Call of the Abyss [Book 2 Complete]

Julia realized immediately that this was going to be a problem. Wilfred hadn't explained anything about the second exam before asking her to follow him downstairs. She was surprised to find she wouldn't just be leading a job—she was essentially stealing it from someone else. Presumably, the Vice Master's word was irrefutable, but it wouldn't curb complaints by itself.

Indeed, she could already see the adventurers' eyes changing. To be fair, most appeared indifferent, but there was one that was heating up visibly.

"I must admit, this is quite unexpected. May I inquire after the purpose of this change? I do not mean any offense to Miss Julia, but surely you understand my desire to make sure my students are in good hands? I would not approve of them shadowing on any dangerous jobs," the tall man—Mr. Pitwyck—said carefully.

Julia wasn't even aware there were adventurer students. There were apprentices, she knew—she had been one herself. Did students imply the existence of a school? Did kids take formal classes to become adventurers in this city?

"Of course, I expect nothing less. Let me explain the purpose to you all first—that should also clarify why your students will be in good hands.

"Miss Julia is undertaking her Adamantine exam, with recommendation from the Founder himself," Wilfred explained casually.

Expressions shifted noticeably in literally every single person present. Eyes widened, backs straightened—it seemed the Founder had some sort of unspoken power to captivate adventurers.

Julia wasn't sure dropping such a weight on everyone all at once was the best way to handle it.

"The Fou—what the fuck is this?!" a man standing in a group of three—his party, probably—suddenly shouted.

The shout drew attention to the small gathering in the mostly-empty hall. Julia had intentionally waited to approach Wilfred until the morning traffic had died down, as she hadn't wanted to impose during busy hours. Now, it seems to be backfiring. There were fewer witnesses, sure, but the echo of the empty hall was drawing the attention of the few who remained.

"We already gotta deal with kids tagging along, and now you're sayin' we gotta take orders from some stuck up priss? Look at you, standin' here in armor expensive enough to buy half the city.

"You got a rich pappy, that it? He buy you some fancy clothes and work it into your head you could play adventurer? How fuckin' old are you anyway? You can't be much older than them kids we gotta chaperone!" he yelled.

Julia was thinking of how to respond—unbothered by the tirade—but Mr. Pitwyck chuckled before she could.

"Fuck you gigglin' about, twig?" the man growled, turning on Mr. Pitwyck. The contrast between the two was almost comical. Mr. Pitwyck was tall and lanky, while this adventurer was short and stocky. He looked like even a tornado wouldn't manage to knock him over.

He had bright orange hair that was trimmed close to his scalp and a much-longer beard of the same color. He wore a suit of plain-but-functional steel plate armor and had a warhammer hanging from his belt. His gnarled nose suggested his face had seen enough combat to back up his attitude.

"I'm chuckling at your ignorance, little Steel. That you can stand in front of Miss Julia and question her capability is strong proof of your inexperience," Mr. Pitwyck said, making eye contact with Julia.

He seemed to have evaluated her as a threat immediately—just as Julia had with Cass. Curious—she hadn't felt the same from him. Was she getting lax, or did that mean there was something exceptional about Cass?

The ginger man's face began turning red, though from anger or embarrassment, Julia couldn't tell.

"Now, let's all calm down. To be clear, Miss Julia's combat prowess has already been tested in a spar with Cassandra, and she gave Miss Julia the highest praise possible. That should alleviate any questions you might have about your students' safety, yes?" Wilfred asked, turning to Mr. Pitwyck.

"Indeed. Compliments from that beast are few and far between," he acknowledged.

The adventurers' eyes had widened even further at Cass's name-drop. She must have a…uh—reputation, which Julia could believe just from the little interaction they'd already had.

"Miss Julia here will be overseeing this job as a test of her leadership skills. That is all—otherwise, the job remains the same," Wilfred explained.

"Great—led by a child," the orange-haired adventurer grumbled.

Nadhem suddenly appeared directly in front of him, so close their noses were nearly touching. The adventurer flinched but didn't back down.

"Dahm'Zahra has led an army of 50,000 soldiers against a force of—" he started, but Julia put her hand on his shoulder.

"It's fine, Nadhem. Not everyone is going to like me. We don't need to make a fuss out of it every single time. It doesn't change any minds—only slows us down," she said placatingly.

Nadhem nodded and turned around, taking his place among the elves again.

"Cocky fuckin' spike-ears…" she heard the adventurer grumble.

"You all gonna be alright here for a while?" Julia asked, turning to her group.

"Indeed. We will use this chance to take care of some chores: secure more permanent lodgings, procure provisions, and the like," Ithshar assured.

The others nodded, and Julia nodded back, watching them make their way out of the hall toward the Guild entrance.

"Right," Wilfred said, clapping his hands. "Will you handle things from here, Mr. Pitwyck? I will reconvene with everyone when you return."

Mr. Pitwyck nodded, and Wilfred made his way back up to his office.

"So, Miss Julia, have you heard anything about this job?" Mr. Pitwyck asked.

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"I have not, Mr. Pitwyck. Wilfred just told me there was a perfect job to use as a test already in the works," she said with a shrug.

"Suresh, please. No need to stand on formalities," he said with a smile.

"Very well, Suresh. Call me Julia, then," Julia replied, returning the smile.

"Alright, Julia. Well, this is basically an investigation—with potential to become an extermination. We've received word that a couple people have disappeared from a small forest about half a day's walk from the city.

"There have only been two people so far, as the forest is not close to any villages. However, the Guild has been asked to investigate and determine what happened to the disappeared people. And, should they have been killed, determine the nature of the threat and eliminate it, if possible.

"If the threat should be severe, or the danger of eliminating it is great enough, we are to return to the Guild with all haste so that a proper extermination team can be assembled.

"We have two parties here for this job: 'Rising Blade' and 'Twin Dragons'," Suresh said, motioning to the red-head's party of three and the other party of four respectively.

Julia heard a soft snort from her shoulder at the mention of dragons, and she shrugged to chide Lumenfall. Though, if she were being honest, she agreed. Julia would've had stars in her eyes thinking about party names just a few years ago. Now, they felt…embarrassing.

"Rising Blade is Steel, and Twin Dragons is Iron. Other than them, there are my students. They are here to observe adventurers on the job—we call it shadowing. They are observers only," Suresh explained, sending pointed looks toward the students, who nodded at him eagerly.

"I see, noted. Any additional details about the job? Specifics of where the people disappeared? Commonalities between the disappeared?" Julia asked.

"Not many, unfortunately. Both were men from different villages. Commonalities are that they both had Classes related to woodcutting, and they both headed in the direction of the forest, though from different directions. That is why we have determined the forest to be the site of their disappearance, but we do not actually even know that much for certain," he said, shrugging.

"I see…well, we've got half a day's walk ahead of us. Might as well get to it. We can go over party formations and introductions on the way," she declared, moving toward the exit.

Technically, this was her first real job without including her apprenticeship. Ironic that her first job was going to be an exam for Adamantine rank—something she could only dream of a few years ago.

___________________________________________________

Elaine rubbed her aching feet. True, the plains were an easy walk, but half a day of walking was half a day of walking—it was rough on the feet.

Most of the walking had passed with an uncomfortable silence. There was communication between Julia and the adventurer groups, but it was tense and strictly business—party configurations, strengths and weaknesses, and things like that. She noted that the Iron party seemed friendlier than the Steel—though she couldn't tell if it was tense with the entire Steel party, or just the red-haired man.

They had stopped to camp for the night just outside the forest that was their destination. Night had fallen, and the adventurers gathered around a campfire, munching on packed rations—mostly dried meat, though Elaine thought she saw some extraordinarily dry bread as well. She thought the rations strange since they weren't going to be gone long. Why not just pack fruit or something?

She pulled an apple out of her bag and munched on it. Of course, she understood the value of rations that would keep, but this job was also less than a day away. Surely that meant they didn't need to worry about long-term rations?

As she munched, she fished out her wooden practice block and a carving knife. She'd been practicing rune carving in her free time. She doubted it was necessary for the Witch Class, but it seemed really cool! And really useful!

She whittled away, trying to match the figures she'd carved at the top of the block back when she still had reference runes in front of her. It was tedious and difficult, mostly because she didn't really know how to carve wood. She knew the symbols were made specifically to be easy to carve, but that didn't help if carving itself was the problem!

"Oh, you're practicing runes?" Julia asked, suddenly appearing behind her.

Elaine yipped and pretended her startled jump was a stretch, linking her arms and stretching them over her head.

"Y-yes, it's hard though," she said.

Julia nodded, sitting down on the log beside her.

"What's hardest? Remembering the symbols? Carving them? Activating them?" she asked, petting the strange little animal on her shoulder—it was really cute. Would she let Elaine pet it?

"Um, it's mostly the carving. I don't have them all memorized, but carving is mostly what's holding me back. I know that carving in wood is the easiest thing—most enchanters have to carve into metal, so I figure it's what I should get good at first," she reasoned.

"Makes sense. Do you want to be an enchanter?" Julia asked.

"Not really, but I think the Skill would be useful in many ways," Elaine replied, attempting another rune—she carved it crooked. Damn it.

They were both silent for a while, Julia looking off into the forest, squinting over and over again in ways Elaine found strange, and Elaine carving her block. After a few minutes, Julia looked at Elaine.

"You're a Novice? Are you learning magic?" she asked.

"Yes. I can do some basic fire magic," Elaine declared proudly.

"Well, that's convenient. What say we train your runes and your magic?" Julia suggested with a smile.

"How?" Elaine asked, looking up at Julia with stars in her eyes.

"Well, first of all, how do you think enchanters enchant things? Are you imagining them carving runes into Mithril armor with a knife?" she questioned with a quirked brow.

"...now that you mention it, I don't know," Elaine admitted. She'd always just assumed it was something to do with carving.

"Lots of people do it in lots of different ways. Some have patterns of runes made that they pound into metal like a blacksmith. Others apply their enchantments to materials prior to a smith working them into shape. And some even apply the runes directly to the material with magic.

"That's what I think you should do. You're a budding fire mage. Searing runes into a block of wood sounds like something a fire mage should be able to do, right?" Julia asked.

Elaine nodded eagerly—applying runes that way could save her a dramatic amount of time, if it were possible.

"First, you should focus on forming runes with your mana," Julia said, holding her hand out. A runic script formed of a transparent blue atop her palm.

ᛚᛁᚷᚺᛏ

Light

Elaine was impressed, but before she got a chance to ask any questions, the runes started glowing—they were working! They were working without being engraved into a material!

"How—" she started, but Julia cancelled the rune, interrupting her.

"You're probably used to making spells rather than manipulating your mana raw, so why don't you try with fire first? Hold out your hand, and try to form a single rune out of flames. Don't make the flames too hot or destructive, obviously. Think about the gentle light and flame of a candle.

"Once you can do that, you can attempt mana runes. Mana runes are what I just showed you—extremely useful in specific situations. Generally, learning magic is the best option, but in a pinch, runes can be used to substitute for a type of magic you're not familiar with," she said, holding her hand out, and again, a runic script appeared above it.

ᛊᛈᚨᚱᚲᛊ

Sparks

The runes crackled with lightning, zapping between each rune before she dismissed the script. Elaine's eyes were wide and sparkling at this point. Julia smiled and set her about trying to make flame runes.

She glanced over at the other two from Elaine's party, and they all got up with weapons drawn. Probably sparring or something, but Elaine was far too focused to pay any attention.

Flame runes!