Dungeon of Knowledge

Chapter 188: Gold

AliandraAli had slept well and was in a particularly good mood this morning – yesterday had been tiring, but productive. The morning sun cast long shadows from the guild building, but the air smelled fresh and there was a light breeze blowing. Outside the guild entrance, the old food cart vendor was setting up her stall and beginning to fill the street with the scent of spices and frying meat.

“Morning, Tabitha,” Mato called, waving.

“Oh, morning, young man, care for a bite before you get started?” Tabitha asked, a hopeful grin on her weathered face.

“Don’t mind if I do,” Mato said, rubbing his belly.

“Mato!” Malika exclaimed. “We just had breakfast.”

Ryn chuckled.

“I’m bigger than you. I can’t help that I’m still hungry,” he said. “I’ll catch up with you guys in a bit.”

Malika just shook her head and walked up to the guild, opening the doors.

“Enjoy,” Ali said, grinning at Mato, and then she floated through the doorway following Calen, Ryn, and Malika while carrying an Acolyte and a Bone Mage on two separate barrier disks. She was still getting used to the dramatically increased control she had over her barrier magic since the advancement, but this too was another reason she was in a great mood – she hadn’t even begun to scratch the surface of the possibilities with her increased finesse.

“Welcome back, Aliandra,” Mieriel’s musical voice greeted her. As usual, she wore an elegant outfit that Ali had never seen before, although she recognized Lydia’s handiwork and style in all of Mieriel’s outfits.

“Hi, Mieriel,” Ali returned her greeting with a smile.

“Congratulations on reaching gold rank,” Mieriel continued, causing a sudden hush to fall over the entire guild hall as many heads swiveled to stare at her. “I’ll call the Guildmaster, she will want to chat with you.”

“Aah, ok,” Ali said, a little surprised. Reaching gold rank was a substantial milestone for an adventurer, but she hadn’t expected Vivian Ross to take a personal interest in administration. Although, it suited her quite well – she had wanted to discuss Ryn’s potential guild membership with her. Ali sat for a moment while she waited.

“Congratulations, Aliandra,” Vivian said a few moments later. “Why don’t you join me in my office?”

“I’ll be back,” she told her friends. Leaving them to their own devices, she followed the Guildmaster into her office, ignoring the rising murmur of conversation as she left the hall. Ali remained seated on her barrier, legs dangling over the edge as she floated into the room and glanced about. Everything was neat and tidy, and the entire space, while a little on the spartan side, was efficiently furnished and organized. It didn’t surprise her at all, in fact, it perfectly matched what she knew of Vivian’s personality. A small gold box sat prominently in the center of the desk.

“Congratulations on reaching level sixty, Aliandra,” Vivian repeated, taking her seat. “I imagine you’re wondering why the private meeting?”

Ali was indeed wondering, and rather surprisingly, Vivian Ross seemed to be a little on edge, as if she were the nervous one. Her hands idly organized various items on her desk, things that were already perfectly arranged.

“I am,” Ali answered. “I’m also wondering what has you so worried?”

Vivian glanced at her hands and immediately stopped rearranging her stuff. She took a deep breath. “I guess I should be straight with you. You’re the first member of our little guild to reach gold rank.”

“Is that a problem?” Ali had not expected that her level would be such an issue, nor did she understand what the concern was exactly.

“I guess you don’t know, then,” Vivian said, taking a deep breath to settle herself. “As the Guildmaster, I’m required to register all members of gold rank or higher, meaning most guilds, Town Councils, and the nobility across the continent will know who you are. Many towns do not have high-level adventurers, so the registry allows them to direct requests for jobs or help when things are too difficult to manage on their own.”

“I see,” Ali said. It all sounded quite reasonable. The Adventurers Guild was a collective organization that spanned most of the known world, and it made sense to help out the weaker towns when needed. Only…

“Yes,” Vivian said, indicating she had anticipated that very thought. “I took the liberty of securing permission to keep the nature of your class private, at least. On Nathaniel Sunstrider’s authority, so it won’t be questioned. That doesn’t exactly solve the issue because a person with censored class information will invite a lot of attention – but it should be better than advertising you across the length and breadth of the continent as a dungeon.”

Ali schooled her features the instant Vivian mentioned the Archmage. Everyone seemed to believe his footsteps were made of arcanite and he exuded an aura of pristine mana wherever he went, but she could never shake that dark image of whatever it was that infested his image whenever she saw him under her Arcane Recall spell.

She shook it off without revealing her worries and asked, “How exactly will I be listed?” She hadn’t expected this level of attention, and she was certain the details mattered. Probably a lot.

“You will be listed generically as an arcane- and nature-affinity summoner with your class name, but all further detail will be restricted. Mieriel spent a substantial amount of time corresponding with Nathaniel Sunstrider, working out the best strategy. They decided it would be prudent to list you the same way you signed up with the guild before anyone knew. No information would be cause for alarm – instead, if we include the Advanced Identification of your affinities along with listing your class as a ‘summoner’ people won’t immediately conclude you’re a dungeon or a necromancer.”

“I guess that’s true,” Ali allowed. If a nature affinity was listed, then the summoner class type would immediately be associated with something druidic in nature, rather than any of the more problematic summoner class archetypes. It seemed complex, but she was grateful for the effort and forethought to forestall the knee-jerk reaction that might have resulted from identifying herself as a dungeon to the whole world.  Including the Advanced Identify results seemed smart – some factual information was certainly better than a complete fabrication or no information at all.

“Is that ok with you?” Vivian asked, that unexpected nervous energy making a surprising reappearance.

“Could you perhaps delay listing me for a week or two?” Ali asked. Until her friends hit sixty, she would stand out like a sore thumb as the only gold-ranked adventurer in Myrin’s Keep. If her listing was merely one of four, it would hopefully not be quite as noticeable.

“Yes, that’s a good idea,” Vivian answered, but it seemed this was not the only thing bothering the Guildmaster. Ali simply remained silent, allowing her to continue.

“The second problem is more personal,” Vivian finally explained. “Many new guilds die when they begin producing gold-ranked adventurers. Picked over by the vultures. Achieving gold is hard, and quite valuable outside of places like Myrin’s Keep. The guilds from prosperous cities, with their cushy environments don’t produce many, but they can afford to devote quite substantial resources to poaching talent from frontier guilds like ours. You will most likely be offered a lot to move, and I’m worried that we’ll lose you.”

Ali considered the Guildmaster’s position. Trying to establish a guild from nothing seemed like an enormously challenging undertaking. On the other hand, Vivian Ross had always gone out of her way to help, and even if it was all for building her guild.

The Guildmaster bit her lip, frowning, and Ali sensed there was more.

“It’s not like I’ve treated you all that well,” Vivian said quietly.

“I have certainly not forgotten,” Ali said, and Vivian swallowed, breaking eye contact to look down at her hands.

As her strength had grown, particularly her wisdom attribute, all those memories had come back clearer and clearer, a well of anguish she chose not often to plumb – but, she realized in this moment, that somehow she saw her mother’s death as a kind of betrayal, too. This was raw. Betrayal upon betrayal. How could a person – a – ever forget?

“Aliandra… I’m… sorry,” Vivian whispered at last.

“An apology?” Ali heard herself rasp. “Now, when you have something to lose?”

Vivian’s lips pressed together, but it was not anger. “I don’t expect forgiveness. I understand if you prefer to go somewhere else and be done with it all, but I do hope you choose to look past it and stay with us. You have done so much for this guild and the people of the town.”

Ali sighed. It was true that she wasn’t about to forgive Vivian. However, she knew the dangers of blindly clinging to vengeance, ignoring everything else. She had benefited greatly from the guild and Vivian’s advice. Carefully, she said, “Without your help, I wouldn’t have survived the Town Council trial, and I’m well aware of what you did with Alexander Gray. You and I may have our differences, but I like my guild mates, and I feel I can have a positive impact on people’s lives if I stay. I’d like to keep offering people new classes and helping them grow stronger.”

Vivian’s face registered immediate relief. “I guess that’s the best I could hope for.”

“Besides, my class makes it a little tricky to go somewhere else,” Ali said. It was hard to believe that such a powerful person could be rattled by something like this, especially when she was normally so confident. Vivian had been no slouch, ejecting weaker talent and poorer attitudes from the guild. But seeing her so nervous finally ripped the curtains away and allowed Ali to see her clearly.

Something, some past experience perhaps, had broken Vivian’s confidence. It didn’t matter that she was a second-tier evolved combat class with tons of experience if she didn’t believe in herself. She hid it well, pouring everything into the guild, like someone obsessed, and yet, when it came down to it, a guild membership could not be coerced, forced, or controlled. She sat there on the other side of the desk, unable to influence whether her highest-level adventurer chose to stay or go – regardless of how much it might damage the guild.

Ali squirmed inwardly, not knowing what to make of this sudden insight, but the specter of Vivian seemed to shrink before her. A horrid slurry of emotions boiled inside her chest – self-loathing for this sudden pang of sympathy, the knowledge that her choices here and now would shift something fundamental inside her… all she wanted was to bury herself in a good book, but she also knew she needed to live in the real world, a world where dungeons were hated and power both prized and despised. One thing was certain, Vivian would not be the last person to try to use her for their own purposes, nor Roderik the last to try and end her. She would need to be stronger and smarter than all of them. She would need to take every advantage she could, and forge her own path.

“This is your gold-rank ring,” Vivian said, breaking the silence and reaching for the golden box on the desk between them. Inside, Ali found a gleaming golden ring. “It will unlock the planning room at the end of the hall, and you are invited to join in the guild’s policy decision-making, quest creation, and such things. Not that there’s a lot of that yet, but we are growing quickly.”

“Thank you.”

Ali picked up the ring and glanced at it. She hadn’t realized the guild Vivian was building would allow her to participate in a leadership capacity. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of that, or whether it was something she even wanted. Perhaps she could help plan the class acquisition process – watching novices unlock their classes was one thing that gave her great joy.

Ali channeled a small amount of mana into her new ring, binding it to her mana, and then slipped it on her finger, replacing the existing one. Like last time, the ring slowly shrunk to fit snugly and comfortably on her finger, and she quickly transferred all her stored items and quests from the old ring to the new one and handed the old ring back to the Guildmaster.

Vivian nodded, her eyes shadowed. “Thank you.”

Gold Guild Ring – level 60

Owner: Aliandra Amariel

+41 Intelligence

+33 Wisdom

+104% to mana regeneration

Requirements: Intelligence 210

Quests

Eliminate undead in and around Myrin’s Keep – 134

Eliminate hostile Kobolds in and around Myrin’s Keep – 0 

Mana: Store or retrieve an item. Capacity: 30 / 800kg

Ring

“This is impressive,” Ali said, staring at the ring in amazement – having missed the enchantments when she first picked it up. It had three attribute enchantments in addition to the storage enchantment, putting the ring squarely in the most-expensive-thing-she-owned category. She looked up to find Vivian smiling happily.

“You and your friends have made the guild quite a reputation with the crafters, and our store is now one of the most heavily traded locations in the town. We had enough money, so I decided to have the gold-rank rings personally crafted for each person who reached that level. I hope those enchants work for you?”

“This is perfect, thank you,” she said. She might just have to go pay a visit to this Giddy Clicksprocket in person and see what else she could make.

“There is one matter of business I wanted to ask you about,” Vivian said, sitting back in her chair.

“You have enough people for another shrine run?” Ali guessed.

“Yes, we have five combat class recruits who want to be adventurers and three non-combat candidates. I believe you already know Lydia’s apprentice, Elton Moss. Weldin Thriftpenny asked if he could try to unlock a mana affinity if that’s ok with you. It’s not as big a group as last time, so we could wait for more people if you prefer.”

“That’s fine, I can do that today if everyone’s ready,” she said. She had already planned on taking the time to do it, and today was as good a time as any. Besides, getting the new people started was important – and, to be frank, one of her favorite activities. “I just hope nobody tries to interfere again.”

“Mieriel says the bounty on your head has increased, but after Nathaniel Sunstrider and Rezan Jin were seen at the guild, and seeing that stories about how easily the last assassin group was crushed may have gotten out –” her eyes twinkled briefly “– you are developing a reputation as being a bit of a suicide mission among some of the criminal underground. She thinks we won’t be interrupted this time, but I’ll come along just in case.” Vivian, it seemed, was also worried about what had happened last time. She made as if to stand up.

“I also have a request,” Ali said. “And I think it might help you with high-level adventurer retention in the long run.”

“Oh?” Vivian said, arching an eyebrow and sitting back down.

“My friend, Ryn, is sitting out in the guild hall. She’s looking for a new job and I was wondering if we could have her join the guild as a librarian?” Ali asked.

“You want a librarian to join… an Adventurers Guild?” Vivian asked, confusion playing across her features.

“I am rebuilding the Grand Library Arcana, which currently has almost a thousand books that I have copied from various libraries around the continent – including Ciradyl,” Ali said. It sounded a little pompous when she said it, but she didn’t care, she was proud of it. When she had asked Ryn, the count had shocked her, but almost a thousand books in that enormous space did not look like a whole lot. “Ryn has a unique skill that allows her to teleport to any library she has ever visited, and she can bring three people along with her. I was going to offer access to the Grand Library Arcana for free to any guild member. Ryn would be able to provide transport, re

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