As Olivander predicted, the city lockdown lifted the next day. The group made quick goodbyes to Leviana, and stopped by the guild hall as a courtesy, to let them know they would no longer be in the city.

Jeremy wasn't working, but the clerk at the desk was very confused when he looked up Olivander's record and found that the man had been banned from entering the guild hall. The ban should have lasted for a month, but it was rescinded two days later. With all the craziness in the city, he guessed it would have been ridiculous to keep a ban on a platinum rank member. He marked them as having left the city and thanked them for their assistance.

They departed the guild hall, heading through the city. As they approached the southern gates, they were stopped by a voice.

"Wait! Gregory! Mr. Olivander!"

To Gregory's absolute surprise, it was Gloria. She was wearing sleek leather armor, and he initially thought it was odd to see a refined woman like her running down the street in armor, he had to admit she looked more natural than he did.

"Lady Westing! This is a surprise. I apologize for not stopping to let you know we were leaving," Olivander said.

She was a little out of breath when she caught up, but she regained her composure quickly.

"I apologize for holding you up, but I wanted to ask you all a question. I was hoping I would be able to travel with you for a time."

Gregory's pulse quickened and he felt his face flush a little. He had become friends with Gloria, resigning himself that the slightly older woman was out of his league entirely, and just enjoying time with her. He never imagined she'd want to travel with them.

"Hmm," Olivander said, giving her an assessing look. "Why do you want to come with us?"

It was Gloria's turn to flush. "Ahh, well. Working with Gregory and Cooper, and you of course, Mr. Olivander, was the most exciting thing that has happened to me in a long time. I'm a Steel ranked adventurer, but I've never really gone far beyond Serin. I worked as a healer in the area for a few years, and then stopped to focus on my family's business ventures.

"If I'm being honest, I think I felt a little trapped by responsibility. I have made all the arrangements to be gone for an extended trip."

"And now you think a life of adventure sounds like something you can just pick up? And that it will be a satisfying and fulfilling way to spend your time?"

"Ah, yes. I think so."

Olivander let the idea marinate. Gregory wanted to welcome her immediately, but he also didn't want to look too eager to get her on board. Play it cool. That's what he thought.

"We're traveling south, towards Mardareth. If we bring you, I expect three things."

He held up a finger, counting up.

"First, you'll have to participate in training with these two. It won't be too onerous for a Steel rank adventurer, but it won't be easy either. Second, I would like you to tutor both of my students in ritual healing magic. Finally, you need to stop calling me mister. It's just Olivander. Naturally my two companions would need to approve of you coming along as well."

"I would love to have you. We! We would love to have you," Gregory said, immediately wishing there was a hole he could crawl into.

"Welcome aboard!"

"We're not setting sail, Cooper, but I appreciate the enthusiasm," Olivander said, looking at Gloria for an answer.

"That all sounds great, Olivander."

"Excellent! I do hope that takes care of today's surprises."

"Olivander!" a voice called from around the corner.

"Still cursed it seems."

An exhausted Jeremy arrived next to them, bracing his hands on his knees and taking in deep gulps of air. He was wearing a large backpack with a bedroll.

"Whew. I didn't think I was going to catch you. I tried to get to the guild hall early, but I was delayed trying to settle things with my landlord."

"Jeremy, is there somewhere I can portal you? Perhaps very, very far away?"

"Not at all. The guild wants me to work as a liaison to you! Leadership is very interested in the mana imbalances in the kingdom, and I figured you would probably end up at the center of things."

Olivander sighed and almost said something but stopped himself.

"Jeremy is coming too? This is the best!" Cooper said, running over for some scratches. They had become close as Jeremy had worked with the team during the mindrot crisis.

"Fine, fine. I guess it's better than you just showing up in the next city."

With the group complete, they set out south.

* * *

The forest south of Serin was dense and not very populated. They would pass through a couple villages over the next few days, but there likely wouldn't even be an inn to stay. Most people rode with caravans through these woods and didn't stop at the villages unless there was trading to be done.

Olivander had decided they would walk instead of finding another caravan. It would be a longer journey, but that just meant more time for training.

He and Jeremy walked together while he sent the other three running ahead.

"Why is Gloria training with the boys?"

"I made her agree to it before bringing her with us. She wanted to join us for adventure, so if she wants to be an adventurer she can train like one."

"Does running actually help?"

Olivander had fielded that question many times over the years. All his students wanted to know, primarily so they could get out of it.

"That's an interesting thing. On its face, unless you have something like a Courier non-combat class, running won't gain you any experience or help you progress. There has been some research into whether it might net you more constitution points or dexterity points as you level, but there's never been anything conclusive there.

"Instead, what it does help with is overall conditioning. Abilities, at least physical ones, use stamina, but so does simply carrying a weapon, or running around a battlefield or dungeon. It's somewhat negligible if you're not fighting, but as soon as you are, your recovery slows and suddenly that basic movement is robbing you of endurance.

"Being in shape is the best way to extend that, reducing your stamina consumption and keeping you at your best for as long as possible. Believe me when I say we all might not have made it out of the Rhodes' manor if I wasn't in decent shape."

"So why aren't you running?" Jeremy asked.

"I do, but I've maintained my fighting edge for a long time, and don't need long runs to get myself over that hill. Plus, I can cheat."

Olivander conjured his grimoire and flipped it to a particular page. He was able to project the image of the ritual over the book, though he would need to draw it himself to use it.

"A spell that converts mana into stamina. If I really needed to, I could use that. But like I said, even in an endurance trial, I was never limited by stamina. Partly due to the very training our three companions are now doing, and partly because I'm more of a caster than physical fighter, though I do both."

Jeremy accepted the explanation, and they walked for another half hour.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

"Well, I think they're probably far enough ahead of us now. Why don't we catch up?"

Olivander opened a portal.

"Can I ask you a personal question, Olivander?"

"You can, but I might not answer."

"Why are you walking to Mardareth? If I understand your abilities correctly, it would be just as easy for you to open a portal there than a few miles up the road."

Olivander closed the portal. He could see Jeremy tense up slightly, suddenly reminded that he was alone in the middle of a deserted stretch of road deep in a forest with a man who could easily kill him.

"Relax. I'm not going to kill you and leave you in the woods."

"Ha, yeah," Jeremy said awkwardly.

"Why don't we walk a little more?"

They started back down the road and Olivander thought about why he was walking. He let himself think out loud.

"I haven't really thought about it, to be honest. Part of me has always clung to the notion that I don't want to disappoint my mother, so I'm delaying going to see her as long as possible. I know that's not really it. My mother very likely already knows that I'm no longer Arch-magus."

Olivander's eyes wandered the woods, spotting the occasional bird. He didn't look at Jeremy. He wasn't sure why he was telling the man all this.

Jeremy spoke after a minute. "Why would your mother be disappointed? From what I understand, you were very successful at being Arch-magus. Fifteen years right? That's nothing to sneeze at."

"Jeremy, do you know much about the position of Arch-magus?"

"Not really. I just know that the Magi council and the Arch-magus work for the Queen to protect the kingdom and deal with magical problems."

"Nothing about the history of the position?"

"I don't think so."

"I was made Arch-magus at the relatively young age of twenty-seven. The Arch-magus before me was my father. He was Arch-magus for eleven years, and a High Magus long before that. He died in the position, protecting our kingdom, our very world.

"My mother never wanted him to take the position. She has an ability that is as powerful as it is painful, Clairvoyance. She knew something terrible would happen to him if he took the job. He did it anyway. My father, above all else, was a fighter. He would fight and struggle and do anything to protect his homeland.

"When he died, I was already a High Magus. No one else on the council wanted to take up the position, so it fell to me…"

Olivander lapsed into silence.

When it was clear he wasn't going to start back up on his own, Jeremy cleared his throat.

"And your mother didn't want you to take the position?"

Olivander laughed bitterly. "On the contrary. When I went to her and asked what she thought, she told me I would be the greatest Arch-magus to ever live."

He picked up a rock and hurled it at a tree. He didn't have any strength powers, but his stats were quite high. The rock struck a thick tree limb, and it exploded into a cloud of splinters.

"From anyone else. I would have brushed it off. From my mother? Who can see glimpses of the future? How could I possibly live up to something like that?

"I tried. In the end though, here I am. Removed from my position in the most disgraceful way possible."

Olivander sighed and stopped walking. He finally looked at Jeremy.

"So I guess, to answer your question, Jeremy. I'm walking to Mardareth because I know I need to get there, but I'm afraid what my own mother will say when I arrive."

Jeremy looked at him with a slightly concerned expression.

"Thank you for sharing that, Olivander. I think you should think about what she told you though. You did great things as Arch-magus, did you not? However you left the office, it doesn't change what you did while you were in it."

* * *

The group continued heading south more or less as a unit. Gregory, Cooper, and Gloria would occasionally run ahead, but they stayed together otherwise. Caravans passed them occasionally, all heading towards Serin. It seemed that trade was still taking time to ramp back up, and they saw no caravans heading south.

Olivander was more quiet than usual, but he still drilled everyone on fighting stances in the afternoons, even making Jeremy practice and activating Sous to join in. Sous used Olivander's conjuration spell to make himself a long spoon to practice with instead of a sword though.

Later in the day, Gloria would walk the group through various healing rituals, and Olivander would help with comments about how the rituals worked, and even pointing out the occasional flaw in Gloria's rituals. They worked just fine, it was usually just about efficiency, and she appreciated the pointers.

Over the week it took to pass through the forest, sword skills were starting to take shape, and the group was becoming more and more proficient at a number of healing rituals.

Olivander spoke to Gregory and Cooper as they were walking through the last stretch of forest.

"The forest marks the end of a relatively safe portion of land. As we approach Du'la'melio, the magical density increases. Along with that comes more opportunity for danger."

"I get that magical density increases the amount of available mana in the area," Gregory said, "but I don't understand why that would make things more dangerous."

"Monsters walk the world, Gregory. Like the Ghost Howlers, Ghoul Mimics and any number of other creatures. Some are natural, forming colonies out in the world, living life like any wild animal. Some are dungeon spawned, either by undetected or old dungeons. Regardless of where a monster comes from, they're naturally drawn to places with a magical density that matches their own relative level of power."

"Most of the monsters we'll see on the plains heading into Du'la'melio are actually spawned by the dungeon there. Even one as large, stable, and popular as that one don't perfectly contain the excess power, but it is very good at spreading it out. The power level of the monsters should be around your own level now, so it's the perfect time to get some more combat training in."

"So the monsters aren't just dumped right into the city, but are instead randomly manifested all over the plains?"

"Precisely. They would hardly build a city around a permanent dungeon if it did that."

"Why is that dungeon permanent?"

"Good question. It's because it covers a tear in our reality. A window that can't be closed."

"Like an entrance to another Realm?"

"Not quite. There are Realms that don't have what we might experience as physical locations. So instead of an entrance to a new place, you end up with a bubbling pool of power. That's a very rough explanation, and there are exceptions, but it is how the dungeon in Du'la'melio works."

"What Realm does the power come from?"

They were coming to the end of the forest canopy, and the bright sunlight beyond the edge of the trees formed a bright wall that was difficult to see through.

"Why don't you take a guess?" Olivander said, then he walked quickly ahead, passing into the bright sunlight.

Cooper looked at Gregory, and Gregory shrugged. Then they too passed through the curtain of light.

As their eyes adjusted, they looked out over a huge basin. It was lush and green with a few flowing rivers that crossed the land. There were some sparse trees near the forest, but they thinned out to green grasslands below.

"Oh look!"

In the distance, Gregory could see a geyser shooting hot water into the sky. As the water fell, it condensed into tiny shapes that moved around the area.

"There's one closer," Cooper said, pointing with his nose towards another geyser to their left, just beyond the trees.

There was a herd of some kind of animal Gregory had never seen waiting under the falling waters. They were enormous, bigger than a wagon, with gray skin and long noses that they could use like arms.

The geyser waters condensed as they fell towards the waiting creatures. From this distance, Gregory could tell they were small water elementals. The massive animals would reach down with their noses and grab the elementals. As soon as a nose touched an elemental, it froze, and the animal pulled it up into its mouth.

"Oh, wow! Are they eating the elementals?"

"Those are elephants," Olivander explained. "Natural animals that have adapted to the magic here and use it to live. They mostly feed on the abundant grasses and a little from the trees, but they also consume the elementals for power. They're supposed to be very intelligent."

"What is that!?" Cooper said, and then he took off in the opposite direction.

There were mounds of dirt a little way off the road, and Gregory thought he could see a small furry head peeking out of a hole at the top of a mound. When Cooper got close, it ducked back into the hole.

He laughed as Cooper tried to capture one of the creatures; he would dart to one hole, just missing, then run back to another as one of the creatures popped up again.

"What are they?" Gregory asked.

"I'm not sure. Some kind of volvin maybe?"

"I didn't see any sacks."

"Your guess is as good as mine, then."

Once Gloria and Jeremy caught up, they wrangled Cooper from his chase and headed down into the basin.

"Have you guessed yet?" Olivander asked Gregory and Cooper.

"Guessed what?"

"The Realm the dungeon is connected to. I'm honestly trying not to be quite so mean to you, Gregory, but you're really making it a challenge. Maybe I should take on an elephant as an apprentice instead."

"Water!"

"See, Gregory, was that so hard? You are absolutely correct, my four legged friend. The dungeon in Du'la'melio sits atop a window into the Elemental Realm of Water. That will become even more apparent as we approach the city. It is located at the far end of this basin. We should be able to see it early tomorrow, and arrive sometime tomorrow afternoon.

"Now! Let's see if we can't find some water elementals for you two to fight along the way."