The following day the knights were up at dawn. After their morning run around the mountaintop they portalled into Edomont to collect a fresh batch of contracts. They were dressed in their full battle attire, Valerie in her roughly matching heavy plate and assortment of swords clanking as she walked, while the other three were dressed in similarly themed bright polished steel, patterned with intricate detail, and layered with fine cloth to varying degrees, dyed orange for Sam, red for Judy, and purple for Gavin. The morning sun glinted off their armour as they strode in unison towards the guild.

  “We look so fuckin cool” Gavin said proudly.

  “Well, three of us do.” Judy ribbed.

  “Hey!” Gavin and Val complained at the same time.

  “What? Val, you guys look awesome as shit.” Gavin said. “You're like the cool older sister who's back from uni and wants to hang out with her younger sister's friends at parties with tattoos, and smokes, and drinks spirits, and doesn't give a fuuuuck.”

  “I have no idea what you mean there, you can get your own alcohol. Also, what's uni? Actually, I don't want to know.”

  “You four, come with me.” said a woman with a thick accent.

  Gavin looked around for another group of four individuals she could be referring to. Spotting noone in the otherwise deserted courtyard he turned to her, looking her up and down.

  “Lady.” he began belligerently, “not really sure who you are, but we're off to go do some contracts, and I'm not super keen to jus-”

  “I am deputy director Natalia Venom. I am even less keen on having to wait on a team of level one wardens than you are at being told what to do. So if you don't mind, come this way.”

  “Well, lead on then, I guess.” Gavin said, shrugging his shoulders and following along behind her.

  Natalia led them through the campus, into the administration building, through a labyrinthine series of hallways and into a meeting room. She took the seat at the head of the table leaving the team to find their spots.

  “So.” Gavin began, breaking the silence “What's the story morning glory?”

  “The story, young master Gavin-”

  “Just Gavin, cheers mate.”

  The story, Gavin is that your team name has landed on a list of teams that the guild is sending to the unclaimed lands and no one seems to know how or why your name is there.”

  “I heard the guild was sussing out a deal ro send wardens out there.” Gavin said casually, “so you guys want to send us out to kill some monsters?”

  “That is what this meeting is for. I'm inclined to strike your team from the list unless you can adequately explain why I should let you go.”

  “I'm not sure why we should have to explain how we've ended up on some list. Can the guild just tell us where to go? Sam?” Gavin asked, turning to his teammate who bobbed her head side to side in consideration before she nodded in the affirmative.

  “There are twelve teams being sent out into the unclaimed lands. That's twelve level two and three teams who are the top performing members the guild has to offer. I've looked up your records, and while I can agree that it is impressive for your level, it isn't nearly close to the best the guild has to offer. Your name on this list reeks of politics.”

  “I mean, that'd explain it. But I will say in our defence, when push comes to shove, we haven't met a challenge that could knock us down without getting right back up again, and pushing back harder.”

  “You do want to go then?”

  Gavin shrugged “I want to kill monsters. I want to look good killing monsters. And I want to protect people from getting killed by monsters. Not necessarily in that order, mind. I don't see that it matters where we kill the monsters, but it would be nice going to the place where we could do the most good.”

  “I see.” Natalia said, eyes narrowing. “I don't know what to make of you or your team Gavin, and frankly I don't see it as a wise choice that the guild sends you.”

  “I guess that's your decision then” He shrugged. “Look. I can see our name being on some list looks suspicious, but is there anything in our records that even hints that our team will bend when hard choices and hard work are on the line?”

  “No. But your records do have some irregularities” Natalia said looking at Sam in particular.

  “My guess is someone wants us there because they feel we specifically will do the most good.” Gavin said as if that settled the matter.

  “What do you think your team has

  that any other team we might choose to send doesn't?”

  “Plot armour?” Gavin shrugged.

  “Meaning what?”

  “Well, each of us had been personally given at least one divine power by one god or another. I'm not super clued up on how gods work, but I assume they will eventually call in old favours, until then, I'm pretty sure we're immune from failure. I've died twice, well, once, but the second time was- it is relevant Sam, anyway, we're here and alive, and some powerful entities have an interest in us staying that way.”

  “I see.”

  “Wouldn't recommend the whole death thing, it's not ideal” Gavin said behind his hand conspiratorially.

  “I will take that under advisement.” Natalia said peevishly.

  “So, we going or not?” Gavin said, leaning back in his chair, “because if we're not I'd really like to go collect some contracts.”

  “Against my better judgement I will allow your team to stay on the list. In two hours there will be a portal from the guild courtyard to Westbrook for the eastern teams. Your team will accompany them.”

  “That soon? We're going to have to rush to pack our spare undies.”

  “You are a very difficult team to contact, you would have been informed earlier but no one could track down where you were when we checked.”

  “Ohh, yeah, thats probably because of the fortress Paragon gave me for stabbing Sams mum in the face, shit, forget I said that, anyway, pretty sure not even gods can see what we're up to in there.”

  Gavin said.

  They watched Natalia's eyes twitch as she glanced at Sam again then back to Gavin who held her steely gaze with casual ease.

  “Do not make me regret my choice.”

  “No worries mate. Well, if we're done here.” he said, slapping the table as his team stood in unison.

  “There will be an official briefing at the Westbrook guild, everything you need to know will be explained there.”

  “Cheers mate. Sam, you reckon we have enough time to clear a contract? One more should push you up to rank two right? I was gonna try get there today, but looks like that plans been shot.”

  “I don't think it's wise to leave the city.” Sam suggested.

  “Fine. Let's go get some snacks for the road then.”

  The team filed out of the meeting room, avoiding Natalia's stare, Gavin grinning like a cheshire cat as he pulled the door closed.

  “Gerome?” Natalia asked, glancing to the corner where her old teammate stood invisible.

  “That has to be the single most arrogant man I have ever met.” Gerome said, dropping his stealth.

  “More than Lora Cartwright?”

  “I said most arrogant man, Natalia, no one is worse than Laura.”

  “Reasonable. What's your assessment of them?”

  “The man is a fool, but his team are solid. The level ones all had unnecessarily impressive gear for that rank, did the outworlder make it?”

  “That is my understanding.”

  “Then he is either very good at acting like a fool, or he's a very dangerous fool. I don't know why his team tolerates him, even if he does make them that gear. Did you pick up on anything?”

  “His team has the forged in battle trait, they were using it the whole time to talk with each other. They seemed content to let him ramble at me, they were annoyed that I was wasting their time. The boy might be especially arrogant, but his team have high opinions of themselves as well.” Natalia said.

  “When you've got gods, plural, offering you divine power can you blame them?” Gerome said.

  “I suppose not. Do you think they'll cause trouble out in the unclaimed lands?”

  “I don't know. I do know the guild should keep a close eye on him.”

  “We are. Anything else?”

  “He only told one lie” Gerome said, scratching his nose absently.

  “Oh?”

  “That they'd need to rush to pack their underwear.”

  ***

  “So, why do you think she came at us like that?” Gavin asked as they left the administration building, “trying to intimidate us like that was never going to work.”

  “Maybe she wanted to judge how you'd react not that she'd get any actual answers out of you.” Judy guessed.

  “She could have wanted her interrogation on record, have the guild to be seen doing their due diligence.” Sam said.

  “I think Judy's right.” Val said, “if it was just the deputy director there I'd believe they were ass covering, but when Gavin realised there was a second person in the room that meant they wanted to judge our behaviour.”

  “What I want to know is how you even spotted them?” Sam asked.

  “The deputy director looked into the corner several times after asking Gavin a question” Judy said.

  “Nah, he was using some sort of truth spell to see if I was lying. I kept getting pings from my magical secrets power, like, ‘hey, someone is trying to cast a spell near you, you're not high enough level to actually copy it, but you can try to, you'd fail, but you could try’. Super fuckin annoying.”

  “Sounds like torture” Sam said rolling her eyes.

  “It was. being told by my own ability that I'm too weak to screw with someone is bullshit.”

  “Well, get stronger then” Sam said, putting an end to Gavins bitching at least for the moment. “We don't have a lot of time to prepare, Val, come with me, we'll go get provisions, Gavin, take Judy, pack up the fortress then you two can stock up on food.”

  “Roger roger.” Gavin said, opening his portal back to the fortress.

  There wasn't a lot to do really, mainly just collapsing the fortress and looting all of its contents into his inventory. He had Judy take his lump of etherium, still untouched, into her inventory, tapping out her capacity almost by itself. He worked to deconstruct the deck around their home while she waited.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Taking that etherium in and out of your inventory would be a good way to level your power up. ” Gavin suggested.

  “My inventory power is ranking up at the same rate as my combat powers when I use it to shoot my arrows, it won't help me actually level up faster.”

  “But it will help you get additional utility faster. The sooner you rank it up the sooner you can start absorbing bits of extradimensional pockets. If I don’t grind my crafting abilities when I level up you'll be waiting half a year to get better gear, whereas if I knuckle down for a week I can start spitting out the good stuff straight away.”

  “I get you. Fine” she said, taking the lump of metal from her inventory and putting it back in after it'd crashed to the hard packed ground, gouging up the earth

  “Okay, done. Now, let's go get some snacks for the road.”

  The team met up again an hour and a half later back at the guild. Sam and Val had acquired large packs full of anything they could think of, potions of disease resistance, poison resistance, elemental resistance, recovery, healing, mana. Additional glow globes, multiple lengths of rope of several thicknesses and durability, pots and pans, a ring of water breathing, fire starters and several other items Gavin would have never thought to buy

  They found a bench to sit at and idle away the time, Gavin grinding his bubble shield ability while Judy shot him.

  “Look sharp” Sam announced, spotting an official looking delegation. The team stood as one and walked over to greet them.

  “How's it going mate.” Gavin addressed their leader, holding out his hand to shake. “You're Terry right? Name’s Gavin.”

  “You know me?” Said the short stocky man.

  “Yeah mate, Lin told me about you.”

  “Oh, right, the potato wizard.” Terry laughed.

  “We are on a tight schedule Terrance.” A lanky elderly gentleman clipped.

  “Oh, right. Here you go” Terry said, chastised as he opened a portal.

  Unlike Gavin, Terry's portal power took the form of an ornate golden picture frame with an impressionist painting of the destination beyond, the scene moving and shifting as people moved through the well lit square.

  “Huh. That's neat.” Gavin said.

  “It is yeah.” Terry replied, beaming.

  “If you two are quite done, you are to follow me, I will take your team to the briefing.”

  “Sweet as chief. Have a good one Terry, say hi to Lin for me, you should get her to suss you out with some sour cream and chives chips, they're pretty close to right.” Gavin said as he stepped through his portal, feeling uncharacteristically queasy as he travelled nearly a thousand kilometres in an instant.

  “This way.” The officious man in the grey robes announced, his offsider, a waif of a girl bustling along behind him.

  ‘Rude prick didn't even introduce himself’ Gavin grumbled through the team's telepathic link.

  ‘Please don't start something with him. ’ Sam pleaded.

  ‘You seemed happy enough to let me run my mouth at Natalia.’

  ‘She deserved it.’ Sam said.

  ‘I bet this guy does too.’ Gavin argued.

  ‘He probably does, but he seems a lot more spiteful than the deputy director.’

  ‘Okay, fine, I won't say a word unless he really needs mouthing off to. ’

  ‘I guess that's all we can hope for’ Sam sighed.

  They were shown into a hall with several long wooden tables running its length, a stage at one end. Three teams were already in there when they arrived, sitting as far from each other as possible.

  “Wait here. Once all the teams have arrived the briefing will begin.” Rick the Prick, That was what Gavin decided to call him in his head in lieu of his real name, ordered. “Jasmine, you wait here too. I won't need you until afterwards.”

  Rick turned and left with a swish of grey robes.

  “Jasmine was it? I'm Gavin, this is Samania Starbourne, Valerie Westhart and Judy Hawkthorne. You can hang with us if you want.”

  “Hang?” The young woman blanched.

  “Don't mind him, he means join us.”

  “Yeah, that thing what I said, anyway, those guys over there look like they're not a bunch of cocks, let's go say hi.” said Gavin, leading the way over to the table on the right of the stage.

  They approached the team of six wardens, they were a medley of faces, three of each men and women, with at least four distinct nationalities represented amongst them.

  “What's up guys, mind if we sit here?” Gavin said, taking a seat beside a dark skinned woman with a short shorn head “We're the knights of the round table, that's Sam, Judy and Val, plus Jasmine, she's not on the team, but her prick boss abandoned her with us, so she gets honorary knight status until this is all over.”

  “Uhh.” a chiselled hero of a man stammered while he processed the newcomers, “we're the runic blades, I'm Kaelan, that's Koyo you're sitting next to, then Xavier, Isandro, Freya and Leilani.”

  “Nice team name, you an enchanter mate?”

  “No, Koyo is, we got our name back before she'd unlocked all her abilities and the best we had was basic gear she scribed runes on. We've come a long way since then.”

  “Nice, I'm our team's bodger too.”

  “Huh?” Koyo grunted.

  “I cobble together bits and pieces to help us kill stuff good. Well, Sam and Judy and me anyway, Val’s too cool to use anything I make.” he said, looking at Val who rolled her eyes.

  “Can I see?” Koyo asked, her voice thick and melodious.

  “Sure. Made this one like a month after I got into this world” he said, summoning his spear and handing it to her.

  “After getting into this world?” she said, turning the weapon over in her hands.

  “I'm an outworlder, I've been here like half a year.” Gavin said with false modesty.

  “Well, this is impressive for a level one weapon, you've got some inefficiencies with your enchantment architecture and flaws in the crystal lattice of the mithril edge, your knowledge comes from skill books?”

  “Yeah” Gavin admitted.

  “Nothing to be ashamed of, I wasn't making epic tier items at level one. You don't have a power to inspect item makeup right?”

  “I do sort of, forgemaster’s eye lets me see what stuff does, only just got it though.”

  “Then you've operating from a handicap, do you have anything more recent?”

  “Yeah, here” Gavin said, handing over his soulbound dice.

  “Ooh, nasty” she cooed “I can see some definite improvement there, but you’ve got some flaws in the lattice see here it's not even.”

  “Yeah, I haven’t really had time to knuckle down and perfect anything yet, between adventuring and getting occasionally kidnapped I've only managed to make us the bare basics. ”

  “Well, you probably won't have a lot of free time going forward either.” Koyo said.

  “Did you just say you got kidnapped?” Xavier asked.

  “Yeah, we accidentally annoyed some level three pricks so they kidnapped us and tried to kill us.”

  “How did that end up?”

  “We’re here and they’re not.” Gavin shrugged.

  “Good. You have a power that lets you deal with high level threats?” Xavier asked, interest flushing his expression.

  “I made a big bomb” Gavin laughed, making an exploding gesture with his hands.

  “That also works, Xavier has a spell that can one shot monsters of a higher level than him, but it wipes him out for a week.”

  “Neat, can you show me? I have a power that let's me copy a spell.”

  “What spell is that” Xavier asked, scepticism thick in his voice.

  “Ahh, magical secrets.” Gavin said hesitating, unsure if he should be divulging that specific information.

  “That's not what that power does” he accused.

  “It does when Soliece gives you a divine affinity crystal for it.”

  “Bullshit” Keylan laughed “How did you con Soliece giving you a Divine affinity crystal?”

  “Ahh, what was that one for again guys?” Gavin asked, turning to his team.

  “When you made that giant statue of-” Val began.

  “The thing we shouldn't talk about” Sam finished.

  “Oh, right, yeah, not really in the spirit of the gift, sorry mate” Gavin finished by looking at the ceiling.

  “I believe it. I can see why she would like him.” Freya said.

  “So anyway, about that spell? ahh shit, looks like everyone's here” he grumbled noticing the delegation of teams filing into the room.

  Leading them was a woman that looked every bit the warden Sam aspired to become. Tall, powerful, commanding. Her hawk-like eyes sweeping over the crowd, capturing everyone's attention in an instant. She was armoured up to the teeth in resplendent plate, the ashen steel twinkling with thousands of silver runes that glittered as she strode through the room. Slung across her back was a comically large double edged sword, its blade two concave faces that ended in an arrowhead shape at the tip.

  “Commander Kalista.” Sam whispered.

  “Oh shit.” Val muttered.

  “Who?” Gavin whispered.

  “She's the leader of the wardens guild. Level twenty, she's one of the greatest heroes of the age.” Sam said.

  “No shit.” Gavin said, eyebrows raising “level twenties have like, super human perception right?”

  “Yes.” Sam confirmed through gritted teeth, “so be civil.”

  “No worries, I only piss people off I know I can beat in a fight.”

  “Gavin. I have literally seen you mouth off to three different gods.”

  “Really? There was Soliece and Paragon, who was the third?”

  “You called Florin a prick when you were talking to Soliece and then again to Paragon.”

  “Yeah, I apologised for that though.”

  “No, you didn't” Sam corrected.

  “Didn't I? Ahh well, sorry Florin, you're all good, well, mostly all good, still a little annoyed about that one thing, but on the whole you get a pass.”

  “Your outworlder friend is quite odd.” Xavier said, leaning over to whisper to Val, “is he always like this?”

  “Mostly, yeah.” Val confessed.

  “Hey, sometimes I'm not.” Gavin said defensively.

  “Yeah, Sometimes he locks himself in a room for a week while he ranks up his crafting abilities. You're about due for that again right?”

  “Yeah, actually. It's going to be a bit awkward with the whole diplomatic mission thing. Wonder if they'll be okay with me going on the trip and just doing nothing for a bit?”

  “I'm sure no one will mind so long as you stay in the fortress and don't bother anyone until you can make me some new swords.” Val said.

  “You're going to need longer than a week to get fully rank up your crafting powers to two.” Koyo said with a consoling smile.

  “Want a bet? I'm due to level up like, tomorrow, I bet I can get all of my crafting abilities to max out in a week, seven day week that is”

  “Seven day week?”

  “My world has seven day weeks.”

  “That just sounds ridiculous.”

  “Wait till I tell you they're named after fake gods and not numbered.”

  “Fake gods?” Xavier asked, confusion on his brow.

  “Don't ask.” Val cut in, “Just. Dont.”

  “I'll take that bet then” Koyo said, “what do I get if I win?”

  “One ingot of level three etherium.” Gavin said “but if I win I want some training.”

  “An ingot of Etherium? How did you get a whole ingot?”

  “They don't invite scrubs onto adventures like this mate. Do we have a deal?” Gavin said holding a hand out awkwardly to shake.

  “Yes we have a deal. Easiest fortune I ever made.” she said looking at her team with an expression that said ‘it's okay that I'm scamming this guy, right?’

  Commander Kalista had made her way up onto the stage with her entourage of pencil pushers and hangers-on. Standing boldly before the assembled teams she needed only a glance to silence the crowd.

  “Listen up.” she growled, gravelly voice dripping irritation. “The guild is expanding its influence into the unclaimed lands. We have a deal to provide assistance to the natives, in exchange for letting us open bases of operations in their lands. You will be the vanguard who sets the example for everything the guild can offer. This will be an expansive project, setting up satellite guild halls in several villages as a trial before we expand operations over the whole area. I will say this once and once only. You will hold yourselves to the absolute highest standard. I want zero. Zero, issues with discipline. Failure to comply is not something you want to think about trying. With that out of the way, I'll hand you over to Director Richard Butts.” She concluded, gazing over the assembled crowd.

  Her eyes lingered on Gavin for a moment eying him as he turned beet red, eyes watering as he bit his lip.

  Rick ‘the prick’ Butts took Commander Kalistas place front and centre stage.

  “As you leave this hall you will be given a map of the unclaimed lands and your first assignments. Teams have been assigned to either; setting up the early detection network with a member of the guild of magic users, or contract clearing. If you are contract clearing there is no room for failure, they will be completed within twenty four hours. During this first phase of the operation all contact with the natives will go only through those of you who have attained the fourth guild rank, we cannot afford to upset all of this work by poorly considered words from those of you who prefer fighting to thinking. We will assemble in the courtyard outside at sun down and portal to our final destination.”

  “Does anyone else feel a little singled out by that speech?” Gavin asked.

  “Well, maybe if you didn’t behave like a child then people would stop treating you like one.” Sam said as she lashed into him. “What was up with you when Commander Kalista introduced Director Butts?”

  “You know how Sam is short for Samania, Val is short for Valerie?

  “Yeah, so?”

  “Well on my world Dick is the short name for Richard. The blokes name is literally Dick Butt.” Gavin said, failing to keep a straight face as Jasmine hid behind her hands.

  “You are so gods damned immature sometimes Gavin.” Sam said pinching her nose.

  “Come on, lets go, crowd’s dying down now.” He said, pushing himself up from his seat “Catcha later Jazz.”

  The team filed out, collecting an envelope at the door from a straight cut man who looked like he took his job way too seriously. The knights found a quiet bench out in the guild compound to inspect their assignment. Tearing open the letter he handed the map to Judy for the team to inspect while he read their orders

  “We’re being assigned to a village called Nyümbakka, which is definitely not going to sound really insulting when we try to pronounce it.” Gavin said.

  “There it is.” Judy said, pointing to a spot in the middle of nowhere.

  “Cool, well, we’re on contract clearing duty.” Gavin said.

  “Does it say how we get to Nyumb- Nyümbakka?” Judy asked.

  “No.” Gavin said, turning the page over. “I'm sure it'll all work out. Anyway, here's a list of stuff we need, looks like you bought most of it already, oh, did you get insect repellant?”

  “No” Sam said. “We should go find some.”

  “Should be an apothecary around here somewhere.”

  Their shopping trip was short, Gavin took the time afterwards to peruse the guild merchant's, looking over Westbrook's stock of magic items, picking out a couple of level two items he wanted to replicate. He stopped dead when he glanced at the level three items.

  “Huh. Oh shit.” He muttered ‘Guys, I'm going to spend all our money again.’