Guild Expedition [2]

The carriage rolled to a stop outside Ironhold's massive stone gates. I stepped down, paying the driver his fare, and got my first proper look at the largest town in the region.

Even the walls were impressive, thick stone blocks that rose at least twenty feet high, with watchtowers positioned at regular intervals. Guard patrols walked the ramparts in full armor, their weapons gleaming in the morning sun.

I approached the main gate, where two guards in polished chainmail stood flanking the entrance. One of them stepped forward as I came near.

"State your business in Ironhold," he said, his tone professional but not unfriendly.

I pulled out my adventurer's card and held it up. 

The guard took my card and walked over to a crystalline device mounted on a stone pedestal beside the gate. 

The thing looked like a larger version of the identification artifacts I'd seen in guild halls, all glowing runes and floating displays.

He placed my card against the crystal surface, and light flared as information scrolled across a translucent screen. The guard's eyebrows rose slightly as he read whatever the device was telling him.

"C-rank solo adventurer," he murmured, then looked back at me with newfound interest. "Please step through, sir."

He handed my card back with considerably more respect than he'd shown initially. I pocketed it and walked through the gates into Ironhold.

The town beyond was unlike anything I'd seen before. Gramwell and Millhaven were villages compared to this place. Wide paved streets stretched in all directions, lined with multi-story buildings made from worked stone rather than simple timber. Shop signs hung from wrought iron brackets, advertising everything from enchanted weapons to exotic spices.

People filled the streets, merchants in fine clothes, laborers hauling goods, and plenty of adventurers with equipment that made my gear look basic by comparison. The air buzzed with activity.

Rei came beside me, its eyes wide with amazement. "This place is huge. How do people not get lost?"

I looked up at the street signs mounted at each intersection, noting they were written in multiple languages. "Organization," I said. "And probably a lot of practice."

'Now to find the guild hall. In a place this size, it's probably going to be massive.'

We wandered through Ironhold's maze of streets for what felt like half an hour before finally spotting the guild hall. 

The building was impossible to miss once we found it, easily three times the size of Millhaven's guild, with carved stone facades and banners hanging from iron poles.

Rei drifted beside me, gawking at the architecture. "Look at those windows! They're huge! And is that actual stained glass?"

"Showing off," I muttered, but I had to admit the place was impressive. Money clearly flowed through this town.

Wrath was on my other side, his bloodshot eyes scanning the building with cold assessment. "Fancy. Probably means the jobs pay better, or they waste money on useless decoration."

Then we headed inside. The interior was just as elaborate as the exterior suggested. Polished stone floors, multiple levels connected by wide staircases, and enough space to hold a small army. 

The noise level was significantly higher than what I was used to, dozens of conversations happening simultaneously as adventurers moved between different sections of the hall.

What caught my attention was the steady stream of people heading toward what looked like a courtyard at the back of the building. 

I followed the flow, weaving between groups of well-equipped adventurers.

The courtyard was packed. Easily two hundred adventurers had gathered in the open space, clustered in groups. The higher-ranked parties stood closer to a raised platform at the far end, while newer adventurers like myself filled in the back and sides.

"Lot of people," Rei observed nervously. "Think they're all here for the same expedition?"

I studied the crowd, noting the mix of equipment quality and the way certain groups gave each other respectful distances. "Either that, or this town runs a lot more collaborative jobs than the smaller guilds."

I pushed through them, looking for a spot where I wouldn't get trampled by groups of heavily armored adventurers. 

Finding a relatively quiet space near one of the courtyard's stone pillars, I leaned against it and tried to get a better view of the platform. My eyes swept over the assembled crowd, taking in the sheer variety of equipment and experience levels represented here.

Then...

"Kaito?"

I paused mid-scan, as a familiar voice cut through the noise like a blade.

Just as I turned around at the source of the sound, my eyes widened.

Aria stood a few feet away, but not the Aria I remembered from behind the guild counter in Millhaven. 

Instead of her usual clerk uniform, she wore practical traveling gear under a white cloak. A satchel hung at her hip, and she carried a polished wooden staff topped with a crystal that pulsed with soft blue light.

Her silver-blonde hair was pulled back in a more practical style than the neat bun, and there was something different about how she carried herself. More confident, less constrained by professional courtesy.

Rei whispered closely. "Wait, is that the guild clerk from Millhaven?"

I blinked, still processing the transformation. "Aria? What are you doing here?"

She smiled, that same warm expression I remembered from countless guild interactions, but now it carried a different confidence. "I'm a healer," she said simply.

I blinked, trying to reconcile the image of the efficient clerk with the equipped adventurer standing in front of me.

"Actually, I was—" she started, then caught herself and shook her head with a slight laugh. 

"Well, let's just say I settled for the clerk job because it was much easier and safer. Paid decent too, with a lot less risk of getting my head bitten off by monsters."

I nodded slowly. It made sense, in a way. 

Plenty of retired or semi-retired adventurers took guild positions for the steady income and reduced mortality rate.

Her sky-blue eyes studied me with that same analytical sharpness. "You look different now," she observed. "Fully embracing the role of an adventurer, huh?"

There was something in her tone, not quite approval, but a kind of recognition. Like she was seeing something in me that hadn't been there during those early days when I'd stumbled into her guild barely knowing which end of a sword to hold.

Wrath remained silent, but his bloodshot eyes tracked the way other adventurers in the courtyard glanced at Aria with obvious respect. Whatever her reputation as a healer, it was clearly well established.

"Yeah, well," I said, adjusting the weight of my sword belt. "Turns out this world doesn't give you much choice about adapting."

Just as we were talking, three adventurers approached from the crowd. 

A tall man in plate armor with a massive shield strapped to his back, he had sandy brown hair and warm brown eyes.

A woman in dark robes with a staff that crackled with magical energy came beside him, she had dark auburn hair and green eyes. Finally, a lean figure with black hair and eyes, in leather armor whose multiple daggers suggested he might be an assassin.

The armored man reached us first, his eyes flicking between Aria and me with polite curiosity.

"Aria, who's this?" he asked.

The mage stepped up beside him, her sharp gaze assessing me with the clinical detachment of someone used to evaluating threats. "Friend of yours?"

The rogue hung back slightly, but I caught him studying my equipment and stance with professional interest. 

His eyes lingered on my sword placement and the way I held myself, reading my combat experience the same way I might size up an opponent.

Aria glanced at her party members with a smile and gestured toward me. 

"Guys, this is Kaito, a friend of mine. We met at the Millhaven guild."

She turned back to me, indicating each of her companions in turn. "Kaito, meet my party. This is Gerald, our tank," she nodded toward the armored man, "Helena, our mage," the woman in dark robes inclined her head politely, "and Jay, our scout."

The rogue - Jay- gave a brief nod without moving from his position slightly behind the others.

Helena stepped forward, her staff's crystal pulsing with faint light. "Nice to meet you, Kaito."

Then she looked around us and asked, "Where's your party? Are they somewhere else in the crowd?"

"I don't have one," I replied simply.

"Oh." Helena nodded absently, then paused. 

Her eyes focused on me more intently, taking in my whole appearance, and the short blade at my hip. I could practically see the pieces clicking together in her mind.

"Dark hair, grey eyes, black cloak..." Her expression shifted to something between excitement and disbelief. "Wait... you're the solo hunter, aren't you?"

The way she said it made Gerald and Jay both turn to look at me with renewed interest. 

Even Aria's eyebrows rose slightly.

Rei whispered beside me, "Oh great, now we're famous. That's never good."

Before I could respond, Helena reached forward and clasped my hands in both of hers. I stiffened slightly at the unexpected contact, but didn't pull away.

"Aria, you didn't tell me you were friends with him!" Helena said, turning toward the healer with obvious excitement.

She leaned closer to me, her eyes bright with enthusiasm. "Why don't you join us? You're here for the expedition anyway, right? So you'll have to work with others regardless."

I considered for a moment. Working solo had its advantages, but large-scale expeditions were different. Having an established party with a proven healer wasn't the worst idea.

"Okay," I said simply. "I'll join you."

Rei whispered beside me, "That was surprisingly easy. Usually it takes more convincing."

Wrath just scowled. "Or they want something from us. Nobody invites strangers to their party without a reason."

But looking at Aria's pleased expression and Helena's genuine enthusiasm, I decided to reserve judgment for now.

Just then, a booming voice cut through the chatter of the assembled crowd. 

"Adventurers!"

A grizzled man in his fifties with battle scars crisscrossing his arms, had stepped onto the raised platform.

The guild master.

"Thank you all for responding to our call." His voice carried easily across the courtyard, trained by years of addressing large groups. 

The conversations died down as everyone turned their attention toward the platform. Even the higher-ranked parties near the front stopped their discussions.

"As many of you know, we've been experiencing an unprecedented number of dungeon breaks across the region. What started as isolated incidents has become a pattern, dungeons appearing and breaking within days."

Murmurs rippled through the crowd. Rei moved closer to me, its translucent form flickering with anxiety.

The guild master continued with grim expression. "Three days ago, our scouts discovered something that changes everything. A dungeon has appeared in the Thornwick Valley, one larger than a cathedral."

'A cathedral?' 

I'd seen the ruins of one during my travels, those things were massive, easily ten times the size of a normal dungeon. Most dungeons were comparable to large houses, maybe three stories at most.

"This isn't just about size," the guild master went on. "The magical readings indicate this dungeon was on the verge of breaking the moment it spawned. Our team also reported that some creatures have already begun spilling out."

Helena gripped her staff tighter. "That's impossible," she whispered. "Dungeons need time to destabilize before breaking."

Gerald's expression had turned stone-serious. "Unless something's forcing them to break prematurely."

Jay remained silent, but I caught him checking his daggers.

The guild master raised his hand for silence. "This expedition isn't just about clearing a dungeon. We need to discover what's causing this phenomenon before it spreads further inland."

The guild master let his words sink in for a moment, scanning the faces of the assembled adventurers.

"I won't lie to you, this mission carries significant risk. We're dealing with unknown magical phenomena, an unstable mega-dungeon, and creatures that shouldn't exist according to everything we know about dungeon ecology."

He paused, his scarred hands gripping the edge of the platform.

"But that's exactly why we need you. Each of you has proven yourselves capable of handling situations others would flee from. You've faced down monsters, survived dungeon breaks, and came back when others didn't."

The crowd was completely silent now, hanging on every word.

"This isn't just about clearing another dungeon or collecting bounties. If we don't stop whatever's causing this cascade of breaks, it won't matter how much gold is in your purse when the monsters overrun every town from here to the capital."

Gerald shifted beside me, his armor plates scraping softly against each other. Aria had gone pale, though her grip on her staff remained steady.

"You're not just adventurers today," the guild master continued. "You're the first line of defense for everyone who can't defend themselves. The farmers, the shopkeepers, the children, they're all counting on us to solve this before it gets worse."

He straightened, and something in his bearing reminded me of old soldiers I'd seen in movies, the kind who'd seen too much but never stopped fighting.

"We depart at dawn. Supply wagons are being loaded now, and temporary camp assignments are posted in the main hall. Check your gear, get some rest, and say whatever goodbyes you need to say."

The guild master's eyes swept across the assembled crowd one final time.

"Good luck to all of you. And may we all return home with this threat ended."

With that, he stepped down from the platform, leaving the adventurers to contemplate what they'd just signed up for.

The crowd began to disperse slowly, conversations resuming in hushed tones as people processed what they'd heard.