Two days had passed since the confrontation with the two Reavers.

  Viktor had gone to the Emberwood Inn to find out what happened after Azran returned from the dungeon. Turned out the bald man had already checked out of both rooms. Then he left town, taking with him all the belongings of both himself and Lahmia.

  So Viktor’s prediction was right. Azran didn’t tell anyone here about the dungeon. Instead, he just packed up and vanished, probably retreating to his base of operations.

  Now, it was time to make the dungeon known to the public, and for that to happen, someone would have to “discover” it first.

  Let’s see who in the Guild is best suited for the job.

  When Viktor entered the building, he nearly slammed into a wall of flesh and sweat. The entrance to the mess hall had been completely blocked by a writhing mass of tightly packed bodies. Elbows flew and curses hissed as those at the back pushed forward, trying to force their way through.

  What’s going on?

  He scanned the main hall, and spotted Claire leaning against a wooden pillar. He walked to her side. “What happened?”

  “Oh, Quinn,” she said, turning to him. “There’s a new party that has just come to town, but they’re a bit... peculiar.”

  Peculiar? Viktor frowned. Azran has been back already?

  He handed the cloth-wrapped lunch to his “sister” then plunged into the fray, squeezing through the cluster of men and women and foul language.

  “What the hell is that?”

  “Why is the fucker here?”

  “What kind of imbecile would bring that thing to this place?”

  Are they talking about the new party? Viktor wondered. A shoulder slammed into his chest, a hand clawed at his sleeve. Someone somewhere hissed something, and for a brief second, he thought one of his goblins was in the crowd, somehow. Still, he pressed on.

  At last, with considerable effort, he broke through to the front row, and saw a party of four sitting by the window. The rest of the mess hall shot curious looks their way, a few staring openly, others doing their best to feign disinterest while sneaking occasional, discreet glances.

  Of the four adventurers, three were very young, probably only fifteen or sixteen. Two boys and a girl. But they were not the source of the commotion. No, it was the fourth member of the group who caught the attention of everyone in the Guild. After all, he—well, Viktor wasn’t even sure whether that was a he or a she, since it was not a human—was...

  A gnoll.

  Yes, there was no doubt. That hyena-faced, that hunched posture, that mottled brown fur. It could only be a gnoll.

  The creature wore very crude armor made from various metal scraps, a tattered loincloth covering its lower half, and a curved sword sheathed at its side. Around its neck hung a necklace made of fangs and teeth, probably trophies taken from its defeated foes. Beside its seat were a bow and a full quiver of arrows.

  Gnolls were among the creatures from other worlds summoned to serve as minions in a dungeon. However, it was not uncommon for these savage beasts to be found outside those labyrinths. When a dungeon lost its Dungeon Core, either by being stolen or destroyed, the dungeon itself would gradually diminish over time, but the monsters inside would remain. Since the contract with the Core was abruptly terminated, these creatures could no longer return to their original world and were left stranded here. Some were hunted down by adventurers, while others fled to the wild, scavenging and raiding to survive. A few “coexisted” with humans.

  And “to coexist” here meant “to be enslaved.”

  Gnolls were particularly common in the West, where the local populace found them useful and employed them as slave soldiers. Thus, they captured wandering gnolls in the wild, treating them as little more than animals to be tamed. These gnolls, the first-generation gnolls, were often used solely as breeders, while their offspring, born in captivity, would be raised to become obedient slaves.

  This was the first time Viktor had seen a gnoll traveling with a group of adventurers. The ones he had encountered before were either bloodthirsty monsters lurking in dark dungeons or savage soldiers killing and destroying everything in their path for their masters. But here it was, sitting at a table with three humans, leisurely sipping tea.

  Yes, sipping. Not gulping, not slurping. The creature held the ceramic cup daintily between two clawed fingers, as if it had mastered proper table etiquette. As it brought the cup slowly to its mouth, its jaw lowered and its tongue extended to dip into the tea before retracting inside, without spilling even a single drop. Then it closed its eyes, savoring the taste. And it did all of that while sitting at a table with three bright-eyed human youths, who were chatting and laughing in the background.

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  What the hell is their relationship?

  Viktor was sure everyone here was wondering about the same thing, but no one dared to approach them to ask. Instead, they kept their distance, murmuring among themselves as they watched the beast playing at civility. Many rested hands on their weapons, half-expecting the gnoll to spring up and start tearing throats at any moment.

  Well, a direct approach might be the best option.

  After all, this party had managed to enter the Guild without incident, so they were probably not dangerous. Besides, since he was now in the body of a kid, he could push a lot of boundaries without facing any real consequences.

  Thus, he walked up to the gnoll, tapped its shoulder, and shouted, “Doggo!”

  The creature turned to him, tilting its head. It didn’t seem angry, just very confused.

  “He is not a dog!” The black-haired boy sitting to the left of the gnoll frowned. “He’s a hyena... No, I mean he is a gnoll, and a gnoll’s face looks like a hyena’s...” His voice trailed off, as if unsure whether he had cleared things up or only made the matter worse.

  This one was clearly the frontline fighter of the party, as he was the one in the best armor. It gleamed like it had never seen a scrap of dirt or blood, though, so Viktor doubted this young warrior had ever engaged in a real fight. Still, the boy had a jaw like a boulder. Getting older a bit, being tempered in battle a bit, then he would sport a look that made people think twice before challenging him.

  “Is he your friend?” Viktor asked.

  “Yes, he is.”

  “Can he talk?”

  “No,” the boy replied, shaking his head. “While he can understand human speech, he can’t speak our language. The pronunciation is too difficult for him.”

  “So you can understand me?” Viktor asked the gnoll, and it nodded. “But if he can’t talk,” he said, turning back to the black-haired boy, “then how can you understand each other?”

  “Well, Lucian can understand the gnoll language,” the young warrior replied, glancing at the other boy in the group, a blond with a long face and a big nose, his unkempt hair tumbling in thick, tangled waves above his brow. He wore an old, plain robe, a stark contrast to the shining armor his companion was clad in. Their mage, maybe?

  “Really? It’s awesome!”

  “Not only can I understand the language,” the boy said with a smug grin. “I can speak it too.”

  What the—!?

  “Can you do it now?” Viktor asked, looking at him with full skepticism.

  “Of course! What do you want me to say to him?”

  “Hmm, how about... My name is Quinn. Nice to meet you.”

  “Alright.” Lucian turned to the gnoll and began “talking.” More like, he was making a series of high-pitched cackles. The gnoll replied in kind, producing its own set of similarly high-pitched sounds. Lucian then told Viktor, “He said that his name is Noi’ri and that he’s also glad to meet you.”

  Viktor had to admit that he was impressed by the boy. Learning to do something like that was definitely not easy. On the other hand, while the effort was admirable, since the gnoll could understand human speech just fine, this skill was utterly useless.

  “So your name is Quinn?” the black-haired boy asked. “I’m Cedric. They are Lucian and Noi’ri, as you already know. And, this is Fiora.”

  The only girl in the group was shorter and slimmer than the others, with long, curly auburn hair flowing down her leather tunic. She wore pouches, a lot of them, crammed tightly along the belt wrapping around her waist.

  “Nice to meet you, Fiora,” Viktor said with a smile.

  “Nice to meet you,” she said curtly. Compared to her companions, this girl seemed far less enthusiastic.

  Viktor turned back to Cedric. “So, you are all adventurers?”

  The boy puffed out his chest, like a rooster basking in the first sunlight of the day. “Yes. A party of four.”

  “And your ranks?”

  The self-assured expression instantly faltered, and a blush spread across the boy’s cheeks. “Well, other than Noi’ri, the three of us just became adventurers recently, so we’re only Copper-ranked. He, on the other hand, is a Silver.”

  What? A Silver-ranked adventurer? That would place the gnoll above almost everyone in Daelin.

  Viktor tried to make sense of what he had just learned. A gnoll, who was not a slave, but a full-fledged adventurer, and a Silver at that. How the hell did that happen?

  I’m going to ask them for more details later.

  Also, it made Noi’ri’s presence in the party even stranger, even if one ignored the fact that he was a gnoll. A Silver-ranked adventurer teaming up with three Copper-ranked kids was very unusual. Viktor couldn’t think of a single good reason why he was here, other than being some sort of babysitter.

  “So, where are you from?”

  “The city-state of Beryn,” Cedric replied. “That’s our hometown.”

  Never heard of it. Probably founded after his empire collapsed.

  This reminded Viktor that his understanding of the world was three centuries outdated. Despite his efforts to catch up with the current state of affairs, his grasp of the present was still very limited. Most of his knowledge was confined to Daelin and its immediate surroundings. Beyond that, he knew next to nothing, aside from the names of some larger kingdoms.

  Since he was busy managing his dungeon, gathering information at the Guild, and, well, doing chores at home, it would be nice to have someone investigate for him. Someone who could spend time reading the thick, boring history books, learning about everything that happened in the last three hundred years, and then summarize the important points for him.

  Oh, wait.

  Actually, Viktor did know a guy who was perfect for that job.

  “Why did you come here?” He continued to probe Cedric. “Why didn’t you just stay in Beryn, and work for the Guild there instead?”

  “Well,” the boy replied with a shrug. “We all want to become adventurers. Lucian, Fiora, and I. To brave the dungeons. To explore, to conquer. The problem is, our families don’t think we’re ready, so there has been a lot of arguing. In the end, my mother agreed to let us become adventurers, but with one condition. She sent us here with strict instructions: only come back after we’re all at least Iron-ranked.”

  So, his mother shipped him off to some remote backwater where no new dungeons had emerged for the last three hundred years? Viktor fought the urge to chuckle. Obviously, the woman had been doing everything she could to keep her son away from his foolish dreams.

  “My father feels the same,” Lucian chimed in. “So he asked Noi’ri, his old partner, to accompany us on this journey.”

  Yup, babysitter.

  Viktor felt he had gathered all the information he needed, so he told the adventurers. “It’s nice to meet you all, but now I have to have lunch with my sister.” He pointed at Claire, who had managed to pass through the crowd and now stood in the front row. “She is a receptionist at the Guild, by the way, so feel free to ask her for help whenever you need it.”

  After saying goodbyes, he walked away, his mind already set on what to do next.

  He could only imagine the shock Cedric’s mother would feel when she learned that her precious boy just stumbled upon a new dungeon on his very first day in Daelin.