“Is this really necessary, Joe?” a ratly looking human spoke quietly as his team traversed the road to the opening of a dungeon.“Why do we keep getting assigned to train people by the guildmaster? Dues are coming up and we have work to do.” The gnome he was speaking to, Joe, was far shorter than any adult Nest had ever met. He didn’t even turn to glance at the human in a way that betrayed he’d long given up intellectual conversation with the man.

  A slender human woman with a bow across her back and a sword on her hip poked him with an arrow. “Will you shut up, Skav? These training missions are the only reason we’ll be affording dues this month after that shit you pulled in town. Who the hells tries to haggle with Greed merchants? You give them the listed price and hope they don't swindle you with some slight of hand nonsense when you pay. It’s been two years since we got here and you still haven’t figured that out?”

  “To be fair,” Joe cut in, “we don’t give him much chance to talk.”

  The woman that had introduced herself to Nest as Rachel simply tipped her head to the side at a point well made. “Fair.”

  “So what is this place we’re going to?” Nest knew better than to divulge where he’d come from or any knowledge he had about dungeons. His people knew better than many scholars about dungeons. He knew why they did what they did and to a degree, how. He had even grown up with the knowledge that dungeons were fully sentient beings, not just cores that could make magical monsters come to life. “Will there be mobs?” For now, Guildmaster Wolfhammer had told him to play ignorant until he returned home. To learn the basics.

  Nest had never been a very good actor, but he felt he’d been playing his part well thus far.

  “See?” Skav took over the conversation once more. “He doesn’t know anything! Training dungeon or not, if this kid gets me killed, I’m gonna be pissed.”

  “Kid?” Nest asked. “I’m twenty-eight years old. To a human I’m practically middle-aged.”

  “To a sinner, you’re a kid.” Rachel included herself once more. “Trust me,” she shook her head. “I’ve been in the life for just under five years and I get treated like a kid everywhere I go.”

  “So you’re pretty new to this still?” Nest asked the woman out of genuine curiosity.

  Rachel nodded. “I am compared to most. Most sinners are either way older than me or-” she trailed off.

  “Or what?” Nest asked.

  “Dead.” Joe interjected. “The vast majority of low-ranking sinners don't make it as far as Rachel has. They get a big head and get themselves killed, or they run from the guild. Same result.”

  “So what ranks in the guild are you all?” Nest actually didn’t know how the guild system or cultivation worked, so he was hoping to get some information while also changing the subject away from possibly being a statistic.

  “The guild doesn’t have ranks,” Joe replied. “Rank refers to your cultivation levels. I’m C-Rank Three. Skav is D-Six and Rachel is D-Four. You are D-Rank Zero.”

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  Nest waited for further explanation before realizing it wasn’t coming. “Care to explain what that means?”

  “I’ve got it,” Rachel jumped back in. “The letter rank refers to what phase of cultivation you are in. D-Rank represents internal cultivation. Origins, nerves, bones, that stuff. C is flesh. Muscle and skin get infused during that phase. B-Ranks are all about your aura. That’s supposedly the trickiest part of infusing and it’s not exactly public information.” The peppy human shrugged as if not knowing was just okay.

  “The A-Ranks?” Nest asked.

  Rachel shrugged again. “Top secret, I'm afraid.”

  Nest closed his eyes trying not to let his annoyance show. What was the point of all the secrecy? Was the guild trying to withhold themselves from being as powerful as possible? He guessed it didn’t matter. He was sure that if the secret tree had plans for him, it wouldn’t be too long before he found out anyway. “And infusing? What’s that?” he asked.

  “Something you’ll be learning shortly,” Joe replied. “We’re here. Luckily, as a dwarf, you’ll likely have cultivation down by the end of the day.” The gnome pulled the hammer from his back. It was nearly as tall as he was and Nest was just now noticing how comical it looked.

  To be fair, Joe was likely the stoutest of his race, based on the descriptions Nest had previously been going off of.

  “Your only job today is to watch and learn, Nest,” Joe commanded smoothly. “We consider this a training dungeon, but it will not hesitate to kill you if you give it an opening. We’ll work our way to the floor boss and you’ll learn cultivation there where the spirit energy is densest. For now, stay in formation, watch, and learn. Understood?”

  Nest pulled his carving knife from his belt, not certain how it would help, but needing some form of security for himself. “Yes, sir.”

  ***

  A gust of wind battered Rachel backwards and she bumped into Nest. The dwarf was holding his hands to his ears, knife stowed away. A loud, high-pitched noise threatened to rupture his ears if he didn’t protect them.

  The floor boss, a D-Rank Seven bat the size of a wolf, beat its wings in fury, blasting the troop with powerful wind.

  Joe stood next to Nest, protecting him if the boss got past the two younger members of his team. He had a hand placed on the dwarfs back to keep him from being blown away.

  Skav stayed a distance away from the beast, tendrils of shadow leaping up from the ground and wrapping around the flyer’s feet. They only held the creature for a moment before it would get loose again and need to be captured.

  Rachel released an arrow while the bat was bound, but it was swatted away with a wing.

  Breaking free, it swooped down at Skav, landing a slash with the talons at the tip of its wing.

  The cave was dark. Too dark to see the battle properly, so when Nest did keep his eyes open, he squinted, trying to focus on the moving combatants.

  Resisting the need to run from the pain, Skav grabbed hold of the offensive wing. “Now!” the man shouted.

  Rachel leapt across the room in three large bounds. Before Nest even saw her pull the blade, she placed it deep into the boss’ back.

  The creature thrashed for a few moments, leaving a few more cuts on Skav, but it was pinned to the stone.

  Skav drug himself away from the creature and watched as it thrashed against Rachel’s sword.

  In a few moments, the boss mob went limp, finally succumbing to its wounds.

  “Well that was dramatic.” Joe said through a chuckle.

  Nest stared at the man, pulling his hands away from his ears. Dramatic? Was that all it was? He looked over at the two sinners who had just taken a beating. Skav was rubbing an ointment on his wounds and Rachel was already cutting the creature’s wings off. Was he the only one who’s heart was racing?

  “Alright,” Joe spoke and clapped his hands together. “First lesson: Cultivation.”