Waving goodbye to the Half-Hand Jirango, Logan and his team discussed their plans for the day. Amalia accompanied Logan and Marcus to the city's shopping district, appropriate for their level, to change their underlevelled gear. While the trio had already finished their dungeon debrief, Amalia wasn’t getting a signet change, so she returned to the guildhouse for other activities.

  Expecting a quick trip to the G-Hall, Logan and Marcus approached the counter as a pair. The receptionist pulled out two fancy lockboxes, which you’d normally see to contain expensive necklaces, just more old-fashioned. Opening with a snap, the Spellthief and Devout pulled out their new signets.

  Attached with an interlocking silver chain, the signet was made fully of spellforced gold. It felt much stronger than what you’d expect on initial viewing, with floating magical runes around a fifth-inch, or half a centimetre, from the surface, detailing the number of total quests, and individual adventurer, dungeon, and villager quests the wearer had completed. The top of the signet had their name engraved in bold black, with their guild symbol painted on the back.

  Moving the signet to his neck, the chain opened on its own and wrapped around the back of Logan’s neck, the metal plate falling loosely on his chest. The same happened with Marcus, who smiled at the occurrence.

  As the pair turned to leave, they were met by deafening applause from the other adventurers in the hall. While some showed jealousy or anger, the main portion of the adventurers were excited and happy at the event. Logan and Marcus waved in embarrassment and thanked those they recognised as they left.

  Near the entrance, the board for adventurers was being updated with the newly-assessed rank 30s. Before being able to fully leave the doors, however, the pair were stopped by another adventurer holding a friendly hand out.

  The man looked to be in his early 40s, though Logan could only tell that by his demeanour and the focused look in his eyes. The man looked incredibly good for 40, with no scars, no wrinkles, obviously benefiting from some form of Regeneration as he still had white sclera hugging his brown eyes. His short grey hair had been brushed back to not obstruct his vision.

  “Logan Hall and Marcus Eren, correct?” the man asked succinctly, almost business-like.

  “Yes. And you are?”

  The man pulled on the collar of his leather armour, the typical fit for a Rogue, to reveal a gold signet. “Another goldie like you. Fylson, with the Bisector guild.”

  Logan smirked, knowing what this was going to be about.

  “Mind if we three have a chat? There’s a tavern not far from here.”

  “Sure, we can hear you out.”

  Settling within a rather quiet tavern, the three sat at a table with their drinks, Fylson picking out a piece of parchment and sliding it to the two newcomer goldies. “I would like to formally invite you to join the Bisector guild. We are one of the strongest guilds in the Gauntlet kingdom, comprised of twenty adventurers of rank 30 and above. We regularly take on dungeons ranked 25 to 30, so you’ll have ample access to artefacts.

  The usual tax is 50%, but for your first year, you have 0%. The contract lasts for 2 years. All repairs and lodgings are free; we also foot the bill to exchange your arms and armour whenever you increase your rank, if you do not replace them with artefacts. Our tome permits are also maxed out, and we hold everyone’s tomes in the guild; reading sessions are encouraged between dungeon raids.

  We know you are the Guildmaster and Sub-Leader for the Vip guild, we accept if you need time to swap roles with others to take over your guild as you leave. Your previous guild will also become allied with ours at your request.

  Due to our dungeon activities, many of our members have been promoted to Sirns, and we typically engage in votes with that power. You can expect to become a Sirn at the end of your two-year contract, with the idea that you will sign on again. We will not pry into your dungeon eradication means; however, we will ask beforehand if the dungeons we go to will be eradicated.

  Any questions?”

  Marcus continued to read over the contract while Logan responded, “Do you approach every adventurer who reaches rank 30?”

  Fylson nodded. “Yes. Though, as you can expect, many are already in guilds or are part of the MT.”

  “I see. Sorry to say, I will probably join the others in declining this offer. I intend to expand my guild further. I also don’t intend to only engage with dungeon raids, as I have hunter responsibilities, among other things.”

  Fylson nodded again. “That’s fine. I’ve become accustomed to a decline. Instead, I would like to offer an alliance”, he said as he handed over another parchment. “Our two guilds will enter into a formal friendship. Where appropriate, we will aid one another while out of the capital and will ignore the normal restrictions on involving ourselves in quests. This will also mean you’ll receive requests here and there for members to be loaned for quests that are of especially high difficulty.”

  “So, they don’t need to ask to help, and they can enter the dungeons we are currently in. Normally, they need to ask permission to do so, or just don’t at all”, Logan reconfirmed in his head. “What sort of specifications do you follow for dungeon entry?”

  “We always have at least 4 more members than stated on the quest, and typically never include any adventurer of the same or lower level as noted.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Logan laughed. “Similar to my own rules. With your experience, you know how low-balled the adventurer’s hall can be with their estimations.”

  Fylson chuckled. “We’ve not lost a member in 16 years. Caution breeds survival. With dungeons at the rank we tackle, we expect a lot more aberrant monsters and events.”

  “That’s understandable. Can I ask what other guilds you’re allied with?”

  “Lightbeam, for one”, Fylson answered confidently. “Here’re the others”, he continued as he handed another note to Logan.

  Glancing over it quickly, Logan handed it back and looked at Marcus. The Devout gave a nod to his friend in reply.

  “Ok then. We should be fine to enter a guild alliance with you”, Logan accepted as he signed the parchment.

  Taking it from the new ally, Fylson said, “Thank you for accepting one of my offers. We will send someone over, probably me, to talk with the others in your guild about the alliance and to double-check your members for potential loans.”

  The trio stood up and shook hands, Fylson being the first to leave.

  “Nothing wrong in either contract”, Marcus slyly told Logan.

  “I looked them up beforehand, too. Outside of a harsh tax, which is offset by the work they do, no problems arose. Nice to see another guild taking the work seriously.”

  “So, we’re allied with Lightbeam, Twain Dagger, and now Bisectors. A lot of people to back us up if needed.”

  Logan replied with a smile, “Just have to avoid the unsavoury kinds. But then they’d be branded traitors rather quickly. There’ll just be brash guilds at this rank.”

  “True indeed. With that done, I need to go attend to my own things. See you at the guild later?”

  “That I will.”

  Splitting off from his allies for the remainder of the day, Logan visited the bookshop of Gauntlet. The bookkeeper, Reykeg, followed Logan’s movements as the Spellthief moved between the aisles, using Telekinesis to hover the books he wanted to purchase behind him. It was a funny sight and, thankfully, wasn’t too uncommon for larger shopping sprees.

  Piling the books on the counter, Logan asked, “Is it fine if I buy all of these?”

  Looking at the spines of the books, Reykeg replied, “Another big payday for you then, ay? Looks like… 3 platinum, please.”

  The Spellthief placed the three coins on the counter and had the books fly into his coat, hiding them away in his inventory.

  “Oh, to have the practicality of dimensional containers. It would make my days so much easier. Is that all for today?”

  “I do have some orders to make. Will you be able to acquire these tomes?” Logan asked as he handed a folded parchment to the older gentleman.

  Reykeg read over the order for a while before responding, “Yes. Some of these might take some time, as you know. But they will be put in reserve for you. Would you like an ooran notification?”

  “Yes, please”, Logan said as he handed over two more silver.

  “Have you updated your guild permits to display these tomes?”

  Logan nodded. “A lot of that is in processing or already done. Don’t worry, I won’t break the laws”, he reassured with a smile.

  Logan spent the next few days speeding through the tomes he had bought, engaging with the usual meetings and sorting out increasing his permits for the guild. From the sheer number of books, Logan had mastered all of his spells up to third-level, and made sure to master both Teleport and Blast 2nd.

  Increasing his Safecasting skill to max tier, making all spells non-lethal if he wanted, and Summon Mastery to max, increasing the level cap on his summons by 10. Among other recipe books and general knowledge, Logan had read enough to increase his Reading skill to tier 6.

  Logan’s level limitations on his summons, with all the recent changes, increased to level 25 with the second-level spell and 30 with the fourth-level spell.

  Along the way, he also crafted a legendary variant of the Periapt of Mana, granting him 5 MP per day, replacing his Epi-Ptah Heart that would mostly be re-equipped for crafting purposes.

  One topic of curiosity that popped up during his reading was that of the “other continent” that Logan had heard about in the past. It seemed that many people, and magi, had attempted to reach the rumoured continent that lay far to the west of the one that held Helm, Gauntlet, and Sabaton.

  As no one had ever reached it, the other continent was still but a rumour and many discounted its existence. Combining distance with danger, the idea of putting too many resources into reaching the other continent wasn’t in too many heads. Teleportation was the main theory.

  The furthest attempt made ended around a thousand miles away, far beyond a few casts of Teleport. Even with Logan’s access to MP and slots, it was a daunting task to take on. If he didn’t reach land by the time he ran out, he was just going to drop into the vast ocean and die.

  Full of aquatic monsters, normal ships had difficulties going much further than the coast. Large expeditions required many adventurers, and with the failed attempts piling up, not many saw any reason to sell their swords for the voyage.

  Planar travel was possible, though long and expensive, but the idea of intercontinental travel was still strange. With the planes, people knew of the destination or had items that allowed them better scrying. With the other continent, it was only a rumour.

  Logan’s Teleport spell had been fully mastered by this point; with his current power, he could teleport 300 miles at a time. The main continent was over 1300 miles tip-to-tip; just how far did the ocean stretch?

  Alongside the continent and world of Avanar, Logan did research on the other planes. There were a handful of neighbouring outsider homes. The Demon Realm had the most documentation surrounding it, as demonhood was the stairwell to deific ascension. Comprised of the “civilised” species like Pogo mentioned, and monsters native to that particular place.

  Relations had been neutral between Avanar and the Demon Realm, and it seemed the heroes were sent at the request of some other demons. Something must have gone wrong to have kept them there for so long. With the power the demons had, a portal back should have been easy.

  If something didn’t happen quickly, that was going to be a problem for Logan to fix, with Orichalcum’s idea of him being an Oracle to bring innovation in planar travel magic. But that was for another day.

  --- *** ---