Dominik led his wife to the counter for administration. They waited in line behind one person, and then they could start.

“Hello, welcome to the adventurer’s guild, how may I help you.” Said a chubby woman in a floral dress. Clearly not a very strict dress code, at least for this town’s adventurer’s guild. After a moment though, Dominik thought it strange to look down on this place for its dress code, when he wasn’t wearing shoes, and he was wearing torn up clothes he’d most likely taken from a demon, who had mostly likely taken it from a dead adventurer. An adventurer it likely killed. He tried being friendly, and considered finding a cobbler, and a tailor, at least some time tomorrow.

“Hello, I am Domin.. Us.” Somehow they’d forgotten to think of fake names. How had they forgotten to think of fake names? All that time spent on the backstories.

“And this is my wife Fr.. Eya.” Hopefully that’s different enough.

“Is that Domin’us and Fr’eya, or….”

“No, I was just trying to be clear. Many scribes are particular about properly spelling names among humans.”

“Are you.. Not human?” The woman asked.

“I am half high elf, and half northman, but many see me only as a human. My wife and I have been living in the surrounding forests for some time, we are not members of this guild. But we came upon something.” With that he brought out the pouch with the tags, and the note he’d found.

“That note was on a scout that had been killed by spiders. I cut the webbing open. He was killed on the first floor of the dungeon. The rest I gathered from the first few floors. Though their bodies were mostly gone.”

The woman’s eyes went wide as she listened to his whole story, and as she read the note. She looked through the tags, and saw every name from the first battalion of the royal guard. “It was a full wipe.” She said, most likely to herself.

She began writing things down, scrambling for documents, and stamping papers. “Sorry sir, just a moment, I’d like to get more details.” She continued writing madly, her handwriting becoming increasingly frantic and illegible.

“There’s no rush, we can stay for some time.” He put his hand on his wife’s shoulder lovingly, and his wife placed her hand on his. Soon she had called someone else over, likely a higher up, and finished writing for the most part. At least for the time being

A middle aged man in a slightly more refined dress shirt and slacks came over to them, and began asking questions. “Sorry sir, I’m the manager of this branch of the adventurer’s guild. I may ask you some redundant questions, but we need all the information we can get. Can you tell me how far you went into the dungeon to retrieve these tags?”

“The scout’s tag was on the first floor. The others started appearing on the second floor, down to the sixth.” Dominik didn’t think it’d be believable that they didn’t make it at least this far. But he didn’t want people thinking they’d nearly finished clearing the dungeon either. He figured even without knowing the total number of floors. Six didn’t seem very promising, and they wouldn’t try throwing more bodies at the dungeon. At least not valuable forces like a battalion of the royal guard. Especially not so far off to the west from the kingdom. A small town and a village being attacked was a more acceptable risk than losing too much power for the northern kingdom.

“I didn’t dare go any lower, and I would’ve been killed without my barrier as it is.”

“I’m sorry sir.” The guild manager said. “But what do you specialize in?”

“I am a druid, but I focus on healing and protection magic. My wife is a mage, and she focuses on offensive magic. We barely made it out alive as it was. Although there were still many demons, with strange eldritch alterations on their bodies. It seemed as if the dungeon wanted them replaced.”

The guild manager frowned. “What do you mean?”

Dominik continued. “This large group must’ve been wiped out some time ago, and the forces on the upper levels could have surely been more numerous. There was also a loud noise coming from below the sixth floor. I feel as if a shift was coming. Perhaps the dungeon was simply letting us cull the remainder of its failed creations. I would not try delving to the sixth floor again. It may be down to timing that we were even able to survive.”

The woman began writing again, and the man sighed out very deeply. “I’m afraid dungeon shifts do happen from time to time, especially when major events happen, like the first few levels being mostly cleared out by the royal guard.” Said the guild manager.

“Yes, but I think the spiders are being kept on the first floor. They seemed mostly unaltered, and their population was quite numerous.” said Dominik, playing the role of a wise druid.

“Thank you.” The manager responded, trying to sound more hopeful. “I’ll make sure an anti-venom is recommended to any future scouts or groups.” Dominik thought a barrier spell would be the real requirement, as, if they needed antivenom, it would most likely be too late. But he kept this to himself. He didn’t need them getting too far into the dungeon too early.

“You said you’re not registered with the guild.” The guild manager started to give his speech. “We could really use the talents of you and your wife, now that there’s a permanent dungeon near the town. It’s not all bad either, as long as the dungeon population is culled on a regular enough basis, the extra income could be useful for the town.”

“And.” The guild manager clasped his hands together. “I’ll offer you the full price for the tags we offered the scout, plus a bit for their tag as well. It’s very important to have these, for the royal family, and important for the town to have this information. There’s no pressure to join the guild right away, but if you do, we can start you out at the second rank, based on your work even that’s a bit too low, but that’s as high as I can go at the start.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I appreciate the offer, we could use the funds, my wife needs supplies, and we could both use some new clothes. But what’s the benefit of being in this guild? And what difference do ranks make?” Dominik asked.

The guild manager smiled, pleased that he was bringing in some strong adventurers. Now that their town was in such danger, it was important no doubt. “Well the first ranks have to pay a fee, and keep doing enough missions each month, or else they have to pay to have their memberships renewed. I’ll waive the fee for you and your wife, and as second ranks, you could take your time, just take any missions that strike your fancy.”

He continued “The main benefit of rank though, is you can take any mission of that rank without putting anything down, and one rank higher at a low rate. This system is to stop low rank adventurers from taking jobs they can’t really complete, so people capable of taking the jobs have easy access to them. Although we tend to discourage very high rank adventurers from taking very low rank missions, unless no other more suitably ranked missions, or no more suitably ranked adventurers are available. Not that you and your wife will have to worry about that right now.”

He paused for a moment then finished. “We also make exceptions for people with specialized skills, like hunters, especially hunters specializing in a certain type of beast, as their effectiveness might be reliant on their specialization.”

The guild manager smiled again and said. “We can fill out the paperwork in a few minutes, and get you your tags right now, what do you say?”

Dominik turned to Fran and asked. “What do you think honey, do you want to try joining the adventurer’s guild?” He thought it was worth joining, not just to secure payment for now, but for a possible means of investigating the adventurer’s guild activity if they needed such information, and for information about the surrounding area. He didn’t know why he asked, but he could only hope she agreed with him.

“I go where you go, husband.” She didn’t need to lay it on that thick, but at least she agreed.

“Then we’ll join.” He said to the manager.

“Great.” Said the manager as he clasped his hands again, this time with a very audible sound. “Now if you could just tell us your first and last name.”

They hadn’t thought of a last name either. He didn’t even know her real last name, though he suspected she didn’t want to go around telling people which kingdom she was from, or telling anyone else as much as she’d told him. He’d have to make up something vaguely elven sounding for their backstory.

“Al.. Uh.. Shar.. Uh..” He hoped that sounded like a real last name.

The woman at the counter asked. “Alashara?” Thankfully she was used to his way of explaining the pronunciation of their names already.

“Yes.”

“Alright so that’s Dominus and Freya Alashara.”

“Yes.”

“Great, you’re a druid focused on healing and protection magic, your wife is a mage focused on offensive magic, any specific element?”

“Honey?” Dominik asked.

“I dabble in most elemental magic, I like to find balance. And a jack of all trades but a master of none, is oftentimes better than a master of one.” Said Fran, keeping a quiet stoic disposition, settling into the role of wise elves living outside of civilization.

“Oh, of course.” Said the woman. “I’ll write that you have an affinity for most elements. We’ll only need to get specific if you start climbing to higher ranks, but for now it’s enough information.”

They continued answering a few basic questions, or they declined to answer if they felt it was too personal or unimportant, and with that, their adventurer’s sheets were filled out. They were brought their second rank tags, and a large pouch of gold and silver, then they turned to leave, but Dominik remembered something he thought was important. For himself and the town. He didn’t want them thinking the dungeon was overrunning the town or the village with demons.

“One more thing.” Dominik said as he turned back, bringing a look of sadness to the person behind him.

“We saw demons in the forest. They’ve attacked us, and the local village. The villagers even suspected it was my wife before I returned. Unlike the demons in the dungeons, these demons had no alterations, certainly nothing that appeared eldritch in nature. The alterations to the demons in the dungeon were quite obvious. And there were no demons outside the dungeon itself, or even near the mountain from what I saw. Only near the village and a cave my wife was staying near.”

The woman looked to be near tears as she began writing again, about nothing especially good. The manager’s eyes went wide and he asked. “Are you sure? What do you think would be causing this? Are you sure they’re unrelated?”

“My wife and the villagers have seen them, but I myself haven’t. From what they’ve said, these were normal demons. There’s no way lesser demons like what people have been seeing could’ve broken out from the dungeon lord’s control, and the attacks seem too minor to be an overflowing dungeon anyway. On top of that, my wife was attacked just a day before we reached the cave. That group must’ve wiped out many of the demons on the upper floors before that. So it’s quite possible there’s another source.”

The guild manager seemed more bothered by this than the news of the new dungeon. Though that makes sense, not only is it unknown, but there’s no real benefit to the town. “Do you think it’s a cult?” The guild manager asked.

“I don’t know much about that.” Said Dominik. “I don’t know much about what’s going on here either, that’s why I almost didn’t say anything. I have no real leads. If I would’ve been around, maybe we could’ve tracked them through the forest, but if they don’t lead us back to their master, I’d have no way of finding their source. And I don’t want whatever this is hiding under the guise of it being attacks from a new dungeon. It almost seems coordinated, as far as the timing. As if someone, or some group, is trying to use the growing power of the dungeon as cover for their growing horde of demons.”

“Let’s hope it’s nothing so organized.” Said the guild manager, as he dabbed his face with a handkerchief. “I’ll inform the lord and the authorities right away.”

“Yes.” Said Dominik. “If it’s a few people with some group in the forest, I may be able to find them of course. But if it’s a group operating from a human settlement, sending out demons remotely, then I doubt I could find them. That would require an investigation on your people’s part. But I’ll return if I find anything more interesting.”

“Of course.” Said the guild manager. “We’ll send a team to question the villagers in a day or two.”

“You may want to send a guard as well.” Said Dominik. “They told me they were running low on crops from all the raids, and the men were becoming too tired to work. They may not be able to survive the winter if it continues like this.”

“Of course sir. I, Alphonse, will do my best to inform the lord and the authorities of this, and of the pressing need to protect the villagers.” The guild manager gave a partial bow and then hurried to fetch his coat and leave. It seemed like this was too much terrible news to wait, and the woman got up from the counter, chasing after him with the papers.

As Dominik and Fran left, the man who’d been waiting behind them went back to his table and slumped into his chair, defeated.