I shuffled another step forward, watching as the queue continued to shorten person by person. After my fight with Emeri, my initial guilt had turned into anger. ‘So what if she thought the ruin exploration quest was dangerous? Compared to her quest of heresy, this would be a cakewalk!’

Or so I had convinced myself. I was quickly coming to regret that thought, though. Already, the frustration of having to stand in line for hours was getting on my nerves. Apparently, it hadn’t been this bad at first. When the first explorers returned with news of ancient treasure and how much they had been paid by the city in return, however, the tide had shifted. A queue several thousand long had formed in an instant and I had only joined it around the midway point. Thankfully, it wasn’t much further now. My struggles were about to end and the fun of exploration was about to start…

I was distracted from my thought by a big burly man wearing some leather armor. He tapped on my shoulder so I turned to look at him, before being met with a wide, malicious grin.

“Say, kid. You don’t look…” he began, looking me over and gesturing in my general direction, “cut out for this type a’ business… Why don’t you give me your spot in line? I’ll give ya’ somethen’ to buy yourself a drink with…” he threatened, pulling a copper coin out of his pocket and throwing it on the ground in front of me.

Already high-strung from the day’s happenings, My anger poured out wordlessly. My arm shot out and I grabbed him by his fat neck, my ornate black gauntlets digging into his skin. Before he could react, I threw him on top of a table a few meters away, before turning back to the front of the line, acting as if nothing had happened. Judging from his attire and reaction speed, he probably wasn’t a high-enough tier to create trouble for me anyway.

I sighed, quickly realising my mistake moments later. While the queue had been rowdy since it formed, a full-on fight had yet to break out, virtue of the observing city guard. Thankfully, they had only given me the side-eye after that initial display. I feared that could change any moment when the burly fellow righted himself from the table and cursed up a storm. Rather than keep away, he seemed hellbent on escalating further and stomped back over to me, his hand going for the blackjack on his belt.

I mimicked his movement, ready for a fight, but suddenly a stranger intervened, grabbing the burly man by the wrist and stopping him from drawing his weapon. The stranger seemed well-equipped, with simple yet functional steel-plate armor and an expensive-looking halberd in his free hand.

“Now now, let’s not start a fight. All of us just want to sign up for the exploration. Is it too much to ask for some restraint?” he said, addressing the burly man. A flash of panic shot across my opponent’s face, before it quickly returned to its normal, scowling form. Nonetheless, the burly man nodded and pulled his wrist free, before stomping off down an alley.

At this point, the guards had come over to prevent any escalation.

“Is anybody here going to be trouble?” one asked. My masked helper spoke up on both of our behalf.

“Not at all, good sirs! The troublemaker has already been vanquished, sent back to the dark hole from whence he came!” he joked exaggeratedly. The guards indulged him with a chuckle, before resuming their post.

The armored man turned to me, this time.

“Sorry about that rough-shod fellow. Some of our city’s typically fine folk can be a little… degrading to the rest of us. That being said, I haven’t met you before, despite your obvious skill. Are you new in town, or just visiting?” he asked conversationally.

“Just passing by.” I replied, unwilling to give too much away to a stranger, even if he had helped me a little. Furthermore, if this man knew enough people in the city to pick strangers out of the crowd, he couldn’t just be a nobody. Agratos’ population was far too large for that, even if you just counted tier 3 and above classers.

“I see. My name is Curio, and I am the party leader of a local adventurer’s team, team Hallowed. In preparation for the ruin we are about to explore, our team has been gathering like-minded people of considerable skill, to delve together. Would you be interested in such a collaboration?” ‘Curio’ asked kindly.

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His face fell when I shook my head. After my most recent fight with Emeri, I didn’t want to work with others. Some time by myself would do me a lot of good. Besides, with my affinity, I wouldn’t be able to use the majority of my skills in their presence anyway.

“I assure you that the rewards would be divided fairly…” he tried again, only to be met with a second shake of my head.

“I work alone, sorry.”

Then, I just turned back to the front of the queue, because my turn to sign up had arrived. I walked up to a desk littered with files. Curio didn’t bother calling after me, which allowed me to turn my attention to the older lady behind the desk. Behind her half-moon spectacles, her eyes were quickly scanning page after page, before pulling out a mostly blank form.

“Name?” she asked without prompt.

“Arthur.”

“Class?”

Momentarily, I was taken aback. Sure, sharing class information was somewhat common at lower tiers, but I hadn’t expected it to be this bad. Thankfully, my tier 3 class didn’t mention any dark affinity. Furthermore, I was scared she had a lie-detecting skill. Therefore, I made the hasty decision to tell her part of the truth, which would raise the least eyebrows.

“[Hollow knight].”

“[Hollow knight]? Haven’t heard that one before…” she mumbled, before scribbling it down anyway. “Reason for entry?” she continued.

“Experience, mostly.” She hummed, accepting my answer and filling in the form.

“Party?”

“None.”

At this, her eyebrows rose into her hairline, before she looked up at me.

“Sir, may I warn you that the ruins are exceptionally dangerous…”

“None.” I interrupted, frustrated at being reminded of Emeri, who was supposed to be my partner on this journey.

The lady sighed but accepted my answer. She asked me a few more questions, each more mundane than the last, before finally signing off on my document and handing me a badge with the city crest on it.

“Head over to that large group over there, young man. They’ll be guided to the ruins momentarily.” She finished, pointing at a large, diverse group of classers gathered around a fountain on the other side of the square.

I followed her directions and found out that ‘momentarily’ actually meant ‘several hours’ in real-time. By the time a pair of city guards arrived to escort us, our group had grown by another hundred or so people, including Curio and his buddies. They were a noisy bunch, but had left me alone, thankfully. Curiously, the hurly man from before had shown up as well and he hung around the periphery of Curio’s group, not even trying to hide from me. Only then were things starting to click. What a clever fellow, this Curio.’ I thought grimly. It left to be seen whether his competence matched his cleverness, however.

After the arrival of the guards, we were escorted through the streets until we reached a large mine a few minutes later. From a distance, it resembled a quarry, more so than a mine, though. It took a while for us to head deeper into the tunnels, despite their immense size. This mine had been dug with a large industry in mind from the start. That became clear the moment we passed by two giant stone columns that held the rocky roof of the cave in place. If it weren’t for the dirt floors and walls, this place might have been a castle.

As we travelled further and further down, the tunnels started to narrow, forcing us to start walking single file near its end. Thankfully, miners were hard at work expanding the width of the tunnels even as we passed on by, so I held out hope that the return trip wouldn’t be as cramped.

Finally, another hour of walking down winding passageways later, we found ourselves at the entrance to the ancient ruins. It became immediately obvious where the mine ended and the ruins started, because a large brick wall separated the two. A rectangle hole had been dug into said wall, making its interior visible from where we were standing. From this distance, however, I could only make out an old iron chandelier hanging from the brick ceiling inside, and some old rotted wooden furniture lying collapsed along the side of the wall.

“All right, we’re here.” One of the two guards began. “Before you enter, know that the nearest parts of the ruins have already been explored a bit, so you won’t find as much new stuff there. Then again, the deeper you go the harder it becomes to get back out… The place is filled with monsters that our scholars haven’t observed in hundreds of years, so don’t get overconfident. Oh, and by the way: if you die, we won’t be retrieving your body, even if you die halfway through the exit.” He finished neutrally.

Only now did I notice that many weaker, poorer classers were also participating, in an attempt to strike it rich, no doubt. Many were shivering from their nervousness, and the guards’ casual mention of death hadn’t helped. Most of these weaker classers were wearing rags or peasant clothing and carrying rusty weapons. Homeless people and ordinary workers. Parents and grandparents trying to give their kids a better future. For many, this was their only hope. In any other, poorer city, their number would have been even more plentiful.

If luck had it, some of them would achieve their dreams today. I wouldn’t be around to see it, though. I had my own problems to figure out. The moment the guards gave the go-ahead, I followed the first group of people in a sprint and ran down the first deserted brick hallway I could find, determined to get away from everyone.