The Wandering Horizons party was first formed almost two decades ago when Kai Son of Ahiga and Norah Bladetooth met during their Adventure Guild Basic Training. Kai had been eager to prove himself a capable successor to his father, in his mind the very best the local Guild Chapter had ever produced. Norah craved a chance to force everyone to recognize her greatness. To spread word of the “might of a warrior of the sea”.

For months the two had competed for the top spot in their class. Kai would prove himself during a test of knowledge only for Norah to amaze their instructors with her magic. Norah would perfectly track a monster through miles of forest only for Kai to defeat her in their melee combat matches. The two hated each other. Right up until their combat instructor decided to start implementing team exercises.

Kai was too cautious. He wanted the perfect moment to act. For his plan to be prepared and every possible outcome known. Norah was too impulsive. She would charge in without a plan and rely on her talent to keep herself alive. It played out again and again when they competed against each other. If Norah could take Kai off guard with an unexpected strategy he would quickly fall into disorganization and she would crush him. If she ever tried a strategy a second time, or one that was too obvious, he would perfectly counter and she would be defeated in moments.

Then they worked together once. It ended in absolute disaster. The two butted heads on everything, right up until the very last minute of preparation. They failed the assignment, a monster hunt of a creature their instructors knew either one could have otherwise beaten without issue. As punishment for their bickering, and in an effort to help them address their individual weaknesses, the combat instructor forced them to permanently pair together.

The two that had previously been the top of the class quickly found themselves struggling with every challenge the instructor pitted against them. They couldn’t even complete a simple mission to collect herbs without breaking down into arguments about where to go or what places had already been searched. They weren’t fools though. Each saw their rival say things that were correct. Each was proven wrong. Each learned and improved.

Eventually they even talked without fighting.

The two learned they had much in common. Family members who had distinguished themselves and that each of them strove to meet the expectations of. A home where they were happy, but bored. Talent that meant they had rarely encountered difficulties and never been forced to confront the fact they may be wrong. A deep urge to see what the wider world held for them.

They graduated top of their class only a month and a half later. Fresh F+ rank adventurers, the two decided that the first thing they wanted to do was leave their coastal city and explore something new. One of the Termenos deep cities, or an Helfaran ruin. The destination wasn’t important to them, only that it was different and that they went together. Thus, the Wandering Horizons party was created.

#

Three years later, freshly promoted to E- rank, the two ran into Ananya. Talk and dusky skinned, with long, gorgeous locks of wavy black hair, Ananya lived a comfortable life as the daughter of the local armor smith. She was known as a wild child, as happy and comfortable running through the woods as she was in a new dress, arranging flowers for Omanash.

Norah knew she wanted Ananya on their team the first time she laid eyes on the girl, high in a tree enjoying the fruit her hard work had won. Her instincts told Norah that Ananya was the perfect addition to their budding team. Kai disagreed. She wasn’t even an adventurer and they had no idea if she wanted to be one. They knew nothing about her and they couldn’t afford to spend years training her.

Ananya herself was the one that broke their argument, learning that an unknown Cetros woman had been asking about her. When Ananya heard Norah say that she believed Ananya could be great, Ananya could not help but imagine herself leaving the hometown she had spent her entire life trapped within. Ananya had been born in Kirtipa, and she had always imagined herself living, growing old, and dying in Kirtipa. Now this stranger was offering a way out, something she had never even considered. It was a future that sounded far too wonderful to ignore.

Together Norah and Ananya convinced Kai to give her three months to train and prove herself. It was the longest Kai and Norah had stayed in one place since they formed Wander Horizons, but both were willing to ignore their wanderlust to see what Ananya was capable of.

Ananya was entirely untaught in combat. She had never had to fight in her life and it showed. What she did have to offer though, was incredible skill and knowledge in smithing that she had learned from her father. She was far superior than either of them at the maintenance and care of their equipment.

She was also, to Kai’s shock and Norah’s vindication, a capable practitioner of her Advanced Magic. She had inherited her father’s connection to Metal Magic and quickly proven herself a natural with its use. Her father had only ever used it to enhance his forging. Maybe move bars of unworked material from one side of the forge to the other. Ananya molded it like an artist sculpted clay. She could easily shift the material from shape to shape, something most with her magic type found difficult. They said the metal was stubborn, unwilling to change without good reason. Ananya would say they just didn’t know how to speak to it properly.

#

Ananya’s father and mother had been terrified when they had first heard what the strangers were offering their daughter. Later, they wept at the thought of her leaving when Kai told them he wished to invite Ananya into the Wander Horizons. Throughout it all though, they were so proud that their little girl was so special. That she would have her opportunity to grow beyond anything either of them had imagined.

They threw her a party the night before she left, one where the entire village came out and celebrated her future. As a going away present her mother gave her a beautiful salwar kameez of seafoam green with golden flowers patterning the edges. The long-sleeved dress split down the front and revealed pants of the same color under the skirt, specially tailored to give Ananya the freedom of movement she would need in her new life. Her mother had made it herself, spending the last month of Ananya’s training perfecting the dress as a keepsake to her daughter. She even used some of her hard-earned Evolution Points to enchant the finished dress, a last line of defense for her precious child.

Ananya’s father gifted her a tower shield. The greatest shield he had ever produced, created from materials he could only procure using the System’s shop. He wanted to gift her something that would keep her safe, but that was also a reliable tool in her new life.

Ananya accepted the gifts with tears in her eyes, promising to make her parents proud.

#

Djimon had been an orphan before Norah found him. When the priestess had introduced them, she had laughed and told him, “Preistess, you said his name is pronounced ‘Jai-mun’? What a strong name for such a powerful young hero. Truly a beautiful name, wear it well young Djimon.”

It was one of the nicest things anyone had ever said to him. Desperate to prove himself to Norah, he had sought her out. He was sixteen at the time, too old to dream of adoption. Old enough to worry about his future. In Norah he saw an opportunity. A chance to leave this place full of people who had cared for him but never wanted him. Of places that had grudgingly accepted him.

When he eventually found the hotel that Wandering Horizons had chosen for their stay, it was not Norah that he found waiting for him. Instead, when he snuck his way in through an open window, it was Kai who sat waiting for him in a chair on the other side. The man had easily incapacitated the boy, tying him down and asking Djimon why he had decided to rob Kai’s party. Djimon could hardly blame him for the misconception, but he tried desperately to explain himself.

He wanted to know more about this mysterious woman who had shown up in robes blue and white like the ocean waves Djimon had heard about. A woman who the priests and priestesses in the small temple he called home treated with the utmost respect. He sought to learn what he could do to improve her opinion of him. When he had asked if Norah was some wandering sage or prophet, Kai had laughed so hard it had only ended when the desperate gasping breaths Kai took could no longer keep up with the oxygen Kai’s body demanded.

Kai had released him after that, saying that even if his story was made up he deserved freedom for such an incredibly joke. That had rankled Djimon’s pride, refusing to allow this unknown man to continue to spit on the image of the woman who had shown him such kindness. He had almost done something stupid, something that would have probably ended with him tied up on the floor again, when Norah had appeared from around a corner and smacked Kai on the back of the head for “bullying children”.

In the end, they had offered Djimon the same deal they had given Ananya a year and a half prior. Three months to train with them and prove he could be of worth to the Wandering Horizons. Ananya herself had taken great pleasure in being on the opposite side of the sparing for once, easily trouncing Djimon in every confrontation.

Rather than in the middle of a fight, Djimon found his calling slipping around the edges. Picking out weakness and distraction and capitalizing on the moment. While Ananya had benefited greatly from Kai’s lessons on planning and preparation, Djimon found his strength in Norah’s style of instinct and unpredictability.

Outside of combat, he quickly became a highly capable tracker and hunter. Years of forced quiet and stillness while living at the temple helped him as he trained to be the perfect unseen observer. He found he liked the outdoors, far more comfortable there than he had ever expected after growing up in an Oasis City. He foresaw a day when he could be the unseen hunter. The hidden eyes on the enemies of his new family.

On the day he left the temple, the priestess presented him with a sturdy pair of boots and a hand sewn cloak for his journey. The cloak was a dark grey, near black, with darker swirls patterning the fabric. The sister had always believed Djimon would do great things in his future and was proud of him, asking that he write her at least once a year to let her know he was alright.

He did.

#

It was almost four years before the last member of the Wandering Horizons joined up. Freshly promoted to E rank, Kai wished to officially take on an apprentice. Ananya and Djimon were both capable students, but neither followed his path. Nor did either share his element, preferences, or temperament. Kai wished to find someone who he could train to be better than him in every way given time.

He spent two years on his search for the perfect student. While many in the areas he searched saw his prospective students as hopeless, incapable of meeting the rigors the adventuring life required because they had not grown up with the proper instruction, Kai saw them as a well of untapped potential. The elitism that his fellows displayed was not entirely unfounded. Fewer than fifty percent of individuals who did not receive training before twenty ever advanced beyond the F rank. Those that managed it were mostly those willing to set aside their pride and admit that they had reached the limit of what they could do alone.

Worse than that, the local “career family” adventurers often worked to prevent those under twenty from receiving quality training. Afraid their young scions and prodigies would be overshadowed by ‘nobodies lacking the proper backing’. Those that truly believed this where only a vocal minority, but their voice was far reaching without any families willing to take on the sole financial responsibility for training these raw recruits.

Knowing all this, if fell on the shoulders of a small handful of adventurers that were both willing and capable of training young recruits to pull the diamonds from the rough. He met hundreds of young Adventurer Guild recruits. Dozens of parents seeking to give their children the tutelage they would need to become successful adventurers. While no great power, he was a highly desired teacher for any youth without a family history to draw on for knowledge and training.

Then he met Emiko, a seventeen-year-old F rank adventurer freshly out of her basic training. The girl had finished middle of her class, unable to compete with the students that had hundreds of hours of experience thanks to their families. Her instructors had said she was bright, resourceful, and a good student. They noted that it was unfortunate she had not been given the opportunity to establish a proper foundation, or she would likely have hit C rank before she retired. With how things had turned out, they expected her to hit her limit at E.

Curiosity piqued, Kai decided to set up a meeting with her. She was everything he was looking for. A fire mage with notable foresight, highly capable when it came to analyzing the abilities of her opponents or the dangers of a challenge and formulating the perfect plan to deal with it. She had no experience with a sword, but that was alright. His student didn’t have to be exactly like him, just capable of surpassing him. His own master had preferred a bow after all.

Emiko had been suspicious at first, unsure what a career family adventurer would want with her. It took him almost two months to convince her he was serious with his offer. That he really did want to take her as far as her talents could get her. That it wasn’t all some cruel prank.

Her mother, a retired F+ rank adventurer, had given Kai her blessing and they left not a week later. Emiko took her mother’s hairpin and a charm her father had carried every day while he was still alive. She promised that when she returned, she would be the equal of every spoiled, pompous brat that had outperformed her in basic training. Within five years she would be.

#

The Wandering Horizons grew quickly with Emiko added to their ranks. They became a respected young party, believed to have a bright future. More than one branch of the Adventurer’s Guild attempted to tempt the party into becoming a more permanent fixture of their Guild Hall. Each Guild Master and Branch Head was disappointed when they were inevitably turned down. The Wandering Horizons never lost sight of their groups greatest wish: to see everything the world had to offer.

Over the course of a decade of travel as a full party, the group visited more than a dozen nations across two continents. They experienced deserts, island paradises, jungles, and ice fields. Ancient cities fallen to ruin, untouched wilderness, and modern marvels of magic and engineering. They traveled using everything from common trade caravans to ancient teleport gates to state of the art flying ships. All of that only fed their wanderlust, making them wish to discover even more.

On the eleventh anniversary of becoming a complete party, Norah and Kai broke into the D ranks when the Guild took note of a spree of perfectly handled jobs the Wandering Horizons had taken. They were promoted by virtue of meritorious accomplishments above and beyond their assigned ranks rather than the more common Advancement Tests. Their new ranking meant Norah and Kai were considered powerhouses in their own right, in the top half of all adventurers. Most of them years Norah or Kai’s seniors. Their party, in turn, was promoted to E+ rank.

That wasn’t enough for Kai, though. He believed they could push Wandering Horizon’s assigned categorization into the D ranks within a year or two. An achievement that would launch their group’s reputation sky high. They would go from being known as a capable young party with a bright future to a talented party of exceptional skill.

With that in mind, he began plotting the route the group would follow over the next year and a half. He planned for the party to conquer four dungeons at the D+ rank, each noted by the locals as being challenging and capable of pushing any party of the same rank that decided to enter. After their self-imposed gauntlet, they would apply with the guild for an Advancement Test. Kai even believed he knew the perfect dungeon for them to be tested in, Serpents’ Cave. A complex maze of underground tunnels overgrown with roots and vines that was home to large numbers of serpentine monsters.

When Kai brought his plan to the rest of the party, he was met by doubt. Djimon, Ananya, and Emiko all believed that the party had only accomplished as much as they had due to Norah and Kai’s capabilities. That the rest of them were there simply to support those two. If the two of them, there aces, were D- Rank, how could the party as a whole hope to match up? They believed such a feat was hopeless right up until Norah made her opinion known.

Norah firmly believed that even if each of the other three had simply started off as their trainees, they had long since moved past such a status. They may not have been as accomplished as Kai and Norah, but they had proven themselves capable companions. She agreed they could manage Kai’s vision if they pushed themselves hard enough. Their party had always been greater than the sum of its parts because all of them were intimately familiar with each other’s fighting style in a vast range of circumstances.

Norah argued that the three junior members of the party had never had the same level of exposure to the wider adventurer lifestyle, but most parties were far more specialized and far less close. It was rare for an adventurer team to stay together longer than four or five years, with comradery breaking down when they inevitably advanced at differing rates. Their party was different.

Each member of the party had joined at the very beginning of their journey. They hadn’t simply formed a party that covered each other’s weakness, they had purposefully grown themselves to cover any gap in the party’s abilities. It made them far more cohesive and far more capable as a group than most could compete with. It was the sort of party that made up the very best in the guild. The three of them did not cover for Norah and Kai’s weaknesses, they added their own strengths. Their contributions were what made Wandering Horizon great, rather than just good.

There wasn’t much that the other three could say after that. They agreed to the plan and had a night of feasting and drinking to celebrate. Then next day they set out to enact Kai’s grand plan.

#

The first three dungeons went without a hitch. Each was a challenge, but one just within their ability to handle. They grew and adapted, becoming even better than they had been. These dungeons were the absolute limit of difficulty that E+ could be, and by the end of each they had proven themselves capable of handling anything the dungeon could challenge them with.

The Ice Flows was a dungeon full of blizzards and half frozen rivers dividing large swathes of snow filled tundra. While the monsters were a little weak for a dungeon of its rank, survival in such a habitat was incredibly difficult. Most adventurers avoided the place because it offered no rewards or challenges that could be directly faced, only unforgiving wind and frozen ice determined to leech the heat from its victims and leave them frozen husks buried in its drifts. The environment was easily the equal of most D rank dungeons, helping them learn to deal with indirect dangers.

In comparison, the Slaughter Pits was the exact opposite. An array of simple canyons and pits filled with clear streams and edible plants. With the mild climate and comfortable breeze that filled the dungeon, it would have made an idyllic resting place. If not for the vast hordes of monsters that called the place home. Each monster individually was fairly weak, but their sheer numbers made it hard to ever have a chance to recover. Very similar to how a D rank dungeon may deploy its soldiers.

The third dungeon had been a Boss Rush dungeon. The Crystal Caverns was the smallest dungeon they challenged during their push for D rank, only fifteen chambers in total. The first was the entrance and the last was the reward chamber. The other thirteen were earth and crystalline monsters of increasing difficulty that could have each served as a final boss in most other dungeons of the same rank. The final boss was even pushing at the edge of the E rankings, a Diamondscale Behemoth. The beast would have been the match of weaker D- rank monsters, but lacked the intelligence those at a higher ranking might display.

The party proved themselves throughout each challenge, matching and exceeding even Kai’s demanding expectations. Standards most would have considered sadistic and unfathomable. He and Norah could barely express the amount of pride the two had for their younger companions. Companions who were certain to earn advancements of their own in Serpents’ Cave.

#

The final dungeon in their gauntlet was Archimedes’ Labyrinth. The Dungeon was noted for being a step above even any of the dungeons they had challenged previously, with many fresh D rank parties using it to hone their skills. Because of the high difficulty of the place and its predilection for traps, the dungeon should have suffered in popularity. Instead, the dungeon was a popular location for lower ranked adventurers as well. The outer area of the dungeon, before entrance into the mountain, barely broke into the E rank and offered above average rewards. All resulting in the outer limits of the dungeon being a popular hunting grounds for new E rankers. The place was, in many ways, considered an ideal dungeon.

Or it should have been. Instead, when they had arrived in the area, the local guild, local being a relative term since the closest city was almost three weeks journey away, had requested their assistance with Archimedes’ Labyrinth. According to the Branch Head, adventurers had been noting a number of stronger monsters appearing in the outer maze of the dungeon.

With the increased danger, the dungeons popularity was down and the guild was dealing with large numbers of unoccupied adventurers. Unoccupied, annoyed adventurers unhappy they wasted a trip. They needed someone to go into the dungeon and investigate the changes. To make a determination for if the dungeon needed to be reassessed for difficulty.

The Republic of Chrix was not known for attracting or retaining particularly powerful individuals, besides those hired as guards for the various families in charge of the nation’s mining operations. In fact, the Wandering Horizons were the strongest party that had passed through in almost a year. There were no less than a dozen individuals in the city who might be able to accomplish the same goal, but each of them would be uninterested in the amount of gold the guild was offering for the reconnaissance.

The Wandering Horizons, already planning to conquer Archimedes’ Labyrinth, agreed.