I was only sent out of the tower since I requested something with a bit more action. I wasn’t expecting to be roped into that sort of plot. Disguising myself came as second nature so it wasn’t overly hard, and playing the uninterested party member who rarely got involved wasn’t a bad situation. It was better than spending all day training with the other guild members for a fight that may not happen in my own lifetime.

That’s the problem when you’re fighting against elves, the long game is your only option. Luckily, our own leaders weren’t just made up of those of us with shorter lifespans. The leadership wouldn’t’ve been this stable otherwise.

The long game gets boring and being a spy in an affiliate guild seemed more interesting than training against your comrades, hours on end. I ended up in a not too active guild, and in a party with some pretty violent people. We were mostly used to distract people, and if some of them died in the process it wasn’t too big of a deal.

Ryker was annoyed every so often that I wasn’t like him, but my apparent lack of interest gave him more people to play with. I don’t want to think about how many people died before I had joined them. If this experience gave me anything, it just made me surer I was on the right side of things. If this was how Winged Mercy had obtained their power, that benevolent mask they presented to the world should be ripped off.

But it was the long game, it wasn’t a simple thing to just solve the issues by revealing what they do. And then there was the Wandering Pegasus incident, a broken gate and people completely out matched for our party. I could tell when we first met them that he’d be the first to go down if something went wrong.

The gate not working wasn’t in my expectations, however. Challenges outside the tower were much tamer in comparison to those inside. When there were hard ones, people from the tower were called down to resolve them. The quest itself seemed easy enough, but then there was nothing, and the amount of dead bodies we came across made it stranger. So put a blood thirsty guy like Ryker in a place were the only thing he could fight was the other party, it wasn’t a surprise where things would end up.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

If we hadn’t been teleported out during the fight, I would’ve let them die. I didn’t even have to explain that to Valera and Chase when we got out of there. They just assumed that’s what I would’ve done, I say they did, but it was really Chase’s brother that pointed it out.

With both of the parties dead, I couldn’t stay outside of the tower anymore. I got in contact with my handler, and they set things up. Chase stayed behind and Valera entered the tower. I went up to the fortieth floor to explain things to head command, and that was the last I had spoken about Quartz.

Well until a few days ago. I was called up to the fortieth floor and met with one of our leaders. Since I was currently in charge of the office on the twenty first floor, I could manage the personal request well.

It was simple, there was a half-elf with white and black hair coming up. I was to help him out. I wasn’t expecting that same person to be Quartz. I don’t think he trusted me, and I didn’t understand why they called him a half elf. He looked just like any other elf I had met, well aside from his strange hair color and the apparent lack of mana. And with how quickly he had said his other name, it didn’t take much for me to figure out that he had a complicated situation.

My sight wasn’t great so I couldn’t be sure. Quartz didn’t confirm or deny his mixed nature, even when I introduced him to the other two elves. They’ll know though, and he can deal with that on his own. When I confirmed with my superior and told him he was the same person that had been in the broken gate incident, he made me rush to get him out onto the twenty sixth floor. I added him to a party we already decided to create and sent them on their way.

Imuril. A very elven name for a half elf. And Quartz was an even odder name for him to have. He wasn’t easily trusting; I doubt Valera even knew that he had another name. He seemed much different than my first impression of him. More present, and smarter than Valera suggested. There was still this strange air about him. Even if the incident had happened almost half a year ago, it was still brand-new information, he took it quite calmly.

Well, either way, I was to be called up when they made it to the fortieth floor. I wonder what he’ll be like then.