Chapter 34

“We should probably go update our registration and take care of housing before heading into town,” Mike said to the group, though his focus was on his wife, who was practically vibrating in place.

The payout for our loot was significantly higher than our previous delves, and that was without factoring in the Portal skillbook. With the skillbook, we’d easily earned more in that one delve than we had from the dungeon to date.

Ironically, the amount we’d earned still wasn’t enough to buy all of us a ticket on an airship to a new city.

“Excuse me, Ascender Emie?”

I turned to find a well-dressed man standing a few feet away. He wore the insignia of the Sorenguard City Lord, so I didn’t need to guess who he represented.

He held out an envelope.

“An invitation from Ascender Lord Jaxon. He requests that you and your party join him for lunch at noon.”

As soon as the envelope was in my hands, the man disappeared, likely teleporting away.

I glanced up at the large clock mounted on the wall opposite the dungeon’s exit. It was about a quarter after two in the morning. The night’s aurora would be at its peak right about now.

We’d long given up on trying to time our exits and had gotten used to coming out at random times of the day or night. Most delvers were the same, which was clearly reflected in the number of nearby businesses that remained open throughout the night.

“Seems kinda late for the City Lord to have someone waiting for us to leave the dungeon,” Cora commented. “And I thought initial recruitment efforts were supposed to be coordinated through the Association, not done directly.”

“As the City Lord, he likely has a bit more leeway in what he can do,” Mike replied. “I suspect the powers that be in the local area have already figured out who Emie is, and he wanted to be the first to extend an invitation. The rest of us are probably little more than an afterthought.”

“I doubt that,” I said quietly.

We were all capable Ascenders, and Mike, in particular, was quite powerful. His abilities also went beyond mere combat capabilities, which was evident by his recruitment into the Builder Guild.

He might not be an ‘official’ member just yet, but he was as close as one could get before reaching the first evolution.

I turned the envelope over in my hand. The paper was high quality – likely made from at least silver-ranked materials.

My name was embossed on the outside in platinum-colored lettering. It really should have been addressed to Mike since he was listed as the party leader.

It only took a moment to break the wax seal that ensured the contents of the envelope were not prematurely revealed.

“What does it say?” Stephen asked, leaning closer.

“Exactly what he said. It’s an invitation to lunch at noon at the City Lord’s manor to meet and discuss future opportunities for our party.”

I’d read a little about the City Lord, so I knew that he was also an Ascender, though he had stagnated a few hundred years earlier and had all but given up on ascending beyond this realm. He’d been granted stewardship over Sorenguard a few years after stagnation had set in, so he’d been the ruler of the city for quite some time.

In the centuries that Ascender Lord Jaxon had ruled Sorenguard, the city had, by all accounts, prospered. The fact that the city’s gold-ranked dungeon had evolved into an Ascender Dungeon at all reflected well on the city and its lord, even if it probably had more to do with the dungeon itself than the city housing it.

“Should we go?” Stephen asked.

“We might as well. It can’t hurt to at least hear him out,” I said with a sigh.

“I agree,” Mike said.

“You do?” Cora asked.

Her earlier excitement had been replaced by obvious concern. I could understand her worry.

“The City Lord has a good reputation,” Mike replied, answering her unspoken question. “The Builder Guild leaders speak highly of him, so there’s a decent chance that a relationship of some sort might be beneficial.”

“Well, we have almost ten hours before we have to worry about that,” I said, tucking the invitation into storage. “Registration, then housing?”

“Yes. Let’s go,” Mike said, taking the lead.

Aside from updating our information, part of the process included getting an actual identification card that was connected to our accounts.

“The funds from your holding accounts have been consolidated,” the clerk said after I’d provided the information she requested.

It felt a bit invasive to share all of my capabilities, so I kept some things back – things like Repulsion Aura, Dimensional Anchor, Telekinesis, and Temporal Aura. However, since I planned to enchant items using the elemental seed skills I’d acquired, it made no sense to try to hide those.

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Even hiding four skills, my list of skills for a newly evolved delver was still quite long. However, most would probably just assume that I’d completely filled my skill slots before evolving – an assumption that would likely be accurate in most cases.

In fact, under that assumption, my skill list wasn’t even all that remarkable for an Ascender.

“You will no longer need to visit the quest completion desk to withdraw money,” the clerk continued, handing me a metal card. “Everything is now connected to your card. Be sure not to lose it.”

I looked at the card. Alongside my likeness was a magical imprint. It wasn’t quite the mana signature of my previous realm, but it was something similar and served as a secondary form of identification since shapeshifting skills were a thing.