We got a few more details, mostly limiting our questions to understanding the nature of the Order. The Lawkeepers were the foot soldiers, usually under level 60, with a few exceptions. She explained that because they were never adventurers, the guild only had limited information about them, but Lawkeeper was their class, and all of them had the same divine imbuement.

  I wanted to ask what a divine imbuement was, but Selena told me over chat to not press the issue and Samvek agreed with her. The clerk, who let us know her name was Mary, continued, explaining that Lawspeakers were generally the highest rank anyone ever saw in most cities, but that recently some higher ranks had arrived in Basetown—the Inquisitors and Dreadnoughts. She spoke about them as though their power levels were beyond anything mortal.

  I nodded my appreciation. “Thank you for explaining all of this. The last thing we want to do is step afoul of the Order. But does being from a different world affect our registration here?”

  Her eyes moved over us in a quick, professional assessment, lingering a fraction longer on Samvek’s frame and Selena’s posture before returning to me. “If you want access to contracts, dungeon permissions, or guild facilities, you’ll need to register. While we are all under the Great System, of course, different worlds often have different classes. Generally a test is required, where you are taken into the dungeon with the guild master to demonstrate your level of competency.”

  I nodded once. “What does the test involve?” I asked. There was no point in pushing before we understood the rules, even if I already suspected the answer would be unsatisfying.

  “Varies,” she replied, already reaching for a fresh set of forms. “Basic capability assessment, survivability markers, and a verification pass. Nothing truly dangerous unless you overstate your abilities.” She slid three packets across the counter, one to each of us, along with a small inkwell and pen, and adopted the clipped tone of administrators everywhere. “Fill these out completely, or as completely as you can. If something doesn’t apply, leave it blank. And for your sake, be truthful.”

  I took the papers and glanced down at the headings. Name. Place of Origin. Class. Tier and level. Affiliations. Dungeon Experience. Simple enough. We all agreed through chat to list our real names, but our place of origin simply as ‘another world’. For classes, we were each going to pick one of our four class shards to keep it simple, since we didn’t know how their system worked.

  I decided against using my top-tier class shards, to avoid the risk of sounding pretentious, or having to respond to questions I didn’t feel comfortable answering. Instead, I listed Trailblazer of the Fused Path. I figured that would be vague enough to where they wouldn’t know what I was capable of.

  Thankfully they had a handy guide on the tier section.

  Basic 1-20

  Journeyman 21-40

  Advanced 41-60

  Elite 61-80

  Master 81-100

  Grandmaster 101-150

  Since none of those applied, I left the space blank. I wasn’t sure how my level compared to the levels here, but my sense of the power level of the people we’d encountered told me that none were as strong as me. The one odd point was that the Inquisitor we’d seen had registered as level 200 with Identify. In fact, thinking about it, I pulled up the notification.

  Terrel Nissun

  Tier: Grandmaster

  Level: 201

  Class: Inquisitor

  Race: Awakened Human

  I wanted to ask what an Awakened Human was, and I was curious as to why the form we were filling out was limited to level 150, but I got the sense that those questions might lead to more questions than answers.

  When we handed the forms back to her, Mary sucked in another breath. “Okay, here’s the thing. If you don’t give us a level, we won’t be able to determine the best way to test you. You’d have to start at level one and move down the slow way. The guild master wouldn’t be happy about such a waste of his time.”

  “We don’t want to waste anyone’s time,” Selena said. “The level options simply don’t cover us.”

  It seemed to take a second for Mary to catch up, but then her eyes widened yet again. “Are you awakened? No, you couldn’t be, could you? You must come from a truly strange world. I’m sorry. You don’t have to answer those questions. The identity of your ascendant or divine patron is not something we could compel you to provide, nor would we want to. But I’m going to need to include the guild master in the next part of our discussion. I don’t know how to handle this. Would you at least tell me what level I should tell him you’re claiming?”

  The three of us looked at one another but I was the one to speak. “262.”

  With that, she was on her feet. “I’ll be right back with the guild master.”

  Good to her word, she came back within two minutes. Apparently, this was important enough to interrupt whatever he had been doing. He wasn’t what I’d expected. He looked about forty, slender with a wiry build. If I had to guess a class just by looking at him, I would have thought of something within the rogue classification. Appearances could be deceiving, though.

  “So you three are the ones giving Mary a heart attack.” He didn’t wait for a response but instead picked up the forms. Then he looked at us again. “Do I have your permission to cast an assessment spell on you? Normally, I’d just use the assessment sphere, but something happened a couple weeks ago, and we’ve been instructed not to use the spheres until an investigation has been completed. That’s fine. It gives me an excuse to leave the guild hall.

  “But it still leaves us with a problem, because I’m not sure how to properly assess you. I can take you down to the ninetieth floor, which is the deepest I feel comfortable going to and is the deepest floor we have a portal crystal for. But that wouldn’t properly challenge you if you are what you claim.”

  “Where we come from, our power level isn’t necessarily common, but there are plenty who have reached this level or beyond. Selena’s father, for example, is much stronger, as is Samvek’s father. The issue seems to be around this ‘awakened’ term. Can you tell me what’s meant by that? Maybe we have a different word for it.”

  He seemed to consider my question for a moment before replying. “Awakening is the process of taking a grandmaster tier beyond level 150. It is a closely guarded secret, and even the few grandmaster tiers within the empire are below that level. Normally, there are no awakened on Aerth, and the only ones we know of are part of the Order, although legends speak of many others. Supposedly, only an ascendant or divine tier being can awaken that potential in a human, and that is a type of sponsorship. I can’t say for sure if that’s true.”

  I was a little baffled. For the leader of a guild, he didn’t have much information about how the system worked. But I knew why. They were purposefully kept in the dark. This entire world was. Someone higher up the food chain, maybe this Lawgiver, didn’t want the people on this world knowing too much. Usually leaders like that never had good intentions.

  “I could take you to one of the forbidden pockets that we have a crystal for,” he said, “but I don’t know if I could survive, let alone protect you there. And there is the obvious problem. They’re called forbidden for a reason. But maybe if you could each show me something you can do, I’d know how to proceed.”

  Selena stepped up first. She pointed at the knife on his belt. “Know how to use that?”

  He grinned. “First blood?”

  She returned his grin and pulled out a small belt knife.

  “Right here? Shouldn’t we use one of the training rooms?” Mary asked.

  Selena shook her head. “It won’t take that long.”

  The guild master chuckled. “I do like a confident woman, although that’s pretty common for adventurers. Perhaps too common. Mary, count down from three. We start when she says ‘go’, okay?”

  Selena nodded. Mary counted down, and before the guild master could even move, a thin crimson line appeared on the back of his hand. His brain had already told his body to start moving, so it took him a fraction of a second to halt his movement. His eyes narrowed and he looked at Selena. “Was that pure speed, or a spell of some sort?”

  “A bit of both. But if you think I’m fast, you should see Silas. Or not see, as it were. He’s insanely fast, except when he takes his time.” Her voice almost purred that last bit, and I felt the heat rising to my cheeks. “But not all of us can have his broken stats.”

  “Well that was less fun than I’d expected, but it does support the proposition that you’re at the level you’re claiming. What about the two of you?”

  Samvek reached out and put a hand on the guild master’s shoulder. An instant later space warped, and they were both gone. I got the sense that he had to brute force it more than normal as it lacked his usual refinement, but they were back five seconds later.

  “Teleportation is a powerful spell. While short range doesn’t necessarily mean you’re the level you’re claiming, if you’re new to this world, you likely don’t know many places to take me to. I assume that was a room you rented at the Purple Cat?”

  Samvek nodded. “Exactly.”

  The guild master turned his eyes toward me. “And you?”

  “Since Selena didn’t let you have any fun, I will. Come at me with your best attack. I’ll only defend. Don’t worry if you hit me. I’ve got a pretty high regeneration rate, as well as some healing magic and a few potions.”

  He grinned. I felt him casting some spell—a chain of them, I quickly realized. If I had to guess, some were enhancing him and some were enhancing his dagger. When he attacked, it was with impressive speed and so much power that the furniture in the room and even poor Mary were knocked backwards by the wave of displaced air.

  His dagger never reached me, instead bouncing off the first layer of my force constructs. I’d created three layers, but it turned out that his attack couldn’t even get through the first. Still, for his level he hit pretty hard.

  “Satisfied?” I asked.

  “Yep. We’ll do the test on level ninety. I have to admit, though, I’m curious how quickly you can clear your way to level one hundred. I’m even more curious about if you’ll want to keep going. I’d like to see the deeper parts of the dungeon, even if it’s risky.”

  “Then today, you get your wish.”

  Interlude One: New Players

  Tad Ocean stared at the city of Basetown as the ship he was on drifted into the harbor. He waved at the harbormaster who guided them in, not that they needed any help. Having a living ship made control much easier, and Arbormaris was more intelligent than anyone who walked her decks or the docks. Still, it was important to keep up appearances, so they allowed the harbormaster’s men to guide them in.

  It felt odd to Tad, returning home. He’d been taken from Basetown against his will, and had been unable to return while being hunted. Now, he was the hunter. He could feel the presence of the Order in the city, and it stirred up that same buried anger.

  He also felt change on the wind. What form that change would take, he didn’t know, but he was excited to see what was coming. He’d have to check in with his old boss, Sargin. Unbeknownst to Tad, his business partner Captain Arnold Suther had been shipping some of the items Tad had enchanted to Sargin. But that stage of life hadn’t lasted long, so Tad doubted it had caused much of a buzz in Basetown.

  Here, everything centered around the adventurers and the Endless Dungeon. He’d need to go there himself. There were answers he needed that he could only find inside a dungeon, not the least of which was how to defend himself from a god.

  Terrel Nissun sat in prayer. The act went beyond ritual. It was the way he communed with his god, or in this case the commander he answered to, Arbiter Kalix. The man had sent him as one of many advanced scouts after reports of strange portals, and even word of fey activity. This was a core world, but the people here were incredibly weak. There weren’t even any awakened, other than the human emperor, and he only maintained his position by playing nicely with the Order.

  As soon as he sank into the meditative state, the command came. “Report.”

  “Yes, Arbiter. I have seen no sign of fey activity on Iporus Isle. The forces you sent here are more than sufficient. Even the adventurers are incredibly weak.”

  “The Lawgiver has sent word that a portal has appeared from somewhere off-world. We don’t know who the source is, and our lord has not seen fit to inform me. It is our task to find whoever or whatever came through and ensure the stability of Aerth.”

  Terrel wanted to ask why such an important world was being kept artificially weak, limiting the levels of those who lived here, but he knew the question wouldn’t have been answered. He was ultimately a soldier, and his job as an Inquisitor was to ferret out information that people wanted to hide, so that was what he’d do.

  “It shall be done.”

  “See that it is. I will be coming to Aerth soon enough, and you had best have some information for me. Don’t make me regret giving you this posting instead of a higher ranked member, nephew.”

  Azuria was in a frenzy, so much so that she dared to demand the companion provide her a way to follow her bonded. “Cami, you don’t understand. I know he’s out there. Samvek thinks he’s so capable, but he’s fragile. I can’t feel exactly where he is.”

  Cami put her hand on the younger blue. “I understand what you’re going through. I have a bond as well, but Nico isn’t ready to speak to anyone. Either you need to evolve and find a way to cross the Void on your own, or you will have to wait for him to help you.”

  There was a moment of tension between the dragon and the human. Finally, Azuria bared her neck, a sign of submission amongst her kind. She knew all too well that she was no match for the emperor’s bonded.

  “Then I’ll just have to evolve, won’t I?”

  Chapter Nine: Enter the Dungeon

  I was more than a little excited at the prospect of going through a dungeon on a new world controlled by an entirely different system. The guild master held his hand out and I shook it, then he did the same with Selena and Samvek before speaking. “I guess we should all formally introduce ourselves if we’re gonna be crawling a dungeon together. I’m Clay Turner. I already read the names of your classes, so it’s only fair that you know mine. Black Blade, which is admittedly rather grim.

  “I was part of an adventuring party that made it to the 100th floor. I was the youngest of them. Two of my teammates have since died, and one of us, a mage named Oliver, managed to reach grandmaster tier. Me, I’ve been stuck at level 100 for more than 20 years. I know I don’t look that old, but as you probably know, adventurers don’t always age normally.”

  I nodded. “Yeah. Just don’t ask Selena how old she is.”

  She stuck an elbow in my ribs, making it feel like she had a blade attached to it. “This is what I get for robbing the cradle.”

  The guild master nodded. “Frankly, seeing that playful banter between party members makes me feel more comfortable about going into the dungeon with you. I specialize in hitting stuff, up close and really hard. I have spells which will weaken foes, debuffing, we call it. And once a target is below twenty percent health, as long as it’s not more than 25 levels higher than me, I have a chance to kill it with my assassinate spell.

  “My dagger, armor, and necklace are all magical, either rare or epic tier. Now what about you all?”

  “I’m Silas Renner, sorta the leader of this group, even though they both have more experience than me. I count Samvek here as my mentor. He fights with a spear mostly and can control both space and lightning. He has a good range to his attacks but is also comfortable up close. He always wants to advance.

  “Selena is my fiancée and fights with a pair of hooked swords. She is excellent up close, but can also use her abilities to alter the environment and control the battlefield. Her spatial storage is also probably filled with a bunch of goodies.

  “As for me, I’m our healer, and I can shape force constructs for either offense or defense. I have abilities with spiritual attacks, lightning, and spatial manipulation.”

  He nodded. “Sounds like I’ll be perfectly safe with you all, but you never know with a dungeon. Now, you may have everything you need, but I need to make a few preparations. Please meet me downstairs in an hour. In the meantime, Mary will take care of getting your badges and the crystal we’ll need to access the ninetieth floor.”

  He turned his focus to the clerk and she nodded. “Yes, guild master.”

  Mary wasted no time once Clay dismissed himself. She gestured for us to follow and led us back down into the main guild hall, her pace brisk but controlled. As we descended the stairs, I noticed how the noise below never truly stopped, only shifted in pitch and cadence. This place did not rest—it only rotated through priorities.

  At a side counter near the hall’s entrance, she retrieved three small metal badges from a locked drawer. Each bore the guild’s sigil and the word ‘trainee’ etched beneath it in clean lettering. She handed them out one by one, and explained that the designation was temporary, meant to mark us as under evaluation rather than untrusted. Once we returned from our test, if successful, the badges would be updated to reflect our standing.

  I turned the badge over in my hand, feeling its weight and construction. It was solid, practical, and deliberately unadorned. Around us, a few adventurers noticed the exchange and watched with open curiosity, their gazes lingering a little longer than politeness dictated. Trainee status was common enough, but few earned it alongside a guild master.