Elizabeth Davis – known to her friends as Liz – was facing a rather annoying conundrum.

As the grandchild of the guild-leader, she’d been given access to their guild’s single Idyll-Flume pass.

Not that her grandfather had just handed it over to her for free, of course. He’d set up a series of trials, as well as requiring a contribution of over a thousand guild points.

Liz had just managed to get through all of them. Ever since she’d completed the full-gate spell in her desolation gate, her attack spells had been hitting with much more oomph than before.

In truth, it represented a strong difference in between her and Malachi’s philosophy. She thought they both stood a good chance of making it to Arcanist someday.

But where Malachi’s spells were nonstandard, and sacrificed immediate power for growth capacity and expansion of his future capabilities, her spells were far more standard, and focused on increasing what she could already do, and gave a perpetual enhancement to her combat power.

In the long run, it was hard to tell where they’d end up. In terms of raw spellpower, she would outpace him. But the expansion of what kinds of power he could hold, and how they’d interact with him…

If he really pushed the growth aspects of his spells, he might end up in a position where her raw spellpower simply wouldn’t be enough to win against him if they fought.

But those were thoughts for another time. For right now, she was needed to figure out who she was going to take with her to the Idyll-Flume.

Three other people had managed to complete the trials and bring in enough guild points. Liz had done it first, so she’d been the one who had received the actual pass, but it meant she’d have to take one of her fellow guilders with her.

Malachi was lingering on her thoughts for exactly this reason. He’d be bringing his alchemist partner with him, and Liz absolutely planned to meet up with them and work together in some regard. While mass attempts to conquer the Idyll-Flume as a single unit had all failed, groups and teams were a proven strategy that could do well.

Even if Malachi and… Keen? She thought that was their name, at least. But even if they weren’t interested in a more serious teamup, having a support network was important while inside the Idyll-Flume, especially since they’d only get access to new food shipments once every week.

Dusk should be helpful there – she planned to track down Malachi and force, er, politely suggest that he store several crates of rations in Dusk. She’d buy them, of course, it was part of the guild’s budget. But Dusk had an absurd amount of size for someone at their level, and the freed up space in her spatial ring would be incredibly helpful.

But all of that meant that she needed someone who could work well with her, but could also possibly slot into a team with Malachi and Kene, and maybe someone else.

Before she actually met with any of them, she looked over their guild files.

The first was named Travis Crimson, and he was an aura user. He’d dedicated a full-gate spell to creating a force aura around him, and his first gate spells had clearly been carefully chosen to help him with that goal. His variation of force blade, force armor, force shield, and force bolt were weaker than the normal spells when cast on their own, but by drawing on the aura he generated, he could infuse them with a pretty intense amount of strength. His legacy helped him regenerate mana faster, which helped with his aura, but wasn’t worth writing home about.

A balanced caster with a powerful gimmick that made him dangerous, but it was still a gimmick. If someone had a way to neutralize his full gate aura, then he’d be an underpowered mage. He was in his late twenties, though, having gotten a late start on his magic, and holding back from breaking through to third gate in the hope of being able to get into this competition

The second was named Nevea Ryte, and she was a tempest and mental mage. Her tempest magic was wind-focused, and she preferred to fight at range with wind blades, sonic bursts, and multiple control spells. In terms of psychic powers, she had a well honed sense for other people’s minds, and was notably able to create group mindlinks. Limited range, but incredibly useful.

Combined with her legacy for piercing veils and illusions, and she made for a decent flex-caster, able to support the group while holding her own as a wind mage. She was also the youngest of the candidates, at only nineteen, which put her right between Liz and Malachi.

Finally, there was Abigail Leffot, an armor mage. She had creation mana, and had almost entirely dedicated herself to being able to cast multiple types of armor. Traditional force armor might be out of her grasp, but there were multiple types of forged mana armor that Creation could imitate. Between all of her armor spells, she was incredibly defensive, able to take blows from people stronger than she was.

As if that wasn’t enough, she had a bunch of magical tattoos that provided her with additional layers of defense to both her skin, and to her mind and spirit. Combine that with her legacy for largely enhanced strength, and she was a near perfect up-close brawler. She’d probably waited for this competition too, since she was twenty-three, but not as long as Travis.

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She shuffled the papers around for a good while longer before finally deciding to just seek out each of them.

After all. The perfect team on paper could fall apart if the personalities conflicted.

The first person she found was Nevea. She was short, with red hair, soft skin, and curves that lit a flicker of jealousy in Liz’s heart – not that Liz would ever admit that. When Nevea sensed Liz’s approach, she turned and smiled easily at her.

“Hey, you’re Elizabeth, right?” Nevea asked.

“Yep. Nevea, right?”

“Yeah,” Nevea said. “I’m guessing you tracked me down to test me as a potential partner?”

Nevea’s eyes swept over Liz, lingering on her well defined bicep for a moment.

“For the Idyll-Flume, yes,” Liz said, smirking down at Nevea. “But… I’ve already got a partner, and I’m not looking for another.”

“Shame,” Nevea sighed. “But, by all means, ask away or test away.”

“What utility spells does your tempest mana have?” Liz asked.

Combat skills were well and good, but also Nevea’s weakest quality. If Nevea had enough utility skills, it may still be worth bringing her along, though.

“Analyze Wind,” she responded. “Also a slow-fall spell and levitation spell. I’m also working on a weather control bubble, which should give us defenses against windstorms, rainstorms, even hail and sandstorms.”

“Working on?”

“Well, it isn’t mastered yet, but I’m close,” Nevea said with a sly smile. “I’ve also got another trick or two for helping us as a group, but I can’t play all my cards, can I?”

Liz didn’t say anything, but mentally disagreed. Holding capabilities back from your group was a good way to get everyone killed at worst, and annoyed at best.

She thanked the girl a moment later and set off. The next person she ran into was Travis, in the guild training room. She spent a few minutes watching him, and had to admit, he was impressive.

Not to look at. Visually, he was bland. Brown hair, skin, and eyes, with a medium build, medium muscle, and medium height.

But magically? He hit almost as hard as her, and had stellar defenses, even against attacks he didn’t directly block.

Eventually, though, she stopped watching and approached.

“Ms. Davis,” Travis said, a polite, nearly corporate smile on his face. “How may I be of assistance?”

“What do you bring to the team that I can’t get better elsewhere?” Liz asked. It was aggressive, but she didn’t like the too-nice customer service voice.

And it was true. He brought the least unique skills to the team.

“Frankly, Ms. Davis? Power and loyalty. I’m aware you’re ready to ascend to third gate, but I’ve spent two years polishing my second gates and preparing for my ascension to third. I already have a completed plan, and have taken the time to gather resources for it.”

“Oh?” Liz asked. If he was going to say he had a gatekey elixir, she’d drop him here and now, no remorse.

“Yes. I have three gushing spring pills to overflow my mana-garden to bursting, as well as the horn of an Alburabbit to be used during the ascension.”

That got her eyebrows up. Materials that could only be used during an ascension were rare, and always produced good results.

“From there, I will immediately bind myself to my aura technique and use a mistburn stone. I have a variation of a physical empowering and hasting spell that further uses my aura, a friction and velocity harvesting spell, and a charging aura beam spell I can practice. For those, I have purchased three ascendant beansprouts.”

Liz frowned at that, caught off guard. The man must have been saving for ages to afford that. She knew a lot of people slept in guild housing in order to save money, but even assuming the horn had come as loot from a mission, he had to have had either absurd resolve to save so much money, or else have found it through luck or a fated encounter.

Even spacing it out over a week, to allow the power to settle, he’d be one of the strongest people in the Idyll-Flume who wasn’t a prince or something else crazy.

But at the same time, it sounded like he already had a relatively smooth path through the first steps of his third gate. So how much would he really gather from the Idyll-Flume? It may be better for the guild to not send him. More than that, too much strength right away might mark her as a target for banditry.

“And loyalty?” she finally asked.

“My goal is to use the Idyll-Flume and the resources I’ve gathered to break through to fourth gate at record speed, and then to use my family’s spiralpoint key to ascend to fifth gate immediately after that. It will cut off future progression, but that is an acceptable outcome. This guild pulled me, my younger siblings, and my child out of the gutter. I am going to do everything I can to repay that and expand the guild as its second arcanist.”

They chatted for a while longer before she left to find the third potential candidate.

Abigail took a bit longer to track down, since she was in the guild housing, and even Liz didn’t have the right – or ability – to know where people lived, let alone break down their door and shake them down for answers.

In fact, it took her so long to find Abigail that Liz started to wonder if the girl was avoiding her. When they finally did run into one another, it was in line at the guild cafeteria, and Liz brightened.

“You’re Abigail, right?”

The short tattooed woman looked up at Liz and nodded.

“Great! I wanted to ask, how confident are you in your defensive skills? If I pick you, then you’re going to be our frontliner. I don’t want to see anyone dead, but especially not a fellow guilder.”

“Completely,” was all that Abigail said.

Liz frowned. This didn’t exactly inspire confidence. Sure, she got that some people just didn’t like to chat, but the sad reality was that sometimes you had to communicate. Like now.

“Any plans for ascension in the Idyll-Flume?” Liz pestered.

“Immediate ascension. Purchased pills for it.”

“And after?”

“Advance as we reach top.”

Liz’s eyebrows shot up at that. She’d heard that the furthest anyone ever got was the fourth floor. If Abigail really did want to reach the top, then she’d need to pour everything into trying to climb the tower.

She didn’t hate the idea. Nobody knew what the exact rewards were past the third floor, let alone for winning the entire thing, but it was an established fact that the Sevenfold Celestial Sage had died in their creation, after failing for nearly a century and a half to find a worthy successor.

Any reward that was so good that an Occultist had died to create it would be the kind of thing that could – quite literally – reshape political maps around the world.

Liz was a realist, however. As she headed back to guild offices, she knew she wouldn’t reach the top.

But if they made it to the fourth floor? That would certainly be worth it.

Shaking off the greed, she admitted that raw ambition wouldn’t be enough to make it to the fourth floor, and that with how little Abigail was willing to communicate, she might present just as much risk as Nevea, while only bringing in frontline offense.

She grumbled, wishing the choice didn’t have to be made so quickly. She wished she had a few months to feel these people out.