The underbelly of Klade smelled worse than Elijah expected, almost like the smell of the cities back in the real world. It was the stink of too many bodies in too small of a place. Shyrain was sure of his footing though and led him deeper and deeper through the dim corridors beneath the city. He hadn’t spoken a word since they first went through the storm drain that led down into these tunnels, which left Elijah alone with his thoughts.

  It was almost funny—a reminder that this was a video game and not real life—that he was being recruited to the thieving guild even though he didn’t bear any semblance of rogue abilities. He wondered if there would also be a guild of assassins or a fighter guild run by werewolves that would also try to recruit him. Like in that vintage video game his parents had loved so much. He had no illusions of becoming the guild leader—this wasn’t a single-player game after all—but just being recruited was enough to connect the two games in his mind. Was this Fate’s doing, or something coded by the developers as an homage to their predecessors?

  He’d have to run it by Bo sometime to see if the man knew.

  He could hear voices ahead now, and Shyrain stopped in front of him. The path was clear, and Elijah was fairly certain it was a straight shot now, just around another bend or two. But these were thieves and rogues he was dealing with. He couldn’t take anything for granted here.

  As if born into existence by Elijah’s realization; Shyrain took a hard left and passed through an opening that Elijah hadn’t noticed before. He felt proud of himself for deducing that the straight shot was a trick as he looked between it and the new opening.

  ”You coming?” asked Shyrain through the gloom of the new tunnel, and Elijah quickly turned to follow him.

  They came out into a large stone room via a short staircase. It reminded Elijah of the Basilica Cistern beneath the city of Istanbul. Rough-hewn pillars spaced evenly every five meters or so and connected at the top with arches. It was beautiful in its simplicity.

  A thin layer of water rested on the floor, and Elijah could feel it soaking into his boots. Those same haunting memories flooded back to him, though there wasn’t nearly enough water here to drown in. Each footstep echoed through the room as the crowd went silent to look at him. His footsteps only grew louder and more obnoxious as Bitter Bat and Bitter Root climbed up onto him to get away from the water. Bitter Dryad, on the other hand, was loving the water. He’d run quickly forward a few feet ahead and then throw his arms out and head back, the sound of suction emanating from his feet.

  ”Tree boy, a thirsty boy,” Bitter Root remarked, staring at his ‘brother’. Off to one side, someone laughed, breaking the tension in the room.

  The crowd went back to what they had been doing as a thin, older man approached Shyrain and Elijah. Elijah would have to guess that he was about the same age as Elijah’s parents, maybe a little older, but the way he moved was smoother. Bolstered by the game’s stats and internal logic. He had a player tag above his head but, just like with Shyrain earlier, his information was obscured.

  ”Welcome, Elijah. It seems our runner here thinks quite highly of you if they brought you down to our little hideout.” The man reached out a hand, pulling it back quickly when Bitter Bat hissed at him. “Quite the group of familiars you have there. I’ve heard of some players managing to summon two before, but never three. Quite impressive indeed. You can call me Mercer.”

  Something was off about the way the man spoke the name. There was a certain way someone introduced themselves that wasn’t present this time, though Elijah couldn’t place it. He guessed that this man’s actual name wasn’t Mercer, and that it was a pseudonym he had taken for privacy.

  Elijah reached his right hand out, holding Bitter Bat back with his left so the man could shake his hand without fear of the insane goblin-bat creature taking a bite out of him. “One of the benefits of my unique class. Shyrain told me you might have a job for me, but didn’t say what it might be.”

  Mercer shook his hand and nodded, keeping a wary eye on Bitter Bat as he did so. “Yes, come. Let’s get out of this water and somewhere warm and dry while we discuss it.”

  Mercer led Elijah and Shyrain around the crowd to the far side of the cistern. Built between two pillars was a sort-of tree house like structure with a rope ladder leading up.

  Elijah wasn’t about to let his guard down around these people; too much could happen while his hands were busy climbing up. He put a hand out to Bitter Dryad. “Climb on. Let’s go up.”

  Bitter Dryad shook his head. “Me stay in water. Guard door?”

  He let out a huff. He could tell that the creature was just trying to make an excuse to stay in the water. It didn’t matter, as long as the creature would actually guard the door he didn’t care. He teleported up to the ledge surrounding the treehouse, shocking Mercer as he made it up over the lip.

  “Well, that’s one way to do it,” he grunted, stepping towards the door and opening it to walk inside.

  Shyrain smiled at him as his head popped up over the edge and laughed. “Way to make a good impression, new guy.”

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  Elijah shrugged and followed Shyrain into the room. It was cozy, with a warm fireplace. The fire inside seemed like a safety hazard in the wooden structure, but he could sense that the fire wasn’t actually there. It was an illusion mixed with a heat enchantment around the fireplace itself.

  He didn’t know how he knew that; perhaps the game was leeching information into his mind through the code?

  Mercer and Shyrain were sitting in a pair of comfortable chairs staring up at him as he stared at the fire. “Cool spells,” he whispered as he went to join them. Bitter Root and Bitter Bat hopped off of him to go warm up by the fire. “So what’s this job?”

  Mercer grinned at him and pulled out a large blue gemstone. “Have you ever seen one of these, kid? It’s an Elementalist Focus.”

  Elijah shook his head. “Can’t say that I ever have. I take it they help when elemental mage classes cast their spells?”

  “Sort of. Elementalists can cast their spells just like any mage, but these gems can increase the efficiency greatly. Even a Beginner-tier focus can reduce mana required by half while doubling the spell’s power.”

  “That all sounds cool, but that doesn’t tell me what the job you have for me is,” Elijah growled. So far, this all sounded like a waste of his time while he could be out gaining experience.

  “A man of action. I can respect that. There’s a high-level focus crystal that was being transported from Eastgate to here. When whatever it was that trapped us here occurred, he was a few miles out of the city. By the time he respawned and made it back out to where his caravan was, it had already been ransacked.”

  Elijah listened closely. He felt shame at being the cause of the glitch welling up, but that was in the past. He was going to fix it; he just had to be given time to do so.

  “What’s your interest in the focus?”

  Shyrain took it from there. “We were waiting for the caravan to get here to Klade. That focus would have netted us a nice hefty profit. We already had a buyer lined up, and now he’s breathing down our neck because he wants it.”

  Something was wrong with the whole situation, but Elijah was struggling to figure out exactly what it was. “Okay, so what do you need me for?”

  Mercer smiled. “Most of the guild is under surveillance by the owner of the focus. They know to watch out for anyone coming and going in the area, even teleports. We can’t get close without being linked to it.”

  ”But your buyer wants to get his hands on it…” Things finally clicked together for Elijah. “It wasn’t being transported here for you or your buyer. You’d planned on stealing it when it reached the city.”

  Mercer nodded his head. “We are the thieves’ guild after all. We need someone who can move without being watched, but who is competent enough that they can run the dungeon it is being stored in without help.”

  ”So I can’t take my friends with me?”

  ”No,” Shyrain confirmed. “A large group moving into that area would draw too much suspicion. The men who want this are high level. They’d just wait for you to finish the dungeon, or return to the city, and then drop on your party. Without the protection of safe zones, you’d all be sitting ducks.”

  Elijah had to consider his options. He’d wanted a quest, and here he was being presented with one, but becoming a thief rankled his nerves. He’d already stolen loot from his party in the form of his Dragontooth King tome, but he didn’t want to be known as a thief. That wasn’t why he was playing this game.

  He could always turn over the focus to the true owners, but this group seemed to have quite a grip on the city. Either way, it seemed like he was liable to make an enemy of whichever group he didn’t side with. And he had just gotten here yesterday. His best hope was to obtain this focus quietly and turn it over to the Thieves Guild with no one finding out about his involvement. At worst, he could always bunny-hop teleport Benjamin over to Glasswind so he could open a portal for the party. It would take some time and be exhausting, but it was doable.

  A crash over by the fireplace caught their attention. He looked over and had to hide his face in his hands. Bitter Root was attempting to shove Bitter Bat into the fireplace. There hadn’t seemed to have been any lead-up, at least nothing verbal, just a sudden attempt at violence from the goblin who looked up when he felt the weight of eyes on him.

  ”Me want know what roast bat taste like,” he told them, acting like that answered everything and was the most reasonable answer in the world.

  With a heavy sigh, Elijah snapped his fingers, and his familiars came rushing over to him. He shoved down on both of their shoulders, making them sit on the floor like disobedient children.

  “Shyrain said that Bitter Root might be useful on this mission. So, there is something you guys aren’t telling me. I’m not going anywhere if I don’t have all the information available to me.”

  Shyrain and Mercer both looked at each other. Something seemed to pass between them—a certain look—but Elijah couldn’t place it. After several seconds, Mercer finally spoke. “The dungeon the focus is being held in is a goblin dungeon, but it isn’t like the normal kind you find around starter cities. These goblins aren’t your usual war band. It’s a full kingdom of little devils.”

  ”I’m hoping that you’ll have an easier time of it if you have him with you. I know goblins are a fractured lot, but he might see things you don’t.”

  ”Me no like other gobs. Other gobs no taste good,” Bitter Root added unhelpfully.

  Elijah considered turning down the job, or asking for time to consider it. But he’d only be kidding himself if he did that. He wanted this job, even if it meant possibly making enemies with a powerful force. Part of him wanted redemption for his failure against the Big Badda Boss Babe fight, and didn’t want to have to wait until he was almost max level for it. “Okay, where’s this dungeon?”

  They showed him a hand-drawn map. The dungeon was less than a day’s walk from the city, but with his teleport spell he’d be able to get there almost instantly. Though he’d wait until he was away from these people first. He didn’t need them knowing that he could teleport anywhere he wanted, even if he’d never been there before.

  He left the treehouse and jumped down from the ledge into the shallow water of the cistern.

  ”Uhhh… Dryad?”

  The creature turned towards him and gave him the best approximation of a smile. “Look Boss! Me pretty!”

  He was in fact ‘pretty’. Beautiful pink and gold flowers had sprouted from beneath his bark-like skin.