They decided Robin should make the initial approach as Riv. Drev was still trying to fix his new ‘mage name’ into his head and Jhess did not have the kind of face that inspired trust. It was a perfectly nice face, but mischief practically oozed out of every pore.

Khavren sat alone. There were a lot of people in the guildhall, but none drew near to the knight. Robin didn’t see anyone else sitting by themselves. He would have expected to see a few loners, but Khavren was the only one.

Was his mother truly so terrifying? Or was it simply the man’s personality? What Robin had seen of it so far didn’t speak very highly of the chances the man would be pleasant to be around.

Robin pulled out the chair across from Khavren and sat down. The knight looked up but didn’t stop polishing his sword. His eyes were a deep granite grey.

Intimidating.

‘Hi,’ Robin said. ‘Nice sword.’

‘No, I will not introduce you to my mother. No, I cannot get you a position with any of her businesses. No, I—’

‘Not here for any of that,’ Robin cut in. ‘My friends and I are looking for a frontline fighter for our group and we heard you would be a good option.’

Robin was more than a bit flustered. This was already not going the way he expected. It didn’t help that he knew the man would have good reason to hate him if Robin were wearing his proper face.

Khavren stopped polishing his sword.

Robin decided to take that as a good sign.

‘You and who else?’ Khavren was all business.

Robin turned and pointed out Drev and Jhess.

‘We’ve a magic-user who is good with both battle magic and utility spells, and a trap-specialist who can also track. I do some utility, provide cover, and can do a little bit of healing.’

‘Sounds like you’re the weak link,’ Khavren said.

‘Ah, but I’m the bard,’ Robin countered, refusing to be baited. ‘I know things. I can read and speak most languages we’re likely to come across, have an extensive repertoire of secrets and lore, and I can keep us entertained to boot.’

Khavren grunted.

‘Fine. Come on. Bring your friends.’

The knight rose from the table. Robin scrambled to follow, gesturing wildly at Drev and Jhess.

The activity drew a flurry of mild interest from the others assembled in the guildhall. Several people looked their way and watched as the trio trailed along behind Khavren.

Khavren was hard to miss. Not only was he nearly six and a half feet tall, he was clanking around in shining chain mail. He also strode through the place like he owned it. People got out of his way as he walked, but Robin could tell by their faces that they didn’t like giving ground. He suspected they did so more out of a desire to avoid being simply walked over rather that out of any respect for Khavren or even his mother.

The knight led them through the guildhall and out one of the doors into the courtyard. It was an inner-square-style affair, a boxy space separated from the rest of the city by the main guildhall building wrapped all around it. There was a small garden at one end, but Khavren led them in the opposite direction, toward what appeared to be training grounds of some sort.

There were training dummies along one side, opposite a row of ranged targets. Some were shaped like the archery rounds Robin was familiar with, and others were more like the cutouts one would see in a shooting range. Though here, the silhouettes included a range of sizes and forms, some humanoid, others more monstrous. The training dummies were similarly diverse.

There were a few people using the grounds, scattered about in small groups. Khavren stomped over to the far end, away from most of the others, and claimed a section by parking himself in the middle of it, arms crossed and glaring.

‘Well?’ the knight said, looking at them.

‘Well what?’ Robin asked.

‘Show me what you’ve got. You don’t think I’m just going to join up without seeing what my prospective team brings to the table?’ He snorted bitterly. ‘I’m not that desperate. I’ll never be that desperate.’

Great. Someone else with a chip on their shoulder. Probably having to do with his mother. What was with the parents in this city? Not that Robin had such a great relationship with his, but still! So far Jhess seemed the best adjusted of anyone in the group.

Terrifying thought.

Jhess, for her part, must have found the request a reasonable one because she had already pulled out a brace of throwing knives and buried them in vital target areas on the closest training dummy.

Robin winced at the one placed just so between the dummy’s legs.

Drev looked a bit more rebellious, but he coolly flicked his fingers and three targets suddenly rocked back from invisible impacts. The mage raised an eyebrow at Khavren, as if expecting him to say something.

The knight nodded grudgingly.

‘Good control,’ he said. ‘Not many people have practiced their force spells to the point that they can cast them invisibly.’

Drev didn’t bother thanking him. He crossed his arms and waited expectantly.

Robin suddenly found everyone looking at him.

‘Most of my combat spells won’t work on inanimate objects,’ the bard said, ‘and I doubt you want me to demonstrate on you, so…hmm.’

Robin pulled his quarterstaff out of storage and went a few passes through some forms against a training dummy.

Khavren did not look impressed. The look on his face definitely said ‘weakest link’. Robin found that incredibly irritating for some reason.

He squashed the urge to show off. That was a good way to lose secrets. The point here wasn’t to grind Khavren’s stuck-up nose into the dirt; it was to convince the man to join them.

They could make use of his skills and then, if they couldn’t work out the personality kinks, go their separate ways after finding the treasure.

‘Got any tips?’ Robin asked. Maybe letting Khavren feel like the big man on campus would work where Robin’s other efforts had failed.

Khavren just snorted again.

Or maybe not.

The knight unsheathed his sword and pointed at Jhess.

‘You. Me. Spar. Let’s see how well you do against an actual opponent.’

It was clear he’d already dismissed Robin. The bard bit his cheek and counted to ten. At least there was a fight to watch to help distract him.

Jhess was good, but it was clear Khavren was better, at least in close quarters. The rogue tossed some blunted daggers, and landed them often, but nothing that would count as a dangerous hit. Khavren was too well protected by his armour. And in close combat he had the advantage of strength, a stronger weapon, and it being his specialty.

Khavren did struggle a bit to corner Jhess, though. The woman was very quick on her feet. She dodged and evaded, forcing the knight to chase after her. Ah! She was trying to tire him out, get him to make a mistake so she could strike at close quarters without getting mown down like so much hay.

It was sort of working. Khavren was in much better shape than any of them expected, however. He wasn’t tiring fast enough. Eventually he cornered Jhess and ended the sparring match.

Without a pause, he pointed his sword at Drev.

‘You. Next.’

Drev chanted a quick spell before Khavren could react, and rose into the air, well out of reach of the fighter. The mage then proceeded to pepper the knight with small bolts of energy to bypass the protection of Khavren’s armour. This proceeded for three minutes before Khavren signalled an end to the match.

‘How much longer can you maintain that spell?’ he asked when the mage returned to the ground.

‘I’ve specialised a bit in efficiency to boost my overall effectiveness, so about twice as long as I was up there,’ Drev answered. ‘When you can only store a limited amount of energy, it just makes sense to make what you can do with it last as long as possible.’

Khavren nodded. Robin took a mental note. That sounded an awful lot like some of the effective-level-boosting peculiarities he’d seen in his exploration of his interface. Definitely worth looking at them again.

The mage and the knight discussed tactics a bit more. So far, there was no sign that Khavren had any objection to Drev—or Dee, since he was using the mage name idea—or the mage’s skills.

Robin was fairly certain he’d be next. Drev had had pretty good luck staying out of Khavren’s reach, so that was probably a good way to go. Robin would have to do it with illusions, rather than levitation, but that was still something he could do.

If he could find a good place to camouflage himself. He didn’t have an invisibility spell, so he needed something fake to hide in or behind. The problem here was the training grounds were relatively open and any odd new addition would really stand out. That made his job harder, but not impossible.

He just needed to get to one of the unused training dummies and make it slightly bigger so he could hide within that illusion. The trick would be distracting Khavren long enough to get there…

‘You. Bard. Your turn.’

Khavren was pointing at Robin with his sword. Robin actually didn’t mind just being called ‘Bard’. It made it less likely he’d slip up on the fake name he was using.

Robin flicked his hands through the motions of [Lesser Phantasm] and conjured a floating ring of stone to block Khavren’s vision, followed by the [Visual Phantasm] of a wall of mist to conceal his movements just in case. He dashed to his planned hiding spot, traded the ring of stone for a larger target dummy to hide within, and let the mist dissolve.

Let Khavren think he’d gone invisible. It had worked with Drev and Jhess. Then, when Khavren was distracted, Robin could hit him with some of his other spells. If he was lucky, a well-executed [Minor Enchanted Slumber] would wrap this whole thing up fast.

‘Cowardice! Trickery! Deceit!’ Khavren roared.

Uh oh. The man was turning purple with rage. He lashed out and knocked the head off the closest training dummy.

Wow. Disproportionate reaction much?

‘Come out and face me like a man, you dog!’ Khavren screamed.

Robin had clearly hit a nerve, and the knight was not reacting well.

Well, fuck.