A few days later, Chase finally received a reply from Kim. He re-read his own message, cringing at how he’d hovered around the word ‘date’. Instead, he asked if she wanted to ‘meet up’, like it was a drug deal or something. He’d almost suggested a ‘tryst’, before Enro advised him that the word was sometimes used to suggest a secret meeting between lovers.

For once, his System’s opinionated suggestions actually helped.

Before their ‘meet up’, however, Chase had to finish up that morning’s Raid and make yet another trip to Herb’s. Marcus and Mia were extremely thankful for their new shields, so much so that when Jamie called in sick and David requested a day off to play the newest video game in the Bold Hearts series, the three of them stepped up to complete the Raid without the others.

Marcus’s Energy Sequestering Kite Shield performed in a similar way to David’s Talent, except instead of holding down foes using magical energy, the Tank could sap energy by walloping enemies over the head with his shield. The effect wasn’t as immediately effective, but with the monsters focused on the two tanks, it stacked up fast.

Mia, on the other hand, had received the Reactant Propulsion Pavés. She wielded it as though it were as light as a piece of paper, despite the slab of reinforced wood weighing in at close to ten kilograms. When she blocked attacks, the monsters were forced backwards as if bouncing against a forcefield. The weaker monsters were sometimes blasted to the far ends of the room, where Chase could easily pick them off.

The combination of the two shields and Chase’s new hoodie proved too much for the monsters. The massacre was over in near record time, only delayed by the difficulty of finding the boss’s treasure. It was hiding beneath a roughly hewn stone very close to the entrance of the boss’s chamber. At first, they’d disregarded the structure as a strange piece of decoration, but when Marcus started throwing things and Mia started kicking, they’d exposed the treasure — a silver ring with splotches of a brown substance like rust coating the inner face. Marcus tried it on and claimed he felt a little stronger.

After the Raid, Chase left the Haulers to do their thing. He intended to help them out — in line with what he’d told Jenny about his plans for Ballistic — but he had another matter to attend to, something that his Raid Manager would definitely approve of.

“Herb? You in here?”

Chase had scuttled over to Five Town and arrived on Herb’s doorstep before the Haulers would’ve even entered the Dungeon. Aroon just waved him in this time — Chase’s presence had become a commodity at their home in recent weeks. So much so, that he’d taken it upon himself to improve his chess skills so that he could give Aroon a run for his money. His efforts were not bearing fruit just yet, but they might someday.

“Here!” called a quiet voice. Chase was in the basement now, but Herb was not. Well, his voice was, but the alchemist was nowhere to be found.

“What have you done? Have you shrunk yourself?”

“No!” called the same voice. “In the cupboard!”

Chase walked to the fringe of the room where the voice seemed to be coming from. He grasped the worn oak handle and pulled, revealing an assortment of mixing bowls and other implements.

“Wrong cupboard!” Herb cried.

“Yes, I gathered that!”

He walked the perimeter, flinging open each of the doors. At last, he found Herb, crumpled on the top shelf like a scrunched-up piece of paper.

“Herb, what on earth are you doing up there?”

“Well, it started off as science,” he said, looking uneasy. “But then I got stuck, you see.”

“I do see.”

Chase retrieved a stepladder and helped him down. He was started to think twice about what he was going to ask.

What would people at the office think if they went to get their lunch from the fridge and found Herb stuffed in there?

He decided it would be entertaining enough to warrant the danger.

“Herb, I want to talk to you about something. About a job.”

The alchemist’s eyes danced, and his frazzled hair seemed to twitch at its ends, as if demonstrating his excitement. “A job? Me? That would be—” he paused, and his tone dropped. “Would I have to leave my basement?”

“You would,” Chase answered. “But you’d have a lab, and in the future maybe even some assistants. You’d never have to clean a beaker again.”

“You think I ever clean these?” Herb chuckled and snorted. The sound was awfully wet, like a clod of worms being tossed in a bucket.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“I’m serious, Herb. I want you to lead the R&D department at my guild. It’s not all set up yet, but when it is, I want to have you on the team.”

So far, this was the best part of being a Guild Leader. He was building something, watching it expand and transform before his eyes. With each Raid, Ballistic became more powerful, its members more decked out, including the Haulers. Their first Monster Retriever was being shipped next week, and although David’s father was going to have to drive it to the Raid in his van each morning, it was a massive milestone. Jenny was talking about loans, contracts, acquisitions, all of these building blocks stacking upon one another until a castle was built.

“Will I be paid?”

Now it was Chase’s turn to laugh. “Of course! And paid well, too, I think. Jenny, my Raid Manager, is in charge of that stuff, but I imagine she’ll be generous. Your creations are necessary for every Raid.”

There was a twinkle in Herb’s eye. “Every Raid?”

“Every Raid,” Chase confirmed.

Herb leaned over his bench and placed his cheek on the cool surface. He let out a long sigh, stretching his arms above his head and knocking over various small instruments and half-done inventions.

“I suppose I could,” he said. His speech slowed, losing the feverish rapidity he usually spoke with. “But I’d have to leave Five Town, wouldn’t I?”

Chase hadn’t really thought about it. He doubted Jenny would find them an affordable office in One City, and Eight Town was a bit out of the way for most of their members, but that left six other Cities and Towns to choose from.

“I mean, you wouldn’t have to move house. And wherever the office is, the commute would be pretty quick. You’re kind of smack-dab in the middle of it all, you know?”

“I don’t think I can take the train,” he murmured. “Not good.” He was still spread out over the bench, but he’d deflated.

“What’s wrong with the train?” Chase asked. He knew it wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows, especially at certain times of the day, but it wasn’t that bad.

“People,” Herb replied. He didn’t elaborate.

Chase pulled up a chair and sat down. He took a strange creation off the bench and tossed it from left to right in his hands. When he’d come here to offer up a job, this was not the reaction he’d expected. In fact, he thought he’d have to prepare a shopping list of all the tech and equipment that Herb would demand.

“I get what you’re saying, man. What if I came round here after the Raid each morning and we take the train together? Who knows, Jenny might even find a place here in Five Town — it kind of makes sense considering how central it is.”

Herb disentangled himself from the bench.

“I suppose that could work, maybe.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. And by the way, you’re holding a grenade.”

*******

That afternoon, Chase met Kim at the Two City Botanic Gardens. The sun was out, doing its best to dry out all the vibrant flowers and encourage people to swim in the fountains. It was still pleasant enough for a walk, although he wasn’t impressed with having to wear shorts. He was not a shorts kind of guy.

“So,” Kim said. “Pearl told me why you agreed to go on a date with me.”

Chase cringed. He stopped inspecting the pink carnations and a gaggle of bird-of-paradise flowers, instead turning to Kim. There were flecks of red in her coal-black hair, which she wore in one thick plait down the middle of her back. Her lips were drawn in a thin line as she half-scowled at him. He could tell she wasn’t too annoyed by his deception — there was an element of mirth in her eyes. It was like she’d stolen her eye colour from the stalk of a bird-of-paradise.

“But she did tell you it was only one date, right? Which makes this—” he spread his arms— “an outing of my own volition.”

“Careful with the fancy words, hotshot. And there’s something else you didn’t tell me.”

Chase scrolled back through his recent memory. There were a lot of things he didn’t tell people, partly because they were potentially illegal and also because they might think he was crazy. “Hey, you ran off before we could get deep and meaningful. It’s not my fault if I left out some of my life’s details.”

Kim smiled and batted a stray piece of hair from her eye. She looked at it with contempt, like its refusal to join the plait was a personal affront. “That’s fair. What I’m getting at, thought, is that you’re not actually a Hauler, are you?”

Chase’s eyebrows immediately shot up. He knew such a reaction would give the game away, but he couldn’t help it. “Woah. How do you know that?”

“Pearl told me.”

“How does Pearl know that?”

Kim only shrugged and nudged him out of the way of an oncoming bicycle rider. The two-wheeled-menace rang a shrill bell attached to the handlebars, veering slightly to the side.

“Is that the important thing?” she asked.

Chase deliberated. To him, it was important. He knew there was probably a public register somewhere, but someone would have to be looking for him to find his name on it.

Specifically him.

“I guess not. But yeah, I got fed up with working at Majesty and decided to start my own Guild. It’s called Ballistic, if you’re interested. We might actually need a few more Haulers soon if you’re getting sick of the GRA.”

He received a shove for that comment, nearly teetering over into a spiky bed of roses. The white and red petals were yellowing at the base, and the smell they excreted was only pleasant because he knew it came from a flower. Otherwise, it was sickly sweet.

They made it to a bench underneath a eucalyptus tree and sat down. It was hard to find two clear spots — the birds had plastered most of the bench with white. In the end, they both crammed onto one edge, Chase drawing the short straw and sitting half-on, half-off. Kim brought out a paper-wrapped bundle with a green and white striped ribbon tied around it. Inside was a collection of shortbread and some kind of delicious apple slice with sour cream.

“If you’d asked me a week ago, I might’ve actually taken you up on that. Although then you would’ve been my boss, so I guess I wouldn’t have. But no, I’ve actually got an interesting case on my plate this week — you might’ve seen something about it in Crimewatch.”

Chase almost slipped off his tiny perch. “Oh, Crimewatch? That section in the paper? I thought that was for like, boring crimes that no one cares about. What’s your case about?”

Kim frowned at him. “Don’t be daft, you know I can’t tell you. Probably shouldn’t have mentioned that it’s in the paper — that narrows it down to, what, maybe a hundred options?”

“I’ll check them all and find out.”

Once they finished their snack, Chase stood up and took the rubbish to a nearby bin. As he walked away from Kim, she suddenly called out.

“Hey, Chase?”

He spun. “What’s up? Do you wanna keep the ribbon?”

She waved her hand, disregarding the question. “How’d you get that gash on your calf?”