Entering the Guild, it as usual was very busy, making it rather difficult to squeeze through. Managing to find Elise fairly quickly, since she had been looking for us as well, she led us into a private room.

“Alright. I want to assess our battle first, Alisha, then we’ll proceed to the brief. It’s important to do this brief as there are various things you need to know and improve on from our fight. Now, to let you know now we’ve finished, I am a control mage. I am absolutely terrible at close combat, however I am also the worst nightmare for those who rely on close combat, like yourself.”

Placing a blue gem on the table, a Memory Stone, Elise tapped it once as the scenes from yesterday played from her point of view. Tapping once again, it paused on the moment the fight started.

“You were not prepared for the assessment to start. I don’t blame you since you would’ve been waiting for the signal to start. You got on guard quickly which is good, but remember Alisha an enemy looking to ambush you isn’t going to simply wait for you to be ready. In that second where you were not on guard I could’ve bound you completely.”

Tapping it once again, Elise paused it on the part where I had first been bound. “You adapted to the situation fast but you held back, intending to judge the right amount of strength to use against me. End fights fast. In this situation, the expectation was for you to run around the domain, searching for me, yet you stood still. This made it incredibly easy for me to keep binding you.”

Seeing what she meant, I watched as I dodged being bound several times. It paused once again when I made the tornado.

“This was most likely the worst decision you made. In fact I had thought you failed the assessment at this point. The idea was good, to push away the scent that was overwhelming you away with wind magic. However you failed to consider the environment. Dirt and dust covered the domain, and in the moment you made the tornado you blinded yourself. Your eyes aren't able to look through physical obstacles.

“On the upside, you avoided the domain trap perfectly. I could tell you sensed the weakness, but didn’t take it. If you had taken it, you’d have been struck with a torrent of pure mana. It would’ve overwhelmed you for a moment, but I would’ve been able to end your life several times by the time you recovered.”

So it was a trap. Well, Xander had confirmed that yesterday, but knowing that she could make a trap in her domain made me want to know how to do it as well.

“At this point I sensed an incredibly weak burst of mana from you. I had thought it was a clumsy attempt at Mana Sense, trying to locate me through the use of a pulse of mana. Never would I have thought it was a spell to actually mark me, I didn't even notice the mark until this moment.” Pausing the Memory Stone on a scene, it was the second I had snapped my head and body in Elise’s direction.

“You scared me a bit here. I had absolutely no clue that you had found me, I had thought I made a mistake and revealed where I was. It was only then that I realised there were strands of mana surrounding me lightly. From there, you performed beautifully.”

The Memory Stone ends as she puts it away. “We had only intended to test your adaptability, see how you react to each situation and assess you from there. You exceeded our expectations by not only finding me, but disrupting my domain with a heavy blow and taking that chance to expand your own. You didn’t even give me a chance and used that damn Lullaby. That’s a deadly spell, Alisha. Even I couldn’t escape the illusions and my willpower and resistance to illusions has a solid foundation.

“Now, I’m finished with doing the assessment. Shall we proceed to the briefing? I’d imagine you’ll be eager to set off.” Nodding to Elise, she smiled and led us out of the room and up the stairs to the Gold Grade floor.

Similar to the Bronze room, it had many adventurers here, though they looked a lot stronger. It was very busy here, and we had to once again squeeze through the crowd before walking down a corridor and into a large room. Sitting down at a long table, Elise smiled and left the room.

After a few minutes, Elise returned and sat opposite of me. “The others will be here shortly. In the meantime, is there anything that you may need done while you’re away?” Explaining the garden to her, she took out a notepad and started writing everything I told her down, about how to harvest certain plants or what colour they needed to be and so on.

After about ten minutes, Elise smiled stiffly and said “There is a lot isn’t there? Alright, give me your house key and I’ll arrange for someone to look after your garden.” Handing her the key, the door opened at the same time and four people entered. Leading them is a Platinum Grade, one was an attendant and the other two were Gold Grades.

The first Gold Grade was a rather bulky, bald man with a beard, a large shield on his back along with a giant axe. The second, a female with red hair, had a slim figure with a pair of daggers on her side. Both of them glance at us before sitting down. The attendant followed while the Platinum Grade stood in front of us and the others sat.

“Good, everyone is here. I am Lin, and I will be briefing you all on your mission today. Firstly, introduce yourselves.”

“Xeno. Tank.” The large man raised a hand before putting it down.

“Summer. Scout.” Giving all of a light nod, Summer glanced at us with a serious face.

“Alisha. Fighter and spellcaster. This is Alice, a spellcaster.” Introducing myself and gesturing to Alice who was on my lap, consuming monster cores once again, the two nod at me.

“The hero of the slums and the one who conquered that stubborn dungeon. A pleasure.” Speaking formally, Summer kept her serious face on.

“Xia. Arcane Mage.” Introducing herself last, Xia also returned the nods of the others.

“Good. You five will be joining together for a mission to either rescue adventurers or return their identity plates. Summer, you will be leading this expedition. Alisha, you will be her backup.” Both of us nod.

Picking up a roll of paper, Lin threw it at the wall to the side, where it spread out and stuck. It showed the same map Elise had yesterday, except there were redlines going towards the strip of land and red circles.

“Now, you five will be travelling to the Canyon of Ruth’s Rest. It’s a pain in the arse zone that new adventurer’s think they can just sneak through. It currently has shifted so only those below level 60 can enter, anyone else who enters will disappear, to who knows where, we just know they’ll never be heard from again.

“We expect the next shift to occur in six months, so you will have plenty of time. This place is filled with danger that you all must be aware of. This isn’t some trip into a dungeon, the monsters here are far more terrifying and dangerous. Mimics are the worst of the lot, unlike those that reside in the Tomb of Lilith, these bastards can form themselves into a perfect replica. There are various other dangers, but you’re not going sightseeing, you’re to get in, rescue the adventurers and get the fuck out.

“The idiots that ran into the Canyon thinking they could shortcut it over to the Guild consisted of five, one Silver Grade and four Bronze Grade. As you know, Gency does not have any above Silver Grade, any potential Gold Grades will come here, and this Silver Grade is one of them. We received confirmation of their names today and had an artist draw their descriptions.”

Throwing more papers at the wall, they stuck and my eyes locked onto one in particular. If there were any doubts before, they are gone now. Olivia, it was her.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“We do not leave any adventurer behind, this is an ironclad rule. It doesn’t matter if you killed one by your hands because they were foolish enough to attempt to take your life, you are to return their corpse or adventurer’s plate to us. For your success in this mission, each of you will be awarded two Mithril coins, and one for each person or identity that you bring back.”

“Shit.” Xeno mutters under his breath and I know why he did so. I wasn’t accustomed to money, but I knew that the reward for this was steep, which meant that it was very dangerous.

“We put this group together while considering your strengths and weaknesses. Xeno, you will be the one who protects the party. Xia, you will support him with your magic. Alisha, you will be responsible for dispatching anything you need to kill, while Alice backs you up. Lastly, Summer you will be responsible for scouting, ensuring the parties overall health and finishing anything off Alisha has failed to do so.”

Looking over all of us, he spoke again. “Any questions?” No one spoke while Lin looked around. “Good. You all have supplies and Alisha here has food for you all, you will all be moving with as much speed as possible. The route we have provided is the safest route, you will not encounter any obstacles along the way unless you have a freak accident. Now, final chance for questions.”

Xeno grunts as he sticks a thumb towards Alice. “We’re bringing a level 1 child along?”

“It's a bit rude to pry.” Xia mutters as she looks at Xeno with a raised brow. A bit surprised she spoke out like that, Xeno grunts again.

“If we’re going somewhere dangerous, I want to ensure those I go with won’t hold me down. A level 1 being dragged along will do that.”

Summer looked at us seriously before glancing at Alice. Folding her arms, she leaned back while looking at Lin.

“You’re doubting the Guild’s decision?” Lin looks at Xeno with an unhappy expression.

“Not at all, but I don’t want any slack.” Xeno matches Lin’s look as I sigh.

Looking at Alice, who looked a bit upset that she had become the centre of attention, she met my eyes and I gave her a small smile and nod. Whispering in her ear, I told her a way to resolve this, or piss off the Guild, or both. “Sweety, go easy on him.”

Looking at me with an excited smile, Alice looked at Xeno and raised a finger. I had learnt very quickly that while Alice wasn’t good with her words and had a very childish nature, she was fast to learn and quite smart. I knew those words I had said wouldn’t lead to any problems.

As Xeno looks at Alice, she quietly says the name of a spell I hoped to never experience. “Emotional Upheaval.”

Caught off guard, Xeno looked shocked one moment, then in the next his face changed several times before it settled on an extremely sad expression. I knew Alice had avoided making him angry or enraged as I witnessed Xeno break down crying before he started sobbing into his hands. The room went silent before a sound rang out over his sobbing.

“Pff.”

Looking at Summer, she started laughing. “You dumb big oaf! That’s what you get for doubting!” Laughing more, she suddenly stopped as her face turned angry. “Ah! Idiot, why’d you do that?! Now I don’t look like the cool, mysterious leader!” She starts shaking the crying Xeno as I watch, dumbfounded.

The male attendant lets out a sigh. Tilting my head in his direction, he looks at me with a tired expression and gestures to Summer. “Summer is rather eccentric. She is a very joyful person, filled with laughter and happiness, never failing to smile. She does suffer from wanting to be seen as the cool, serious and hardworking elder sister to those that are new or have just reached Gold Grade. When she heard that you were coming along she demanded Xeno and I to not utter her true side. Alas, she didn’t even last till the end of the end of the meeting.”

“HEY! Don’t tell them! I’m not eccentric, you old fart!” Shaking her fist at the attendant, she turned to Xeno, who was still crying his heart out. “Ahhh! It’s all your fault you big oaf!” This time she punched him, but I could tell the blows were weak, it was like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

“Well, as the saying goes, the proof is in the pudding. Alice, please dispel the spell.” Lin finally spoke up, looking rather amused by the situation. What had once been a serious, delicate atmosphere had very quickly turned into a noisy, amusing one. Alice drops her hand as Xeno slowly stops crying and returns to eating her monster cores. Reaching for one myself, I too decided to eat as I watched Xeno from the corner of my eye. I had nothing to worry about though.

Xeno looked at Alice with a bit of fear as Summer started laughing again. “You fucked around and found out, Z! Don’t blame her for your stupidity. Look, the hero of the slums is ready to pulverise you if you try!”

“Stupid woman! I wouldn’t dare!”

“Huhh?! What did you call me, you big oaf?!”

“You two, can it. Let Lin finish the brief.”

“Oh, I’m pretty much done, I’m just finding all of this rather amusing so I’m holding off sending them out until they finish their arguing.”

“Ah! Madam Alice, you shouldn’t eat so much! It needs to last two months!”

“NO! Alice hungry! Xi Xi smelly!”

Listening to the ruckus around me, my eyes met with Elise's, who gave me a tired smile. Is it like this with every adventurer meeting?

“Alright, everyone quieten down. Given everyone appears to be full of energy, we will send you through the short range teleport now. It’ll take you two days out from Vale, the guards on the other end are already waiting for you. From there, follow the map and make haste.” Lin throws each of us a rolled up map.

As we stood, Xeno approached us quickly and knelt. “I apologise for my earlier words. I have no doubt that young Alice is worthy of standing with us.”

Looking at Alice, she was glancing down at Xeno before looking at me. Giving her a soft nod, she turned back and said “Alice ok!” I really had to take the time to teach her new words…wait, did she call Xia smelly earlier? Raising an eyebrow, I glanced at Xia who quickly stood at attention before I looked back at Xeno. Nooo, I simply heard Summer instead of Alice…right?

“What Alice means to say is she forgives you. She isn’t good with her words yet, but she carries no hard feelings.” Relaying the meaning of ‘Alice ok!’ to Xeno, he got up and gave me a nod.

“Thank you. I look forward to working with the one they call the hero of the slums. Xeno.” He held his hand out, and quickly realising that he was reintroducing himself as a sign of respect, I did the same thing and shook his hand.

“Alisha.” We gave each other a nod and we both followed Summer, who had turned around.

“I’m Summer!”

“She knows, you dullard.”

“Huh?! You’re one to speak, big and stupid oaf!”

The male attendant sighs, looks at me and pats my back. “It’s going to be a long trip, I apologise.”

For once I wanted to pray to Celestia that he wasn’t implying they would be like this the entire trip. Hearing the two of them argue on our way to what Lin called the teleport hall, I worked on tuning their arguing out.

***

We had been travelling for about two weeks now, and during this time I had gotten to know Summer and Xeno. I really enjoyed their company…when they weren’t yelling at each other.

Xeno is something that other adventurers called a Drifter. Summer had explained that the term was used as an insult, yet Xeno said he had no shame in it. A Drifter is one who never stays in one party, always moving to other parties. According to him, he detested those parties he left because they had very little honour, always aiming for profit over accomplishing anything.

In fact, he only agreed to joining the expedition because of me and the accomplishments I have achieved. In addition to this, he only saw value in those that fought for the betterment of those around them, and he had an interest in me due to saving the orphanage from the bear attack. Xeno had very little to say, but would never refuse a conversation.

Summer on the other hand was a very bright person, as I had been told she was always filled with joy, doing her best to make everyone smile, even Xeno whom she’d argue with constantly. She’d always offer to help look after Alice, who needed to be carried and required sleep, and got along very well with Xia of all people.

Of course, they had gotten to know us as well, though I had avoided telling them the truth about Xia and I, merely stating that we were friends. Xia had picked up on what I was hinting at and went along with the story. It’s possible that Xeno or Summer had seen her level being restricted, but they never questioned the story.

And like that, we continued for another two weeks, and very soon a grand canyon laid itself out. A month of walking nonstop hadn’t exactly tired us, but we set down for half a day break while Summer scouted the way ahead of us. It would take two to three days to travel through this canyon, with the only way down being either the rock face or steep stairs that led down. A strange energy ran through this place, I couldn’t tell what it was but I knew it wouldn’t harm us.

Standing there looking over the canyon, I heard the roaring of monsters, the rushing of a river and the wind that blew through the canyon and I hoped that Olivia was safe.