Guild Master Voight didn’t seem dangerous. In fact, I couldn’t get a read off him at all — he could be anywhere between Level one or ten, for all I could tell. He sat behind his desk, calmly finishing his paperwork, while I waited. At least my chair was comfortable. I occupied myself by examining the books lining the walls of his office.

I could actually read the titles from here, thanks to my improved senses, but I didn’t really need to, as just the thought that I would like to know what the book was triggered [Identify]

[Identification]: - Bound Leather Guild Reports (Wrathbone Dungeon AR 15-21) - Quality: Good

[Identification]: - Bound Leather Guild Reports (Wrathbone Dungeon AR 22-29) - Quality: Good

I flicked my eyes around the room. That was a lot of reports. They may not have been the most interesting read, but the number of them edged out the pathetic library we had in Talnier.

I returned my attention to Voight, trying again to get a sense of his Level. He had to have a pretty high Level to head the adventurers, right? But he just appeared to be an ordinary elderly man, of average size, with a little extra weight on him.

Checking with [Mana Sight] didn’t reveal much either. I tried to decide if I wanted to cast [Dispel Illusion]. He probably couldn’t detect my cast — especially since he wasn’t currently looking at me. I decided to risk it.

[Dispel Illusion]

No result. No mysterious mana conduits leading off to nowhere. That was… good? If there had been one — or more— that would have been bad, so I was tentatively labelling this as good. There were still a few bad possibilities though, like the idea that his illusion had been cast by a person with a higher spell total than me.

Finally, he put down his quill. “Councillor Hammond,” he said.

“Guild Master Voight,” I replied. Normally I would have asked him to just call me by my first name, but for this meeting, I wanted all the status I could gather. “I take it you’ve heard from the Talnier Guild?”

“Yes, it was a very interesting letter,” he said. “You’ve been investigating the nature of Dungeons, and already uncovered several of our secrets. Despite this, Koenig wants us to allow you to continue.”

“Forgive my ignorance,” I said quietly, “but I’m curious as to what legal means you have to stop me.”

He chuckled. “Not much,” he admitted. “We can throw you out of the Guild, and badmouth you to the other nobles. That’d keep you out of most of the dungeons in Latorra. But you’re already aware that there are dungeons outside of the country.”

I nodded. “Of course. Even the Talnier dungeon has a dual administration.”

“So minor inconveniences aside, there’s not much we can do. Legally.”

He let the silence hang. We both knew that he had access to higher-levelled people than me. Some of them would be willing to kill me for coin or guild favours.

“But…” he continued. “Koenig thinks you can be an asset without taking the oaths.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to rise higher in the Guild,” I explained, “But the contracts I’ve seen so far seem quite coercive. And at least one person I met complained quite bitterly about his treatment by the Guild.”

“There are always malcontents and misfits,” Voight muttered darkly. “What you have to understand is that we draw our staff out of the pool of Adventurers.”

“Should I be taking offence?”

At their best,” he continued, ignoring me, “adventurers are ambitious, independent, dissidents. They’re exactly the people who don’t fit into an organisation.” He sighed. “And worse, there aren’t enough of the best to fill all our needs.”

“So you use the contracts to keep them in line — and enforce the contracts with magic.”

“Did Koenig tell you about that?” he asked sharply.

“I inferred it, and you’ve just confirmed it,” I told him and watched him grimace. That had been one of the possible causes of the conduits. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t seem eager to lose my free will.”

“And yet, you want the benefits that come with that,” he pointed out. “Well, it might be possible.”

He paused, looking at his files again. “You’re aware of our… rivalry with the noble houses,” he said at last.

“Yes.”

“Koenig says that you’ve had your own differences of opinion with some of them. Care to elaborate?”

“I was forced to babysit the current Count of Duvost by his father,” I said carefully. “He didn’t take it well and bears a grudge now. That grudge seems to have been spread up the chain to his Duke. Neither of them like that I’m part of the government of Free Talnier. There was an assassination attempt on the road as I travelled here.”

Voight raised his eyebrows, but I continued. “Duke Finley seems to have been the instigator of a number of schemes I’ve been at the edges of. The assassination of the old Count Duvost, and the murder of Baron Baer in Talnier. He seems to want whoever’s in charge of Talnier to be loyal to him — I’ve been almost promised the barony if I’m willing to bend the knee.”

“A generous offer,” Voight said noncommittally.

“It comes with almost as many strings as yours does,” I told him. “I don’t plan on taking it, but as long as negotiations continue he’s not going to be trying to kill me.

“That said, his idea of negotiation seems to be drugging me and whisking me off to an undisclosed location, for who knows what.”

“That happened here?” Voight asked, amused. “And you stayed around… only an adventurer. I suppose that he didn’t know you had [Drug Resistance]?”

“I don’t want to talk about how we escaped that,” I said.

He chuckled again. “It’s rare for an adventurer to have that, mostly they go for [Venom Resistance]. It’s more common here though.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“So what’s your next step with Finley? Let him kidnap you the second time?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “He said he's sending a message, I’m hoping it will be more polite this time.”

“Maybe,” he said doubtfully. He looked at me speculatively. “Maybe…”

“Maybe, what?” I asked as the pause extended.

“Duke Finley spends a lot of his time in Dorsay attending a… particular establishment. Perhaps you could meet him there?”

“What sort of establishment?” I asked suspiciously, as Voight passed a quickly written note over to me. The Shattered Bat, it said, along with an address.

“Not the sort of establishment that you’ll want anyone knowing you attended,” he said. “You’ll need to ditch your escort and go in disguise.”

“A brothel?” I asked.

“Not primarily. It offers a variety of entertainments for the rich and jaded,” he said. “It’s a dangerous place for a young lady, but for an adventurer…”

“Is this some kind of hazing ritual?”

Voight gave a surprised grunt of laughter. “Not a bad idea! But no… this might help you with Finley, and I’ve got a feeling that it will help me as well.”

“Help you, how?”

“I’m not sure, it’s just a hunch,” he said. “When you’ve been doing this a bit longer you’ll learn to rely on them. In any case, I think that our business can wait until you’ve sorted out this Finley situation.”

I grimaced. “I was hoping to sort out some sort of dungeon access.”

“Ah, of course. I’m not up-to-date on the schedule right now but…” He thought for a moment. “The dungeon isn’t barred from… low-priority members like yourself. If you went downstairs and asked for a slot, you could probably get one for next week?”

“That’s not ideal.”

“I suppose not. Why don’t we say that once you’ve come back and told me all about your meeting with Finley, I’ll arrange for you to have a higher priority slot — it could be as soon as the next day!”

Suddenly energised, he bounced out of his chair and offered me a hand to get up. Taking this as a sign that the meeting was over, I let him escort me out.

“It has been very interesting meeting you, Councillor, I hope to see you again soon, maybe as soon as tomorrow!” He winked at me, and then I was out of his office and into the common area.

Tomorrow, I thought. He wants me to go tonight? He must know something about Finley’s schedule.

I headed downstairs to where everyone else was waiting.

“How did it go?” Felicia asked anxiously.

“Well…” I said, “Let me tell you what happened…”

I booked the dungeon slot. Who knew how the Finley business would end up, or whether Voight would come through on his deal. We could always cancel it if we got something better, or had to leave town before then. Once we were back in our quarters, I remembered to check up on something that Voight had said.

Searching for Resistance in the Development point menu came up with several options, some of which I’d already noticed.

Disease Resistance - Resistant to most forms of disease. (4 points)

Poison Resistance - Resistant to damage from poisons. (4 points)

Venom Resistance - Resistant to most venoms. (4 points)

Drug Resistance - Resistant to most drugs. (4 points)

Heat Resistance - Resistant to damage from heat. (6 points)

Cold Resistance - Resistant to damage from cold. (6 points)

Lightning Resistance - Resistant to damage from electricity. (6 points)

Mental Resistance - Resistant to mind magic. (4 points)

Divine Resistance - Resistant to damage from Divine magic. (6 points)

Shadow Resistance - Resistant to damage from Shadow magic. (6 points)

That was… a list. I tried to figure out the logic behind what was included. Three forms of magic were, five if you included Heat and Cold as applying to Fire and Ice, but Water, Air and Illusion weren’t. Granted, Illusion couldn’t do any damage, but water and air could.

The poisons made even less sense. I knew the difference between poison and venom, thanks to a few pedantic med students back in university, but…

“Felicia, what’s the difference between a poison and a drug?” I asked.

“A poison causes damage over time, while a drug gives a status effect, why?” She replied easily.

I blinked at her. Somewhere a med student was screaming, but I suppose it made sense for this world. “Just checking up on Resistances.”

“Oh… that would have been useful for the other night,” she said. “What do you think, Kyle?”

Our resident expert on all adventures nodded slowly. “Dad told me that they’re not generally worth it — not enough monsters use it, and you can carry antidote potions.”

“It costs twelve points to cover all the bases — to get all three of Poison, Venom and Drugs,” I added at their blank looks. “I don’t think getting all of them would be worth it, but Drugs sounds like a good idea.”

“It’s not total immunity,” Kyle warned. “Just resistance. What that means… I think for the nasty drugs, it just takes longer to take effect, or you need a bigger dose before it starts affecting you.”

“Either of those could be a game-changer, especially if it's Felicia that has it.” I pointed out.

“I do have some spare points,” she admitted.

I shrugged. “Think it over first. From what the Guild master said, Finley probably now thinks that we have someone with resistance and his next move will be made with that in mind.”

I only had two development points myself, but I made a note to get Drug Resistance at my next level. I got the feeling I would be dealing with more men than monsters in the near future.

“I don’t think we’ll need it for tonight, anyway,” I said, hoping I wasn’t jinxing myself. “Voight said this club was dangerous, but I doubt they’d still be around if they were poisoning their guests.”

Then again, I thought, Voight thought that we already had drug resistance, so maybe he thought we didn’t have to worry about that?

“Maybe get some antidotes ready, just in case.”