I woke up the next morning feeling sore all over. That fall from the roof hurt a lot more than it seemed at first. I had apparently broken some stuff inside my body and was slowly bleeding out internally or so the priests said as they healed me. I mean the drop was rather high but I didn't feel that bad after falling. I had spent the last bit of my money to help pay for the priests services and was now flat broke, with the others in a similar situation. "Why do I feel like I am destined to be poor?" I complained to no one in particular as I stretched.
We most of the morning just stretching and trying to get rid of all of the sore spots we had. When I complained about my money issues I remembered why I was rushing over to the inn before the whole fight. "I just remembered what I wanted to say yesterday. I had met with Dokam to sell some stuff and found some green powder. It turned out to be Temrot. The big thing is that I saw someone fleeing from the place I collected the Temrot from." I took out the powder that I had placed into a leather bag and showed the others. They looked at it and their eyes went wide with realization.
"That isn't good. That isn't good at all" mumbled Ronia while the others had similar looks. Ray spoke up after a moment, saying "Zane, we need to tell the guild about this. Now. If someone was using Temrot in this city then it makes sense where all of the Monster Summoning Crystals appeared from. Some corrupt mage set his eyes on this city. This isn't good." Ray grabbed my arm and said "Let's go tell the guild The sooner we tell them the better." His tone left no room for argument and neither did the look in his face, so I silently gulped and nodded my head, and proceeded to follow him.
"You guys get some rest, especially you Herald. You took one hell of a beating that fight. You look like you still have trouble moving your arms properly." Herald looked like he wanted to refute Ray's statement but simply sighed and then said "Yeah yeah I get it. Go on and tell the guild already. Me and Ronia will be fine here. Ain't no assassins going to get me this time." He said as he thumped his damaged chest plate with his fist.
We left and half walked and half ran to the guild. Ray looked rather troubled as he kept muttering things about corrupt mages being the scum of the world. I wanted to ask but chose to stay silent about the matter. Maybe something happened involving corrupt mages in his past? My mind went off on a random train of thought and before I knew it we had arrived at the guild. Ray didn't even bother to stop to wait in line and simply shoved his way past others in line and said "This is an emergency. We found traces of a corrupt mage potentially being in this city." That sentence silenced any and all complaints instantly.
The whole guild had gone silent and within a minute the guild master came over in his gigantic muscled glory. He stared Ray down as he said "Is it true what you said? You found traces of a corrupt mage in the city?" The guild master looked like he would bore into Ray's soul with the stare he was giving. Ray didn't falter and motioned towards me. I pulled out the bag of Temrot and handed it to the guild master who stared into the bag before clenching his hands into fists and tying the bag onto his belt.
He looked at me and said "Where did you find this?" As he said that he dropped 8 silver coins on the table and slid them over to Ray, who handed them all to me. "Let's go to where you found this now." He looked over his shoulder and said "Terren!" As soon as he called out, 10 of the spell-iron golems that guard the guild appeared along with one fancier looking version and they all saluted the guild master. The guild master looked and said " Patrol near the guild with the golems while I am gone." With that said he turned back towards me and motioned for me to show the way. I complied and started speed walking towards where the self serve blacksmith was, taking various side paths and back alleys. The self serve was rather well hidden so it wasn't something someone would stumble into as easily.
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Eventually we made it there and unfortunately no one was there. I slowed down and started to walk as I said "This is the self serve blacksmith. I was coming here to melt down some scrap iron into ingots that I would later sell and stumbled into a cloaked figure rather similar to the ones that attacked the Keeper's Paradise inn we were staying at. He quickly hopped onto the rooftops and made a break for it as soon as I turned the corner though so I couldn't make out any details other than the fact that they were male." I finished explaining everything to the guild master and he nodded before moving towards the smithy, looking at the tools for alchemy rather intently.
When he tried to lift a beaker but was unable to I told him "Ah right, you can't use anything until you pay the 5 copper fee for one hour of usage. Then the enchantments will dissipate, allowing you to use them." The guild master looked at where I pointed and pulled out a type of magic item that looked similar to a handheld metal detector at airports. He waved it around and all of a sudden it started to display some funky symbols and numbers I couldn't make sense of on its screen. The guild master looked at it rather confused before mumbling something to himself and then said "Is there anything else you noticed?" I pointed at the spot I found the Temrot powder and told him that was where I found it. The guild master said "Alright, I'll get some other specialized mages for tracking to come and check this place out. If you 2 find any more information about this, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem, come to the guild and tell us immediately. We will pay well for the information. You 2 are free to go now, and thank you once again for the information."
As the old man started to leave Ray pulled the guild master over and handed him a bag and saying "It's a scrap of the clothing and a vial of blood from the intruders that attacked the inn. We think there is a possibility the attackers are related to the corrupt mage." I looked at Ray wondering when he took the time to collect blood samples of the attackers and how he managed to get a scrap of their clothing. Wondering that and other such questions I stayed silent and kept watching as the guild master simply nodded and tucked the bag onto his belt then walked off towards the guild after taking out several floating metal orb with spikes jutting out of them and placing them all around the self serve blacksmith. Ray and I left there and walked towards the inn again. Ray looked very deep in thought about something and had that vicious look on his face again. I didn't bother him and we walked back in silence.
As we arrived at the inn we saw Herald and Ronia relaxing and drinking some mead. I called out "Hey, we delivered the information and got paid rather well, how'd you guys do? Feeling better after letting your bodies relax a bit?" Herald laughed and said Yeah I'm feeling much better than before. My arms no longer feel like they are made of lead and I can actually move my body with ease again. I'm feeling great other than the fact that my armour is basically ruined." Herald looked down at his armour and laughed. I laughed as I grabbed a seat while taking out beef jerky to snack on.
We kept talking for a while and Ray just sat there brooding while he occasionally sipped from his mug. Herald looked at him and looked like he wanted to say something and eventually asked "Hey Ray, what's wrong man? You look like you've got a stick up your arse." Ray looked up in surprise and and blinked for a few seconds before saying "Sorry, was just thinking about something unpleasant. You startled me quite a bit though." He smiled and laughed at Herald as he joked around with him. This continued for a bit before I remembered something. Hey Herald, how's about we go and get your armour repaired so we can go earn some money."
Herald looked at me and said "I am getting my armour repaired by a blacksmith I know soon. He said he should be able to repair it by tomorrow, I was going to drop it off after drinking some Mead." He then looked at me questioningly and said "But how are we going to go earn money, we can't exactly leave the city with someone out to kill us and the other quests within the city usually don't pay that well." The others were also looking at me, wondering what I had in mind. I smiled and said "Who said we need to leave the city? There's a dungeon right under our feet."