As Serenity appeared in the dungeon, he felt a sudden flash of extreme pain. Something was trying to dissolve a part of him.

Serenity immediately jumped to a conclusion: it was an Event dungeon and they were entering with a specific affiliation. Why hadn’t he realized that they would be equipped appropriately for the affiliation?

The dungeon was trying to replace the armor he was wearing with its own, probably to fit the scenario. Unfortunately, the armor Serenity was wearing was his second form, so when the dungeon tried to remove it from his body, he resisted. The dungeon probably could have simply created armor over his own armor, but it didn’t realize it needed to until there was already a problem.

Serenity guessed what was happening - the pain was only from his second form, after all - and shifted to his Sovereign form, where it would be far less damaging. Since it was an emergency shift that he triggered without taking the time to concentrate, both of his forms shifted.

Being in his Sovereign form twice was very unlike duplicating his other forms. It wasn’t confusing at all; it was exactly like being in his usual Sovereign form except that he was a bit bigger. It was surprisingly comfortable. What it wasn’t was a good shape to use for a dungeon.

Serenity could see where his equipment had fallen to the ground as he shifted, including armor he didn’t recognize. Wonderful.

Even better, he and Rissa weren’t alone in the room; there was a man he didn’t recognize dressed in the same sort of armor Rissa was wearing. Stellar.

The armor was mostly chainmail with a good bit of leather, including under the mail. Serenity knew the chain would be excellent against slashing , while the leather would help against other forms of attack. If it was the right type of leather, it might even help against magic.

He concentrated and pushed himself to shift. Human and sword; that’s what he wanted. It took a moment while both Rissa and the man in the room watched in shock before Serenity landed on his hands and knees on the ground as his hilt clanged against the floor; it was wooden, but that was still enough to make the hilt sing when it hit. “Oof. I don’t think that quite went the way it was supposed to.”

Rissa snickered and the man actually laughed. “I’d hope not. I didn’t think a teleport could strip someone of their clothes, but it looks like it can.”

The man had a giant grin on his face. “You aren’t hurt, are you? I’d hate to send you to the healers when you’ve only just arrived.”

Serenity took a moment to check his physical condition. “No, I’m fine. I apparently need to get dressed, but that’s all.” He looked over the pile; everything he needed was in front of him. It was scattered over a small area, but it all seemed to be within the circular mark on the ground; there was a pattern within the circle, but he’d need to clear it off before he could get a good look. Might as well get started.

“I’d find a new teleporter if I could, but Amiri is actually the best one I’ve been able to find. There isn’t anyone else with her range that’s willing to work for mercenaries.” That seemed to finish his apology, as the man switched to a different topic. “I’m glad you finally made it. Unfortunately, the rest of your unit is already assigned to other tasks; they said something about the two of you being used to working independently?”

Serenity recognized that; the dungeon had tweaked things a little to get it back on script. The rest of the unit being assigned to other tasks probably meant that the scenario was designed to handle a large variability in group size; this would be the first point where they could alter the way it went forward.

Serenity finished tightening the straps that held his armor in place; the leather under-layer was clearly designed to be adjustable to many different physical shapes. It was almost adjusted properly for him, probably because the dungeon had tried to form it in place before he panicked and shifted out of it. “Yes, we are. Small group, rather than army-type engagements. I expected we’d be scouts or messengers.”

Serenity tied the pair of belts around his waist, checking out the weapon-sheaths on both as he went. He’d been provided a set of sheathes on one belt for the knife set and - huh. There was a strange-looking sheath that had to be for his hilt in the place he’d normally have expected to find the sheath for his larger weapon. The dungeon must have adjusted things when he shifted. That was definitely useful; he’d want to have something like this made for both himself and Rissa, just in case. It would be much faster to draw than the tied straps he’d been using.

Not that it mattered unless he was carrying the hilt, and for normal purposes he was happy with wearing the armor instead.

Now that he was fully ready, he glanced at the circle he and Rissa had landed in. It was a close facsimile of a runic teleportation circle, but several of the details were blurred. He tried to remember back to the earliest runes he’d learned; were there similarities there? He thought there might be. Perhaps he simply expected too much precision?

“Scout or messenger? I already know where I want you. There have been some raids along the coast recently; while they’re all small, they feel like probes. You’ll have a pair of horses and a Mist Gate. Your task is to find the raiders and get a report back here in time that we can send reinforcements. The more information you can get on the raiders, the better, but you also need to be fast. You do know how to activate a Mist Gate, don’t you?” The man sounded confident until the last question, where his tone suddenly shifted to worried.

If a Mist Gate was what Serenity thought it was, anyone could use it. Anyone who could adequately control their Mana, at least. Come to think of it, that probably meant that most of the more physical people of Earth couldn’t yet; it was possible that even some Mages couldn’t, if all they had was Path Skills. “Push mana into the Gate object and concentrate on the other end, right?”

The man seemed to relax. “That’s right. You’ll need to set the location for your return gate when you leave, but you’ll be heading out through one of the standard ones. Please, follow me; we’ll get your gear then head to the stables. You do both know how to ride?”

Serenity did, and he knew Rissa had at least been on some trail rides. She wouldn’t be as good as Vengeance had been, but realistically Serenity doubted he was that good either. “Well enough, but before we go, what’s your name?”

The man laughed. “I forgot to ask for yours, as well, didn’t I? I’m Sir Tor; I’m the poor sod tasked with organizing the mercenaries. What are your names?”

To get to where they were going, the two “mercenaries” had to ride down a path that took them off the “island” of Aval. It wasn’t really an island, or at least Serenity didn’t think it was. Instead, it was a high hill that was continually surrounded by fog close to the base. The hill was clearly at least partially man-made; Serenity could see the manaflows that reinforced it, keeping it higher than the surroundings. There were also manaflows in the fog, keeping it nice and dense even when the physical conditions weren’t perfect.

They had to get well into the fog before they reached the Mist Gate they would use to leave. Shortly before they got there, Serenity and Rissa took a short detour off the path to set the Mist Gate Anchor they would use to return, so that they did not have to make it to the closest normal Mist Gate to report in.

Serenity took a good look at the Mist Gate Anchor as he set it. It was one half of a low-Tier teleportation item, with the strong limitation that at least one side of the gate had to be in a mist or fog, the foggier the better. Naturally, they were setting the Anchor into a near-constant fog bank; that gave them flexibility on the other side. If they were able to set the other side up in a fog, it would cost less mana, but that wasn’t particularly significant with Serenity’s reserves. In the dungeon, he had plenty of mana.

The real problem with the Mist Gate they had was that it was a single-use item, and not a cheap one. If this scenario had been real, something like a Mist Gate being used would have meant that either the ruler of Aval was rich or he was very worried about the “raiders”. Probably both. Serenity would keep that in mind as they went through the scenario.

It was simple to establish; he simply set the carved “rock” down and fed mana into it. When it was ready, it was shrouded in a deep mist; that would lighten with time if it wasn’t used from the other end, and in about a month the anchoring effect would be gone and it would have to be recharged. If it were used, of course, it would break and turn back into the soil it was made from when the spell ended.

The other side of the Mist Gate, the piece Rissa would be carrying, looked like little more than a clipping from a vine, including some of the root. That was interesting as well; it indicated that the creator was a Nature-based mage of some sort. Of course, the fact that the Gate depended on the presence of mist already implied something similar.

The “standard” Mist Gate they wanted wasn’t far; they rode through it, then Rissa turned to Serenity. “So. What’s the plan? How are we going to find out where the attackers are? If I remember the timeline right, they aren’t at Effra yet. That’s supposed to be in the morning.”

Serenity frowned. “There were several injured people in the dungeon status; I suspect the others may have triggered something that made the Hessi attack early. Either that or they were injured doing something else; maybe something about the political situation in Effra? Event dungeons can have a lot going on. Either way, I think our best bet is to head towards Effra and try to find the people outside the wall. If we’re lucky, they’re outside because they’re scouts and they can tell us everything we need to know.”

“And if we’re not lucky, we just have to deal with whatever the situation actually is? Seems like we do that a lot, but I guess we really don’t know enough.” Rissa didn’t sound happy.

Serenity smiled. She was used to being able to move in her own time, after completing her research on a company. Sure, maybe she missed some opportunities that way, but she missed a lot more failures. That wasn’t always possible when combat entered the picture; people weren’t willing to wait for their opponent to be ready. Some weren’t even willing to wait for their allies.

You had to work with what you had, and it was nearly always inadequate. It wasn’t an excuse to not try to gather the necessary information, simply a recognition that you couldn’t know everything you wanted. Sometimes you just had to act.

Rissa moved her horse forward a few steps, then halted and turned to face Serenity. “Do you have a plan for how to find them?”

“We have two options. We can either ride forward and let the dungeon guide us to an Event, which could be anything, or we can act like we know what we’re doing and go where they’re likely to be. Which means either near the invaders - or looking for reinforcements.” Serenity knew Rissa wouldn’t like the first one.