“Ready to go Vance?” the young noble nodded as he climbed to his feet. He had been ready for at least a day, but they had waited just to be certain they were fully rested. It wouldn’t do to be in anything less than top shape going into a fight. He strapped on his great sword and hefted his pack, mostly filled with monster jerky they had made the last few days. The supplies they had brought into the dungeon had been exhausted before they had finished their first delve.

Arthur was fiddling with his pack, his solid-looking staff tucked underneath one arm. “I’m ready as well, I wish I could leave this stupid staff though. It just gets in the way most of the time.”

Kira looked over with strong disapproval. “That staff might save your life one day so keep it. Especially at lower tiers, we mages can’t just go flinging spells around all day, a stick on the other hand will never run out of mana. Keep it, trust me you’ll appreciate it one of these days.” Arthur nodded reluctantly as he settled his bag onto his back, and Kira took the lead as they began to trek down back to the boss room.

They continued in silence for a good while before Kira appeared to break down and asked Vance. “So you mentioned living in Olympus, but you never talked about your family? What are they like?” The mage had a slight twinkle in her eyes, and Vance could tell she was teasing him. That was unusual; people who knew who he was usually were too scared of the duke for that sort of thing.

Vance took a deep breath trying to figure out how to describe his family and still have them come off as being as normal as possible. He wasn’t quite sure if he wanted Arthur to figure out who he was yet, shoving his thoughts away he answered Kira. “Well I can quite honestly say that my family is rather large, and most of us are mages. I’m rather unusual in that regard, but my family is quite supportive and I care for all of them.” Even if they became rather condescending after he got his class. It wasn’t his fault. lt he had no talent for mana, but it wasn’t like anyone had bullied him because of it. Just an almost endless parade of offhand comments about his class that still hurt like knives. He knew most of his relatives weren’t trying to be mean, and that their bias towards chi classes ran deep. Vance himself still struggled with that same bias as well, to be honest, but he still wished his family would take him more seriously. One of his uncles had suggested that he become a merchant and give up on combat altogether. At least his parents still supported his desire to become stronger. Even if his Dad’s idea of helping was sending him off alone in the middle of nowhere.

“It must be nice to have a big family, my Mom’s side of the family is pretty big too but I never saw much of them growing up because of how much we traveled.” Kira started getting animated again as she talked about her family, it was quite the amusing change from her normal serious demeanor if Vance was being honest with himself.

Vance let the conversation wash over him as Arthur asked the occasional question and Kira got started on economics again. It was a pleasant way to pass the time as they made their way down the seemingly endless staircase. As they neared the bottom he paused as a thought struck him. “Hey Arthur, we never asked you about your family. What are they like?” Arthur stopped and swallowed hard, looking pointedly at the ground. Vance tilted his head wondering if something was wrong. “If you don’t want to, you don’t have to tell us about them.” Maybe he had a bad family life, he didn’t want to press if that was the case.

Arthur shook his head and resumed walking. “No it's fine, it's just a little raw that’s all. My father was a woodsman and a hunter I suppose whenever he could find something to kill. It was just him and me growing up, he was always ready to teach me or lend someone a helping hand.” The young mage sighed deeply as they walked, scrubbing his hand furiously over his eyes. “He died about a year ago, along with the rest of my village. I don’t even know what killed them, I was out hunting at the time. I only remember coming back and seeing the bodies and the fire, fire everywhere.” Arthur was shaking slightly by the time he finished, and Vance and Kira exchanged concerned looks. They were heading into a boss fight, it would be dangerous for all of them if Arthur was distracted.

Kira was the first to break the somber silence. “I’m sure your father would be very proud of you Arthur, look how far you’ve come in such a short time.”

The younger mage sniffed but kept looking at the ground. “Yeah, you’re right I think he would.” There was a tremulous smile on his face as they continued. Kira fell silent after that, withdrawing back into her serious demeanor, and Vance kept quiet as well, not wanting to stick his foot in his mouth a second time. Arthur was silent as well caught up in memories best left forgotten, memories of death and fire.

Gary threw a rock for the umpteenth time since arriving in the dungeon. It whizzed across the room and thumped solidly into the skull of the boss. The bizarre and frankly quite ugly creature stumbled and toppled to the ground, and one of his guards quickly stepped forward and finished it off. The noble grumbled continuously under his breath, it had been days since they had first entered the dungeon, and he was not enjoying it. “Where are they? They should have been here by now.”

One of the nine soldiers he had brought with him just happened to be close enough to hear him, and stupid enough to think he was inviting commentary. “Well boss, your lordship, maybe they’re deeper into the dungeon. They came in before us, they might have gone straight to the lower floors.”

Unfortunately, the soldier made a valid point, and he was in the same tier as Gary. The young noble was slightly wary of dressing down someone just as strong as him in a situation where he needed fighters, so he bit his tongue and answered the stupid commoner. “Even if they are deeper into the dungeon, they eventually will have to leave. When they do, we'll catch them like that.”

Understanding flashed in the soldier’s eyes and he slowly nodded his head, a smile spreading across his face. Gary had to sit on his hand to keep from slapping the idiot. “I get it now boss, that’s why we're watching both sides of the room. Right?” Gary nodded stiffly, not trusting himself to speak. Fortunately, it seemed the soldier was done talking to him and he wandered off into the rest of the camp.

Gary took a deep steadying breath if they were still here by the time the guild master returned, then things would go poorly for them. Some very uncomfortable questions would be asked and he might even be kicked out of the town entirely. The young noble growled, it wouldn’t matter, hunting the monster would take the old mage ages, and by the time he returned there would be one less Storm in the world. A smile crept across his face as he envisioned the look of shock that the Storm brat would wear once they sprung their trap.

Silas floated an inch above the ground, his face a mask of concentration. He wasn’t the best at this particular trick, he had never really seen the point, to be honest, but now he was glad he had learned the basics, some opportunities were just too good to give up. Carefully he crept closer, holding his breath and moving as slowly as possible so the air currents wouldn’t give him away. Aiden was waiting a little ways back so he wouldn’t give the game away with his crashing boots. The old mage finally settled into the perfect position, and without hesitation struck. “BOOO!”

“Ahhhh!” Silas’ smile was wide and beatifically as Gabriel jumped about a foot into the air. Before he had even landed the younger mage whipped a fireball behind himself, not even turning to look and see who it was. He was a bit put out by that, but it was a good instinct to have so he wouldn’t hold it against the other mage. The fireball pinged harmlessly off his shields as Gabriel spun around, one hand gathering earth mana and the other with another fireball already formed.

“Hey, Gabriel what’s up?” Silas stated calmly with a completely straight face struggling not to burst out laughing at the expression of fading alarm on his one-time superior’s face. The fire in the other mage’s hand sputtered out as he dismissed the spell and his shoulder slumped in relief. There was a crashing sound from a little bit further away and a few knights came crashing through the underbrush to rush to Gabriel's defense. Aiden wandered out of the forest a few seconds later and took command of the knights who had arrived. Silas nodded in approval, they were his troops after all it made sense for him to be in charge of them.

While he had been distracted by the knights Gabriel had taken the opportunity to gather a ball of water. Silas only noticed this fact when said ball of water came sailing right at his face. He could have snapped up a shield to stop the spell but he felt like it was only fair to allow his friend a little payback. “Damnit Gabriel, why did you have to make the water so cold?” The old mage shivered in discomfort swiftly mobilizing his mana to dry himself off.

Gabriel scowled darkly at his antics, not amused in the slightest. “You deserve it you old fool, what were you thinking sneaking up like that? What if I actually injured you?” Silas snorted at that, the same tier they might be but the same caliber they were not. It would take more than Gabriel’s startled castings to hurt him. “Besides, the monster is some sort of ambush-type monster, and thanks to your shenanigans it probably knows exactly where we are.”

Silas felt slightly guilty, they were out and about on serious business and Gabriel’s reaction made more sense now. He hadn’t seen his friend so surprised in years. “Well I’m sorry, I’ll be more careful now. I didn't realize the monster was anywhere near us. Aiden thought that we were still a good few days behind it.” The knight commander glanced over at them before returning to whatever he was doing with the other knights.

“You would think that based on the main trail, but the thing keeps doubling back so we can’t tell exactly where the thing is. We found that out the hard way when one of our tier three scouts got his head ripped off. Fortunately, his partner saw what happened and came back to warn us, and we’ve been grouped together to try and discourage further surprises.”

“So we’re probably dealing with at least a tier four monster if it could take out what I assume was a tier-three chi user with ease.” Gabriel nodded in agreement, and Silas continued. “You, me, and Aiden should try and lure the beast out, but we need to be careful or it might go for the rest of the knights when we’re not there to protect them. Also, what were you doing out here all alone when you knew there was an ambush predator around?” It didn’t seem like the smartest move to him at least.

Gabriel turned slightly pink and looked away. “Well even in dangerous situations we still need to obey the call of nature… Stop laughing Silas it's not funny, I’ll light your beard on fire again old man don’t think I won’t” Silas ran away from an irate Gabriel, making sure to dodge the liberal amounts of fire he was tossing around. They had already made plenty of noise, and if the monster they were hunting didn’t know where they were before it certainly would know now.