The trip out of the dungeon was a lot less arduous than getting in, as there were many paths that would lead back out into the desert. Each of the exits were under guard by the Whispers guild, where those who don’t have an entry agreement with them like Eternia did were required to pay a dungeon fee, which was calculated based on the value of the items they looted from the dungeon.
Before lining up to enter the dungeon, each person would need to submit their bags for inspection by the Whispers, who would list off the items contained within. Upon leaving the dungeon, they would again need to have their bags checked, during which the attendant would calculate the estimated value of the loot. If you refused to submit your bags, then you were either denied entry into the dungeon or killed if that refusal came after exiting. As a member of the Eternia guild, our bags were exempt from inspection, with the guild paying a set amount of gold per person accessing the dungeon.
That didn’t mean we got to keep all the loot we gathered in the dungeon. On our return to the guild, teams were required to submit our loot to the encampment's treasury team. They would determine the value of the loot, and give the team the choice of picking out twenty percent worth of items or taking the equivalent in gold. If a member wanted a particular item that would equate to more than our share of the loot, then we were given the option to pay the difference or place that item on ‘tab’, forgoing our share of looted goods until the item was paid off.
While the system worked for the most part, it wasn’t without its flaws, and it was an accepted fact that occasionally some items would be undeclared when reporting to the treasury department. The guild was willing to turn a blind eye to such actions, provided it was not done too frequently and the total items declared were of higher value than what was kept.
As we made our way back to the encampment, I walked near the back of the group so I could talk with Dorian, the other group's healer, about Kip’s revival. He’d once mentioned in the past that such a thing was possible if it was soon after the death occurred, but I was curious as to the nature of the revival magic.
“Revival magic isn’t something that anyone can learn, and I can only perform it once a week. You’re lucky that today just so happens to be exactly a week since I last revived Bastian.”
“What determines if someone can learn revival magic or not?”
“The ability to revive is a blessing granted only to clerics of certain gods who are in good standing with Celeste, goddess of new beginnings. Revival is part of her domain, after all,” Dorian explained, and I furrowed my brows in confusion.
“Is Celeste really that important?” I asked, causing the healer to nod solemnly.
“Celeste is an elder deity, and wife of Aither, god of creation. It was Celeste and Aither, who began the creation of Kaledon. They rule the pantheon of light, while their son, Anubin, god of corruption, ambition, and dark magic rules over the dark Pantheon,” he informed me, his voice taking on a reverent tone.
“And your patron Vēdiovis? How does he fit into the lore?”
“Vēdiovis is the youngest of Aither and Celeste's three children. The oldest is Anubin, followed by Sirène, goddess of wind and sea.”
“Do you have any books on the different deities?” I enquired, ignoring the sudden throbbing pain radiating from the sigil fused into my left palm.
“No, most knowledge is verbally passed on through sermons in the temples. Religious texts are only available to the highest ranked members of a deity's clergy.” Dorian explained.
What is with people and hoarding books? There wasn’t even a public library in Caruan, and according to Darius there is no such thing outside of the magic academies. Knowledge should be freely available for all who wish to learn, lest we stagnate as a society! Scowling, I tightened my grip on the handle of my wagasa, loosening my hold slightly when it released a soft squeak of discomfort.
Oops.
On our arrival to the encampment, we split off from Roderick's team, as they claimed to have no loot to declare, having only entered the dungeon with the intent of killing the boss. They would be reporting directly to Corvus with their own Pharaoh headdress, which they’d claimed from the body after the boss’s second death. Before leaving, Roderick assured us he would inform Corvus that we’d already been present in the boss room, having killed the boss once and had nearly finished it off the second time when they arrived. Though, if what Pia told me was true, his comment about us being close to killing the boss was at least a little bit of an embellishment, considering the dire situation the rest of my team had been in when his team arrived.
Handing Kip the bag I’d packed my dungeon loot into, I stood off to the side as the dwarf took our group's bags over to the guild member from the treasury department. The treasury check-in location had been set up in the first level of the underground encampment, which was also being used as a guard barrack. As it was a requirement that we sign in and out with the guards when leaving the encampment, Darius decided that having the treasury team stationed there would be more prudent than having them in a room further down.
All the items collected would be stored in a specially enchanted storage chest, and later transferred to the vault room, which presently was only able to be opened through transmutation. Until Noctus and Tink arrived to properly secure the vault, Darius wanted to take no chance of anyone unauthorized getting in, so he had me seal the room's entrance with a thick wall of stone. There wasn’t much in there at present, just a few storage chests filled with unsold loot, but according to Corvus it was still nearly two hundred thousand gold worth of items.
“All bags must be submitted for inspection, no exceptions.”
“Her bags are exempt, but, feel free to ask her yourself if you don’t believe me. Just don’t come crying when she burns you to a crisp.”
My ears twitched in response to Kip's exchange with the treasurer, and I let out an annoyed sigh as a slender man wearing a deep maroon tunic, with gold trimming approached me with a scowl.
“Don’t even,” I drawled, giving the elf a glare.
I wasn’t in the mood to argue with this man, or anyone about my personal bags. My possessions were not something open for inspection, something which Darius was fully on board with considering the nature of some of the items I owned. To exploit this arrangement, my team had loaded almost all of the mana crystals, and a few items they wanted to keep, into my personal bags. I didn’t mind being the team's mule, as the items weren’t worth more than the total amount of the loot we were handing in, and I already had an agreement in place that any mana crystals I personally found were mine to keep for the lab.
“You..”
“Am not in the mood for this, go away.” I said, waving him away with a tired sigh. Why so much drama? Just go do your job so I can get back to my lab and sleep.
“There are no exceptions to the rules, all guild members who take part in a dungeon raid must submit their bags for inspection,” the elf declared, his cheeks becoming flushed as he scowled at me.
I’m pretty sure everything about me is one massive exception, I thought with a pang of amusement. I wasn’t a fool, and neither was Darius. We both knew I was more valuable to the guild than they were to me.
There were dozens of guilds who would bend over backwards to have me join them, even the Whisper’s guild leader had sent me a very tempting offer to jump over to their guild. Poor Noctus almost had a heart failure when I showed him the note that mysteriously appeared in my lab, offering me a monthly stipend of a hundred thousand gold, inclusive of any alchemic components I desired. The resulting negotiation of my monthly lab budget was an interesting one, and while the guild weren’t able to match the Whispers' offer, I was happy with the outcome. In truth, I didn’t want to join another guild, I doubted I’d have the same freedoms I did elsewhere even if I was considered a valuable commodity.
“Look, I get that you’re trying to do your job. But I know for a fact that the treasury workers were informed my bags are exempt, as the woman who was here when we signed out mentioned it before we left.” The elf looked ready to explode in anger hearing this.
What is his problem? It’s not like the world is going to end if he doesn’t check my bags, and I’ve made more money for the guild than anything my team picked to keep out of the loot.
“Craftmaster Kadia has it correct, Helvara.” A woman called out, and I saw it was the same female guard I’d encountered a few times around the encampment.
“Just being a Craftmaster doesn’t grant anyone an exemption, everyone should be treated the same!” Helvara, shouted, looking even more angry now.
“I’m not ‘just a Craftmaster’, I’m the head alchemist, and my bags are exempt because of the highly volatile nature of the items within them. But, if you’d like to put your life, and that of everyone here on the line, by all means.” I said, giving the elf a sweet smile as I pulled the smallest of my bags off my belt.
“Here, take it.” I crooned, staring into the elf’s eyes as I held out the bag.
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“Put the bag away Kadia, and Helvara, report to Carmen. You’ll be assisting in the stock yards for the rest of the day,” A voice called out, as a golden-haired Bakeneko strolled into the room.
“Sir, I --”
“I know what you were doing Helvara, and you know that you are in the wrong. There are many ways this could have gone, and you chose the wrong one.” Corvus snapped, eyes glaring coldly at the elf who lowered his head in response.
Well, now that’s interesting. Clearly there’s something I’m missing, I mused as I fought back a yawn. When was the last time I slept?
“You will need to wait for another member of the treasury team to arrive to submit your loot.” The commander informed Kip, who nodded silently in response.
“Kadia and Victoria with me. The rest of you, go about your personal business or assigned tasks if you have them.”
“I’d rather go nap,” I grumbled as I followed Corvus down into the encampment with Victoria.
“And I’d rather you didn’t kill your fellow guild members,” The lion responded blandly.
“I was bluffing, there isn’t anything in that particular bag that would kill him,” I replied, stroking my fingers over the bag, which gave a slight, barely noticeable shiver in response to my touch.
“I was talking about the team you flash fried in the dungeon.”
“Huh, last I checked we didn’t have any members of The Primordial Brotherhood in our guild.”
“Explain.” Corvus demanded, coming to a stop and spinning around to face us.
“Can it wait till after my nap?” I asked, covering my mouth to hide a yawn.
“Sir, we encountered a team of players from The Primordial Brotherhood in the dungeon. After identifying them, Foxy deployed a smoke bomb and thunderclap bomb alongside her wisp to attack the opposing guild.” Victoria reported formally.
“Thunder crack bomb,” I corrected as we reached the gathering room.
As we walked across the room, I attempted to divert towards the hallway that led to my lab, but was foiled by Victoria’s firm hand redirecting me towards the hall where the command offices and meeting room were located. I expected Corvus to lead us into one of the offices, but he continued down the hall to the meeting room. Entering the room behind the Bakeneko, I found Darius, Roderick and surprisingly my brother all seated around the large stone table.
Oh, this doesn’t look good. Deploy distraction!
“Markion, Markion, look!” Rushing over to my brother, I stopped a few feet away from where he sat and spun around, wagging my two tails in wide arcs.
“You got your second tail!” My brother exclaimed, a broad smile shattering the previous stern expression he’d been attempting to keep affixed to his face.
“You said I’d never get it at the rate I was going, but I did.” I informed him smugly, as I spun back around to face him.
“While we are all happy that you’ve achieved this milestone in your growth, celebrations will need to wait until after we’ve discussed the matter at hand.” Darius called out, cutting off my brother's attempts to deny he’d ever said such a thing.
“Oh, right! I guess you wanted to talk about the treasure room.” I said, nodding my head enthusiastically.
“I was referring to the unprovoked attack on,” Darius began, but I quickly cut him off.
“Unprovoked! How can you say that? After what The Primordial Brotherhood did?” I proclaimed loudly, waving my hands in the air with a dramatic flare. “I was only doing what any of you would have done if given the opportunity.”
“What?” The guild leader looked confused by that, and I internally cheered, before proceeding to tell the gathered commanders in great detail about how I’d taken a justified revenge on the guild of land thieves.
“Holy shit, sis. If we weren’t already debating whether to send out a kill on sight bounty for the brotherhood we’d definitely need one after this.” Markion joked, his green eyes dancing with mirth.
“A kill on sight bounty? How much is it? I killed seven of them,” I said, looking to Darius who merely shook his head with a sigh.
“A hundred gold each for low rankers, and five hundred for the officers,” Roderick announced, a wide grin on his red scaled face.
“Well, I’m not sure if any were officers, but the guy who was getting all smug and uppity with Darius was there!” I informed Roderick, and the room fell silent for several seconds before all four men burst into laughter.
Even Darius and Corvus, who’d been doing their best to keep their stern demeanors intact, were unable to hold in their laughter.
“Chronos, the great leader of The Primordial brotherhood, wiped out by a two tailed Kitsune!” Corvus wheezed, leaning on the table for support. Seriously? He calls himself Chronos? That's so lame, but I guess now the whole Primordial thing makes more sense.
“I only had one tail when I killed them,” I reminded the men, causing a fresh wave of laughter to fill the room.
As the commanders continued laughing, I looked over to see Victoria watching the scene in wide eyed silence, and gave her a thumbs up. See, I told you I had this, I mouthed at the Kijo, who gave a silent shake of her head in response, her lips twitching into the barest hint of a smile.