The Hub was loud, and Boran was glad about it.
He sat on the low stone steps at the edge of the main plaza with his back against a column. His shield lay flat on the ground next to his boot. He had not been able to keep it on his arm the whole way here, so he had carried it against his hip like a tray.
He had come out of the Pit about forty minutes ago. He had not eaten. He had not talked to anyone. He had walked to the plaza, found a step, sat down on it, and stayed there.
There was a small blue dot blinking at the corner of his vision.
He rubbed his face with both hands and opened it.
The screens came all at once, stacked on top of each other, and he had to push the first three aside just to read the one underneath.
[Note: Mission completed solo. Recommended party size was four.]
[Reward: 3,000 XP]
[Reward: 600 Gold]
Six hundred gold. He had seventy-five before this. He had spent four days being careful about a single copper and now there was six hundred gold sitting in his window like it was nothing.
He laughed, once, and immediately regretted it because of his ribs.
The next screen pushed forward on its own.
[Total XP: 8,000]
[Level 4 requirement: 4,000 — reached]
[Level 5 requirement: 10,000]
[New Level: 4]
[Unclaimed level rewards: Level 3, Level 4]
Two things had dropped from the boss. He had scooped them off the floor on his way out without really looking at them and shoved them in his inventory.
He took them out now and held them in his palm.
The first was a piece of stone about the size of a walnut, gray, with a thin vein of gold still running through it. It was warm.
[Guardian Core Shard]
[Rarity: Rare]
[Type: Shield Material]
[Use: Upgrades the Stone Form of a bound Adaptive Shield.]
[Cannot be used: Stone Form not unlocked.]
Boran turned the shard over. "I need to buy a pickaxe."
He put the shard back in the inventory.
The second thing was a necklace. A dark iron chain, heavier than it looked, with a flat setting at the bottom of it. Set into the iron was a small curved piece of gray stone with three short broken points along its top edge.
Boran knew that shape. He had spent a long time looking up at it.
[Pendant of the Eternal Guardian]
[Rarity: Rare]
[Type: Accessory — Neck]
[Constitution +3]
[Note: A shard of Mur-Azar's crown, set in iron.]
He put it on and dropped it under his shirt. The stone was cold against his chest for about two seconds and then it was not cold anymore.
[Accessory equipped]
[Constitution: 17 → 20]
[Maximum HP: 85 → 100]
[Stamina: 34 → 40]
Fifteen health from a rock on a string. Constitution was five health a point. He had known that since the first day and it had never stopped being the only number he cared about.
He went back to the level rewards.
[Level 3 rewards]
[+5 Stat Points]
[+1 Skill Point]
[Level 4 rewards]
[+5 Stat Points]
[+1 Skill Point]
[Available: 10 Stat Points, 2 Skill Points]
Ten points.
He pulled his knees up and rested the window against them like a notebook.
"Alright. Constitution first. Five into Constitution."
That one was not even a decision. Everything he had survived down there, he had survived because he had a lot of Constitution and a lot of stubbornness.
"Two into Intelligence."
He hated putting points there. He wasn't a wizard. But he needed mana. Maybe things would change in the future, but for now he needed it.
"Two into Strength and one into Agility."
Some strength and agility wouldn't hurt.
[Stat points allocated]
[Strength: 8 → 10]
[Agility: 4 → 5]
[Constitution: 20 → 25]
[Intelligence: 2 → 4]
[Maximum HP: 100 → 125]
[Maximum Mana: 20 → 40]
[Stamina: 40 → 50]
[Physical attack damage: +1 (Strength 10)]
He moved to the skill points.
[2 Skill Points available]
[Skill points may be used to upgrade an existing skill or unlock a new compatible skill.]
[Available Skill Upgrades:]
Fortify I → Fortify II
Taunt I → Taunt II
Shield Slam I → Shield Slam II
Defensive Stance I → Defensive Stance II
Brace I → Brace II
Gathering F → Gathering F+
Botanist F → Botanist F+
Survival FF → Survival F
[Skills Available]
Shield Recall
Material Sense
Boran selected the last one.
[Material Sense]
Type: Utility / Adaptive Equipment Support
Effect: Detects nearby materials compatible with Adaptive Shield form creation within a short range.
Current Range: 5 meters
Passive
"I want Material Sense," he said.
[Skill Point spent]
[New Skill Acquired: Material Sense]
Nothing happened. The plaza looked the same. Then he noticed a thin gray outline around the column he was leaning against, and a small label sitting quietly next to it.
[Cut Stone — compatible: Stone Shield Form]
"I still need a pickaxe," he said. "I am not chiseling the Hub."
That left one point.
"Upgrade Fortify."
That was not a hard choice either. Fortify was the reason he had survived. And Shield Slam damage scaled with defense, so more defense meant a harder slam without spending anything on the slam. One skill, two problems.
[Confirm? This choice cannot be reversed this level.]
"Confirm."
[Skill Point spent]
[Fortify II]
Type: Active — Defense
Mana: 5
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Duration: 15 → 20 seconds
Effect: Physical Defense +5 → +10
Boran let his head rest back against the column and let out a breath. Around him the plaza kept moving.
“Boney, come out.”
Then a window slid up on its own.
[Hub safe zone: summoning is disabled.]
[Bound Skeleton Companion is classified as a summon and cannot be called inside a Hub.]
[Note: Level and upgrades may be assigned now. They will be applied on the next summon.]
“So that’s why he vanished as soon as I stepped out of here.”
Boran sat up.
[Boney Stark]
[Level: 1 → 4]
[Companion level follows master level.]
[3 equipment upgrades available.]
[Select equipment to upgrade:]
[Bone Bow] [Quiver] [Arrows] [Eye Fire]
"Just like that? Because I leveled?"
[Select equipment to upgrade:]
[Bone Bow] [Quiver] [Arrows] [Eye Fire]
"Later," he said. "Once Boney’s out, he can point to what he wants."
He checked his gold one more time.
[Gold: 675]
Six hundred and seventy five gold. He could buy armor that had not been taken off a corpse. He could buy boots.
But he only wanted one thing right now. Actually, two things: eat and sleep.
He picked up his shield and walked toward the Endless Tavern.
Boran stepped inside and stopped, because of the smell.
Roasted meat. Bread. Soup. Spices. Something sweet with cinnamon.
Food first, for once.
Boran found a small table near a wall and sat with his back to it without thinking about it. Sitting down was the best thing that had happened to him all day.
A server came over. "What can I get you?"
Boran did not need to look at the board.
"Roasted chicken and vegetables. And water."
"Five gold."
He paid.
[Payment sent: 5 gold]
[Current Balance: 670 gold]
He could have ordered a kraken skewer if he wanted, but he needed to save his money. He needed to buy better armor, so he still had to hold on to his gold.
The food arrived.
Half a roasted chicken, brown and steaming, with carrots and potatoes around it and a piece of bread on the side.
He tried to eat slowly. He managed it for about a minute, mostly because his ribs punished him every time he leaned forward. Then his body took over. He ate with his hands, tore the bread, wiped the plate with it, drank the whole pitcher of water and asked for another one.
When he finally sat back, he could not remember the last time he had felt that full.
Then he got up and went over to the reception desks.
He joined the shortest line, which was a mistake, because it was the shortest line for a reason. The same receptionist was behind it. Bright eyes, neat hair, and a smile that meant a speech was coming.
"Welcome to the Endless Tavern! Lodging, dining, recovery services, storage, private room customization, team suites, dormitory registration, long-term residence—"
"Dormitory," Boran said. "One night."
She did not look disappointed at all. "Wonderful. Five gold." Then she looked at him properly, and her hands stopped over the interface. "Although. Based on your visible condition, I would normally recommend a recovery room. Two hundred and twenty gold. Enhanced sleep enchantment, mild stamina restoration, muscle relaxation arrays."
Boran actually considered it. He could pay for that three times over now.
"Does it fix ribs?"
"No. It is not a replacement for proper medical treatment."
"Then dormitory."
"Excellent practical choice."
He authorized the payment.
[Payment sent: 5 gold]
[Current Balance: 665 gold]
She handed him a small dark metal token.
[DORMITORY ACCESS TOKEN: C-24]
"Hall C again. Quiet hours at midnight. Hot water gets worse after nine."
"I remember."
Boran went upstairs.
C-24 was a lower bunk, four rows down. He put the shield in his inventory, sat on the edge of the mattress and pulled the curtain closed. The hall went from loud to muffled.
Tomorrow there was a lot to do. A pickaxe. Boots. Armor that had not come off a corpse. Boney's upgrades.
All of that could wait until tomorrow.
Boran lay down flat on his back, because that was the only position that did not make his chest hurt. The mattress was thin and terrible.
Outside the curtain somebody laughed. A drawer clicked shut. Cups touched a table.
He slept through all of it, straight into the next day.
Downstairs the tavern was already full of the morning crowd, people eating fast and leaving faster. Boran got in line and ordered out of habit, without looking at the board.
"Porridge."
"One gold."
[Payment sent: 1 gold]
[Current Balance: 664 gold]
It still tasted like wet paper. He ate all of it and drank two cups of water and sat there for a minute with his hands around the cup.
Boots. Pickaxe. Armor.
He started with the boots, because he could smell his own.
The clothing shop was where he remembered it from his first day. Racks of plain shirts, folded trousers, a wall of shoes in the back. His boots had been through two dungeons, a wolf, a river of mushroom water and a stone giant, and the left one had a split running along the side that had stopped being a split and started being a hole.
He found a pair of proper boots in the back. Thick brown leather, hard sole, laces that were not string.
"Thirty gold," the woman said.
On his first day that number had felt like an insult. He handed it over without thinking about it.
[Payment sent: 30 gold]
[Current Balance: 634 gold]
He put them on right there and left the old ones in the bin by the door. Walking out of the shop felt strange. Nothing was rubbing.
Iron & Oak Outfitters was two streets off the plaza, with the same crossed hammer and branch sign hanging over the door.
The man behind the counter was the same too. Big, thick black beard, forearms like he still did the work himself. He looked up when the bell rang, and then he stopped and looked again.
"You," he said.
"Me," Boran said.
"Huh." The man put down the strap he was oiling. "You came back."
"I said I would."
"People say that." He leaned on the counter and looked him over, and Boran knew what he was looking at. The bandaging, the way he was standing, the way he was breathing shallow. "Where's the shield I gave you?"
"It broke." Boran said. "Before it broke, it kept me alive. So thank you for that."
The man nodded slowly.
"So, what do you need?" he said.
"Two things. A pickaxe, and the armor set."
The man raised one eyebrow at the second part and went to the back wall without saying anything about it. He came back with three pickaxes and laid them on the counter in a row.
“Plain iron head, twenty gold. It’ll last a while—won’t snap after a swing or two. But if you want to make any real money, you’ll need something better.
“And this one’s a steel miner’s pick: four hundred and twenty. That’s a tool you can actually work with, and it’ll hold up.
“And this one is the best starter pick we carry: the Reinforced Miner’s Pick—eight hundred gold…”
Boran picked up the cheap one. It was heavier than he expected and the head was already scratched.
"How much stone will this one break before it dies?"
"Depends on the stone. Probably 50 to 100 hits, if you’re not careless about the angle."
That was enough. He did not need to be a miner. He needed pieces of stone.
"This one."
[Payment sent: 20 gold]
[Current Balance: 614 gold]
[Iron Pickaxe]
[Durability: 12/12]
"Now the armor," Boran said.
"Which pieces do you want?"
"All of them."
The man almost smiled. "Four hundred and fifty for the full set. Helmet, chest, shoulders, bracers, leg guards, gloves."
He went in the back and came out with the set, piece by piece, and laid it on the counter.
"I will knock fifty off it," he said. "You came back. That's rarer than you think."
"No."
"No?"
"You gave me a shield for free when I had nothing." Boran put his hand flat on the counter. "Let me pay full price."
The man looked at him for a long moment, then laughed.
[Payment sent: 450 gold]
[Current Balance: 164 gold]
The man let him use the back room to change. Boran took off the Bone Walker pieces and he was not sad about it at all. He had been wearing dead things for four days.
The leather was stiff and smelled like oil and it fit him better than anything he had worn since he got here. The chest piece went on over his bandaging without pressing on his ribs, which he tested twice before he believed it.
[Leather Helmet equipped — Physical Defense +4]
[Leather Chest Piece equipped — Physical Defense +6]
[Leather Shoulder Guards equipped — Physical Defense +3]
[Leather Bracers equipped — Physical Defense +3]
[Leather Leg Guards equipped — Physical Defense +4]
[Leather Gloves equipped — Physical Defense +2]
[Armor Physical Defense: +22]
Boran stopped moving and read that number again.
The whole Bone Walker set had been four. One defense a piece, off four different corpses. The chest piece alone in front of him was six.
So that was what money bought. He had been fighting a dungeon in garbage.
Then a purple window pushed in front of the others.
[BETA CONTENT]
[Full set detected: Leather 6/6]
[SET BONUS ACTIVE: Physical Defense +8]
[Armor Physical Defense: +22 → +30]
[Note: Set bonuses are new in this build. Wearing a complete matched set grants an additional effect.]
“Thirty?! This is so worth it!”
Thirty from the armor. Six more from the shield. Thirty six defense, and forty six with Fortify up. Yesterday it had been ten.
And Shield Slam scaled with defense, so his slam had just gone from twenty three to forty nine.
The Dark Crawlers that had opened his arm on the first day would not be able to scratch him now.
He came out in his new leather armor set. The man was back at the counter with the strap and the oil.
He looked Boran over once and nodded.
"Fits you."
"Thank you," Boran said. "And not for this. For the shield."
The man went back to the strap. "Don't worry about it. It was a broken shield."
"I had nothing and you gave me something anyway. That is the only reason I am standing here."
The man did not say anything for a moment.
"Boran," Boran said. "That is my name. I never told you last time."
"No, you didn't." The man put the strap down and reached across the counter. "Garrick."
"I will come back when I need something else," Boran said. "I need better gear eventually."
“Then I’ll be waiting for you, kid,” Garrick said. “Come back alive, and come back with gold. I don’t care which order. You’re a rare breed.”
Boran left the shop. He walked back toward the plaza.
He did have one thing on his list. He had a warm gray shard in his inventory that wanted stone, and a shield form he could not unlock without it.
So he tried the easiest thing first.
He walked to the edge of the plaza, to a low wall nobody was sitting on, and let Material Sense do its work. The gray outline came up right away, with the little label sitting next to it like it was being helpful.
[Cut Stone — compatible: Stone Shield Form]
Boran looked around. Nobody was watching him. He took the pickaxe off his inventory, lined it up, and lifted it.
[Hub structures are protected. Damage is not permitted.]
[Note: Repeated attempts may result in a fine.]
"Fine," he said, and put the pick back in his inventory.
So he needed a dungeon. That meant he needed a mission.
The Mission Board took up the whole eastern wall of the Endless Tavern, and it was busy the way it always was.
Boran opened his own window first.
[HP: 24/125]
[Injury: Cracked ribs]
He set the filter to solo missions anyway, just to see, and the board went almost empty. Mushroom collecting, wood chopping…
Then he noticed the other wall.
It was the strip of wall to the right of the Mission Board, and it was not a System thing at all. It was just paper. Hundreds of notes pinned and glued and stuck on top of each other, some of them written on the back of receipts, all of them people looking for people.
Boran read them. Then one of them stopped him, because it was the only note on the wall written in big block letters with nothing drawn around it.
LOOKING FOR A FRONTLINE.
One mission. E-Rank. Ashen Hollow. Boss hunt.
Equal split, six ways.
Level 5 or higher. You must own a shield and you must actually know how to use it.
We are not looking for a friend. We are looking for a front line.
Message the ID below. Do not flirt.
[Contact: Fire — System ID 7741-QF]
“Why not?”
[Boran: I saw your note on the wall. I want the job.]
[Boran: You should know first that I am Level 4.]
That was usually where a conversation like this ended, so he sent the rest before she had a chance to answer.
[Boran: But I am a tank. My physical defense is 36. I have a shield and I know how to use it.]
The reply took long enough that he read the note twice more.
[Fire: Level 4 with 36 defense.]
[Boran: Yes.]
[Fire: Is that number possible at Level 4?]
[Boran: Yes.]
Nothing came back for almost a minute.
[Fire: I am in the Endless Tavern right now. Table by the north window. Come over and show me.]
[Boran: I need some time first. I do not know how long it will take.]
[Fire: For what?]
[Boran: A healer.]
[Fire: We are here until late. Come when you are done.]
Boran closed the window. He was not going to sit down in front of strangers and offer to be their front line looking like this.
His health was too low. He turned around and went to the reception desks.
"Where do I buy healing?"
The receptionist lit up like he had finally asked her favorite question. "Healing hall, east side, past the storage counters. Restoration services, injury treatment, poison and curse removal, post-dungeon consultation—"
"Thank you," Boran said, and left before the list was finished.
The healing hall was a long white room with six booths in it and a line in front of two of them. The prices were painted on a board on the wall.
[HEALING SERVICES]
Minor Restoration — 10 gold — restores approximately 20 HP
Standard Restoration — 50 gold — restores approximately 60 HP
Full Restoration — 200 gold — restores all HP
Injury Treatment — from 150 gold
Boran stood in the line and did the math he had been doing all week. He had a hundred and sixty two gold. Two hundred was not happening. Ten gold for twenty health was a joke when he was down a hundred.
When it was his turn he sat on the stool in the booth. The woman in the gray robe did not ask him what happened, which he appreciated more than he expected.
"Standard," he said. "And what does it cost to fix cracked ribs?"
"A hundred and fifty."
"Then just the standard."
"Chest piece off."
He got the new chest piece off, and she put one hand flat on his bandaging without any warning at all.
Green light came up under her fingers and went into him like warm water going into cold hands. It did not hurt. It itched, deep, in a place he could not scratch, and he had to sit very still and stare at the wall until it stopped.
[Payment sent: 50 gold]
[Current Balance: 112 gold]
[Standard Restoration received]
[HP: 24 → 90 / 125]
"The ribs will knit on their own by morning now," the woman said, already writing something. "Do not let anything hit you tonight."
"I’ll try, thank you."
Boran put the chest piece back on and took a deliberate breath. It still hurt, but it hurt less.
The table by the north window had five people at it and no room for a sixth.
Boran saw them before they saw him. The big one was easy. Plate armor, no helmet, shoulders like a doorframe, working through a plate of chicken with his hands. Across from him a girl had her chair tipped back against the wall with two holsters on her belt and both hands behind her head. Next to her someone in a dark hood was not eating anything and not talking, just watching the room, and his eyes went across Boran twice before Boran even got close.
On the far side sat two girls. One had a staff leaning against the table next to her, sleeves burned short at the ends, black hair tied back and pushed off her face. The other was smaller, tucked in against the wall with her hands in her sleeves, and she was the only one who looked up and smiled at him.
Boran stopped at the end of the table.
The one with the burned sleeves looked up before he said anything. "Are you our guy?"
"That's me." He put his hand out. "Boran."
"Fire." She took it, then looked him up and down. "The note’s been up for six days. You’re the fourth person to message me about it."
"What happened to the other three?"
“One of them was drunk.” The girl with the holsters spoke without opening her eyes. “One of them wanted double pay. The other was a womanizer.”
"Storm," Fire said.
"I'm just telling him."
The big one wiped his hand on his trousers and stuck it out. "Steel. Why don’t you sit down?"
Boran took the hand. It was a good grip. He pulled a stool from the next table and sat.
"Names," Fire said. "Steel. Storm. Shadow." The hood tipped forward about an inch. "And Light."
The small one in the corner lifted two fingers off the table.
Boran waited for the rest, and it did not come.
"Those are not names," he said.
"They're the names you get," Storm said.
Fire did not apologize for it. "In a dungeon you don't shout somebody's name. You shout what they do. It's faster and it works when you're screaming." She turned her cup around once. "You'll get one too, if we take you."
Shadow finally spoke, and his voice was quiet enough that Boran had to lean in. "He gave us his real name. In the first ten seconds."
“I noticed.” Fire set her cup down and looked around the table. “He’s Level 4.”
Steel stopped chewing.
Storm's chair came down off the wall. "The note says five."
"I know what the note says."
"Then why is he sitting here?"
"Because the second thing he told me was that his defense is thirty six."
The table went quiet in an interested kind of way.
Steel laughed, once, with his mouth full. "Mine's nineteen, kid, and I'm level six."
"Mine is thirty six," Boran said.
Steel stopped laughing. "Show me."
Boran opened his character panel and turned it around so it faced them. He did not usually like doing that. He did it slowly.
[Physical Defense: 36]
Nobody said anything for a second. Then Shadow leaned in over Storm's shoulder to read it again.
"That's a level fifteen number," Storm said. "On a level four."
"It's armor and a shield," Boran said. "Thirty from the set, six from the shield. There is nothing strange about it."
Light made a small sound that was almost a laugh and then hid it in her sleeve.
Steel was still leaning over the table, looking at Boran's shoulder guard now instead of his face. "Is that enchanted leather?"
"No."
"Is there something hidden in it? A ring, a title, some thing nobody else got?"
"No," Boran said. "It is plain leather from a shop two streets from here. My class is tank. That is all it is."
Steel put his fork down. "Just tank?"
"Just tank."
"Huh." Steel sat back in his chair. "I have talked to a lot of people in this Hub. Everybody who stands in front of something is something else too. A paladin. A knight with a fire thing. A berserker. I have never once seen a panel that just says tank."
"Now you have," Boran said.
Fire tapped the table twice with one finger.
"Ashen Hollow. E-Rank. The boss is a thing called the Bladewing Skarn. It throws its own feathers, and its feathers are blades. We went in eight days ago. We got to the arena and we lasted about forty seconds. It does not care about armor and it does not care about how fast you are. It hits everything behind the person in front."
"And there was nobody in front," Boran said.
"There was me," Steel said. "For about eleven of those forty seconds."
"Light spent everything keeping him breathing," Fire said. "Then it turned and threw a fan at the back line and I nearly lost my legs. We used the emergency exit. We came out with nothing." She looked at him. "We are not going in there again without a wall. So either we find one or we drop the mission and take a worse one."
"Then I want one thing," Boran said. "An equal share. Gold, drops, everything." He put his hands on the table. "That is all I want."
Fire waited a second, like she was expecting more.
"That is it?"
"That is it."
"That is what the note says," Fire said. "So that is what you get."
Fire looked at Light. Light gave a small nod without taking her hands out of her sleeves. Fire glanced at Shadow, and he shrugged one shoulder, which apparently meant yes. Steel was already reaching for his cup.
Storm took the longest.
"Okay."
"Alright," Fire said. "One more thing. Anything else we should know? Skills, tricks, anything."
Boran thought about Boney.
"A few," he said. "You'll see them."
Storm rolled her eyes. Fire let it go.
"Then we leave tomorrow morning. Sunrise," Fire said. "Portal 07-D." She picked up her cup again. "And you need a name."
"He said his name," Light said quietly. It was the first full sentence Boran had heard out of her.
"He needs the other kind."
Steel studied him for a moment. Then he said, “Well, he is a Tank. So let’s just call him Tank.”
"Tank," Storm said. She tried the word and didn’t seem to mind it. "Fine. Tank."
Boran waited to see if it bothered him. It did not.
"Tank," he said.
He paid for the dormitory on his way up and did not talk to anybody.
[Payment sent: 5 gold]
[Current Balance: 107 gold]
He lay down flat on his back out of habit, then realized he did not have to do that anymore, and turned onto his side for the first time in days.
He messaged William once to say thank you again and did not mention the party, because he was not sure yet whether it was a good decision or a very stupid one that just happened to be wearing armor.
He woke up before the bell and checked.
[HP: 99/125]
He sat on the edge of the bunk and breathed in as deep as he could, all the way, and nothing stabbed him.
"Alright," he said.
Portal 07-D was in the west transit wing. This one was pale orange and the air in front of it was dry and it smelled faintly like a fireplace that had gone out.
They were all there before him, which he had not expected. Steel had a helmet on now. Storm had cleaned her pistols. Shadow was already half invisible against a pillar. Light had a new staff, and Fire had a paper bag of something warm which she offered around and which nobody took.
Fire looked him up and down once and nodded.
She held out her hand and the System window came up between them.
[PARTY INVITE: Fire]
[Accept?]
Boran looked at it for one second longer than he needed to.
Then he accepted.
[PARTY FORMED: 6 MEMBERS]
[Fire — Level 6 — Mage]
[Steel — Level 6 — Warrior]
[Storm — Level 5 — Gunslinger]
[Shadow — Level 5 — Rogue]
[Light — Level 5 — Cleric]
[Tank — Level 4 — Tank]
[E-RANK BOSS HUNT: ASHEN HOLLOW]
Location: Ashen Hollow — Portal 07-D
Party Size: 5-6 Adventurers Recommended
Objective: Kill the Bladewing Skarn.
Difficulty: Moderate for E-Rank
Reward: 6,000 XP, 1,000 Gold — split among party members
[MISSION ACCEPTED]
"Order going in," Fire said. "Tank first. Steel on his right. Shadow wide. Storm and me behind Steel. Light behind me, and Light, you do not step out from behind me for any reason, I do not care who is screaming."
"Yes," Light said.
Steel cracked his neck. "Try not to die, new guy."
"I am hard to kill," Boran said. "It is the only thing I am good at."
He summoned the shield onto his arm. Bone, gray-white, edge like a plow blade.
Boran stepped up to the portal first.
"Tank," Fire said behind him. "Go."
He went through.