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Scorched Gauntlets - Rank C

Forged by the famed fire Elemental leatherworkers of Mount Hule, these leather gauntlets offer blunt protection and increased efficiency for fire Mages. Imbued with a special flame-type Flux and high-level flame runes, these gauntlets can boost the heat of any fire created by the mage by dozens of degrees.

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“Huh,” I said dumbly as I stared at the information on the screen before me. The gloves – or, gauntlets, apparently – had prompted the screen the moment I’d touched them. I slipped the gloves on as I read the blurb, more than shocked at their effect. I had no idea something like that was even possible, and the avenues it opened up for future loot were endless. What else could be created? What else was possible? What else could armor do? The prospects were exhilarating.

The leather gloves were snug against my skin. They were lightweight, with thin, padded armour on my forearms and even thinner, stretchy leather that reached down past my hand and halfway up my fingers. The armor was a pleasant shade of brownish red, and I felt it matched my style well.

I was itching to give my new gloves a go, but we were all out of enemies to fight, and I didn’t think the rest of the group would be quite as excited to give the dungeon another run. Not that we could, anyway. It took a few days at least for a dungeon to repopulate itself after a run – longer, even, depending on how much of it was cleared.

We’d all had a long day, anyway, so after we collected our prizes and spent a considerable amount of time lounging around, comparing and showing them off, we made our way out of the dungeon to head back to camp. There was an exit just at the end of the third stage’s arena, a portal nearly identical to the one we’d entered through.

We stepped through to find ourselves in exactly the same clearing that held the entrance portal, only on the other side of the grassy field. We stepped out with broad smiles and constant chatter, markedly happier than we had been when we’d entered. And for good reason – after all, we’d far overshot our initial goals, albeit in a wildly strange, roundabout way. Najam and his group, especially, were over the roof.

Ren and I had never been very invested in clearing the dungeon, after all. We’d helped to repay Najam’s generosity, but at the end of the day, whether we succeeded or not didn’t really have much importance to us. Not that we really understood the importance of what we’d accomplished, anyway.

But to Najam and his group, it was beyond amazing, the fortune that had found its way to their laps. As Najam explained, with the dungeon cleared for the first time, future runs would be markedly easier. It was a feature of dungeons, I learned, that the first clear was always the most difficult. Afterward, the difficulty level of the monsters would decrease, making it possible for less skilled adventurers to attempt.

With a three-star dungeon cleared, it opened up a venue for farming an amazing amount of money. Our run had already netted us an incredible amount of gold – double the average amount, apparently. Najam’s party was practically drooling over the amount of resources they’d be able to gather by farming the dungeon, especially since they wouldn’t even have to run the dungeon themselves anymore.

So the team was in a great mood as we made our way through the forest, heading back to camp. It was almost sunset by then, and the waning sun painted the sky in vibrant pinks and purples. What little sunlight filtered through the trees cast a deep orange warmth over my skin, and I felt a peace settle in me as I basked in the pleasant scene. But there was a tinge of melancholy, too.

With the dungeon cleared, there was little reason for me and Ren to remain here. We had quite a journey ahead of us, with five long months of forest to trek through to get to the closest city. And with the Karmore entrance exam in only eight months, it was best to leave as soon as possible, in case we ran into trouble on the way. And considering the experiences I’d had with the forest, I knew better than most that our path would be absolutely teeming with trouble.

Unbeknownst to me, my rumination surfaced on my expression. I only realized when Najam quietly appeared beside me and gave me a little friendly nudge. “Oh, don’t look so sad, Ruby,” he said. “This won’t be goodbye forever. We’ll see each other again – in about eight months, actually.”

His words cut through the conversations of the rest of the group, a sombre silence muffling the lively air as everyone heard him. I looked at Najam, my attention snagging on the last sentence. “What do you mean?” I asked.

Najam smiled at me. “Oh? Did I forget to mention? I’ll be attempting the Karmore entrance exam with you two.”

I raised an eyebrow at that. “Really? But why? You’re already an adventurer, no?”

Najam shook his head. “Actually, technically, I’m not. I’m only here because of my family name, really.”

“Yeah, Najam’s an oddball like that,” Tara said from the side with a laugh. “Other spoiled brats of the capital use their family’s money and influence to get away with petty crime, ensure all danger and discomfort stays far away from them, and just otherwise enjoy their sheltered lives to their fullest. Najam here gets his family to buy him a place on adventurer expeditions, so he can spend his time camping out in the woods and fighting with his life on the line.”

Najam smiled with pride at Tara’s words.

“Huh, I was wondering why Najam was so much younger than the rest of you all,” Ren remarked from the back.

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Tara nodded. “Yeah, he’s technically not allowed to be here. You can only get an adventurer’s license after graduating from an institution like Karmore. But Najam, with his family backing, and substantial record, is a special case.”

“Wait, so the rest of you have graduated from a school like Karmore?” I asked.

Najam’s group nodded. “And not just any school,” Gyda said, “but Karmore itself. All of us here are Karmore Alumni.” She said it with the pride of someone claiming a massive achievement, but since I had no context to compare against, I wasn’t as awed as she expected me to be.

“Of course,” Tara said with equal amounts of pride. “The Bow Hawk family would hire nobody but the best for their prized son.”

Najam scoffed at that. “I’d hardly say prized, now,” he said with a face. “More like the ‘complicated son they don’t know what to do with.’”

Najam’s words were spoken casually, but there was clearly a lot of drama hidden behind them. But a careful study of Najam’s face revealed little complexity in emotion, and absolutely no sadness, regarding the topic; whatever the drama was, it seemed, Najam was long over it.

“Wait wait,” Ren cut into the conversation then, “I’ve got questions.” Turning to Tara, he asked, “I thought you all were adventurers?”

Tara nodded. “We are. But adventurers have many jobs, as Najam said. For example, the four of us,” she gestured at herself, Gyda, Lionel, and Galas, “have been hired by the Bow Hawk family to watch over Najam for a long time. And there are groups just like us who watch over each of the family’s scions. It’s actually quite a common career choice for adventurers – especially retired or otherwise disabled adventurers. It’s not so exciting, but it pays well.”

“The four of us have been watching over little Najam here since he was just a wee little boy, in fact,” Gyda added with a teasing smile thrown at the wee boy in question.

“Wait, why did you four take a job like this?” I asked. “You all don’t seem retired.”

Tara smiled at that. “Of course not. We’re still in our prime, actually.”

“Well, some of us, anyway,” Najam cut in, taking the jab so fast it seemed almost subconscious.

“We took the job ‘cause it paid damn well,” Tara continued on, acting as if Najam hadn’t spoken at all. “And also because…” Tara trailed off there, her eyes taking on a faraway look. “Well, we owed Najam’s parents a favor.”

Her words cast a sombre light on the faces of the group – clearly, there was a story there, too – but I was respectful enough not to pry.

“Wait, you guys know Najam’s parents?” Well, respectful enough not to pry too much.

“Aye,” Lionel answered, that same faraway look in his eyes. “Good people, they were. Some of the best around.”

“They are,” Najam corrected, a steel in his voice I’d never heard before.

The group went silent at that, the somber light of before returning with newfound intensity.

Tara noticed the mood taking a dip and tried to lift it again. “Well, the job’s not all bad,” she said, an extra helping of cheer in her voice. “Sure, Najam’s a handful at times, stubborn as an ox, thick-skulled, can’t read a room to save his life, did I mention stubborn-”

“Are you going somewhere with this?” Najam asked, cutting into her list and prompting smiles from everyone around.

“Sure I was,” Tara responded. “I was going to say, for all his annoying little traits, he’s a good kid.” A soft smile touched Tara’s lips. “One of the best around.”

The rare moment of kindness caught everyone off guard, Tara included. Everyone seemed to be at a loss for words, and an awkward air settled on the group – at least until my foot snagged on a root and sent me sprawling face-first to the ground.

Immediately, and in unison, the group burst into laughter, as if a rehearsed bit in a comedy. The mingling sound was infectious as it echoed in the forest, enough that I couldn’t help the smile that tugged at my lips, too, even though I was the butt of the joke.

“Isn’t-Isn’t that-” Ren fought out in between fits of laughter. “Isn’t that the same root? From before?”

The group took a second to understand what he meant, but when they did, it sparked off another round of laughter. I joined in myself as I realized that it really was the same root I’d tripped on the way to the dungeon, just earlier in the day.

With the somber air thoroughly dispelled, the group lapsed back into the easy banter of before as we made our way to camp. The weight of looming goodbye on my chest was eased a little, knowing that our goodbye would only be for a few months. While the expedition would stay here for a few years, Najam’s group would be back in the city just in time for Najam to attempt the Karmore exam.

They wouldn’t be leaving with us, though, since they had a special way to return, given to them by Najam’s family, that would allow them to skip the five-month journey and appear directly in the city. It was a high-level spatial Arte – obscenely expensive, even by Najam’s standards – and linked to a special talisman given to each of them by the family.

By the time the conversation reached that point, the group had arrived back at camp. We arrived in loud triumph, and when the adventurers present finally figured out what we were celebrating, they all too happily joined in. A grand feast was held that day, later in the night, when all the adventurers had returned from their own jobs. Of course, by their standards, the feast was a humble one, limited by the resources they had on hand, but the festive mood was more than enough to make up for any lack in the food.

And the mood was indeed festive. The adventurers, if nothing else, knew how to throw a party. Raucous laughter echoed within the walls of the camp as bonfires raged. People sang and danced, and even Ren was forced to play for the people, given a strange stringed instrument that I’d never seen on Earth. Neither had Ren, according to him, but almost nobody believed him; it took him a total of ten minutes before he more or less mastered the instrument, at least to my ears. Before long, he was sat serenely in the midst of a sea of flailing limbs and vulgar singing, blanketing the clearing with his heavenly music.

By the time the party finally winded down to a close, the far edges of the night had already been torn through by the first rays of dawn. I was sprawled on the dirt somewhere in the camp – even I wasn’t quite sure where – ribs sore from laughter and cheeks from smiling. I’d spent the better part of the night passing from group to group, making friends and mingling with the adventurers. I’d learnt much about the world and its inner workings, and I’d regaled my many audiences with stories of Earth, both of its end and of normal life on it.

At the end of it all, as I lay basking in the warmth of the rising sun, in the sounds of sleeping adventurers and waking birds, I felt a smile stretch over my face, warmed by the remnant embers of laughter. I thought of where I’d been, and where I was now. Where I was headed. Of the person who’d given it all so I could be where I was today. My smile widened, and I whispered aloud,

Damn, it's good to be alive.