Laying there, Lan knew death had finally come for him. The poison had taken hold, and now the fire burning into his eyes was too much for him to withstand. This was it. He would die under the unforgiving heat because he didn’t have the strength to turn away from the sun shining through the window.

  ‘Light and stars, I give up.’ Lan groaned. Ultimately, it looked like he had made the next day hell for himself; Lan laughed before his voice hurt his ears, brain, and space between his eyes.

  It was still worth it as two rules were written about the game after that night. One all drinks that hit the table had to be the same, and no one person could be the winner and loser. As for the fight, Lan wanted to say they had won, but he couldn’t remember what had happened after the brawl had overflowed into the street. After that, he had some images of them throwing someone into a fountain before scattering while laughing like maniacs, but he wasn’t sure how he had gotten back to the inn…

  When Lan was finally able to sit, he saw that he wasn’t alone. There was one of the Goliaths from the night before and two others he had never seen in the inn before. Luckily, everyone was still dressed, so Lan didn’t have to ask any questions he wasn’t sure he wanted the answers to.

  Leaving them to sleep, Lan crawled around the floor until he had washed and changed before dragging himself down the stairs. Climbing onto a stool, Lan was greeted not by Leah or her father but by the other girl who worked there.

  ‘Where is Leah?’ Lan asked as the girl placed a mug of tea in front of him.

  ‘Unlike you idiots, she is doing her job.’ She said as she placed a plate in front of him.

  ‘Fair enough.’ Lan nodded before taking the plate and eating as if it were the only thing keeping him alive, which, at that moment, it was.

  ‘There you are!’ Vulk’s booming voice cracked through the hall as he threw the doors open.

  Turning, Lan found the whole party looking like they hadn’t been drinking all night.

  ‘Please… if you need to talk to me, can you just write it down so I can read it when I can see?’ Lan winced.

  ‘I remember what it was like to have low alcohol tolerance.’ Vasha said as she patted Lan on the shoulder. ‘don’t worry, it won’t be a problem for long if you stick with us.’

  ‘Here is hoping.’ Lan sighed.

  ‘Enough about that!’ Vulk grinned, climbed onto the stool next to Lan, and threw his arm around his neck. ‘You are with us today!’ the red-haired dwarf added as he nodded to Drevin and Sora.

  ‘Before you can officially join the party, we need to get you to at least level sixteen,’ Locke explained. ‘And with you joining the party, we have enough members to split into two smaller groups for daily jobs. While the others and I take care of the parties’ job requirements, Drevin, Sora, and Vulk will take you to the Dwarven stronghold to level you up.’

  Lan nodded. Although he still felt like every part of his body was throwing up, the idea of going on his first job with the others was doing a great deal to change that.

  ‘I know.’ Olivia sighed. ‘I was hoping our first job would be together, but it makes more sense to go with those three, so I will make it up to you next time.’ she winked.

  ‘That reminds me. You said you have picked a path, and I am dying to know.’ Vasha asked, cutting Olivia off.

  ‘Oh!’ Lan said before spending the next few minutes telling them what Art had told him and then what he figured out on his own before noticing everyone staring at him. ‘In a sense, my combat class is… all of them.’ he ended.

  ‘You dumb ass.’ Vulk sighed.

  ‘is it too late to kick him out of the party?’ Sora added, looking around.

  ‘Guys?’ Lan said, sitting up before the other smiled to show they were only joking.

  ‘Don’t worry.’ Locke smiled. ‘in fact, I think that will work well with our party as is.’ He added, getting a nod from the others.

  ‘Hmm. Yeah.’ Drevin nodded. ‘We aren’t the most conventional party anyway. Having an all-rounder might be perfect.’

  ‘Great, then I will need your help as before spending my points, I need to learn as many skills as possible for this to work.’ Lan explaind.

  Everyone shared a look again before Vasha clapped.

  ‘That sounds like fun. I knew my skills were too good not to pass down.’ she giggled.

  ‘I’m in.’ Drevin nodded, ‘I had guessed you would be a defender anyway and assumed I would be helping you out.’

  The others all agreed enthusiastically, all seemingly happy for an apprentice. When Lan’s eyes fell on Olivia, she didn’t even bother saying anything; she just smiled and batted her eyes as if saying anything would be too easy.

  ‘Ah, right… so you said something about getting my level up, Locke?’ Lan asked.

  ‘That’s right, how much do you know about storm bees?’

  ‘…Their honey is used to make Dwarven Mead.’ Lan winced at the act of having to use his brain.

  ‘That’s right, and those big bastards breed every ten years.’ Vulk cut in. ‘when they do, there can be up to twenty new queens. They all fight over the same territory, which can be a problem as they see anything and everything as an enemy warrior bee. This is bad for the stronghold: queen bees and other living things. And so we dwarves will step in to end the war as soon as possible while protecting the stronghold’s Queen Bee and our mead supply.’ He ended with a grin.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  ‘Usually, the guild will put up a contract for the bees the day after it starts, but our Vulk here has gotten us in on the first day.’ Sora smiled as he patted Vulk on the shoulder.

  ‘You might even get to see the inside of the stronghold.’ Vulk said, puffing out his chest at the praise.’

  That was enough to perk Lan up. Most merchants would give their right arm to gain entry to a dwarven stronghold, as every one of them knew the gold mine that was buying dwarven crafts at local prices. The fact that he even had the chance to get in would kill most of them, but that wasn’t why Lan was excited. What Lan cared about was getting to see dwarven crafters at work; that was more than worth dragging himself from the stool he was on.

  Ten minutes later, he was glad he had as they stood in the room of the healers the others used, as the older woman with silvery blonde hair worked to restore Sora’s eye.

  Like the rest of the healers’ guild, the room had white marble walls and floors with ornate golden inlays, making the whole building a work of art. But it was more than just showing off; both materials were linked to the healing magic. The angelic figures were just showing off, though.

  ‘There we go. Your eye is fully restored. Try to use them to see how in over your head you are next time.’ the healer snipped, adjusting her elegant-rimmed glasses as Sora rubbed his eyes. ‘the colour should return to normal in a few weeks.’

  ‘Thanks, Margaret.’ Lock nodded.

  ‘Anything, although just not too soon. The eye is a rather delicate and complex part of the body to recreate, and I would appreciate not having to use up a third of my daily stores on one patient.’ She explained before noticing Lan and raising an eyebrow.

  ‘Oh, a new face?’

  ‘This is Landrin. He is the newest member of Umbral Fox’ Locke introduced.

  ‘Nice to meet you?’ the healer nodded.

  ‘Likewise.’ Lan answered with a polite bow of the head.

  ‘Hmm, I don’t waste Mana on hangovers, I am afraid. But as long as you are here, I might as well take your memory image.’ She said, standing and moving towards him.

  ‘Oh! I already have a healer.’ Lan said.

  ‘Right, you mentioned that before.’ Locke added.

  ‘Is it one of our members or another guild?’ Margaret asked, with a slight competitive edge to her tone.

  ‘She… is freelance.’ Lan finally said, getting a smile from the healer.

  ‘There is no such thing.’ she said, her eyes alighting with humour.

  ‘Well, she was studying the art of making new healing spells.’ Lan said, feeling the need to defend Lily. ‘plus, she has all but put me back together more than once, even healing my eyes, even if it was from sand.’

  ‘Is that so, may I see?’ she asked, moving closer as Lan crouched. ‘hmm,’ The healer hummed. ‘how long ago was this?’

  ‘About a month?’ Lan said, momentarily surprised by in how little time his life had changed.

  ‘Is that so?... well, this is good work. There is no trace of them having been healed. Really good work. You said there are other healings?’ she stated, and after a moment, Lan realised she wanted to see them too.

  Looking back, Lan saw that no one, especially Olivia and Vasha, planned on giving him privacy; with a sigh, Lan pulled his shirt off.

  ‘Oh my…’ Olivia breathed as someone else whistled.

  ‘Act your age, you lot…’ Margaret sighed as she ran a finger over one of the near-faded lines. ‘Very nice work. Either this healer of yours thinks the world of you, is high-strung, or they were hoping for a chance like this to show off. Then again, the first might explain the second.’ She shrugged. In any case, they’re wasted on spell crafting.’

  ‘I wouldn’t say that. She’s made this spell that allows her to see more detail when diagnosing injuries.’

  ‘Oh?’ the healer asked, tracing another line. ‘enhanced sight is important to our work, but there is a trade between how effective it is and how much Mana it takes. That’s why we use these.’ She explained, pointing to her glasses. ‘so we aren’t spending even a trace on not healing when it counts. More detail would be nice, but it could be another dead end.’ she added as if having heard this a hundred times over.

  ‘I think you will be surprised.’ Lan grinned, getting a long look from the healer.

  ‘Fine, make sure she is with you during the campaign. I would like to see this spell for myself, and who knows? If it lives up to your praise, a guild tag might be waiting for her.’

  Lan blinked. That was better than he had hoped. Then it made him wonder just who he had been talking to.

  As Margaret returned to her desk, Lan turned to ask the others, but only to find all of them staring at him.

  ‘What?’ Lan asked before noticing that they weren’t staring at him but at the battles painted across his body. Even if the lines had all but faded, each bite, cut and stab could be made out. Lan could see it in their eyes, each imagining their low-level friend and how he had gained those lines and how he had kept going.

  Lan threw his shirt back on and smiled at them as they snapped back to themselves.

  ‘Lan…’ Vasha said

  ‘You should have seen the other thirty guys.’ Lan grinned as Vulk gasped at the perfect execution of the old joke. A Grin that he managed to hold for a moment before his body reminded him that he was losing another fight to a bottle of sap.

  ‘Come on, tough guy, time to go,’ Sora said, patting him on the shoulder as Vulk and Drevin stepped to either side of him. His new eye, a lighter brown.

  ‘Have fun, you guys.’ Vasha cheered.

  ‘Try to kill a lot of bees.’ Cassandra offered.

  ‘Try and bring Lan back in one piece.’ Lock called.

  ‘Try not to miss me too much, Lan.’ Olivia ended, blowing him a kiss.

  Before Lan could say something dumb, he was dragged out by the others.

  Half an hour later, he and the others were on the back of a carriage heading to the dwarven stronghold, the icy breeze doing wonders for his condition. Things were starting to look up for the first time with his new party.

  Lan jumped back as a stinger the size of his hand dragged across his shield arm before Lan split the bee in two. This was one of the larger red and somehow even more angry ones that had been fighting the green and gold-striped ones before Vulk had thrown a rock at the swarm and ran away, leaving Lan to face the small dog-sized bees on his own.

  Luckily, the bees were just as happy ripping each other apart as Lan, so before they reached him, bees from both swarms started to clash again, turning them into a tornado of buzzing chitin.

  ‘Is this really what you had in mind?’ Lan shouted to the others as he Wisp-Walked and slashed two bees. ‘and why aren’t you helping!’

  ‘No point Lan!’ Vulk shouted, ‘We would just steal the experience.’

  ‘Yeah, these bees don’t give much experience after level fifteen. So just keep at it.’ Sora added as he sat under a nearby tree.

  Lan blinked, processing the information before Tyr sent an alert. Lan vanished, but the moment he appeared, Tyr sent another alert, making him have to Wisp-Walk again. Only to be met by even more alerts. There were just too many bees, and they would turn and attack the moment one sensed him.

  Tyr raced away, trying to find a safe spot, when suddenly. Drevin was in front of him despite Lan being high in the air, and he swatted away bees around them with a swing of his great shield, which made the air race around Lan before he dropped to the ground.

  ‘Thanks.’ Lan said as he landed next to the party’s guardian.

  ‘Don’t mention it. you didn’t think we were going to leave you high and dry, did you?’ The large man smiled warmly as he nodded to a group of bees with Sora’s daggers in them. ‘We can’t fight beside you just yet. But we have your back. So cut loose and get some levels.’

  Lan looked at the large man, moved and inspired. Although Lock was the leader of the team. No one made Lan feel more reassured than Drevin. Lan looked to the others. Finding Sora spinning a dagger by its loop while Vulk hooked his hammer back on his belt.

  ‘You got it.’ Lan grinned before taking off.

  Picking up speed, Lan joined his sword and sheath and wrapped it in fire silk before Wisp-walking. As he appeared, Lan sent Mana into the loose fire silk and swung his sword. Scorching all the bees in a cone in front of him. With Lan and Tyr’s minds made one by the voice, Lan flipped backwards, enjoying the domain of his own making before kicking off the air, clearing a wave of bees before kicking off the air again and again until his image blurred with the ribbon of flames from his sword spear drawing out his path until the Silver wind faded and Lan Walked again with all his friends at his back.