Silas bounced on the balls of his feet impatiently for things to get started. The Storms were finally here which meant he could leave running the dungeon to someone else and go back to his wonderfully mundane retirement. Things had been entirely too active recently, assassination plots, rampaging monsters, and all that horrible administrative work. He rubbed his back miserable, running through the forest so quickly had done a number on him a few days later. He was a mage damn it, he wasn’t supposed to be running around like a mad cricket.

The messenger had said that the Storms would be arriving any second now, he didn’t want to be late. Lightly jogging down a street he almost fell flat when a fruit cart pulled out in front of him. He swerved and to the side, “Careful there.”

The cart owner took one look at who she had almost run into and paled. “Sorry about that sire I guess I’m just a little careless this early.” Silas waved the young woman off and continued on his way. The poor girl seemed quite startled for some reason, did he really have that much of a reputation around town? Surely not, he was just the interim leader of the mage guild no need to be scared of him. Maybe it was just the surprise more than anything that had startled her.

He got to the end of the street and paused quickly ducking around a corner to eavesdrop. Vance was standing in front of his parents looking like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. The old mage had to resist snorting in derision, the boy didn’t have anything to be ashamed of, he was doing quite well actually.

“I’m sorry I sent you away so abruptly without talking to you properly Vance, and for making you feel like you had no choice in the matter.” Mathias was talking, looking uncharacteristically sober and serious. “I sent you here because I thought it would be a good experience to fight on your own a little bit. You already have all the basic training you need so I thought a little time away from the Olympus in a small town might help ease the pressure of growing stronger.”

Vance straightened and crossed his arms. “There were better ways to go about that than sending me off with little to no warning Dad. Every thought you were banishing me and I thought so as well.” Good on him, calling out your parents wasn’t always the easiest thing to do, or so he’d been told. Silas nodded his head approvingly from his hiding spot.

“That was never my intention, and I’m sorry it made you feel that way. I will never banish you, Vance, you’re a part of my family now and always, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. As for the other children back in Olympus, we had a chat with them to make sure mistakes like this don’t happen again. Storm magic might be where we get our name, but it will not be what defines us or shapes us in the end.” Angela nodded approvingly off to the side, and Silas smiled like a Cheshire cat as he saw Mathias throw a nervous look over his shoulder.

“Also Vance we want to say that you are welcome to come home with us if you would like. I realize the assassination attempt must have been terrifying for you and we would be happy to have come home. You could keep training in our family’s dungeon and with your father and me.” Angela stepped forward and laid a hand on her son’s shoulder, Mathias on the other hand was keeping a carefully blank face as he heard the offer about training.

Vance looked down for a moment considering, then looked back up at his parents. “Thank you, Mother. I appreciate it but I would like to stay here for a while. I realize this dungeon is better for my early training and besides I don’t want to stop the two of you from dungeon diving too. Grandma is already taking time off to babysit me, that’s all the help I need.”

Mathias nodded appreciatively then froze looking over at his wife, who was still looking at Vance. “That’s very considerate of you Vance, but never feely like you can’t ask us for help. We’re your parents after all we want to help you.”

“Thanks, Mom, I won’t forget. I’ve been having fun here as well. I've made a few friends and I feel like my levels have been coming along nicely.”

“Good, good. Run along now son, we’ve got a talk we need to have with one of our old friends.”

Silas took a deep breath and prepared himself to greet the two nobles before an iron pair of pincers grabbed him around the ear. The unrepentant rogue dragged hopping and screeching out from behind the building when he collapsed in front of the Storms. “Why hello there Angela it seems like you’re doing well, Mathias nice to see you again.” After nodding his head to the two bemused nobles he hopped back to his feet and spun around. “As for you Sophia, that was entirely uncalled for. I was coming out anyway there was no need to drag me.” He crossed his arms channeling all of his old mentor skills to look stern and disappointed.

Sophia burst out laughing at his display and the old mage wilted. “Oh don’t take so personally Silas, it just seemed like you were getting ready to bolt. We need to have a serious conversation here with you now, not in a half an hour.”

“It would not have taken you half an hour to catch me.” The irritating woman smiled unrepentantly as Silas grumbled to himself. “Fine whatever, what did you want to talk about? Is it about the new dungeon lord? Who did you guys pick out? I've got to say I’m glad I’m not you guys. There are not that many nobles around here that I would trust with a dungeon.”

Mathias nodded his head in agreement and smiled a bit too broadly at the mage for his liking. “You’re absolutely right my friend, there’s not anyone who we trust more than you to take over the dungeon. So we decided you should be the new dungeon lord.”

Silas’s stomach fell out and he started to slowly back away towards the rest of the town as he processed the foul betrayal from his friend’s mouth. “Now I don’t think that’s necessary, what about House Argent? They’re around here somewhere right? Or better yet just take over yourselves. Vance could use some experience, this would be a great place to get some administrative know-how.” The old mage’s slow retreat ended abruptly as he bumped into Sophia. It felt like bumping a solid brick wall and Sophia just grinned up at him as he tried to sneak his way around her.

“Don’t play dumb Silas, you know better than that.” Angela tapped her foot on the ground looking impatient. “We can’t trust house Argent any more than we can trust house Bancroft, the entire area we rule is full of hard lin old nobles. We can’t trust any of them to manage a dungeon responsible, it's bad enough we have to leave them cities at all.”

Silas squirmed under her icy glare before relenting. “Yeah, I guess I have so what though?”

“It means,” said Sophia as she poked him sharply in the back, throwing the old mage forward. “That it's time to put your big boy pants on and evolve already.”

Silas gapped like a fish staring at the assembled Storms in mute horror. “You want me to take over as the dungeon lord? No! No thank you, I still have a few decades left in my vacation, and I’m not going to cut it short.” He crossed his arms doing his best to look stubborn and defiant.

“Oh come on Silas it won’t be that bad. It's not like you’ll have to run everything yourself, that’s what delegation is for.” Mathias encouraged sounding entirely too cheerful and upbeat. “Besides aren’t you getting a little tired of the old man thing? You’re really pushing up against the edge of what a human tier-five lifespan can be. It might be better just to take the plunge now, and not die from a random heart attack so close to the end of your ‘vacation’”

That was reasonable, but he wasn’t quite ready to give in to reason yet. “Can’t you find someone else to do this? I don’t want to deal with all the stuck-up nobles upset about a commoner getting to tier six. They’re so hard not to splatter, it's always the weak and entitled ones that are the most annoying.” He looked pleadingly over at Angela as he spoke.

“You’re not going to get any sympathy from me, Silas. You’ll have to deal with society at some point anyway, better to just get it over with and get used to it.”

“Come on Silas stop being a baby about it and just evolve already.” He glared over his shoulder at a nonchalant Sophia.

“We need your help Silas, we don’t have anyone else we trust with this dungeon. Please could you take charge of it?” Mathias asked gently, and the old mage sighed. He supposed he had waited long enough for this.

“Fine I’ll do but you all owe me. I'm going to take long vacations and go dungeon diving in Olympus.” If he was going to go through with his long-awaited evolution he wanted to start leveling again too.

“Sure you can but you might want to go to a tier six dungeon, you can’t actually level in Olympus.” Mathias lied with a straight face looking right at Silas.

Silas starred right back, not buying any of it. “Don’t play dumb with me Mathias, I know for a certain your dungeon got to tier six. I might have lived in the Styx for the last few decades but I still get mail. Your Dad used to pester the local kings constantly to let him use their tier six dungeons and then suddenly he stopped. Oh my, whatever could have happened, maybe he, I don’t know, now has ready access to his own tier six dungeon?”

“It might not be in Olympus, you don’t know for sure.” The noble protested weekly as he scratched the back of his head.

“Maybe not, but tier six dungeons take time and delvers to develop. You aren’t going to just stubble on them in the wild, so tell me is your dungeon tier six now.” Silas stared down at the older man as he squirmed in discomfort.

“Yes, fine, the Olympus dungeon is tier six now.”

“This is why I liked playing poker with you Mathias, you’re terrible at lying. Thanks for confirming my guess, by the way when are you guys going to apply as an independent kingdom.”

“Quiet about that Silas.” said Angela glaring over at him, “We are trying not to advertise that particular fact. So again keep quiet about it and don’t go shouting it from the rooftops. I highly doubt there are any spies here with the town being so new but you never know, and I would prefer the other kingdoms not to know until we’re ready.” She glared over at empty streets with suspicion, good thing it was a little early for people to be up and about.

"Don't worry about it Angela, there's no way that would happen." Sophia was lounging on a chair she had somehow found with her eyes closed. "Just hurry up Silas we don't have all day here."

“Sorry about that, well I guess I’ll stop delaying then.” Resolutely he opened himself to the system and began his evolution. He had picked out his next class a long time ago, so it was a simple matter to initiate the evolution. Waves of pain rocked his body as he was reformed at his most basic level, and consciousness quickly fled from him as his mind sank into darkness.

A little ways away from the main gate was an inconspicuous lady with a fruit cart. Carefully picking her way further into town, she had been a little reckless sneaking so close to so many people who might detect her but it had been worth it. She would have quite the news to give the next time her superior saw fit to summon her, hopefully, it wouldn’t take too long.