Seth read the notification once more then looked at Nosam.

Hidden Objective: [Secret of The Silver Mage]

You have found an interest worthy of wagering dots of your supremacy on. Discover how the silver mage navigates the active nest and settle the score.

Objective: [Secret Discovered] 0/1

Reward: Increased Mental fortitude.

Consequence: Main Quest [Guard the Seeker] cannot be completed without completing Hidden Objective [Secret Discovered] 0/1.

As much as he would’ve loved to say it made sense, it really didn’t. Having a silver mage in their presence was, in its own way, a good thing. However, Nosam had lied. Nosam was still lying. Seth’s senses fingered Nosam’s adventurer’s tag as they trudged on. It was still iron. It was still three stars.

Seth wasn’t entirely certain how it made him feel. Protected or in trouble. If the adventurer was hiding something this important, then what else could be false?

They walked on for a short while. Short as it was, its length was demanding. It was short but full like reading a very short, boring book or watching an interesting paint dry. It was in the way time seemed to fly in a brief space only to find time had only moved as briefly as the space that had occupied it.

Seth came under attack for the first time as they rounded a corner with walls of dull stalactites sharp enough to take a person’s finger. A drapner snapped out from a crevice hidden behind the stalactite. A vicious row of teeth as sharp as razor closed around the air where Scott had been. Seth had sensed it as they approached and pulled the adventurer to the side.

He did not attack the beast, however. That was a task left to Joy who waved a hand as if discreetly directing an annoying child past his drunken father. The orb of dying green above them shot down with a belying speed. It struck the creature in the face, turning to viscous goop and plunged them into darkness.

In the dark they heard the screaming throes of something dying terribly.

As terrifying as the event taking place, Seth’s senses were elsewhere. Forward, ahead of them, things scurried around with legs that rang out a staccato rhythm on the rocky grounds. It was wide and few within. Loud enough to be caught at the edge of hearing. Soft enough to slip in and out like a broken melody.

“[Acid Orb]”

The skill caressed the air in Joy’s singer’s voice and another orb of green light amassed itself above them, pulled from nothingness in all directions. The skill’s completion left them with light to see and the melted face of the reia beast now unrecognizable. Where it had been a beast with the head of a piranha and the body of a large mole, it was now a melted hole in the wall.

“Remind me never to get on your bad side,” Scott joked.

The team chuckled in the way friends do at a casual joke tossed out by one of them. It was polite with a touch of enforced comfort. It told Seth they had been adventuring together for a while but not for so long. At best their relationship would be as old as the one he had with his silver team.

As their chuckles died and their momentum resumed, Seth’s mind pointed out Nosam’s silence. He kept his face placid and moved with the unease of a man who knew worse things existed hidden in the origins of children stories. Apparently, it seemed the drapner was the least of their problems.

They soon came to an intersection Nosam did not immediately take. There, their leader stood, a man in thought. He tilted his head one way like a man trying to listen to a particular gossip not intended for his ears. The action was discreet. He did not strain or lean in. In fact, there was little doubt the others noticed it. When he turned his head to the other side, it was clear he was listening to something.

In the curious way of a man seeking another’s secret, Seth let his senses run wild. He triggered his minds when he heard nothing, hoping they would find Nosam’s search first.

They did not.

They’d barely listened for a time long enough for a pin to drop from an infant’s hand when Nosam turned and went left.

The frozen teammates followed like obedient children. It made Seth wonder if their strong deference to Nosam was because they knew his true authority. The suspicion bred goosebumps along his skin.

They walked deeper into the mountain, their path taking a curve, descending ever more, when Nosam raised a sudden hand. He held it in a tight fist that halted them. The hand shook in a way that proved the fist perhaps too tight.

“Nooman beast ahead,” he said in a tight whisper.

What happened next was a strong reflection of the mood the team fell into. The orb of light dimmed abruptly, casting all of them in half-shadows. Their breathing slowed and Seth could count one or two that ceased completely. Nosam’s expression held a touch of worry. It was like a father who worried his child would fall from a particularly high place. It was not fear that the child would hurt themself, but worry of having the child suffer pain. It was the way fathers worried over infant daughters.

The reaction of the team was with good reason.

Reia beasts were known to come in different ranks. Left long enough they were known to evolve just as mages do. An iron rank beast left alone for long enough could one day grow to gold rank. In the same way the drapner they had just killed at iron could’ve one day become a true threat at gold. However, the worry was in the fact that there had never been a recorded iron rank Nooman. They were beasts that seemed to think being born Iron was some kind of insult to their twisted nature. Every Nooman started at silver.

“A silver rank already,” Scott said almost to himself. His eyes glanced at his arm, then Seth, before turning down to the ground. “It’s too soon.”

Nosam agreed with a nod, easing back with quiet steps. The team followed in his footsteps, theirs louder than his.

“We knew it was a possibility,” Fray said.

Pride reached forward and tapped Nosam’s shoulder. When their leader looked back, he asked, “You think we can take it?”

They’d paused their retreat now and were squatted, some taking a knee, each teammate thinking along the same lines.

Nosam gave what was, to Seth’s senses, an exaggerated pause. Knowing Nosam’s authority now, Seth wondered if it was simply his bias that made him think it was exaggerated.

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After the pause Nosam asked, “You guys want us to take it?”

Scott and Pride nodded. Though Scott’s was a bit hesitant. It was like the action of a man convincing himself to move beyond his fear. Seth wasn’t so sure if an Iron convincing himself to face a silver rank beast as a challenge was a good or bad thing.

Rather than concern himself with the slow growing agreement to face the creature he was sure the rest of the team would come to, he pushed his senses until one of his minds picked the beast.

That’s quite the terrifying looking thing, a mind noted.

And what’s that sound? Another gagged. What kind of creature eats like that?

A Nooman, apparently.

“What’s it eating?” Seth asked under his breath.

“What’s that? Joy asked behind him.

He shook his head. “Not you,” he said. “Just talking to myself.”

“Oh.”

Noomans were silver rank reia beasts with a strong penchant for violence. Seth had never seen one before but he’d learned about them in the seminary. They were like guerillas with a head that looked like it belonged on an obscenely large pelican. Seth wasn’t sure which made it more disgusting, its mismatched body and head or its snake-like long neck.

It’s eating drapners? A mind thought. Are those things even sweet?

It’s just trying to survive, another mind objected.

We don’t think so. We’d say its hunting them. Why don’t they just burrow back into the ground.

Some tapped Seth’s arm and he turned to Dare.

“You in?” Dare asked.

Seth nodded.

“You taking up the rear or do you want in on this one?”

“I’ll join in,” Seth answered, facing forward. His minds continued to track the creature’s actions.

“You sure you can keep up?” Dare watched him oddly. “You move kind of slow. Maybe taking the rear might be better.”

Seth turned to him, opened his mouth to reply, then thought better of it and found his silence. There remained an expectant look on Dare’s face when he returned his attention forward.

Beside him Nosam said, “I promised him he’ll get to find action unless he is needed as a ranged support.”

“You’re not worried he won’t be able to keep up?” Dare asked, surprised. “You’ve seen the way he moves. It’s too slow.”

“But it’s also very precise.”

“Against a silver beast speed is more important than precision.”

Scott stopped Dare with a hand on his shoulder. “You know the reason adventurer’s rarely use guns. He might be good with it, and I’m sure the teams he joins use him for it, but he can’t grow as a mage with it. Give him a chance to do something with his skills.”

Dare frowned at him. He was having none of it. “He can grow against an iron rank. This is silver. We’re putting our lives at stake here. The best place for him would be in the rear, covering us.”

The seminary had taught Seth how to use guns. But Emriss had not taught him how rare mages that use guns were. She had not taught him how much they were looked upon to use their guns and naught else.

Seth sighed. “You know I have skills, too, right?” he asked without looking back. “Just like you.”

“Yes,” Dare answered, apologetic but unwavering from his choice. “But you’re slow. That’s the problem. You walk slow, you move slow. You even talk slow. It’s a risk in a team of Irons facing a silver rank beast. I’m not looking down on you because you use a gun. I’m not. You’re just slow. Which can be a risk against a silver beast.”

“We can argue this forever but it would make no difference,” Seth said, as his mind informed him of the now dying number of drapners left for the reia beast to gorge on. “However, it will change nothing. So we either go in now or go looking for an iron beast to appease your discontent. It’s up to you.” He paused. “Actually, I don’t think it is.” He looked at Nosam. “I guess it’s up to him.”

“You didn’t strike me as argumentative when I met you,” Nosam said.

“That’s because I had nothing I disagreed with at the time.”

“Alright,” Fray whispered harshly. “He’s going to be a part of the fight. But you know we haven’t seen this thing yet, right? And we have no plan of attack.”

“We know where it is,” Nosam assured her with a short look at Seth. “The question is if we know its exact spot.”

Seth kept his mouth closed. That Nosam had deduced his awareness of the beast did not mean he would reveal just how much aware of it he was.

FYI, one of his minds thought. We do. We know its very exact location.

Seth gave it what he hoped was the mental equivalent of a pat on the head.

That was weird, it thought honestly. Was that weird? Or was it just us? We think that was weird.

Another mind chuckled. It was weird.

We mean, who pats himself on the head.

Seth sighed. So much for good deeds. Then again, if they thought of themselves as him, then it was the equivalent of giving himself a pat on the head.

“Note to self. No good deeds.”

Seth and the others arranged themselves in adequate fashion. Pride, Dare and Nosam took point as the tanks. Fray, Ned and Joy took up the rare, playing support. At the heart of the assemblage Seth stood, rifle still at his back, with Natsuki and Scott.

“Ready?” Nosam asked.

“Ready,” came the chorus of answers like a military platoon.

Seth grimaced at the sound of their voices. Nosam did the same. If the Nooman was not aware of them before, it was now.

In their response, they’d effectively taken away their element of surprise.

“We’ll take the turn on the left. Charge on forward then we’ll attack.” Nosam said, voice intentionally quiet. “Ranged support ready your skills.” He looked behind him at Seth and his group. “We’re counting on the damage dealers on this one.”

They turned the left and trudged on forward. As expected, the Nooman stood there, breathing heavily. All nine feet of it.

“It’s huge,” Natsuki said. There was a tremble in his voice that said he had not prepared himself entirely.

Seth didn’t blame him. If he discounted the monsters he saw in the consequences of his daily quests, this was the most terrifying he had seen.

The creature’s neck hung from a snake like neck that twirled and turned, guiding its head so that it hung awkwardly and watched their approach with toxin-green eyes. There was a lump in it that descended slowly, swallowed with the slow savoring of a beast with no worries. Around it were a dozen drapners. At least, what was left of them.

“Range, attack!” Nosam bellowed as they came within range.

Seth reached behind him and drew his twin blades. The lava red gleamed from beneath the grooves in their blades and Ned turned an awed expression to it.

Whatever he wanted to say was halted with the activation of a skill.

“[Fire Ball]”

As the name implied, a ball of fire gathered above them no larger than Joy’s [Acid Orb] and shot forward. In an action of consequential demotivation, it splashed harmlessly against the shoulder of the beast.

The Nooman’s neck slung its head in a different direction so that it faced them, hung low, a menacing stare in its eyes. Then it shrieked loud enough to shake the walls.

“Tanks!” Nosam bellowed, drawing an ornate sword from nowhere.

Dare sputtered momentarily before invoking his skill.

“[Mad Cry]”

The skill echoed around them. It matched the shriek of the Nooman, then overshadowed it. His voice was an outrageous roar within the space they stood in and the Nooman’s eyes shifted to him. As if in defiance, it shrieked back, then charged them.

“Damage dealers!” Nosam bellowed, the tanks parting to create space for them.

There was enough hesitation from them to make Nosam frown.

Seth shot out like a fired cannon. He escaped the confines of the group in a sprint, twin blades trailing behind him as he charged forth. At the edge of his senses his minds made him aware of the team following behind Natsuki and Scott.

Seth’s minds sent a warning as the beast’s attention snapped back to him with silver speed sharp enough to cut the air.

Dodge! They screamed and Seth activated [Quick Step].

His core expelled reia. It filled his channels, spreading down to his legs. Then he was gone.

The world warped around him as he parted it in his advance forward. The skill carried him past the beast, and its mouth snapped closed where his head should’ve been.

When he came to a stop, Natsuki was close enough to the beast to strike it. In his hand he held something that resembled a baseball bat. At its end it was wrapped in barbed wires so that it looked like the weapon of a thug.

“[Power Smash]” he roared.

In Seth’s senses, something wrapped around the edge of the bat as he brought it down on the beast’s head. It struck true with the loud noise of massive stones meeting. It was powerful enough to send a mild shockwave through the room. Its force pushed the Nooman’s head to the side and drew blood. But the injury was barely a scratch and its head had been forced aside by barely an inch.

Seth stood in place and watched the next events happen with the detached acceptance of a man who knew the answer to his mathematical equation would be wrong yet kept going.

The Nooman’s neck twitched. The head snapped to the side, carried by the muscles in its neck.

It snapped past Natsuki and his torso went with it.

What was left of Natsuki dropped to the ground, bloodied.

Shite.