/Oh, Ion? Yeah, I know Ion alright. Fucking monster. Came to the first floor on the same day as I did. One night. That’s how long the peace lasted. Then what? Things blow up. Church of Respitia puts bounties out to bring them that monster’s head.

  Me? Oh, no, I didn’t touch one. Fahahahaha. No, no. I don’t got no death wish. No. Tell the church that if they want me on the case, they oughta offer me a dozen free resurrections, up front. Yeah, that’s what I thought.

  Hunting down Ion for you. What a joke. That thing don’t got a weakness./

  -Thomas Buss, lv. 15 Earthstrider

  - - -

  Someone is pounding on my door. Slamming a fist against what I now know is a thick sheet of cured and hardened mushroom. I blink open my eyes, get out of the bed, sigh, and pull out a knife.

  “Opal,” I say, and the echo knight rises from their fluffy pillow. “It’s go time.”

  “Dar,” they say, poking their friend. The wulven snaps up. “Sylves.” Our fairy stirs.

  “Huh? What?”

  I smile. “I’ll open the door,” I say. “And if something tries to kill me, I would like you to stop it.”

  Dar blinks. Once, twice, closing both sets of eyes each time. “Right,” he mumbles. “Yes, okay.”

  “Lovely.” Then, I pull open the door. Instantly, I’m faced with three people, two with wings, and one fuzzball. One of the winged ones slammed their hand against my door. Without hesitation, my mana sense flicks out against them.

  [Lightbearer, lv. 25]

  Troublesome. But, then again, not insurmountable. I smile, pleasantly, as the group looks at me with grim faces. “Good morning,” I say

  “Are you the one known as Ion?” they ask.

  I shake my head. “Nope, not me. My name’s Ash.”

  A bell chimes. “You lie,” one of them notes.

  “That’s fair, I should have expected that,” I say. “Well, wanna tell me why you’re here?”

  The winged one steps closer to me, looking down on me. They’re tall, but I don’t back down, blocking the entrance to our room with my body. “I don’t appreciate you invading my personal space.”

  “Your presence has been requested by the bishop of Respitia,” they snarl. “Your ability to heal wounds has been taken note of.”

  “Yeah, alright. Tell them to go fuck themselves,” I reply, casually. At that, the winged one becomes even more enraged, and glowing light twirls around their wings.

  “We shall have to make you follow, then,” they say, then lunge.

  I sigh. We’re doing this song and dance, then. With a small motion, I step back, out of reach before they can grab me. A beam of light streaks forward from their wings, aiming to tear through my shoulder.

  I break the magic.

  It falls apart in mid air, [Deconstructed]. I [Select] the lightbearer.

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  Dar charges the fuzzball, and Opal [blinks]. A moment later, I hear the sound of metal rending flesh, and a garbled scream. “Whowee, I can confidently say that I’m not a big fan of killing people,” they say casually, twirling their sword to get the blood off. And yet, they smile.

  For just a moment, the horrible noise distracts the lightbearer, and that’s all I need. I step in at them, swinging my dagger, slamming it into their chest, then step back. They try to grab me again, but Kuro trips them, and then my [Suppression] activates them, slamming their body into the ground, and driving the knife in up to its hilt.

  [You have killed a lv. 25 Scithian]

  That’s their species, then, I note. When I look up, Dar has torn into the body of the fuzzball. They were a higher level than us, yes. They were older, and more used to combat, yes. But they were arrogant, and a moment is enough. I kneel down, withdrawing my knife from the corpse, wiping the blood on my bedsheets.

  “Think we’ll get a refund?” I ask Opal.

  They shake their head. “Nah,” they say. “Probably not.”

  “Dang,” I say, then sigh. “Well. Might as well take what we can then. Go wake the others, I’ll pack.”

  Before I even finish, the echo knight blinks, disappearing. Damn, I want that skill. Teleporting is just too awesome. Who wants to walk when you can literally instantly go anywhere? Despite my jealousy, I focus, placing anything that belongs to me in my pack. It’s not a lot, really, but that’s fine. I also grab a few pieces of cloth off the scithians and the fuzzball. Sylves would have wanted them, I’m sure.

  Then, the others are in the hallway, already yelling at each other. I walk out, calmly handing Opal their backpack. Dar is downstairs, and I hear the sounds of violence. Inu quickly picks up Sylves from our room, then we sprint down. “Who do you think ratted us out?” I ask, heading downstairs.

  Thatch’s skin starts blazing red, and I don’t think he’s in any condition to answer. Norman just curses, and Jess seems entirely focussed, her lips moving in chants. Chants? Weird. Must be a new skill of hers. Strong.

  We get downstairs, and Dar is elbow deep in the guts of yet another scithian. And then, there is Paulino, standing so tall that their head almost scrapes the ceiling. “Oh, Ion. Good morning. One moment,” they say, slamming the face of a fuzzball they were holding in an enormous hand against the rim of a stone table.

  The creature goes limp, and flops to the floor. “There,” they say. “It seems that your healing came up in routine questions posed to other humans. Troublesome, huh?”

  I tilt my head. Is Paulino full of shit? Did they rat us out? Then, I remember their level.

  No. They wouldn’t need to rat us out. Unless… did they do it to win my favour? A small smile spreads on my face. Ahhhhh, I wanna know! I wanna know!

  “Good morning, Paulino,” I say. The entire downstairs is a mess. The bartender and [Archon of the Bathtub] gives us a long look.

  “You’ve used up the coin you gave me for the month,” he says. “It’ll go to repairs. Would you like the rest paid out in rations?”

  Quickly, Inu nods, adjusting Sylves on her shoulder. “Yes, please.”

  The gruff man nods once, then reaches under the tabletop. “Right shame,” he says, “that newbies like you’ll be hunted to the tunnels. Shoulda signed up with a guild.”

  I smile. “Nah,” I say. “No guilds. No masters.”

  He cracks a small, tiny hint of a smile at that. “Aye,” he says. “That’s the right attitude for a climber. Ye’ll go far. Here,” he tosses a handful of little packs at us. “Dried mushrooms, water, some salt and spices. Enough to last youse a week or two. Good luck. If anyone asks, I’m telling them everything I know.” He waves his hands. “Scamper off, now.”

  What a helpful old man. “Fair’s fair. See you,” I see. I’m loath to leave those lovely, smooth coins with him, but if it must be, it must be.

  We charge into the streets, and then, there’s trouble.

  [You have caught the Eye of Respitia the Pure.]

  [Respitia the Pure tells the Keeper of the Tunnels of your crimes against their servants.]

  [The Keeper of the Tunnels sighs. They apologize. Their agents will strike you down if you are seen in Espiree within the next month.]

  A guard in armor spots us. I sigh. How lovely.

  [Flametouched laughs at your misery.]

  The guard charges. “Stop being noisy and enjoy the show,” I tell the high-and-mighty ones. Time to cause a bit of havoc.

  is 40 Chapters ahead!!!