Alden stood with Liam, staring at the wooden board in front of them. “You said that every researcher has to do at least one of these?” Liam nodded, leaning against one of the walls at the edge of the room. “Yep. It’s the kingdom’s way of making us earn our keep. The way they see it, one practical bit of knowledge every year or so isn’t enough to justify our continued existence. Hence, they make researchers take missions-helps kill two drakes with one arrow as it were.” Alden nodded, humming thoughtfully. Around him the various other researchers talked quietly with each other, gesturing at various papers. Alen eyed a few mentally dissecting it. “What’s with the stars? And the rewards, aren’t we rewarded with continued funding?” Liam grinned at him. “You saying you don’t want more gold? If so don’t worry, I would be more than happy to take our share.” Alden rolled his eyes at the man saying, “You know what I mean. What’s the deal?” Liam sighed, a faint grin still on his face. “The stars denote difficulty- the more stars the more difficult it is. 1 star means any mortal could handle it; 5 stars means that you better bring top of the line researchers. Nigh-archmages top of the line. As for the rewards, the city takes a cut from every quest we do for our funding- everything extra they consider incentive to get us to do more of them. Occasionally a researcher will need more resources than they give us and go on a questing spree.” A commotion at the board distracted him, making both him and Alden look over. A clerk had pinned a new paper on the board- this one in a more ornate script and with yellow aged paper. Alden’s eyes widened as he read it. “They want to lure a hydra into the mountains!? Are they insane?” Alden’s response was more muted, just leaning back to consider the information. Beside him Liam looked like he was about to start screaming. Alden reached over, resting a hand on the man’s shoulder. “Calm Liam. It’s only a juvenile, not a full grown one. Plus, the city will be supplying their own archmage and guide for support.” Liam finally tore his eyes from the paper, staring at Alden. “Just a juvenile hydra!? Things probably close to an great power level threat on its own.” His eyes narrowed dangerously. “You aren’t considering taking it are you?” Alden could only shrug at him, his eyes caught on the rewards. “Maybe. Look at that-an unattuned Aether crystal. More, books on your affinity and an unchosen award from their lesser vault. That’s worth the risk.” Liam just shook his head at him. “You do what you want, I’m not going near that thing.” Alden just nodded before striding to the board from their position against the west wall. He weaved through the crowd, gently pushing and shoving until he came to the paper. Picking up one of the signing pens he wrote his name- the 3rd out of 10 potential slots. Putting it down he continued moving on, not hesitating as he exited the room. He had a lot of preparations to see to.
A few days later Alden stood in a stone-built room. A large oak table dominated the center of the room, with twenty seats. Alden chose to sit at one of the corners at the far edge-he liked making sure he could keep a view on everyone. Their meeting time was at the eighth bell. Alden was there not long after the seventh bell. When he arrived, there was only one other person- a stern faced, grizzled human with a limp and a yellow, rotted, tooth smile. They waited as more and more people showed up. Mostly humans with a few gorgons and even a dragon. Said dragon was out on the balcony, head through the doors into the room. Alden recognized a few as researchers from his facitilty-7 familiar faces. Not as many as were possible but still more than he expected. As soon as the eight bell rang the old man limped to the door before slamming it shut. With a grunt he slurped back some of his saliva and limped back to the front of the table. “Welcome, welcome. I am Arthur and am leading this poor excuse for a mission. I don’t need your life story-just your name and general abilities.” He pointed at the dragon first. “You start go around away from me than back towards me. Got it? Good, go.” He didn’t wait for a response gesturing enthusiastically at the dragon. Alden smiled to himself. It was definitely going to be an interesting mission.
Alden took notes as they went around. They had a wide variety of affinities- a lot of stone or earth variants but also a sound mage, a fire mage, and even a dust affinity. Alden took special note of him- affinities of small things were harder to defend against than most. When it finally came around to him, he kept his contribution short and simple as the man asked. “My name’s Alden and I’m a chicken mage. I specialize in sensory abilities.” From his lap Bob stood up, looking curiously at everyone. There was a beat of silence before the person next to him- a gorgon- began listing out their own affinity. Alden studied the reactions of others. You could tell a lot from how a person reacted. Did they keep their face neutral no matter what? Did they take notes? Did they openly scoff? People could fake their reactions but most did not or could not do so. It wasn’t a highly prized ability to most people after all. The old man at the front waited before everyone finished- ending at a human dirt mage who specialized in creating sinkholes. The grizzled man hacked out a wad of spit onto the floor and everyone’s attention immediately turned to him. “Alright. Now that show and tell time is over its time to discuss the mission.” He gestured and an enchantment activated, showing an image of the juvenile hydra. “This is our target. It’s still a juvenile and can be taken out by a coordinated action from a couple of archmages or a more destructive great power. Our goal is to lure it out into the Hamiyaln mountain range if we can. There’s a lot of nasty critters and other powers out there and this hydra will be a good defense. There’s also a lot of political reasons behind it but I don’t much care about those. Instead, we will be discussing how exactly we are going to attract its attention, and how exactly we aren’t going to die while doing it. The floor is open. Who wants to speak first?” Alden sat back and brought out his pencil and book. Time to take some notes.
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About two hours later they were still in the thick of the discussion. They had managed to discuss what they were going to use- Hydras had a known tendency to go after highly Aether dense creatures. Fortunately for them they happened to have some incredibly Aether-Empowered beasts- they were used to as mounts and living opponents for the various archmages withing the city. Unlike most Hillak was constantly preparing and moving as if at war. Yet then they had come to the crux of the problem; how exactly did they intend to keep ahead of a massive, regenerating, draconic creation while keeping its attention. They were slow undoubtedly. Yet even the slowest of creatures had the potential to move with blinding speed in short distances and hydras were no different. That was problem number one. Problem number two was that the mountains were incredibly challenging to scale and navigate at the best of times- leading a hydra through them would be a even greater one. In addition, there was a question about whether the creature could actually do it in the first place. Problem number 3 was the fact that none of them were courageous enough or, perhaps more accurately, stupid enough to lead and guide the bait around. There were enchantments true, but such things became unpredictable when it came to The Spine. Alden’s voice cut through the current argument between two humans- both of whom seemed to think that they would be able to solve all the problems with a few applications of their magic. “I’ll guide the bait.” For a moment there was silence as everyone just stared at him. The dragon- Lilainth her name was- broke said silence by chuckling in amusement. “That’s one problem solved then. Now, I may know a route through the mountains, but it will take some persuasion. Sphinxes can be particularly difficult to convince. We’ll need to find some worthy gifts.” She looked directly at Arthur when she said that, and he just grunted before spitting a sickly wad of phlegm onto the ground. “I’ll take care of it. What can we do about its attention?” Alden leaned back as conversation once again started up with renewed intensity. His role had been decided. Now it was just preparing.
The next day Alden sat in the stone seats of the Arena- an area that allowed different contenders to come up and challenge whatever champion was put on display for that day. They also had a rather large number of Aether-beasts fortunately enough. “You ready to see it?” The smooth voice of a slim, dark-haired man echoed from below him. Alden nodded, quickly moving down to the sandy bottom. The Arena had half stone seats, and half stone walls. The bottom was covered in sand. They used mostly non-mage fights and only used Aether beasts and other mage specials whenever they wanted to spice things up. The man led Alden to a massive gate in the far wall. He made a signal with his hand and slowly, ever so slowly, the gate began to open revealing a massive mountain goat. It was a beautiful creature and Alden could feel his breath almost catch as he looked at it. “It’s beautiful,” he murmured out loud to which the Arena master smiled in response. “Yes, yes, she is. This is Jisellda and she should suit your purposes just fine. She’s a mountain goat and should have no trouble scaling the Skypiercer mountain range. Payment has already been arranged by Arthur, so you don’t need to worry about that.” He handed Alden the reins. “She’s very good handling wise- if it ends up that she survives don’t hesitate to bring her back.” He made a signal, and the gates began to close spurring Alden to lead Jisellda out into the sunlight of the Arena. The man started briskly walking toward another gate- this one opened up to a ramp leading to the outside. “I wish you the best of luck. I think you’re a fool and mad, but to each their own.” With that he turned around and left leaving Alden with Jisellda. He gazed up at the magnificent creature, Bob doing likewise from up on his shoulder. “We’ll have to keep you safe, won’t we.” He smiled. Things just got a whole lot easier.