The elevator doors opened, and a sudden golden light assaulted our eyes. Zuri and I squinted, our eyes taking time to adjust from the almost gloomy interior of the dimly lit elevator. We stepped outside and found ourselves in a different world.

Ahead of us was a meadow of bright blue grass and vibrant yellow flowers, surrounded by a dense forest of trees covered in periwinkle leaves. Birds chirped happily, flying above us in great flocks. In the distance, I saw a walled town that could have been ripped out of a fantasy book rising on a hill ahead of us, with a setting sun on an illusion reminiscent of Lost Terra's sky touching the very tips of the buildings.

"Wow, this is…" Zuri's voice trailed off as she took our surroundings in.

"Yeah," I breathed out. Even after a couple of times, the sight never failed to impress. I shook my head as I saw a shadow shift under some trees to our far right. "Come on, this place is beautiful, but it's not exactly safe."

Zuri and I started walking and soon found a road leading straight to one of the town's gates. "Now, here's something to keep in mind," I told her: "The Delve-Lands are considered true neutral ground."

"Like the Orphanage and the Fluxborn Guild?" She asked, looking around with interest. "No violence against other Delvers?"

I shook my head. "Just the opposite. In this place, titles, clans, gangs, even corpos, they don't matter. It is bad form to so much as mention your affiliations. Trying to invoke your position outside of the Delve-Lands is even worse. This is a free-for-all, and even the greatest of Clans respect this. If you tried pulling rank, all you'd be doing is painting a target on your head as someone who could cause issues for others for what happens in here. Quick way of getting yourself ostracized or killed."

Zuri scoffed and looked at me incredulously. "Clans, I can believe. We all abide by the neutral facilities pact. But middle-ring corporations?"

I shrugged. It wasn't often that corpos decided to stick their noses in outer-ring business, but when they did, they acted like the law didn't apply to them. Often, it didn't. It made them callous and arrogant, taking whatever they wanted and rarely if ever, caring about consequences or retaliation.

But not in the Delve-Lands. "In some ways, the Delver's Guild holds more power than all the Otherlords combined. Last time a corporation tried to retaliate for one of their board getting killed in here by sending assassins into the Frontier, the company and private security firm they were hiring found themselves banned and cut off from the flow of valuable materials and goods stemming from this place. Very quickly, they found themselves unable to defend their interests and lives. Their competitors did the rest."

Zuri shivered and eyed the two grim-faced guards with rifles guarding the gates. "Right. I'm just Zuri here then."

I nodded at her and took out my badge, motioning to Zuri to do the same. The guards turned to us, their eyes flashing momentarily, and waved us past. I caught them glancing at each other from the corner of my eyes.

"Where to now?" Zuri asked, walking ahead and looking curiously at the wooden and stone buildings lining every street.

I pointed ahead. "Should probably go to the Central Square."

"What's there?"

"An inn." In response to her raised eyebrows, I pointed at the red sky. "It's getting late. I skimmed through the introductory package the Guild Master sent us. By this time of the day, most keys have already been claimed by parties looking to move forward. Even if the right door just so happens to be available with the key for sale at a price we can afford, there's no way to know if it will be close enough that we won't be caught in the reset purge."

She nodded, conceding the point. As we walked towards the city's center, the avenue we walked down became increasingly crowded. Houses gave way to restaurants, smithies, and shops of all shapes and sizes. People stood around, loudly proclaiming their items for sale and what they would be willing to trade for.

"One Rare Rank [Blunderbuss of the Weakened Heartbeat] for sale for thirty marks!" one woman loudly shouted in a reedy voice, holding the weapon aloft. A few people around us stopped to examine it, humming to themselves.

Zuri turned to me, her eyebrows scrunched together, and glancing back to the woman, who was now enthusiastically showing off the weapon to a potential buyer. "Marks?"

I nodded, "Money isn't any good here."

"I understand Credits not working in here, but not even coins?"

"You don't own anything you haven't walked in with or earned in the Delve-Lands. That includes coins. Can't have people steamroll this place just because they have deep pockets. While in the Delve-Lands, you can exchange materials for Marks. Once you're out of the Delve-Lands, you can sell whatever you bring out for coins or credits."

Zuri looked lost in thought and almost ran into a tall, burly-looking fellow clad in a fur coat that should have been far too warm for the late spring weather of the Frontier.

"Oi, watch it!" He grunted as, with unnatural deftness, he barely avoided colliding with Zuri.

"Oh," Zuri said, her expression turning haughty and unnaturally rigid like a mask being put on. "How da-" She paused as if realizing something, and her expression melted into something more apologetic. "I mean, I am sorry, sir. You are right. I should be paying more attention. It won't happen again."

"Uh, s'all good." The man said, looking slightly taken aback as Zuri bowed in contrition. He scratched the back of his shaggy head, "S'my fault as well, I s'pose."

Zuri raised her head and gave him a bright, grateful smile. That seemed only to fluster the man further as he started babbling. "Shouldn't 'ave assumed you'd move out of the way when you was all distracted and stuff. Pay attention to where you're goin', Gylam me boy, me mother, used to say. I suppose she still says it now, except I now look where I'm goin', so I guess she doesn't have to say it no more." He let out a wheezing laugh as he spent the last mote of air in his lungs.

Zuri and I looked at each other and back at the man who had finally stopped to breathe.

"Okay," I said, entirely at a loss on how to respond to all of that. "Thanks?"

Gylam looked at Zuri and me, looking at us up and down, his expression morphing to one of horrified realization. "Oh dang it, Rufus, come here," he muttered to himself and started rummaging underneath his cloak. "Hold on!" he said, looking up with a pleading smile.

Zuri and I looked at each other again, and she shrugged. "Well… This is… interesting."

"The feral-looking, ranting man? I'll say." I replied, feeling something between amusement, fascination, and confusion.

"I like him!" Hob chimed in.

"Why?" I asked, glancing at my little companion in disbelief.

"He seems nice." He shrugged back at me.

"Ah, gotcha!" the man exclaimed and lifted his arm, holding aloft his quarry. It was a plump-looking, white ferret holding a pair of goggles in its mouth. This was getting weirder and weirder by the moment.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Gylam plucked the goggles from the ferret's mouth, which looked quite grumpy at the injustice being carried out, and put them on. Instantly, his bearing changed. He stood a little straighter. His smile, peaking from behind his black bushy beard, lost the edge of anxiety. He cleared his throat and gave us a wide grin. "Ah, right. Mine apologies for that. Let me start over. The name's Gylam, Senior Delver. Pleasure to meet you both."

"Uh, yeah. Right. Nice to meet you?" I said, still feeling very confused.

"Ah, before you think that I'm strange or somethin', although I s'pose you've got every right to think so, I ain't stopped ya for nothin'." He put the weasel, whom I assumed was named Rufus, under his cloak again. "You two just got the look of people new to the town."

I instantly felt my hackles rise. Was this guy looking to pick on two newbies? "What of it?"

The man shook his head and raised his hands placatingly. "Nothin'! I was just wonderin' if you was looking to hire a guide, is all! I got stood up by my client, so I got an openin' for tonight and tomorrow."

"We should hire him," Hob said enthusiastically.

I shook my head, ignoring my companion. "Apologies, friend, but as you said, we're new to the town. We've got no marks or goods to pay you with."

"Oh, is all good," he said with a nod. "Considering you're new to the town, you need marks to trade with for lodging. I can help you track and hunt some monsters down. All I ask is for a forty percent cut of the loot."

"This actually doesn't sound like a bad idea," Zuri mused. "A guide can help us find what we need much faster than if we were to ask around."

"So we go with the first person who talks to us?"

"As good as any. Cuts down on the time we spend bumbling around."

Zuri was right, and against my better judgment, my gut told me that this guy was strange but trustworthy. So… Fuck it.

“A fine idea, friend. I am Razel, Senior Delver.”

“And I am Zuri, Senior Delver.”

Gylam looked at us both in astonishment and whistled. "Senior Delvers, who are new to the Frontier? What, did you ace all them infernal written and physical exams or something?"

I gave him a crooked smile. "Something like that."

He shrugged and waved us to follow him. "Alright, folks, follow me." He started heading back through the gates, "We gotta track some monsters down before it gets too late."

I looked down at my friend's window, but he was gone again. A sign that said "BUSY" replaced the comforting sight of the pangolin, and I frowned. Hob had been working on a secret project for a couple of months now, often disappearing for long stretches of time.

He'd reassured me it was nothing dangerous, but he didn't want to tell me what he'd been working on either. Something about not wanting to jinx it. I shrugged and followed Gylam.

"Actually, tracking down monsters might not even be necessary," I told him as Zuri joined me in following the big man.

"Whaddya mean?" He glanced back at us with a curious look.

"We saw a group of shadows moving under the trees near the door to the Guild," Zuri said, stretching with a satisfied smile. "Whatever those were, I imagine they could have valuable loot."

Gylam looked surprised that we already had a target in mind. "Uh, right! Yea! Those might be [Shade-Wolves]. Tricky buggers, but their loot is plenty valuable. A couple pelts of those beasties should get you a night at the best inn in town!"

"Then we have ourselves a goal," Zuri said with conviction.

"Already getting into the spirit of things, huh?" I asked her over voice chat.

"Yes! This might actually be kind of nice!" She replied enthusiastically.

I turned and gave her a silent look of amusement. "Nice? How so?"

"My money has no value here. My titles are meaningless. Everything I will get, I will have earned for myself. Not as Lady Hiwara, but just… Zuri. I can see why Father likes it." She sighed softly, and we picked up the pace slightly.

By the time we reached the spot where I had seen the shadows, the sun was half-hidden under the artificial horizon. We'd have to hurry up if we didn't want to fight creatures named [Shade-Wolves] in the dark. Something told me it would be a bad idea.

Gylam squatted over a patch of barely visible tracks and pointed at them with callused fingers as if reaching out to touch them. Rufus emerged from under the cloak and stood on Gylam's outstretched hand, sniffing at the tracks.

Zuri's eyes lit up at seeing the ferret once more. "Who's your little friend?"

"Oh, this is Rufus," Gylam said with a bright smile. "Rufus, say hi!"

The weasel turned to us and gave us a little wave before returning to sniffing at the ground.

Gylam gave the weasel a fond smile. "Found him under attack in level two, was getting ganged up by some insect beasties. Nursed him back to health, and we've been best buds ever since."

Hob's head popped up right under the "Busy" sign. "Oh, I really like him," he said before his head disappeared again.

I shook my head at his antics. With a quiet squeak, Rufus jumped off Gylam's hand and started sniffing around. Gylam signed at us to be quiet and follow him. Despite his size, the man moved with stealth, not making a single sound or stepping on any sticks on the ground. In comparison, Zuri and I felt like bumbling children taking their first steps. Under every other step was a crunchy leaf or a fragile stick.

Ultimately, Gylam stopped us and whispered to step where he was stepping. It proved a little tricky because the man's stride was larger than ours, but it was better than being forced to stop and look around every few steps to see if we'd been detected by anything.

A few minutes later, Gylam held his hand up to stop us and pointed at a white fluffy tail waving at us from inside a tall bush.

"Behind the bush. Sleeping." Gylam mouthed at us. He looked down at the tail that shivered every four waves, shivered, and waved again. "Four enemies."

I readied my [Rail-Revolver] and glanced at Zuri, who unholstered her rifle. She gave me a firm nod, and I nodded at Gylam.

We got ready to rush around the bush, Gylam counting us down with his fingers. As soon as we started to move, Gylam did something that caused me almost to stumble.

He grabbed the ferret by its tail and tossed it at one of the sleeping [Shade-Wolves]. My brain lagged at seeing the tiny white creature flying at the wolves. Then, Gylam pulled a shotgun from his cloak and shot his companion.

Before I could ask him why the fuck he had just turned his cute pet into a fine red mist, the other three wolves jumped up and snarled at us. The wolf Gylam had shot lay on the ground, twitching, a bloody hole in its side.

I turned my revolver at the nearest wolf and squinted as the creature enveloped itself in a haze of shadow, making its form indistinct.

----------------------------------------

[Shade-Wolf]

Level: 9

A subspecies of [Wolf] that has gained the ability to cloak itself in darkness.

"A predator need not lurk in the shadows when they are the shadows themselves."

----------------------------------------

I fired a bullet, but it seemed to have no effect as the shadow lept at me. I cursed and raised my right arm, but before I could summon the blade, I felt a pair of jaws latch to my forearm. Despite the metallic arm giving me sensations indistinct from my real arm, I felt no pain. Was it shielding me? Or were the jaws of the beat not strong enough?

The beast crashed into me and threw me on the ground. I heard Zuri let out a grunt, the click of something metallic, and then a bright flash of light enveloped us. My mask saved me from the worst of the flashbang, but the wolves weren't so lucky. The shadow around them blew away like smoke, and the bright light caused the one attacking me to bite down harder reflexively.

In that moment of panic, I raised my revolver to its temple and pulled the trigger. I threw the dead body off of me and heard a burst of rifle fire from Zuri's direction. We both turned to Gylam, expecting him to have fired upon the last wolf, but he just stood there, looking relaxed.

Zuri and I glanced at each other in confusion at the man's inaction and turned to the last wolf, already engulfing himself in shadow once more. Before either of us had time to raise our guns at the last and biggest wolf, the body of the wolf Gylam had shot gave one more twitch, and then its back exploded.

From the shower of gore flew out Rufus, covered in sharp metal blades. I watched in slow motion as the tiny critter flew with a fierce squeak at the wolf, rolling into a spinning ball of metal death.

Rufus's aim was true, and he collided with the wolf's skull—or, more accurately, he buried himself in it.

"Aw, dang it, Rufus," I heard Gylam mutter as the last wolf slumped to the ground, dead. "Why'd you do the spinny thing? You damaged the pelt…"

"So, we loot these buggers, and then we're off to an inn?" Gylam turned to us cheerfully as Rufus' blades fell off his body and he started licking the blood off his fur.