-- James --

I picked myself up off the floor still laughing. "So tomorrow then?"

Violet huffed. "Yeah"

"Just remember he's going to try to butter us up." Bay chimed.

"It'll be fine," I said waving away their fears.

"James," Violet said tersely.

"What?"

Violet just glared.

I rolled my eyes. "Fine. I'll defer to you if I get too excited."

"All I ask." She said satisfied.

The rest of the night we all discussed our experiences in the crystal, and I was surprised to find we had all reached level 25. We were much stronger than we should be, and we all knew it. None of us could argue that there were benefits to what we went through, but none of us was sure it was worth it. Right now we were all clumsy with our newfound power, as evidenced by the 2 glass cups I shattered, and Bay sneezing discharging a bolt of energy. Once we fully acclimated we'd be a force to be reckoned with.

It was only a couple of hours till dawn when we all drifted to our beds. We had spent much more time than I realized catching up. Before I headed to bed Violet pulled me aside

"James, I don't like this." She said concerned.

"But you said we should do it?" Why is she bringing this up now?

Violet looked frustrated. "I know, I think it's a good idea. But something about this stinks."

"So has everything since we graduated."

"Look. If this show is so popular how come we've never heard of it?"

"You know they kept the information away from us."

"Yeah, but we've been out for nearly 2 years and heard nothing."

I thought back trying to think of anything that might have given the show away. I shook my head. "Maybe we missed it."

"There was nothing on TV. No merchandise that I could find. Nothing."

"Maybe they stop selling merch when the season ends." I guessed.

"That doesn't make sense James, you don't just stop selling merch. They become collectible and worth more. If anything there should be more merch before the show starts."

"Ok. I'll admit it's weird but everything has been funky for the last 2 years"

Violet interrupted. "Also did you know the entire network is filtered?"

My eyes widened. "What?"

"Yeah, for the important information you have to go to the library and even they have limited info on this."

I leaned in closer now both concerned and curious. "What did you find?"

"The quest, a list of questers, and how far they got. And I had to be level 20 to even find that."

I locked onto one thing she said. "What do you mean locked out."

She laughed. "Even the library has locks on it, and can only be accessed at certain levels. It's like we're being pushed to hit 30 as soon as possible."

"Why would they want that? I mean that could take decades."

Violet sighed "I don't know."

"Was there anything else you could find, other than there were people?"

"I did but that book was locked till level 30."

"Wait, with the time limit"

"It all but assures we can't read it before time runs out." Violet finished for me.

"Then it must have the answers," I concluded.

"Yeah. Just stay on your toes tomorrow, we'll join and all, but if I smell anything fishy we are out."

I had to agree with Violet, she was making too much sense, "Did you talk to the others?" I asked.

"Yeah. Bay agrees, but she will want to push to the end. You know her she'll need to know. Rowan thinks I might be paranoid."

"I hope you are."

"Me too."

The next morning we made our way to the mayor's mansion. The journey was quiet, more from how early we awoke than to nerves. None of us knew what to expect as we walked. The journey was calm, smooth, and too easy. No one got in our way, in fact, the streets were sparse, making our journey even quicker.

I felt that after everything, something should happen, someone getting robbed and we are the only ones to help. Or we take a wrong turn into the wrong neighborhood. Or just something you'd see on TV. It was all just so...mundane.

Eventually, we reached the gate to be greeted by a serious man with a dark mustache in butler attire, who opened the gate. "Welcome. The mayor is expecting you."

"How did you know we were coming?" Violet asked in a clipped tone.

"We have our ways." The man smiled like a predator spotting its prey.

"I bet you do." violet said stomping past the man and heading to the front entrance. Were she stopped and tapped her foot impatiently for us to catch up.

The butler chuckled as he led us into the mansion where the mayor greeted us excitedly "So happy you all decided to join!" He put his arm on my shoulder guiding us into a conference room.

Entering the room, we saw a large screen turned off and a large table with stacks of paper in front of each seat. We all tentatively took a seat on one side of the table whilst the mayor sat on the other side. Once we were all seated the Mayor clapped his hands excitedly. "By the fact that you are all here and the looks you have I see you all have come to a decision."

"Yes, we have," I said.

"Since you're so calm. Can I assume you all agree?" The mayor had a glint in his eye as he asked.

I didn't know what to add but was save by Bay. "We have conditions."

"Of course." The mayor said cheerfully leaning forward.

"First what does this whole thing entail? Will there be a camera crew or something? And do we have to do interviews? Will there be merchandise? What is our cut?"

"No camera crew. Things work differently for this, you will all just carry the items that came out of the first egg. Each one will record everything within 20 meters of itself."

"Your talking about the pins?" I asked to clarify. We had received small objects from the eggs from the first quest. They were scales, heart, caduceus, medallion, and a mask when examined the later we realized they were pins. I left mine in my room back at the guild not sure what the others did with them.

"So, we've been filmed since then?" Bay asked.

The Mayor ignored my question-answering Bay. "Yes and No. There is stuff automatically filtered out, nudity and bathroom stuff. But the pins will only start filming after the second quest completes. We will use footage from the second test itself."

"That better be true," Violet said angrily.

"As for everything else. Merch will need to be pre-approved and will be negotiated at that time. Interviews would be something nice, but you don't have to do them to participate in the quest. Although, lots of money and free stuff the more you do and better-negotiating terms. So I do recommend it. And as for your cut, you'll be paid per episode you appear, and how long you are in it. The pay starts at gold an episode each, and will increase the more popular it is."

"We will not do anything unethical," I added.

The mayor chuckled. "Well, that's obvious. We can't have hero's do evil."

"We want the right to stop at any point no questions asked," Violet demanded.

"Ok, but I will still ask, curiosity and all. It will be up to you to answer or not. Anything else?"

I thought of something else. "We want to know what happened to Aster. Also, will he be included in this, because he should be."

"..." The Mayor paused, my question seeming to throw him off. "Why would you want the fool?" He asked annoyed.

"He is not a fool and what's your problem with him?" Bay asked angrily.

The mayor quickly backpedaled. "It's not that I have a problem with the boy himself."

"Then what?" Bay asked sternly.

The mayor sighed. "Look I've been through a couple of seasons of the show, and my last couple seasons. The fool completely screwed my team over!"

"How?"

"They were either incompetent or scheming to become the star. And they weren't the type of people that our audience wanted to root for."

"That doesn't sound like they screwed them over." Bay calmly stated.

"You'd think that, but they would plot to slow the team down, or to fumble a quest here and there. Or they would even push their teammate to their deaths. The incompetent ones just slowed the team down to the point they would fall so far behind that we couldn't get any sponsors or interviews. I lost so much money because of them, to the point I've learned it's better to not have a fool in the party at all. They are optional anyway."

"Wait. How are they optional?" Bay asked.

"You need at least 4 people and the fool is not considered important to the prophecy stuff. In fact, the quest will attempt to pit him against you at some point."

"That's fucked up," Rowan commented.

"It's supposed to be a test."

I still didn't understand. "What is even the point of the quest?" I asked.

"No one knows, or if they do. They aren't saying. All we know is if someone finishes something big is going to happen." The Mayor explained.

"Good, or bad?" I asked, although didn't know why it would be bad.

"We hope good. This whole quest was something left by the Keepers before they disappeared."

"That's...actually reassuring," Violet said thoughtfully.

The Mayor looked a little nervous as he asked. "So are you guys still in?"

I looked to the rest of the team to see them all nodding, so I answered. "I would say we are."

"Excellent." The mayor pulled out another egg. "This will be your next quest."

I took the egg and tried to pull up the screen, but nothing happened. I looked over questioningly at the Mayor.

"The screen will activate automatically when something worthy of a hero appears." He said cryptically.

"How does it know?" Bay asked taking the egg from me.

"Magic." Bay looked at the mayor with a disapproving glare. "Seriously, we don't know. It just does."

"What about the reality show? How will they distort our actions for their narrative?" Violet asked sardonically.

"That's the best part. They won't?" The Mayor said excitedly.

"What do you mean? How could a reality show not? It's what they do."

The Mayor took on a lecturing tone. "Ah, not for this. This show will go for the next 18 years and while we could keep up some narrative for that long. It is much easier, and cheaper to just show the most interesting teams."

"So we might not even show up?" I asked.

"You will definitely show up at the beginning, but the show has run for so long because they always end up doing interesting things. And there are enough teams, that everyone ends up competing, making it even better, and because it's real, everyone loves it.

"What kind of support do we get for this?"

"Whatever we can scrounge up. I'm not allowed to fund you directly, but we can accept sponsors who can provide information, items, or clothes. We'll have to wear their brands but the support will be worth it."

I looked over to Bay to see what she thought. "That's...not too bad I think. Do we have to do a promotional tour or anything?" She asked.

The mayor was surprised. "Surprised you know about those."

"We have TV at home."

The mayor smirked. "Sure, yes there are usually a few talk shows you guys will go on before the first airing."

"And when is that?" I asked.

"Now that you are all out?" The Mayor paused to think. "Probably...another month or 2. They still need to edit the footage."

"Anything else?"

"Paperwork!" For the first time, I looked down at the stack of papers.

"What?"

"Paperwork. You all need to fill out some paperwork." The mayor said gesturing to the papers in front of us.

The next couple of hours we read and filled out the contracts. By the time we finished filling it out my brain was gone.

I was in such a fugue state, I didn't even remember when we left. My mind kicked back on when we made it back to the inn.

"This is all a bit much isn't it?" I asked.

"Yeah, but it's going to be fun," Bay said excitedly.

"Can't argue with that." Rowan looked uncomfortable. "Rowan, what's wrong?"

"I don't know how I'll do with big crowds." I had forgotten about the fact he was always feeling the emotions of everyone around him.

"Don't they sell dampeners for your class?" Bay asked.

Rowan looked uncomfortable as he answered. "They do, but it's not fun to use. It's like cutting out one of your senses."

"That sounds unpleasant." I stated.

"It is but we need to get famous first." Rowan sounded hopeful.

I laughed. "Right you are. Fame first then we'll revisit the dampener, who knows maybe we can find one that works for you."

Rowan gave a noncommittal shrug.

I held up an empty cup. "To fame!"

"To fortune!" Rowan added.

"To Adventure!" Violet cheered.

"To knowledge!"

I looked over to Bay. "To knowledge?"

"What it's not like I said something weird." Bay's face turned red.

"She's right! To Knowledge!" I yelled.