Julia buckled her bracers and unbunched the chainmail underneath. After shredding her leather chestplate, Braden had taken her to get the whole set replaced. She was now equipped with a steel cuirass, pauldrons, bracers, and thigh and shin guards.

  The set was completed with chainmail tunic and pants underneath. In addition, she now had a steel helmet that covered her head almost completely—only leaving a small “T” section over her eyes and nose to see and breathe through.

  Both Braden and Ravina had agreed that it would be good for her to begin becoming accustomed to fighting in heavier armor. They hadn’t elected for a full set of plate armor due to her not having a frontline position in a party.

  A full set of plate armor was expensive—even her incomplete set was expensive. Braden had no issue buying her a full set, but Ravina had suggested it would be a good chance for Julia to learn fiscal responsibility. Managing your expenses and rewards was an integral part of being an adventurer, and if you could only afford to outfit one member with armor, you chose the Tank—not Julia.

  Her seventeenth birthday was coming up in a couple months, which meant her apprenticeship was nearing 75% completion. Braden and Ravina had decided that it was time Julia started adventuring in a real party, rather than their practice. The timing was convenient since Braden was needing to spend more time focusing on his main objective—the Abyss.

  It had been years since the incident at Rockyknoll, and his lack of progress was frustrating. He never showed it, but Julia had lived with Braden long enough to know the signs. She was unsure why he was trying to hide his frustration from her, but there was scarcely anything he could keep from her at this point.

  Ravina had picked out a party for Julia to tag along with while they ran the other dungeon near town. They were a party of Iron ranks that would still benefit from the Level 25 max in the dungeon. Julia was to meet them for the very first time the same day they’d be headed for their first run through the dungeon as a party.

  Julia had questioned the wisdom of such a short period to get to know each other, but Ravina had insisted that situations like this—having to party up with people you know nothing about—were common in adventurer life. She said it was better to get used to it now, under supervision, rather than improvising when her life was on the line.

  Ravina would be accompanying them to the dungeon, but she wouldn’t enter with them. This was another layer of Ravin’s desired experience for Julia. She’d be going into a dungeon for the very first time with a brand new party. Ravina called this “potential worst case scenario” training.

  There were circumstances where adventurers had to enter dungeons blind. Sometimes, a new dungeon was discovered, and someone had to be the first to explore it. Other times, dungeons that hadn’t been cleared in a while needed to be trimmed down, lest their inhabitants break out and attack outside of dungeon boundaries. While rare, these things did happen, and Ravina explained that going into any of those situations with a brand new party was about as bad as it could get, so this training should be valuable.

  Julia picked Trixy up and wrapped her around herself like a garment before heading out the door, her helmet held under her left arm. The party, Julia, and Ravina would be meeting at the north gate mid-morning, when the sun was about halfway up the sky. They would chat about abilities, roles, and party configuration on the way to the dungeon.

  Julia arrived a few minutes early, but she wasn’t the only one. Off to one side, she saw a group of four individuals. Two appeared to be twins, and they were catkin, of all things—fluffy ears and tails and all! She was going to have a tough time not thinking about how cute their ears were, as this was likely the party she was meeting.

  She approached and put a hand in the air. “Hi, I’m Julia. Would this happen to be the Graceful Gryphons?” she asked politely.

  A large man with armor similar to Julia’s, as well as a spear and shield on his back turned toward her. “That’s right. Nice to meet you, Julia. I’m Edphon, the Tank. These here are Meriphan and Murrel. They’re both Damage, ranged and melee respectively. This is my sister Edwinna. She’s our support,” he introduced, motioning to all one-at-a-time.

  Edphon was tall and wide, with short brown hair he’d slicked back. He had a strong nose and round hazel eyes that seemed to change color depending on where he was looking.

  The twins both had black hair and dark, almost black eyes. They had slit pupils like she would expect of relatives of felines. They were identical in almost every way. The only difference was that the boy, Meriphan, had shorter hair that reminded her of a bowl and a short bow on his back, while the girl, Murrel, had longer hair that went down past her chin and two daggers on her hips. Both had prominent bangs and a slightly standoffish aura. Julia thought that was also like cats.

  “Hi, Julia. I’m mostly healing, but I do have some magic for crowd control. I prefer to save my mana for healing, though, so don’t count on me for much else unless the situation is dire,” Edwinna said with a small wave.

  She had long brown hair that extended down to the small of her back and hazel eyes to match her brother’s, but where he was large and strong-looking, she seemed petite and…softer?

  Julia wasn’t sure how to describe it, but Edphon felt rougher in appearance. If she knew nothing about their Classes or roles in the party, she probably could’ve guessed on appearance alone. That said, Edwinna was still taller than Julia, so petite might not be the right descriptor.

  “Good to meet you all. As I said, I’m Julia. I can fill most roles, but my weakest would be support. I’ve only ever used healing magic on myself, and not very effectively, according to Ratia,” she chuckled. “I’d be most confident in a Damage role, but I could probably make Tank work if I needed to. I fight with both magic and a sword.”

  Edphon nodded. “That’s great. Damage will do for us. The twins are good damage dealers, but we could always use ways to end combat faster. What type of magic do you favor? We’ll situate you in the party depending on that,” he inquired.

  “I have quite a few different types of magic, but my most-used in combat are Water, Earth, and Lightning Magic. I have a spell to protect myself and allies from lightning, but it would be rather expensive to maintain on all of us. Probably better to consider my main magics as water and earth.

  “I use water to make a shield and whip—depending on the situation—to defend or attack, while I usually use earth to sink opponents’ feet into the ground and trap them. I’ve also had some success piercing enemies from below with a spire of earth, but it’s not reliably fatal, so I only do that in conjunction with other tactics,” Julia finished.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Edphon nodded as she explained. “Sounds perfect. Unless anyone objects, I think we’d be best served by having you in the back. You can use magic at range as-needed, but you can mainly guard Edwinna.

  “One of the major downsides to our current party is that Murrel has to dash in to deal damage with her daggers, which leaves Edwinna almost defenseless. Meriphan can’t defend her at close range with his bow, so having you there would shore up our biggest weakness,” he concluded.

  All nodded, including Julia. She couldn’t see anything wrong with this formation. It would also give Julia a chance to practice more ranged spells that she had thought of. Ravina approached as they chatted about their roles and abilities. “Good, looks like you’re all acquainted already. Let’s get movin’ to the dungeon. I’m aimin’ to be home for dinner, so let’s not waste no time.”

  She moved away from the gate without confirming the party was even following. Julia hoped Ravina wasn’t about to disenfranchise the party (and potential friends) she had just met. She turned toward the group as they set off after Ravina. “Thank you so much for this, and I’m sorry for inconveniencing you by tagging along,” she said with a small bow.

  Edwinna smiled at her, “No need to apologize, Julia. We’re happy to have you. Besides, when Miss Bladesworn tells you to do something, you just do it,” she said with a shudder. She and Julia exchanged a knowing look as they all caught up with Ravina.

  The dungeon was about an hour’s-walk outside of town, and—according to people that’d been there—just a large stone obelisk in the middle of a meadow. It sounded like quite a sight, so Julia was rather excited. They walked for about 30 minutes before they heard shouting from ahead. Ravina slowed to a stop and motioned for everyone else to do the same.

  “Whoever’s shoutin’ is comin’ this way. Just stay here and let them come to us. Shouldn’t be trouble this close to town, but ya never know, and ya always let trouble come to ya on your own terms than runnin’ to it,” she lectured.

  Julia was shocked to see Jerrick crest the hill ahead of them, running in their direction in obvious panic. She was most shocked not by her recognition of him as the guy that was hitting on her, but by his appearance. His once-pristine armor and tunic were torn, ragged and bloody. He had blood covering one side of his unhelmeted face, and his right arm was almost completely red with blood.

  “Help! Please, help my party!” he shouted as he approached them. Julia looked over to see a dark look on Ravina’s face.

  “Where the hell’s your party, Jerrick? What’ve you gotten yourselves into?” she questioned.

  “Trolls!” he huffed when he arrived, hands on his knees to recover his breath. “We were ambushed by a group of trolls. There was a shaman or something with them. It hid two trolls beneath the ground and popped them out behind us when we confronted it. Please, they’ve taken my party hostage! They’re probably going to cook them and eat them or something!”

  Ravina stood and thought for a while. Edwinna spoke up after a moment. “Why don’t you go ahead, Miss Bladesworn. You don’t need to worry about us. We can just go wait at the dungeon until you’re finished,” she offered, but Ravina shook her head.

  “No. We’re not splittin’ up. We’re either all goin’ or none of us are,” she said with authority. Julia thought she saw a look cross Jerrick’s face, but it disappeared so fast she couldn’t tell what it was. “Fine. Lead the way, Jerrick. If you’re up to some funny business, I’ll cut your balls off,” Ravina threatened.

  “This way!” he shouted behind him as he took off running. The party followed closely behind. They ran for five to ten minutes through the forest before they came up on a small clearing. It was around a jog in diameter, which would normally mean about 100 strides. In Julia’s case, though, it was more like 200.

  Jerrick crouched in the treeline just before the clearing. “This is where we were ambushed. I don’t see them anymore, but I also didn’t see them the first time, so I wouldn’t count on being alone,” he said quietly. Ravina nodded to him and advanced forward while motioning for the rest to stay behind.

  She had her sword drawn and held in front of her as she crouch-walked into the clearing—head on a swivel. When she reached a quarter of the way, the ground suddenly lit up with a purple glow. Julia gasped as she saw a huge ring of purple light up, taking about 75% of the entire clearing’s circumference, spring to life.

  Ravina immediately bolted back towards the group, but it was too late; the trap was triggered. Julia saw a thundercloud cross Ravina’s face, and she suddenly stopped running. However, her momentum carried through to her sword, which she launched directly at Jerrick. The instant it left her hand, she was gone. Ravina and the entire glowing purple circle just…vanished—like they’d never even been there.

  Jerrick just barely sidestepped Ravina’s sword as it passed by. The wind it whipped up as it passed was incredible—like a thunderstorm. It smashed into a tree blade-first and pierced straight through to continue on its way. Julia heard it smash through at least one more trunk before it came to a stop completely.

  “Ha…haha. Hahahaha. Woo, man. That…that was godsdamned close,” Jerrick laughed. Julia thought the laughter sounded maniacal. Jerrick turned back towards the center of the clearing. “Alright. That’s that, then,” he said as though speaking to someone.

  “Excellent work,” a man said. Julia was positive he hadn’t been standing there before. She would’ve noticed someone standing right next to Jerrick inside the clearing, right? The man handed Jerrick a sack that clinked with unmistakable wealth. “The rest doesn’t concern you, yes?”

  “Right. I’ll just take my earnings and go,” Jerrick said, eyes glittering with greed. He seemed slightly wary of the man that paid him, as though he couldn’t wait to be away from him. He took the sack and began walking back towards the road, but not before looking over his shoulder at Julia. The wicked sneer he gave her over his shoulder made her blood freeze.

  Julia wasn’t sure what specifically was going on, but Jerrick had clearly lured them here for some reason. The look he gave her told her that it was likely her specifically that was lured. She turned towards the man that had paid Jerrick.

  “I don’t know what you want, but it’s clearly me you’re interested in. Why don’t you let this party continue to the dungeon? We only just met less than an hour ago,” Julia said, trying to sound logical and reasonable rather than what she felt, which was desperation.

  “Well, I would normally agree with you. They have no role to play in my experiments, after all. However, my orders are clear. Discretion is the most important thing right now, and I can’t have them running off to tell everyone in Striton about me,” he said with genuine-sounding regret.

  “What about Jerrick, then? You’re fine letting him go? Why can he go, but they can’t?” Julia asked, the desperation she felt beginning to break through.

  “Ah, yes. He will live. Having someone around who would stab his own mother for the right price has its uses…for now,” he said with sinister undertones.

  “You don’t need to negotiate for our safety, Julia,” Edphon said with venom. “We all saw what he did to Miss Bladesworn. Anyone that can kill a Mithril adventurer would be able to catch us even if we ran. We’re not going down quietly, though.” The party drew their weapons and took up positions as they prepared for combat, dark looks on their faces.

  “She’s not dead. He just teleported her away. Please, don’t do this! Either of you,” she pleaded, looking at both the party and the mysterious man. “Please, just let them go and we can discuss whatever business you have with me. They’ll keep quiet, won’t you?” she said, looking to the party with hope she didn’t actually feel.

  “I’m truly surprised and impressed, Miss Julia. You recognized that circle as Space Magic. You truly are worth my time. Unfortunately, my orders are absolute. No witnesses,” the man said regretfully.

  Edphon gave a warcry and charged the man, but before he even got close, the man lifted his right hand and snapped his fingers.