Paige stayed with the rest of us overnight this time. I had my usual sleeping problems, but nobody mentioned anything. We then all got on our striders and headed back for Davesville. The trip took about the same amount of time as getting to the quarry, and by the time it started to get dark we were in front of the David mansion.

  Lord David was happy to host us, excited for the good news.

  He was less enthusiastic when I dropped one of the bugs onto the floor of his staging room.

  “Why is it so… dry?” He asked, nudging the dessicated corpse with the toe of his boot.

  I winced, thinking about the story I’d heard last night. While Zaion had killed some of the bugs like that… “Uh, that’s from my storage. All the moisture gets sucked out of anything I put in unless it’s sealed up.”

  Lord David winced, “Ah, one of those storages… cheap and dirty, but large and effective. Might be a good idea to invest in an upgrade as soon as you can.”

  I nodded and stepped around to look at the map in the center of the room. It was me, Lord David, Deacon, and Elayne in the room, everyone else enjoying some free time in the town. I wanted to look around to shop too, but could wait until I got back to Cotton Rock.

  “Lord David, while we slew a number of the creatures, I’m afraid anything more in depth would require a larger team. I don’t even think a full platoon would be able to do it in any decent length of time.” Elayne reported, Deacon nodding along with. “We’ll put in a recommendation, but with the situation at Grave Woods…”

  “It’s going to be low priority.” He said, understanding the issue. “I suppose I could spend more to get the mission to go across borders, but that brings it’s own issues.”

  “So long as you know your options.” Deacon stated, “Luckily, they seem territorial rather than aggressive, so you could, in theory, start in another part of the quarry.”

  The lord nodded and sighed, running his fingers through his hair, “That may be for the best, even if the quality will be worse for a while.”

  While they were talking, I had started plotting points on the map. I knew where we’d been in the quarry mines and what direction the marker for my quest was. I’d checked on the road as well, and a third time now. I knew from math that if I had three spots, I could reliably find the spot where they intersected, so long as I knew where the goal was. I found they all lead to a region several kilometers into the wilderness.

  “Is there anything in this area?” I said, pointing to it on his table map.

  I’d interrupted them talking about precautions against an outbreak. Elayne looked annoyed, but Deacon understood immediately what I was asking. Lord David scratched the top of his head as he looked, “Hm… I think there used to be something there, but there have been sinkholes all over that area for years. It’s off limits for safety reasons, why?”

  Everyone was looking at me, and I tried to come up with a plausible reason. I looked all over the map and noticed something else. All the pinned attacks were clustered around it. I looked around for something to mark things off, “Do you have something I can draw or mark on the map?”

  He pulled some weights and string out of a drawer and I took the furthest attack and from there put a circle around the outlying attacks. When I started drawing lines from the points to spot I’d asked about with the string, understanding bloomed on the lord’s face, “You think they’re coming from that area, instead of the quarry?”

  “It’s a guess.” I said truthfully. Honestly, I hadn’t even thought of it that way until I’d started making an argument for it. “It fits, though.”

  Lord David looked over the area marked out by the string and mumbling to himself. I stepped back and noticed both Deacon and Elayne looking hard at the map as well. “It looks… obvious laid out like this.” Lord David finally stated.

  I shrugged, “I just saw a pattern. Think it’s worth checking out?” I asked Deacon, “We could maybe give a better starting point for anyone dealing with this later.” And I might be able to finish this quest before heading off to deal with one of the dungeons.

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  The bard hesitated, but Elayne was all for it. “We should look into it. At the very least, it could be another point of entry. At best, we find the queen and cull some of the stronger bugs before they can become a problem.”

  And probably find Melvin as a bonus. I thought as Deacon started to nod in agreement. “You’re right. But we should cut Paige and Jason for this. Zaion and Dani have both proven they can handle themselves under pressure.”

  “Are we going to fail them?” Elayne asked Deacon.

  Deacon nodded slowly, “I think they both need more experience with different environments, and Jason needs to learn a backup weapon to that spear of his. He’s probably really good with it, but it’s not a perfect weapon.”

  Elayne nodded in agreement, “I don’t think we can pass Paige this time, but if she can work up the nerve to take the test again she should pass.”

  “Alright, then do we send them back with a body and have them hand in the report?” Deacon asked, though the way he was digging in one of his pouches told me he already had an idea. “Recommend them for further courses and training before taking the tier test again?”

  Elayne nodded, “As well as clearing Lady Danielle and Zaion for Tier 2 missions.”

  I furrowed my brow before looking at Elayne, “But I’m not a part of the guild. Why include me?”

  “Because it was a guild job.” Elayne said as though it were obvious. “Competent people are not kept at low tiers, even if they don’t meet the class or level requirements. Those are easy to get, if you’re smart about it.”

  Deacon and, to my surprise, Lord David nodded in agreement. Lord David was the one who spoke up, though, “Your family runs a dungeon. I’m surprised your father hasn’t just taken you down a few floors and crippled a few beasts for you to level quickly off of. Though maybe he was waiting much like I am.”

  “While talking about boosting levels is fun, back on topic.” Deacon addressed the room. He’d pulled out some papers and was awkwardly holding them down with the stub of his missing hand as he wrote on the documents. “You also have a person at a much higher tier acting in a mentor capacity. It lets you bypass certain barriers.”

  I shrugged, not really caring anymore about the topic, “Alright, so what are the benefits? I still know next to nothing about the guild.”

  Lord David looked at me funny, but Deacon waved him down. “Elayne, can you give her a rundown? I need to write out a report if we’re sending Paige and Jason off.”

  The burly woman nodded slowly and motioned for me to follow her out the door. I did and we made our way out to the yard. It was getting late, but no extra lights had been lit quite yet. When we were far enough away that the average person wouldn’t hear us, she turned to face me.

  We stared at each other for a few uncomfortable minutes before she sighed, “You really don’t remember anything, do you?”

  I shook my head, “Woke up in an alley covered in blood with no idea who I was or what I was doing there. Pretty sure I was raped too, though I only have the torn clothes as evidence.”

  Elayne averted her eyes and looked at the sky, “Have they caught the person who did it?”

  “No. And they probably won’t.” I said with a sour tone. “Apparently they don’t have enough guards with everything going on.”

  “That’s always the excuse.” Elayne said with exhaustion lacing her words. “Every time you went missing, I was worried something like that would happen.”

  I shrugged, “It’s the past. What do I need to know about the guild?” I asked in a blunt attempt at changing the subject.

  “Right…” It sounded like Elayne wanted to keep talking about this, but wasn’t going to push. “You’ll get access to a few different utilities with a membership. Unlimited crystal access for free, a library on different regional monsters, and a specialty shop to sell monster parts to. They also sell information packets and different skill books, but they are massively overpriced.”

  “I still might want to take a look.” I said, considering it. “Could I also buy monster parts from them, if I wanted?”

  She shrugged, “Maybe, but you’d have to ask.”

  “Alright, what about jobs like these?” I asked, “Do they get assigned or do I have to go there and pick from a list?”

  Elayne shook her head and took a seat at a bench in Lord Davis’ garden. “It’s a list, though they do a basic check to see if you are qualified for the job. The checks are less frequent the more often you complete jobs.”

  I took the seat next to her and leaned back, “What do you think of checking out the region I pointed out on the map?”

  The blademaster rolled her fingers along her knee as she thought about it. “It’s dangerous, but sending Paige and Jason back mitigates some of it. I’m more concerned about falling into a hole than the bugs, though. Sinkholes are no joke.”

  I nodded, “I’m sure we can figure something out between the four of us.”

  We sat there in silence, as lights began to bloom in the city around us. It was awkward, but significantly less so than the previous couple of days. Eventually, Elayne broke the silence, “So… are you and Deacon really not sleeping together?”

  “Ew, no.” I said on reflex.

  Apparently, that was enough to send Elayne into a fit of laughter.