“So, to summarize, you instructed one of our promising juniors to personally handle a single Path-bearer who slaughtered one of our third rate gangs. Then, it turned out that the man was being escorted by a Sun Temple paladin for so reason, and rather than waiting for a better opportunity, he made a choice to attack them right there, which led not only to his failure, death, and the loss of his n, but also a near dead Solar Paladin?”
“Yes! That reckless bastard-”
“And who was it that made him commit such a mistake?”
“...what?”
Ruby's face froze in confusion, although, even as Scar's tone remained nonchalant, she couldn't help but feel a chill crawl down her spine.
“I knew Zod quite well. He was, perhaps, your most successful recruit. And he would never commit such reckless acts – not unless he was needlessly pressured into it.”
“I-I.. I didn't-”
“Ruby.”
The man's soft voice, while still calm, gained a frosty undertone. She couldn't help but stiffen, quietly looking to the side.
“Your performance in the last few months was exceptional. You didn't need to push yourself, or your subordinates, to prove your value to – to this syndicate, at large.”
Surprisingly, the words that ca out of his mouth were not those of reprimand. The woman slowly raised her eyes… to be t with a piercing, emotionless gaze.
“And yet, you did just that, causing as much damage as all your recent contributions combined.”
“...”
She tried to find sothing to say, but her words got stuck in her throat.
“However, since those contributions have matched the damage - caused by your mistake - I am willing to give you a chance to make up for your subordinate’s failure.”
The man slowly stood up, moving his gaze across the table.
“We are part of the Big Three now. If we wish to one day reign as the Undercity’s sole rulers, we will have to adapt to what it ans to rule.”
He began to slowly circle the table.
“Your ruthlessness may have brought so of you this far, but if we are to thrive, you must learn caution. Patience. And even, at tis, leniency.”
The dwarf let out a sigh filled with resignation and annoyance under Scar's piercing gaze.
“I will do as you command. However, even if you lock a wolf in your barn, it will never turn into a house dog.”
The gray-haired man’s voice held respect, yet remained firm.
The one wearing the white robe and red garnets did not say a word, silently gazing at the others with his blood-red eyes.
“I-I understand, Scar.”
The woman’s voice was laced with dread, as the syndicate's leader stopped right behind her.
“Of course, it is crucial to rember…”
Seemingly out of nowhere, a thin needle laced with light-blue liquid appeared between the man's fingers. Then, with a level of swiftness that made his hand barely visible to the naked eye, he plunged it down, straight into the woman's shoulder.
“... that such leniency must never turn into weakness.”
“I- agh!.. Aaaa..!”
Ruby's body began trembling, as tears escaped her eyes. Her shrill, piercing scream soon turned into a silent one, as her face froze in excruciating pain. She barely managed to remain in her chair, grabbing the wooden table with one hand.
After a few seconds, as her face beca drenched in sweat, her labored breaths resud, along with the occasional tornted groans.
“Now then, let us get back to the main agenda.”
Nonchalantly returning to his seat, Scar continued on as if nothing happened.
“I will talk to.. our benefactor. Since the paladin is alive, I believe smoothing things out with the Sun Temple shouldn't be a problem.”
The dwarf nodded in satisfaction, while the other two n showed no particular reaction.
“What interests now are the circumstances under which Zod died. It isn't like him to chase a target he knows is stronger than him, or at least one he can't escape from.”
His head turned towards Ruby once more.
“Tell everything you found about his death.”
“He.. cough.. h-he followed the target… alone… into a tight room… after this ‘Seb’ used a movent technique… to leap into a nearby 2nd story office.”
By now, Ruby recovered enough to barely speak, although her right shoulder was still trembling, and echoes of pain still reflected upon her face.
“Haaa… He then used a Darkness Sphere, probably having consud a 'superior darkvision' potion after the target used a similar sphere earlier.”
“Hmm.. this Seb wasn't a dark elf, by chance?”
“Of course not! The Sun Temple would never tolerate one in this city, not to ntion protect him!”
Realizing her tone might have risen too high to be considered respectful, Ruby closed her mouth.
“Describe him in detail.”
“He was a human with black hair, largely hidden behind his helt, green eyes…”
As she talked, two of the people at the table began paying increasingly more attention, until Redbeard interrupted her description.
“Wait a mont, woman. He also used a grayish two handed sword, did he not?”
“Yes.. you know him?!”
“No, but this matches a story I heard yesterday. So young brat ca to the Adventurer's Guild for an Iron rank advancent. An old drinking buddy of mine was one of the trainers responsible for his preliminary tests.”
The dwarf paused for a mont, choosing his words.
“Long story short, he said the young man must have cheated, then used so trick to conceal the traces of whatever thod he used, so neither the enchantnt nor the doping tests found anything unusual.”
“And how is it relevant at all to this situation?”
Ruby's tone reflected her annoyance.
“Because the young man from my story, nad Sebastian, matches the description of ‘Seb’ from yours.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. A level 1 Path-bearer beating Zod? Do you even hear yourself?”
“And yet, everything seems to suggest exactly that! Perhaps the trick he used to cheat at the advancent tests also managed to catch Zod off guard.”
“The Sebastian from your story. Did he happen to wear a silver watch, hanging from a long chain on his neck?”
For the first ti since everyone arrived, the one nad Ember had spoken.
“Arm…I think that guy did ntion him wearing an expensive-looking trinket. Might have been that.”
“Hmm…”
Everyone turned their heads to the robed man, who seed to have been contemplating sothing.
“Leave Sebastian to .”
Redbeard’s expression was that of confusion, while Ruby narrowed her eyes in mistrust, yet hadn't said a word either.
“I know I just spoke of leniency, but are you sure you wish to spend your ti cleaning up Ruby's ss?”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on . Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Even Scar sounded mildly surprised.
“I will take care of it.”
The soft, even tone did not fluctuate, reaffirming the man's earlier statent.
“You lay claim to prey which yet lays beyond your grasp.”
The only one to disagree was Redclaw, whose yellow eyes locked up with their red counterparts.
“I had to abandon my hunt to attend this gathering. It is only right that I pick up the next trail in return.”
It felt like sparks would start flying over the table at any mont.
“Well then, I'm sure one of you can claim his head before long. This will tie up that loose end… just, for the love of the gods, don’t make an even bigger ss.”
The two n silently turned their heads towards Scar, who seed to disregard their gazes, standing up from his seat once more with a deep yawn.
“Now, I'll leave you to your hunt. And you two…”
He turned his head towards Redbeard and Ruby.
“I expect so good news by our next reunion. Personal strength is important, but unless you finally break through to the Elevated realm, I want to see your followers grow stronger and more nurous, and our coffers grow fuller.”
The pair nodded simultaneously, and it wasn’t long before Scar left the room.
With this, the eting could be considered over.
Now, all that remained were the decisions made by its participants, and the resolve to be the first one to see those decisions through.
***
In the end, I decided to buy 2 of the cheaper Alchemist’s Flas - nad Fla’s Kiss - going for 15 gold each, and 2 smoke concoctions for 10 gold each, as well as a more potent one, similar to the ones Thomas gave us when we fought the goblins, setting back another 25 gold.
All-in-all, my pouch was now 65 gold lighter, bringing my total savings down to 150 gold, give or take a few coins.
Well, actually, since I bought 4 individual reinforced accessory holders as well - two for the firebombs, two for the future and as a decoy in the anti - my actual savings beca 134 gold.
I wasn't exactly happy with my belt turning into sothing you might expect to see worn by modern commandos back on Earth, creating a juicy extra target for certain foes or even monsters, but what could I do?
At best, I could position the more valuable potion cases behind the less valuable ones, and hang the concoction holders (specifically, those holding the Alchemist's Fire) on the other side, in vague hope that if they are hit, the flaming blast might at least spare the potions.
I also considered recharging my Darkness Sphere, but it turned out the price was 20 gold flat plus 20 gold per charge, making it most economically viable to recharge it when it was close to depletion.
I also looked for other defensive options, such as the barrier used by the carriage, but it turned out even the manual version of a weak personal barrier was 800 gold, and the one that automatically recognized and deflected attacks directed at the wearer could reach 2 thousand (and required a special order). Not to ntion the fact that only the latter type allowed for mobility during activation, and could be used offensively in battle.
Barriers could be divided into many categories, such as mobile vs semi-stationary vs stationary barriers, with the forr often having significantly faster wind-up tis but significantly lower capacity.
In short, while hearing about barriers was interesting (and could potentially be useful one day) the arcane contraptions themselves were far above my budget.
Afterwards, I went to the bank to deposit 100 gold coins, which left with 29 gold (around 5 of which were silver and copper coins) on my person.
Finally, before getting engrossed in sorting through mission requests, which I wasn't planning on accepting right now anyway, I went on to the closed training yard, working on my skills and sword skills until the sky grew dark.
It felt nice using [Arc Slash], which felt swifter and heavier having reached level 2.
Finally, it was ti to check the-
grooowl
I stopped in my tracks, realizing the light lunch I ate over 5 hours (and one intense training session) ago wasn't enough to stave off my hunger for this long.
‘I heard there was a cafeteria here. This should be dinnerti, too.’
“Hey, do you know the way to the cafeteria?”
“...ah? Ah! Yes, of course! I was actually going there myself. You can follow if you'd like.”
“Much obliged.”
The young man I stopped was a head shorter than , with ssy black hair and a scrawny build. He wore plain black robes with dark-yellow trimmings.
He continued on, with a hasty step, towards the back of the main building, and I quickly followed.
To my surprise, there was indeed a large cafeteria in the back.
Why surprise?
Well, the mont I passed the doorway, a plethora of slls, most of them delicious, entered my nose. However, when strolling through the city streets, all slls, including those of roasted at and freshly baked pastries, usually reached from much farther away, especially through open doors like in this establishnt.
“How?..”
My barely audible mumble, as well as the relatively loud sniff, must have reached the ears of the robed man (or rather, youth), who decided to answer after a proud chuckle.
“This is the Adventurer's Guild – out of any place in the city, this one would have the highest number of Path-bearers gathered in the sa place.”
He gave a knowing look.
“So of course, a place such as this would be made for Path-bearers rather than the common folk.”
“Ah.. so every room must have this sense-muffling spell, then?”
“Exactly! What's the point of having private rooms, if soone in the 2nd, or maybe even 3rd Awareness realm could just hear and sll everything that went inside from behind the door, or even multiple corridors away?”
“That.. makes sense. Although putting the sense-muffling spell even on the cafeteria seems a bit excessive."
“The Guild has no shortage of gold. By the way, it's called a Sealsense Array, and each building here is designed with it in mind. It was probably embedded into the foundations of this room long before it beca the cafeteria.”
By now, we had already reached the front of the queue, and after paying 1 gold, we each got a tray with one big plate and one smaller plate, and free reign to fill them with any of the fish, ats, salads, and other dishes at the buffet.
“You sure know a lot about this stuff.”
“But of course! I hope to beco a great artificer one day!”
The young man's expression was passionate, although I did catch a flicker of bitterness in his eyes.
“You.. are a Wizard, right?”
“Yes! In fact, I finally graduated from the underschool last month. I am a full fledged level 1 Wizard now!”
As he said that, putting the baked broccoli head beside the roasted chicken breast, I finished loading up my plate as well, so we naturally moved to one of the free tables at the back.
“Congratulations.”
“Thank you. I might not have been the fastest in my cohort, but becoming a real Wizard at 21 is nothing to scoff at!”
“It sounds.. impressive. Although, as a Slayer, it's not like I'd know anything about the true difficulty of learning magic, ha ha..”
“Ah, yes… well, I'm sure you had to face your share of challenges before stepping onto your Path, too.”
“Yes. Yes, of course.”
Thankfully, he didn't seem to notice anything suspicious about my previous reply, nor the awkward laughter, likely seeing it as common courtesy and shyness.
“By the way, my na is Sebastian.”
“Jerold Brightdale, at your service.”
We continued eating for another minute, before I decided to ask..
“Just out of curiosity.. I haven't seen many wizards in the Guild. Do you know why?”
Beside the guy who scanned for illegal arcane enhancents yesterday, Jerold was the first mage I saw up close (aside from that logistics wizard). There seed to be a few people in the guild who dressed like mages, and one was clearly practicing spells in the walled training yard, but their number could be counted on one hand, while I must have glanced upon hundreds of other adventurers.
“Well… on one hand, most wizards tend to stay in the Tower.”
“Oh? There is a mage tower in this city?”
“A ‘Wizard’ Tower. And yes, of course. This is the central city of the whole province, after all – small as it may be.”
“I haven't seen it on the m- wait, is it in Western?”
I only really studied the districts I've visited, so I must have missed it.
“Yeah. Pretty much everything worthwhile in Western revolves around the Tower, too.”
“I see. By the way, what's the other reason?”
“Mmm?”
“For why I don’t usually see Wizards here?”
“Well… you’d usually see Wizards in libraries or labs, and since the Guild lacks the latter, it only leaves the forr. But then, the arcane books in the Tower far exceed those of the Guild, in both quantity and quality, so you wouldn't have many Wizards sitting here, either.”
“I see… but then, why are you here?”
A mont later, I realized how rude my blunt question must have been. However, before I could open my mouth to apologize and retract it, or even curse my low Charisma inside my mind, Jerold decided to answer, despite his clear embarrassnt.
“I.. I work as a part ti adventurer.”
“...huh?”
“Yes, I know what you must think-”
“No, I an, why is it so bad?”
I was genuinely confused.
“Adventuring is great! You can advance your Path while making money at the sa ti. What's wrong with that?”
Despite my genuine bewildernt, the young Wizard's embarrassnt only grew deeper.
“Well.. um.. sigh…”
Finally, he took a deep breath, and looked at .
“Wizards don't advance the sa way Slayers do.”
“What?”
“For you, the optimal way to advance would be 1 part studying and training swordsmanship and techniques, 1 part applying them in real life-and-death battles, also called ‘mortal battles’, and 1 part sparring.”
The young man’s voice grew quieter.
“For Wizards, there is little to no benefit in facing danger. In fact, unless you aim to beco a ‘war mage’ or an Adventurer, fighting with magic has no advantages at all.”
His gaze was locked on his food tray.
“A better way to advance as a mage is to study the tos, ditate, and practice new spells in a safe, stress-free environnt. Maybe try to modify and compose them, too, if you're really talented."
I could hear clear longing in his words.
“The best way would often involve expensive spell reagents, high-end labs and facilities, and potentially even concentration enhancing elixirs.”
…and tangible regret.
“Of course, I have none of that. I can barely afford the Tower fee, too. That’s why I'm here.”
He took a deep breath, and raised his eyes, eting my already-embarrassed gaze.
“I’m broke.”
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