Hans sat with Olza outside of Charlie’s bakery, drinking tea and watching Gomi’s front gate. From their seats, they could see into the clearing around the town, nearly all the way out to where the road entered the forest. An army of dark clouds slowly advanced, driving sunlight and blue sky away like a pushbroom.

“Weren’t you just saying how the plan was working well?” Olza asked.

“I know. I jinxed it.”

“Or you’re overreacting.”

Hans looked at Olza as he sipped. “Maybe. Maybe not.”

“I’m just saying that you can’t do this to yourself. Gomi will get visitors. There’s no changing that. If you brace for an invasion every time, you’ll drive yourself to an early grave.”

“Can we change the subject?”

Olza frowned. “For now, but I’m not dropping this. It’s for your own good.”

“Once we deal with these Golds, I’m heading back up the mountain. With harvesters moving to the dungeon full time, I need to do more for the Apprentices. They’ve helped us so much but aren’t getting challenged enough in their training. And we need more Apprentices to keep up with the dungeon growing so we can pull out more resources for our tradespeople.”

“Okay…”

“I know the mandrake root didn’t work out, and I’m sorry about that. What can we add next that would be most helpful for you?”

Tapping her chin, Olza thought. “The talons of cave crawlers are pretty useful ground into powder. Cure Curse, Cure Paralysis, Cure Petrification–all of those potions have cave crawler variations.”

Hans shivered. “Best job I have for those is Gold-ranked and ends with a lamia coven.”

“Lamias? Really?”

“Six of them. Their scales are pretty desirable, right?”

Olza said that was true. “On the alchemy side of that, lamia scales are used in a variety of resistance potions, mostly for types of spells that place an emphasis on attacking the mind.”

“I’m not excited about it, but you’re right. We should do it.”

“I won’t argue.”

“Didn’t think you would.”

A shout came from the watchtower overlooking the front gate. “Two lizardmen approach.”

Hans shouted up to the guard. “Is there a halfling with them? How about a wagon?”

“Just the two, sir.”

Would have been too much good luck for Mazo to visit again.

Standing to get a better look, Hans went to the front gate and looked at the two distant figures. Their tan coloration and rounded gecko noses were familiar, as was their style of walking barefoot and wearing leather greaves without shirts.

And their gates were known to him as well.

“Izz? Thuz?” Hans called to the lizardmen. They waved back.

His anxiety fell away.

When they were close enough to exchange hugs, Hans asked, “Is Mazo okay?”

“Yes, Mr. Hans,” Izz said. “She is well.”

Hans looked up at the lizardmen, scanning their faces. “Then what is it?”

The lizardmen looked at one another. Thuz asked, “Might I trouble you for some water, Mr. Hans?”

“Yes, of course.”

As the trio passed through the gates, Olza stood, surprised to see familiar faces.

“Good afternoon, Miss Olza,” Izz said, bowing his head gently in greeting.

“Izz? Thuz? This is a surprise.”

Hans said they were heading for the guild hall and invited Olza to join.

“Mr. Hans, we should warn you that the matter is delicate,” Izz said. “Our conversation might put Miss Olza at risk.”

Hans raised an eyebrow. “Risk as in mortal danger or risk as in illegal?”

“The latter, but perhaps a touch of the former.”

Olza laughed. The lizardmen looked at each other, the slight bulge to their lizard eyes exaggerating how quickly their eyes darted from the humans to one another.

“We’re probably going to give you the same speech, actually,” Hans said, explaining Olza’s laughter. “We’ve crossed some lines ourselves.”

“Interesting,” Thuz said, “It is unlike you to break rules.”

Hans held the guild door open for Olza and the lizardmen to pass through. Hans brought Izz and Thuz two tankards of fresh water, joining them at the guild hall table.

“No beer?” Izz asked.

“I don’t have near enough beer for you two.”

The lizardmen chuckled. “Very wise. Very wise.”

The four sat in silence for a beat.

“Guys,” Hans said, finally, “out with it.”

Izz dug through his bag and removed a book wrapped in white cloth, passing it across the table to Hans. Next, Izz handed him a sealed letter. “Miss Mazo would like you to read this first.”

Cautiously, Hans accepted the envelope as well and slid his finger under the lip to break the seal. He read the letter.

Hans,

The Guild is going to question you about Gret, and this package is why.

Shandi had it couriered to me. That must have taken a big chunk out of her nest egg to do that. I’ve written her since and haven’t heard back.

Her letter said she found it packing for a move, and she found it with instructions from Gret. I don’t know what Gret’s letter said exactly. She didn’t send it or say, but Gret’s instructions were to give it to me, you, or Boden, whoever was nearest to her at the time.

Hans. I don’t know what to do here. Do we return it? Do we sell it? Hells, if you think we should just burn it, I’m with you. Chuck it right into that little guild hall fireplace of yours. I wish Gret was alive so he could explain what the fuck this is about and then I’d kill him again.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Gods. It’s just like him to be a pain in the arse from the afterlife.

I miss him. I wish I knew what he wanted us to do.

-Mazo

Hans passed the letter to Olza without speaking and then centered the package on the table in front of him. He stared at it for a long moment, took a deep breath, and unwrapped the fabric. The hardback back within was battered and tattered, its corners crumpled and shredded. The body of the book slid away from the cover, its spine no longer attached.

The cover read The Misadventures of the World’s Greatest Misadventurer, Book 3: The Hairy Hydra by Haynu B. Dumas. Hans chuckled.

“I think this one ends with a demon battle in a brothel,” Hans said, smiling at the cover.

Hans opened the cover. His brow furrowed.

“What the hell is this, Gret?” Hans mumbled.

Every page had the yellow stiffness of age. The title page bore the Adventurers’ Guild insignia and nothing else. Hans turned to the next page and started to read the cursive of scholars of yesteryear. This style in particular was common during a specific King’s reign, some peculiarity that he rigorously enforced.

The slant, size, and pen width had to be exactly uniform. Once that King died, scholars never returned to that style out of spite. That meant what he read was at least a thousand years old. The cover itself was just that, a cover, a way to hide the contents. Dumas wrote his books only a few decades ago.

The book was a manual for a device called “The Takarabune.” Hans had never heard of it. From the schematics and other illustrations, it looked like an astrolabe to him, a complicated celestial navigation device sailors sometimes used. In person, the device would be roughly six inches in diameter, but in the book the schematics made it look like an arcane pocket watch. Several layers of circles and dials stacked on top of one another, each capable of being set according to longitude, latitude, or the stars.

Flipping pages quickly, he saw notes and detailed measurements for shaping materials specific to each part. After that were what looked like instructions for calibrating and using the astrolabe, but the application the book described was not a form of traditional navigation Hans knew.

The Guild Master stiffened. He looked up at the lizardmen and then back down to the book.

“Did Mazo talk to you about this?” Hans asked.

Izz and Thuz nodded.

Olza leaned forward. “What’s in the book that has you guys freaked out?”

“The Guild assigns all of the Diamond quests. When a Gold completes one of the quests, they uncover whatever ability or boon or enchanted item takes them to Diamond, so finding those quests is incredibly valuable to the Guild.”

“Okay…”

“Only the Hoseki Guild Master knows how those quests are found, and the Guild guards that secret with deadly seriousness. This… This is that secret.”

Olza whistled. “Why would Gret steal this?”

“What Rogue wouldn’t want to steal the most valuable item in the world?”

New Quest: Analyze the manual for the Takarabune.

***

Galad was happy to sell a keg of beer to the lizardmen. Thuz put it on his shoulder and carried it back from the Tribe lands, promising not to empty Hans’ stash when that keg inevitably went dry. Halfway back to Gomi, a steady drizzle began to fall.

Hans and Olza now sat in the guild hall with Izz and Thuz, everyone dripping from the rain. Hans started a fire and passed around towels while the lizardmen got started with enjoying Gomi’s most popular export.

As the group talked around a guild table, Hans couldn’t help but glance across the room at the book sitting on his desk. He still felt like he was imagining the entire scenario, and he worried about Gret’s treasure mysteriously going missing. That wasn’t a genuine possibility, but the feeling reminded him of being a kid with his first handful of copper coins. He stuffed them in his pocket, and the whole way to the market he couldn’t help but pat his leg to confirm his money was still there.

“The Guild sent two letters,” Thuz said. “One was to inform Miss Mazo that her recommendations were declined. The other was a summons to Hoseki for undisclosed matters of ‘great importance.’ Miss Shandi’s package arrived the following day.”

“Recommendation?” Hans asked.

“She suggested the Guild assign us our Diamond quests.”

“They rejected you?” Hans said, raising his voice. “On what grounds?”

“The Guild provided no explanation," Thus said. “Miss Mazo was quite angry about it.”

Olza asked, “I take it the two of you are ready to advance to Diamond?”

The lizardmen shrugged. “Is not our place to say,” Izz answered.

“They’ve been ready for two or three years now, at least,” Hans said. “Mazo’s standards are higher than the Guild’s. She raised hers when she saw how badly my Diamond quest went. Said she’d never put one of her students through that.”

Olza nodded. “Will they change their minds?”

Izz and Thuz said they weren’t sure, but Mazo reacted as if the decision was final. If they hadn’t summoned her to Hoseki, she would have gone herself regardless.

The lizardmen had pristine reputations inside and outside of the guild. They completed any job they took and did so according to Guild procedures and policies with nothing but positive reviews from their clients. From childhood, they trained under the same instructor who produced Master Devontes–Hans–and from Apprentice onward had the mentorship of history’s greatest Blue Mage, which was Mazo, of course.

Mazo suspected the Guild would use Izz and Thuz’s promotions as bargaining chips, a way to convince her to be forthcoming about everything she could remember about Gret. Hans didn’t say it out loud, but he worried her association with him had long put her Guild activities under increased scrutiny. Izz and Thuz didn’t deserve to be caught in the politics any more than she did.

“If the Guild decides they don’t want you to make Diamond,” Olza began, “is that it? You just don’t get to advance?”

Hans crossed his arms. “Technically, that was it. Nobody else had access to Diamond quests before.”

“Have you decided to keep the book, Mr. Hans?” Izz asked.

“I don’t know. The Guild won’t stop looking for it, and if they go long enough without making progress, they’ll loop back around to investigate Gret’s associates again eventually.”

Olza agreed. “They didn’t look very hard the first time. That’s true.”

“What would you guys do?”

“Mr. Gret wanted you to protect this. I did not know Mr. Gret as well as you,” Thuz said, “but in my time with him, I found his judgment to be infallible when matters were serious.”

“I also have no doubts of Mr. Gret’s judgment,” Izz added.

Olza was confused when Hans looked to her. “Oh, you want my answer too?”

Hans said he did.

“I never had the pleasure of meeting Gret, so I can’t speak to his intentions. No matter what we do with it, the Guild will look for it. I agree. Returning the book is the only way they’d stop, but that’s not an option.”

“Would be a bit awkward to hand it over,” Hans said.

“So that leaves keep it, destroy it, or sell it. Whatever the choice, we should take our time and give it a lot of thought. Maybe if you all spend some of that time remembering Gret, you’ll have a better idea of what he wanted you to do with this.”

The Guild Master nodded and asked Olza if she had any blank notebooks, preferably several. She said that she might and asked why.

“I’m going to copy this and then give the original to Luther for safekeeping.”

Izz and Thuz raised what would be eyebrows on a human.

“Luther is trustworthy,” Olza assured them.

“I recall meeting him on our first visit,” Izz said. “I did not know he was a skilled warrior.”

“He isn’t. Heard he’s got a mean uppercut, though.”

That made the lizardmen more confused.

“This sounds unbelievable, but if I explain, the two of you will be even deeper in the muck,” Hans warned.

“Deeper than the book?”

Hans nodded. “I would entrust the book to Luther because he lives at the bottom of a dungeon.”

Izz and Thuz were both in the process of lifting steins to their lips. Hearing Hans’ words, they stopped, and slowly lowered them back to the table.

“Mr. Hans,” Thuz began. “You have been good to us, and your teachings have saved our lives several times over. We are loyal to the Adventurers’ Guild, yes, but our loyalty to you and Miss Mazo is greater. If this is a split in our path where we either follow the Guild or follow our teachers, we choose our teachers, without hesitation.”

Izz nodded as Thuz spoke, confirming every sentence.

“I’m humbled,” Hans said, bowing his head. “Luther lives in a dungeon we found near here, and that’s not the weirdest part. Not even close.”

***

Open Quests (Ordered from Old to New):

Progress from Gold-ranked to Diamond-ranked.

Mend the rift with Devon.

Using a pen name, complete the manuscript for "The Next Generation: A Teaching Methodology for Training Adventurers."

Expand the dungeon with resource-specific monsters for each of Gomi’s major trades.

Find a way for Gomi adventurers to benefit from their rightful ranks in the Adventurers’ Guild.

Secure a way to use surplus dungeon inventory for good.

Investigate entering Kane and Quentin in the Osare combat tournament.

Analyze the manual for the Takarabune.