No more than a second after Ming had finished speaking, Arek’s ears popped as the air pressure changed. Magus appeared in the center of the square, a large black staff in his hand. He wore the heavy black robes that he’d worn the first time they’d met him outside of Riverfall.

“You insufferable apprentice,” Magus thundered, pure magic crackling and whipping around him. “Do you have no respect for my time? An enormous pillar of light just launched out of Riverfall, but I had to come check up on this incase it was someone using a dangerous artifact…” Magus trailed off as he spotted the trio of corpses scattered around the alley. His eyes flicked to the glowing runes on Arek’s hands.

“Ah,” Magus said. “I see.”

“We were attacked by these people as soon as we left the auction house,” Malissa said, nodding at the corpse beside her. “They gave us no choice.”

Magus used the butt of his staff to turn the man Arek had killed over. The blue veins coursing over his body flared as he saw the insignia of the demon’s face on his lapel.

“I see,” Magus said again, his voice cold. He coughed into his sleeve and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “You need to get out of the city.”

“I wholeheartedly agree,” Belmont said, nodding firmly. “Do you know who these people were?”

“Members of the Howler guild. The guild is massive, and has control of five cities already,” Magus replied, speaking quickly. It was clear that the man wanted to search for the source of the green light, unaware that the cause was standing right before him. “These were low members, from the looks of it. I’d heard that they monopolized the auction house, and I believe they’re making a move on the city.”

“They’re going to start a war?” Malissa asked, distraught. “The adventurer’s guild can’t allow that!”

“Not in the way you’re thinking,” Magus said. “There will be few casualties. The Howlers plan to assert themselves through gold, not blood. They’ve already swamped the markets with goods at a steep discount to undercut the merchants within the city. They’ll kill a few people to make a point, of course. Unfortunately, they’ll likely be very good at covering up their steps. If the guild catches them in the act of killing inside the city, they’ll be done for.”

“Like us,” Belmont pointed out. “We can’t stay in Riverfall any longer. If we try to get the Howlers in court, we’ll end up disappearing. We aren’t important enough for the guild to put all day protection on.”

“I’m afraid you’re correct,” Magus said, grimacing. “I’d do it myself, but I don’t have the ability to remain awake all day. You would be much wiser to depart from Riverfall. However, why did the Howler guild even send hitmen after you in the first place?”

“We outbid them for a recipe in the auction,” Arek said, pulling the box out of his bag. “I don’t know why they stopped bidding on it, though. They spent over five million gold on the Grave Eye thing, so I can’t imagine why they didn’t just drop one thousand on this.”

“They probably didn’t think it was actually worth it,” Magus said. “Those sorts of guilds have a lot of double standards. They might have been told to win the useless stuff on the cheap to avoid wasting money. Even for a guild that size, they spent an insane amount of gold. If they thought you were going to fight over the recipe, they might have let you get it with plans to remove you later and use you as an example.”

“Bastards,” Belmont snarled. “Then they knew who we were. The way the auction was spaced out, even with the darkness, everyone was spaced out so well that you could hear where the bids were coming from. They listened to where we were, but that shouldn’t have given them the exact information on who we were. How did they find us?”

“The Howler’s guild had access to the second and third floor,” Magus said. He let out a racking cough and grimaced, shaking his head. “The magical darkness only obscures those on the same floor and above you.”

“There’s also a chance that the auction house was working with the Howlers,” Arek said, putting the recipe back into his bag and slinging it over his shoulder. “Every time someone won a bid that wasn’t the Howlers, the auctioneer got angry. He didn’t even hide it very well.”

Magus frowned. He pointed his staff at one of the corpses. A beam of white fire so bright that Arek could barely stand to look at it burst forth, enveloping the man and incinerating him completely. Not even ash remained.

“You four get into more trouble in one week than most people get into their entire life. I will do my best to cover for you. If anyone discovers you’ve killed the Howler guild members, you will be in grave danger. You must leave this city at once – I will say that I gave you a second class promotion quest based off unsurpassed skill advancement. That’s the only way anyone would believe I sent my apprentice away for a long period of time.”

“We’re getting to rank up again?” Ming asked, eyes widening.

“I have no idea how that’s what you got out of this,” Magus said, rubbing his forehead. “I suppose I should be jealous of your optimism. To answer your question, yes. If you manage to survive this journey, you’ll likely be more than ready to rank up once more. I am sending you all to Red Mount. The guilds have little influence there, so even they would have trouble tracking you that far.”

The city sounded familiar to Arek, but the orc pushed the thought to the back of his mind. His thoughts were racing and he didn't have time to worry about it at the moment.

“Magus, have you heard of something called a ‘Blessed One’? The leader of this group had green runes similar to the ones on my hands and Ming’s eyes," Arek said. "He called me it, and when I killed him, I believe my runes grew more powerful. That was also probably that pillar of green light you saw.”