The morning of the expedition’s start came slowly, as I hadn’t managed to sleep much. My mind couldn’t help but repeatedly check everything. I had gone through my gear, once, twice, and even three times. I marveled on the new items I had obtained over the year.

Despite having replaced my amour and magic items with upgrades, I never had the heart to get rid of the old ones. It was nostalgic to look at them.

Bracelet of Intelligence: INT +2 HP +10*

A bracelet of fine craftsmanship, you feel yourself getting smarter by just wearing it.

This bracelet had been with me nearly since the beginning and was actually the first piece of gear I had replaced while surviving alone.

Monkey’s Armlet: AGI +3 STR +1

An armlet made from the hide of a monkey. The hair remains and gives you a feral presence.

Funny enough, six months had not been enough time to replace all of my old gear. I’d learned that as you leveled, new upgrades to my gear became increasingly rare, at least from the encounters you would consider as non-boss monsters.

Skull Ring: INT +1 HP +10*

The ring of a powerful Lich. You can sense surrounding undead monsters while wearing it.

Looking at the descriptive text for the Skull Ring made me feel nostalgic. A powerful lich huh… I guess at the time it truly was powerful. My finger was now adorned by a new fancy golden ring whose turquoise stone swirled like the wind.

High-Elven Ring*: INT +3 AGI +2

The ring of a high elf. His intelligence and speed show true in the remarkable craftsmanship.

The last piece I had managed to upgrade was Seer’s Circlet.

Seer’s Circlet*: INT +3, MP +15, MP regeneration +10% HP +10*

A Circlet worn by a once great Prophet.

I was happy to have found something that didn’t cover my face completely and instead had something of a fashionable appeal to its appearance.

Grand Circlet**: STR +2 INT +2 AGI +2 VIT +2

The circlet of a long-lost king. The value of the gemstone embedded within is immeasurable.

The remainder of my gear was unchanged and I contemplated talking with the Adventurer’s Guild Master about it after I returned from this expedition…if I returned. None of the new gear was enchanted either.

I stood up and stretched, while rubbing my weary eyes. Someone was due to collect me right about now anyway. I could feel a person approaching, and the knock came shortly after. My robe fluttered as I exited the door. A thought crossed my mind: anyone or anything that assumed I was a helpless mage because of my attire would be in for a rude awakening.

The group from Valkyrie was incredibly small, and of them I was only familiar with Rhea. There hadn’t been much time for me to make acquaintances, as soon as the monster invasion had hit, everyone had been in problem solving mode. Whenever I’d been there, the numbers of people at Valkyrie headquarters had been small.

In total, there were nine people from Valkyrie participating in this expedition, and while I thought that was a small number, I soon saw that it was a larger proportion of the full raid than most guilds. We met at the north gate, and in total there were nearly fifty people gathered there, representing 8 guilds. The top guilds had committed their strongest people.

“Where is the Adventurer’s Guild Master?” I looked to Rhea. I couldn’t feel him around anywhere.

“He’ll be catching up to us. He had something to attend to,” she said. I nodded in reply and didn’t ask any more questions.

We waited in an organized cluster of people for dozens of minutes, until one final group arrived: the Tyrant guild. They had brought fourteen members in total, and that was when I realized they weren’t called the top guild for nothing.

The Tyrant guild leader glanced over me for a moment, and in that brief second I could feel his hostility. He masked it quickly, but I had honed my senses in the jungle. It was a sense I needed to survive, and I had developed it well.

“Sorry for the wait everyone, we can go now.” The Tyrant guild leader spoke. No one dared to complain at their late arrival. We started to move through the gate. Our destination: The Frozen Wastelands.

To the best of my ability to remember the way, I had told Rhea the direction from where I had travelled, but the exact location of the Frozen Waste was unknown. No one else had heard of it and I wasn’t entirely sure of where to find the mountain range containing the portal. Simply that it was somewhere more westward on the continent.

The trip would take us over a week on foot and all of that time would be spent outdoors. We would be camping under the moons and trekking under the sun. The feeling of moving in such a large group like this was a bit overwhelming. So were the constant stares that came my way.

It was no secret that I was allowed to come with these high-level Adventurers as a special case. Everyone here was aware of my having had training from the Adventurer’s Guild Master, and every member of this group had been specifically vetted. There were meant to be no surprises, and there was no room for failure. At least, that was what I was told. I didn’t know the exact goal as of yet.

“So… what’s the plan?” After walking for several hours without speaking, I asked my question to a female healer-type from Valkyrie. Because I didn’t know anyone besides Rhea, I hadn’t felt confident in talking. Also, everyone else seemed busy. Even now there was a constant traversing of people from group to group, relaying information and making plans presumably.

Although we were one raiding party, each guild stayed in their little formation and didn’t stray much from it.

The healer looked at me in a friendly-enough fashion. “We’ll secure the teleporter and work towards building a base.”

“A base? On West Abithos?”

“Yes, that’s the goal at least. We have everything we need to succeed. There have never been this many powerful Adventurers in our area before, and hopefully we are strong enough to gain a foothold there.”

It made sense to me, at least. A previous expedition of Adventurers to West Abithos had failed, not because of their strength but because of splitting their numbers. The trip across the stormy sea had seen their fleet dispersed and by the time they had made landfall their strength had been severely depleted.

A teleporter would solve that issue entirely. The only problem was it had been many years since the earlier expedition, and the situation on West Abithos was mostly unknown. I had given an account of what I’d sensed, but that was far too limited to get an accurate picture.

According to our guesses based on the growth of The Thing, there were still two years remaining before the situation reached a critical level. If that were true, it should be possible to take methodical steps: claim land; gather information; grow our strength; and eventually face off against whatever or whoever this thing was.

One thing though that bothered me – more so than the upcoming nights in the wilderness – was that two people were following behind us. It seemed only I had noticed them, and I was unsure if their presence was ominous or part of the plan.

“Is it really only everyone here who is on this expedition?” I asked Rhea. I was loitering towards the back and sometimes looking over my shoulder back down the path. I never saw them, but they were absolutely there. Perhaps they were curious citizens wanting to know where such a high-powered raid was going.

Right now, information was everything. If whoever it was returned to the city with knew knowledge they might get money for it.

“Why do you ask?” Rhea suddenly looked at me and then back the way we had come. “Did you see something?”

“It was just my imagination…” I muttered.

Three nights later, the moons were high and almost everyone had set up camp for the night. There was a decent distance between each group. Close enough in case of an emergency but far enough to warrant privacy.

We were stationed in the back east quadrant of our formation. Arguably one of the more exposed groups, but we held superior numbers to most guilds. The other powerful guilds took a turn at that role as well.

I had grown used to sleeping in a haze. My mind was always alert and ready for anything. Six months of sleeping in the wilderness had pounded that into me. Four days of respite could not break that down so fast.

My sleep was dreamlike, and the assailants seemed so natural that I didn’t waken enough to sense their presence. It was only when they were just feet away did their sudden bloodlust and hostility jolt me awake.

A dagger came for my throat lightning fast and my mind reacted on instinct. My mana pulsing rod came to the front and intercepted the dagger. The shiny tip of my enemy’s weapon glistened in the moonlight, while the blade was dark. No doubt a deadly poison covered the blade.

My movement was fluid, and the assassin seemed surprised. Their face was covered but I could see shock in their feminine eyes. That moment of hesitation was all I needed to use both Mana Scythe and Phase Step simultaneously.

Woman, man, child: it did not matter in this moment. The assassin was out to kill me and I had to respond in force. My body moved like a fine-oiled machine as the Blade of Mana formed the same moment I slashed out in front of me. The slim dark garbed figure that had attempted to cut my throat was bisected cleanly through.

I breathed a sigh of relief before realizing something was wrong. There was no resistance, there was no anything. The figure waved like smoke in the moonlight before fading into illusion. I could only glimpse a fleeing outline before she disappeared into the darkness.

Mere seconds passed before Rhea and several others burst from their tents. “Joseph? What was that?” She rushed to my side. I had put a lot of mana into that attack, a tremendous amount. Even a body made of steel wouldn’t have stopped my blade.

The repercussion of that was the attention I drew. My eyes darted further into the distance and could see others poking their heads from their tents. “Someone tried to kill me…” I said while rubbing my neck.

I might have seemed calm to the others on the outside, but my mind was racing. That dagger was centimeters from taking my life. Even six months in the wilderness had never brought me so close to death.

Rhea didn’t hesitate at all to wake the entire caravan, “EVERYONE UP. CHECK THE PERIMETER!” she yelled. Someone managing to get so close without being detected was a real problem.

Mages and priests alike summoned lights that floated above the camp. Every corner was checked before anyone dared question Rhea and her motives.

“What happened?” It was a woman I had not met before, but who seemed to be on good terms with the Valkyrie guild.

“There was an attempt on his life.” The women looked in my direction with a face of understanding and then worry. I couldn’t help but glance over her twice. Her figure was eerily similar to my attacker, but the soul signature was nothing alike. In fact, her soul signature was unmistakably unique.

“Who was that?” I couldn’t help but ask after she departed.

“Interesting, you have a thing for dark haired women?” Rhea asked teasingly.

Even Rhea did not know about the special circumstances of my class. Nor did I want to tell her about my ability to sense soul signatures, so I could only muster, “She seemed… different.”

“That’s Maru and I’m surprised you can tell. She is quite unique, in fact. She is one of the few people with prophetic type abilities. You’ll be working more closely with her in the future. Once we set up on West Abithos many guilds will be working pair up including Valkyrie and Power. She is a high-level member of theirs.”

Maru’s soul signature was so different from everyone else’s I wondered if it was possible she could be deliberately changing its appearance. I scratched that thought after thinking it wasn’t a very practical ability if it existed. Regardless, I would not forget the soul signature of my attacker. There was also a second signature that was waiting in the wings. No doubt they had underestimated me completely. My back chilled at the thought of them both coming after me at the same time.

Only after I had thoroughly scanned the entire camp did I manage to calm my turbulent thoughts. Most guilds had sent someone to find out the root of the problem; only the Tyrant guild had not.

By now, both assassins had fled for some distance, as I could not feel their presence. At least for the remainder of the night I should be safe. My worries were for the nights after. We were merely halfway to our destination, “Rhea, when will the Adventurer’s Guild Master arrive?”

“I don’t know exactly, but he shouldn’t be much longer than one to two days.”

I had gone nights without sleep before and was prepared to do so again, at least until the Adventurer’s Guild Master arrived. No one would dare to harm a hair on my head in his presence.

The remainder of my sleep that night was terrible, but I received good news in the morning. “Joseph, how have you been?” It was the Adventurer’s Guild Master. “Not causing any trouble I hope?”

“Could be better.” I jested. Our relationship had become much more casual. Despite his strict outer appearance, he was very laid back. I had stopped calling him Sir after the Energy Shield shenanigans.

Rhea emerged from her tent with food in her mouth, “Did you run into anyone on the way here?”

“No, should I have?”

“Last night someone tried to kill your precious apprentice.”

I could feel his piercing gaze scan every inch of my body. Not out of concern, but more so out of a sense of pride. “Looks like you’re fine.” And that was all I got. I was used to this treatment though. It was a sort of tough love.

The two disappeared inside the tent while I was left to my breakfast. We would be departing shortly, and there was no time to waste. The weather would soon grow cold as we ventured further north.

The Adventurer’s Guild Master returned shortly after and grilled me on the circumstances of the previous night. Partially on my attacker: her appearance, height, hair color, eye color, gender. He wanted to know any discerning feature.

After that, he replayed the scenario with me dozens of times. Something unique about the Adventurer’s Guild Master was that he never wasted an opportunity. Even my near death assassination was an opportunity to grow and learn.

We discussed my reaction, and if it was the proper one. Could I have used my skills differently, more efficiently? After several hours of this he deemed it was unlikely any change in my behavior would have resulted in me catching the assailant. Still, he was proud that I had warded her off successfully.

Two nights later the weather grew frigid. We would enter the Frozen Wastelands in the morning. The assailants had never again shown up in my range, and nothing untoward happened. The Adventurer’s Guild Master moved from guild to guild making inquiries as well as passing along information.

I still wasn’t sure what he was taking care of during the first three days of our trip, but it must have been important enough. Despite his busy nature, I could tell a portion of his attention was devoted to me.