A half-hour had passed but Derb had barely noticed the time pass. The old man he now knew as Walter had been telling him stories of his past, a past where he and Gerald were part of the same crew. His teacher was much older than he thought, over 150 years old, in fact. Derb wondered why this old man seemed so much more fragile than his master but he knew for sure asking that would mean his death. He’d heard Walter say the word “Dragon” enough times to know that he or his master wasn’t something he could mess with.

“And that’s when Gerald decided to take all the coin instead of the rations! Imagine the fury of Garnet and the others! My, if he hadn’t told us he’d known where to go you wouldn’t have had a teacher right now!” The old man chuckled deeply, his eyes scrunched up in an almost lonely way. Derb noticed how the other students looked disinterested in the stories, he assumed Walter had told them all before. Honestly, he wouldn’t have wanted to listen had it not been for all the moments Gerald seemed to mess everything up. He seemed to have mellowed out with age… or not.

“When did you even meet my teacher... and Deitre?” Derb asked. The idea of his teacher having a time where he was as weak as him made him a bit happy, but the old man never told him any stories of their early lives. He only talked about times where they could apparently level entire towns… something they’d done on more than one occasion, apparently. The old man paused, looking perplexed. “That was a long time ago, during the war, even. We met during the first few years, I can't recall when. I do remember that Deitre wasn’t in the picture until long into the war.” Walter looked more tired than ever, reaching into his back pocket and taking out a long cigar.

“You don’t mind if i smoke, do yo- Why the hell am i asking?” He said before touching the tip with his finger and setting it on fire. He took a long drag from it, his eyes going wide and dazed. “I hated the war, I still jump from my bed when I hear a bird outside. Let me tell you this, boy. We would have lost if it wasn’t for that hammer wielding maniac. Any one of us could take him in a fight, but we wouldn’t have lasted 10 minutes out there amongst the forsaken. He was the only one that let us have any sleep.” Another long drag, one of his students even came up and tried to take the cigar away, only to have his hand slapped away.

“Back then we thought he was a god, the only thing keeping the forsaken from our throats through sheer power.” He crushed the cigar in his hand, his hand smoking from the embers. The smell of drugs and burning flesh filled the air and made the students leap forward. Just to be stopped by something completely invisible, their arms and throats being squeezed by nothing. “But once the war was over people ridiculed him for his poor mana control, thinking he was nothing less than a soldier!” Derb knew not to back up, unless he wanted to be choked and held down like Walter’s students.

“None of them thought of the fact that if even two measly mages teamed up they’d be able to defeat any of the higher brass in head to head combat! That man could take out entire armies, he was an irreplaceable asset but the fact that an old man on the brink of death could cast a stronger spell than him meant that they looked down at him.” He leaned back, his face red and looking at the sky. “Gerald was the only one that had the balls to go against them. He was a healer for fuck’s sake. I don’t know how he had it in him… Of course I did, even now those bastards are breathing down his neck.” The entire carriage was dead silent, no one would other than an idiot would say anything else.

“Wait, those old people are still alive!? Do they look older than, um, you?” Derb said before covering his mouth, fear had finally settled in and he realized just how much of an idiot for speaking like that. All of a sudden a chuckle sounded off from Walter, as he let go of the students with whatever he was using. “Your teacher really didn’t teach you any manners, did he, boy?” He scratched the back of his head sheepishly, “He uh, tried?” He said moments before an invisible force bashed his head against the wall of the carriage. It was too fast for him to activate anything so his ear tore against the wood, leaving a gross and bloody stain.

He groaned as he slumped against the floor, not failing to notice the empathetic looks of all the students around him. “He didn’t try hard enough, I'll make sure to tell him off when we see each other again,” Walter grumbled, looking more annoyed than angry. Derb felt like he would have been pissed had it not been for the ringing in his head and the spinning carriage. He wanted to vomit but he felt that wouldn’t be the best idea for his current survival. The old man was pissed enough and his equipment looked expensive. “None of… you have a… healing attribute, do you?” He groggily asked as he tried climbing back onto his seat.

No one responded, the students didn’t even dare move. It wasn’t until the old man grumbled under his breath and pulled a vial out of his pocket did anyone dare let out a breath of relief. The man held the red vial to one of the students, who held it out at arm’s length. Walter rolled up his sleeve and grabbed his staff, turning towards Derb with a small smile. “We can’t exactly have you vomiting in the carriage, and stopping would be rude to everyone else.” He placed his wrinkly hand lightly against Derb’s head. As if checking a fever.

“But you clearly need the potion, even if it reeks. So close your eyes and...” That was the last thing Derb heard before his head smashed against the wall, his vision fading away. His eyes opened instantly, feeling extremely refreshed. It almost felt like what happened was a bad dream. Reality set in when he saw he was in an empty carriage. The blood mark on the carriage wall, now two marks, was crusted and dried up. He checked his ear, no longer tattered or ripped apart. It wasn’t even sore. “Holy shit, that potion does some real work.” He muttered, before unlocking the door and getting out of the carriage.

No one was there. All the carriages were left behind, completely empty of all supplies. Why the hell did they just leave him behind? There were even the cold remains of a fire, how long had he been passed out? His stomach growled, it seemed it really had been a long time. He scoured the carriages until he found the remains of a ration packet. Whoever had it must have saved half for later, the poor bastard. While ripping through the food he followed where the groups were heading. It wasn’t too hard, they tore through the foliage and leaves like a tank. It was actually pretty unnerving how some of the leaves were singed black.

The trek was slow, he had to make sure anything that could kill him wouldn’t just pop up behind him from the noise. He didn’t know much about ‘dungeon cores’ but he knew they wouldn’t have hired more than twenty people to go if he could just make it through like a cakewalk. The moment he finished the food he threw the helmet back on, no sense in getting poisoned by some tiny critter without some of that purple stuff in a vial that almost gave him a heart attack.

He heard movement in the brush, suddenly realizing that standing in the middle of a clearing where anything could see him all alone wasn’t a good idea. He activated his rabbit spell, using the lightness to quietly leap from tree to tree. It wasn’t too quiet but he assumed whatever was out there wouldn’t bother chasing him at this speed. The idea was immediately thrown out as some bird-like thing swooped in from above and went for his neck. In the black feathery mess, he could barely see where he was going. The stupid bird managed to get him to miss a branch, falling to the side and falling down, his neck snapping on branches over and over on the way down.

“Aw, goddamnit...” He moaned. His head felt like someone had stuck a screwdriver in his ear. At least the stupid bird wasn’t attacking him anymore. He stood up, feeling a sick squelch come from under him. Guess that’s where the bird went… Rubbing off the blood from his armor he swore he’d kill every damn bird he could when the time came. He took his sword out and ran through the clearing, no longer caring about monsters. He strengthened his lower torso, infusing his armor in dark mana.

Once he felt the link he started storing a good amount of mana in the gauntlets. While he was finishing up he heard the noise of fighting in front of him. He grinned, relieved that he finally caught up to people who would watch his back. He summoned Connor and Jack, no longer scared about them getting cornered by monsters. “Make sure no humans get hurt. This is meant for you Jack, if you kill anyone I'm sending you right back into the void.” He ran along the path until he found the group fighting some disgusting giant 3ft frogs. One tackled a warrior and latched down on its leg, getting killed before it could pierce the boot.

“Go, go, go!” They charged forward, Jack made it first because of his long limbs, picking up a frog and splattering it into the ground, Connor was next, slapping his hands together and blowing fire through the hole, unleashing an arc of flame that burned the monsters. It was actually sort of pretty, too bad he didn’t have time for that. He ran towards the group, surprised that he had to dodge a longsword coming through to his side. “What the hell!? We’re here to help, so put that away! Um, don’t, actually.” The man still held the sword to the front, only pulling it away when the fear went away.

He turned back towards the fray and slashed at the air, keeping frogs back. “Don’t run at me with that giant sword in your hands and looking like that and maybe I won’t be surprised!” Derb jumped in front of him and tore through three frogs with one swing. The cloak twirled through the air as he jumped forward and span horizontally, tearing a frog’s head in half. He fell and stomped on top of one, activating the boar spell to crush its body. The swordsman just stood back, mouth agape at the scene. “Uh, good to have some backup, partner.”

Derb didn’t listen. He was too focused now, the same persistent focus he had when all the stress melted away and he only focused on training. It took ten minutes before the frog swarm was taken down, leaving the men tired and weary. Derb hadn’t felt this good in a while. Killing goblins had been a good rush of energy but they had too little mana to properly sap away. The ogres had crushed him and then died before he could take anything from them as well. He could feel his muscles tense in preparation, nothing could stop him- “What the fuck do you think you’re doing here, brat!”

He dove behind one of the warriors out of pure survival instinct when he heard the voice, his body still responding to the intense mana overflow. He looked back to see Walter and the peacekeepers walking towards him. Well, the peacekeepers were, Walter was stomping towards him as if he was planning to cave his head in, again. “Wait, what did I do wrong? I’m sorry I didn’t stay in the carriage?! Um, I didn't mean to eat that person’s rations?” He backed up more and more, before being frozen in place by the old man’s weird abilities.

“You idiot, if I wanted you to come do you think I would have smashed your head in that hard? How the hell are you even awake!?” He walked over and grabbed Derb’s head with his hands, pulling him down and ripping off his helmet. “No concussion… not even a scrape. Your healing factor is disgusting.” Derb whined every time his long hair was pulled, the old man was actually pretty strong. “Ow, ow, ow...please let go of my hair. I get the whole healing thing a lot, it’s actually feeling more like an insult now, to be honest. Ow!” His hair was yanked down violently again, the old man gritting his teeth in frustration.

“You would have gotten the ranking anyway if you stayed behind, why did you come anyway? If your teacher realizes I got you killed in this fight I'll be in a whole world of trouble.” He was unfrozen while off-balance, bringing him to his knees. “Look around you, everyone here has something to fight for, you don’t. You aren’t even eligible for higher ranks, so why did you come?” Derb stood up, brushing himself off or more specifically, disintegrating the dirt on him with dark mana. He looked around at everyone staring back, looking at him with the same confused face.

“Um, first of all… I didn’t know I wouldn't be getting a higher rank from this. Second, I wouldn't have waited behind even if I did know that. I’m planning to stay in this town for a lot longer and I don't want some frogs to ruin that...” Walter's facepalmed, looking almost older than he did before. “Just like that stupid blacksmith… Don’t listen to him when he says to always do the right thing, boy. It’s good to watch out for yourself.” Derb just laughed, if that was how he saw Deitre then it was obvious he hadn’t talked to him in a while. “Yes, sorry about… I don't really know what to be sorry about. How close are we to the core, anyway?”

The old man gawked for a moment, before sighing and raising a hand. The peacekeeper students lined up behind him and he motioned them to move forward, the rest of the group doing the same. “Don’t worry, we’re almost there. Just.. don’t do anything that I don’t tell you to do, ok?” Like that, the party was off. Almost thirty people aiming to destroy whatever was going on in the forest.