Max could barely believe his eyes as he stared out the window of the private plane before landing. Chad seemed to understand what was on his mind even though Max hadn't said anything. The former jiu-jitsu instructor-turned-adventuring-guild-leader sighed and leaned his head back.

  "Yes, the compound is massive," he answered the unasked question.

  "It really is like a small city, isn't it?" said Max.

  "Yes," Chad nodded. "I'm not going to sit here and pretend that Trifecta was the biggest guild in the world, but I'm also not going to pretend that it was small or unimportant before. That said, the Patriot Guild is another animal entirely. It's the largest guild in Canada and one of the three largest guilds both North and South America. It's absolutely huge. Which is super interesting considering that Canada lost most of its land mass."

  "Aren't most Canadians just packed into that small area on the west now?" said Max.

  "That's right," Chad nodded as he tried to look through the porthole over Max. But Max ignored the other man's efforts and continued studying the view below. After all, his friend had had the last few years to watch all of this be built. Meanwhile, it was all new to Max.

  Vancouver spread out in the distance, but nearby was the Patriot Guild compound, which really did almost look like its own city, complete with a few skyscrapers. The level of wealth was mind-boggling to Max, even when he considered how much easier construction was now that the world had magic.

  Refugees weren’t living in tents pretty much anywhere in the world.

  Displaced people had been given new homes that were only one step down from a real house. Challengers that had elemental magics like earth and stone had been utilized to quickly and efficiently raise living spaces. Some of the pre-portals construction crews also utilized weaker or less specialized mages to help build faster using a hybrid of magical and traditional processes.

  One example would be a concrete crew that poured a concrete slab and then the attached mage could dry the concrete almost instantly. This ability meant that construction teams could not only get work done quicker, but they could also use new, faster construction techniques. The crews could create very weak forms for structures that they would cover the inside of with concrete, and then the attached mage could harden that concrete and build it up in layers. Then after the exterior was done, the crew could fill up the concrete form to create the structure and include the interior rebar. The attached mage could even ensure a strong bond between the concrete of the form and the interior. Magic made it all possible.

  Running electricity was easy, now. Stone mages could be given a wire that they simply inserted into the concrete like the wall was temporarily made of standing water. They bent the laws of physics. Some stone mages or earth mages were so powerful that they could create a skyscraper in less than a week while working together. The massive guilds like the Patriot guilds kept a small, standing army of stone mages. They could erect a forward base to operate out of in an hour or less. It boggled the mind.

  Max tapped a finger on his armrest while he thought about the state of the world. He looked forward to finally getting some more down time so he could finally just…digest everything he’d learned. He also needed some time to get to know his new spirit Daliko better, too. She said in a few more days, she should be able to speak directly to him.

  He kept thinking about her request, the promise he needed to fulfill for their contract, relayed by Slick.

  [Kill enough monsters. Help save this world.]

  It was simple, but profound.

  A lot had already happened today. Max knew there was a lot more to come.

  Eventually, the plane got clearance to land, and he was unsurprised that the airfield they were using was connected to the massive guild and was not actually in Vancouver. After the plane touched down, Max and Chad disembarked and Max got his first-hand view of all of the brand new construction around him. Other people on the planet were used to seeing this sort of thing and had likely been around while it was being built. But to Max, suddenly being thrust in the middle of it, there were subtle things about the architecture surrounding him that he found different, even slightly alien.

  In fact, he realized with a start that some of the concrete reminded him of stone buildings he'd seen in the Quartet. Once he made that observation, the link was obvious. He'd never seen so many curved walls in a concrete building before. But if somebody was erecting stone walls with their magic and didn't need to use clunky forms, just about anything was possible.

  After Max and Chad left the tarmac for the welcome area of the private airport, a man in a suit with a very business-like haircut and round glasses approached. Before he spoke, Max noticed that the man had little gold trombones on his red tie. He also had a music note pin.

  "Hello, Guildmaster Chad Monroe of Trifecta, I presume?" he asked. He held out a hand.

  Chad shook and responded, "That's me."

  Then the man in the suit dropped his hand and didn't even bother to acknowledge Max’s presence. He said, "My name is Ian Hambly. I will be your guide here in the Patriot Guild."

  Wow, he's not even pretending to be polite, is he? thought Max. He knew why, of course. The Patriot Guild likely thought that Chad was here to either borrow money or beg for a favor. Either way, it probably wasn't exactly a social call.

  And how important could someone traveling with a disgraced, A-rank Champion, guild leader be?

  Max’s spirits didn’t have his level of chill. He could hear Lavina softly growling in his ear, and Saliron send him a subvocal message, offering to break all the bones in the man’s body.

  Settle down, everyone, Max thought to his spirits. He had to admit it felt good, though, knowing they were irritated on his behalf.

  "This way please," said Ian. And dutifully, Max and Chad followed the man to an elevator where he pushed a button and then punched in a code before they all headed up.

  Max was trying to play it cool, but the reality was he was trying to rein in his irritation as well. He had to admit he didn’t warrant special treatment in this situation–after all, nobody here knew who he was or why he was here. But he didn't think that anybody should be treated rudely in a professional setting unless they’d earned it. Instead of taking it personally that he wasn't being regarded as anything more than Chad's secretary or something, he was irked by the very simple fact that Ian was being an asshole.

  He checked his internal barometer of the situation to make sure he wasn't accidentally getting full of himself or taking himself too seriously and decided that he wasn't. After all, if he was working in Ian's position, he would generally treat everybody with respect unless they were proven to be a bad actor.

  Even when Max had been working at the cell phone store before heading to the Quartet, he'd always had excellent customer service, even when dealing with old people who couldn't hear very well and didn't understand technology at all but pretended they did. They were some of the most challenging customers, but he always managed to keep his cool.

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  Ian was likely the type of person without much real power, but by being associated with a big build like Patriot, people treated him with far more deference than they usually would and he’d let it go to his head. Idiot, thought Max.

  Eventually, they all boarded a tram. This a tram. In a guild. It was the kind of transportation a huge airport would have. As Ian's back was turned, Max stared at Chad and silently mouthed, "Are you fucking kidding me right now?" The other man just shrugged helplessly. Max saw building after building, platform after platform flash by as the tram zipped through the compound.

  He could feel his understanding about the state of the world and assumptions about other guilds getting a bit of a reorganization. Even as it happened, he felt foolish that it was necessary. He had already known that in this sort of situation, with the world being under attack, governments of countries would have very limited power anymore. After all, if cops couldn't stop most Challengers, any military probably wouldn't fare much better. And any country going to war with their own Challengers would be killing themselves because then they'd be helpless against monsters.

  In fact, that was one reason why North Korea had fallen so quickly, actually in the first year after the initial monster attack.

  For the Patriot Guild to be this large, this established, and have this much real estate, even with mages doing most of the building, meant it had an absolutely astronomical level of wealth and influence. Pre-portals world billionaires probably had nothing on this guild now. And it was a safe bet that the Canadian government did what the Patriot Guild told it to do, not the other way around.

  Finally, the tram stopped and Ian led them out into a waiting room. He said, "Thank you for following me here. Please be patient. The guild leader is a very busy man. But, he said that he would meet you today at some point when he has time. I will come by to check on you periodically, depending on how long it takes, in order to see if you need anything. Thank you." The man didn't even wait for a response before he turned and left the room.

  "Real friendly guy, huh?" said Max.

  "Yeah," Chad rubbed his nose between his eyes. "I can't say I'm surprised though. The general public might not know everything that's going on, but guilds talk. And let's just say that I used to be invited to a lot of parties and I'm not anymore."

  "I see," said Max. He carefully looked around the room, trying to decide whether it was bugged. It wasn't really possible to tell. So instead, he mentally called out to Lavinia.

  Hey, do you remember seeing things about wiretaps or bugs or electronic bugs in my memories?

  A couple seconds later, the ghost girl's voice came back and she said, Yes, are you gonna ask me if I can find any?

  That's right.

  Okay, I'll give it a shot, Lavinia responded.

  Max leaned back in his chair, not even a nice or comfy one. He decided that for all its wealth and style, the Patriot Guild was not as classy or friendly as the Trifecta Guild. Of course, he was aware that he hadn't seen the entire old building of the Trifecta Guild and that his pride might be misplaced, but he decided he was going to take the wins that he could for the moment.

  A few minutes later, Lavinia mentally said, I can't find anything, and I just had my spirits look everywhere, even inside everything they possibly could.

  Okay, thank you, said Max. Then he turned to Chad, who had raided the little mini fridge to one side and was sipping a bottle of store brand water. "I don't think the room is bugged," he said, "but I'm still going to act like it is."

  Chad coughed and almost spit out the water that he'd been swallowing. "Is it okay to just say that out loud?" he asked.

  "Of course it is. It's not like they treated us really nicely to begin with and we're not here for the reason they think we are, so who cares? I mean I'm not going to talk about secrets now or anything sensitive but..." His voice trailed off and he shrugged.

  Chad laughed nervously and didn't respond. He just sipped his water and watched the door. About an hour later, Max was starting to feel irritated again, which he knew was probably a little petulant. All the leadership of this guild probably were very busy. After all, they were effectively running the adventurers and the military and perhaps even the government of Canada.

  With the exception of a few very precious on the planet, all Max was right now was a new C-rank Returner. A talented rookie, but that was all. Come to think about it, Patriot guild probably has looked me up by now, he thought. But the more he thought about it, the less he was sure. This group seemed to care so little about Chad that it was very possible that nobody in the entire guild was even remotely curious about who he brought with him. Maybe they thought that Max was his lawyer or something.

  It was possible. If so, the guild was being far too arrogant and needed to work on their security in his opinion.

  Right when Max was about to get up and look outside the room, Ian entered again. The man kept his professional and obviously disinterested attitude as he said, "Thank you for waiting so patiently. Hopefully it won't be much longer. I see that you've already found the refreshments on the table over there. In case you haven't seen it yet, the restroom is behind the door to your left."

  Chad thanked him. Ian couldn't see it, but Max noticed the shadow of a grimace on his friend's face. It irritated him. "Hey Ian, your name is Ian, right?"

  The man turned and raised his eyebrows at Max. "That is correct."

  "How much longer do you think it's going to take?"

  "I'm sorry, sir, but I'm not in a position to tell you that. And I figured that you would rather I tell you the truth than just say something comforting."

  Max wasn't sure how to respond to that. He was half tempted to pick a fight with this guy or threaten to blow up the room if somebody with some authority didn't see them soon. But after running all of the possible outcomes of such things in his mind, he decided that as irritating as this was, waiting patiently was his best course of action. While Ian was subtly getting under his skin, the man hadn’t actually done or said anything over-the-top offensive, just dismissive. So instead of responding, Max just nodded stiffly and sat back down again with his arms crossed.

  Ian wasted no time leaving again. He spun so fast Max was half surprised his musical tie didn’t fall out, and he was gone.

  During the time he continued to wait, Max was extremely glad that he'd taken the time to buy a phone a few days ago. Otherwise he would have been stuck staring at the wall or borrowing Chad’s phone.

  He used his time wisely, reading news articles, and otherwise getting caught up on world events that had happened over the last several years. He also learned that there were several monsters that were more well-known than others and had their own little kingdoms carved out. They were called the Monster Kings. For the moment, humanity considered all but untouchable.

  Finally, Max glanced up when he heard a larger group of people than normal walking down the hallway. There were muted voices too. He elbowed Chad in the side and said, "Look alive." His friend had been half dozing off, but to his credit, he woke up immediately and didn't appear at all like he had been about to drool on himself three seconds earlier.

  He is an A-rank adventurer, after all, thought Max.

  The door to their room opened and Ian walked in. He had a strange expression on his face, like his normal poker face with a hint of smugness that he'd almost completely suppressed, but not all the way. It was so faint that Max wasn't even sure if it was really there or he was imagining it. Then another two people entered, a man and a woman, who were both wearing business attire and carried briefcases. Max could immediately tell that they were lawyers. They just gave off that lawyering vibe. On top of that, he figured most other people in this compound, at least in this area where high-level negotiations took place, would likely be either lawyers or Challengers. And the two probably-lawyers just didn't have the look of warriors about them.

  Finally, three other people entered the room and Max understood why it was this room was as bit as it was. This wasn't just a waiting room, it was an audience room as well.

  The last three people consisted of two men and one woman. The woman was Asian, tall, and wore armor even in the building. She had what looked like a segmented whip wrapped around her waist. Before Portal Day on Earth, the attire probably would have looked goofy, or maybe even would be mistaken for cosplay. But now, she looked deadly serious. And as a seasoned warrior, Max could tell at a glance that she was not weak, not weak at all.

  The first man was smaller than she was, but exuded a very toned, trained body. His outfit looked a little bit less Quartet-like than the woman's, but it still wasn't exactly business casual. He wore dark clothing and soft boots with a cowled tunic. A couple of daggers rode in sheaths at his waist. The entire rogue aesthetic was only ruined by a little name tag on his chest that read, "Hi, my name is William."

  But the last man through the door got most of Max's attention. He was busy talking to one of the lawyers as they entered and didn't immediately look up.

  Max noticed that Chad had stiffened. It made sense. After all, Chad was only an A-rank adventurer and although still a guild leader, was the guild leader of a dying guild that was on its last legs. He’d never even been to a Quartet. Meanwhile, they were facing one of the most powerful men in the world.

  That power presented itself in how he was dressed. The dusky skinned man wore an expensive outfit, something like a male pop singer might have worn before Portal Day. His clothing was extremely high quality and seemed to fit him perfectly. It was also definitely not armor or obviously enchanted in any way. The only way to tell he was a Challenger by how he dressed was a thick leather sword belt, holding a large, magnificent sword, one that was very familiar to Max.

  The man’s expression didn't change as he glanced at Chad, but when his eyes slid over and he saw Max, his body stiffened. Some of the blood ran out of his face. Most of the other people in the room were too slow to notice, but the Asian woman must have realized something was wrong. Her hand went to her whip, quick as a snake, and she glanced around the room trying to understand what was happening.

  That's when Max said, "Hey Lance, it's been a while." His friend's mouth worked, but no words came out. He kept staring like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Max grinned. "If you’re not too busy, I'd like to have a chat. Can we go somewhere private?"