Hans heard footsteps climbing the stairs to his deck. Quentin emerged on the rooftop a moment later.

  “Sorry to bother you so late,” Quentin said. “I can come back another time if that’s better.”

  “You’re fine. Would you like a cup of tea?”

  “Miss Olza is already making me one.”

  “That sounds like her. What can I do for you?”

  Quentin sat. A package wrapped in brown paper rested in his lap. “You’re up here a lot. Every time I visit.”

  “I like the view.”

  “I wanted to say thank you,” Quentin began, his voice betraying a hint of nervousness. “I appreciate you spending so much time on my training. I know you don’t have to.”

  “I’ve told you before that-”

  Quentin offered Hans the package. “I want you to have this. As a thank you.”

  “Can I open it now?” Hans asked.

  The boy nodded.

  Hans accepted the gift. He recognized the weight and feel of a hardcover book right away. Tearing at the paper, he knew the cover from only a glimpse, giving him a big smile as he revealed the rest.

  Volume 14: The Lizard’s Sssong.

  In this book, Haynu B. Dumas and his party discover a lizardman tribe deep in an unexplored jungle. The story ends up as a tournament arc with Haynu fighting his way through dozens of enemies to earn a match with the champion. Volume 14 was one of the least popular Haynu books of all time, however, making it quite hard to find, especially in hardcover.

  “Wow. There are lots of memories to go with this one.”

  “You like it?”

  “I do. Gret had read most of these by the time I got to them, but not this one. We were camped on the road one night when he started it. This one joke got him good, and Mazo was about to cast Sleep to stop his laughing.”

  “What was the joke?” Quentin asked.

  “I don’t want to ruin it if you plan to read it.”

  “...I tried Haynu books. They’re, uhh, not for me.”

  “You hated it.”

  “Yes, sir,” Quentin answered, smiling.

  “Not a chance you’ll change your mind?”

  Quentin shook his head.

  “Well, Haynu meets this lizardman tribe, and in their culture, superiority was represented in their names. So Steve is a regular guy, average, inconsequential, but Ssssteve is a different story. Every extra ‘s’ means more respect.”

  “That’s weird.”

  “Well, Haynu ends up meeting their god. His name was Slosin, but his full name needed a page and a half to fit all the ‘S’s that come at the front of his name.” Hans laughed at the thought of the scene. “Gret got to that page, and it brought him to tears.”

  The Iron blinked.

  “Come on. That’s funny.”

  “Seems a little racist.”

  “Probably a lot racist,” Hans admitted. “But thank you. This is a kind gift.”

  When Quentin stood, Hans had a thought.

  “There’s something I should tell you, if you have a minute.”

  “I have time.”

  “I made an oath with the Lady of the Forest a while back,” Hans explained, “and it came with a failsafe to ensure that she was accountable for the oath even when I died.”

  “Okay…”

  “The only way for her to escape the oath is if we dismiss it.”

  “We?”

  “Right. We. If I believe she acts with evil, Gomi can exit the oath if we so choose. If I die, the person I nominated to succeed me was you.”

  Quentin’s eyes went wide.

  “You’re not obligated to, and I hope you won’t have to make that choice any time soon, for my sake,” Hans said with a chuckle. “So don’t freak out. I see how hard you are on yourself. I thought you should know I’ve bet on you from the start. You might not believe in yourself sometimes, so remember that I do.”

  Mazo sat on a rock in Griffon Canyon. An air elemental whirled nearby. She summoned it to keep all the dust out of her eyes and off of her clothes while Hans and Devon sparred.

  “Why aren’t you using Barrier?” Mazo asked as the pair caught their breath.

  “I don’t trust its durability, and when it is working, I think it’s giving me bad habits.”

  “Don’t you always say to use everything at your disposal to win?”

  “I do.”

  “So why tie a hand behind your back like that?”

  Hans lowered his waterskin and didn’t bother wiping the dribble descending his beard. “When it’s up, there’s no danger for me. There’s not really anything to practice when it’s on, but I sure as hells want to be sharp if it ever goes down. For all we know, Wargod has an Anti-Barrier spell, not that my Barrier would survive his normal attacks.”

  “Thus, you use Angel Shield instead,” Mazo added.

  Hans nodded.

  “Well, that’s dumb too.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Defense is still happening for you. If something can get through Barrier, Angel Shield doesn’t have a chance. Force Wall blocks only from now on. Get good at that.”

  After a moment of thought, Hans said, “Got it.”

  “Are you hitting Force Pull as you come out of Dash?” Devon asked.

  “Yeah.”

  Devon chuckled. “Fucking asshole. That really screwed up my defense timing.”

  “Is Dash looking better?”

  “Yes, but it looks like you’re still figuring out distance and duration.”

  “Definitely am, but there’s progress?”

  “Looks that way to me,” Devon said. “Your under-”

  “Hans,” Mazo blurted.

  The Paladin didn’t fight it. He closed his mouth.

  “Hans,” Mazo repeated. “Do you know an Anti-Barrier spell?”

  “What?”

  “You got all of Wargod’s spells. Is one of them Anti-Barrier or something that functions as Anti-Barrier?”

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  “I…” Hans thought. “I don’t know how to tell if I do or not.”

  Mazo steepled her hands in front of her mouth. “We’re all going to the Tainted Caves when the next goblin comes. You probably have to act against a Barrier spell for anything to activate. But…” The halfling hopped off her rock and started walking.

  Hans assumed he should follow her. Devon assumed he should follow Hans.

  She stopped in front of the juvenile griffon corpse. “Use Disintegrate.”

  “Really?” Hans asked.

  “Yes.”

  “You tell me not to use top-tier spells because I’ll just blow myself up or hurt someone. Now you tell me to use fucking Disintegrate?”

  “Be mindful and responsible, blah blah blah. Do it.”

  With a frown, Hans took a few steps to the griffon corpse. He willed himself to cast Disintegrate.

  Nothing happened.

  “Try touching the target,” Mazo said.

  Hans did as he was asked. He bent over, touched the tip of a finger to a griffon claw, and willed himself to cast Disintegrate.

  The corpse dissolved into ashy flakes, collapsing in on itself until it looked like the remains of a bonfire.

  “No using that in sparring, please,” Devon joked.

  “I don’t want to know this spell.”

  Mazo, meanwhile, celebrated with a small dance. Small in the sense that it was brief, not small in the sense of size, given her halfling stature.

  “You’re happy about this?” Hans asked. “I feel gross.”

  “If there isn’t a true Anti-Barrier spell, I bet you that does it. That’s our way through Wargod’s Barrier if he ever comes knocking.”

  “Now I have to not use it by accident.”

  “That’s easy. Don’t think about it.”

  “This isn’t funny, Mazo,” Hans said. “I used Petrify on a kid, remember?”

  “That only happened the one time.”

  Hans glared.

  “Welcome to the club. There are a few of us out there that could flatten a town with a thought or two. You get used to it.”

  “I’ve got time for one more round,” Devon said.

  “Alright,” Hans replied. “Let’s work.”

  Hans stepped into the guild hall, soaked from that morning’s training with Devon, and made his way to the stairs. His apartment on the second level had a bath, and he needed its services.

  One of the adventurers visiting to train, a human Bronze-ranked Fighter–maybe? Hans couldn’t recall–waved at the Guild Master. “Hey, chief. Someone came in looking for you.”

  “Oh? Who is it?”

  “He didn’t say. He’s in the classroom.” The adventure thumbed over his shoulder to indicate the classroom at the back of the hall.

  Hygiene would have to wait. Or should he wash up on the chance they are someone important? If they’re important, making them wait even longer was bad too, right?

  Hans sighed.

  New Quest: Meet the mystery guest.

  “Sorry for my appearance,” Hans said as he entered the classroom. “I was training and- Sven?”

  The Iron-ranked Rogue sat at one of the desks but stood when Hans entered. His movements were jerky, and his face rippled with nervousness. The tusk was lean when he helped Gomi cull the early version of the dungeon, but he looked skinnier now, bordering on unhealthy.

  “Mr. Hans,” Sven said. “Give me one minute to explain before you throw me out.”

  “I’m not throwing you out. Would you like a cup of tea?”

  “Sure. Yes, please.”

  Hans stepped out of the classroom, thankful for the extra few moments to compose his thoughts. When Sven was last in Gomi, Hans had angrily informed the Rogue that culling the dungeon wasn’t a casual commitment. The interaction ended with Sven accusing Hans of playing favorites.

  The Sven waiting for a cup of tea had entirely different body language, however. He was… afraid? Sven seemed fearful, but Hans didn’t imagine himself to be that scary.

  Hans returned and set two cups of tea on the desk in front of Sven before pulling a chair over.

  “You and I had a disagreement when we last spoke,” Hans said. “This is a new conversation, okay?”

  Sven nodded. He blew on his tea a few times and slowly sipped. “This is going to sound crazy, but I swear I’m not crazy.”

  “Probably the best place in the kingdom to say something crazy.”

  The Rogue offered a clipped chuckle. “Fair. Well… I’ve been on the road. Haven’t gone anywhere as far away as Hoseki, but I’ve seen a lot of the towns on this side of the kingdom. I ran into some tusks early on that said they were moving to Gomi, but after that… There’s no tusks anymore. And I don’t mean like there’s only a couple. I mean there’s none. Every single town, it’s the same thing: They got up and moved. All of ‘em.”

  “I see.”

  “I got a real creepy feeling about it, so I bounced around as much as I could. This isn’t just one village.”

  Hans tapped a finger on his teacup, thinking. “I’m sorry that you have to hear the news like this, but part of what you saw is because there aren’t many tusks left.”

  Sven scrunched his face.

  “We’ve got six hundred tusks living in Gomi, give or take. The rest of the population got wiped out in the war.”

  “What do you mean by ‘the rest?’”

  “Other than a few exceptions, like yourself, all the tusks left alive came to Gomi. We learned this relatively recently ourselves. The kingdom hasn’t bothered to tell anyone because they don’t consider it news, but the source is reliable. I know it’s a lot to take in.”

  “Gods…”

  “Yeah. It’s awful. I have more to tell you, unfortunately.”

  Sven opened a palm to Hans, gesturing him to continue. Sven’s other hand nervously rubbed his chin. His eyes glistened with water.

  “We don’t think it was an accident that all of the survivors moved here. That’s a long story with a lot of unknowns, but that’s the crux of it.”

  “So, I’m not crazy?”

  Hans shook his head. “No more than usual.”

  Sven laughed. The appreciation for the humor was sincere, but the undertone was strained and tired.

  “Want me to give you a minute? I don’t mind.”

  “No, that’s okay,” Sven replied. “What can I do?”

  “About the refugees?”

  Sven nodded.

  “Everyone is sheltered and fed. That’s why we built this place down here, actually. I don’t think we have any dire needs.”

  “How about finding the people responsible? The ones who sent all the tusks here?”

  “Also a work in progress,” Hans said. “I’m not trying to keep you from being involved, if that’s what it sounds like.”

  “What about dungeon culling?”

  “Now that we’re open to the public, you can’t spit in Gomi without hitting an adventurer. That keeps the cull schedule pretty well filled.”

  Sven’s head dropped.

  “Pitching in was something you really wanted to do, huh?”

  “Yeah, but it’s my fault for leaving. I understand if there’s no place for me here.”

  “Easy, easy,” Hans replied. “A full dungeon schedule doesn’t mean you don’t have a place here. It just means the schedule’s full.”

  “That’s the only way I can contribute.”

  “I hate to say this out loud, but things are going well here. That’s good news for all of us, and you’re as welcome here as anyone.”

  “It would be wrong for me to stay and not contribute. I’m not a refugee.”

  Hans thought. “Tell me about how you picture your future. If we find you a job that lets you contribute, are you moving back to Gomi? Planning to move on in a few months? A few years? Never?”

  “I don’t know. I mean, I don’t think I’d leave. This would be home.”

  “We could use a hand escorting deliveries out of Gomi,” Hans proposed. “We have two or three more of those runs left, maybe. Keeping those spots filled hasn’t been the easiest thing. Can’t have anything falling off the back either. That’s for sure.”

  “I could do that. And I promise to put anything that falls off back where it belongs. Can you find something to keep me busy during the winter?”

  “Probably. It also doesn’t have to be adventuring if you don’t want that. We’re not part of the Adventurers’ Guild anymore either.”

  Sven chewed his cheek. “I figured adventuring was the only way to get back in.”

  “With the Guild?”

  “With Gomi.”

  “Brother,” Hans said. “You’re not a criminal. Alleged, perhaps.”

  Sven chuckled softly. His nervousness still strained his breathing, but the reaction was genuine.

  “You’re a citizen like everyone else. You don’t need my permission to move towns in the kingdom.”

  “I didn’t want to be disrespectful.”

  Hans offered a hand to Sven. “I didn’t mean for that to be the takeaway from our last conversation. It won’t bother me whatsoever to have you here. Except!” He raised a finger. “In the event of a beer drought, if there comes a time where there is only me, you, and a pint of beer left, I get the beer.”

  Sven shook. “Deal.”

  Having sparred with the tusk in the past, Hans now knew the change in physique and loss of strength wasn’t just visual. Sven’s hands were bony, and his grip felt frail.

  “I was going to change real quick and head down to Galad’s for lunch,” Hans said. “Join me?”

  “It’s pretty early for lunch isn’t it?”

  “You lose track down here. I don’t need to know what time it is to eat. You in?”

  After a thoughtful pause, Sven nodded. “Yeah. I’ll go.”

  Open Quests (Ordered from Old to New):

  Complete the next volume (Bronze to Silver) for “The Next Generation: A Teaching Methodology for Training Adventurers.”

  Learn to help your advanced students as much as you help beginners.

  Relocate the titan bones to the dungeon entrance.

  Master your Diamond boon.

  Get Dunfoo the materials he needs for a Holy enchantment.

  Brainstorm more competitive dungeon games.

  Run future tests in a secure part of the dungeon.