The time in the capital wasn't uneventful while Bones was busy with the dwarves. Just a few days after Bones was kicked out of the dungeon when the time hit zero, a disaster struck the tunnels below Westbrook.

Under Rayne's command, the guild's scout Veeno had entered the tunnels and not long after, encountered the undead. They were told to expect the undead but were still taken by surprise when the undead started crawling out of the walls.

The guild operatives dealt with a small group of the undead with haste and continued down the tunnel. They encountered the undead in small groups every few hundreds of meters until they reached the storage sort of chamber. There, they've found siege and monster hunting weapons among other objects, such as large spherical containers with faded markings inscribed on them.

Veeno observed the chamber but ordered his men not to enter. They were not there to inspect the functionality of such old weaponry. He noted their findings in the small booklet he carried with him and promised to return with the detection tools required to properly test if the weapons were still operational.

Veeno and his men continued through the tunnel and were ambushed by another group of the undead, just five hundred meters away from the chamber. The new undead group was larger than any previous group and surrounded the team.

In the midst of battle, a far away explosion rocked the tunnels. The loud noise, followed by the shaking of the ground, was enough to distract the group and they suffered first casualties. Veeno panicked, but years of training kicked in and he ordered his men to retreat and search for support beams for cover. One of the men spotted some in the distance and they rushed forward, avoiding attacks and ignoring the undead who couldn't be bothered by trifling things like cave-ins.

The tunnel kept shaking and rumbling and before the group reached the support beams, the whole area caved in.

An hour before the cave-in…

Roselyn was pissed off. First, the guild operatives under Rayne went to the tunnels behind her back and now she was ordered to seize and detain them, and continue to search for some low level undead! Her? A gold ranker had to deal with such low level bullshit?! Second, she was in a dusty tunnel with a group of incompetent men, following after some scout named Veeno. She followed the traces of battle, bones and footprints.

They reached the chamber that appeared to be a storage unit for weapons, she guessed? She peeked inside from a distance while ordering her men to go in and search for anything remotely useful. It would do her good in the report, if she was to find the siege weapons still operational.

"What's that? Some sort of spherical container…"

She heard chatter coming from the two men searching inside. She approached to see what the commotion was about and saw two idiots trying to lift a mana bomb. Her eyes went wide and she screamed for them to stop! Of course, the two men stopped and dropped the mana bomb that activated when it hit the ground. The bomb detonated and caused a chain reaction, detonating other mana bombs. Roselyn was the only one that managed to react in time and with the speed of a gold ranker, she escaped most of the blast. Her whole party was wiped out and she bolted out of the tunnel before it collapsed on itself. She watched as the entrance caved-in and swore. "Fuck..."

It took a whole day to sort out the casualties and the damages done by the explosion. Roselyn had minor injuries, proving just how strong the blast was and how resilient the tempered body of a gold ranker is. She wrote and sent the report to the capital by midnight.

Within hours, the report of the incident reached the Adventurer Guild in the capital and by morning, it reached the ears of a certain individual. The whole floor, where Rayne’s office was, was covered in frost in seconds. Rayne forced the frozen door open and they shattered into pieces. His face was icy and his blue eyes mesmerizing. He strolled through the hallway and down the building. The whole guild became alerted at the sudden explosion of icy aura that swept through the floor. Numerous guild operatives were running around, trying to make sense of the situation. As Rayne left the building, so did ice melt and dissipate.

"Rayne...where are you going?" Belle asked, after silently following from behind. He turned to her and she shivered, seeing his stone cold expression. "Westbrook, I'll meet you there." Before she could reply, Rayne disappeared, leaving an icy trail behind him.

The report by Roselyn was unacceptable by many in the bureau but Gustav, who deemed it necessary to voice his opinion on the matter. "It is a shame an accident happened but it was exactly that, an accident! Unfortunately, many died, yes, but collateral damage was expected in our line of work!" The other members of the bureau didn't share his opinion, knowing full well that the men that died were Rayne's men and he was known to have quite the temper. Gustav knew that as well and had the report be delivered to Rayne's office immediately! What are you going to do now? Pesky little fly…

As expected, Rayne had a reaction and soon the news of him leaving the guild in distress reached Gustav's ears. He grinned from ear to ear and his shifty eyes gleamed with satisfaction.

Rayne reached Westbrook in only a few hours and before the night fell, he was standing in front of the guild's building. He entered and, by empowering his voice, ordered everyone to leave the guild immediately. People were startled by the sudden daunting pressure and only scurried away when he infused and spread his icy aura throughout the guild. The whole main hall was covered in frost and only the hurried footsteps on someone on the top floor could be heard. Roselyn stepped up and looked down over the rails from the top floor. "What the hell do you think you're doing in MY guild?"

Rayne looked up and she flinched. She was older than him and more experienced, but she knew the old man, the guild leader, didn't take Rayne on as a pupil just on a whim. She clenched her teeth and uttered. "It was an accident! Just collateral damage! it's not MY fault they weren't fast enough to escape. That's all!"

This time, it was Rayne who flinched. "ICE AGE". He shouted his signature skill and permafrost covered the whole building, shattering windows and the cluster of giant ice shards formed from the ground and the walls of the building. Rayne focused on ice shards. They grew in size and suddenly accelerated toward Roselyn. She evaded the shards unscathed but Rayne swiftly intercepted her, grabbed her by the collar and threw her out the window. She crash landed and looked up as Rayne was looking down at her through the broken window. "You son of a -

*swish swish swish* A barrage of ice spears flying her way shut her up mid-sentence. She dodged the projectiles and, enraged, flew up to meet Rayne. Thunderous blows were exchanged and surroundings were more damaged than during the undead attack. The exchange didn't last very long, only a few minutes, but those few minutes devastated the guild's building, the square and the area surrounding the square. Including the small coffee shop at the ground floor of the hotel. By the time Belle arrived, it was all over.

She found Rayne with a metal needle-like object sticking out of his chest. In his hand he held the gold ranker, Roselyn, by the neck. She was unconscious and held slightly above the ground. "It would be so easy to snap her wretched neck…"

"I know Rayne, but you can’t do that!" Belle said sheepishly.

"Why? Why can't I?" He replied back.

She paused for a moment before simply saying, "Silva".

Rayne dropped the gold ranker on the ground and turned to Belle. "It was my fault, I sent him there."

"I know. Don't make the same mistake twice then." It was straightforward, but Rayne needed to acknowledge his mistakes, not deny them. He nodded and motioned for them to leave. There would be consequences for his actions and they came the very next day.

With his master absent from the guild and the rash actions he took against the branch guild leader Roselyn, Rayne was expelled from the adventurer guild in the kingdom of Wezar. Meaning, he could still apply to join the adventurer guild somewhere else, just not in this kingdom, ever again.

Rayne turned his badge in and left the guild. Belle wanted to follow but he explicitly forbade her to! Being part of the adventurers guild would be good for her and necessary if she wanted to succeed along her path. Almost anyone known, was at some point in their life a well known adventurer. And if Belle wanted to be a renown adventurer, and Rayne knew she did, she couldn't afford herself to be further involved in his mess.

Even the help he received until now, was on the borderline of what he allowed. Besides, they were both the mentor and the pupil and they both belonged to the renowned guild. One of the three major guilds in the kingdom, led by none other than the prince and the son of the king. A third tier gold rank adventurer and the acting leader in the king's absence, prince Tristan.

Rayne's quest for vengeance was only fueled more now that he wasn't shackled by the morality of the guild anymore. He could and would, operate more secretly and by more unsavory means.

Speaking of the object of Rayne's vengeance, Silva wondered if Bones would be coming back at all. He was a patient man, but not as patient, and Bones had what he wanted!

"It's strange to see you worried. It doesn't happen often." Tivaara pointed out.

Silva looked at her across the table and downed his drink. "I'm not worried. *cough cough* Not in the slightest!"

There wasn't much going on these days in the tavern. Silva did most of his business underground, Tivaara would leave somewhere to do her business and Solin spent his days training and battling in the arena. Same things they always did and the not-at-all forgotten necromancer was bedridden but still alive and refusing to die. Silva did mention needing to start making preparations for the upcoming festival!

On one of the higher floors of the adventurer guild, two figures were meeting up secretly. One had a sickly skin, a crooked nose with shifty eyes and a narrow face. The kind of face that would make people vomit after seeing. That figure was Gustav and the other one was the necromancer Varia.

"Varia!" Gustav cheerfully greeted. "As per your request, I have prevented the information leak on an adventurer named Bones. When will I meet this Silva you spoke of?"

"I told you not to send messages within the guild! Have you lost your mind?" Berated Varia, ignoring what Gustav said and asked.

"Relax, I got rid of the annoying fly that's been snooping around" Gustav replied, feeling smug and referring to Rayne.

"Haaaah, I think your position within the guild has gotten to your head. Listen dipshit -

" You can't talk to me th-

"SHUT.THE FUCK.UP!" Varia shouted at the top of his lungs.

Gustav swallowed his saliva, hard and remained docile. Varia watched as the man averted his gaze and snorted. "Rayne was never the problem. He could search deep and never find what he was looking for. If we wanted to get rid of him, we would've already done so. Do you know why we let him do as he pleases? Don't answer." Varia waved his hand dismissively. "It's because he was easier to track and watch out for when he was in the adventurer guild, but now that he is back in his guild? The same guild led by Tristan, the prince of this forsaken kingdom?" Varia shook his head. "What you did was unnecessary and could make things difficult for us in the future! From now on, only do what you've been told to do! Understand?"

Gustav clenched his teeth and nodded.

"One more blunder like this one and I'll fucking kill you!"

After Rayne got expelled, Belle spent her time in the dungeon of Hagos. With more free time on her hands, she could focus more time on becoming stronger. If not for her, then for Rayne and his vengeance. She would be the instrument of his vengeance!...she declared.

Rayne used his connections with prince Tristan to search for any information on the movements of the Hounds, however, every attempt ended up a failure. With every failure, he gained a new piece of the puzzle and the few pieces he collected, pointed to someone pulling the strings behind the group. He knew it had to be someone very well connected, either someone from the royal palace or someone within the adventurers guild. Regardless, he had hit a snag and his momentum, after the fiasco with Guntar, was stopped momentarily. Given the recent events, he decided to spend his time with his master while also preparing to climb the upper floors of the Hagos dungeon.

Guntar and Trevak were long gone, with no traces left behind as to where they disappeared to.