B4 Chapter 430: Briefings and Plans, pt. 3

Kaius pushed open the door to the Guild, the heavy oak feeling closer to balsa with his ever-growing strength. As the well-oiled hinges slid open, the soft murmur of discussion that permeated the Guild’s common room fell dead silent. Within, teams of delvers from Copper to Steel stopped what they were doing to stare at them.

Kaius froze for a moment, still unused to being the utter centre of attention.

As far as they’d been able to figure out, word had gotten out that they were the ones the Guild had been looking for, and that they were far stronger than they should have been. With Rieker and Ro delaying an official announcement, the rumour mill had gone wild.

Kaius hadn’t heard any of the rumours himself — delvers tended to be more aware and cautious of the senses of the higher-tiered — but he could see it in their eyes: curiosity, and a little wonder and confusion as well.

Frankly, it was a little annoying: they were only there to use the training rooms. He didn’t want to deal with the thousandth person staring at the glyphs on his temples. It was obvious — they were looking at his face, not him. He could feel their eyes like a physical prod sliding over his skin.

He knew it was reasonable. Skin markings were rare, usually only seen amongst Hiwiann from the coastal regions of the southern steppe and highlands. Throw in the fact that they were clearly some form of exotic body formation? Yeah, he could see why people looked.

It didn’t mean he had to enjoy it.

Judging by the awkward stiffness in the rest of his team, they felt similarly. Ianmus had spent his formative years in an academy, and Kenva had grown up nomadic. Hells, of all of them, Porkchop was probably the most used to attention — even though he’d been too young to meet the elves, he’d been schooled on how to manage their…adoration.

As Kaius’s heart beat once more, he cleared his throat and crossed the common room, studiously ignoring the looks on his way to the front desk.

“Can I help you?” the attendant asked. A young woman he didn’t recognise — which wasn’t uncommon these days. The Guild seemed rife with young unclassed who’d been scooped up to aid with the influx of work in return for board and training. Hells, it was where he’d gotten the idea of nudging Niles towards the guild.

Kaius smiled, reaching into his hide jacket to pull out the letter he had penned in response to Yan Mi’s missive. “I need to get this to the new settlement at the edge of the Sea — Dawntown. It’s a response to a letter I received from them earlier.”

The attendant nodded. “Ah, the letter Ro was looking after. I can take care of that for you. We’ll deduct the cost from the stores you’ve banked with us,” she said.

Kaius nodded, pleased. “That’s fine.”

“Anything else I can help you with?”

He shook his head. “No. We’re just here to use the training room. The deep one.”

While there were plenty of training spaces built beneath the guild, the ones warded and reinforced enough for people like them to use were on the deepest level — a measure to help dampen any noise of shocks that might disturb the peace of the city above.

The attendant only nodded, not even questioning that they would be using training halls usually reserved for the most elite of the Guild. He supposed they counted as that now. Perhaps the girl had been briefed more than the average delver.

Departing the common room quickly, they fled down the warren of hallways and stairs toward their training hall.

“Gods, I can’t wait for some sort of announcement,” Kenva said with a shudder as they started down yet another flight. “Everyone knows something is up, and the stares are getting ridiculous. Plus, keeping our auras constrained is growing old.”

Kaius couldn’t help but agree. They had taken to using their authority to constrain its natural projection close to their skin. It wasn’t perfect at hiding their Silver status, but it granted them some leeway. Still, it was uncomfortable. While it wasn’t particularly strenuous, keeping it up day after day created a constant tension — almost like a headache. At least it was good training.

They reached their hall deep beneath the earth, where the surrounding stones were thick and inscribed to protect against damage. The only one that Deadacre had rated for Golds.

Still, Kaius didn’t trust it enough to throw around Starfalls willy-nilly — who knew if his Honours and Heroic rated spell were enough to overwhelm the enchantments baked into the walls. It would, however, be good enough for some general practice.

Filing in, they found training equipment ranging from target dummies to blunted weapons lining one wall. The rest was simple open space, wide and brightly lit by ward lights above.

“What’s everyone going to work on?” he asked.

“I’m going to try some sprinting drills,” Porkchop said. “I need to work on Primal Swiftness with how bulky my armour is getting. I’m hoping to push the skill through to the second tier.”

It made sense. While the common misconception was that frontline heavies were cumbersome and slow in thick armour, that was often far from the case. Such classes tended to invest heavily in strength, and specialised mobility Skills to allow the bursts of speed that were necessary to intercept attacks as a team’s defender.

“Do you want any help practicing dodging?” Kenva asked.

Porkchop nodded enthusiastically. “That would be great! As long as you don’t aim for the head or my vitals, I should survive just fine even if you punch through my armour.”

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Kenva nodded. “Good. I was hoping to get more of a feel for Howl of the North Wind. I’ve got more faith in you than these stone walls.” She twirled a hand, gesturing at the hall.

Kaius chuckled, understanding the feeling completely. Now that they were Silver, almost everything felt a bit fragile. Even if this place was rated for Gold, they weren’t any old Silvers — not with their wealth of stats.

“Well, if you two are doing that, I’ll take the far corner and work on my keyseal — see if I can piece together a little more about how it works. A few of my spellcasting general Skills should help a little, now that they help me to pick apart spell construction.” Ianmus said.