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    The next few days were a flurry of activity. Right after leaving the guild they returned to the Dusty Stables for a quick visit, getting Ianmus set up in a far smaller room on the same floor he was in. Ianmus, the lucky bastard, only had to pay three copper a night for the pleasure, thanks to both the smaller room, and he wasn’t paying to feed the equivalent of four men.

    Once Ianmus was settled, they’d returned to the common area down below. Nodding to the few other proprietors of the place, they retreated to a secluded nook tucked into one corner of the room to discuss their plans.

    Less direct strategy for how they could manage this job, that would come the next day when they visited the maps that the Guild had to plan their route. Instead, they discussed how they could most effectively support each other in the long run, and how they expected their capabilities to develop as they filled out their class skills.

    Ianmus listened with rapt attention as Porkchop shared his own dreams of being a heavily armed bastion, and how he’d developed a defensive battlefield control ability. He got even more enthused when Kaius, in a show of trust, shared more about his glyphs. How he’d gain spells twice per tier for each one, and while he didn’t know how many he would get, he was confident he would receive more as his class developed further.

    Then, leaning on a minor work of deception, Kaius explained his second skill. How it had forged a connection with his blade, changing its form with glyphic magic and allowing him to empower its enchantments. Drawing A Father’s Gift just a hair, he showed off its new crystalline fuller and edge, and Ianmus leaned in, his eyes glinting with enraptured fascination.

    While there was no way he would be able to hide a growth weapon forever, Kaius hoped that it would be enough to ward off suspicion until he could ram Ianmus face first into a few of his own Honours. When that happened, there would be far less risk—even if it was already meagre with the man’s elvish respect for the meles.

    Ianmus himself held nothing back, explaining that he had several ‘potent’ metamagic and casting abilities. Neither he nor Porkchop questioned that, even if they both knew what he meant by that little hint.

    His class was a useful one, especially in their team composition. Focused primarily on supportive and restorative magics mostly through sorcerous casting, though the man had the manipulation and meta-magic to both raw cast and shape his system granted spells. In all likelihood, he would only receive a handful of directly damaging spells. Fortunately, Ianmus’s free casting capability meant he was more than capable of devastating finishers if given ample time and safety to focus. With the penetrative searing power of solar magic, and the range it provided, it would complement their team nicely. Afterall, he and Porkchop were more than enough for most confrontations, especially if they had a dedicated mage supporting them.

    Not only that, according to Ianmus, solar casters had one of the few affinities that was all but guaranteed to develop true regenerative spells that could restore lost flesh. While they might take far longer than a life or nature mage, they also had the benefit that their spells often interfaced incredibly well with regenerative general skills – something that Kaius had shared he would likely develop and Porkchop already had.

    Sharing that, at least, made Ianmus far more comfortable with their current mission. Potent self-healing skills made their wanton disregard for their own bodily integrity at least understandable, even if it still wasn’t quite sane.

    Retiring for the night, they’d reconvened in the morning to return to the Guild. There they asked one of the attendants for directions to the maps—this time someone Kaius didn’t recognise, rather than a well timed Ro swooping in to direct them. The woman had an uncanny sense for situations she would actually be useful for, he swore. Perhaps it was a skill?

    Entering the map room, only a few doors before the silence room where they had both been interviewed, they nodded to a fellow team of delvers who were planning a mission of their own. It was a wondrous space, geographical data of the entire region plastered on wall sized maps that covered every edge of the room with astounding accuracy and detail. Kaius even spotted a tiny dot nestled near the Sea labeled Three Fields.

    Their mission would take them a fair distance to the east and south. It was more grasslands for the most part, though towards their destination it shifted into the Hanset Woods. He’d heard of them, though he’d never visited. Supposedly, they resembled the Sea in the same way a shack resembled a castle.

    In either case, the prospect of being amongst the trees once more was pleasing, warming him to his belly. Porkchop also notably perked up when he realised they would be travelling to more familiar environs.

    Both he and Ianmus recorded notes and took sketches of their route. Even with a skill with a slight navigational bent, the more information he gave himself to work with, the better he would do at bringing them to their destination. None of them wanted to give their target even a single extra day to grow stronger before they fought, let alone that every hour it lived was another hour an unknowing traveller might end up dead.

    After that, they left as a group, before splitting up to gather necessary supplies and their final things before departure early on the morrow. The first place they stopped was Artifice and Arms to pick up Porkchop’s newly inscribed barding. Jin had done a wondrous job, showing off the circular formation he had marked into the underside of the armour, just between Porkchop’s shoulder blades.

    The black markings were dense, and had seeped deeply into the very conceptual fabric of the artefact. Even if the working itself was destroyed, the item would still repair itself—and the formation—just fine. Kaius found it fascinating, unable to help but draw parallels between the physical nature of body formations and glyphs, and the permanent infusions of the enchanter’s art.


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    Thanking the man profusely, Kaius helped Porkchop armour up, before he secured the saddlebag they had loosely slung over his brother’s haunch back where it belonged.

    Next was a short trip to the markets, where he collected all manner of preserved and fresh food to shore up their supplies. While they still had plenty left from the Dwarven city, and no doubt fresh meat would be in healthy supply thanks to the flood of aggressive beasts, they were now cooking for three, and he didn’t want them to be on a ration diet.

    After all, if you were doing killing work, it was always best to be well fed. As the self-selected cook of their team, that responsibility fell on him.

    By the time the sun began to dim, drifting over the horizon, they returned back to the Dusty Stables to share their evening meal with Ianmus, who had done his best to suit himself up with attire more suitable for travelling. In his case, that meant keeping his robe—which was an artefact—but splashing out on a far better pair of boots. After his first experience with overland travel, the half-elf had come to appreciate the subtle luxuries a good boot could provide.

    Retiring early, Kaius lay next to Porkchop with his eyes wide open, fizzing with excitement for the coming dawn. Tomorrow they would be off, to chase power, and remove a threat. Good and honest work that brought him closer to his goals, what more could he want?

    Eventually sleep claimed him, the slow breaths of his brother lulling him into a dreamless slumber.

    ….

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