“Hey, Golden Goose! Come here for a second!”

  ? Grim paused at the call, not because the name meant anything to him, but because everyone at his table turned toward the sound, then to him. Glancing up from his meal, he looked around to see Veyra standing on her chair at the other end of the table, energetically beckoning him over. With a sigh, he put down his fork and stood up. Nothing good was going to come out of that, he was sure. But still, he made his way across the mess hall to his Captain.

  ? “I heard you figured out what your bloodline did!” She said, as soon as he was within easy hearing distance. “We just got the report from Miranda an hour or so ago. Well done!”

  ? “Eh, thanks,” he said. “Not sure I actually did anything if it’s just my bloodline powers.”

  ? “Sure, it’s not like you created them,” Orren said on his wife’s left side. “But each new iteration of a bloodline manifests differently for its user. Miranda’s mother used a lot of illusion and hidden ice in her abilities, or so I’ve been told. But Miranda? She’s a beast in human form!”

  ? Grim could only shrug at that. He agreed with the sentiment, especially after feeling the touch of that ice. Veyra was nodding along to her lover’s comment. “It’s true. You’re all a little different. So your bloodline gives you the ability to turn invisible? That’s super rare at level three.”

  ? “Not invisible,” Grim interjected hastily. “It’s more like… camouflage. Or maybe even stepping back into another place that’s right up against it.”

  ? He’d only managed a little more testing in the dungeon run with the Ironwatch delvers. After activating his ability, he’d poked the shoulder of the tank, expecting him to jump or look around in suspicion. Instead, he hadn’t seemed to notice. That wasn’t possible with plain old invisibility.

  ? “Show us,” Veyra commanded, making a shooing gesture at him.

  ? “Well, I can’t use it outside of a dungeon,” he protested. “My bloodline relates *to* dungeons. They only work there.”

  ? “Is that so?” She asked, frowning. “Did you even try?”

  ? He hesitated, his mouth open. He hadn’t tried. He’d just assumed that was how it worked because the first time, he’d focused on his connection to the dungeon. Even if it did work outside of the dungeon, how would he mentally activate it? He still couldn’t quite pinpoint where in his cores that skill lay. But still, he tried. It took a few seconds for the mist to fully envelop everything around him, but then he heard Veyra gasp in surprise. “Damn, she wasn’t kidding! It’s like you just faded out of existence!”

  ? As he stood there invisible to the world, Veyra swiped her hand through the spot where he stood. To his senses, her fingers brushed against his chest and then past him, but she muttered quietly. “I can’t even feel him standing there!”

  ? “He could have moved,” Orren pointed out. That was when two things occurred to Grim. The first was that using his Camouflage skill outside a dungeon drained more mana per second than it had before. Just going off his senses, it was twice as expensive. Second, he realized that he now had a golden chance to get back at Veyra for the stress she’d put him under.

  ? “Alright, pop out now,” she said, smiling widely and waving her hand in a circular motion. “That’ll be useful in your duties. Grim?”

  ? Grim reappeared a few seconds later, exactly where he’d been standing before, a smile on his face. Veyra matched the grin, clapping him on the shoulder. “Hell yeah. I’ll say it again, well done! And while you’re in that state, you can WHOA-”

  ? The unexpected yelp, followed immediately by the sound of Veyra falling flat on her ass, made everyone look around with interest. The nearest of them leaned over and let out a roar of laughter when they saw the fastenings of her boots tied tightly around the legs of Orren’s chair. Attempting to take a step back and not noticing, she’d tripped *hard*. Even Orren was laughing and gave Grim a quick fist bump. It was obvious to everyone nearby that it had been Grim’s work, and he got quite a bit of appreciative applause for his effort.

  ? Veyra got back to her feet with some difficulty, trying–and failing–to cover her scowl with a grin. “Yes, yes, well done. I’ll remember this, Grim.”

  ? Orren, red-faced and wheezing from his continued laughter, waved at Grim to return his lunch. Feeling just a bit cockier, Grim turned and gave the room a mock-bow before returning to his seat, where his tablemates grinned and congratulated him on the prank. “Well done, lad. Veyra’s usually so nimble. Never thought she’d make that noise, though.”

  ? That was followed by more laughter, and then half an hour as each member of the guild tried to recreate the exact yelp that Veyra had let out. The winner was the Deputy Calwen, who coupled the perfect imitation with an even more perfect recreation of the fall. Weighed against the bonus essence from two perfect runs, the treasure he’d gained from the hidden enemy, and the gold that he’d gained–and stood to gain–from what he could do with his Camouflage, Grim decided that getting back at Veyra had easily been the best use for his skill so far.

  ? The metal bar, it turned out, was a level four ingot of velun. It was a metal used in the construction of weapons, equipment, and many other things when the desire was to create something lightweight. Gerald, who turned out to know quite a lot about metals and minerals, told him that a pure bar such as that would sell for at least two hundred gold. Grim pocketed the material, feeling even more pleased by the find. Combined with the rest of the treasure that Miranda had let him keep on their run, his poor coin purse was full to the brim. He made a mental note to visit the Merchant’s Guild on the eastern side of the city when he finally went, to get the coin registered into his guild account.

  ? Dinner wrapped up without much further ado, and Grim enjoyed the night off after a week of hard work. The next day, he’d be going to the eastern half of the city. With Maven. He glanced over at where the girl sat–not for the first time that night–and smiled to himself, then wondered if it was possible to find a tailor this late at night. His clothes were in good condition, but they were rather drab for a date on the town.

  ? “I don’t know about that one, my friend.” Grim glanced to his left and saw that Garf had joined, late to the dinner after his delve slot. He had soot covering most of his face and arms, but his hands were clean. “Have you heard the stories about her mother? The woman’s a monster in human form, I’m telling you.”

  ? “Who?” Grim asked, trying to act as if he had no clue what Garf was talking about. The man rolled his eyes, letting him know he wasn’t fooled. “Maven. You know, that beautiful woman you’ve been staring at for the past five minutes.”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  ? “I just glanced over there,” Grim retorted. “That hardly counts as staring.”

  ? “Well, I’ve been sitting here at least five minutes,” Garf said, puncturing that lie instantly. “And you haven’t taken your eyes off her in that time. I see the sparkles in your eyes, boy. You can’t fool me.”

  ? Grim was tempted to use his skill to get Garf the same way he’d gotten Veyra, but decided against it. The man looked tired and was enjoying his meal. Also, he didn’t know if his mana pool could sustain it long enough for anything more than just shoving him off his chair. So instead, he just made a mental note of the teasing, vowing to get him back later.

  ? That made him think about his bloodline again. Miranda knew exactly where her bloodline had come from, but was that the same for all carriers of such a power? He would never have known about his if it weren’t for the vision Grandel had given him, and the knowledge of Eva’s wound. The Krynth, a scaled monster known for its poisoned spikes and stealthy, agile movement. A predator of grace and speed.

  ? Would he gain an ability to do with poison, then? Miranda had mentioned that bloodlines often had more than one passive effect, after all. He’d never poisoned a monster with his weapons before, as he’d had neither the skills nor the actual poisons to coat them with. But he knew it was possible through alchemy. He made a mental note to try and expand his powers next time he was in a dungeon, if possible.

  ? He finished his meal in the usual companionable silence, interrupted only by passing guild members offering him one final congratulatory slap on the back. Garf, confused by the attention, was soon renewing the laughter, though his attempted imitation was nowhere near as good as Gerald’s. Still, Grim left the mess hall half an hour later in a great mood and capped the evening off with a hot bath.

  ? It was only as he lay down on his comfortable bed later, listening to the sounds of his guildmates outside, that he realized how quickly time had passed since his arrival in the town. It hadn’t been a month, and yet, it felt as if it had only been a day or two. He rather thought he could get used to a life that was both relaxing and chaotic. Of course, he’d enjoy the peace, but it wouldn’t stop him from growing in strength. Those two dungeon runs, combined with his gains from Evandross, along with the other, smaller runs he’d done had pushed him far into level three. At this rate, he’d probably be level four in a month. Then, after that, the sky was the limit.

  ?

  —

  ? Delan stretched in his chair, his mouth opening wide to yawn. The stretch was so good that his entire body shook violently, and he nearly slipped off the chair. “Damn, I’m so tired. When is our shift up? I wanna go back to Beastwick and have a drink.”

  ? “You can have a drink here just fine,” Bryan said from where he leaned against the parapets of the wall. “Nobody stopping you.”

  ? Delan let out a quiet groan and forced himself to stand up and start pacing. That always got the blood flowing back into his limbs and woke him up a little. “It’s not the same. I like drinking where I can see beautiful barmaids with broad hips and pretty smiles. Drinking with you all just makes the alcohol taste sour.”

  ? “Sure, sure,” Bryan said, not even bothering to turn around as he gave him a finger. “Think what ya want, but keep it to yourself. Or don’t. I’d love to see Alyssa throw you over the wall again.”

  ? “Yeah, that woman is vicious,” Delan laughed, moving to join his comrade in leaning against the wall. The availability of monsters to shoot at within range of the wall was low today, though they could still see some roaming in the streets below. “Crazy how beautiful this city looks at night.”

  ? And Evandross was truly a sight to behold under the light of the moon. With the night mists that covered the city, all the signs of old damage faded, and it almost seemed as if the city were populated again. Delan often wondered what it would be like to walk through those streets, standing among those buildings that had once held families. Over a hundred thousand had lived in this city, he’d heard. But now, it was a monster wild.

  ? “You see that?” Someone further along the wall suddenly stood straight and pointed down. “That building right next to the park. Southern side.”

  ? Delan used Focus, training his eyes on the small park that lay in the heart of the city. It was, he knew, infested by dryad monsters that tried to snag unwary delvers. That boy, a few weeks ago–Grim, he remembered–had nearly been caught by one. He saw nothing out of the ordinary and shrugged. “Nope. What did it look like?”

  ? He half-hoped it was some flying monster that would come closer. Shooting monsters down and gathering essence was their only form of entertainment on this damn rotation. But then he saw a flash of something silver, and the body of a monster was thrown into the air. “What the-”

  ? A small explosion rippled through the air, creating a distant ball of light. And, just barely visible against it was a silhouette of… a person? “Did we clear anyone to go into the city recently?”

  ? “Not since that silver-haired boy,” Bryan replied, also leaning forward. “Who is that?”

  ? Delan watched as the figure darted across rooftops with incredible speed, jumping from one to another as if they weighed no more than a feather. Before he knew it, they were already two hundred yards away from the wall. “Maybe they got in from the northern side.”

  ? “I doubt it,” Bryan said. “Nobody but some fishermen and farmers on that side. No delvers that strong.”

  ? For it was clear that was what they were seeing. Some delver they didn’t recognize was racing their way to the walls, becoming clearer the closer they got. Well, clearer was a misnomer. They were wrapped in shadows, but those shadows were easy to spot from such a distance as they moved with the precision and agility of a delver enhanced by a skill. Then the stranger was clear of the buildings and racing across the open space toward the wall. Dozens of monsters converged on them, and they had more than enough time to run, but they stopped instead, turning to face the new threats.

  ? Within a minute, the first dozen monsters were reeling back, their bodies evaporating as the stranger struck out with some kind of quarterstaff. Another minute later, and another half dozen were dead. The rest of the monsters fled then, recognizing this delver as the superior predator. Stooping only to pick up something from one of the bodies, the delver ran toward the wall once again, right toward where Delan and Bryan were standing guard at the top of the staircase.

  ? “Well, whoever it is, we should meet them,” Bryan said, pulling away from the wall. “Maybe they’re one of the lost.”

  ? But, rather than take the stairs, the figure simply burst into shadow once again, then raced up the wall as if it were a small barrier, quickly reaching and mounting the wall before the shadows evaporated, and revealed.

  ? “Hey there,” the young woman said, flashing the guards a cheeky grin. She swept her silver hair out of her eyes with one hand, then tapped the stone of the wall with her stick. “I wasn’t expecting a wall here, you know. Granden told me there’d be a lot of monsters, but I didn’t think it would be *that* bad. He definitely didn’t say anything about the wall.”

  ? The guards all looked at the young woman in shock. She was fairly short, though that wasn’t unexpected, given that they were all physically inclined fighters. Tall and powerful. She was a little twig of a woman, too, with almost no sign of excess fat on her. Five foot nothing of pure whipcord strength. And her hands bore the signs of a life of hard fighting as well. But the smile on her face and the sparkle in those golden eyes hinted at a mischievous, joyful soul. The two opposing signs threw Bryan and Delan off their game. Delan was the first to recover–he always had a gift for acting his best in front of a good-looking woman, and this was clearly such a woman.

  ? “Hey there,” he said, returning her greeting with much less energy. “I never seen you before, lass. What’s your name?”

  ? She gave a short laugh at his charming tone. “I’m married, but thank you for the effort. The name’s E… uh, probably best to just call me Silver.”

  ? And then she was off again, waving them farewell before jumping off the wall into a ball of shadow. She was down the wall and flashing across the countryside faster than any of them could think to speak. Delan only allowed himself to sit in stunned silence for a few seconds longer, then shrugged. Stranger things had–and probably would–happen. It had nothing to do with them, so he let it go from his mind.