The next morning, everyone got together to head out, filled themselves with more street food for breakfast - with a note to get some supplies for themselves to cook later, and headed back to the Redcloud’s headquarters in order to meet up with Murabi. They’d confirmed that they made it to Nagyermend over the sending stone and arranged the meeting shortly after. As they entered and stood off to the side to not disrupt the steady flow of people entering and leaving the main lobby area, Tahir’s mind pondered what he knew about the ruin and the sponsorship surrounding it. His thoughts concluded on him knowing frustratingly little at this stage, but he hoped his mentor would remedy that.
Thankfully, they didn’t have to wait long. Some ten minutes after they stood, talked, and quickly grabbed a set of available seats, Murabi stepped inside and spotted them almost immediately, making his way over. “Well now, you kids aren’t looking too worse for wear.” He greeted them. “Glad to see that you two managed to reach platinum. And ah- you must be Shukri. As I’m sure they’ve already told you, I’m Murabi Nariba.”
“I have heard much about you, swordsman. I’m hoping you are able to teach me as you have taught them.” Shukri replied.
“If the gods are willing.” Murabi said, taking a seat for himself with the group. “So, you’ve given me some of the details over the sending stone, but I’m dying to hear what you guys have been through after we parted in Isanthyr.”
“Of course.” Tahir said. Thankfully, they’d already had to tell the story to Callipho, so they could go through the major points quickly, and answer any clarifying questions Murabi had about the whole ordeal. Of course, they took the opportunity to mention the message they got from the Blade of Frost as well.
“Small world, it seems. Not only did you run into a friend of Callipho’s, but an acquaintance of mine.” Murabi concluded. “Glad to hear she’s doing well, though, and that she’s calmed down a bit. I haven’t had any idea how she turned out since I left.”
“I think it was less that she calmed down and more that the Raven stopped her.” Tahir said. “It definitely seemed like she would have just attacked me if he hadn’t been there.”
“Oh believe me, that is calm for her. The old her probably would have just attacked you and took the consequences later. Hmm - do you remember when I first told you that people like Theo would have basically any special privilege they wanted? She’s one of those, though only with an immense affinity toward ice. You can imagine it's made her quite spoiled. In any case, I’m glad to hear she’s thinking before acting, and that she’s doing well. Going back to you though - Tahir, you and Shukri managed to fight off someone in about the mithral range - with Shukri’s ancestor as a spirit?”
“That’s right.” Tahir confirmed. “It would leave me bedridden for days, but if I summoned her at tier three, I think I could actually challenge you for a bit”
“I wouldn’t exactly call that a great power to have, but it is good to know your limits.” Murabi answered.
Before the conversation could stray any further down that topic, Hasio cleared his throat and interjected. “So Murabi, I’m immensely curious. What can you tell us about the ruin we’re here to explore?”
The mithral Redcloud let out a sigh as he leaned back into his seat. “Well, for starters, the damned thing is massive. Completely fills out the canyon and might even go a bit underground.”
“There must have been quite a bit of void corruption around the area when it appeared then, no?” Meti asked.
“Well now, that’s where we start getting into some of the quirks about the space. There was a lot of void corruption to clear out, but not nearly as much for a ruin of that size, even if it filled up most of the empty space of the canyon.”
Tahir thought about it for a moment. When bringing massive objects from one plane to another, void corruption would occur when an object displaces something that’s already there. So for there to be little void corruption meant that there wasn’t much to interfere with the return of the ruin. “So if the ruin had been there previously, does that mean the canyon itself hasn’t changed in thousands of years?”
“Who knows?” Murabi replied. “Something else that happened - there were reports of massive tremors coming from the canyon before the ruin reappeared, but no one was around to take note of what actually happened. It might have been some ancient magic to aid the return of the ruin, or just a normal earthquake. Either way, the lack of void corruption’s not the only oddity about this particular ruin. The space on the inside has been enhanced. It’s somehow larger on the inside than it is on the out.”
“Wait, it already fills up the entire canyon, doesn’t it?” Theo asked. “How big is it on the inside then?”
“The guys who surveyed the place say about 60 floors, though that’s only extrapolating from what they found on the first couple.” After Murabi spoke, everyone sat silent for several seconds, only hearing the sounds of the Redclouds around them as they went about their business.
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Tahir could scarcely imagine 60 floors of a ruin. The one in Isanthyr only had 10, and it still felt like an impressively large space. After a while, Shukri finally continued the conversation by asking a question. “What’s been found inside?”
“No clue, personally. Whatever the survey team saw, they decided that it was worth making the ruin only accessible to platinum Redclouds and above. With the only exception being the gold ranks who’re a part of the sponsorship.” Murabi said, pausing to shrug, and stretch his arms high in the air with a slight yawn before continuing. “Still, there are so many of us that we won’t need to all spend the time combing through every floor, and it’ll still be a couple days till they start formally letting people in, anyway. Which is good, I wanted to get you guys started on learning the next steps as soon as possible - or getting Shukri here started at the very least.”
Shukri perked up immediately at that, as Theo said. “Oh! I wanted to go have a look through some of the apothecaries in the area to see if I could make another batch of elixirs! Including for you, master Murabi, if you want one.”
Murabi held a hand up. “No need, I’ve had plenty of those kinds of elixirs already. It’d take something made from dragon’s blood, or something along those lines, to meaningfully affect my aura.” He said, then looked around at everyone else. “Will the rest of you be otherwise occupied for today?”
Tahir cleared his throat. “I’m helping to pay for my second elixir, so I’ll be following Theo.” He answered.
Meti chimed in. “I’m also in need of supplies for a project I’m on the cusp of finishing.”
Hasio shrugged. “I might as well go people watch, just so you can give Shukri your full attention in teaching her your techniques, much as I might stand to learn from going back over the basics.”
Murabi sighed in mock dejection. “What unruly students the lot of you are.” He stood, and everyone else followed. “Come along then, Shukri, might as well get started.”
Hasio’s words brought something to Tahir’s mind, giving him an idea. “Actually, I'll join you for a moment, I have a request.” Tahir said, then looked to Meti and Theo. “I’ll meet you guys outside, alright?” After getting their confirmation, he followed Murabi and Shukri into the training field for this branch. They looked unsurprisingly similar to the ones back in Balrech, though the sun seemed to bear down notably harder. While he followed, he described his most recent revelation that Meti led him to, concerning his ability to learn from his spirits to Murabi.
“So you’re wanting to leave a spirit to learn my techniques?” Murabi asked. “Not that I’m opposed to the idea, but which of your spirits would that actually work for?”
Tahir grinned, and heard a light gasp from Shukri as she seemed to realize who. Calling on his bond, he summoned Mikharma, at tier three. She sprang to life in her flowing, red clothes under the desert sun. After explaining the situation to her, Mikharma looked to Murabi with passing curiosity. “So, you would like me to learn a new way to manipulate my aura?” She summarized. “And it will help you learn in turn. Very well, I haven’t much use for aura techniques myself, but if it will help with your hunting…”
“This’ll be my first time teaching someone who I’d arguably call my senior.” Murabi commented. “I’ll do my best, though.”
With that squared away, Tahir thanked Murabi for agreeing to help with his admittedly odd request, and left the three of them to train. He left the Redcloud building to find Theo and Meti. Hasio must have already left. With the three of them together, they headed out into the city, planning to check the other shops they’d gotten recommendations from during their first short walk around in the city. If they weren’t in an entirely different city from Balrech, Tahir would say the time walking with Meti and Theo almost felt like just before he got accepted for the sponsorship. In those days after he recovered from the perilous point in the ruin delve. Thankfully, he wasn’t recovering from any major injuries at this point, and he shouldn’t as long as he didn’t get into a fight where he had to use his aura while he had Mikharma out at tier three.
Even in the event that he got into a fight, he technically only summoned her at tier two, with his knowledge of her name filling in the gap, so he had mana to spare for magic if he needed to. He couldn’t imagine getting into a fight in the middle of a crowded city, except maybe to chase after a thief. With most of their belongings in their storage bags, however, a thief would probably have to start a fight with any of them in order to take theirs.
Thankfully, the trip to the alchemy shops and apothecaries Theo sought proved stress-free and enjoyable. Tahir and Meti spent quite a bit on supplies for Theo, and though Tahir balked at the expense, he knew that the elixirs actually worked, so he knew that it would be money well spent in the end. Still, he wouldn’t have much other than the money needed to feed himself and pay for his room for the time being.
“I hope we’ll be getting paid for our part in the ruin delve before the end of it.” Tahir said.
“They’ll probably be letting us take, and potentially sell, whatever we find.” Meti answered. “In any case, that’s our shopping done for the moment. Right, Theo?”
“Yep! This should be enough for another batch of elixirs for everyone. Now I just need to find some space.”
“I’ll help with that. There’s likely somewhere near the Redcloud’s lodging that’ll let us work. Are you coming with, Tahir?”
Tahir thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. “Actually, I wanted to go to see what Nagyermend’s library is like. I have a feeling I’ll be spending a lot of time there in the future, so I might as well figure out where it is.”
“Alright! We’ll see you later then, don’t stay out too late!” Theo said, and then they left. Tahir watched them go, until they disappeared in the crowd moving through the busy city street that he stood in. After asking around, he set off toward the library. For the first time in a while, operating almost entirely on his own.