Gregory raised a fist at the Guards standing atop the wall, and they swiftly began the process of opening the gate. Their full plate grey armor looked heavy as they moved slowly. The sun was glinting off of their helmets, sending shimmers of light in all directions. As they spun a wheel connected to an extensive pulley system, each door slid away from the other directly into the wall. As the city came into view, Auron was expecting to see grand wonders of architecture and a populous that matches the size of the town.

Expectations often do not meet reality. This was an area built to withstand a siege. Inside of the five-meter wide walls was a stretch twice that width. A deep pit ran parallel with the inner wall. It was littered with sharp spikes that stretched from the earth toward the sky. Rather than a stone walkway to the buildings inside, there was a short path than ended in a cliff leading straight down into the chasm. On the edge of the road stood a semi-circle of large White stones that set off Auron's Inspect skill.

Opal warp gate. Opal ore is a natural receptor of White mana. White mana has the power of dissolution. When connected with another gate, transportation through space is possible.

Auron mentally added that information about white mana to his list as the group of men began walking toward the gate. When his foot touched the neatly cut stone inside of the walkway, his system sounded. *Bing*

You have now entered Caesium Kingdom.

All of the men must have received the messaged because they all made similar hand movements to dismiss it. To Auron's shock, the men continued forward toward the cliff without stopping. As they did, two men wearing off-white almost tan robes rushed out and touched the white stones at the edge in front of them.

Without missing a beat, Gregory walked through the semi-circle of White stones and placed his foot over the edge of the cliff, before his foot could even touch air he was instantly on the other side. His body seemingly turned into mist and reformed as quickly as Auron could blink. Fearful of the process, Auron stopped walking forward. A not so gentle push from Rodney gave him back the forward momentum he had just halted. Auron was pretty sure he heard reassurance from Thatch as he passed through the half-ring of stones twice his height and tipped over the edge of the cliff.

At that moment, before he began to fall to the spikes, he felt something flutter over his body. Looking down at his hands, they turned to dust-like particles. Fearfully he shut his eyes as the feeling sweep over him. Felling a light tap on his shoulder, he opened them and looked up at Gregory. "Come on, kid. You do not want to be standing here when they come through behind you. Gets real messy." Gregory's tone had softened from earlier, but Auron had the feeling he was the type that always sounded mad no matter how he felt.

A few moments later and each of the members of Gregory's party had come through, their cart teleported by itself shortly after. Now that they were in the residential area of the city, Auron believed it was big enough to fit at least tens of thousands of people. With the lacking few that drifted around, in and out of buildings and the streets that ran perpendicular to the main one they were on, he realized only a fraction of that were here.

Even with the thousands of people bustling around, there was space for many more. Most of the residents were concentrated on the main street that led slightly upward. As the road rose, the quality of the buildings seemed to also. Grand looking buildings were carved directly out of the mountain. The cobblestone street had a slight slope and was several paces wide. Almost every building in sight seemed to be made of chalky white stone. The square shapes almost felt artificial.

Boxy stone buildings of uniform height lined the street. Most of these looked as if they were shops. Behind the shops were hundreds of buildings that seemed to be residential clothing wires hanging between them, and children playing led him to that conclusion. Auron made out bits and pieces as they walked. Straight pathways in between each building told a tale of an organized kingdom. As they walked, the smells from various food stands made his stomach growl loudly. The men he was walking with chuckled slightly at the involuntary protest. Even the stoic Rodney cracked a slight smile at the sound. He quickly corrected that into a scowl when Auron smiled back. "Sounds like you will want to take me up on that chicken offer," Thatch joked, easing the tension further with a slap on Auron's back.

Weapon stands, and every other type of shop he could imagine also fought for the attention of people walking by. Auron was overwhelmed by the shiny metal weapons, colorful clothing, and busy crowd. Glittering jewels of every color glowed up at him from one stand. The magical hue of mana was hidden in some of them. Unbidden, his eyes were lit practically the entire walk with the names of weapons, fabrics, and people. Gregory noticed his gaze and blocked his view with his massive body. At the same time, he muttered something about charlatans and snake oil. The Berserker Knight did not seem to care much for the marketplace.

Most of the people in this part of the city had levels that Auron could see. Anything higher than ten seemed to show question marks, and very few of them had last names. As they continued up the slight incline, the buildings became taller and decorated with banners of single colors. What looked like house names burned into some of the buildings in elaborately scorched calligraphy.

More people in this area had last names, some the same as he had seen on the buildings. They all outfitted themselves in one color and had very expensive looking armors and weapons.

Marching forward, Auron began to grow nervous as the posh-looking people here gave him looks of disgust. Thatch saw his obvious discomfort, and leaned over to him "Don't let the nobles bother you, they can't stand to breathe the same air as anyone who isn't at their level of status, or hasn't sworn fealty to a named family." He paused, slapping Auron lightly on the back. "They wouldn't dare say a word or do anything to you with the captain here. He is practically royalty." After he said this, he earned a glare from Gregory that made Auron's insides feel rubbery. True to Thatches word though Auron noticed with every glare he would receive, none of the offenders dared to even look at Gregory, also going so far as to leap out of the way of their fast pace forward.

Just as they were reaching close enough to make out a grand castle and the Carved buildings spreading slightly below the regal building it to the left and right, They all stopped marching.

Auron felt entranced by the cathedral-like buildings that flowed down to the left and right of the mountain above them. While the castle was beautiful, these others looked to house a deep and ancient power. As whispers of energy called to him, he did not notice the others had stopped walking.

Auron greeted the back of Gregory's armor face first. Grabbing his nose, he hoped it wouldn't start to bleed as he tried to catch his breath from the uphill walk. Ignoring the blunder

Gregory began speaking.

"Rodney go tell the postmaster about the elemental beasts. Let them know there are two stones out there that may have been absorbed by another beast. All groups out will have to travel with a backup group. Bronze adventurers remain in the city until I say so. The new batch of wet ears will only go out for raids. No exploration." Gregory spoke quickly. With a nod, Rodney ran in the building. "Ben, Tim, you know the drill with those bodies. Sell them and bring the funds back to our treasury, if you get ripped off again by that butcher I am docking it out of your pay." When he finished speaking, the men both chimed "Understood" in unison and were off.

Turning to Thatch and Auron, the man sighed. "Thatch, if you want to boast about that thunder chicken so much, how about you go and grab three servings and bring it to my office." Gregory gave this command and flipped Thatch what looked like cubes of silver metal to the man. The grey glow of mana coming off of the cubes reminded Auron of the Bulette boss he had fought. "You are with me." He said simply to Auron as he walked into the building. With a nod and a smile, Thatch was off, leaving Auron in the street alone. Looking up at the two-story stone building, Auron wondered if now he should flee as he took in the eight colored banners hanging along the sides. Each had its solid color and the tracings of crests that looked like creatures from various myths and legends.

As Auron contemplated his success of escape, a bark from Gregory made him jump. "I won't be asking again." He said from inside, and Auron followed along like some page hoping to be made a squire by his knight.

Once inside, Auron defensively swept his eyes around the room. He walked into a grand hall, lit with the light from outside streaming in through the many windows. A giant rug made from some beast bigger than anything he had ever seen was rolled out in the middle of the floor.

At the far side of the room to the left was a large wall filled with papers stuck to it, Auron did not know the reason, but it was an odd sight. On that same side, there was a large table set into the wall with bars that acted as a barrier separating a woman from the rest of the room. Behind the woman, there was a doorway that led somewhere Auron could not see. Seeing the woman caged made Auron's blood boil. As if noticing the change in his attitude, Gregory quickly spoke. "Lad. She works for us. The cage doesn't keep her in there. It keeps the meatheads out here from getting mad if their quest does not pay out the way they were expecting. Now come on. Follow me, boy." Gregory seemed to appreciate Auron's drive to help someone in need, but by the end of his short speech, annoyance was creeping into his voice. Whoever this man was, he was busy and did not appreciate wasted time. That, or something else, was deeply bothering him. Gregory seemed to hesitate before calling Auron "Lad" or "Boy" as if the words caused himself harm.

Quickly following the man up the stairs of the building, they reached a large door after passing by several rooms. Gregory explained these rooms were for consultations. Clients would use these to meet with members of the guild and explain complicated requests rather than posting them downstairs. The more affluent and more essential clients also did not have the patience to wait for someone to select their request. He continued to explain that while bronze adventurers were level ten to twenty generally, above that were silver and gold that ranged up to level fifty. It seemed that these wealthier clients only worked with silver or higher guild members.

During the long walk down the hallway, Auron took in the information as best as he could. The young man felt slightly overwhelmed, coming straight from nature being thrust into this society.

Entering the room, Auron was even more overwhelmed. The sight of a monstrous beast staring him down made his knees feel weak. Dwarfing any monster he had seen so far, its head was four our five times his height. The mounted and dead remnant of the creature spoke to whoever or whatever killed it. Twisted tusks reached out and pointed directly at Auron's heart. Even with the large Vaulted ceilings of the office, Auron knew that they must have used magical means to get this into the building.

Seeing the skinny rogue freeze in place dragged a low laugh out of Gregory. Receiving a warmhearted slap on his back, Auron could have sworn his health bar ticked down a few percentage points. "I guess you wouldn't remember having ever seen a Behemoth before would you lad," Gregory said, a hint of sympathy layered on top of his voice as he walked to the other side of a large wooden desk and sat down. It seemed with every sheepish incident, or proof of memory loss, the leader, was warming up to Auron.

"Well, that is part of the reason I dragged you into my office. This is my guild, the Monsterbane association. He punctuated the name by taking off his gauntleted hand and showing off a tattoo that looked like the behemoth on the wall with a great-sword through its head. While he did this, Auron also noticed higher up on his forearm was a white tattoo of some sort of mammal he did not recognize. The etching was eerily similar to his symbol for Zander.

Noticing Auron's eyes drift, Gregory summoned his familiar, the tiny squirrel-like creature jumped into the air and floated around the room as if riding wind currents.

Theseus lvl 4 familiar to Gregory Felt-Worth Colors: White

As Auron watched, the creature floated around the room. Gregory had a proud smile on his face. "My family got me him. He is still young, but soon enough, he will catch up to me." He said as his scarred smile split his face. The creature landed on the top of a bookcase and sniffed around. It had the air of almost infantile curiosity. Auron lost himself for a moment watching it prod and sniff at various things in the large room. When it came to the side of the Behemoth head, the small squirrel reared up on its back legs and squeaked menacingly as if preparing for battle. This earned a little chuckle out of Auron and a boisterous laugh from Gregory.

Leaping into the air, it dove at the tip of its tusk. As the small mammal glowed with white mana, its target, the tusk, broke apart into fragments that fell to the floor. With a soft curse from Gregory and a whistle, its exploration was done.

Looking at the damage, Gregory seemed stuck between pride and frustration. He then turned that energy back to Auron as he pet his familiar. "Familiars age with their level. Soon enough, he will be smarter than both of us." He spoke in his usual growling tone.

"Now, as for you. You are lucky you survived that dungeon. Most men do not survive purple dungeons and those that do... Well, let's just say they end more vegetable than man." Gregory spoke to Auron as he would a child holding his hand through the conversation, talking slowly and explaining things where Auron furrowed his brow at a word or phrase he did not recognize. "I am going to give you two opportunities. The first is to join my guild. We do not have an unlimited supply of people with classes, and the guard, along with the royals, are always poaching men faster than I can. The second is an invitation to stay under my roof." At the offer, Gregory's eyes took on a hard steel quality. "Let it be known that even my youngest son could wipe the floor with you." He said gruffly, and Auron believed him.

"For now, why don't you take a rest. I have a bed in that room behind the door to your right." Gregory said as he fumbled to catch his familiar. It had leaped from his shoulder and was slowly drifting toward an open window.

Seeing Auron's hesitation to take the offer, Gregory's face turned to stone. "Boy, if I wanted to kill you, I would have done it outside the walls without using an ability or breaking a sweat. The lowest leveled man in my personal team, Thatch, is thirty levels higher than you. I mean, you no harm." He said the last words giving a sweep of his eyes toward the door once more.

With the man's gentle reassurance that also accompanied a casual threat, Auron obliged.

Entering the room, Auron closed the door behind him. The whirlwind of emotions flowing through him was increased in fervor when he looked down at the bed. An actual bed was in front of him, taking up most of the room due to its sheer size Auron spotted sheets on a chair, the only furniture in the room.

Spreading out the sheets, he thought about what Gregory said. It all made sense. If they wanted him dead, they could have done so easily, he could not have managed to fight off or escape any of the men unless the circumstances were one in a million. He knew deep down; it was not just that they could have done him harm. He probably should have stayed on alert, but now he needed to trust someone or something. Even if it meant he would be wrong, he needed this comfort.

Laying down on the fresh sheets, Auron felt sure that he would be safe, at least he would be safe for a short nap. His trek through the jungle had taken a lot out of him, and this bed was oh so comfortable.

As sleep took Auron rather than the nightmares or nothingness that usually accompanied his slumber, his mind was gifted with a memory.

His mother's face and his short chubby arms reaching out toward it. Rather than her slight and slender frame and hollowed-out cheeks, she looked healthy. In fact, her arms were corded with muscles. A purple orb was set into her head, and her eyes were full of life in a way Auron had never seen. While momentarily confused, Auron decided to let the dream or memory continue even though he was conscious of the fact he was asleep. His viewpoint was through his own eyes as a child, but he was a passenger and had no control over his movements.

His mother walked with him in her arms, carrying his five-year-old body easily as if he was the weight of a pillow. A man was walking with them, and they were in the kingdom that Auron just came from outside of his dreams. As they walked down the streets, Auron made playful faces at the man and then hid behind his mother. Sticking his tongue out, the man mirrored the faces, which drew out raucous laughter from the child.

In a flash, the man appeared in front of the two bouncing left and right. Electrical yellow mana flowed off his appendages as if begging a challenge as a yellow orb appeared on his head. "Shall we race to the castle?" He said in a voice that reminded Auron of his own adult voice if it was lowered an octave. "If I allow you a head start, maybe you will have a chance" His mother replied sweetly, the sound of her voice made Auron want to burst into tiers from the nostalgia. His body moved without permission as it went through the motions he took as a child, and his small hand played with his mother's curly hair. "Auron, do you want to start us off?" His mother sung as she lifted him up and brought him down into a hug, twirling them both around. Giggling Auron felt his child voice come out shakily as he tried to remember his lessons for numbers. For some reason, he was behind the other kids of his age. "One...Two...Three", He said and beamed out a confident smile. The two adults almost forgot about the race from how cute as Auron shouted, "Dad, three means go!" As Auron watched the scene develop, his heart did a somersault as the memory confirmed he was looking as his father. Lightning seemed to coalesce in yellow flashes as the man shot off away from them. He dashed as he ran up the cobblestone street using houses and anything he could to acrobatically head toward the castle up the side of the mountain. Faster, and faster he shot through the streets weaving and diving around any obstacle.

His mother just turned Auron's face to look back at hers and softly said, "We aren't going to let him win right" As she shook her head to match Auron's. "Get ready to fly then," She said as she threw Auron into the air as he screeched with laughter. People around them were clapping and laughing at the show. Everyone seemed so happy.

Purple energy flowed out from his mother's skin and then back in as her leg muscles increased in size. As he looked down at her from above, not only purple but also an energy similar to his fathers wrapped its way around her. The mana seemed to love her as it flowed at a rate Auron had never seen; it looked almost alive.

Like a rocket, she shot up into the air, deftly grabbing Auron and clearing hundreds of paces forward and up in seconds. Three more jumps each time she seemed to reinforce the house or wall she used as a springboard with grey mana, and the two landed on one of the castle balconies seconds before Auron's father. "Close your mouth, honey. You are going to catch flies." His father let his shoulders slump in mock defeat as he shut his gaping mouth. "Maybe next time, dear," She said to her husband as Auron stuck his tongue out and then smiled at his father.

Shouting ripped Auron from the dream as he tried to hold on to it with all of his being. He was with his mother and father, something he never dreamed could happen again. Against his every effort, he woke sweaty and heartbroken in the small stone room. Burnt orange light filtered in through the slits of the wooden door leading Auron to assume it was evening when he woke. The shouting that interrupted his blissful memory could still be heard coming from Gregory's office.

What sounded like Rodney yelling sounded off, "He is not your Son captain. No matter how much you want him to be." The words dripped like venom out of Rodney's lips as Auron sat up to be closer to the door. "If you don't think I know that you are a damn fool," Gregory growled, his voice taking on an inhuman depth to it. "If you dare disrespect me like that again, we are going to the training grounds out back to settle this." He regained humanity in his voice, but Auron was just as terrified by the brief fervor. A door slammed, which most likely signaled Rodney's departure from the office. Auron sat there for a moment, unsure of what to do.

"Come on out. I know you are awake after all of that racket." Gregory commanded.