Walking into the town, Lily didn't leave our side. I also noticed that Hari didn't remount his horse and chose to walk alongside Patrick. Since I was making a statement, I didn't remount either, walking beside Lily and Crisplet.

Although, again, Lily was terrifying because she didn't walk normally like you'd expect—instead, she phased in and out of being every time the shadow of the horse was cast, the sun shining through the gaps of the buildings. There she was.

Crisplet, however, remained alongside us the entire time. I also noticed he was looking particularly red and volatile compared to normal.

It took a little over five minutes before we entered the guild. We left our horses at the guild's stables, which were much smaller than expected and barely fit the five horses we had. When we entered the guild hall, everyone froze. All eyes turned to us as we stepped inside.

There was no illusion as to why. The pressure was far less than normal, but it was absolutely unmistakable when Lily entered the room.

Patrick led us behind the counters, and I thought, like the other guilds, we would be escorted to an office. However, this time we were led to a door that seemed to lead down below the guild itself.

It was a dimly lit stone staircase heading down.

"The captain had this place built down here due to the potency of mana below the cliff, and the stone's durability to withstand powerful blows while training," Patrick explained, leading us further into the darkness.

"She hollowed this out herself?" Hari asked, making conversation.

"Oh no, there was a natural cave below, and it took some very experienced earth specialists to make the staircase. The stone below is rather resistant to mana," he added.

Milo clearly wasn't sure if this was true, as I saw him trying to manipulate the stone on the wall.

"It's not too difficult to manipulate, but it's certainly harder than regular rock," Milo said, nodding.

"It gets harder as we go down. I'm sure Joanne will be fine with you attempting to manipulate it when we get down there—if you're a stone specialist yourself. Last I heard she was looking to get some from the capital for renovations," Patrick explained.

"Joanne is the guild master here?" Hari asked.

"Oh yes, she is. She's a water blade specialist—it's very useful if any surrounding villages come under attack from ocean dwellers."

Hari just nodded. It took several more minutes before the staircase opened up, and we entered a large open cavern—like a much larger and brighter version of the cave we fought the Chironid in—which immediately prompted me to use my Arcane Foraging ability.

Who knows, maybe there was some fancy crystal in here too.

Looking around, all I saw were mosses with a dull blue glow, and when I chose to eliminate the common items like I'd learned, they all vanished from sight. Currently, nothing was standing out.

A short walk through the cave, and we spotted Joanne sitting cross-legged in the middle of the cavern, a water drip landing on the stone ground just ahead of her.

Clearly, our presence—or rather, Lily's presence, who was very much here but currently in the shadows—alerted her. She jumped to her feet, a sword of water forming in her hand before she seemed to recognise Patrick.

"Patrick? What is that aura?" she said, looking around.

"It's the companion of the group here," he gestured behind him at us.

"Greetings, Guild Master. My name is Hari, and this is my group, The Polite Company, with some extras due to certain events that have occurred," Hari said, bowing slightly.

"The aura—it is not you, or your group. What is it?" she said, weapon still in hand and clearly on edge.

"Lily, better come out," I said.

Sure enough, a moment later, appearing to walk out of the wall itself, Lily emerged and came over to sit beside me.

"That is Lily. She's a shadow cat, and a companion—or, uh, friend—of our support member," Hari explained as I reached down and rubbed the top of Lily's head, just behind the ears.

I didn't know why I did it; it honestly just felt right. But it was nothing like scratching a regular cat behind the ears—not only were they much larger, but the feeling was so odd. It was both solid and not, as if Lily herself was allowing only the points where my fingers made contact to be solid, while everything else around them was air.

Joanne's eyes widened watching Lily appear, and then her mouth fell open in shock as I rubbed her head.

"A… a shadow cat? Here? What… what is this?" she stammered.

"Very sorry for the intrusion on your training, but we have a rather urgent report to make," Hari said, trying to pull the conversation back on topic.

Meanwhile, Milo had already made his way to a wall, trying to manipulate the stone. It was moving, but not easily—it seemed to fight him as it slowly shifted.

Micca, George, and Darren had all been at the back of the group, staying out of sight and keeping quiet.

"I'd say you do…" Joanne said, her eyes still locked on Lily.

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"We executed the Colonel of the army recruitment group. for the intentional murder of over twenty young boys and girls, along with the torture and mistreatment of countless others," Hari explained.

That got Joanne's attention. She looked at Hari sharply.

"Wait—what? Your report is not about that…" She pointed at Lily.

"No, of course not. Why would I make a report about my support's companion?" Hari said, as if it were a ridiculous statement. I had to admire his ability to keep his composure—I nearly laughed myself.

"Right… okay. So the Colonel—you killed him. Do you have witnesses to the crimes?" she asked, still holding the weapon but trying to look away from Lily, who merely tilted her head.

"We do. Two recruits from the camp—one who was deprived of food and beaten, who witnessed it all: Darren," he pointed to him, "and one who suffered torture, starvation, and was left for dead under the bodies of other corpses in a wagon, unconscious," he said, pointing to George.

"I see. Those are serious accusations, and if true, worthy of the punishment. You say you just killed the Colonel—what of the rest?" Joanne asked, her face darkening.

"We gave command to the second in charge, under instructions to feed and care for the remaining recruits appropriately," Hari explained.

"And will they?" she asked, looking angry now.

"I think they might. They're worried about Lily showing back up to check," Hari said with a chuckle.

"Very well. Patrick, write up the paperwork for this. Now, let's talk about… that." She pointed to Lily.

"It's not a that. She understands you quite clearly. That is Lily," Hari said, correcting her.

"Okay, let's talk about Lily. I don't suppose the town above is in panic and chaos right now, is it?" she asked, glancing at Patrick.

"Probably. Lady Greyrock was trying to deny them entry," Patrick responded.

"She's alive, right?" Joanne was quick to ask.

"Of course. Lily's not a wild beast who kills everything in front of her—and it's insulting you'd think so," Hari said. Lily looked at him now before turning to Crisplet, who sent off a burst of embers.

I really wanted to know what they were talking about.

"I see… that's good. I wasn't looking forward to dealing with that mess if she was dead," Joanne sighed, turning to Lily. "I apologise, Lily. I meant no offence."

"Now I must ask—your mage there, what is he doing?" she asked, peering over Hari's shoulder.

"Ah, he specialises in Earth Magic. The idea of special rock that's particularly difficult to manipulate caught his attention. He'll be at it a while if we don't drag him away," Hari said with a laugh, and even Jen and Liane chuckled.

"I see. That's actually good. If he's able to manipulate the stone, and you're in town for any length of time, I've been needing the services of someone able to manipulate it—and I'm willing to pay very well. In the past, we've needed to recruit someone from the capital," Joanne said, looking at Milo, who hadn't even looked away from the wall.

"What is it you require of him?" Hari asked.

"To the north side of this cave there's a small crack in the wall that leads into another cave, which appears to be cut off but also the source of a water pool. Just past that should be the outer wall, which, if my directions are correct, opens onto a cliff face," she said, pointing in the direction.

I turned on Arcane Foraging again, looking where she pointed, and I did notice some bright blue spots behind that stone wall she mentioned.

Talking quietly to Hari, I said, "There appear to be some useful ingredients behind the wall as well."

"Hmm, there could be monsters behind there too if it's sealed off," Hari said, mostly to Joanne.

"There could be—it's true. I've been unable to access it, but I haven't heard anything from the other side," Joanne said thoughtfully.

"Well, Milo?" Hari called over his shoulder. "I know you've been listening."

"What's the pay? And can I take rock samples for study?" he called back without turning around.

"You heard the man," Hari added with a chuckle.

"I could probably ask Lily to check it out and see if there's anything in there?" I offered, looking down at her as she looked up at me quizzically.

"Sorry, Lily, you don't have to—but there might be some interesting cooking ingredients in there that would make tasty food," I added in a half whisper. A second later, Lily vanished.

"I guess that's a yes to looking, then," I chuckled.

This whole time, Joanne had been watching the conversation wide-eyed.

"Uh—price, yes, sorry. If you could do this job for me, I'm willing to pay one gold, and samples are fine," she said.

Milo turned around. "You said you'd have to get mages from the capital—that's a minimum of three gold for travel, and then you'd be paying them on top of that for the job," he said, coming to stand next to Hari.

"The stone is quite valuable, you know," she added.

"Sure, but it's clearly not in short supply. I could leave town, head down the cliffs myself, and get my own samples regardless. This is just a convenience," Milo said with a chuckle.

She clearly hadn't expected that retort, because she seemed lost for words a moment.

"You're right, I'm not used to people being able to scale the cliffs. Very well—three gold then," she said.

"Four and we have a deal," Milo said with a smile, knowing he'd already won.

With a tsk, she reached out to shake Milo's hand but was interrupted as Lily appeared, pushing through the two of them and dropping the carcass of something that looked like a ridiculously oversized rat before vanishing again.

"Huh, I guess there are creatures in there…" I said, reaching down to store it.

Would you like to store [Common] Qarka for 5 mana? Yes/No

It vanished. Liane appeared beside me a moment later.

"We're going to try that, right?" she asked excitedly.

"What? no! It's a rat!" Jen said outraged.

"An especially large, and possibly tasty rat though!" Liane added with a grin.

"I don't see why not—well, provided Lily gets more. I wouldn't deny her the only one if there was just one," I said, but the concern was unnecessary. Lily appeared four more times with a Qarka, and on the fifth time she appeared with an eel-like creature that was obsidian black, with incredibly sharp teeth.

Since I still had Arcane Foraging active, I couldn't help but notice this one glowed particularly brightly.

Would you like to store [Uncommon] Obsidian Eel for 5 mana? Yes/No

Pretty simple name, but I knew just how to cook eel, having seen it at several of the street vendors in Boltron but never able to try it. I was excited to cook it—although this one was significantly larger than those small ones.

Once Lily dropped off the eel, she didn't go back into the cave, so I assumed that was everything. Giving Milo a thumbs-up, he got to work on the stone.

In the meantime, not to waste time, Hari had started training with George and Darren.

Lily had vanished—under promise of delicious food later—and Patrick had gone back upstairs. What really had my attention, though, was the spar between Liane and Joanne that was about to occur. It was pretty clear from everyone that Joanne was the superior fighter, being the Guild Master, but Liane was no slouch.

Sitting next to Jen and Micca with our backs to the wall, Jen assured me it wouldn't be an easy fight for either of them, but they'd both be safe, probably.

This was going to be fun.

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