When the group woke up in the tavern, the immediately started knocking out assignments. They specifically picked out the assignments that require them to kill multiple enemies for more experience.

  "Gargoyles exist in this world?" Janica asked Wade. "Sounds scary to me."

  "Usually gargoyles are used for defensive purposes." Wade replied. "The gargoyles in this assignment are used to defend an old fortress a guild here wants to clear out, so it's our job to open it up."

  "Wouldn't the shit inside of the fortress be more dangerous?" James asked. "Like surely a few gargoyles wouldn't be as bad as the things inside, right?"

  "The guild probably doesn't want to waste any materials on clearing out weaker enemies."

  "I wonder what guild it is."

  The head of the Justice Guild was looking over the plans for clearing out a fortress and establishing a new guild building there. The fortress would most likely have great loot and materials to establish a new building as well as arm the members they station there. If the Justice Guild does that, they could potentially gain new members alongside more loot.

  "So some explorers will take up the assignment of killing the gargoyle guards?" The head asked one of the staff members. "That means we can save our more powerful resources on clearing the inside."

  "Should we allow explorers to help us clear the inside?" The staff member asked.

  "I guess we can, there's no harm done in letting them help as long as they don't take anything for themselves."

  After blasting the gargoyles with his shotgun, James looted them all and the gargoyles dissolved into dust, the dust flying through the air.

  "Alrighty, that's the guards dealt with, let's head back to the assignments building now."

  A person they didn't recognize came running up to the group with a sack in his hand. The man had the symbol of the Justice Guild on his badge, and he wore a leather coat around himself.

  "Hello explorers," The man greeted. "The guild formally asks of your assistance on clearing the inside of the fort in exchange for more rewards. In this sack is the initial reward for the assignment." The man gave the sack to James. "You guys could get more rewards if you help us clear the fort. If you'd like to do so, take this assignment paper. I will wait for guild members to arrive, accept the assignment before they arrive to help us."

  "This guy sounds like an NPC," James joked. "Accept the assignment, clear this fort, blah blah. I ain't complaining though, should we accept it guys?"

  "I don't know what an NPC is," Zewei replied. "But I do know that there probably will be more enemies for us to kill, let's do it!"

  James snatched the assignment paper from the guild member and was about to rush inside when the guild member stopped him.

  "You sure you don't want to wait for the other guild members to clear the fort out? It's probably dangerous!"

  "It'll be fine," James assured him. "What are the puny fort foes gonna do when they're up against the power of pew pews?"

  "Please don't call a gun a pew pew." Janica told James. "That sounds childish."

  "And we're basically children, so it's fine."

  "What's a gun?" The guild member asked, confused by their banter.

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  The group entered the fort and were greeted by complete darkness when they shut the huge wooden doors behind them. James pulled out his phone's flashlight and pointed it around. The room they had just enter was a cold stone room with stacks of wooden crates piled up everywhere. The room smelled of old cobwebs and dust.

  "Blegh," James coughed. "I thought a fort would be a bit cleaner than this!"

  "I wonder what lies inside of it," Wade thought aloud. "Surely there's a good reason why no one cleared out this fort yet. The guild is willing to send lots of guild members here just to clear it, so there must be some reason why. I know the assignment paper said no taking anything and no doing damage to the property, so it's safe to assume they want to use this fort for later, but what is lurking inside that took the guild this long to finally come and try to clear it?"

  "You're overthinking this," Zewei said as he stood next to James and Jamal. "If there's some big bad thing in here, we can easily blast it to bits, and I can slash it to little tiny pieces of- whatever it's made of!"

  Zewei, James, and Jamal rushed towards the door at the end of the room. They tried opening it, but it wouldn't budge. James shot the hinges over and over again until the door fell off. They walked into a spiral stairwell leading downwards, blood stains on the walls and stairs.

  "I think Wade was right," James said. "There is definitely something lying in this fort. Oh well, time to kill it!"

  The group followed the three as they rushed down the stairs. The group was trying to keep up with their pace since James was the one with the flashlight, until Janica remembered she also had a phone and pulled it out. The group followed a bit behind the three, until they heard gunshots from below. They stormed down the stairs and found them fighting black silhouettes. The silhouettes had a humanlike and were pitch black, even with the light pointed at them, and they held pitch black swords as well. The only thing that had color on them was their eyes, which were a weird yellow color.

  Janica cast shields on the entire group as James and Jamal shot at the silhouettes to no avail, the bullets disappearing into the blackness. Zewei has already back away from them seeing that if bullets didn't do anything, so would his gauntlets. James and Jamal eventually backed away and the group ran up the stairs as they ditched Janica's summoned shields.

  "What the hell were those things?!" James yelled as they reached the top of the stairs. "Those were basically shadows, our bullets passed right through!"

  "I think I have an idea." Janica confidently said as she descended the stairs oncemore.

  "ARE YOU CRAZY? YOU'RE GONNA DIE DOWN THERE! And I thought I was the irrational one!"

  When Janica reached the bottom, she summoned Lampo from her staff and its light blasted away all darkness in the room below, revealing that the silhouettes were using a spell to mask themselves in consuming darkness, destroying anything that touched it, including James and Jamal's bullets. The silhouettes were now revealed to look like a human, but something about them felt off. The rest of the group came down and when James saw that the silhouettes were now human looking, he and Jamal immediately fired upon them, bullets piercing their skin, swords dropping like their users. When all were killed, they dissolved into bloody mist and sank into the walls of the room, before passing through them entirely and out of the fort. James didn't even loot them, they dissolved without his intervention.

  While that was happening, the guild members finally arrived to see lots of bloody mist mix with the fog of the mountains, and soon the fog around the fort was blood red, adding the taste of iron to the air. The guild members were shocked and disgusted at this, and rushed to the fort to investigate. They entered the first room of the fort and found the group emerging from the stairwell, their faces filled with horror at the sight of it.

  "Wait guys!" James said. "Why are we disgusted by this? We have used me and Janica's looting thing for how long, so why are we grossed out by it changing a bit?"

  "We never looted them, James." Janica replied. "They dissolved into blood on their own, and turned into mist. Look through the door, the fog wasn't red like that previously!"

  The group looked out at the red fog in horror, it looked straight out of a horror movie.

  "Well we cleared the fort in the end," James said as everyone was looking at the fog. "We didn't level up sadly, but at least we can get whatever reward you guys have!"

  "Why didn't we get experience?" Wade asked James. "Surely that many enemies would give us loads to level up past 10. It seems suspicious."

  "No clue, let's figure that out when we're back at the tavern, this place gives me the creeps now." James looked at the sack held by the guild members and he snatched it before leading his group back to town.

  "Did they cause this?" One of the members asked. "They were the only ones to enter the fort, right? What was that bloodlike mist coming out of it?"

  "Probably some old magic defense," Another said. "Shouldn't be harmful to us, the fog might've just been to scare off intruders. Let's make sure they cleared it fully before getting their names for recording purposes and turn this fort into a new guild building!"