New Quest: Check in on the adventurers not at the dungeon.

  Most fights were over in under a minute. The epic duels from the stories, the ones where two warriors exchanged blows again and again and again, didn't happen in real life.

  The only way to keep a battle going for longer was to keep throwing new bodies into the fray.

  Living things were fragile. A lifetime of training could be undone by a table corner and an unfortunate fall. A real fist fight wouldn’t have dozens of back and forth exchanges, where each fighter took unprotected overhand rights to the face and kept going. One mostly flush hit was all it took.

  A person's spirit was just as fragile as their bodies, but when a spirit breaks, the body could keep on going. Sometimes for decades.

  Packing and wrapping a person's spirit was as important as packing and wrapping wounds. The Adventurers’ Guild didn't have classes for how to do that, though. Hans wished they did.

  Hans sat in the grass in front of the palisade with his right leg stretched straight. Olza’s thorough approach to wrapping his burn made bending that leg any more than forty five degrees from straight impossible.

  Lee ran sprints from the treeline up a gentle grade to the edge of the trench around Gomi's wall. When she jogged back to the bottom she did a set of burpees, a set of pushups, and a set of squats before repeating the set.

  At the height of her next sprint, Hans waved to get her attention. She held up a finger, asking him to wait. Three sprints later, she emptied her water skin in one long gulp and cast Create Water to fill it.

  “Well?” She said, her breathing beginning to return to normal. “Go ahead. Give your speech.’

  “I wish I had one.”

  “Why?”

  “Difficult conversations are easier with a script.”

  Lee nodded, took another drink, and said, “I'm good.”

  “Okay.”

  “I'm glad you're here. I needed to talk to you.”

  Hans asked about what.

  “I'm going to ask Galad about work in the brewery.”

  "In place of dungeon runs?”

  Lee nodded.

  “Okay.”

  “I expected you to argue. Tell me how I shouldn't be hasty and that I should take some time.”

  “Hmm.” A grasshopper landed on Hans’ knee. He flicked it. “I don't have a clue what you should do. I know if I were you, I'd probably hang up the sword.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. No one would fault you for it either. Not a soul. The only thing I want you to do is whatever makes tomorrow easier.”

  “Whatever?”

  “Ballet, knitting, panflute–follow your heart.”

  Lee laughed and sat down on the grass next to Hans. “I had to do it,” she said, her brief moment of joy disappearing. “He downed Chisel, and two warriors were closing on me. I couldn't restrain Philip and fight them. If I didn't do something, Chisel dies.”

  “Battlefield math.”

  “Yeah. I had to do it. I know that.”

  She didn't have to say the rest for Hans to understand what she was getting at. “I can't give you answers. I can only offer two things: I'm always here if you need something, and no one will think any less of you no matter what you decide. This is hard enough without your mind flooded with bullshit like honor or shame or embarrassment. All of the people whose opinions you respect? They'll back whatever gets you closest to okay, so you can take them out of the equation completely.”

  “Master Theneesa?”

  “You're not sure what she would think?”

  Lee chuckled softly. “No, I am. She has never been guarded about her thoughts or opinions.”

  That got Hans laughing, which turned to a cough when the movement shifted his broken ribs. “Sorry. You're exactly right.”

  Lee bit her cheek and gave a small nod of the head.

  “Alright,” Hans said as he stood, dusting off the back of his pants. “Seeing all this exercise is too much peer pressure for me. Find me if you need me.”

  Lee didn't say anything, but she offered Hans a weak smile.

  New Quest: Ask Izz and Thuz if they would be open to talking with Lee.

  Should have had that idea before.

  When Hans had walked around the wall far enough that Lee was out of sight, he put his hands on his knees and exhaled. He intended to speak with each of the adventurers today, but after finishing the first, he wasn't sure he had the fortitude.

  Forcing himself to stand, Hans walked across the field and into the forest. He could get one more conversation out of the way, and with some luck, she wouldn't even answer.

  Once he was deep enough in the forest that the view of Gomi was mostly obscured, he looked around and spoke to… the trees? It occurred to him he didn't know anything about how the dryad’s magic worked.

  “Hey. I think you can hear me. If you can't, maybe you've got a squirrel friend listening or something who will deliver the message. Right. I hope you hear this: Thank you for your help with the orcs. I'm very grateful for all that you did.”

  Hans stood still, listening for a response. He glanced around and found no pine needles shaped into faces.

  “Well. That was all. …Have a good day?”

  Gods, Hans. Stop being so awkward and leave.

  So he did.

  Hans sat at his desk in the guild hall for exactly four minutes and forty six seconds before the guilt of not talking to everyone today forced him back to his feet.

  Yes, he was avoiding discomfort, but he also had half a dozen guild responsibilities to complete. He needed to send notice to the head chapter about Philip’s death, providing a report of what led to his demise. He'd include notes about the orc band as well.

  Those notes would also be included with letters sent to every “adjacent” Guild chapter, per Guild procedure. Adjacent meant any chapter that shared a border with Gomi. There were four Guild Masters who needed to know that orcs were in the region.

  His compromise: Hans promised to himself that he would find a rider willing to rush his letters to Osare while he did his rounds.

  He found Buru helping a family get their plow free of a particularly deep rut. Petal watched nervously from his shoulder. When Buru was able to talk, he said that Becky talked to him already and that he was feeling better each day as a result.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Even Becky is better at this than me.

  Yotuli was meditating when Hans knocked on her door. She said her faith and meditation were helping her work through the memory. She also confirmed she was able to cast Holy Light in battle. She had been practicing Inspiration for some time, but her attempt at Holy Light was out of pure desperation. She had never cast it before that.

  Chisel sat with Bel at one of the picnic tables outside the Tribe barns, reading a White Magic textbook. Chisel admitted she felt guilty for what happened to Philip, but no matter how much she replayed it, she couldn't find a point where a different choice would have saved his life. Bel had helped her arrive at that conclusion, it turned out.

  Bel was still upset about Philip’s passing, but she believed nothing else could have been done. From her vantage point during the battle, she witnessed multiple moments where any member of the party could have fallen. The death toll for the adventurers could have easily been four or five.

  Her grief was plain to see, but like Chisel, she sounded aware of her thoughts and already in the process of untying that knot in her heart. Hans would check in on her again in a few days to see if that was still the case.

  One of the Tribe families offered Robert and Gootlab beds for as long as they wanted them. He found them sitting on a porch, peeling potatoes. Their rolled up sleeves revealed they both had fresh Gomi tattoos on their forearms.

  When they saw Hans approaching, they both stood and wiped their hands, greeting him with a handshake and a few words about Theneesa sending them to Gomi.

  “Have you met Galad yet?”

  They said they had.

  “Good. So you know you're welcome here for as long as you want to be here.”

  “We'll earn our keep, sir,” Gootlab said. He looked like a completely different person without his bow over his back. “We promise.”

  “I know you will, but that conversation can wait.”

  “Okay,” Gootlab said. “We can do the debrief now if you want. Let's move away from the house, though. They got kids inside. They don't need to hear.”

  Hans insisted he was just checking on them. Unless they knew about other orcs in the area, anything else official could be done another day. They insisted right back, saying they wanted to pull the arrow out and be done with it.

  Their story was pretty much what Hans expected it to be. Theneesa told them to shelter in Gomi. On the way there, orcs ambushed them on the road. They believed that's when the possession started because both of their memories cut out in that moment. They all had a hand on their swords, about to draw, and then total blackout.

  “All?” Hans asked.

  Robert’s eyes drifted to the dirt. “There were five of us traveling together. We don't know what happened to Grizzelle and Duruk.”

  Two more names for Hans to include in his letter to Theneesa. This was going to crush her.

  In the time between their capture and being freed by the Gomi adventurers, their memories returned in what felt like slow blinks.

  They torched a family farm. Killed everyone inside.

  They marched through dense, muddy forest.

  They felt hunger pains as they sat around a campfire.

  They attacked a produce merchant traveling between towns for a delivery. Killed him and his guard and then took his food.

  Then they woke up in the Gomi forest with weapons in their hands. Except for Robert. The orcs took full advantage of his small arsenal of elemental attack spells.

  Hans began to see another layer of the orc attack strategy. Sending tusk adventurers to murder and maim helped the orc band remain undetected. And if a tusk adventurer knocked on your door, you just might feel safe enough to open it without a fight. Or stop your wagon to offer a few adventurers a ride.

  Hans took as many notes as he could and thanked them. Before he could raise his next topic, Robert spoke.

  “Uh, Mr. Hans. We mean no disrespect, sir, but we'd rather not do any guild jobs right now.”

  “We are thinkin’ of resignin’ for good, actually. I mean, actually, sir,” Gootlab added reluctantly.

  Hans held his hands up. “I've never shamed anyone for giving up the life. When it's time to step away, it's time. Ignoring that fork in the road gets people killed.”

  Hans winced.

  That was a dumb as shit thing to say, Hans.

  “Sorry. I worded that poorly. I had the same conversation with Lee this morning. Maybe you could help her understand because I'm starting to think all of Theneesa’s students are hard asses.”

  The pair of tusks chuckled. They weren't overcome with joy, not at all, but a smile did break through. Briefly.

  Stay or leave, adventure or help out around town, no answer was the wrong answer if it was right for them–He gave Robert and Gootlab all the same options he offered to Lee.

  He had hoped to speak with Honronk today, but the Apprentice already went home, up the mountain.

  Two names remained on his list: Becky and Sven. Becky was due back soon. Sven was off rotation, and no one knew where he was.

  Fellow Guild Master,

  I have an Encounter Report to bring to your attention.

  We encountered an orc band in the Gomi forest. They appeared to be preparing an attack on the town when we intercepted them.

  We observed:

  Three orc mages

  Nine orc warriors

  Three possessed adventurers (two Irons, one Bronze; all Mikata Chapter)

  Two attempted demon summonings

  One successful demon summoning

  The Blood magic the orcs are reported to use was in play. Philip the Iron-ranked fell in the battle. Robert the Iron-ranked and Gootlab the Bronze-ranked are alive and free of any outside influence.

  Grizzelle the Iron-ranked and Duruk the Iron-ranked were traveling with the other adventures at the time of their capture. Their status and whereabouts are unknown.

  I am sending their information to the Mikata Chapter as well.

  The orc mages defended with Push, Barrier, an area of effect fire spell, and demon summons.

  The fire rippled outward. Trees stopped expansion, flames were magically enhanced. Recommend using the terrain for cover and to avoid touching the flames at all costs.

  The species of demon was unknown to me. I believe it to be a Gold-ranked monster when fought alone. I have included a sketch of the monster as well.

  Notes on the demon’s combat tactics:

  -Roughly the size of a wagon

  -Was fast and agile, on the ground and in the trees

  -Appeared to have Iron Skin or a similar ability. Resistant to blades, arrows, Force Bolts, and Meteors

  -When Holy Light touched the skin, it became vulnerable in that area to the above attacks

  -Conjecture: The summon emerged from the orc mages’ mouths. I don't know of any of the Summoning schools connecting planes that way. Perhaps the spell is Blood Magic also?

  We confirmed elimination of all observed orcs, including a scout. I interrogated an orc prisoner and asked a Druid to send a Spirit Hawk to scout a wide area in addition to our search on the ground. The results of both lead me to believe this band is no longer a threat.

  I have no knowledge of other orcs in the area.

  I have no evidence for or against the potential existence of other orcs nearby. We remain cautious and alert.

  If we may be of further assistance, the Gomi Chapter will help in any way we can.

  -Hans

  Guild Master

  Gomi Chapter

  Guild Master Theneesa,

  Philip the Iron-ranked died in battle while under the possession of orc Blood magic.

  Robert and Gootlab are safe. We don't know the status of Grizzelle or Duruk. All were captured together, but the survivors have no memory of what became of them.

  -Hans

  Guild Master

  Gomi Chapter

  I'm so sorry, Eesa.

  I gave Philip his rights. Two Silvers joined Robert and Gootlab in witnessing the pyre. For whatever comfort it's worth, it was quick.

  Robert and Gootlab are resting in Gomi. I suspect they will linger for some time.

  I don't have any leads on Grizzelle or Duruk. Robert and Gootlab both have flashes of memory, recalling moments from their possession. Perhaps another memory will surface that provides a clue.

  I'll update you as fast as I can if I learn anything new.

  None of this is your fault. I hope you believe that.

  -Hans

  Open Quests (Ordered from Old to New):

  Progress from Gold-ranked to Diamond-ranked.

  Mend the rift with Devon.

  Complete the next volume (Iron to Bronze) for "The Next Generation: A Teaching Methodology for Training Adventurers."

  Find a way for Gomi adventurers to benefit from their rightful ranks in the Adventurers’ Guild.

  Secure a way to use surplus dungeon inventory for good.

  Finish transcribing the manual and decide on the next course of action.

  Help Izz and Thuz bring new opportunities to their home village.

  Investigate the locations of old Diamond Quests.

  Await the delivery of lockpick training tools.

  Check in on the adventurers not at the dungeon.

  Ask Izz and Thuz if they would be open to talking with Lee.