up - it was called ‘Oath of the Warden’?”

She completely sidesteped the two questions and went straight in for her primary concern.

“Aren’t you my master? Are you embarrassed of owning me? I know the other minions call you master.” Ezdeath looked outwardly concerned. Trey facepalmed and Jason rolled his eyes.

“No! Not at all! Uhm… it’s just hard to explain.” Trey stammered the last words out and turned bright red to nearly match his crimson eyes, forgetting the other two questions immediately. “I mean, you can call me master if you really want to. But at least call me Trey some of the time.”

“Never had a problem with the other minions calling you master…” Jason muttered under his breath.

Rivia’s grip on Trey’s left arm tightened.

“Ok. I can do that. Can I have some of that rum now!?” Ezdeath looked eagerly at the flask Trey held. Trey shot his hand out and handed it over to her without another word, watching her down quite a bit of the alcohol before taking a breath.

“You’re such a tool.” said Izumi.

Trey facepalmed again.

“So… uh… how’d that happen exactly?” murmured Taen as he watched the interaction go by. “You’re a summoner and you own her as a contracted minion now, right? Wasn’t she the champion you had to fight at the end of the games?”

That brought up the questions Trey’d just voiced - again.

Trey looked hesitantly back to Ezdeath, and the succubus gave them all a quirky grin. “I had taken an oath - the Warden’s Oath… when I joined Eleknar’s legions thousands of years ago.”

Thousands of years ago. Well that was an attention grabber.

“You’re really that old?” Ashe asked skeptically, and she pointed an accusing finger at the gorgeous succubus with a hiccup. “You don’t look older than 25!”

Ezdeath’s chuckle rang out like a crisp winter wind. “I assure you, I am far older than that. Do you really not know of the wardens though? Of the oaths?”

Ezdeath’s gaze turned back to Trey, who shook his head no.

The succubus frowned slightly, then took a swig of the rum he’d given her and internally registered what this meant. “You… have not fully bonded with Eleknar. Have you?”

Everyone silently turned their gaze back to Trey.

“... No.” Trey replied eventually. “Why?”

Ezdeath’s demeanor changed to one of thoughtful introspection, and then she shook her head vigorously to bring her back to reality. “As I thought. Necranoc… was the capital of Eleknar’s empire at the peak of its glory. A city in the Void, it was a bastion of our civilization… until it was overtaken by the celestials in a surprise maneuver that marked the end of Elekanar’s most recent reign. It still stands, but is used as a battle station for the empires of Heaven to launch attacks against other demonic voidspawn empires in this day and age. The last time demons inhabited Necranoc at the time of the fall was many, many thousands of years ago.”

She stopped gazing into the distance and pointed to Eleknar’s symbol, etched into the black-mithril threading of her cloth that hung down between her armored legs. “The three-faced devil, Eleknar’s sigil. I have warn this proudly ever since I was initiated, though it is also a reminder of the great shame of failing to protect Necranoc. The Wardens of Necranoc were Eleknar’s most elite soldiers, each of us rivaling that of minor demon lords in other civilizations and numbering in the tens of thousands. Now, I doubt there are even a hundred of us left. I was only spared death that fateful day on the fall of the empire because I was knocked unconscious by a friend, and dragged away to safety… The rest of us are scattered across creation. Whether the others remain loyal to Eleknar and keep their oath active is to be seen, but now that Eleknar has returned…”

Ezdeath ended her sentence there, and her pupils dilated as she focused in on the symbol etched into Trey’s chest. Ever since their fight, the glowing orange-red symbol of Eleknar had been burning across Trey’s skin - adding another tattoo to the already swirling additions his unholy writ along his left arm showed.

“Seems like a long story.” said Trey brushing off the question when the staring became a bit awkward. “We can talk about it another time.”

“Uh huh.” said Izumi with puffed out cheeks. “Man whore.”

Trey looked back aghast. “I don’t even sleep with many women, what are you talking about!”

Izumi lowered her eyelids and pursed her lips. “Rivia? Piggy? Juila? You sleep with them regularly. Not to mention Telipe and the NPC slave girls you have back on the boat.”

“Jason here has slept with way more!” Trey protested as he lifted up his hands defensively.

Jason only glared at Trey with a low snort.

“You are... a man whore? You sell your body for sex?” asked Ezdeath curiously as she took another gulp of the rum. “Why would you do that to yourself? Can you not find other means of acquiring currency? You could always conquer a city and take their women for yourself with Eleknar's power under your command.”

“Jesus Christ. I’m not actually a man whore Ezdeath. They’re just calling me a man whore because they like to be mean to me. My friends are jerks.”

Izumi scoffed and Ashe gave out a loud hiccup.

Ezdeath looked between the party members briefly. “I think I am beginning to understand your friendship dynamic now. You are a masochist and therefore keep friends who are mean to you.”

The others burst into laughter and even Trey chuckled before shaking his head. Upon seeing Ezdeath smiling wickedly, he realized she had just made her first joke.

“Glad to see you have a sense of humor.” Trey smiled back at the demoness. “How’d you get stuck down here anyways? I’m curious.”

“In this tomb? Fighting for my life at Xil’s whims?” clarified Ezdeath. “I would rather not talk about it. Maybe in time, but not now.”

Trey nodded in understanding. “Alright, no rush. I didn’t mean to be pushy, I apologize if I was a bit forward.”

Ezdeath smiled softly, and handed him back the flask of rum. “I know. Thank you though.”

The succubus looked to Taen, and it took the young necromancer a moment to realize he was staring. He cleared his throat.

“Who is this?” asked Ezdeath. “He was not in the games.”

“This is Taen, he’s Earthborn like the rest of us. He came over to say hi.” replied Trey.

Ezdeath tilted her head to one side. “You are all Earthborn? That’s interesting. But is he one of you?”

Trey raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“Can I eat him?” asked Ezdeath innocently as she brushed her snow-white locks across her golden eyes to clear her vision.

“NO!” Trey replied loudly with a concerned glance Taen’s way. Ezdeath began to laugh quietly to herself and he realized, or at least hoped, that she was making another joke.

Taen however just shrugged. “Yeah, I don’t like being eaten. But now that we’re on that subject I actually have a question to ask all of you.”

Trey and the others perked up.

Taen cleared his throat. “You’re a guild, right? Or are at least going to be?”

“Uh, I suppose so. Why? Whatsup?”

Taen shuffled uncomfortably before replying. “How would you all like to take your first job as a guild, with me as your client?”