“The void syndicate are a bunch of malingering fools. A cabal of terrorists that sees it fit to meddle with reality just because they can; but that is what they want you to see. Behind the disappearance of villages and people, I fear this is just a ruse to hold our attention elsewhere. I fear they are agents working for the Occidanian’s picking and disposing of resources as they see fit and one day, we might find ourselves besieged from within and without. The occidanians have not forgotten what happened to them at Kingsfell ”- Diary entry by unknown Guild Inquisitor.

[Blood Healer Level 23!]

[Skill-Blood Art: Vivification Acquired!]

[Skill-Detect Death Acquired!]

Nora jerked awake. It had been a while since the voice of the world had spoken to her. Leveling? She had done it many times and she was still younger; then she had become a healer after consolidating one of her highest level classes.

Actually, it used to be her only class before the Clan’s scouts had found her, dumped out in the Bowl for the monsters to eat. Then Venera had taken her in, like the mother she’d never had and raised her in another line of work.

Occasionally, she saw blood, she was used to it—was it because she was a dhampir? No, that would be stereotypical and wrong.

The thing is, she had been acclimated to blood from a young age trained to hone her skills and forged into a blade that reaped not nurtured lives.

Like any other small child of her age, the sight of blood had made her want to puke her guts out; the fact that her own heritage gave her senses that were so acute did not help matters. But she had to survive, so she became insensate.

And now? Hearing her internal voice declare the World's recognition sent her tumbling out of the tent flaps to tell her companion that she’d leveled.

It had been half a quart since they’d found a woman in dire straits inside a dungeon. While Nora tended to the patient, Arthur kept watch outside making sure nothing would spook the horses.

“Arthur...Arthur, I leveled. I also got a new skill thanks to that thing we did.”

“Wow! Miss Nora, congratulations!” Arthur exulted. “How’s your patient?” he said looking up from reading Volemhir’s letter. He spirited it away into his inventory; it would come in handy someday.

“She’ll live,” said Nora with a smile as she took note of the action. Arthur scooted over to make space.

The little grimalkin had taken to him and was purring on his lap as he stroked its silky black fur. “What are we going to do about the rest of the people trapped in the dungeon?”

“I don’t know. I wish I could just go in bolts blazing but we have no idea what we’re dealing with; until she awakes—”

“Elena; she’s a guild employee you know.”

“Huh? You found something?”

“Yes, I found her guild tag on her neck.”

“Oh, I must’ve missed that…that raises more questions.” Arthur scratched his stubble. “As I was saying, unless we know what we’re dealing with, we can’t just go in blindly. We might make it worse, or get caught up in whatever happened in that dungeon.”

Nora understood his point. There was nothing she could do herself but wait as well. Shadow porting into the middle of a dungeon with lots of unknowns was just asking for peril. For a while, they sat in companionable silence as they listened to the sound of wood crackling in the camp fire.

The stillness was broken by the sound of a body thumping on the ground. Nora was the first to notice, blurring and appearing beside the woman who had crawled and stumbled out of the tent, dragging the beddings with her.

“What are you doing?! You’re in no condition to be moving around.”

“The party—Yssinia—must save them.”

“Miss Elena, is it? I’m sorry,” Arthur came over, crouching till he was level with her in the ground. “There wasn’t much we could do for your friends; the rubble is too ensconced in the passage and between the two of us, we have no skills for dealing with rocks and boulders.”

“My satchel—emergency beacons,” Elena quivered as the cold started getting to her. She looked imploringly from Arthur to Nora; her eyes told of her resolve to get to her acquaintances.

“Hold her,” Nora let the woman lean against Arthur. She entered the tent and returned with Elena’s guild satchel. They helped her move towards the fire where she’d warmed up and in her stead, Nora rummaged through its contents, until they found what she was looking for.

“This it?” Nora enquired when she found the emergency beacons. Elena nodded. Nora passed mana through the golf-ball size crystals until it lit up like a strobe light and dissipated into a stream of motes which shot to the sky.

“Now we wait,” Arthur murmured as he regarded the woman who was snuggled up in covers between the two of them. She smiled wanly before she closed her eyes and fell into an exhausted sleep.

They came in the night; a host of adventurer’s mobilized by the guild led by the guild master himself.

Even inn-keeper Halen had donned his gear when he got wind of the matter from adventurer’s who patronized his inn just before he’d turned in for the night.

Arthur was almost nodding to sleep from a protracted night watch when the first mage lights and sounds of neighs and hooves came from the road.

One rider broke away from the column and rushed towards the camp; Arthur was already dreading the encounter as the rider jumped off the horse before it had even come to a stop.

Before he could react, the individual had already reached and grabbed hold of him by his shoulders in a vice-like grip. He thought he could hear his shoulders protest from the throttle hold.

“Where is she!?” the burly sylvani man shouted in his face with bloodshot eyes.

‘More sylvani from outside the Vale?’ Was Arthur’s thought when he saw that the sylvani had none of the garb worn by his forest brethren.

“Put the boy down Halen, how’s he supposed to talk when you’re choking the air out of him?” another gruff and even burlier bearded man called out. This one, Arthur saw, had irises that were unmistakably draconic as well as horns that sprouted from his temples.

The man released Arthur, letting him stumble to the ground in a daze. He didn’t even get to mount any resistance before the man had gotten hold of him. The people of Eryth were truly monstrous.

Nora had heard the commotion and gotten out of the tent where she’d been sleeping with Elena with her grimalkin cub perched on her shoulder. The man almost bowled her over, but she managed to get out of the way. The cub yowled in indignation.

“Sorry about that lad,” said the second man as he held out a hand to help Arthur to his feet. The man’s large hand engulfed his own and lingered as his eyes lit up once; Arthur felt goosebumps and chills rolling down his spine before he reared back and retracted his palm.

“My apologies, old habits,” he feigned a cough as he cleared his throat. “Allow me to introduce myself,” he said, adopting an imposing figure.

He was tall, almost as tall as the giant tiefling and the sylvani [Warden] Arthur had been briefly acquainted with. This world, it seems, people pushing 7 feet in height were a norm rather than an exception.

The man regarded him not condescendingly and apologized for the affront he’d suffered—twice. So Arthur relaxed his tension and let the man humor him.

Even as he observed, the area around them had been transformed into a first responder’s camp. Tented structures had been erected, people were shouting orders and carrying equipment here and there while mage lights lit up the vicinity like emergency floodlights.

“You may address me as Orhill Stormborn; guild master to Aldmoor’s adventurer’s guild. I would wager you were the ones who found one of my subordinates and sent an emergency beacon?”

Nora stepped in to speak for them, “Nora and Arthur, Guildmaster Stormborn. A pleasure to make your acquaintance,” The guild master’s gaze swiveled to her.

“You are correct in that account, we found untended horses and they led us to this dungeon.” Nora motioned to the dungeon behind them. She folded her hands behind her back as she turned to her companion. Arthur nodded and let her continue as he laid back.

“We found guild member Elena in a debilitating condition but we were able to get to her in time,”

“Truly?” Orhill arched his bushy eyebrows as he stroked his beard.

He paused, turning towards their tent where the unruly man had entered, looking for Elena. “What about the rest of the adventuring team? I assume she told you there were more people?”

“Unfortunately she wasn’t in a condition enough to tell us more—“

“Guild master!” a man in guild uniform and gear interrupted, striding towards them with a sheaf of parchment.

“Yes, Nevine?”

The man eyed Nora and Arthur which the guild master intimated to mean they needed privacy.

“Pardon me…”

Nora nodded as she tugged Arthur away to let the guild master attend to his subordinate.

“Well, this is not how I pictured my encounter with the Adventurers Guild.” Arthur voiced folding his hands as they stood apart from the bustle around them.

“Me neither,” Nora said as she leaned into his side. Arthur gave her a one-arched brow. Nora shrugged, “I am tired.”

“After all that sleeping?”

“Your magic ran out,” Nora gave him a fanged smile.

“Must be withdrawal then; you’ve gotten off your high.” Arthur chortled. Then narrowing his eyes, “You should put those fangs away, I’m not about to become your drug dealer.”

Nora pouted and punched his forearm then she tittered playfully.

“You named her yet?” asked, watching the grimalkin knead its furry paws. It had draped itself at the back of Nora’s shoulders like a domestic cat.

He wondered just how large it would grow to when its mother was larger than a Siberian tiger.

“Mmh, I will when we get to someplace comfortable. Bonding is a delicate process that requires preparation, or so elder Selessia told me.”

Arthur stifled a yawn with the back of his hand as his eyes turned bleary. “I am tired of sleeping in the woods and being on the run,”

“Maybe we should get a house,” Nora winked.

“Heh, that’s a good idea. But I have no clue how much to pay for one. Do you want to buy, lease or rent?”

“Eh, I’m almost clueless as you,” Nora tousled her bangs.“By the way, what did the correspondence say?

Eyes darting to the vicinity, Arthur leaned and said, almost in a whisper, “Eh, We’ll get to it soon. Hold up, I think someone’s calling us over.”

“We’re in for a long night for sure,” Nora nodded and sighed. The duo then walked towards the guild personnel who had interrupted their earlier conversation with the guild master.

“Mister Arthur and Miss Nora I presume? The guild master wants to see you, please follow me…” he turned on his heels. He led them through rows of palisades which had been strung together from trees nearby, and in such a short time too.

The employee cued in on their interest and commented, smirking at them as if they were a pair of country bumpkins “A plant affinity [Mage] made that,”

Both Arthur and Nora bit back their chuckles; they’d seen better not so long ago.

“Arthur, Nora,” the guild master nodded to them as they approached. All around them were adventurers and mages trying to find ways of clearing the rubble. “We are at an impasse, our geomancers are unable to shift the rubble,” Orhill said gazing at the blocked tunnel.

“No success with moving the rock?” Nora said, coming to a stop.

“Hmm, the material is made from the dungeon. It’s too dense in dungeon mana and it's resisting our magic. Short of using physical force, we have no way to make a controlled excavation else we're risking another cave in. There's a chance the tunnel may have another explosion ”

“An explosion? What from?” Arthur asked, surveying the site. He didn’t see any sort of combustible material, unless—

“The foul air you feel has been heavily inundated with Pyr mana,” Orhill grimaced.

““Oh,”” both Arthur and Nora exclaimed, looking around them cautiously. “What can we do then?” Nora asked, turning suggestively to Arthur.

Arthur exhaled, and promptly gagged on the foul air. “Sorry about that…why would you think us suited to the task?” He responded, all the while glaring at Nora.

“You possess a powerful magic boy, perhaps more potent than mine. It takes an aeromancer to know another and you are no ordinary one.”

“So that time when you were—”

“Yes, I used an [Analyze] skill on you,” Orhill cleared his throat. Arthur tensed. His countenance had darkened but Nora grabbed his wrist. “Relax Arthur, if he had ulterior motives I would have known.” Nora pacified him.

‘Huh? Aeromancer...I don't—Oh’ Arthur realized why the medallion in his pants had grown a little warm. It'd somehow interposed the class closest to his abilities to feed Orhill's [Analyze] false information. He'd have to get a strap for it soon.

“The lass is right lad; I do not have any unsavory designs towards your person. Rest assured, at this moment, knowledge of your abilities is only known by me. You have my word that they will not be documented anywhere if you don’t want them to be. By such a time then we will have to take you under our auspices as a guild member; if you could sign up as an adventurer that is.”

ʼThat's just blackmail in a gift wrapperʼ Arthur left unspoken.

“ What if I refuse?” Arthur said. He was not taking that browbeating lying down.

“ Hmm, the guild Inquisitors might have some questions for you since you happened to be at the scene of the incident.” Orhill quirked a brow.

‘ Feck it! Was that a threat?!’

“Fine then,” Arthur huffed as he acquiesced “ I’ll have to see that in writing…if and when we get out of here.”

“It shall be done,” Orhill grinned. “Just consider this as paying for my silence.”

“So it’s just strong arming then,” Arthur narrowed his eyes. Orhill shrugged.

ʼSlimy old man ; are all old Erythean old men two bit sharpies? ` Arthur frowned as he followed the guildmaster towards the dungeon.

Arthur approached the pile of rubble as the group of adventurers and mages stepped back. He knuckled the rocks making up the blockade and peered into the gaps between the fallen debris. Then he stepped back with a hand on his chin.

“Find anything?” Nora sidled closer.

“Yea, I think so, “Arthur replied, looking over his shoulder. “Guild master Stormborn, did I hear you say that you were an aeromancer? Do you have any conductive metal we can use?”

“Oho, what do you have in mind?”

They cleared out the rest of the adventurers and everyone else, even Nora after hammering metal spikes into a circular shape where they thought the rocks had some give.

The dungeon’s materials were too dense to crack directly, much like chipping away at granite on steroids. With the holes between the rubble, they had some leeway for the spikes to find purchase.

“We shall have to do this from the other side of the wards lad— [Slyph Queen’s Aegis]!”

“I agree; we might cause a cascading explosion if something goes wrong— [Wind Shield]!”

The barriers sprung up around the two magic users, the larger layered on top of the smaller. Sure it might have been overkill, but they would rather be punted out of the dungeon in a hamster ball than risk third degree burns; even for Orhill who might have had some resistance to fire because of his dragonkin constitution. Where magic was involved, it was better to err on the side of caution.

“Ready?”

“Mmh” Arthur grunted.

““[Lances of Aeris]! [Thunder Bolt]!””

Compared to Orhill’s magic? Arthur’s lightning was lackluster; yet the older man had told him he possessed the more potent magic between the two of them. It showed just how much fine control triumphed over raw power.

All the magic in the world was nothing if you could not send it where you wanted it to go. If Arthur’s Thunderbolts would be compared to an air-to-ground missile, then the guild master’s lances were two whole payloads of them, delivered with heat seeking accuracy.

Like their moniker, the lances were a shaped construct and they made Arthur truly want to revisit his magical theories if that was how fine control came to be. He was looking to make his spell matrices as efficient as possible.

Their combined ordnance struck the spikes; heating them up hotter than the sun in the time they took to bat their eyes.

The air shrieked and cracked so loud they felt their eardrums pop even behind their shields and the dungeon shook, belching a cloud of dust like a collapsing mine shaft.

When the dust had settled, Arthur and the guild master Orhill had been blown back towards the exit.

The change in giga-pascals of pressure did not turn them into minced meat thanks to their shields. However, they both looked strained from the effort, more so the guild master whose shield took the brunt of the impact.

“You’re welcome to come with me if you please,” Orhill said as he waved away the dust with his hand.

‘ The audacity of that man; he is going to milk me dry for all I am worth,’ Arthur hid a sneer.

“I am going to have to decline; I want to see how my method fared but I’m not going into the actual dungeon with you. Bold of you to just pick up some random guy you just found to help you with your problem though,” Arthur croaked as he hacked on the dust around him. He used a gust of air to clear it from his face.

“Ho! That’s some spunk if I ever heard some,” his eyes glinted dangerously. The hair on Arthur’s neck stood up on end. Surprisingly, [Danger Sense] was not triggered

With Orhill’s entourage and Nora behind them, the two men lead the way towards the demolished rubble.

“Keep your eyes out for monsters, the dungeon might have had a break.”

“Right!” responded his entourage with military efficacy.

When they approached the rubble, they found the rocks had either been crystallized or outright turned into lava.

The metal had been melted, cutting into the debris which was still smoking and radiating heat from the spells.

Mages with water spells extinguished and cooled down the opening before the vanguard of adventurers comprising swordsmen, spearmen and other frontline warriors went ahead.

“Sir,” guild employee Nevine caught up, “We have recovered the scrying slate used during the evaluation.”

“Have you gotten any feedback from the scrying crystals?”

“None sir, connection keeps on failing. [Message] spells are also unusable.”

“Nevine, you shall be on standby. Keep trying to reach the scrying crystals. if you get anything send a runner.” Said Orhill as he entered the breach. Left behind were Arthur, Nora, Nevine and a couple of mages who waited outside the gap as the other combat classers in went to mount the rescue.

“Well, that’s that,” Arthur remarked, folding his hands behind his head. Interested in what the guild employee Arthur asked, “Mister Nevine?... Do you mind telling me how a scrying slate works?”

“Eh, I’m not that great a personage for honorifics Mister Arthur. However, I’m sorry, I can’t fully explain.” Nevine winced. “I am new to this; I just took a crash course on how to use it.”

“Oh, that so?” Arthur replied, disappointed. After the telecry incident with Elder Volemhrir, it hammered home just how tight-fisted Erytheans were with their magical artifacts. “I don’t assume there’s books for that kind of thing?” he asked again. A surreptitious pulse of [Appraisal] returned nothing but the name of the artifact; not even its creator’s name.

“It’s considered classified information—,” Nevine scrunched his brow in contemplation, “ unless you are ranked gold or higher in the guild; I mean as a guild employee, access to such material is restricted.”

“Crumb, alright then. Sorry for the bother—”

“Arthur!” Nora interrupted, pulling at the back of his cloak. “ I think you should go get some sleep.”

“Right, right. Even your little kitty seems sleepy,” Arthur booped the drowsy grimalkin’s nose. It batted away his finger, “Sheesh, she’s grumpy. Let’s go.”