The guild house was full of tired teens after a training afternoon outside. Their faces quickly turned from anguish and fatigue into hunger as Advelt finished preparing dinner. Rushing to the bar counter, the newcomers thanked the attendant for the meal and began to devour it.

Logan took his seat and appreciated the hearty stew with herbs to aid stamina recovery plus improved sleep in the night to come.

“I hope you lot learned a lot from the sparring matches, and training afterwards”, Logan started between bites.

The youths looked at their guildmaster, hanging on his words as they continued to eat.

“Because you’re going to need to work well together for tomorrow’s dungeon run you will all be partaking in.”

Alice finished her mouthful through coughs, “But, Logan, will the first ranks be fine?”

“You’ll be a party nine strong, you should do fine. Marcus shall accompany as insurance, though. If you do not need his help, I shall acquire a skill book for the foyer.”

“Below yes! We got this gang”, Jayd encouraged.

“The dungeon is a half-rank in difficulty either way. A lot of zeroes and ones with no boss”, Logan informed as he took another bite.

“That should be properly within our abilities, then”, Castore accepted with grace.

“We’ll be fine with two Devouts in the team”, Shanin informed.

“Right”, E’leth and Varuud confirmed in unison.

The stew did its work, Logan was out like a light as soon as he got into his bedroom. The sound of loud birds awoke him on time the next morning, as well as some rambunctious youths excited for their journey.

After a reassuring breakfast, the guild became quite quiet as most of the adventurers left for the day. Logan stayed behind with water and tea on request from the attendant, the Spellthief sitting comfortably on the sofa as he read his new tomes.

The first was History of Ritual Casting Vol 1. While not something to teach him how to accomplish the tasks too easily, it was well-rounded and encompassing. There were the three types he had learnt about during his aid against Thermodan as well as others. Using items to fuel the ritual, component rituals, seasons and moon cycles, dances, and more.

Talking about the steps required in each wasn’t enough for Logan’s status to alert him to any new changes, but then, the book was over three hundred pages long. It took him until the night to finish it, and still nothing. The newest book brought him into tier 5 of Reading, taking 40% less time to finish books.

“Let’s attempt this”, Logan spoke aloud as he put away the tome.

Moving to the centre of the foyer, Logan placed his hands together in a praying pose. Controlling the spellforce within his body, he moved it to his palms and coalesced it into an orb.

“Place us else, place that where. Move what isn’t there from here. Allow transportation over a distance without the required time. Pass spellforce from my stance to that of one that is miles far away. Let my frame whirr and blur away, to apparate elsewhere…” Logan chanted, over and over he made new phrases that were synonymous with the original chant.

The wind started to whirl around Logan, the spellforce creating a powerful aura. An hour of chanting ended with Logan separating his hands into an outstretched finger design in front of him, with the thumbs touching. “Teleport”, he commanded.

Purple lines started to form around Logan’s body, but slowly faded away as the wind died down.

Logan sighed, he was probably close to a proper time-ritual cast, but he had not done it long enough. Since it took twelve magi a month to make a portal, it was a long shot he could cast a one-level higher spell than usual in an hour. The theory was sound though, and Logan was confident he could use this in the future.

If Logan wanted to make a portal to another plane, he’d first need to find a way to stay awake for 30 days. He chuckled at the thought and laughed further thinking if he could even use magic back on Earth.

The next morning would have led Logan into reading his next tome, but instead, he was met by a conversation with Advelt.

“Logan, we’ve had a few people come to the guild today. They seem to be potential recruits.”

“Are they waiting outside?” Logan asked.

“Yes.”

“Thank you, Advelt”, Logan nodded as he opened the front door.

As stated, Logan counted a good two dozen or so adventurers of both baby-face and rough-and-tumble sorts. Logan smiled at the potential additions to the guild, and he quickly had them enter the interviewing chamber in their predesigned parties.

The first group was a culmination of travellers on the road who wanted to settle in the big city and figured a guild house would turn out cheaper and safer. However, gaining access to their full status showed more of their backgrounds.

Half of the team showed a lot of elitism against casters, when asked if they would follow some of the guild’s laws, they gave half-arsed replies. Logan ended up declining their submissions.

The next group was a bunch of Fighters who fit the bill of many bullies that Logan had met in the past. They even contested rules 2 and 6, leading to another decline.

Another party were actually traitors in disguise. Logan felt a rage surge in his stomach but he let it go, similarly, he let them go. He did make a note to warn the guardhouse about the individuals later.

Sadly, many applicants did not fit the bill that Logan wanted filled. The penultimate group, however, was just what he was after. A trio of casters who had spent the past month getting pushed around.

“That’s why we want to join your guild, sir Logan. One headed by a Wizard felt like a home for those not invited to the MT”, the leader of the group, U’nito, spoke. A 16-year-old Sorcerer of rank 1. His black robes were tattered and full of holes, showing blue-toned clothing underneath.

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“My staff got broke by my old leader”, the Wizard of the party, Elata, spoke. She was the same age as U’nito and lacked any form of weapon within her light-blue robes.

“It seems nicer here”, the quieter Wizard of the party, Vafith, added. She was the younger of the three at 15. Her dark green robes were stained red all over with overly long sleeves.

“Well, I can certainly offer a better life in this guild. We’ve got a few others in your ranks, so an even set of three teams is possible. Unless you lot want to work as a team with additions from the guild?” Logan said.

“I think we’ll be happier as a team, but I think we’re not opposed to splitting up sometimes”, U’nito accepted as he looked at his friends for nods of approval.

“That should be fine”, Elata replied.

Vafith nodded.

Logan accessed their statuses as before. Framing questions and words in a way that added them to his party and granted him full access.

It did feel like a bit of an invasion of privacy, but it was necessary to create a welcoming environment for all the guildies to live within. As well as weed out those that would damage the guild in the long run.

Thankfully, this team came out clean, and Logan accepted the trio of rank-one adventurers.

There had been a few more applicants over the time Logan had spent interviewing people, but none were up to his standards or had the possibility of changing into people he’d want as a second family in Avanar.

Something good did come about from his conversations with the adventurers though. Many were referring to him as the killer of the Ice King, applying the title of Ice King’s Bane. It had taken some time, but word had spread enough, and it was well into December, so Logan had finally attained the title he had expected earlier.

“You have gained the ‘Ice King’s Bane’ title.”

“Ice King’s Bane: Removing the possibility of the Ice King’s revival has painted you as a strong adventurer beyond the power you’ve displayed. When fighting the seasonal beasts, you gain 5% damage resistance and resistance to all elements. You have gained 1 skill point to distribute.”

While Logan had many titles now, eighteen at this point, it seemed that his most common one was Phasing Hunter. Plenty still referred to him as that, even after gaining more past it. A good assumption was that he continually teleported around the capital and through his quests. Name a person based on what they do, he supposed.

“Advelt. How would you feel about narrowing down any further applicants?” Logan asked as he drank at the counter.

“How in-depth do you want me to gauge?” Advelt asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Just reconfirm the seventeen rules we got right now. If someone laughs at any in an insidious way or questions them strongly, just tell them it won’t work out”, Logan sighed.

Their conversation was broken up by the return of the rest of the guild.

“We’re home”, Alice called out as she opened the doors.

“Food, need food”, Jayd requested as he slouched through.

“Day, Logan”, Castore waved as he held the door for the rest of the guildies.

E’leth and Varuud went straight to the sofas and slumped down into them, dropping bags on the floor.

Sooryah came in behind Kruma, holding the Knight’s shield for him as he had less to carry.

“It wasn’t all that bad. It was good training, and some good coin too”, Shanin mentored.

“Hey, make mine a heaping plate”, Vern mentioned as he was the second to last to enter.

Marcus walked through as the door closed behind him and sat next to Logan.

“How’d things go?”

“Well. But, no free tome”, Marcus laughed.

“Developments in the dungeon?”

“No. Alice just had issues commanding eight others. Shanin did well to help with the seniority advice, he even ranked up to three ahead of the other seconds. Vern and Kruma are the only two who didn’t get a rank up.”

“Not terrible news. Did the pay get split evenly?”

“Yeah, I took the spare three copper to make it even across the board”, Marcus smirked.

As food was shared amongst the guild, Logan introduced the new casters to the other guildies. It was becoming quite the “day-care” in both age ranges and levels. Logan was going to have to get some higher-level adventurers to aid Iimi’s quests.

Checking over his status windows, Logan made sure the experience tax was working properly, and he saw a couple hundred in there already. When it came to the money, it was handed to Advelt to document and store at the counter within a magically secure safe.

Waerell came back to the guild a bit later with some pages for Logan to read over. They were agreements to buy up the nearby buildings to expand the guild into later. Logan had an idea for a type of trinket, or relic, to make the combining of the buildings go through easier. But he needed to read the next tome for that.

The next morning, Logan awoke next to Amalia who spent the night in his bedroom. She had been hard at work making gear for the guild, and had a stable income from the guild’s taxes that she didn’t need to worry much about the cost of living.

Logan did have to worry about the annoyance of guild applications though. Advelt did good work at noting down names to get seen on proper dates, leaving Logan a day to himself after looking over some of the documents. Advelt was quite efficient in his duties, and an attendant had many.

Reading Relic’s Reliquary Vol 1 took Logan the whole day and a bit of the next, a massive book of diagrams and long-winded explanations on how to go about crafting relics. It wasn’t a new skill, but instead a technique to utilize in almost all crafting skills.

The method of implanting experience within a trinket was intricate and lengthy, making many of the example items take days to make even with already made pieces of jewellery. The time and cost were worth it, though, as relics were quite rare in this world. Just one step below artefacts that could only be obtained within dungeons.

As the only point of reference for Logan, the kaevock was a relic, an old one, that Dena had stolen from some ruins. With the ability to craft relics, Logan could now repair the item, and identify when it was near its breaking point. Logan was close, the kaevock would only survive a half dozen uses before it broke.

There were a few components that Logan had thought of and researched for a new creation that would be more useful than repairing the kaevock right away. He just needed to do some exploration and fighting to obtain them.

Before Logan could fully explore the city for some leads, he was stopped at the entrance to his guild. Four grizzled adventurers were approaching to knock at his door but skipped a step in meeting him there.

The leader of the group, a Knight with spiked-back black hair and blue eyes spoke to Logan, “Logan Hall, the Phasing Hunter, I presume?”

“Yes. Do you have business with my guild?”

“I wish to sign up my party to your guild after ours suffered heavy losses”, the man continued with a sombre look.

“Let’s go inside.”

Moving to the interviewing room, the adventurers were able to put aside weapons and drink calming tea.

A short discussion revealed they had been part of the four-guild assault to the north, as rear-guard and backup. Their guild, while not fully destroyed suffered heavy losses, had this team quit the guild shortly after.

“We have heard a bit about you from some of the Lightbeam members during the travel, and after seeing your post at the G-Hall, I believe we’ll find better homes here”, the leader, Cenric, explained.

“We’re not discouraged from dungeons and raids, we just need backing again”, the Rogue, Truman, added.

“Our team already does even splits, so your rules line up with our ideals”, the Devout, Cedrica, informed as she cracked her fingers nervously.

“I’m even more in for this, having another Wizard lead me”, the Wizard, Milburga, admitted as she smiled.

“You’re fine with the one-year contract?” Logan asked.

“We only left our last guild as it fell apart, we don’t intend to leave otherwise”, Cenric answered.

Getting access to their statuses, Logan couldn’t see anything out of order. They were truthful as far as he could see and had no past transgressions. It was also a solid group for Iimi to join, as they were level 17s and 16s.

“You would all be welcome in my guild.”

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