Linden was pretty excited. A few weeks ago, He joined Nepizze’s team, and the time of their journey was drawing near.

He wiped his rifle, and checked its functions again. It wasn’t technically necessary, since this thing wouldn’t rust no matter what, and the black powder fouling didn’t stick to the smooth, metal surface.

It was a breechloader, single shot, with incredibly smooth action. Apparently, it was because the firearm was, in fact, a relic.

That confused Linden quite a bit. Why the heck would there be something like that just laying around, right?

Amade, his new teammate and a blue key explained fairly quickly, without even being asked.

‘Okay, you’ve got low and high grade relics, right? Well, as you might’ve noticed, ‘low grade’ is quite a broad term. The thing is, this rifle here is also a relic, but it wasn’t a firearm when it was found. A processed artifact, if you will. It was made in modern times, by modern craftsman, but using materials obtainable only through our means.’

Linden was pretty sure he meant exploration.

‘And if you were to, for example, drop it somewhere to be found by other explorers a few years from now, it would be legally recognized as a relic, and treated as such by any relevant organization. Oh, but don’t do that. This thing is as expensive as a house.’

Yup, Ed wouldn’t be dropping his new gun any time soon. When he asked for an actual price, his jaw dropped, and he vowed to take care of it well, even if maintenance was unnecessary.

And the costly ass rifle wasn’t the only thing he got.

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Once again, Amade made himself helpful be sitting down, and pointing out whatever he thought Linden should ditch from his backpack, or buy.

‘I understand a bit of smelling salts, but why do you have bleach? I’m gonna be straight with you, cleaning your wounds with it will be unnecessary with how much better normal disinfectants are. Also, you’ll need a helmet, and a harness. How do you feel with wearing equipment taken from a dead body?’

By shaking his head, Linden assured Amadeu he had no problems with inheriting anything as long as no part of the original owner’s corpse remains on the equipment.

‘Alright, is there anything you want to ask me?’

Linden whipped out the note from way back when he woke up in the cave.

‘Sure, I found something like that a while back. What do you make of this?”

The blue key explorer took the note, reading it, then bending the paper, and even biting the corner, his face getting brighter and brighter.

“Boy, you are in luck! That here is your promotion to a yellow key. This seems to be a dying message from the deluge period, and that was like, three thousand years ago. We still don’t know what it actually was, but historians are pretty sure it was basically a maelodor storm so great, it devastated the continent, destroying the great civilization that reigned half of it. Some of them are convinced it’s a phenomenon that comes in cycles, and will repeat sooner or later. As such, this thing has archeological significance, and the guild will reward you for it.”

“What do I do to get it appraised?”

“Just go to the archives and tell them you want to deposit a documentation relic from the deluge period. Be sure to refer to the guild as ‘Academy’. They should give you a yellow key lightning fast. After all, it costs them nothing to promote you.”

“What’s up with the ‘Academy’ thing? It’s the guild, no?”

“Yes. And no. Story time. A long time ago, The organization you and I are part of, was called ‘The Wayfaring Academy’. Its goal was accumulating knowledge, and spreading it. Sounds wonderful? Sure, but there was a problem. Everyone needs to pay their bills somehow, and people who can afford to risk their lives just for curiosity are very rare. That's why, the organization changed its profile slightly, making it easier for wayfarers to earn money, so that drawing in people would become easier. The names changed from ‘Academy’ and ‘Wayfarers’ to the ‘Explorer’s guild’ we know today, because the top brass wanted to advertise the money earning side of exploration. It was a success, and our guild can throw its weight around even in foreign countries." "But, of course, there are still those who want our ‘Past Scholarly glory’ back, and most of them work at the archives.”

“So your advice is to basically butter up to the archivists?”

“It’s called ‘wisdom of social interactions’, but yes. Go now, and you might get it done today.”

Amadeu practically pushed Linden towards the door. He was convincing, so Linden set out for the archives. After a few weeks in the Town of Promise, he could get there without a guide.

Once he entered the archives, he met with an old man in glasses so heavy, they could probably double as armor.

Linden greeted the man, and did exactly as he was instructed, immediately gaining affection of the archivist. His yellow key was ready in a few moments, but Linden stayed to listen to the man talking about the deluge, political matters and his great days as an explorer for about an hour and a half.

So yeah, they pretty much became friends.

“Well, ya prolly want ta celebrate, no, young man? Oh, right, yer finders’ fee. Too youn ta drink ya may be, but I bet ya have better ways ta spend time right after a promotion than listen to an old guy, no? Go and have some fun!”

Linden assured the man that listening to him talking had been quite worth it.

In return, he was sent off with money, a smile, and satisfied grumblings about ‘Polite children’ accompanying his footsteps.

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“These, you see, are the flash orbs, otherwise known as “Ah, my eyes!”. Two of those here store light, and release a flash upon impact, while this third one does the same, but you can charge it by heating it up, which makes it much more useful for long delves into places with no light.”

Te flash orbs were round, the size of a chicken egg, and looked quite worn out.

“Can I charge it up with just body heat?”

“Yes, but it takes a few days. Luckily, it has no problems with being chugged straight into fire, but you have to be careful with it while it’s cooling off. Also, They are expensive, so don’t lose them.”

That seemed to be a reoccurring theme. His new group didn’t hesitate to invest money in Linden’s equipment, nor to put time and effort into his education.

“Is there a way to make them explode, just in case?”

“Yeah, there is, but most people just use the blast orbs. Those explode upon impact. I won’t give you any until I’m sure you can tell them apart though. They look so similar, that once upon a time, some books described blast orbs as simply defective flash orbs, and advised to either always use flash orbs like they could explode, or suck it up and accept the risks. A lot of people ended up wiping their asses with their elbows.”

Huh.

“Are the blast orbs multi use?”

“Only high grade ones. But enough, you aren’t gonna use them any time soon anyway, and we still didn’t go over everything you actually need right now.”

Amadeu pulled out another piece of gear. “This here is your new helmet. As you can see, there is a light mounted on it. This protrusion here acts kind of like a spring loaded timer. Turn it clockwise, and the light will glow until the protrusion returns to the starting position.”

The hard hat was grayish brown, with an uneven brim.

“What’s this loop for?”

“The previous owner used to stick feathers and flowers in there. Next, the harness. It had some changes done, since your ass is unusually small. You put the rope through here, and here. Should prevent you from killing yourself during any ascents or descents.”

“Do I lock it like this?” Ed decided he wanted to make sure before trying it out and falling from a cliff or something.

“Wrong. The other way around.”

‘Oh. Good thing I asked.’

The explanations continued, Amade showing the patience worthy of a mother hen.