In the dank basement of the house was something I didn’t expect to see: an alchemy lab. It was just as worn as the rest of the house, which didn’t fill me with any sort of confidence. Granny Lily stood over me as I ground herbs with a mortar and pestle at the workbench.

“This is for wounds; it will stop the bleeding. Make sure you grind it up nice and fine so that it mixes with the water. Finer than that.”

Commentary like that was starting to fray my patience. I should be out hunting, not in a damp basement messing about with herbs.

“Don’t roll your eyes, boy. This will help you far more than crawling around with the slimes. Nothing is free; this takes work just like anything else. But its worth it”

“Yes, Granny.”

“Do your part well and we can move on to more interesting things.”

I kept at the herbs, trying to ignore the pungent fumes. The stone of the pestle ground the reddish plant into a blood red dust. The juice released was instantly absorbed back into the dust.

“That should do it. Now, add the water, a drop at a time. Once it thickens up to a paste we can see where we stand.”

I took the small vial of purified water from the bench and started adding drops.

“Don’t forget to keep grinding. It needs to mix. Do you have any control over your magic power?”

“Um, no. I don’t know how to use it at all.”

“That would have helped, but we will make do without it.”

“Why would it have helped?”

“Pay attention to this, I will explain after. Be careful!” Granny shouted as the paste in the mortal began to smoulder. “Slower with the water.”

The blood red substance shimmered with heat, each drop of water fuelling the process, and steam rising from its bubbling surface.

I held my breath at the noxious steam as it burnt at my eyes and delicate flesh inside my nose. Slowly the heat died down with each drop adding it again, but I maintained a pace that let the heat remain fairly constant.

“Stop. It doesn’t need any more. Step back over here and let it settle.”

I put down everything and stepped back.

“Magic power is what your card calls MP.”

“I thought it meant mana.”

“No that is something different but related. Mana gets converted in the body to magic. They are interchangeable but not the same thing. If you had control of your Magic, you would have been able to increase the potency of the blood paste. I will have to work out some exercises for you to gain the control needed. It makes our job harder, but nothing with you is ever easy.”

“Hey, I’m not that difficult. Nothing is on fire or exploded.”

“That is true. It wasn’t so simple when I was first learning Alchemy. You should have seen the messes I made. We can leave the paste overnight before bottling it. Congratulations, you have made your first alchemical product.”

“So, I should have the skill now?”

“No. It takes far more than that to be considered skilled. It’s a start. You have a few days before you have to go hunting again. Go see Jessie, she might be able to help you with your other skills.”

“Is everything a skill?” I asked. It was something that had bugged me since granny brought it up.

“I don’t know. I don’t have a card. But I would say no. Even alchemy isn’t a single skill, although it registers for adventurers as such. The gods decide.”

“You mean the gods are the ones that grant skills? I thought they would be too busy doing god stuff.”

“They rarely grant skills, although they can, I’ve heard. What I mean is that what is recognised as a skill is up to the gods. They decide at what point someone has gained enough ability with something for it appear on their readings or the card. Enough of this, we have plenty of time to discuss this later. Go to Jessie’s.”

I went, relived to get out of the dim, damp basement filled with smells that turned my stomach.

The day was bright, far brighter after the darkness, and I walked down the narrow paths to Jessie’s enjoying the sun and wind. Even the pollen in the air was a welcome relief, even if it made my eyes puffy and my nose itch.

Jessie’s store was the same as always, although the window seemed slightly clearer than the other day. She must have cleaned.

Inside was brighter, letting me see more and more of the details of the completed works. Fine leather armours on dummies shone with a lustre of quality that previously I never noticed. The window was so rarely cleaned. The light can damage the leather according to Jessie. So what prompted the change?

“Graey, you came already. I wasn’t expecting you so soon; I thought you would be out hunting.”

“Granny Lily had me working on Alchemy.”

“Oh. She is trying to give you skills the hard way. It’s so rare for an adventure to consider the old ways. Did she send you here?”

“Yes. She thinks you can help with other skills.”

“She is right. I could teach you a few things, but I think you owe me enough already right now. Maybe later when you have worked a bit of your debt off.”

“Why is the window cleaner? I thought you said the light damages the armour.”

“It can. But you inspired me. I’ve been slowly giving up on getting more customers. All the cheap gear in the market place, it’s hard to compete with that, but then you came along wanting something better. So I’m thinking of redoing the store and getting back in business.”

“That can’t be all. You never cared about money before.”

“I still don’t. It’s not that. But so many of the adventurers go out and never come back. We are going to need them, if what I’m hearing is right.”

“What are you hearing?”

“That the appearance of lairs is on the rise. So many new ones that we don’t have the man power to clear them out before they grow deeper. If its true we have a problem.”

“How is that a problem? There will be more, and better, loot in the deeper floors.”

“Graey, this land is only safe because we can push back the lairs. The mana they release is dangerous in high levels. Eventually the surface will start having mutated animals and spawn points for monsters. We need to keep fighting them back or we will lose this land.”

“Oh. Mana is dangerous?”

“Yes its dangerous. It changes people and things into monsters. Part of the reasons most adventurers work in parties is that they need to watch themselves. Too much time in a lair without getting rid of the mana they absorb can be fatal.”

“But isn’t the mana the reason we can grade up?”

“Part of the reason. Granny is showing you other ways. Mana makes the changes easier, and lets you reach higher than is natural. But too much too soon is a serious problem. Children get sick if the levels of mana are too high, they can die as if poisoned.”

“Hmm, why don’t people know this?”

“Ha, people do know, not everyone as its not been a problem for years, but people know. That’s why there is an adventurer’s guild, a mages guild. All most every profession that uses the nature of the mana to develop knows about the problems, and they fight it. You are only seeing the public face of it, the ones that fight the monsters, but the monsters are the least of it. Anyways, you are here to work, and just in time, if I’m going to be having a grand reopening event. We have cleaning and arranging to do. You can start on the windows. I couldn’t get at the worst of it.”

Jessie smiled at my expression. Dismay must have crossed my face.

“Don’t be so glum, I might be able to give you some advice or training later, but cleaning comes first. Take these.”

She handed me a bucket and cloth.

“Fill it up with water; there is a touch of solvent in the cloth, so it should cut through that grime no problem. Don’t touch the leathers with it. It will stain them.”

I carried the bucket out the back door to the small well that served this area of town. The well itself was in good repair, brick and mortar, clearly looked after. Setting my arm to the winch I lowered the rope till it lost tension, then pulled it up. Pouring the water into my bucket and going back through, I set to work on the inside of the window, which involved climbing over a raised display to reach it.

Grime and dust lay think on the glass, showing the years that it had sat here without notice. The solvent coated cloth cut through it with minimal effort, leaving a clear, shining surface I could see through. After numerous trips to empty and refill the bucket I finished the inside.

Jessie came back just as I was finishing up. “You done?”

I nodded and opened my mouth to reply before she cut me off.

“Oh, just the inside. Well, you can take a break if you want. I was going to show you one of the tricks of leatherwork. I thought you would be finished by now.”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“I didn’t think you wanted to show me anything until I had done more?”

“I need to do the work anyways; this saves me having to do it twice. Come back to the work room, it shouldn’t take long and then you can clean the outside of the window.”

I put down the cloth on the edge of the bucket and walked to the backroom with Jessie. She sat on a stool and showed me the hides on her work bench.

“This is the hide of the white wolf. They come from the third floor of the lair on the west of town. Its arctic themed as it’s at the base of the mountains. The white wolf has a high resistance to cold and if treated right this hide can have the same properties,” Jessie explained with an expectant look.

I guess she wanted me to think about it and ask some questions. She did have a habit of working like this.

“So, can all the properties of the animal be put into the leathers?”

“No, not all, but with the right skills and the right material most can be imbued. Wallace does similar with the weapons he makes. All the best items come from the dungeon monsters. They are the primary ingredients used in crafting. What do you think needs to be done to get the most out of the items?”

I thought about it for a long moment, while gazing at the hide. It was white, even the skin without the fur was a pure white like snow.

“It needs to match the purpose. A war hammer with something that enhances its ability to cut wouldn’t be very good.”

“A clumsy example, but yes, that is how it works. Properties such as cutting are not actually properties. The sharpness of a weapon is in how it is designed, not in what it is made of. Making a sharp hammer would be making an axe. In this case I’m using the white wolf skin to make a jacket that will protect from the cold. The process that I use is magic.”

“You can use magic?”

“So can you. Most people can. That is how adventurers gain magic skills anyways. If you lack the potential, then you can’t absorb mana. Few things can’t absorb mana. Anyway, if you watch you might learn something.”

Jessie proceeded to run her hands over the hide, sometimes tracing patterns over it and whispering. Her eyes stayed shut the whole time, and it didn’t take long before a glimmer of light twinkled from her tracing. Before long a design was clearly visible on the hide, one of swooping lines and blocky shapes.

“There. Now all I have to do is sew the jacket to the specifications of the client. Did you learn anything?”

“You traced your hands in certain patterns and it lit up.”

“That isn’t learning anything. You watched and just repeated what you saw. I know what it looks like, but what did you learn from watching me?”

“That…knowing the patterns is important?”

Jessie sighed. “Graey, you have a mind in there. Maybe it’s my fault, I’m not used to teaching something that I have known for so long. Yes, the patterns are important, but knowing them isn’t. You have to feel the shape of things yourself. I know this is counter to everything you have learned about adventurer skills, but that’s how it is if you want to gain a skill another way. Adventurers cheat. Skill books and memory imprints are short cuts, but they don’t grant the same levels of ability. Say you learnt tailoring from a skill imprint that you bought of the guild; you wouldn’t be as flexible or as skilled as me. I doubt you would even be able to make passable starter gear for a long time.

It takes a lot of work even with imprints. They don’t include everything. I’m not going to teach you directly just yet, but I will when you have mastered some basic skills, such a magic manipulation. It’s the foundation to all of our skills, and would serve you well.”

“I don’t even know where to start with magic.”

“You will, give it a bit of time. It comes to all of us eventually, in our own ways. Don’t cheat with a skill book. It will hobble your growth. Now, you have some cleaning to do.”

With that Jessie turned back to her work and left me to mine.

The inside of the window was finished, so I collected my bucket and started on the outside. The solvent did just as good a job on the outside as before, so much so that the dirt just seemed to fall away.

As I was finishing up I heard a bell toll, low and loud.

Jessie came running out as fast as she could. “That was the alarm bell. Something is breaching the town warding. What are you doing standing there? Run to the market and find out what is going on, don’t forget your weapons. It could be bad.”

Questions bubbled up, ready to be asked but there was no time. Jessie was frantic. All around us doors opened and shop keepers and residents came out to see what was what.

“Get going, Graey, this is adventurer work,” Wallace rumbled, his eyes squinting in the bright light.

I didn’t need telling again. Dropping the bucket, I set off running to the market. My weapons and armour were already equipped; an adventurer goes nowhere without arms.

The streets filled up quickly with concerned looking residents, enough of them that getting through became increasingly difficult.

My breath came sharper as I ran, harder, but I pushed through that and the people. Not that many of them minded, I wasn’t the only adventurer on their way to the market, just the newest.

The bell sat at the top of the adventurer’s guild in the market place. A fairly central location that let everyone hear it. A crowd of heavily armed people stood outside the guild waiting for news. I managed to reach the back, but I wasn’t tall enough to see through the mass of bodies and steel.

“We have confirmed that the wards on the eastern side of town have been tested by a large concentration of goblins. We suspect that they come from an unknown lair very close to the edge of the wards. So far there has not been a breach, but it is just a matter of time. Adventurers, you know your role. You are to push them back and give the mages time to launch a counter attack. Keep them away from the wards, they will not be strong enough to repel them indefinitely,” a strong male voice shouted from the front of the mob.

The group split in to parties, smaller groups of six members that were traditionally the limit of adventurer groups. Party dynamics meant that new adventurers were unlikely to get invited to join until they had proven themselves. I was left alone rather quickly, but I followed along behind, willing to do my part where I could. A grade G adventurer is no match for goblins, even a single goblin is a grade E, and that only increases when they work together.

The east of town was less built up than the rest; it was here that the town faded into farm land. The wards were invisible, but nearly everyone could feel the moment that they passed through them. I felt it like a tingle on my skin as I cross the barrier that marked the end of human habitation. The farm land while important was not warded, it took up too much land to protect efficiently, although adventurer missions frequently went up to patrol the area for new lairs.

I saw the parties split off into separate direction.

The farmland surrounding mainly grew wheat and vegetables, although there were a few small pastures of animals; cows, and sheep. Nothing extravagant or out of the ordinary, but it was enough to keep the small town fed throughout the year, with occasional support from trade.

The trade in monster parts was particularly lucrative, as the central cities didn’t have lairs or dungeons anymore; they got cleared out as the cities were established. It’s how humans managed to expand so far. Eventually our warding would be powerful enough to be enlarged, which prevented the formation of new lairs. We had a pattern of settling the frontiers, developing and then linking up with the older cities, then pushing out again. The cycle started anew every few hundred years.

Through the scattered fences adventures dispersed, trying to find any sign of the goblins, and I was left standing on the road unsure what to do. My hand nervously checked my weapons, and the clasps on my armour. Everything seemed in place, but the quiet was starting to get at me. No one was talking. No animals moved.

In the distance, the first adventurers seemed to move quicker, bring more parties closer.

“Oi, what are you doing?” A voice came from behind my left shoulder.

I turned to see another adventurer standing there, a young woman, blond and in mismatched leather armour with an old bow. She was the owner of the voice.

“I’m looking around,” I said.

“Why aren’t you partied up?”

“Because I’m a grade G, no one wants to party with a newbie.”

“Did you even ask?”

“Did you?”

“Well, that is neither here nor there. We can party, just the two of us.”

“I don’t know you, and your equipment is in rough shape.”

“Not all of us have coin to throw at things,” she said while casting her eye over my armour, in an almost hungry way.

I couldn’t blame her; my gear was a step above most of the normal G grade stuff.

“I didn’t and don’t have coin to throw at things. If you want to party I need to know your skills, and achievements.”

“Fine, I’m grade G, same as you. I have an E-- rating on dexterity and agility. My weapon is the bow, and I have bow mastery grade G.”

“You have bow mastery already? What does it do?”

“I’ve been training with the bow since I was small. It’s a passive, just makes me hit a bit harder and more often with the bow. Doesn’t cost anything either.”

“That is pretty impressive. In the interest of fair play I will tell you I have no skills, and all my stats are G--.”

She gawped at me, just a little.

“How did you get that gear with stats like that?”

“Just lucky, I guess. Anyway, you still want to party up?”

“Not like there are a lot of options here. It’s you, or no one.”

“Fine, here.” I held out my card to her.

She tapped it with her hand and it glowed a gentle white.

Adventurer Ilsa has invited you to party

Accept/reject

The words scrawled themselves over my card, and I pushed Accept.

Invite accepted

You have gained the group blessing of the gods

You will be 5% more effective in any situation that suits the composition of your party

Party composition: Adventurer Graey, close combat. Adventurer Ilsa, ranged.

Situations favouring party: Pure combat, small engagements

Huh, I didn’t know about that, but I could feel the blessing as energy coating my skin, warm and almost eager.

“Party blessing?” I asked.

“Don’t you know anything? There are reasons people party and it’s not just convenience. The gods give blessings to aid our war against the dungeons. Come on, we should find some goblins to fight.”

Going to the temple was definitly going on my list of things to-do.

Together we set out toward the edge of the fields.

The first parties were way way out of sight, and it appeared that they had found something by the constant rushing of people heading after them, but we stayed close and took care to look carefully. Lairs often formed in shadowed areas, and places that didn’t see a lot of movement. So we looked in the dense foliage surrounding the farms. Trees dotted the landscape, and small hills gave plenty of places for a lair to hide.

Ilsa was silent as we moved, her eyes focused in every shadow we could find. I did my best but I didn’t have any lore craft in anything really. I was dead weight until we found something to fight.

“You could be looking too; you know?”

“I am, but I don’t know that we will find anything this close to town. If it was here, then wouldn’t the higher grades have found it by now?”

“Nah, they don’t look for things, not like me. They are just running about hoping something jumps out so they can stab it in the face. Its here somewhere. Otherwise the wards wouldn’t have been set off. Goblin incursions are normal, but the bell isn’t. It would have just been a request in the guild hall to kill some goblins.”

“Okay, so why can’t we find it?”

“It might help if you looked too. You have been in lairs, you should know how they feel, try to feel it.”

Feel it?  Well that was vague, but I was growing used to that after dealing with Lilly and Jessie.

Closing my eyes, I tried to feel the lair. Bringing to mind the dark, and the cloying sense of mana, the closeness, and the foul taste that lingered on my tongue ever time, I took a deep breath, feeling my heart speed up in my chest at the fear my memories brought. The wind brushed my face bringing with it the stench of a lair and my senses latched on, feeling the mana breaking up in the sun, fading.

I opened my eyes, turning into the wind, and said, “There is something there.” My eyes widened as I saw where I was facing.

The shadow of the farmhouse, right against the building was a deeper shadow, a hole.

“It’s there.”

“Huh, I can see it now. Shouldn’t take us long to get there, it’s only a few hundred metres. Knew it would be close, but that doesn’t look like a big entrance. I was expecting something more for goblins.” She sounded disappointed.

“Don’t knock it, we are only two and we are grade G, we don’t have much hope against goblins.”

“You never know, and it you carry on with that attitude I’m going to shoot you. We can take a goblin; it’s when they are in groups that it’s going to be a problem. Get your game face on, we are going in.”

She limbered up her tatty bow, and checked the string, checked her arrows were in reach before nodding to herself.

I did my own check, drawing my sword and running through a few forms to loosen my shoulder. My knives sat in easy reach on my belt, but they were slid in and out of their sheaths, just to make sure.

I looked over to Ilsa, who waited with obvious impatience, shifting from one foot to the other.

“Let’s go then.”

The lair entrance was just a hole in the earth, crumbling dirt and roots lined it and filled with darkness. But the unmistakeable feel of a lair emanated from it, hitting us both in the face. There was no obvious way in other than jumping.

“Jump on my mark,” Ilsa said.

“Hang on, how are we going to get out?”

“Worry about that afterwards. We have to shut this down to protect the town. That’s our job, so jump.”

Any words I could say dried on my tongue as I realised that worrying about the future wouldn’t help, not if there was no town. The longer a lair is left the deeper and stronger it gets, it needed doing now.”

“Jump.”

And I did.