Takinat’s Mercenary Guild headquarters was deserted when Serenity walked in other than a single employee behind a counter, who seemed to have been awakened by the bell on the door. Sleepiness was still audible in his voice when he greeted Serenity. “Hello and welcome to the Guild. How can I - “ The employee covered his mouth with his hand as he yawned. “Help you?”

The room looked tired and worn down. There were two seating areas with oversized, sturdy chairs; those were clearly intended for groups of armed mercenaries. Other than that and the counter the employee sat behind, all Serenity saw was a few more scattered chairs and a large cork board with pushpins that covered much of the left wall. While Serenity could see the holes where the pins had been moved around over however long the board was up, there was nothing on the board other than the pins themselves.

Serenity strode up to the counter. “What can you tell me about your local dungeons?”

He wanted to ask about both dungeons and whether or not the Guild was trying to do anything about the attackers. He expected that at least some people were trying to do something, but it seemed unlikely there was a coordinated effort. He might hire some mercenaries himself, but he had to make sure that it wouldn’t end up in a dungeon break that overran Takinat first.

Serenity took a better look at the employee; his clothing was covered in small repairs, many of which had dark stains near them. They were probably bloodstains, which meant the employee was probably a mercenary himself, working here when he wasn’t on another job. That might also explain the napping. “We have all the slots you need, and they’re really cheap right now. Lowest area is Tier One, but it’s a two-level and the second level’s Tier Three. Don’t ask me how that works, it’s the only one I know of that jumps Tiers.”

It was rare, but Serenity had seen it elsewhere. It usually happened near the lower Tiers of a dungeon; Serenity thought it was related to the way some dungeons started higher Tier than others, since that was almost like skipping Tiers. It simply happened before the first one. If he really wanted to know, he could ask Gaia or Aki when he made it back to Earth; either one of them would probably know the answer.

“At the other end, the highest Tier dungeon near Takinat finishes at Tier Nine.” The mercenary seemed awake now, but was clearly saying something he’d said many times before. “It’s a full nine-level dungeon, but we have others that start as high as Tier Three. What Tier are you looking for, and are you looking for a full clear or a partial? I can reserve a spot for you against your Guild Card if you have one; otherwise, payment is required to reserve a slot.”

Oh, right. Serenity pulled out his card and laid it on the counter. “I’d better update this, too. It’s been a while.” A year or a year and a half really wasn’t that long, but six Tiers was. Anyone actively using their card would update it every time they increased in Tier; even a Path change could be a good reason to update. Vengeance had once updated his card because he progressed far enough on one of his Paths to unlock a Skill that made him more desirable for people looking for a group to delve with.

The Guild employee seemed a bit surprised at that, but all he said was “Two Etherium. I can put it against your updated card or you can pay it now?”

Card updates were always expensive; Vengeance had never looked into why. Still, he’d expected it to cost more than two Etherium. Prices were usually based on the Tier the card was being raised to. On the other hand, Serenity didn’t really remember how they worked at low Tier. Maybe they really were that cheap, or maybe the Guild here just wanted everyone updated. It wasn’t important; two Etherium was easy to afford for a Planetary Sovereign. “I’ll pay now.”

Serenity handed over the Etherium and the Guild employee pulled a rectangular crystal plate out from under the counter. It reminded him of a tablet; in many ways, that made sense. It was designed to display information, after all, so a flat surface was useful. From Vengeance’s experience, he knew that each Guild branch was a little different, depending on the local enchanters.

“Put your hand on the plate … good. Does this all look right?” The mercenary turned the plate around so that Serenity could see the information.

Name: Serenity

Tier: 8

Species: Half-Dragon

Combat Role: Hybrid Damage, limited Utility

Specialty: Spellcrafting, Dungeons

Affiliation: Multiple

The format was different from what Serenity remembered from his previous reading, but it also didn’t have the errors he remembered. The lack of detail told him that this was a very limited version of a card update; that also explained the price. If he were looking for party members, he might be upset; as it was, he was very happy with the results, especially the Tier. He hadn’t been certain which Tier it would read him at, since his Core and his Path were different Tiers. “Yes, that looks good.”

The man pulled out a small rectangular stone bowl, which he set on top of the tablet. He dropped Serenity’s card in the bowl, then dropped one of the two Etherium Serenity had handed over on top of the card. “That’ll take a few minutes, but when it’s done, it’ll all be transferred over. Do you have a team, or are you looking for one? We have some high Tier teams that are currently fighting down due to the current situation. We could use another person for that Tier Nine I mentioned. You’d be fighting up, but it’s a very straightforward forest dungeon and the Silver Blades do still have two Tier Nines.”

“I have a team, but they’re all lower Tier than I am. I don’t think I’m up to going up a Tier anyway; my equipment isn’t even close to where it should be.” His best gear was still his Tier Five ax; everything else was more suitable to Tier One or Tier Two.

No, on second thought, that wasn’t quite true. He wasn’t counting his armor or his Crystal Hilt. Those were both almost certainly Tier Eight, just like he was. He’d practiced enough with them now that he could manage both forms at the same time, too. “I don’t need armor, but a backup weapon would be good; I’m still in good shape for general gear, but I don’t have any trinkets or general enchanted items.”

Serenity paused, then realized he’d left one other place out that he was good. Attributes. “I can’t use attribute enhancements; my off-spec attributes are already over what they’d grant anyway. Benefit of being a hybrid, it’s cheaper.”

The mercenary on the other side of the counter chuckled. “Takes longer, but at Tier Eight you must be making it work. I haven’t seen that many at higher Tiers, most people just use the enhancement gear.”

Serenity nodded. Even the Final Reaper had done that eventually. He’d found out that, contrary to general opinion, the lower-Tier attributes weren’t wasted once you passed the point where gear could get you to that level; not only did they still work if you weren’t wearing the gear, they’d often let you squeeze up a few Tiers in the level of enhancement that worked. That probably wasn’t important to someone who’d never been a hybrid, but it meant that the Final Reaper had more to fall back on when things inevitably went wrong.

Serenity didn’t want to think about that right now. He shook himself and forced a smile. “So do you know anywhere I might be able to get that stuff?”

The Guild worker shook his head. “Normally, I’d have half a dozen stores for you, even if Tier Eight stuff’s hard to get here. Unfortunately, most of the crafters vanished over the past six months, just like their customers.” He sounded a little bitter about that. “I think Lorenzo’s is the only one that still has anything for high Tier people, and he doesn’t sell potions. Barely believes in temporary enchantments at all.”

As he spoke, the man pulled out a hand-drawn flier that said LORENZO’S MAGIC SHOPPE at the top. There was a list of things sold, followed by a map. It definitely wasn’t the place he’d found earlier, near the runeworker’s guild; this shop clearly catered to combat, while the other one seemed to be aimed more at civilians.

Serenity chuckled. “All enchantments are temporary. Some just last longer than others. I’ll stop by there after I leave here. Are you having trouble clearing enough dungeons?”

War meant many things, but one of the ones that was particularly brutal was when it pulled away too many delvers. Properly managed dungeons had a buffer; they could go for quite a while with minimal delving. A year was still a long time. He wasn’t sure exactly when Takinat came under assault, but a bit over a year earlier seemed to line up with the evidence.

The mercenary in front of Serenity sighed. “We’re keeping up, but it’s tight. We used to have to ration delving slots, before we lost half our delvers to foolishness, cowardice, or the Resistance.” There was no question, this time. He was definitely ticked about something. If Serenity had to guess, he was angry about all three, but even more angry about the tight spot he’d been left in. “That Tier Nine dungeon is the biggest problem. The Silver Blades were our only group capable of taking on a Tier Nine floor. They’re still our only Tier Nine group, but with only two actually at Tier Nine, they can’t finish the floor. It takes a lot of partial clears to be worth a full clear, especially when most don’t even get to the deeper floors.”

The problem in the dungeon was something where he’d be only a little help, no more than any other Tier Eight and possibly less since he didn’t have a Tier Eight combat specialists’s Skills. His high Affinities and Concepts could probably make up for a lot of that in magic and his past combat training would also help, but it was still a notable handicap.

“What’s the Resistance?” Serenity hadn’t heard of them, which meant Honoria either didn’t consider them important or hadn’t heard of them herself. From the name, he could guess that they were probably “resisting” the attackers, which was something he definitely hadn’t seen since he’d been in Takinat.

“Idiots who ran off to some place half the world away to free some school or something,” the mercenary stated dismissively. “Idiots who didn’t care enough about their home to stay where they’re needed. They said they’d be back in a month, and look where they are now? Not here!”

Serenity had only heard of one school on Asihanya. “Stallet Academy?”

“That’s the one.” The Guild worker snorted. “Figures an offworlder would know about it. I think about half their students come from offworld. Really, who doesn’t go to a school on their own planet?”

“Someone who doesn’t have a planet to return to.” For a moment, Serenity was lost in Vengeance’s past. He pushed the feelings of loss away; that hadn’t happened and if he had anything to say about it, it never would.

“Or someone whose planet doesn’t have schools that are as good as Stallet. Sometimes there are political reasons, too. Going offplanet can be safer than a rival city. Anyway, do you happen to have a way for me to contact that team, what did you call them? The Silver Blades? I’ll need to gear up first, but I wouldn’t mind a good high-level delve some time soon.” He had the time, at least until Legion managed to get a direction. Actually, that was something else he could do, and it would help his people as well. Especially Legion. “I’ll also pull together some low-Tier groups and send them your way. If nothing else, they should be able to handle that two-level Tier One and Three dungeon.”

The mercenary gave Serenity a look he couldn’t decipher, but all he said was “I’ll give them your name; if you stop by here the day after tomorrow around sunset, you can probably meet them. That’s when I’m expecting them to be back out of the dungeon.”