Rum woke up feeling thirsty. Thirsty for water this time. He stumbled out of his bed – Amez’s spare bed – and went out the back of the shop and into the back street where he found a town well. Unlucky for him there was a bit of a queue. He ended up doing his new morning magic routine of “Clean Body” and “Renew Clothes” out there, among people, while he waited in a line like the rest. His robes changed color, which was interesting. Does Renew Clothes change clothes always? Does this mean I have an infinite wardrobe? This time he gained a fancy purple robe with a silvery star symbol on the front. What is this I’m wearing? Is it some kind of upper-level wizards’ robe?

  Finally it was his turn to use the well. Rum did so with many interested eyes on him, which he all ignored. He grabbed the rope, letting the bucket fall down and into the water. Pulling it up roughly, he spilled some water back into the well. As he pulled the bucket out of the well to drink, Rum noticed a crowd was starting to form from people who’d stopped to look. Probably not used to seeing a mage use this well. Rum continued to ignore them harder, and drank heartily of the water as if making up for several days of dehydration. In fact, dehydration might very well be the case.

  He dried his face with a sleeve, then made the action wasted by splashing his face wet and poured water over his neck. An undignified display perhaps for a high-status university mage, but quite reflective of the inner poor homeless person Rum was used to being for the last six years.

  His beard, his face, and the upper portion of his robe all wet, Rum looked up towards the sky. The sun was approaching noon. Oh this is bad! I might miss my meeting with Elrith and her adventurers!

  Rum turned away from the well and ran through the streets of the city like he was being chased by a beast. Everyone around stopped to see where this bald-headed, but powerfully built and fine-robed mage was headed. Rum’s stamina held for some time, but he got tired quicker than he’d like. The stamina drain causing him to struggle against time made him pull out of his mind one of the few other spells that he’d made during his six years in isolation. A truly unique spell that was as much trouble as it was useful, however, desperate times calls for desperate measures.

  “Self-Running Legs!” Rum yelled out loud and of breath. The phrase spoken, he felt a sudden force take hold of his legs, as a shimmer of green energy instantly lit them up. At once, his legs were no longer willing to give up. Case in point: he had no stamina, and at the moment he wasn’t even able to regenerate stamina. Yet he ran at full speed again, with a quickly increasing pain all across his legs. At least though, he didn’t – and he even couldn’t – stop. That after all was Self-Running Legs: a piece of magic Rum had created as a consequence of running away from so many dangerous enemies over the years. It was a method of last resort because the spell was so unyielding it could knock him unconscious and furthermore, make him run unconscious through the night to get where he’d told his legs to go. It exhausted him extensively and his legs always collapsed when he reached his target, while he became incapable of standing for a few minutes up to several hours.

  Rum had been nearly an hour’s walking distance from his target. But with Self-Running Legs, Rum was making it there in what felt closer to fifteen minutes. Or at least so he was guessing. He had no accurate method of telling time, but the houses and shops were flying by fast.

  At last – he was arriving! He saw the garden area with the giant statues in the next street over. Rum’s Self-Running Legs pulled him through to the gardens and then through into the gardens themselves in barely any time, exiting out into a square whereupon Rum saw Elrith, the little human, leaning on her giant crossbow right next to a beautiful large water fountain. Rum was exhausted beyond belief, but he was still able to make out what would have to be the other members of the party, and there were three of them. Two of which were dwarves. One of the dwarves a female with blond thick pigtails down her neck, a large bosom covered by leather body armor mixed in with small metal plates. On her back was a backpack, something which reminded Rum he had forgot his backpack. Also he had forgot money. Actually he had forgotten everything. Anyways, lastly this dwarf lady had a pair of mean-looking one-handed axes at her belt. A woman dressed for brutal close-range battle in other words. The dwarf beside her, a male, had a half-long beard with four braids, wore the same type of backpack, and a similar style of armor but with much more metal plates. Instead of the smaller one-handed axes, he was leaning on a large doubled-bladed two-handed battleaxe with what appeared to be large magical runes engraved along the blade, written in blood-red ink. Last of them all was the third of what appeared to be the party members. It looked to be a human male, fully clad in thick polished metal armor, except for his feet, and the small area of his head where appeared a young clean-shaved face that was also the first to fix eyes onto Rum as he came running. This man too had a small backpack, a short-sword resting at his belt, a medium-sized oval shield held lazily in one hand, and a short-spear which he was slightly leaning on.

  As Rum stopped in front of the crowd and just in front of Elrith, he very predictably, collapsed. Given the momentum from Self-Running Legs however, Rum fell face-forward, towards Elrith and grabbing her. With his much larger body, the result of was Rum unintentionally pushing Elrith with himself straight into the fountain water.

  Within seconds, Rum was drowning from his own exhaustion, and Elrith in front of him was struggling hard to get out from under him. He felt somebody pull him by his numb and unresponsive legs. GASP! Rum was dragged out of the fountain and onto the dry sunbaked streets. As he spat out water, he also heard another gasp of breath and saw the dwarf man fish Elrith out.

  “WHAT– ” Elrith made several gasps, “–WAS THAT ABOUT!” She looked at him in shock while continuing to try and breath properly. Rum still couldn’t stand up, but at least he could, barely, speak. “Sorry” he made out in-between his own heaving breathing. “It was Self-Running Legs”. Elrith looked at him, still shocked and clearly uncomprehending. After a few more breaths, Rum was able to give her the short version. “It’s a spell. Forces my legs to take me to a location. After it’s over, I can no longer stand up straight.” Elrith just shook her face and commenced with trying to squeeze water out of a shirt she was wearing.

  For a minute Rum just laid there, trying to regain his strength. Elrith, the dwarves and the human were talking between themselves meanwhile, but Rum didn’t really hear what exactly they were saying. Finally, Rum rolled over, and pushed himself to sit on his knees to face the party.

  “Your mage is here.” He smiled, and bowed on his knees in front of what he hoped was going to be his party. His attempt at a bow was a bit shaky from his exhaustion, but it was showing the respect that he was trying at. Especially since The Heart-Piercer was currently not a in a good mood.

  Elrith continued squeezing water out of her shirt, while giving Rum angry glances.

  As Rum was starting to get his strength back he attempted to stand, and somewhat, he succeeded. His legs were a bit off balance though, and his attempt to stand looked for the first few seconds like a severely drunk person, shambling while trying to improvise a dance.

  “I got your spell, Heart-Piercer.” He finally managed to say, putting both his hands at his sides, steadying himself, and trying to project pride and confidence.

  At the turn of topic, Elrith managed to forgot about the fountain. “You did?” Stunned surprise came over her face.

  “I told I would, didn’t I! I have created a spell which will shield your minds against confusion. Your heads are now safe with me, and safe from the evil witches.” Rum nodded enthusiastically at his own words, a prideful smile on his face.

  “Well that’s good, isn’t it guys?” Elrith turned expectantly towards her fellow party members. They all looked up at Rum, eyebrows raised, but nodding with approval.

  “What about the lightning magic? You have a spell against that too right?” the armored human asked, revealing a puny voice hiding behind his battle-ready gear.

  “Uuum” Rum suddenly, and quite instantly, lost all the pride he’d just felt. A pained expression creeping onto his face. “Sorry, no, I forgot about that one. I was just so caught up with the complexity of this mind restoring spell that I totally forgot about the anti-lightning spell. But surely that is not that important, you just have to avoid stepping into the traps, right?” Rum tried for an awkward smile. The crowd was not buying it. Elrith’s face went from positive surprise to mild disappointment.

  “That is not good to hear Rum” she said disapprovingly. “That spell would’ve been very useful. And without that you’re not upholding our deal. Didn’t we agree on two spells for today? Both of them? I’m not sure we can take you with us now that you only have one of the spells we need. And you’re so low level.”

  Rum’s face twisted, and a very insecure smile started occupying his face. “Well I don’t think you can get this spell anywhere else. This is a really good spell. If you think you might get hexed by those witches, nobody would be there to help you.”

  Elrith just shook her head in reply.

  “Okay but look: I can be very useful. I have powerful magic, I promise! Magic that is much more powerful than my level would suggest. I have even gotten paid hundreds of gold coins for a single cast of a spell once, and it was a spell that I made! I’m a good investment for your party, I really mean it. Take me with you today! And I’ll make up for my deficiencies in other ways.”

  “Hundreds of gold?” Elrith looked at him skeptically. “Prove it. How can a spell from a level eight mage be worth that much?”

  “You see…” Rum hesitated to continue, trying to figure out how he was going to prove his point. “The spell is a bit problematic you see. I’ve refrained from using it for good reasons. It’s just a little bit too good.”

  Elrith rolled her eyes and pointed at Rum. “I smell a liar” her subsequent stare was ice cold. “If you can’t prove this spell, can we even expect that you actually made a spell against confusion magic? If you can’t prove it, you are just words.”

  “Yes but… I will need a target to cast it on, and well… Do you really want me to prove it to you?”

  Elrith made a slow nod, a commander’s firm expression on her face. Rum sighed a little nervously.

  “O-kay. I will show you.” Rum pointed his finger at Elrith, and before she could say anything, he uttered the phrase. “Positive Mind.”

  A golden-yellowish misty stream of magic flew from Rum’s hand, through the air, straight towards and around Elrith’s head. A little golden cloud materialized into existence, lasting for but a fragment of a moment, before violently being sucked in through Elrith’s nose, ears and mouth that was quickly gapping from the invasion. And as soon as it had all entered her, it was all done and gone. Elrith slowly blinked her eyes repeatedly, then shook her head and made several twitches of her nose, tongue flickering in her mouth. Finally, she appeared to regain some control over herself, and looked towards the group, Rum included, a big happy smile making its way across her face.

  “What was this spell? I feel so… optimistic. So much ENERGY! Is this joy?” Elrith’s demeanor took on a dazed form, like she was partially stuck in a happy day-dream, floating on a soft pink cloud.

  “What did you do to her?” a rough deep voice erupted. Rum turned, and saw that his interrogator was the same dwarf man who’d pulled Rum and Elrith out of the fountain.

  “Yeah, what did you do to me mage?” Elrith echoed. “I don’t recall feeling like this just a moment ago. Your magic. It changed my mind somehow. I’m feeling lighter, brighter, but also distant, as if I can’t properly sense myself, or focus.”

  The entire party looked at Rum with brewing hostility, and the wizard couldn’t help but just grab his face, and drag his hand across it dejectedly.

  “Positive Mind” he eventually said between fingers, “is a spell which does what it sounds like” he removed his hand. “It makes a person feel, sort-of happy, whether they really are so or not. I don’t entirely understand how it works myself, but through testing I believe it forces the subject to mainly focus on positive – that is, optimistic – thoughts. People with a negative mind may feel like they’re not really present in their own heads because of this, since they are unable to express their negative individuality. Positive Mind magically induces hopefulness, a belief that things are or will soon become good, and consequently it will make people feel like what they’re doing is valuable, that they themselves do good things. In other words it makes people diligent, and more likely to trust themselves and others.”

  “Somehow” Elrith spoke hazily, “even when I hear my mind has been tampered with, I don’t feel bad about that. It is strange, but I feel good about this. So, this has to be a good spell right? Is this what people would pay hundreds of gold for? I think I understand why.”

  “Actually” Rum began again, taking on a lecturing tone, “you guys should probably not tell anybody about this spell, because I know for a fact that some people will do crazy stuff for this magic. When you get back to yourself Elrith, you’ll probably feel a lot different about this spell. And at that time, you will probably also understand that most people wouldn’t want this spell cast on themselves. But, if they are the wrong kind of person: they might want it cast on others. Spouses in bad relationships might want to cast it on each other, or bad parents on their children. But as it suppresses the personality of the person, it can really be as much of a cruel spell for those want to make others cooperate more with them, as it can be a remedy for those who suffer illnesses of the mind. It’s not an evil spell, just a spell with a lot of evil potential and few known genuinely good uses.”

  Everyone went quiet for a bit as Rum finished explaining, and for a few moments nobody said anything at all. Elrith broke the silence. “Well, should we go to the dungeon then. No business just standing around here all day, is there?” She took on a big happy smile, swung the crossbow over her back, and started walking down the streets in the direction leading out of town.

  “Oh” Rum was surprised. “So – I’m in then? I made it into the party?” He started walking slowly after her, with a small smile as if already expecting a positive answer. Everyone else besides Elrith just glanced at him, not knowing what to say.

  “Your spell is quite impressive I must say, and you have that anti-confusion spell right? I don’t see why not! Stroll along mage!” she shouted. “And help us bash in some skulls!” Excitement filled up her face.

  Maybe a bit too much excitement, Rum realized.

  Gradually, one by one, the others decided to tag along, not knowing exactly how to deal with this situation as long as Elrith was in her special magical state.

  The party walked out and past the city gates which marked the end of the walled section of the city. The city had since the walls had been erected grown immensely, and the outer portion of the city was today much larger than the inner portion. Out here were many new settlers, historically speaking. Among them a Dwarven Quarter surrounding and carved into a mini-mountain, as well as a mecha-gnomish quarter which consisted of a small sea of small houses stacked on top of each other and with a network of magically enhanced iron horses transporting the gnomes at speed between the different portions of their settlement. Each one of these iron horses, which they called “locomotives”, rode on a trail of iron bars, and even let the gnomes travel quickly to and from the city gates, even though their quarter was distance away. The mecha-gnomes were not to be confused with another even smaller quarter of gnomes though, known as the Wild-Gnomish Quarter, and which was really just a gnomish enclave in the last and perhaps largest quarter known as the Green-Elven Quarter. Wild-gnomes were pretty much the opposite of their mecha-gnomish relatives, as they preferred solitary lives in small communities spread about forests or sometimes adjacent to human villages. They were of the simple life, being highly protective of animals, up and to the point that human villagers would be abducted and tried for crimes against animal-kind if it became known to the wild-gnomes that they’d been mistreating their pets or herds. And the wild-gnomes always knew, because they were excellent spies that would watch over the activities of humans in the countryside as well as in the city. And they were devious, as they recruited little children to tell on their parents if anyone mistreated a house pet or part of a herd. The green-elves meanwhile, the second major elven population in Ermos City apart from urban elves, was a tall patient nature-loving people who cultivated gardens of exotic plants, and giant trees onto which they shaped most of their houses, usually on giant boughs. Only a few green-elves chose to live on the ground, wherein the wild-gnomes had their burrows hidden in-between bushes. Due to all this greenery, the Green-Elven Quarter was also frequently known as The City Forest.

  Rum knew the history of all of these kin in Ermos City, he’d learned about them in lessons on dungeon history, which had been a part of his Magical History class. All of these peoples came to settle here to escape the proliferation of the dungeon lords to the south, which had invaded their original habitats and filled it with roaming undead, goblins, and untamable monsters and -beasts. Over the last hundred years the lost cities – the remains of which were filled with the subjects of the dungeon lords among some survivors who’d switched sides – had grown their influence to squeeze out any remaining free settlements. The only populations still known to inhabit that area around the three lost cities now, were a few villages and small towns which had been made into miniature fortresses, patrolled by low- and medium level guild parties, with some additional security from the counter-raids by the guilds. This fact reminded Rum that Jorteg’s Dungeon was one of the newer dungeons that had been threatening to expand The Desolate Lands, as they were collectively known, to reach even further up north. The first few undead raids into remote villages associated with Ermos City had already began, and were rumored to come from Jorteg’s Dungeon. The information he carried about this though was roughly ten years old, but it had been a great disturbance in the city at the time. And now, ten years later, much time has passed since those first reports of undead raiding parties crossing the border into the Lands of Ermos.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  The party – Rum’s party? – was now walking down a major highway leading out of the city from the city gates, and south. On the left side and a bit to the distance was The Little Mountain, home to The Dwarven Quarters. Closer to the road, but still a bit ahead was The Mecha-Gnome Quarters, from where one could hear the sounds of fast-moving locomotives and see smokes and fire rising into the air, creating thick dark cloudy trails along their paths. The iron-horses and the iron wagons which they pulled were not very big though, only large enough for the gnomes to use. Rum, keeping pace behind Elrith, saw one of those little locomotives as it ran along the highway opposite of his direction, with a speed that broke the air itself, creating a sudden gust of wind towards the pedestrians on the other side of the highway. As the last iron wagon rushed passed, Rum witnessed crowds of younger mecha-gnomes screaming in delight, their little gloved fists up in the air like they were cheering on the iron-horse. With the locomotive gone though, Rum’s gaze went away and to the other side. There, not too far away, was The City Forest – the great neighborhood of the green-elves. Only their great trees very truly visible though, and the wild gnomes who lived around the roots of the trees would be utterly imposibble to see from any distance but up close. Taking in the sight of tall trees and green forest, Rum breathed out in a little quiet appreciation. It was sights such as these that made Rum truly feel like he once again living in a cosmopolis: a place of many people from many cultures.

  After a while the wizard took his gaze off the horizon and looked behind himself. There followed the two dwarves of the party, side by side. With all of them walking together, Rum occasionally caught them glancing at him. When he returned their looks, they just kept staring, sometimes raising eyebrows at him. When they weren’t staring though, they’d often small-talking to each other about the other people on the highway, the merchants, the farmers, and other armed groups, typically guild parties.

  Behind the dwarves in turn, and furthest in the back, walked the heavily armored human man with his spear and -shield. Rum figured the man would probably have more in common with him than with the dwarves, since they were both male and both human. But on further consideration he also thought about how different the lives of mages and non-mages were, and that perhaps the human couldn’t really identify with Rum, and this kept him at a distance. Either way, Rum felt like everyone were more or less walking by themselves, except for the dwarf duo. What a lonely party, he thought to himself.

  They party marched on for about half an hour at least before approaching the end of the city’s densely populated areas. There were still a significant amount of people walking on this highway, but they were mostly either coming from far away settlements or returning from far away settlements. The city itself and its people were rapidly becoming something that was behind the party.

  Speaking of Rum’s new party, Elrith suddenly stopped. Rum stopped as well, and so did the others. Then Rum walked up to her, and tried to make eye-contact. Elrith had a strange look on her face, like as if severely constipated, or possibly thinking about really difficult. When after a few seconds she saw Rum innocent smiling face, her expression turned into a frown.

  “Why am I here?” The words came out so sharp, her nickname Heart-Piercer made instant sense to Rum.

  “You wanted to go to the dungeon? Right?” Rum continued smiling innocently.

  “Okay. Let me rephrase that. Why are you walking with me to the dungeon. Wasn’t I really mad about you for some reason?”

  “Oh” Rum dropped his smile. He figured this is what could’ve happened, although he’d been hoping it wouldn’t have. Not in this way, anyways. The rest of the party came over, gathering around the mage and the crossbow carrying woman.

  “Are you back Heart-Piercer?” asked the armored man.

  “She seems to be back to her usual self” responded the dwarf woman, while searching Elrith’s face.

  The Heart-Piercer ignored them in return. She stared at Rum, menacingly.

  “Elrith,” Rum started cautiously, “I was asked of you to demonstrate a very powerful, very valuable spell, that I had. You insisted. And so I demonstrated it. It just seemed natural that the target of the demonstration would also be the one requesting the demonstration. Now that you’ve tried my spell for like, say, an hour? What do you think?” Rum tried to put on a smile again. “It’s pretty cool huh? It totally changed your attitude for this whole hour. Nothing but happy determination for the dungeon dive!”

  Elrith stepped slowly up to Rum. She sighed heavily, and buried her face in her right palm. Then, suddenly out of nowhere, her left hand knocked Rum straight into his testicles. Rum collapsed instantly onto his knees, a moan of pain trying to escape. Elrith waited for nothing and hit him again with her left hand, this time straight into his nose. Rum was momentarily knocked back, before he grabbed for it. He turned on his knees and began to crawl away from the woman with haste, before stumbling up to his feet.

  “Have anyone ever tried to tell you before” she hissed, “not to use magic on them, without explicit permission!?”

  “It might’ve been mentioned once or twice in my life.” Rum said through a bloody nose.

  “Then don’t do that again, EVER! If I ask you to demonstrate, but I don’t know what I’m asking for, then you first explain it to me, and NOT JUST CAST THE SPELL AT ME WITHOUT PROPER WARNING!” she walked up to Rum and started kicking him in his sides. This didn’t hurt Rum so much but it did seem to let off some steam from Elrith, which finally ended it all with a sigh, before marching up to her party.

  “Okay. First things first people. This idiot is an idiot. But – I can’t deny his magic could come quite in handy.” She sighed. “Who here would want this idiot to join our party on a probationary basis. If he does well on this dungeon dive and the next, he’s in. If not, his level eight ass can go join up with Ermos’ Finest Adventurers, and start from the bottom killing roaming skeletons near the guild bases.”

  All the party members looked over at Rum. Eyeing him, weighing him.

  “But we don’t even know what other spells he got?” asked the armored man. “Maybe that spell is the only thing he’s good at?”

  “A good point” Elrith nodded, and glanced over at Rum. “What other spells do you actually have, mage?”

  Rum stood up and mumbled words to himself. “Restore Body.” A green misty light flowing out from all across his body, and directing themselves towards Rum’s nose and testicles. As the healing took hold under the stare of the others, Rum also cast “Clean Body” for extra measure.

  “I got a variety of potentially useful spells.” Rum said. “They are mostly aimed at survival out in the wilds though, or convenience. But, with a bit of creativity, I imagine they could find surprisingly many uses both inside- and outside the dungeons.”

  “And they are?” Elrith questioned impatiently.

  “Let me recall...” Rum began outlining them.

  “Of course all these spell have variable levels of effect depending on how much mana I put into them. For instance the Positive Mind-spell that I cast on you I only gave the bare minimum of magic, which made it last for an hour. With a larger dose of mana though, the spell can last for several days.”

  The party were quite overwhelmed by the details of Rum’s magical arsenal. Not that it was much of an arsenal, he didn’t really have any offensive spells per se. But if worst came to worst he could do things like force a person to run to the other side of the world, which could kill them unless they had incredible endurance. He was also a big guy, so if he wanted to he could use his Muscles Grow and Body Thicken spells to overwhelm somebody else with his strength and mass, while protecting himself against their weapons with Skin Toughen. At best his offensive arsenal consisted in wrestling people to the ground, or literally force them to run away. I could punch someone though, if push comes to shove. That’s pretty violent?

  “Okay” Elrith finally said, her expression appearing a little bit fuzzy from all the information. “That’s a lot of spells you have there. I notice that there aren’t any offensive spells though? And your defensive spells seem not that useful to people with armor and weapons. I like a healing spell though. Even if it seems a bit limited, it would cut down on our potion-consumption, which is an economic nightmare. We all know how potions can turn a profitable dungeon dive into the start of a debt trap.”

  “But don’t just think about the spells I have now people!” Rum began explaining. “Remember Elrith, I wanted to come with you guys to make more spells. I’m a spellcrafter! Maybe this dungeon will teach me my first offensive spell even.”

  Elrith nodded a little, but looked at her fellow party members, waiting for their opinions.

  “I must say” the dwarf man began, “that you do seem a little bit useless Rum when it comes to fighting. But I listened carefully to the spells you described, and I hear a few there which could very well come in handy. Does Filter Body help against poisons?”

  “Yes!” Rum exclaimed, happy to have reached an ear.

  “Then you have my vote wizard Rum, at least for now.”

  “Okay people” Elrith began, “Rulli says he’d want Rum to join on probationary terms. Anyone else want to say yes, or no?” Elrith looked from the dwarf woman, back to the armored man, and back again to the dwarf.

  “I suppose I agree with my husband” said the dwarf. “I would’ve wanted a bit more firepower from this guy. But at least his defensive spells should avoid us having to babysit him in the fight.”

  Elrith nodded at the argument.

  “So Gilda is in… Darmon?” The Heart-Piercer looked to the armored guy.

  “I guess I agree with the others. Would’ve wanted a better fighter, but not gonna lie. I’d be looking forward to not using so many healing potions, just for the minor scratches and cuts.”

  “Fine then!” Elrith produced a firm nearly-smiling expression for her party, before looking at Rum. “You are in then mage. For real this time. But before you get all too happy, let’s get the paperwork done first eh, shall we?”

  Elrith knelt down and fished out several rolls of paper from her backpack, spreading the first of them out across the bag to reveal the text. She also fished out a quill and a bottle of ink.

  “Please read through and sign your name. I got these papers this morning, hoping you’d got both spells. But here we are nevertheless, and I’m thinking the same conditions as last. To summarize, you will have to join the guild we belong to, which is The Mecha-Gnomes’ Revenge.”

  Rum raised an eyebrow. “Is that really what it’s called?”

  “Yes, you haven’t heard of it?”

  “No, is it new?”

  “I suppose. It’s eighteen years old, but it started to get much bigger the last five, after the gnomes voted in Roovalup Gigalut as director. They mass-hired non-mecha-gnomes after that, and poached parties from the other guilds. Long story short, they used to just be gnomes, but now we’ve gotten real big. The fourth largest dungeon guild Ermos, currently. Aiming to be largest, too.”

  “Okay” Rum tried to digest this piece of information. He tried to imagine the implications of working for the mecha-gnomes.

  “I promise you that working for the mecha-gnomes can be very beneficial. Every six months we have The Great Zerg. Since you haven’t heard of that, I suppose I’ll have to explain what that is. Imagine a raid, the largest raiding party you have ever seen, the size of an army. Everyone from the lowest to the highest level adventurer can join to completely bust a dungeon. We eradicate anything and anyone evil inside. Best of all, we’re all paid to join! It’s a very good opportunity for the low levels like yourself. The first ten to twenty levels are brutal financially.” She looked over at her party members. “We all remember that life.” She looked back at Rum. “Unless you got a rich uncle to sponsor you, it’s a hard period, lots of danger, and very little reward.”

  “A zerg... interesting” Rum commented. “Though I’m not sure zergs are a thing for me. I mean, that’s basically like participating in a larger battle right? Would be difficult to get anything spellcrafting done in those situations. I think.” And he did think about it, stroking his beard.

  “We have other benefits as well. The mecha-gnomes have deals with the dwarves, so we can buy extra cheap metal gear from them. Very good for low and mid level adventurers. Of course, as a mage you don’t use much weapons or armor. Hmm. Actually I can’t really think of many benefits that are aimed at mages. But anyways, this is a great guild and we also have feasts where the lowbies are welcome to join. You get to meet many high levels there.”

  Rum considered this, evaluating the worth of signing. “Let me just read it myself, and see if it’s something for me. Is it this paper here it?” he picked up the first paper roll which’d been spread out on Elrith’s backpack. “This is about the guild membership?”

  “Yeah, that’s the one. There’s also one here about the probationary membership with my party. And there’s another one for you to report your party membership to the guild.” She held up the two other paper rolls.

  Rum quickly read through all the paperwork. Nothing particularly bad stood out to him, besides a guild initiation fee of one gold which he had to pay within a month of joining, a duty to report loot to the guild with an accompanying ten percentage guild tax on the market value of the loot, and a duty to report annually for an assessment of character level. Interestingly enough, people below level twenty were exempt from reporting loot and paying guild tax for the first two years of their membership, as long as the loot wasn’t particularly valuable. Probably part of the mass-recruitment initiative Elrith talked about.

  Rum signed all the paperwork. He also promised Elrith to go visit the guild headquarters in The Mecha-Gnome Quarters, which was also nicknamed The Iron City, from its architecture with widespread use of metal as building material.

  And thus, with paperwork signed, guild membership to be made official, and probationary membership in a dungeon crawling party established, Rum and his new buddies-to-be continued down the highway. Unfortunately for Rum, he discovered that it was much more than a day’s walk. And he had no food, and nothing to sleep on.

  Being an experienced hobo, these were not major obstacles to him, but it wasn’t as if he enjoyed begging his new party for food either, or sleeping with only his robe to cover him, under the stars.

  At a some point their journeyed crossed over into grasslands, and then they reached a forest. And from there, they finally arrived: at the mouth of Jorteg’s Dungeon.