Pov Adventurer Guild Master

I looked upon the city I used to call home. It is still the most beautiful place I’ve ever been to. I’m glad that I was able to live here for almost a year. At least there are some good parts about bureaucracy. It also seems that the past can be forgiven when there is a looming war on the horizon.

Currently, I am in a balcony cafe, enjoying the wonderful city. Each piece of architecture and every stone—they were all so perfect. It was not just called the City of the Masters because this was our capital, where we, as one of the four great powers of this world, resided. It was also because, as our title says, everything here was built by master craft.

While it is not the biggest city—that record goes to the Delvers—that was mainly because they let everyone live there. Here, there were only masters and their children. Here, we also have our deepest dungeon, the second deepest in the world. Currently, we are on the 92nd floor, yet we have been on that floor for 300 years. The Pixies have reached floor 93, but they’ve been stuck for nearly 500 years.

I have always wondered if perhaps it’s impossible to reach the end of the diamond rank and this is all that we are capable of. That would be funny in a sad way, because so many have died when we have fought each other with small skirmishes and assassinations for the entire length of this age. Things are a bit different now, as the possibility of a proper war looms on the horizon. I wonder if there will be anything left of the world then, and none of it might matter in the end.

Everyone knew who I was, but still, every waiter looked at me weirdly because I never ordered any food. I still paid them so they wouldn’t kick me out, and I drank coffee or tea or something of that kind to pass the time.

The reason was quite simple why I didn’t eat anything except for the rations I brought with me. I still remember the pain of eating food that wasn’t cooked by any of the masters. It was almost like eating shit, and I don’t want to experience that again when I’m leaving so soon.

I looked at the time and saw that there was about an hour left before the large meeting began. Many ships had arrived in the past week, and I was informed that one of them carried the minder of the Eternal City State. From my understanding, he didn’t receive the warmest of welcomes because apparently, he hadn’t brought City Lord Ace with him like he was supposed to.

The rumor said that he missed the letter, which was impossible for him, so I wondered what was going on. That feeling of uneasiness never really left me ever since I left the city-state. Fortunately, my mind was distracted as I walked towards the central office. There were many different architectural styles, and while I wasn’t a fan of every single one, some just caught my mind in just the right way.

When I reached the plaza outside the central office, there were already many groups gathered, waiting for the bell to ring and start this historic meeting. Looking around, I noticed that many strangers were here, but it was odd to see that even the beasts weren’t in one group, amongst those a few actual beast kin. They were the oldest and most likely the only remaining beast kin in the world.

It was truly unlucky for them that whenever they had children with humans, dwarves, elves, or the half-folk, their children would never be a beast kin—only the species of the other parent. They were able to keep their legacy through a dungeon wish. I don’t think anyone could have won that age besides them. The drive they must have had to try to save at least a little bit of their legacy must have been immense.

I was still alone, like a lone island, but I didn’t mind. I was actually looking forward to getting back to the city-state. While this place was amazing, that guild house in that city-state felt more like home to me right now than any other place in this world. Then the clear bell sounded. The clearest bell I’ve ever heard in my life. It rang three times, and the large doors to the central office opened up.

It was a huge building, fully circular, with huge columns made entirely of white stone with intricate black and gold patterns. It was not made of natural rock but was an old master’s creation. It could even withstand attacks from peak diamond ranks, which was a true achievement. I wondered if I would ever reach the peak. I only had a bit to go, but I don’t think they would ever let me into a diamond-ranked dungeon again.

Everyone started to fill in and find their seats, including the grandmasters of the council. Usually, only the council’s section was more grandiose than any other, but this time another section had been made to look just as important. It was no surprise to me that the beasts went and sat there. After about half an hour, the meeting started to discuss our alliance.

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It was a boring three hours. From the first 10 minutes, everyone already knew that we were going to form an alliance, so it was unfortunate that everything else after that seemed to be protocol to keeping up appearances and doing things the ‘right’ way. I perked up when the question of the free dungeons was raised.

"Currently, the plan is to keep them as neutral grounds. We suspect that the delvers and pixies are making a similar alliance, although I think theirs would be a looser one than ours. That being said, between the two of us, we have the control necklaces for five of the free dungeons. So perhaps our majority might turn the free dungeons into more of a power struggle than we first expected, especially because of the latest free dungeon."

I did not like to hear that. Hopefully, they will remain neutral grounds; I would hate to see the damage caused to the cities and the dungeons if we were to actually fight for their ownership. To my surprise, the proceedings were interrupted, and everyone was too stunned to act.

"About the free dungeons, I do have something to announce," said the minder I thought I knew. That feeling at the back of my neck finally seemed to flare up. Oh no, this was something bad—something serious. I watched as he walked from one of the back seats all the way to the front and then jumped down, breaking every procedure, and walked to the center to address everyone.

The nervousness of the room seemed to ramp up as no one understood what was going on, including me.

"What is the meaning of this? You are already on thin ice. What is it that you want to say before you are taken away?" one of the council members said, barely keeping his anger contained. Masters simply didn’t break protocol; that was not who we were—except I had once done that and paid the consequences.

"Well, yes, I guess I should be more upfront. I apologize for all of this, but it is necessary. I am invoking the ancient laws of the Messengers. And because of this, I am obligated to reveal my true self, however hard it might be."

Before I could start to puzzle out that meaning, I watched as the person I thought I knew placed a hand above his chest, and then it looked like he reached inside and started to pull out something. Everyone was on guard, but almost everyone here was diamond-ranked. We watched as he pulled out some sort of necklace that was shining exactly like the minder.

I watched in fascination as something that looked like his core imprinted onto a necklace of sorts, and then the person, whoever he was, crushed it, extinguishing a diamond core like it was nothing.

What remained was a platinum rank that was incredibly close to diamond. I watched as his face shifted, and so did his body, into the form of a dwarf, but it seemed like he had trouble keeping that form—most likely his talent giving him the ability to shift into almost any form.

"I will start out by saying that the former occupant of my disguise was killed when he unlawfully tried to take possession of a dungeon core he did not own."

That statement sent ripples throughout the entire assembled crowd. The council members were furious. An end of a diamond rank was a rare thing, even nowadays. But who was making this power play? Was our information wrong? Had the other two powers already formed an alliance and moved to claim the free dungeons?

"You claimed the right of a Messenger. I demand you state who you serve," one of the council members, who seemed the most composed, demanded.

“I represent the free dungeon that the adventurers who delved it named Eternal Training Ground. I’m also here to announce that Eternal Training Ground proclaims independence from any of the four powers. It asks to be left alone, but be certain that if provoked, it is not afraid to wage war on anyone who tries to kill or enslave it.”

“I see that many of you don’t believe me and think that I am from the other powers, trying to somehow subvert your expectations. Fortunately, we have a person here who can verify my claims.” I watched as this messenger pointed towards one of the beasts. It took me a moment to remember that he was an old, strong one who liked to talk about dungeon fortresses.

Before he stood up, he was handed a letter, and the person next to him whispered into his ear. From the looks of everyone, no one could hear what was said, which was impressive. I saw that every beast also looked at him, some in confusion and others in anger. He glanced at the letter for a moment, then burned it before anyone could stop him.

He then stood up and spoke, “The dungeon called Eternal Training Ground is indeed completely free and has been the entire time it has existed. I learned of this not too long ago and was forced to keep silent because they had my granddaughter hostage—the one that went to chain the core with the now confirmed dead minder of the Eternal City State.”

He then sat down, and he didn’t seem like he was going to elaborate on anything.

“Vixen, for the life of me, we must go,” the messenger said out loud. I watched as many servants—at least 100 among the almost 4,000 here—straightened their backs, including the one next to the beast representative who had just spoken, and as one, they started to walk to the center where the messenger currently was. Once again, he shifted into someone else, although he seemed to be trying to keep his form steady.

“The Eternal Training Ground doesn’t want the diplomatic relationships between our powers to start off even worse than they currently are. Because of this, all spies among your ranks will now stop their work. Here’s the letter announcing our independence and our sovereignty over the territory known as the Eternal City State.”

The letter then multiplied and flew to almost everyone, including the beast representative. I was numb at this point, not understanding what was happening. I was already getting shifty eyes looking at me, so I was probably going to be blamed for all of this.

“Screw the right of the messenger! We must question them all and get every piece of intelligence we can!” one of the council members yelled out loud.

The traitors had assembled around the messenger. The guards were already acting, but it seems everyone was too late. In an instant, a huge symbol appeared underneath the traitors, and before anyone could act, they were gone, teleported away.

“They’re only 500 kilometers towards the south,” one of the grandmasters immediately spoke up, and many were already rushing out to catch up to the traitors who had just escaped a fate worse than death. At least for now.

I just sat down in complete shock as everyone started to yell over each other. Yet in my mind, everything seemed to be clicking into place. All the inconsistencies finally made sense.

I looked towards the beast who had spoken, and our eyes met. It seems like we were both tired. The implications of it all were so large, and worst of all, I saw the panicking council. They had never had to contend with a new power. Especially the power of a dungeon that's completely free.

Still, the dungeon had only recently reached platinum rank, and many were pointing out correctly that we should have no problems subduing it properly this time. I once again had that feeling that it would be better to leave the dungeon alone, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Eventually, I lifted my head when I felt more attention on me. It seems that it was time for me to start answering questions I knew no one was going to like.

End of Book 5