Inside the guild, it looked like a storm had blown by the front desk and left everything in disarray. Rika stood next to the desk with a frustrated furrow in her brow.

  “Three days! Three days and no quests!” she shouted out to the hall full of adventurers, pacing back and forth with her glasses dangerously close to snapping in her grip. “Not a lick of news from the inter-guild network either. There has to be something wrong!”

  The menagerie of adventurers seated in front of her were in full attention - it was a rare sight for any of them to see the usually well-mannered guild receptionist so worked up.

  It was at the moment that Nikolas and Clarisse opened the front door and slipped into the back of the room, confused by the usually unruly crowd being orderly for once.

  “That’s it! I’m setting forth a quest from the guild’s end, for all of you. Starting from right now, the task is to find out what happened with the city’s postal network and why new quests haven’t been coming around.”

  One of the adventurers seated near the front raised his hand “Maybe things are just getting better for once… I mean, we’ve been solving problems for everyone for years…”

  Rika glared at the man, letting out a jet of air through her nostrils “So I suppose all of you are comfortable with being out of work then, since the world has supposedly sorted itself out and no one has any issues anymore?”

  The man promptly lowered his hand for fear of his adventuring license. A few snickers were passed around among the crowd until Rika deliberately coughed to get their attention again.

  “You can start from the post office itself or wherever you want, but I want this mystery solved by the end of the week!” Rika announced her ultimatum. “Whoever is able to do it – and I don’t care how many of you it takes – I’ll treat you to a night of ale with me, on the house.”

  The news of free drinks in her company seemed to have an immediate effect on the crowd. Many of them got up and cheered enthusiastically, and some others rushed out of the guild, hoping to get a head-start on everyone else. A few of them seemed to still be unmotivated, slowly dragging themselves out of the hall.

  Nikolas waded through the passing crowd, waving Clarisse over despite her doubts and taking a seat at one of the now empty tables.

  As the crowd dissipated, Rika’s gaze fell on the two newcomers to her announcement. “And when are you planning to join the rest of them?” she raised an eyebrow at them, crossing her arms.

  Clarisse was not in the mood to be around Rika’s frenzy and looked like she wanted to leave immediately, but Nikolas raised a hand signing for her to sit down.

  “We’ll go in the morning - we just got back from a whole day of training.” Nikolas said in a blank tone. “I’m okay, but she could use some food.”

  “Sorry! I’m just a bit hungry… anything will do!” Clarisse quickly did a short bow before taking her seat, expecting to earn another outburst from Rika.

  The blonde receptionist let out a sigh, dropping her arms along with her glare. She grumbled something under her breath as she turned around and headed for the backside of the hall. “I’ll get you a stew with some bread!” she called out as she left.

  Clarisse glanced back at the door to the backend of the hall, confused. “Huh… She seemed pretty angry. I wasn’t expecting her to be okay with that.” she mumbled to her companion.

  “Rika’s like that,” Nikolas replied, and his head bobbed as he silently chuckled. “She lets the better adventurers off with more than you expect.”

  Clarisse seemed shocked, so she was one for favoritism. “You’ve gotta help me get on her good side then!” she exclaimed, putting both palms on the table with a light slam.

  “Eh, you can get there by yourself pretty easily,” he shrugged, looking to one side. “Just keep completing quests and bringing more business to the guild.”

  “How many quests do you take in a month?” Clarisse immediately asked in return, determined to set a mental goal for herself. If he was as capable as Rika treated him to be, that would be a worthy goal, she decided.

  “Don’t use my averages as a benchmark,” he pointed a finger at her. “You’re still a rookie, so take it slow enough to not get crippled or killed.”

  Rika dropped by as they were talking, placing two plates with bread and cutlery in front of them, along with a bowl of stew in between. “Eat up… I want both of you on the case tomorrow.”

  “Thanks Rika.” Clarisse gulped, she hadn’t been thinking about that despite how her last quest went. “Sorry… does it pay well, though? We’re putting our lives on the line and all…” she asked.

  “Barely,” Nikolas shook his head, though there was an odd sense of nonchalance to him as he elaborated. “I usually take on quests meant for parties. It saves on travel, food and stay so I don’t need to worry, but there are just way too many adventurers without that many jobs. Most jobs for the average adventurer aren’t even dangerous, they’re just low enough on the ladder that no one else wants to do them. We’re problem-fixers of sorts.”

  “Oh…” Clarisse looked down, that was disheartening. “What about the higher ranked adventurers though? Is it better for them at least?” she asked while munching on a piece of bread dipped in the stew.

  “Gold ranks and above have it very different from the rest of us,” Nikolas chided with a cynical scoff. “They have more than enough resources to spend on enchanted gear and lavish consumables to aid them. Some even have their own retainers to lug around all their gear.”

  Clarisse’s eyes grew wide, that seemed like the ideal situation for someone like her. “Whoa, that’s -” she cut herself off, noting the tone in his voice and worried that she might come off as the very type of adventurer he disliked.

  “It’s not easy getting there, though, and they’re every bit worthy of their ego,” Nikolas continued, finding an outlet in Clarisse to vent his thoughts. “Silver rank is the crucible of an adventurer. You either make it to the big leagues, or you die trying.”

  “Do you ever want to go for that then?” Clarisse asked, she was curious about his aspirations.

  “Maybe, maybe not,” Nikolas gave her nothing more than an indecisive answer, much to her annoyance. “I’ll wait for the annual review to decide.”

  “The annual review… it sounds like a pretty important time of the year,” Clarisse commented. “I want to rank up as soon as I can, hopefully to porcelain this year and bronze next year.”

  “You can do it,” Nikolas stated, though there was a noticeable lack of enthusiasm in his voice. “If you keep up your training, and find a better mentor.”

  “I was hoping I could keep learning from you for a little bit,” she mumbled, distracting herself from his lack of a reaction by focusing on filling her stomach with stew. “Or if you knew an experienced fire mage…”

  “You won’t get that far with me,” he admitted without a hint of doubt or shame. “Although there’s more I can teach you besides magic. Fighting and strategy are what I’m good at.”

  “You could have at least been subtle about it,” the redhead muttered as she glared back, waving her spoon at him after taking another sip of the stew.

  Nikolas chuckled, tapping the table multiple times in quick succession to make a tune. “Give it a few months, and you’ll wish everyone was just as blunt in this line of work. Besides, it’s both harder and more fruitful to achieve gold rank on your own than in a party.” He shrugged.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The redhead gave him a confused stare, confirming his hunch that he would have to indeed explain that too to her.

  “The promotions are based on how a party performs, be it a party of one or a party of four,” Nikolas described it disinterestedly. “Obviously, having four people to manage everything as a party means it takes less effort to make it to that rank, but it means they’re not even close to what a solo gold ranker can achieve if taken into account alone.” He got up from the table around the end of his explanation, looking around at the nearly empty guild hall and deciding to make his departure.

  “Leaving already?” Clarisse spluttered, caught off guard mid-sip of her stew. She had been too invested in his explanations to actually notice the state of the guild hall around them, being that everyone had left at Rika’s behest.

  “I’ll see you in the morning,” Nikolas replied, beginning to walk away. “Get back home safely!” he called out as he left.

  “I will!” came a short reply from Clarisse, before she turned her focus to what little of her food was left and began wolfing it all down. After the day of training, it was a much-needed meal for her.

  KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

  Clarisse was abruptly awoken by a trio of sharp raps on her front door, making her clumsily clamber out of her bed and squinting at her wall clock to make sense of what hour it was. The magical device’s ambient glow wasn’t nearly enough to light up anything, but it was still readable in the darkness.

  4:12:57

  4:12:58

  4:12:59

  4:13:00

  “Too early…” she complained to herself, rubbing her eyes to make sure she was reading the glowing numbers right. The lack of pleasant, shaded rays of light penetrating into her room though the narrow gap in her curtains confirmed her views - it was most certainly not bright enough for anyone sane to be awake.

  “Coming!” She called out towards her door, slowly walking over and making sure that the chain lock was properly latched before she opened the door slightly to peek at who had decided it was a good idea to interrupt her sleep.

  Nikolas was leaning on one side of the corridor with his arms crossed, much to her surprise. “Morning, rookie. Time’s precious, so we really should get going soon.”

  Clarisse jumped a little, not expecting him to show up at her room. “It’s not even sunrise Nik…” she complained with an audible groan as she shut her door. “I thought you meant morning as in actual morning, not well before dawn!”

  He didn’t seem perturbed, hearing her muffled complaints from the other side as he rapped on her door once more. “And here I thought you were serious about becoming an adventurer.”

  “I am!” came back another reply muffled by the wooden door. “I’m just not crazy like you.”

  “I see… guess you’ll figure out what I found once the quest is done then?” he asked with a tinge of sarcastic humor. “Learning how I did it should be easier once it’s said and done, no?”

  “. . .” There was no reply from the other side for several seconds, followed by a frustrated, exasperated sigh. “Give me ten minutes to get ready.”

  “This better be worth it,” Clarisse grumbled as they walked down the streets, having hastily pulled on her adventuring outfit to join her fox companion. “Where are we going anyway?”

  “Back to the place where I first found you,” Nikolas replied, “The city’s post office and mail system apparently went through some personnel disappearances lately, so I asked for their travel routes to other cities and one of them goes through the forest.”

  “Why are we even investigating the post office if we need to figure out why there aren’t any new quests?” The sleepy redhead asked, barely keeping pace with his brisk walk.

  “Because they might as well be the same problem,” he replied, slowing slightly to let her catch up. “To streamline quest submissions and make sure all submissions are up to a certain quality, guilds have a contract with post offices wherein all quests are first posted in envelopes or parcels to post offices and then delivered to their respective guilds. That way every guild can handle a city’s crowd and still handle the concerns of nearby towns and people living outside the city, which is where the majority of quests come from.”

  “That does make sense,” she connected the dots, nodding in agreement. “Why wouldn’t the post office workers come to the guild for help if someone disappeared then? Does that issue go straight to the city guard instead?”

  “Unfortunately, yes,” Nikolas let out a sigh. “And trust me, the guard force did not like seeing close to forty-odd people swarming the post office last night.”

  “Yikes.” Clarisse mumbled, feeling unpleasant from simply envisioning that many people inside the small roof of the post office. “I wonder if this has anything to do with whatever attacked me…”

  “That was the line of thought I was after,” Nikolas replied, the inflection of his voice betraying satisfaction. “No one has thought to search all the way out here yet, but if it does give us a lead then our problems will have only begun.”

  “Wait, why?” Clarisse asked, confused. “Wouldn’t that be a good thing-?” she added, suspecting that there was still information that her mentor was withholding.

  “The post office hasn’t just been cut off from one of its lines - there has been no incoming mail from any of its smaller branches…” Nikolas thought aloud, letting out a sigh. “Meaning whoever is responsible has either taken all of them over or they have surrounded the city discreetly.”

  “So we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place…” Clarisse grumbled, dragging her feet as they walked along the empty streets. Junnhaven was barely waking up by the time they were at its walls, with the only other people about at this hour being guards from the night shift and laborers heading to their workplaces.

  “All in the life of an adventurer.” Nikolas tried to reassure her with a half-hearted shrug, but all it earned was an audible exhale and a glare from her.

  As they walked off the beaten path, Clarisse carefully chose her steps, an uneasiness creeping up her spine. She stood over the edge of the ravine she had found sanctuary in just a few days ago. “Alright, we’re here. Now what?”

  “Can you retrace your path here from where you got attacked?” Nikolas shot a question back at her, looking around at the scene.

  “I have no idea how I got here…” Clarisse admitted, the only details she could recall from that night were many memories of pain and being afraid. Even the forest looked very different to her from their last time being there. “Nothing looks the same around here besides the general shape of the ravine.”

  Nikolas let out a sigh, looking down at the array of foliage lining the ground before climbing out of the ravine and beginning to walk deeper into the forest. “I’d ask Sera to do a wide range mana search but she’s still busy… let’s go hunt for snow rabbits then.”

  “Are you planning to get attacked by those things?” Clarisse asked in an apprehensive tone.

  “Yes, actually. That is the idea,” came a blank reply and nod from the fox.

  “What makes you think they’ll even show up?” the skeptical redhead questioned, put off by his confidence. Every passing hour just seemed to prove that he was crazier than she had originally thought.

  “It’s still dark enough for them to be safely roaming, considering that you were out late the last time you were here,” he replied, pausing to glance back at her before continuing. “I don’t think they meant to attack you at all… You just happened to also be hunting the same prey as them, making you competition for dinner.”

  “...” she seemed stunned by his explanation for a moment before something else came to mind. “But then why would they attack the post office workers? They usually move around in carriages much bigger than people…”

  “Yeah, you’re right on that.” Nikolas admitted, before raising a finger to suggest a counterpoint. “But if they aren’t existing on their own – someone else could be directing them to do this,” He peered into the distance, looking for any potential clues - markings on a tree, tracks on the ground, or even just something out of place near them. “Aha…”

  Clarisse peeked over the edge of the ravine to see what had caught his interest, climbing out soon after to see Nikolas kneeling over a distinctly shaped depression in the moist soil, followed by others as he moved some fallen leaves out of the way.

  “Footprints,” Nikolas declared, glancing in the direction they were coming from. “Yours, and hopefully they go back far enough that we can find some other clues.” he said, getting up and beginning to follow the trail of tracks.

  “Huh…” Clarisse let out an inquisitive sound, impressed by how alert he was. She was about halfway to falling back asleep again, if only she could find a good spot to lay down. “Hopefully we don’t get surprised by those things again…” she mumbled lazily as she followed.

  Nikolas fell silent, choosing to not dash her hopes by saying anything and instead focus on the reverse trail of footsteps in the dirt. They were haphazard at many places leading to long drags along the dirt, which he had expected due to her injury.

  As they followed the tracks, Clarisse got more and more uneasy. What had seemed to be unfamiliar foliage was now rushing back into her memory, and each glance back at the way they came reminded her of running away that night. “I-I think I can remember more of what those things were like now.” she mumbled, catching up to Nikolas and walking close to him.

  “Well, don’t let me stop you.” Nikolas mentioned, although his attention was focused on the footprints. They were becoming harder to parse with each passing step now.

  “I barely saw them before using my magic, but they were like small coyotes except… dark-skinned with long tongues and lots of spikes along their backs. One of them bit my leg before I scared them away with my fire.” She described them by holding up her hand to estimate their general size.

  Nikolas nodded in acknowledgement before abruptly stopping in his tracks. The ground had dried up, ending their clear trail of footprints and merging into the dusty forest floor. “That’s unfortunate.” he said, kneeling down near the last footprint which was barely visible.

  Thank you for reading!

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