Forge turned to his party with an innocent smile.

“I had no idea my armor was self-cleaning. I guess its creator thought it was important that a paladin looks his best,” he told the group.

He received three grumpy frowns from the wet adventurers in reply.

After being awoken from their magical slumber by the shockingly cold-water Angela had thrown at them, the group had been less than pleased with their situation.

Hearing of the near-death experience at the hands of bandits somewhat calmed them. Though Forge’s armor repelling the water, leaving him clean and dry, had set the group off again.

“Give me my bag,” Falcon said, gesturing to Forge’s ring.

“All of this because of a ring,” Lioness observed.

Gideon walked back to them from where he had been checking the bandits’ bodies.

“We have a bigger problem.”

“You mean the fact that we’re out in the middle of nowhere with no horses and a civilian?” Lioness asked.

Gideon crossed his arms and stared at the cleric.

“That’s a temporary problem. The real issue here is that this group did a lot of work to target us. That means they had inside information about us specifically.”

He gestured to the body of the caster they had covered with a blanket.

“They created a Guild quest, setup a convoy, and had a plan that would have worked flawlessly if not for the girl and the dragon.”

Lioness walked over and removed the blanket from the bandit mage.

“I’m not sure if this is the man I met with to set up the job. Though this one is a little crispy, so it’s hard to tell.”

“Crispy!” Cinder sent.

The party all stopped and stared at the dragon.

“Everyone heard that, right?” Falcon asked.

Forge turned to the dragon, who had perched himself on Angela’s shoulder.

“When did you learn how to talk to everyone?”

Cinder gave him a toothy smile.

“Fight!”

Forge nodded in understanding.

“So, you did it during the fight? Alright. Good work!”

He paused as he looked at the dragon and weighed his next words.

“Cinder, you were a hero today.”

The dragon’s smile widened.

“Good dragon!”

“Yes, you are,” Forge agreed.

“I want you to know that I’m proud of you for saving Angela and us.”

Cinder wrapped himself around the neck of the girl, giving her a hug.

“Good dragon!”

“But I need you to understand. We don’t kill people unless there’s no other choice.”

He gestured to the many bodies covered by blankets.

“Today, you didn’t have a choice and did what you had to do, but it’s important that you understand we don’t kill people unless there’s no other option.”

Lioness snorted, but Forge ignored her.

“Killing your enemy is often necessary, but it can’t be our go-to solution. It’s too easy to make a mistake you can’t undo.”

Cinder’s eyes never left Forge as he spoke, and he nodded his head in agreement.

“Yes,”

Forge gave the dragon an approving smile.

“You really are a good dragon.”

Forge launched himself over to Forge and wound himself around his neck.

“Best dragon!”

Gideon laughed.

“Considering you’re the only dragon we know of, I’d say you’re the best and the…”

A kick to the shin from Angela cut him off.

Gideon looked down at the girl and gave her an apologetic look.

“Sorry.”

Angela stuck her tongue out at the swordsman before turning to Cinder with a grin.

“You’d think he’d be more polite to the dragon that saved him.”

“Polite!” the dragon sent, lifting his head to stare at Gideon.

“Especially considering how flammable his clothes are,” Angela continued.

Gideon rolled his eyes in response.

“After all, we have a cleric with us. So, you could burn his armor to a crisp and he’d be fine,” Angela said.

Gideon held his hands up in surrender.

“I give up. I apologize. Cinder is the best dragon in the world. No ifs, ands, or buts.”

Mollified, Angela nodded to him.

Lioness turned to the group with a triumphant smile.

“I think I know a way for us to get something out of our little detour.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

All eyes turned to the cleric.

“I make it my business to know which bandits are causing problems in the kingdom, and I believe this is Frank the Snake.”

Gideon brightened.

“So, there’s a reward?”

She nodded.

“A sizable one, if I’m not mistaken.”

Forge summoned his mask and placed it over his face, then turned to Angela.

“Tell me, what do you plan to do with your half of the reward?”

Angela blinked up at him in surprise.

“Wait. What!?” Gideon demanded.

Forge turned to face the swordsman.

“We didn’t stop the bandit. Angela and Cinder did. So, they get the reward.”

He reached up and scratched the dragon’s chin.

“Now, as Cinder is part of our team, he will, of course, add his half to the team fund, but Angela’s half is hers.”

Gideon placed his hands on his hips and stared back at him before throwing his hands up in the air.

“Fine!”

He gestured to Falcon and Lioness.

“Let’s see what we can salvage from the bandits and wagons.”

Without looking, Gideon held up a finger toward Forge.

“And I don’t want to hear it. Claiming the spoils from bandits is Adventuring 101.”

Forge nodded and turned to take Angela by the hand.

“Let’s see if we can figure out some food.”

Gideon watched the paladin as he walked with the girl over towards a supply wagon.

“And Forge. When it’s just the team, please remove your mask. I have a hard enough time winning an argument against a paladin without having to stare at myself while I do it,” he called after him.

Forge removed his mask and gave the swordsman a thumbs up, causing Angela to giggle at them.

Gideon sighed and turned to the bodies of the bandits.

“These bloody bandits better have more than a few silvers or I’m going to demand Forge pulls us back to the city in a wagon,” he muttered.

***

No one had been overly tired after their magical sleep, so the team got to work cleaning up the camp.

They buried all the bandits just outside the wagons’ enclosure, except for Frank the Snake, whom Forge stored in his ring to later trade in for the bounty.

Deciding to grab a few hours of sleep before heading out in the morning, Forge had kept watch while Green Falcon attempted to track down the horses.

In the end, it all worked out. Falcon, the only one of them with a general class, arrived back at camp riding a horse, with another in tow.

“Good work!” Forge said, eying the two beasts.

The ranger hopped off her horse, then led the pair over to the trough of water and hay.

She tied them to the post before finding a spot to sit down.

Forge joined her and the two sat in companionable silence for a few minutes.

“This has been a complete fiasco,” Falcon said, staring into the small campfire.

Forge shrugged.

“We took down a party of bandits that were preying on Guildies. Sounds like a pretty good day to me.”

She turned her gaze up to his masked face.

“We were supposed to work as a team for the first time on this mission. Instead, we almost died, got no System points, and are now heading back to the city.”

“Um…actually, I got two System points for the fight,” he said, wincing beneath his mask.

She stiffened.

“How in the world did you…” she broke off.

“The dragon. You got the System points the dragon received for the fight,” she said.

Forge nodded.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I had no idea that would happen.”

She snorted.

“You have no reason to apologize. In fact, this debacle is going to end up netting us more gold than we’d have received from the village job.”

Falcon stretched out her back, then slumped forward.

“No, the problem is twofold. One, the Guild won’t let us run the Tier One dungeon until someone on the team has the Dungeoneering skill. Otherwise, we won’t be able to loot the monsters. Two, we missed out on the opportunity to fight as a team.”

Forge sighed to himself. He had learned in their Dungeon Delving class that the Dungeoneering skill allowed an adventurer to loot creatures of their cores, reagents, meat, and even crafting items.

He had known he was missing something when he cleared that dungeon and lamented the loss of the loot.

A thought occurred to him.

“You know, I told everyone about my time in the dungeon. What if we went there and ran it as a team?”

Falcon raised an eyebrow.

“I thought you couldn’t tell anyone about the dungeon.”

“No. I said I wouldn’t tell anyone about the dungeon, but this is different,” he said.

Forge turned to look at the wagons the others were sleeping in.

“If everyone swore to keep its existence secret, we could run the dungeon. And, seeing as I have some points saved, I could take the Dungeoneering skill, and we could get that experience.”

Cinder’s head popped up from where he had rested it on his lap.

“No! Mana-gate!”

Surprised, he looked down at the dragon.

“I have a lot of skills to raise, not just the mana-gate. And I’ll need to have the skill, eventually. Besides, going to the dungeon will get us more System points than the ones spent.”

Falcon made a face.

“That may not be totally accurate. Remember what they said in the class? Running the same dungeon multiple times will net you much fewer System points, if any.”

Cinder leaped off his lap into the fire, then turned to him and stuck his tongue out.

Falcon stared at the dragon, who coiled up in a ball and rested his head on the burning coals.

“Why does he want you to open another mana-gate so soon?”

Forge laughed.

“He’s upset that I’m making him stay in my soul space while in the Guild. I told him when I open my third mana-gate, he could walk around with me, providing we got permission from the guildmaster.”

She nodded in understanding.

“Cinder, come here, please,” she told the dragon.

Raising his head, the dragon stepped out of the fire and sat in front of Green Falcon.

“Do you know how many mana-gates I have open?” she asked.

“No.”

“Zero. It costs five points just to open your first gate. The third gate takes fifteen, and that’s more points than most people see in their entire lives.”

The dragon scowled at her, but remained quiet.

“I haven’t opened a mana-gate because I needed to spend points on my classes and skills to survive long enough to gain the points to open one.”

“Forge didn’t,” the dragon responded.

Falcon turned her smile to Forge.

“That’s because Forge is crazy, and he didn’t have anyone to tell him how he should have done things.”

Cinder snorted.

“How exactly did you get the five points to open your first mana-gate before spending them on a class or skill?” she asked.

“I took a job protecting farms from predators at sixteen and just saved them,” he replied.

Falcon shook her head.

“I know for a fact that you don’t continue to gain points after fighting a specific beast. So, what was your last fight against?”

“A bear,” he replied.

“Bear?” Cinder asked, turning to look at him.

Forge grinned beneath his mask at the little dragon.

“It was smaller than the one that you met in the forest. But still pretty big.”

Falcon stared at him for a moment, then shook her head.

“Do you see, Cinder? Forge fought against a bear without a class or skill and somehow managed to kill it. I guess that’s why he’s a paladin and I’m not,” she said.

Reaching down to scratch Cinder between his horns, she gave him a bright smile.

“Besides, you get to hang out with all of us. And I’ll tell you a little secret that’s not generally known by other Rank One adventurers.”

She looked around theatrically to make sure no one else was listening.

“Adventurers and civilians rarely mingle. There’s a power gap that makes us a combination of celebrity and authority. Remember, we don’t just cull dungeons; adventurers are also the premier mercenaries for the Kingdom, Temple, Crafters, and anyone else that’s willing to spend the money.”

Forge held up a hand to stop her.

“What do you mean, we don’t mingle? Is it a Guild rule?”

The ranger shrugged.

“It’s not policy, but what happens when you have a Guildy capable of killing a monster that could threaten a town and some drunk guy in a bar throws a punch their way? Or someone gets jealous over their girlfriend or boyfriend fawning over them?”

“What happens?” Forge asked.

“Well, the guards are called, and depending on how powerful the adventurer is, there’s either a pointless fight, or they contact the Guild, who comes out and collects them. If someone dies, the Guild pays a wergild to the family, and they sanction the adventurer.”

Falcon looked over to where Angela was getting out of a wagon.

“It goes something like this: Teams have some sort of run-in with the public or the guard and someone contacts the Guild, and the team starts avoiding civilians.”

Forge followed her gaze to the small girl, who was making a beeline for the horses.

“What if I want to help people? Don’t I have to be around civilians?”

“Of course, but you do it in your official capacity. People put in a request to the Guild and then you arrive as an Adventurer to help them,” the ranger explained.

Forge contemplated her words. It made sense in a pessimistic sort of way. If he wanted the power to help people, he needed to make sure that he didn’t become part of the problem. And his presence alone could cause an issue.

Gideon stomped down from the hilltop privy and joined them at the fire.

“Breakfast, then back to the city?” the swordsman asked.

Forge nodded.

“Who’s cooking?”

“Well, considering you two stayed up, I guess I will. I hope you like beans and bread,”

Falcon got up and went to check on the horses, and Forge looked down at Cinder.

“Someone’s going to have to take the cooking skill,”

Nodding his head in agreement, Cinder flew up and landed on his shoulder and wound around his neck.

A problem for tomorrow, he decided.