The next morning found Lanek jumping from rooftop to rooftop on his way to the adventurer’s guild. Kazuma had long returned from his journey, having seen Ograch safely to the gates of the city. Rather than keep his companions at his side, he sent them off to hunt the creatures of the city as a pair. As much as he wanted their company, they would be better served hunting on their own and getting experience from every kill.

Content with his morning meal of pemmican and water, Lanek found himself pining after his only real vice from Earth, his coffee. Unfortunately, he was fairly certain he wasn’t going to find fantasy coffee just sitting somewhere. He would have to ask Ograch and his people for some tea options.

Ah well, no use dwelling on it for now. Focus on the task at hand. He reminded himself, speeding onward to the adventurer’s guild. Once within view of the building, he paused for a moment to make sure nothing was lying in wait. Seeing no signs of life, he entered the building and made his way to the guildmaster’s quarters. He really hoped that he wouldn’t need to pick up the orb to get Caelis’ attention and let the Depths know where he was.

As he entered the crystal chamber where he had first met Caelis, he sighed in relief as the green glow began emanating from the pedestal and Caelis came into sight. He started to smile and greet the spirit before noting her expression. She was angry.

“What are you doing here?! The Depths will come for you, I told you to get out of the city!” she almost yelled at him, her expression dark and furious.

“Calm down, please,” Lanek said while holding his hands up in a placating gesture, “I’m not carrying an orb, the Depths shouldn’t be able to find me that easily, right?”

She breathed deeply, despite being long past the need for oxygen, and almost growled her next words, “No, but the city is still too dangerous for you. Why would you come back?”

“My friends and I can handle the city as long as we stick to the outskirts. The wilderness may be more dangerous to be honest.” Lanek replied.

Caelis appeared disturbed by his statement. “Explain.”

“The gaunts that are fighting the dungeon throughout the city? They roam in packs throughout the forest. These seem to gather into hordes to assault the city, I watched the dungeon and the gaunts in an all-out war at a breach in the city walls. Outside of the city, the various tribes flee, avoid, or are destroyed by the roaming gaunts. At least in here, they can and will kill each other.”

As he explained the situation, Caelis’ expression turned more grim, but with a hint of confusion. “What is a gaunt?”

Lanek was startled by her response, “What’s a gaunt? Those lanky white creatures stalking the city and killing everything they run into?”

Caelis stared at him, surprise etched onto her features. “I don’t know what you are talking about. I know of no such creature, much less one that is able to wage war on a dungeon. Tell me more of these creatures.”

Lanek recounted his experiences with the gaunts at length, starting with his first experience being hunted by one and hearing one of them being hunted in turn once night fell. He explained the various types he had seen, including the one that required an Ashborne Myrmidon to put down. He even explained the visions from Sanguineus’ distant past where a civilization had been fighting for its very existence against the gaunt incursion. Finally, he related the Night Arrows’ experience with the beasts and how they said that the gaunts came from rifts or portals.

“Is your perception that limited since the Depths took over the city? The gaunts are not an uncommon sight on the streets.” Lanek asked quietly.

“Yes, as I told you before, I can only perceive what is going on in the buildings containing one of these nodes. This is a troubling situation, there were no creatures like the gaunts you describe when the city still stood, much less creatures invading from another world and that would force the Depths to bring the Myrmidons to the surface. Please, give me more information, what does [Identify] tell you about them?” She asked.

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“Nothing at all. [Identify] can only give me a name for the most part. From what I have learned, the gaunts are not part of the System, hence detailed information cannot be provided.”

“Not part of the System? You must be mistaken, everything is part of the System!” Caelis exclaimed, her voice becoming slightly shrill with concern.

“I’m not mistaken, the System itself told me this. I still don’t know why it decided to tell me, but I’m inclined to believe it.” Lanek responded, a tad defensively.

“I’m sorry for doubting you, it’s just that this is a lot of information to take in. Have you managed to find anything else?” she asked after calming down.

“No, that’s all I have. The only people I have been able to talk to are the Night Arrows I mentioned.”

“The goblins and hobgoblins you mentioned? What about a more trustworthy source?” She asked, making Lanek bristle.

“The Night Arrows have been more than trustworthy. They are the only damn things in this fucked up world that haven’t tried to murder me on sight.” Lanek almost growled at the spirit.

“Excuse me? What do you mean? Surely you’ve met other travelers or at least some adventurer bands?” she stammered, taken aback by Lanek’s tone.

“No, I haven’t. There are no people that I have been able to find aside from the Night Arrows and a few feral groups of goblins and bugbears. Ograch, a scout for the Night Arrows, has mentioned that no humans or other races have been seen in a very long time.”

“That can’t be…” Caelis muttered, a stricken look on her face, “Even though the city hasn’t been reclaimed, our neighbors would never have allowed a dungeon to go unexploited. Adventurers and caravans of treasure hunters should be a common sight.”

“I have not traveled beyond the forest, Caelis. I just recently acquired some maps of the area, but I do not want to go exploring the world without better gear. It is way too dangerous to wander the wilderness with what little I have. It’s why I came here, to ask you where I could find decent equipment within the city.” Lanek explained, proceeding to tell her the places he had searched thus far.

“The monastery? The Order of the Talon monastery?” she interrupted him.

“I dunno, but it has a big gryphon sleeping behind a barrier on the roof, so maybe?”

“Yes, that’s the Order of the Talon. That must be Idril, I’m glad that she’s safe, but I wonder why she’s there. She was the mount of the grandmaster of the Order and would never have abandoned him.” Caelis said.

“Well, I’m glad she’s there. I’m pretty sure her aura or pressure is why the monsters avoid the place and why I moved in.”

“If that’s true, it’s as good a place as any for you to stay if you insist on staying in the city. I do have some good news about that place as well, there is a room holding a node within the compound, you just need to activate it so I can speak to you there. Just take the crystal from this room and place it on the pedestal in the monastery.” Seeing the questions in Lanek’s eyes, Caelis continued, “The room with the pedestal will be covered in glyphs. The glyphs were not necessary, but I’ve found that knightly orders like their symbols. It isn’t already active because these crystals were time consuming to make and the monastery was fairly new when the city fell, so we didn’t have one ready for it.”

Lanek nodded. “Got it. Before I take the orb, any recommendations as to where I can get some equipment before I head back to the monastery?”

“A few,” she responded, “What’s your class? I can’t see it without you picking up the orb and alerting the Ashen Depths, remember?”

“Umm… Soulbinder, Shinobi, and Ranger.” he said.

“SOULBINDER?! No, never mind. We’ll talk about that later.” She said giving him a stern look. “Let’s see, Shinobi and Ranger. That means your stats and fighting style focus on mobility and stealth. Okay, I have a few recommendations. A few equipment shops you can investigate and the homes of some adventurers that had the same or similar classes. However, as you are no doubt aware at this point, if there is anything left it won’t be their main gear as they were probably wearing that when they died defending the city or fled.” Caelis proceeded to give him directions leading to areas of the city he hadn’t explored yet.

“Thank you, Caelis. Did you get that guys?” he called over his shoulder. Caelis turned to the door in surprise as Kazuma and Sanguineus trotted in, Kazuma nodding to Lanek.

“Is that…?” Caelis asked, pointing at the big cat.

“Yep, the guide you gave me. Evolved and all.” Lanek said affectionately, scratching the cat’s head.

“But, he has a body now? How?”

“Soulbinder.”

“It can do that? We will definitely discuss that class later. For now, let’s get moving.” Caelis stated, shaking her head at the ridiculousness of the situation.

Lanek nodded before reaching over and plucking the crystal from the pedestal, causing Caelis to disappear from view. He proceeded to leave the adventurer’s guild and toward the nearest of the places Caelis had told him about, one of the homes belonging to an adventurer. This spot also had the benefit of being near several the homes of several other adventurers as Caelis had mentioned that this was the adventurer’s quarter.

“Fingers crossed.”