The next day Bastion, wearing his heavy armor, followed Lilia as she entered the Adventurers' Guild to register. Unlike the massive building at Aurenthal that served as the main headquarters, the building here in the Dungeon City was noticeably smaller. Even then, it was still quite large, easily able to hold thousands of adventurers who passed through to take on quests in the dungeon.
Inside, the guild resembled a sprawling office more than a medieval hall. Marble floors gleamed under enchanted crystal lights, while clerks at long counters sorted parchment and processed quests with efficient precision. Glass-walled rooms lined the sides, their wards muffling the sound of parties planning expeditions. At the center stood a vast enchanted board, glowing with shifting script as contracts updated in real time.
The adventurers, however, broke the polished image. Mercenaries lounged in cushioned chairs with blood-stained armor, robed casters whispered over tomes and projections, and scouts in leathers argued loudly before the board. Lone wanderers quietly filled out forms, veterans lingered against walls like sentinels, and nervous newcomers queued with cheap gear clutched tightly in hand.
Compared to Aurenthal's headquarters, which felt like a grand institution, this guild carried a sharper energy. Magic and paperwork held as much weight as steel, and the flow of contracts and bloodstained armor made one thing clear. Every adventurer here was bound to the dungeon, whether by experience, profit, desperation, or survival.
They strolled through the hall and arrived at the main desk where registration took place.
"Welcome to the Adventurers' Guild. How can I help you?" the receptionist asked Lilia, who was in the lead.
"Registration for four," Lilia answered.
The receptionist looked around, noticing there were only two people, before simply handing over the registration forms. She didn't know if there was anyone hiding in plain sight, after all. Besides, the forms were magic contracts and required blood and consent to work properly.
"Fill these out and make sure to include a drop of blood with the signature to activate the contract."
Lilia nodded and started filling out hers, while Bastion moved to the side to fill out his. As for the extra forms, a delicate hand jutted out from Bastion's shadow on the desk and retrieved them. A minute later, two completed registration forms were placed back on the desk.
The receptionist, having seen this scene, merely nodded along. There were all kinds of classes and skills out there, so why couldn't there be one in which a shadow filled out registration forms? It wasn't her job to ask questions.
Once they finished noting their names, ages, addresses, general classes, and ranks, they gave the forms back to the receptionist, who fed them into a machine that produced four guild cards containing the listed information.
These cards acted as identification across the entire continent, and every person who wanted to travel had to have one. Whether it was issued by the empires or the guilds didn't matter. It was a unified card that worked everywhere.
Bastion took a moment to inspect his card and noticed it had a mark on it that denoted restricted services. He hoped that it wouldn't prevent him from entering the dungeon.
Once their registration was completed, they headed for the Dungeon of Despair in the middle of the city, surrounded by tall walls and constantly guarded by the count's men. This was to ensure the dungeon remained isolated from the rest of the city in case it happened to break.
They lined up to enter and showed their guild cards before they were allowed inside.
"I guess even with a restricted card, adventurers are allowed to dive into the dungeon," Bastion said with a sigh of relief.
"Well, dungeon diving is a good way to pay back what you owe," Lilia said. "If they didn't allow you into the dungeons, they'd be preventing you from repaying your debt, which would be the same as keeping money out of their own pockets."
"Makes sense, I guess," Bastion agreed as they entered the dungeon.
Upon stepping through the massive double doors of the dungeon, they found themselves in an underground crypt, with plenty of skeletons walking about.
"Apprentice rank skeletons," Lilia noted. "We won't be getting much experience from this."
"Which is why we have to move through the crypt until we reach the higher floors," Bastion said.
He moved to the front and started cutting the skeletons apart with ease while Lilia trailed behind him. She made sure to finish off any that Bastion missed with a well placed water ball.
Having recently ranked up, Bastion decided to test his new skills against enemies and see how well they compared to his old skills. He had already done extensive testing on the training grounds, but nothing compared to seeing its effects against enemies.
A group of skeletons approached from Bastion and Lilia's presence. As they came close, Bastion prepared stone bullets the size of their heads and hurled them at top speed. Each skeleton exploded from the impact, scattering disintegrating bone fragments and leaving a few as spoils.
"Level 4 magic arts are no joke," Bastion commented. "It's like being hit with a rocket-propelled grenade."
He tried light magic next and shot lasers at the skeletons, cutting their bones where the light passed.
"Very nice."
He wanted to try the other magic types as well. Unfortunately, they were still stuck at level 3, his lack of talent evident despite the fact he put equal attention to all his magic types.
Next, he tried his Level 4 skills.
When the next group of skeletons approached, he initiated a Charge and instantly barreled through them, scattering bones across the crypt floor.
"The area of effect increased," Bastion noted. "It creates an air cushion that bulldozes enemies, so I don't even have to touch them to deal damage. Great for weaker enemies like these skeletons."
He followed up with Shield Bash on the next wave, taking out half a dozen in one blow. The increased radius of the strike was obvious.
Finally, he used Slash, cutting three times in quick succession as he weaved past another group.
"Slash is so seamless when combined with dodging."
He didn't bother testing Block, Parry, Reinforce, or Amplify, since he already used them regularly while training with Elyra. THere was nothing special with the effects anyway other than an increase in power.
"Are you done playing?" Lilia complained.
Bastion turned and saw a horde of skeletons pounding against her Water Curtain. He chuckled, then charged through it and plowed into the skeletons he had left behind while testing his new skills.
"Yes, I'm done. Let's get going."
They moved at an extremely fast pace past multiple rooms filled with skeletons before finally reaching the cemetery that was also filled with skeletons but occasionally featured zombies.
"This doesn't look good, Bastion," Lilia said worriedly. "There are too many of them for us to realistically hunt down one after another like this. We'll run out of mana and stamina in no time."
"Their ranks are low too, which wouldn't justify using the autocannon. I'd be wasting bullets on these for the worst returns."
"What do we do now?"
"Let's try to force our way through and see what the next floor has in store for us."
Bastion summoned his diamond steed, then lifted Lilia up with him and charged through the horde of skeletons and zombies. They circled around the graveyard until they found the entrance to the next floor through a stone crypt doorway.
The next few floors they ran through were all roughly the same, graveyards filled with thousands upon thousands of Apprentice Rank undead and the occasional Rank 1 mixed among them. They kept going until they suddenly started seeing Rank 2 undead who looked like skeleton mages stopping them dead in their tracks.
"This doesn't make any sense," Lilia snapped, her voice breaking. "We're still being bogged down by dregs. Shouldn't there already be an army of Rank 1 skeletons? How am I supposed to reach Rank 2 at this rate?"
"Calm down, Lilia. No need to get so upset," Bastion said, until the sound of soft sobbing reached his ears.
He turned, startled, to see Lilia wiping at her eyes, tears slipping through despite her efforts. Without a word, he hurried back toward the stairway to the previous floor, away from the endless shuffle of undead. There, in the quiet, he dismissed his armor and shifted back into his usual clothes before wrapping his arms around her trembling form.
"Hey… what's wrong?" he asked gently, holding her close.
"Sorry," she murmured, her voice muffled against his chest. "I was just… thinking about ranking up."
"What about it?"
"I'm scared," she admitted, her shoulders shaking. "Scared I won't get a powerful class like Seraphina."
"And what's so bad about that?" he asked softly.
"I just… I don't think I'm strong enough to really contribute to the group."
"You're our healer, Lilia."
She gave a bitter laugh through her tears. "A healer who can be replaced by Seraphina's potions."
"You're more than that," Bastion said. "You're also a defensive supporter."
"For a group that doesn't even need one," she whispered, her voice heavy with doubt.
Bastion's thoughts churned as he held her. She felt fragile in his arms, as if any misstep might push her further away. He didn't know where it had all come from, only that the wrong word could shatter the moment. So he stayed silent, holding on, careful not to let go.
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