The lobby was the same as always, all shades of silver and white, decorations dripping with aloof, impersonal class.

Kevin didn’t even need to go to the front counter of the guild. Four people were sitting on a few of the overstuffed couches and chairs, waiting. They all stood as soon as they saw him and one of them, a Dwarf, asked, “Kevin?”

“That’s me.” He noticed as the Dwarf shot a look at the distant receptionist and received a subtle nod in return.

That was definitely nicer than asking to see my identity. It was also to let me know they were my party, he thought. Sometimes the Magi Guild could be really smooth.

The four people meeting him were definitely out of place in a way Kevin might not have been conscious of before coming to the Magi Guild several times. They all bristled with weapons and exuded an air of restrained violence that most members of the Magi Guild just…didn’t.

Kevin’s [Perfect Seasoning] was informing him that all four were dangerous.

The Dwarf who had met him nodded. “Nice to meet you, Kevin. Apologies for not referring to you as Master Kevin yet, but that is probably not appropriate until you are a bit more accomplished in the Magi Guild, no?” He had a ready smile and showed big, even, bright teeth.

“That is fine,” said Kevin. “No offense taken. I don’t really care about titles anyway.”

“Excellent! My name is Fili Rootfinder. Apologies for not giving you our names or abilities before actually meeting in person, but there are spies and…circumstances in the city. I’m sure you understand.”

Kevin made a neutral expression like he might understand what the man was saying, but he was completely lost. As he tried to cover for his ignorance, he got a more solid first impression of Fili.

The Dwarf was dressed differently than any other Dwarves that Kevin had seen, although he hadn’t actually seen many yet. Fili didn’t wear armor or even any thick protection. Instead, his clothing was dark, supple, made of a combination of what looked like silk and thin leather. Kevin was not an expert, but he could spot the luster of expensive gear made of monster parts.

Fili wore two large daggers at his hips, and there were bulges beneath his clothing that suggested plenty of other weapons. His dark hair was neatly trimmed and oiled. A wide belt around his middle made no noise as he moved, and had dozens of pockets. Small bolts were stored in the strap portion of a sling around his chest, the end of which had a dangling pistol crossbow.

“As you may have surmised by my appearance and gear, I am our party’s rogue. It may surprise you since we are a B-ranked adventuring group, but I cannot use any magic. However, I am a fairly skilled alchemist. Mostly poisons. You understand, I’m sure.”

“I didn’t even know you were a B-ranked group.”

The Dwarf man’s smile was strained. “Again, sorry for the secrecy.” He gestured to one side. “The Lizardman, believe it or not, is our group’s leader.”

“My name is George.” The lizardman, his skin a mottled green with striking purple accents, blinked in a very inhuman, very reptilian way. He had on plate armor and wore a sword and shield. “I am a warrior. Healing magic. Glad to have you working with us.”

Fili chuckled. “George is a Lizardman of few words, but you will see over time why we trust him. And it’s not just because he heals our cuts to keep the blood in.” He winked.

Kevin had seen less than five lizardmen in his life, and he had a hard time reading their body language, but the eye roll and middle finger the group’s warrior and healer aimed at the rogue was easy to understand.

The third adventurer, an ork woman sighed. Her equipment seemed to be practical-looking medium armor over clothing in muted hues, and a large, serious-looking spear. She said, “I think the only thing Fili likes more than stabbing things in the dark is messing with George.” She put a hand to her chest. “I am Jagna, daughter of Gronna. Pleased to meet you. I’m good with the spear and the one I’m holding happens to be pretty good as well.” She smiled. “However, while I have more magical talent than Fili, it is not much. A little bit of healing, and a little bit of fire is all I can manage.”

“Healing and fire? That’s still pretty good,” Kevin said. “Those are very useful magics that don’t usually appear in the same person at once.”

“See, our new scholar is already teaching!” Fili laughed. “Now the rest of you will need to become educated as well, whether you like it or not.”

“Shut up, Fili,” growled the ork woman, Jagna. Kevin could tell there was no ill-will in the words, though.

“I suppose I am last to introduce myself.” The remaining member of the group, a human woman with delicate features, rose and bowed. She had on a strange outfit that looked like a cross between a robe and a tunic. Unlike the others, she wore no armor at all–not even leather like Fili wore. A short sword and dagger rode at her waist and a large bow was lying on the floor at her feet. “I am Toriko Tomo. My magical abilities are with wind, the typical minor talent in earth magic, but also a bit of water.”

“A bit!?” said Fili in mock confusion. “I think what she means is she has the strongest magical talent in the entire team.”

“That is true,” said Jagna with a nod.

Kevin glanced around at his new team, committing their names to memory. George the lizardman, an armored warrior, Jagna the ork, a spear hand, Tomo the human archer-mage, and Fili the dwarven rogue. It was a good team composition. As adventuring groups grew more powerful, it was common to work with fewer members, both for potential stealth and to split rewards fewer ways. As a B-ranked group, this one was running with fewer than average members.

“What is your team name?” asked Kevin.

The four of them exchanged glances before Jagna spoke with a resigned expression. “We are the ‘Mountain Fingers.’ Trust us, we’ve already heard all the jokes and we’ve seen the strange expressions, so don’t bother.”

Kevin cocked his head. “How did you all come up with Mountain Fingers?”

“Fili suggested it,” said Dagna. “I think it was a joke at the time, but none of us had any better ideas, so we just went with it.”

“But if you are B-ranked, you’ve been around for a while. Can’t a group change its name once a year? Why not just change the name if you don’t like that others think it’s weird?”

“It is our team name,” said George with finality. “We have fought and bled under the name. It will never change.”

Fili looked uncharacteristically shy and didn’t say anything while the others spoke about the group name. But suddenly he raised a finger. “That’s right! We need to tell our new scholar about the job so we can get the hell out of here!”

“That is a good point,” said Tomo with a nod.

George crossed his muscled, scaled arms. “This is true. The contract is not complete until Kevin officially accepts. But we haven’t all introduced ourselves officially yet. I think he should introduce himself.”

“We’ve seen his file, though,” said Fili.

“It is still correct to introduce yourself when possibly joining a team or going on a journey together.”

“It’s not a problem,” said Kevin. He waved a hand. “My name is Kevin. I am a goblin. From what they tell me here at the Magi Guild, I am the first goblin scholar in Clearmine. You have probably seen my stats from the guild, but I speak over ten languages, I am literate in over twenty languages, I can read and deactivate spell formations, deactivate some traps, and spot magical traps. My mathematics are…passable. Liberal arts are fairly advanced for most scholars in this region, I suspect. I have a good grasp of history for this continent over the last thousands years or so, and some history for the rest of the world. On the subject of engineering, I know enough to know how uneducated I am. I suppose it’s fair to say I know some extra-dimensional technologies as well, and I have at least a passing knowledge of inter-dimensional travel, although I’ve never done so myself…”

Kevin stopped talking when he noticed Fili’s jaw drop. He’d mentioned a few skills that he hadn’t officially reported to the Magi guild. George just nodded. “Very talented indeed. I cannot doubt your claims since most of them are already in your file and everyone trusts the Magi Guild. However, I believe you are young. How was it possible to learn so much?

“I had really good parents,” said Kevin with a small smile.

“Jealous,” whispered Jagna.

The lizardman George gave his team a look before turning back to Kevin.

"We would like to tell you about the job before you officially agree to it," said the lizard man.

Kevin shook his head. "But I already agreed to it."

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"No," said Jagna. "You only agreed to meet us. It's in the fine print of the contract."

The truth was, Kevin had seen that, but he hadn't thought much of it. After all, if he didn't want to go on the mission, he wouldn't have signed up for it and then waited two weeks. But he kept his mouth shut and just listened.

The lizard man said, "We are going to explore a ruin. It's several days from here. We'll be going on foot because through the forest and the wilderness, horses will be a liability, attracting too many monsters. The ruin we are aiming for has been explored before, but there is a dangerous ruin guardian that nobody has killed yet."

"More trouble than it's worth?" Kevin asked.

"That is correct," said Fili.

George nodded. "About ten years ago, a group that had explored the rest of the ruins was planning to take this ruin guardian down. However, after leading it away, they discovered it was more powerful than they had believed, and the door it was guarding wouldn't budge. They couldn't open it. It needed a key."

Kevin slowly nodded in understanding. "I assume that you believe you have the key."

"That is correct," said Tomo.

"All right," Kevin mused out loud. "This makes more sense why your party would definitely need a scholar. If you are planning to open a door that goes into an ancient ruin, a part of the ruins that hasn't been explored yet, then you would need somebody who can spot and deactivate magical traps and probably read scripts and things. Am I correct?"

"That's right." Fili nodded.

"Okay, but that doesn't explain why you are working with me. I’m C-rank but also a brand new Magi Guild member."

The four adventurers grew still, except for the lizard man who waved his hand in agreement. "That is correct. However, it is also one reason why we are telling you everything and laying all the information out so that you can make an educated decision on whether to go with us. It is a bit unusual for a B-ranked party to work with a C-ranked scholar. However, there aren't very many scholars that will take on field work, especially dangerous field work."

The lizard man was interrupted by the dwarf who frowned and said, "Are we going to tell him everything?"

George made a strange, bird-like nod. "Yes, we are going to tell him everything."

Kevin noticed a wordless exchange between Fili and Jagna. She gave a slight nod of her head. George crossed his arms over his muscular chest and said, "You may have noticed that our group is very culturally diverse. That isn't by design; it's just how things worked out. However, not every leader of every city is happy with our little group for various reasons. In this city, the mayor is working directly with the current leaders of the nearby ork country.Those orks are not happy with our resident spearwoman, Jagna." He pointed at the ork woman, where she very artfully looked at nothing. "Her story is her own to tell, but because of ties with the ork leadership, the mayor has been putting pressure on Jagna and, by extension, our party.

"On the subject of scholars, there weren't very many to begin with, and none that we contacted or were asked about helping us were willing to take the job. We suspect that some of them might have been bribed or threatened not to work with us. So when we heard about a brand new, C-rank Magi Guild scholar who was willing to do field work and seemed handy in the outdoors, at least based on the reports we got, we were immediately interested."

“It helps that we heard the powers-that-be don’t even know you exist yet,” said Fili.

George continued, "There was one small trip we needed to make before heading back to Clearmine, and we had already left when we got the message about you. That is why there was a delay."

"The Magi Guild sent you a magic communication?" Kevin asked.

"That's correct," the lizard man blinked. "We've had many dealings with the Magi Guild, and my understanding is they have been trying–somewhat successfully, I might add–to rent the services of their guild members to adventuring parties that need them. After all, Magi Guild explorers have high mortality rates on their own and are not often in high demand to go on solo missions."

Kevin slowly nodded at that. It made sense. He said, "So the mayor is actively suppressing your group because of political issues with the ork country, or rather, issues with Jagna and the ork country, and I am guessing that I am low ranking enough to escape notice until now. The fact I'm a goblin probably hasn't hurt anything."

"You are correct," said the lizardman. He showed no signs of nervousness or discomfort over the relatively sensitive topic.

A side door to the waiting room suddenly opened, and a Magi Guild member that Kevin had never seen before hurried out, her robes clutched in two hands and raised so she could jog faster.

"You need to leave now!" she gasped. When she got closer, she slammed to a halt and panted for a few seconds before looking directly at George.

"We just got a communication that the mayor's people are on the move! A group of them are heading directly here, fast!"

"Why?" asked Tomo, her voice cool and almost melodious. Layers of meaning in the one word were obvious.

The guild employee shook her head and pointed at Kevin. "Because when he was first let into the city, he introduced himself as a dignitary of some kind. The mayor must have just found out that you were hiring him through the Magi Guild, so now he's trying to detain Kevin through courtesy. Kevin won’t be able to refuse. If he goes to the mayor's estate, it's very likely he won't be allowed to leave or will be waylaid long enough for the mayor to come up with some other way to stop you."

"Why is he trying to stop them with this particular thing?" Kevin asked.

"It is to discredit us," growled Jagna, the ork woman.

Tomo, the archer, nodded. "There was a story published a few months ago in another city about our discovery of the key. We didn't say what it was, but we did say that we believed we could identify what it was for. As George said, we have several detractors, and some of them have money behind their obsession. A series of leaflets went out in several cities about our ‘boastful nature’ and that we were making unsubstantiated claims. Well, if our group manages to raid our target ruin and bring back evidence, everything we said will have been proven true. This would not only raise our own reputation, it will probably result in our group being promoted. It would make the people behind all of the hit pieces targeting us look bad as well. I believe it could be used by their political opponents."

Kevin nodded at this explanation. He really hated bullies, especially rich bullies. "I just have one more question. If you answer this, I'll know whether I can work with you, and then we can go."

"What is it?" asked George.

Fili looked agitated. "Not to put too much pressure on this easy-going chat, but we have got to go if we’re all going together. Ask it so we can answer and hopefully leave."

Kevin knew he didn't know what kind of reaction to expect, but he asked what was on his mind. "This monster in the ruins, I'm assuming that the party will split up all of its sellable parts five ways, right?"

"Yes, that's correct," said George. The lizard man bobbed his head in a strange avian way.

Kevin had already known this; it was part of the contract. Now that he understood their situation better, he also understood why they'd offered such generous terms to a new scholar of the Magi Guild to accompany them. The puzzles he would need to solve or the script he would need to decipher would likely be extremely difficult, and everyone else had turned it down. The Magi Guild hadn't answered his questions about the request either. He'd eventually gone with his gut and accepted it.

However, in this conversation, the goal was more to set up the real question that he asked now. "I would like part of my portion of that monster to be first rights to eat its meat. Is that acceptable?"

All four of the adventurers and the Magi Guild attendant gave him a blank look, and Kevin self-consciously added, "I'm a bit of a gourmet.” He thought fast. “Until now, I have been working at a restaurant. And although others don't share my passion, I enjoy trying new monster meat to eat."

Fili was the first to make any noise at all, and the dwarf boisterously laughed. "I think I can speak for all of us when I say I really don't care about monster meat, but I really do care about leaving now."

The rest of the adventurers nodded, agreeing that Fili was correct.

"All right, said Kevin," he said, "but it sounds like we don't have a moment to waste. Come on."

And then, not waiting for the adventurers to move first, he began heading directly for the door at a run. A few moments later, his four new squadmates easily caught up with him, and Fili, the dwarf, chuckled and muttered, "I think I'm going to like this goblin if I don’t die of frustration first!"

Outside the Magi Guild, the group of five immediately ran to the right. By this point, Kevin was working hard to keep up with them. Despite his excellent physique and additional gifts, they had much higher physical abilities than he did. Except for Fili, they all had longer legs as well. But the powerful dwarf took huge, lunging running steps that helped him move deceptively fast.

Kevin cursed the fact he couldn't polymorph into a chipmunk or a human to easily keep up with the group. In fact, in chipmunk form, he probably could have just run up to any of their shoulders and had a pleasant ride.

The adventurers pounded down the nearest alley, which was their goal after leaving the guild. About halfway down, Fili suddenly dropped to his knees and began lifting the manhole cover off of an access to the sewers. The rest of the adventurers stood aside, watching down both ends of the alley with hooded eyes, watching for approaching guards. Because of the way this alley curved, it was ideal for a clandestine action such as dropping down to the sewers to escape the city.

The plan was good, but Kevin called out, "Wait." Fili kept moving the manhole cover, but the rest of the adventurers turned and gave him a curious expression underlined by stress. Kevin hurriedly said, "People saw us go down this alley. If the mayor's men are here, they're going to figure out what happened since the only way we could have left was this sewer cover. And in the sewers, we won't be able to move very fast. All they need to do is go to the end where the sewers leave the city and wait for us there. There's no way we could move faster than they would on horses through the city."

Fili grunted in annoyance as he set the manhole cover down to one side. "Maybe I spoke too soon about liking you," said the dwarf. "Are you going to complain, or do you have a better plan?"

"As a matter of fact, I do. Can anybody give me a rope?"

Tomo was the first to reach into the pack on her back, dexterously grabbing one end of a long length of rope and handing it to Kevin. With the end of the rope in his teeth, Kevin leaped at the nearby alley wall and, using [Wall Climbing Fingers], he quickly ascended to the top of the building and tied the rope off on a vent on the roof. Then he shimmied down and said, "This is a B-ranked adventuring group so I would assume you are strong in a fight, but I wouldn’t necessarily assume that any of you could easily get to the top of this high roof without using magic that would leave traces in the alley. There's nowhere to climb either–no handholds in the bricks. If I'm assuming all of this, whether it's true or not, the mayor's men will too. At the very least it should slow them down, if not send them to watch the sewers instead."

George didn't pause a beat. "Good thinking." He began climbing his way up the rope, not even checking to see whether it was properly secured. Kevin was slightly touched that the group's leader had obviously made a decision to trust him. When he was halfway up, George called down, "Fili, prop the manhole cover back up, just slightly off to make it obvious we messed with it."

"Got it, fearless leader," said the dwarf. He didn't look entirely happy about the new plan but also didn't seem upset. Instead, he had a calculating expression as he watched the rest of his team go up the rope. When it was just him and Kevin left in the alley, he said, "Go ahead, Goblin, I'll follow."

Kevin nodded and shrugged as, instead of using the rope, he just climbed up the wall again. The dwarf gave a short bark of a laugh before heading up himself.

On top of the roof, Tomo retrieved her rope and put it away before the five of them began speed walking to the other end of the roof. Nobody had to actually say out loud that running would be too noisy. Kevin was quietly impressed by the group's cohesion and professionalism. He caught a few appreciative gazes aimed his way as well.

The building next to the one they were on, across the alley from the large Magi Guild, actually butted up against the building they were on. It was just a short climb up to the higher rooftop. This time, Kevin didn't need to use Tomo's rope to help the others. With such a short ascent, all five members of the new party were able to reach the rooftop on their own. At the end of this roof was a drop to the next. Jumping down might have been possible, but also would have made a great deal of noise. So all of them, except Kevin, hung by their fingertips from the roof ledge to fall to the next one with minimal sound. Kevin just climbed his way down like a gecko.

From this roof, the five of them raced to the other side, moving as quickly as they could, before Kevin spotted the best place for the five of them to descend. It was another alley, but this one led to a promising escape avenue, a temporarily empty business building. Without any unnecessary conversation, Tomo withdrew her rope again and tied it off, flicking it over the wall. The entire group descended. However, at the bottom, Kevin facepalmed, then went back up the wall before untying the rope so Tomo could pull it back down.

When he got back to the bottom again, Fili whispered, "How can you do that?" Raw jealousy was clear in his voice.

Kevin shrugged and softly said, "It's just a trick."

"Pretty good trick.”

Kevin followed the group as they headed to the door of the abandoned business. They all had the same thought in mind. Luckily, Fili was able to get through the locked door almost instantly, and the group was through and had the door locked behind them again in seconds.

After that, they headed to the back of the building where they repeated the process with another back door. This had been a fairly large building before, with multiple individual businesses renting it out.

Over the last couple of weeks in Clearmine, Kevin had heard rumors about problems with spooky occurrences in buildings like these. Everything he’d overheard had been hushed gossip. Whether there were any specifics, he didn’t know. Everything he’d heard had been very general in nature. And now when he was heading through the empty building, he didn't notice anything particularly out of the norm.

Outside, back in yet another alley, the group wound their way slowly but surely out of the city, staying out of the public eye as much as possible. It was actually only after a few more minutes had passed that Kevin realized George was leading the group in the opposite direction that he assumed the sewers led to–downriver. George was leading them to the other side of the city.

Kevin was quietly impressed all over again that the adventurers thought on the fly so quickly. When he'd first met them and heard their powers, he'd been actually a bit underwhelmed at the lack of raw strength he assumed the group had. But now that he'd seen them in action a bit, he could appreciate their cleverness and teamwork, and that was a power in its own right.

Finally, they were near the edge of the city, near one of the gates corresponding to a cardinal direction. They repeated the process of lowering themselves down from the rooftop they currently found themselves on, and Kevin dropped Tomo's rope so she could collect it again. The guards at the gate watched all this happening with obvious confusion but didn't make any move to stop them as they left the city. After all, Kevin nor any of the Moutain Fingers were actually in any trouble, and none of them were criminals either. All of this just to avoid a dinner invitation, Kevin thought sourly.

The adventurers, plus Kevin, jogged into the forest off of the road the first chance they got, and an hour later, George announced, "Nobody will be following us past this point." Kevin let out a breath at the same time that Tomo did and nervously smiled at her. The quest was officially a go at this point.