“It went fine. They followed our commands well, though I do have a few concerns.” Mary’s calm tone echoed in John’s ear as she added, “I didn’t see anything worrying, though. Kramer, what about you?”

  “Mine didn’t do that well, but no major injuries. A few did take some hits that looked a bit painful, though”

  “Anyone who’s wounded, send them my way.” John flicked at his screen and contacted Nima, asking her to head over to an office opposite the Advance company headquarters. “Go to the location I pointed out. There is a healer there who can help them. Just make sure you go along to keep them safe, Kramer.”

  “Oh, you like this person?” Kramer’s joking response irritated John, though he couldn’t quite pin down why for a moment.

  Nima was a nice girl, from what he could tell, but she wasn’t someone he could fully trust. Not without further proof behind her, at least.

  The Nima he knew had been an overconfident idiot whose plans were just as nonsensical as they were effective. No matter what scheme she pulled, it just seemed to work out in the end, even if her victory had looked impossible from start to finish.

  “Not really, but we don’t know anyone yet. Not really.” He paused for a moment to let the implications of his words sink in. “Keep an eye on her, and on anyone you bring along. If either side tries anything, before or after the meeting, bring them in and let me know.”

  “Sure. Whatever you say,” Kramer muttered.

  “Good. I’ll speak to you tomorrow.” John deactivated his link as he walked back to his flat. Nima didn’t seem to match the general image of a betrayer, but this would be another test for her, and for the members Kramer and his team had filtered out.

  It might seem mean, but there was worse he could do. But now that he’d made his promise to Lou, he couldn’t go down those roads.

  Not without complete certainty, at least.

  He walked back into his flat and closed the door gently, giving Lou a smile as she leaned out to spy on him from his bedroom door.

  “How did it go?”

  “They got a few levels, but I didn’t get much else.” He glanced at his share of the loot, some minor scraps and a small bag of trashy items. “Not much loot, and I didn’t get enough experience to level up. We really need to do some efficient—”

  He cut himself off awkwardly. Sure, his eventual plan would be daily runs with the original team, but Louise still hadn’t decided how she wanted to proceed regarding him and the Guild. For the time being she hadn’t quit her post as the Guild Master, a good sign in his books, but that didn’t mean things couldn’t change if she changed her mind.

  “I’ll go make dinner.” He smiled and moved into the kitchen before he shouted back. “I’ve still got some chicken. Do you want sandwiches!?”

  “No.”

  He turned slowly to see Lou standing in the doorway from the hall. Her eyes were fixed on his face as she watched him without speaking as he waited awkwardly.

  “Uh, OK.” He turned back to the fridge, which had long since lost its ability to keep anything cool. “Well, the rest of it might not taste too good, but we have—”

  “John, do you really know this is the best thing for us to do?” Louise stepped into the room and lowered herself onto the sofa as his hand froze mid-grab. “Isn’t there anyone we can report this to? If there is a voice which warned us about all this, maybe there is some sort of council or government above it all?”

  “No, there isn’t.” John flicked the refrigerator’s door closed. “We’re on our own.”

  “Hmm.” Louise tutted as she picked up a random magazine from the living room table. “And why don’t you want to be the Guild Leader?”

  “Because I think—I know you’ll be the best fit.” John recalled his previous life, when William had led Heaven’s Shield. Mary had refused the offer, stating her links to the Advance company as being a priority. Though John had argued for Louise to take over, the group had instated William as the Guild Leader rather than his own recommendation.

  And he still believed they’d made the wrong decision, especially after everything that happened.

  “OK. I won’t ask about that anymore.” Louise rolled up the magazine and tapped it against the arm of the sofa. “So, what’re your plans going forward?”

  “Keep an eye out, help those we can trust to gain strength, make some ties with the right people.” John kept his words vague, just in case, but he knew Louise would see through to the core of his strategies. “And when this is all over, I want to take a long vacation somewhere nice. Maybe we could backpack across the world like we always planned.”

  “That would be nice.” Louise shared a small smile before she turned serious once more. “But if I leave you alone, you might not stick to your promises. Will you?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I heard your talk with the others about the healer.” Louise stared hard into his eyes. “Do you know for certain about her?”

  “No, not for certain.” John tilted his head to one side. “Why? What’s the problem?”

  “That’s exactly your problem.” Louise gritted her teeth as she dug down into the sofa. “You’ll never move on if you don’t learn to trust people. You can’t go through your life like this.”

  “The last time I trusted someone—”

  “I know, and look where that got him.” Louise pushed herself up from the sofa and moved close to John. “So, that’s why I’ll stick with you. You need someone to act as your brakes. If you move down that path again, I’ll be there to stop you.”

  “Sure.” John smiled and turned back into the kitchen. “But before that, what do you want to eat?”

  “Chicken sandwiches sound good, actually.”

  “Oh, you want those now, do you?” John chuckled as he pulled the packet of sliced meat from the fridge. “Coming right up, Miss Guild Leader.”

  “Oh, and don’t cut off the crusts this time. I am not a child.”

  “Right you are.” John prepared their meal carefully, his mind wandering back to all the strategies and plans he’d made. After a brief consideration, he realized that some of them were indeed past the moral cutoff point Lou had mentioned. But how could he keep them safe without those contingencies?

  It only took him a minute to figure out an alternate plan. One which would keep them safe, and at the same time give them the best chance to pass through the trials unscathed.

  “I’ll do everything you ask of me, but I want you to promise me something in return.” He picked up the two plates of sandwiches and turned to Louise with a smile.

  “And what’s that?” She leaned back in the chair, giving him an odd look. The way she stretched revealed a portion of her toned abs, but she quickly sat up once she noticed his wandering gaze. “Why do I have a bad feeling about this?”

  “Oh, it’s nothing big.” He set the plates on the table and lowered himself onto the sofa beside her. “I just want you to help me make Heaven’s Shield into the biggest Guild in the world. Simple, right?”

  Louise forced him to outline his thoughts before she agreed. The plan to climb their way to the top of the world would require an arduous journey, but they had an enormous advantage already.

  Few would be able to even access dungeons yet, never mind creating a Guild to start the process of gaining ranks. The lower a Guild’s rank, the stricter the limitations on its earnings and membership. On the other hand, if they could rise to the second rank before anyone else, their options would skyrocket and snowball, allowing them to fly high into the sky before anyone else could catch up.

  First, they’d focus their recruitment on areas near their base, but the increase for a second rank Guild would allow them to move to other countries. While their current membership was capped at a mere two hundred, the first rank increase would raise that number to two thousand.

  It sounded like a lot, but it really wasn’t.

  “We’ll have to filter those who want to join in other countries. We don’t need precise addresses, but they’ll need to note the area of their countries when they apply.”

  “And how do we tell them that?” Louise sighed as she glanced at his house phone. “It’s not like we can drop them a message, right?”

  “When the Guild rises to the second rank, we can set custom updates via the network. I’ll just use what I know to so that people give us the info we need.”

  “Oh. OK.” Louise sighed as she put her empty plate back on the table. “But what about right now? Should we bring in more people?”

  “I’ve left some space for recommendations. As soon as we check out the people who asked, then we can contact their friends to join as well.”

  “And you promise—”

  “I won’t go overboard, yeah.” John picked up the plates and moved them to his sink, though he knew the water wouldn’t flow until humanity figured out a magical solution to issues they’d previously solved with technology. “I’ll leave it to Mary; you can trust her.”

  “Sure.” Louise pouted and folded her arms in mock anger as she added. “You really do like this Mary girl, don’t you? I saw the way you looked at her, you know.”

  “She’s a friend, nothing more.” John shook his head wryly as his brain silently added a “for now” to the end of his comments about the Ice Princess of the Advance company.

  “Fine. I’ll keep an eye on her, see how she fares.”

  “But for now, make it an early night.” John avoided thinking about whatever she meant as he glanced out at the evening sun. The dungeon run had taken longer than he expected, mostly due to the fact that he wanted to avoid any additional spawns which might overwhelm the group. “We’ll be doing something special tomorrow, so make sure you’re ready for it.”

  “And you want to sleep on the couch again?” Louise’s cheeks reddened a little as she stood up and moved to the door. “You know that I’ll probably just—”

  He hurried forward and sealed her lips with a kiss before she could even speak.

  The night was still young, after all.

  Chapter 28

  The pair set out early the next day. John took the opportunity to cancel the curse traps he’d set around the house as they left, sure in the knowledge that he’d need the full extent of his mana for the challenges that lay before them.

  Louise didn’t comment on his odd actions, likely unsure what he had been doing until she saw the grey mist rising from the floor as he deactivated the curses. He knew she would hold back some irritation at his preparations.

  What if someone innocent had walked into them?

  Well, even if she asked, he would merely shrug his shoulders. The curses weren’t fatal, far from it, and anyone poking around near his home would probably be up to no good, anyway. Though he had promised her he would hold himself to account, that didn’t mean he would leave himself open to attack.

  On the way down, he set up several groups using the members he’d trained as leaders. Though he wasn’t too certain about the capabilities of a few of them, namely Top Dog and his incessant babbling, their responses seemed confident enough for him to trust their discretion. That meant he had eleven groups of four—and one Nima.

  After the meeting to heal Kramer’s wounded group members, she had retreated to her home.

  Nima’s skills weren’t too bad, though he would class her mana control as shoddy at best and terrible at worst. After the session of healing, John asked her to practice the Meditation skill, a task that would make her mastery over the energies in her body soar. Though he didn’t ask her to lead another group, not yet at least, that didn’t mean he couldn’t have alternate plans for the timid Sage.

  But first, his group had to pass the test he’d lined up for them.

  Mary and Kramer met up at the agreed spot, not too far from the secret dungeon entrance. Though other dungeons were relatively easy to find, once people had memorized their spawning habits and locations, those designated as secret were far less considerate to the adventures seeking their treasures.

  But he knew the trick at a large number of those places. Once he’d used up his memory of his home city, the group could move on, or at worst he could spread the information to the trusted members of the Guild. But before he did anything risky, John had to check that his information was still valid.

  “Yes!” John tapped against an alcove in a large, prestigious building. Some dungeon entrances camouflaged themselves, like the ones he’d used and those toward which he’d pointed Kramer and Mary the day before. Others, such as the one before them, tossed away all pretense of stealth as they hid in plain sight.

  “To your left.” Kramer tilted his head, motioning toward a distant group that had gathered to watch their progress. “Friends of yours?”

  “I doubt it.” John watched as the mass of people moved in their direction. “Ignore them, let’s just do this.”

  “Hey!” One of the crowd yelled and pointed at John. “What’re you doing? Do you know—”

  John’s fingers brushed against the wall, revealing a golden passage for all to see. The rest of his group followed his lead without hesitation as he stepped into its depths, not giving the infuriated crowd more than a glance before they locked the dungeon to themselves.

  “Doesn’t this mean each dungeon can only be run by one group?” Lou glanced back at the now solid wall. “What about the future? How does everyone level up?”

  “Ah, when one group goes in, the dungeon rotates to another entrance. Eventually, people will—I mean, they might queue up for these things.” John pulled himself up short as he realized who was listening. Though he had trusted Kramer and Mary implicitly, he couldn’t be sure of the people they trusted, or the ones those people believed in. “Never mind them, focus on us. This will be our first real test.”

  The others quieted down as they heard his serious tone. After their messy first dungeon run, the group would know full well the dangers these places could pose, especially if John had taken it upon himself to warn them beforehand.

  “Right, I want you to understand before we start this. All the things we’ll see and fight are constructs of the mana within the dungeons.” He waited for them to nod in agreement before he called out William with a flick of his wrist. “Like this guy, they don’t have any thoughts or feelings of their own apart from the urge to destroy any invaders.”

  “That makes sense, but why are you telling us this now?” Mary glanced at William, who slowly formed before them. “Is there something different about this one?”

  “This is a secret dungeon. Well, technically it’s not a secret anymore.” John chuckled as he glanced back at the spot where the doorway had once been. The crowd outside was likely banging on the wall, trying to break in, but he knew it would be unable to make the slightest headway. “And this one—well, the monsters it spawns might look different to the others.”

  “Are they humans?” Lou asked.

  “Yes.” John nodded with a grim smile. “They look human, they act human. Hell, they might even sound human. But they aren’t.”

  “Don’t hold back. Got it.” Kramer slammed his fists together. “Let’s get cracking, then.”

  “One more thing, we need to do this run right.” John moved in front of the eager Bruiser. “Work as a team, focus your attacks, and wipe them out. The faster we kill, the more enemies the dungeon will throw at us as it senses the threat rising. The more enemies we fight, the more experience we gain, and the higher our rewards if we pass the whole thing.”

  “Got it.” Mary nodded as she moved to stand beside Lou. “Same formation as before, right?”

  John glanced over their group members. A Bruiser could act as a makeshift tank, attracting the monster’s attention as he avoided their damage with swift dodges and grapples, but the team composition leaned far too heavily on the ranged side for his liking. A Mage could deal ridiculous damage at range, the same for a Hunter. His own class allowed him to debilitate their opponents, while William would be able to distract the simple-minded targets.

  But what if they took damage?

  “OK, keep it together.” John waved the issue away as he pointed toward the distant doorway. “First room is that way. It’ll spawn two standard enemies. I’ll take one with William, you focus on the other and help me out when you 're done.”

  The group nodded as they stepped out of the dungeon lobby, but no one spoke as they moved into the large open space that followed. Each of them knew they were in danger, though they might not understand just how far the dungeon could push its difficulty if given the motivation.

  “Go!”

  Two enemies spawned as per John’s warning. Both wielded dual axes, which they spun and twirled above their heads as they screamed their battle cries.

  “William, forward!”

  John and William darted to the side, distracting one of the pair. The other dashed past and slammed into Kramer. The old man blocked the warrior’s advance.

  Barely.

  “Focus!” John pulled out one of his prepared curses. “Weaken!”

  The curse crashed into the enemy bearing down on Kramer, weakening the beast’s assault enough for the old man to make some room.

  “Thanks!”

  John ignored the shout as he turned to back up his thrall. The enemy’s axes shot sparks into the air as they cracked down on William’s shield. It wouldn’t be too long before it broke through if things didn’t change.

  “Grasp.” John shot the curse outward onto William’s shield a moment before the axes struck home. A dual hit, intended to overwhelm the tank’s defenses.

  But it backfired.

  “No!” The warrior pulled back on his axes, trying to free them from the rotten hands appearing on top of William’s shield.

  “Weaken!”

  The curse caught the warrior’s arms, limiting its strength further as John closed in.

  “Bone Spike!”

  John’s gauntlet clenched inward as a razor-sharp spear of bone shot out into his grasp. He could have fired it toward the enemy, but that wouldn’t have even broken its barrier.

 

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