Other than the obnoxious noble, the new group Daniel found himself in was friendly and excited to start their lives with the Guild.

He, along with the others, received a pleasant surprise after receiving a System point for speaking the Guild oath.

It was a simple oath, really. Basically, saving the world from Dungeon Monsters took priority over nearly everything else.

He had readily agreed to it, as the clause covered certain divine quests. And what other type of quest did he do?

Then came the part he had been most excited about. The choosing of their Guild names.

Through long-standing tradition, all Guildies left their old names behind and took on new ones.

He had written his name in the ledger, and was now Forge the Adventurer.

The group had cheered until someone new entered the room, and all the talking ceased.

There at the door was Poncho’s boss, and what appeared to be an honor guard.

He heard Gideon, the warrior with the enormous sword, mutter, “Looks like someone’s in trouble.”

Turning to look at the group, he found the elf staring at him, because of course she was.

She stepped forward, flanked by the four guards, and bowed deeply to him. Far deeper than his position compared to her warranted.

She straightened. “Paladin of Honos, please accompany us to see the guildmaster.”

Not sure what was going on, he bowed in return, and with a confused smile to the other new recruits, followed her out of the room.

He walked with the elf up multiple flights of stairs, flanked by the four guards, before stopping at an open office door.

Behind a large desk, a man sat with his back turned, looking out the great eye-like window he had seen when he first arrived.

The elf stepped forward.

“Guildmaster Jackal, I present to you…” she paused and looked at him.

“Forge,” he whispered to her.

“…Forge, Paladin of Honos,” she finished.

The guildmaster turned to him. He seemed to be a man in the prime of his life, but he exuded a sense of weariness, like he dreaded what was coming.

Forge could only think of two things that could cause this sort of reaction.

One comprised whatever lies people had spread about him back at Barda, and the other was the dragon.

At that thought, he hardened his eyes, which caused the guildmaster to give him a genuine smile.

“Oh, don’t worry, you’re not in trouble,” he said.

He nodded to the elf.

“Sapphire, please close the door, but stay here. I want you to hear this as well.”

She hastened to the door and closed it.

The guildmaster then ran his hand over a glowing rune on his desk before looking up at him.

“Forge. That’s a fitting name for…an Elementalist,” he said.

Shaking his head, he stood.

“Please forgive me, I seem to have misplaced my manners. I’m Jackal, Guildmaster of the Scofrey Guildhall.”

Jackal stepped around the desk and sat on the edge, facing him.

“Please sit. You too, Sapphire,” he said.

He sighed quietly as the pair sat.

“Before I put my foot further into my mouth. First, let me swear to you that nothing said here at this time will leave this room unless the world is in immediate danger,” he said, fist over his heart in salute.

Forge nodded.

“I think I can accept that.”

“Before we go any further. Let me ask you a serious question. Do you have a dragon?” Jackal asked.

Forge silently wished he had worn his mask, but schooled his face. He would do what was necessary, but he would not sink to lying to accomplish it.

“If I had a dragon, what would your position toward it be?” he asked.

The guildmaster smiled in response.

“The same as you. Protect the dragon. Save the world,” he said.

Daniel nodded in thought.

“Please forgive any perceived rudeness, as joining the Adventurers Guild has been my dream for a long time, but what do the words: ‘Protect the Dragon’ mean to you?”

“You’re smart. I’m glad to see that,” he said.

“You’re not the first Dragon Guardian I’ve met. I know you will have to become stronger, and I know you will need gold, and lots of it,” he said with a laugh.

“Protect the dragon in this case means helping you become the best version of you possible. It also means that we can’t make things easy on you. And it means we need to provide you with the absolute best opportunity to become stronger.”

He paused and stared at him.

“Unfortunately, it also means that we’re going to do our best to leave you completely alone. Anything we did to help might make things worse. After all, you were chosen, not us.”

Daniel considered the guildmaster’s words and then nodded.

“Yes. I have a dragon.”

Unable to control herself, Sapphire stood and looked between the guildmaster and Forge.

“Can someone please tell me what’s going on?” she said a bit crossly.

Jackal gave her a smile.

“Forge is a focal point. He is the focus of a new era and the potential savior of the world,” he explained.

She turned to look at Forge and then sat back in her chair and laughed.

“Okay. Sorry Forge, no pressure or anything.”

Forge laughed at that.

“Would you like to meet him?” he asked.

The guildmaster’s eyes widened.

“Yes. More than anything.”

“Cinder, would you come out, please?”

Without warning, a dragon was sitting on his lap.

He did a lazy stretch, then moved to coil himself around his neck.

“Cookie!” he demanded.

Forge grinned at the guildmaster.

“He says he’d like a cookie. I assume you know what that means.”

Jackal summoned a gold coin to his hand and flipped it into the air.

Cinder launched himself up and caught the coin before it could fall, quickly gobbling it down.

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“More!” he demanded.

About to tell the dragon to be patient, Forge reconsidered.

It had been more than a day since he last had a cookie.

“Only one more for now,” he told him.

Jackal summoned a small stack of coins on his desk and stepped away.

Cinder made to leap at them, but stopped and looked at Forge.

At the nod from the guildmaster, Forge faced Cinder.

“Go ahead, buddy. You’ve been a good dragon.”

Cinder beat his wings once, then folded them into a dive at the table before landing with the soft grace of a cat and devouring the coins.

Jackal watched the dragon with a wide smile on his face.

“Guildmaster, you mentioned you knew another Dragon Guardian. It wasn’t Trandaril by chance, was it?” he asked.

Startled, the guildmaster turned to him.

“Yes, it was. How do you know of him?”

“When I agreed to take the path, they awarded me a small chest of coins and a journal from a Dragon Guardian by that name,” he answered.

Jackal smiled wistfully.

“Any chance there was mention of a brash young warrior named Jackal in it?”

Forge shook his head.

“I’m sorry, no. I received a heavily edited version, only explaining some of his Elementalist abilities and some facts about being Dragon Bound.”

The guildmaster seemed to stare out into space, lost in the past. Then his eyes snapped back over to Forge.

“Oh well. I’ve taken up far too much of your time. This is the time for you to form partnerships with the new members of your party.”

“Though, one recommendation,” he said, holding up a finger.

“Dungeon rewards favor parties of four over parties of five. While it’s less safe, it’s a better way to gain points faster. Though I recommend that if you choose that path, make sure you have a cleric on your team,” he said.

Nodding, Forge stood and made his way to the door.

He called for Cinder, who flew into his back and disappeared.

“Oh, one last thing. Does the name KRAM mean anything to you?” the guildmaster called out.

***

Forge walked down the many steps, thankfully alone this time, as he made his way back to the other recruits.

“What did you think of the guildmaster?” he sent.

“Sad,” the dragon responded.

Forge nodded.

“He did seem rather sad. I think he lost his friend, someone who was important to him, and we reminded him of that time in his life.”

“Maybe.”

“Oh, you think there’s something else there?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, I’ll trust your instincts. Did you like him and Sapphire?”

“Yes!”

Well, the dragon seemed emphatically positive about the pair, so that was a point in their favor.

Stopping off at reception, he asked for the location of the other recruits and found that they had gone to the first-floor dining hall.

He thanked the woman that had replaced Poncho and headed in the indicated direction.

“Hey Cinder, you know what it means when they say they have a first-floor dining hall?” he sent.

“No.”

“It means bigger and better dining halls on other floors,” he sent.

“Death-chickens?”

“No, I doubt they’d have death-chickens, but since it’s the Guild, they might have something similar.”

“Excited!”

“Me too, buddy. Me too,” he sent.

***

Sapphire looked at the man she thought of as a father and observed him carefully.

She had never seen him look so introspective. Lost even.

He had always been a rock. Knowing exactly what to do or say at any given moment.

“What does this mean?” she asked.

He smiled at her.

“It means change. It means the potential end of the world. And no matter what happens, it means our lives just got a lot more complicated.”

Sapphire blanched at the thought.

“If this is so important, why aren’t we doing something about it?”

He shook his head.

“We can’t do anything directly. I’ve got Zap acting as a recruit to help him out on the ground in secret. But the real problem is that Forge is a paladin.”

The elf frowned.

“He’s a magic user, a warrior, and a paladin. He’s basically a skill-monkey. How can also being a paladin be a bad thing?”

He sat down heavily in his chair and looked at her.

“How does the joke go? Warriors fight at the front. Slingers fight from the back…”

“…and Paladins face impossible odds and die,” she finished.

He nodded.

“So, we’re going to be doing a little work to make the city a better place.”

Sapphire understood.

“Because if he doesn’t find a crusade on his own, we can help nudge him in the direction we want him to go,” she said.

“I knew I taught you well.”

She stuck her tongue out at him and grinned.

She might be eight-hundred years old, but something about the old man made her feel like a child again.

***

Forge rejoined the group.

There were questions, and he answered them in the simplest way possible. He told them the truth.

“The guildmaster wanted to speak to me because I have a rare class,” he said.

That peaked everyone’s interest.

“So, you’re a…?” Gideon began,

“Paladin, Warrior, Elementalist,” Forge said, counting off on his fingers.

“I have a rare class as well,” Green Falcon broke in with a wide grin.

Forge turned to her.

“Nice! What is it?”

“Ranger. It’s a class that combined my Survival skill with Slinger and Rogue.”

“That’s amazing!” Forge replied.

“Big deal. I also have a prestige class. And I didn’t get it by accident, either,” the noble sneered.

The group turned to look at the haughty noble.

Forge had a feeling he knew what the class was, based on his weapon and the name he had chosen.

Sensing no one was going to ask him about his class, Forge spoke up.

“That’s great! What’s your class, Silver Blade?” he asked.

“Duelist,” he said with a smug snort at Falcon.

“Great, you can challenge the dungeon monsters to duels. That seems like a fantastic idea,” Gideon replied.

Forge smiled at the noble.

“Not at all. An expert with a quick sword could hit weak points on a dungeon monster, wounding or killing it,” he said.

The noble scoffed.

“And what do you know about dungeon monsters? Do you think I can’t hear the dirt farmer in your voice? You may have learned how to string some words together to appear civilized, but we can all see you for what you are.”

Daniel stared at the man, and it finally clicked. He was baiting him. It was something he had read about in one of the noble etiquette books.

“Silver Blade, I understand that you’re trying to prove your worth like the rest of us, but following the manual of Sir Ridolfo and trying to bait someone into a duel to prove your value is going to fail spectacularly.”

The young noble looked surprised at being called out, so Forge decided he would throw him one final lifeline.

“You asked what I know about dungeon monsters. Well, I’ve fought dungeon monsters and not the wild variety, but in a dungeon.”

He gestured to the group that stood behind him as they all faced the noble with looks of disgust.

“Why don’t you join us instead of isolating yourself?”

Forge had hoped that the young noble would rethink his position and join the group, but his reddening face told him everything he needed to know.

“You think I would…”

Forge turned his back on the duelist.

“Oh well. So, what about you, Mountain Fury?” Forge asked the stocky man.

Mountain Fury pushed him roughly out of the way, as Silver Blade’s rapier shot out towards him, piercing the man through the chest.

Forge acted on instinct.

Twin tentacles of blue flame shot from his back. A tentacle grabbed the sword and yanked it away, while the other reached out and grabbed the duelist around the waist before slamming him into the floor.

He had instinctively pushed the metal slag to cover the area of the tentacle that grabbed Silver Blade, but the sword bore the full power of the blue-fire heat of the magma tentacle.

The sword blade snapped in two where it struck the far wall, weakened from the heat.

Forge dismissed his tentacles and turned to the fallen monk, prepared to cast Lay on Hands, but saw that Lioness, the cleric of Hypros, had beaten him to it.

Tears ran down her face as she attempted to push divine power into his body, but it couldn’t find purchase.

She looked up at him.

“I think he poisoned the blade,” she said, her eyes desperate.

Forge stared down at Mountain Fury’s body and saw the black blood around the wound, with the rot seeping out from under his shirt and up his neck.

Guildies swarmed in and clerics pushed others back as they checked the fallen monk.

Sapphire joined the group around the monk’s body.

The cleric walked over to her and whispered into her ear.

Hot rage seemed to envelop her as she looked around, her eyes falling on the dazed noble.

“Who did this!” she hissed.

Gideon was the first to speak and pointed at the sprawled duelist.

“That little traitor tried to stab Forge in the back. Mountain Fury pushed him aside, but the blade struck him instead,” he seethed.

“I think he poisoned the blade,” Lioness added.

She hadn’t bothered to wipe away her tears and stood with her jaw set.

Sapphire looked around the room at the other Guildies, who stood in small groups far away from the new recruits and received nods of agreement from them.

“Check the blade,” she demanded.

A man in black leather armor walked over to inspect the broken sword and it disappeared.

He had a grim expression as he walked over to Sapphire and whispered to her.

She closed her eyes in thought before opening them and addressing them as a group.

“If this were the field, we would kill the assassin outright, but as this is the Guildhall, we will follow protocol to the letter.”

She pointed at the young noble, who was just now looking up from his place on the floor. Several swords pointed at him, and he stood very still, but his eyes were wild.

“Take him. Check him for any geas or compulsions…and do not be gentle,” she snarled.

Sapphire Phoenix looked at him for a moment, then raised her voice to be heard by everyone in the large room.

“Normally, you would not see the Black Wall until the end of your training, but it seems you get that honor earlier than normal.”

With a nod from Sapphire, the cleric kneeled by Mountain Fury’s body and stored it in his ring.

“This won’t stand,” Forge said.

The cleric put his hand out on Forge’s shoulder and bowed his head.

“I understand, brother. See that justice is done,” he said.

Forge looked at the cleric and saw the horse sigil on his robe and nodded his thanks.

He turned to Sapphire, who seemed ready to explode.

“I’ll take care of this,” he said.

She stared at him for a moment, then nodded.

“You’ve seen this before, haven’t you?”

He nodded.

“Fine. But not without a team,” she said.

Gideon stepped forward, hand resting on the grip of his giant sword.

“I’ll be on his team,” he said.

Green Falcon and Lioness also stepped forward.

Sapphire pinched the bridge of her nose, then brought her head up and scanned the room.

She pointed to a large man sitting back near the door.

“You. You’re the Rank Two that lost their team, right?” she asked.

The giant man stood and gave her a nod.

“They need a fifth member. You’re with them,” she said.

Forge watched the giant man as he lumbered over to them, but as large as he was, he had a certain smooth grace to his gait.

“Five members,” Forge said with a frown.

Sapphire was quick to step in.

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll fast-track you through your first dungeon run and get you up to Rank Two quickly.”

Forge nodded. He was missing something; he was sure of it.

“Alright. Welcome to the team…” he said, waiting for the large man to tell them his name.

“Grundy. Mage-Adept,” he rumbled.

Gideon looked up at the large man.

“Some extra firepower, nice!”

“So, what do we do first?” Green Falcon asked.

“We need gear, or at least I do. I just arrived in the city…” he trailed off.

“Actually, I’m not sure when I arrived. I just know I haven’t slept since I got here.”

“What do you need?” asked Green Falcon.

“I need some new armor and access to a ritual circle,” he answered.

Still listening to the conversation, the cleric of Honos stepped forward.

“I may be able to help with that,” he smiled.