After Ro had rushed ahead to warn Bronwyn and his team that the danger had passed, it took them nearly three quarters of an hour to reunite.

  While classers could move extremely fast with a growing volume of stats, most people’s comfortable walking pace didn’t actually increase all that much. At least consciously — a Silver’s forced march was a quick thing.

  With the low rolling hills and the scattering of copses of trees that dotted the frontier, lush growth concealed the advance of Ro and the Silvers until Kaius caught sight of a group of five cresting a small rise.

  Ro was at their front, waving madly — the other four behind her were new to him.

  Walking in a clear formation, at their front was the tallest woman Kaius had ever seen — taller even than Ianmus by at least a stride. She was as muscular as an ox, broad of shoulder, and strong of arm. For all that, it would have been a stretch to call her masculine — her high cheekbones, graceful jaw, and well-tended thick brown hair cut quite the striking figure with her stature. Dressed in thick, heavy plate that masked the lines of her figure, with a massive greatshield strung across her back, she was clearly the defensive anchor of Bronwyn’s group.

  Giant’s blood — it had to be. They were one of the rarer races, but that bloodline often bred true. Or, at least, true enough that their prodigious height and strength remained through multiple generations.

  Beside her was a man that, in any other situation, would most likely have been called tall.

  Next to his vanguard, he seemed almost petite with his smaller kite shield on his back and a bastard sword belted at his hip. His armour looked expensive, and was clearly inscribed — artfully wrought light plate that encased him fully in defensive layers of metal. With his wavy blonde locks and strong jaw, he almost looked like he’d been plucked straight from a ballad.

  Bronwyn himself, Kaius assumed.

  Behind Bronwyn and the giant vanguard trailed their backline — two men. One, he assumed, was their ranger, judging by the chain-backed leathers and the massive windlass crossbow he held at a low ready. The other was likely their mage.

  Unlike Ianmus, he did not wear robes; instead, he wore leathers, and an inscribed breastplate. In his hand was a staff made of woven steel threads that positively glowed to Kaius’s mana sight — solid evidence of a spellcaster.

  It was odd to see a mage in armour, he admitted, but he supposed he was evidence enough that not all mages needed to stick to enchanted layers of cloth.

  “Fifty copper says the pretty one’s Bronwyn,” Kenva hedged, elbowing Ianmus in the side.

  After Ro had left, they’d fallen into close formation, automatically assuming their standard positions.

  Ianmus scoffed and shook his head. “That’d be a ridiculous bet, considering that we know he’s a frontliner — and that he’s a he.”

  Porkchop chuffed, shaking his head, while Rieker and Arc cracked slight smiles at Ianmus’s joke.

  When the Silvers arrived, Kaius straightened his back as he noticed the team giving him and his companions appraising looks. Their confusion at Kaius and his team’s state of good health was clear. He assumed Ro had played mum about the realities of their clash with Old Yon.

  This close, Kaius could tell the team had pushed themselves hard — trail-worn and dusty, hair clumping with sweat.

  Kaius nodded his head to the man. “You must be Bronwyn. I appreciate you coming for the assist, even if it didn’t end up being needed.”

  “It’s more than fine, any one of us would do it for another in the Guild.” Bronwyn replied in a smooth timbre, before he swept his hand across his teammates, “ This is Yanira, my vanguard; Dross, our ranger, and Julis, our mage.”

  Bronwyn paused, his eyes settling on Kenva. “I heard there were three of you, but I count four.”

  “Oh, they just picked me up on the way,” Kenva said with a wink. “Thought it’d be fun to tag along.”

  Kaius laughed. “That’s Kenva, our newest addition — she ended up caught in the same web we did . This is Ianmus, our mage—,” he nodded to the half-elf before slapping his hand onto Porkchop’s shoulder. “And this is Porkchop, greater beast, my oath-brother and bonded companion.”

  Yanira frowned, looking up slightly to meet Porkchop’s eyes. “They said you were big. I didn’t know they meant big-big. Hard to tell with this lot.”

  Porkchop let out a throaty, gravelly laugh, almost percussive in its depth. “That is a sentiment I understand.”

  Smiling at the lot of them, Rieker stepped forward and clasped Bronwyn by the hand. “It’s good to have you here. I’d like to apologise for wasting your time. Yours too, Arc. I know none of you will be bothered, considering the urgency of the situation, but it’s still a testament to your character that none of you have been anything other than gracious.”

  “This one implores you to think nothing of it,” Arc replied gravely, bowing his horned head.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  “This one had plans to enjoy the hospitality of Deadacre for a while longer anyway. The mystery of these vanished beasts — the threat is grave, and potentially far reaching. I would rather be prepared, and help solve the problem before it spills over to Grandbrook.”

  “Of course. I’m happy to host you — though we’ll likely have to inform Governor Hanrick of your continued presence. No doubt that man will be more than pleased.”

  “Politics. This one more than understands.”

  Kaius caught the mage staring at him — all of his team, really. The man’s eyes narrowed, confusion and curiosity mingling. Kaius gave him a smile, but before he could ask what was on his mind, Bronwyn spoke.

  “I assume, given the lack of haste and the general healthiness of your team here, you made it in time? What of the ambushes? Old Yon and his disreputable ilk? Were there any difficulties?”

  Ro had an impish grin on her face, before she let out a barrel-chested laugh. “Made it in time? My boy, they were all dead when we arrived.”

  Bronwyn froze in shock, as did Yanira and Dross. Julis, however, only narrowed his eyes further.

  “What?” Bronwyn exclaimed, snapping his gaze between Kaius and his team. “You’re joking.”

  “This one can attest to the truth of that matter,” Arc confirmed, grave and serious.

  “How in the hell? How can a group of mousy-faced babes like you lot manage that?” Dross demanded.

  “I’d like to know that too,” Yanira added with a nod.

  “They’re Silver. That’s how they managed,” Julis replied, leaning on his woven metal staff as he stared at Kaius and his friends intently.

  “What?” Bronwyn demanded, snapping back to the mage.

  “You can feel it for yourself,” Julis replied. “The very aura. It’s definitely silver, but… it’s strange. Almost impenetrable and dense. It feels tightly constrained in a way I don’t understand.”

  “You’ve got sharp senses, friend,” Arc said from behind Kaius.

  Bronwyn focused for a moment, before his eyebrows widened in shock. “You are silver! But Ro said you weren’t even out of your twenties yet! Hells, even if you are silver, the scry-net suggested there’d be nearly a dozen of them — you’d have to be freshly ascended at most! How in the hells did you take on a force of that size?”

  Kaius shared a look with his team. They nodded.

  “I suppose now that we’re all here, I may as well share the story.”

  “I’m pretty sure if you tried to put it off any longer, Ro might actually go mad,” Porkchop replied.

  “That too,” Kaius laughed.

  “Finally,” Ro said, throwing up her hands.

  Kaius looked to Arc, the Defender of Grandbrook. Arc was not a member of the Guild, and although legendary in his honour, his code could pull him in strange ways. Kaius doubted what he would say about his and Porkchop’s success would be a problem, but he wanted to confirm the man would be comfortable keeping those secrets — at least for now.

  If it had been anyone else, he would have been distinctly uncomfortable sharing at all. But from the quiet conversations they’d had since the battle, Kaius had learned more of Haggoth, and more of Arc in particular. His code of honour was legendary.

  “Arc,” he asked, catching the man’s attention.

  “Yes?” the Defender replied.

  “Some of what I’m about to share is deeply secret; personal. It’s a story that involves my past, and there’s a rather large secret we are planning to share as widely as possible through the Guild shortly, now that my team and I are strong enough to defend ourselves. Logistics may slow things down, but what I’ll say is meant to eventually be shared as widely as possible. I would appreciate it if you could keep what I say to yourself until then.”

  Arc clenched his fist, bringing it to his breast. “On my honour,” he swore.

  Kaius took a deep breath and placed his hand on Porkchop’s shoulder for support.

  “To explain why we’re at the strength to take on more than double our number as fresh silvers — and how we made it to Silver so young in the first place — it’s easiest if I start at the beginning.

  “I grew up north of here, inside the Arboreal Sea. A scion in hiding, as my father trained me in our dynasties Legacy — a potent and large one.”

  His audience who had yet to hear his tale looked at each other curiously. Kaius struggled not to shake his head. If they thought it odd he had grown up right on the cusp of a high mana zone, he could only imagine how they would have reacted that he had a complete legacy.

  It was, however, not a vital detail to his story, and one that it would still be wise to keep close to his chest — even if he was Silver now. Father had likely been far stronger than that before he had been poisoned.

  With their rapt attention, Kaius explained how one day, just like any other, he and his father had been ambushed by bandits, and he had been forced to flee.

  How he’d been chased off a cliff, only to be saved from drowning by passing through a Depths portal as an unclassed into the second layer of the Great Depths.

  For over an hour he held his audience’s attention, describing their struggles, chipping away at his class, the skills, how he fought champions, barely surviving even with the power of his completed legacy. Until, by happenstance, those same bandits chased Porkchop through the same portal.

  After over a year, it was strange to think of those days when there had been nothing but the two of them. When they had fought to their limits day after day in pursuit of the strength needed to survive and escape; so that Kaius could find out what had happened to his father.

  When he mentioned the climactic battle against the Siege Ogre — one they had fought before they had even received their classes — Arc simply looked at him in confusion. Yanira, the giantess vanguard, simply laughed and slapped her knee.

  “Now why the hell would you go and bloody do that? What was the point? I understand you wanted to escape and find your father, but such risk!”

  Kaius grinned. He decided not to share that defeating the Guardian had triggered system integration into its next stage — but there was one piece he’d been looking forward to telling them.

  “Early in our delve, we discovered something called Honours. It seemed likely that defeating a Guardian unclassed would lead to another — and it did. With enough of them combined, the added strength enabled us to defeat the Guardian of the second layer without classes.”

  Bronwyn stared at him like he’d grown two heads.

  “What the fuck is an Honour?”

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