I didn’t consider myself in trouble just yet. So what if Khagnio was practically naked after having taken off his gloves, shoes, and most of the rest of his clothes? So what if he looked like he wasn’t going to stop until he had ripped me to shreds? So what if he was probably more than strong enough to do just that?

Till now, he had just faced off against Gravity. I still had another Aspect up my sleeve.

“Try not to die, mageling,” Khagnio hissed before attacking again.

This time, he was completely serious. I lowered my weight and moved as fast as I could, mana exhaustion starting to nag within me. Unlike Khagnio, I wouldn’t be able to maintain this for long. Though, limits of my mana capacity were less of a worry in that regard than how long I could actually keep up with my opponent.

The very air rippled as Khagnio struck. It was all I could do to watch for his muscles’ movement, all I could do to barely predict where his movements and blows would place him.

What I didn’t see coming was the tail.

“Fuck,” I yelled as the thick appendage shot around at a weird angle with zero warning. I couldn’t recall if I had even seen a tail on Khagnio yet.

And then I was caught. The Scalekin’s tail wrapped around my arm, locking me in place.

Khagnio sneered. “Not so jumpy now, are you?”

He tried to pull me towards him. I turned Infusion on as high as it would go, vastly boosting my weight, making the ground itself crack at the stress I placed on it. Mana exhaustion was starting to yawn into an abyss within me. Really not good.

Khagnio hissed when even his higher-ranked Power failed to pull me in. “Aren’t you running out of mana? Can’t keep this up forever, mageling. But don’t worry, I don’t need to pull you in to destroy you.”

He was right. Instead of dragging me to him, Khagnio just lunged in to land his devastating blows, none of which I could avoid when I was held in place.

But I wasn’t daunted. “Two can play the same game.”

Khagnio’s eyes widened even as he rushed in. I tore off my own robes and immediately channelled Sacrifice. A familiar blue screen popped up just as Khagnio’s massive punch connected against my arms raised in a defensive posture.

[ Sacrifice

You have Sacrificed 1 [Partially Torn] [Minor] Outfit of Divine Inclination. Windfall bonus activated.

Reward: Vitality boosted by 10 Ranks for 1 hour and 15 minutes ]

I grunted. Bastard was still really strong. But my feet didn’t skid back as much as last time and the pain wasn’t terrible either. Just a dull, aching throb on my arm where Khagnio’s fist connected. I’d survive. Which was what made me grin over my fists at the surprised Scalekin.

“What the—” His slitted eyes roved over me. “Where’d your robes go?” He looked around. “Ugnash! Does he have another Aspect you didn’t say anything about?”

The crowd murmured and hooted with growing excitement and interest. If this had been a paid event, they’d be getting their money’s worth out of it, that was for sure.

Ugnash, wherever he might be watching from, didn’t reply. I did hear Cerea cackling somewhere, though.

The screen disappeared, but not before I had noted the words. They weren’t the exact same this time. I couldn’t recall with total accuracy, but I was definitely certain Sacrifice hadn’t boosted my Vitality for an hour and fifteen minutes. It had been less. I was sure of it.

Was this an effect of raising the rank of Sacrifice, or was Fervour the one helping here? Or both?

Khagnio yelled and attacked some more. His blows rained in, hard and fast. I had to wonder if he was giving it his all now. For now, I took them all. Locked in place as I was, all I could do was hunch over a little and hold my ground, blocking as best as I could.

All the while, Khagnio’s tail was constantly pulling me, trying to drag me off balance so he could land a proper blow and end the battle. The strength of his tail’s tug just kept on growing and growing.

And then I let go. I turned Infusion around into Siphon, reducing my weight so much that the powerful drag from the thick tail threw me to the ground in the blink of an eye. The sudden change in weight and motion almost made me heave out my guts. Needless to say, Khagnio himself had made me dive under his own blows, the stupid snakehead.

I took immediate advantage of his shock. His tail’s grip had loosened, enough for me to finally pull myself free as I kicked at the ground and shot away from my aggressor.

“You can’t run!” Khagnio yelled, whirling around to come after me.

I wasn’t running. Rolling to my feet, I got back up and faced Khagnio just as he was on me again. Only to get smacked by his own boot.

That had been my goal. The roll, the sudden rush, the twist timed so that I turned just at the very moment Khagnio reached me. It was all to get a weapon. Something I could swing around and take advantage of both Gravity increasing its weight massively and the surprise on Khagnio’s face.

The Scalekin tried to block. His arm almost shot up instinctively as he checked his momentum. But I had swung with all the might my Power could provide, and the added weight really empowered the impact.

This time, it was Khagnio’s turn to go skidding backwards several feet.

The crowd roared in approval. My spirit soared, my heart thundering along with the general noise.

Khagnio’s grin widened so much, I really thought his face was going to split in two. Every muscle in my body buzzed like I had mana running through every single cell. It wasn’t just at the prospect of the continued fight, but at the fact that I was in real danger here.

I had survived against Khagnio so far, but there was no way I could beat him. Not yet. And the damn Scalekin didn’t look like he was going to stop until he had beaten me to a pulp.

“You’ve done well, mageling,” he said, his words coming out with such a hiss that I had a little trouble deciphering them. “But you need to learn the difference between an Iron such as yourself and high-Silver like me.”

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I tensed even more, if that was possible. Khagnio leered, then attacked, then was forced to come to a stop.

Ugnash had dropped in between us. “That’s enough, you two.”

The crowd groaned in disappointment, but I hardly paid them any attention. Holy shit. I hadn’t even seen him move, which should have been an easy thing to spot considering how massive and bulky the Rakshasa was.

Khagnio actually did stop. Though, not happily, of course.

“Really? Now?” The Scalekin spat to the side. “We were just getting to the fun part.”

“Well, we’ve already had a lot of fun,” Cerea said, coming over as well. “Haven’t we, Ross?”

“Uh…” I wasn’t exactly going to call the whole fight fun. Though, I had to admit that the way the crowd had reacted and the way I’d done my best to overcome Khagnio had made me feel the same kind of thrill as when I had taken down the Scarthrall. A rush of adrenaline that drowned out most other thoughts and made me feel alive in the moment.

Except, it all caught up to me as things were finally winding down. People were talking and murmuring, pointing at me and eyeing me with interest, and my new teammates were approaching with looks that had clearly re-evaluated me.

Moreover, I was nearly half naked.

All I could do was stand there and try my best not to shake in my shoes as the adrenaline crash worked its way through my system.

“This should be good enough, right?” Ugnash said.

The big Rakshasa wasn’t speaking to any of us. Instead, it was the Scalekin bartender who came in as the crowd began dispersing now that their entertainment was done.

“Good enough,” he said, eyeing me up and down. “Here you go. Welcome to the Adventurer’s Guild.”

Without ceremony, I was handed a small dark badge depicting an eight-pointed star with swords crossed behind it. Apparently, I was now officially an adventurer.

Cerea put an arm around my shoulder. “Welcome to the party for real, Ross. Now why don’t we all go and get something to drink? Got to celebrate our newest member!”

As we headed out after the fight properly ended, I got more notifications from the Weave.

[ Rank Up!

Your Power Attribute has risen by two Ranks.

Your Vitality and Agility Attributes have risen by one Rank.

Your Sacrifice Aspect has risen by one Rank.

Your Gravity Aspect has risen by one Rank.

Your Path of the Acolyte has risen by one Rank.

Power: Iron IX

Vitality: Iron VIII

Agility: Iron VI

Sacrifice: Iron VII

Gravity: Iron IX

Path of the Acolyte: Iron VII ]

Thankfully, when Cerea had mentioned going out to drink and celebrate, she hadn’t meant guzzling down whatever strange swill they served at the Adventurer’s Guild. Instead, I was taken to an actual nice restaurant, right there on Ring Two.

“Unfortunately, even Ring Three restaurants have a policy of not allowing shirtless people inside,” Cerea said, eyeing me and Khagnio with mild disappointment. “And I certainly don’t blame them.”

“Bah, fine,” Khagnio grumbled. He held out a scaly hand. “I’ll owe you.”

Cerea waved her hand and a cloak appeared. I blinked. Had that just come from sort of spatial storage or inventory system, or was there something else going on here? “You’ll owe me double.” She conjured another cloak, stuffing it in my hands. “Since you started the fight with poor Ross here.”

Khagnio hissed out another grumble but didn’t argue against her.

I pulled on the cloak. It was thick and warm, but not uncomfortable. “Where’d you get this from? An inventory?”

“Inventory?” Cerea shook her head. “No, it’s my Aspect. It allows me to store things in an extraplanar dimensional box.”

“Oh, I see.”

I was highly curious about her ability, but we arrived at the restaurant that Ugnash was leading us to. It was a small place, but still looked rather rich, what with the fancy outdoor seating arranged within a garden of fake flowers made from glass and a fountain that was quite literally spewing wine.

“This looks… expensive,” I said.

“Don’t worry,” Ugnash said. “The owner lost a wager to me a while back. Old hag owes me, so I’m cashing it in with our little meal here.”

Soon enough, we were seated with a server coming in to take our orders. There was actual meat and real vegetables on the menu. Eggs even. Without hesitation, I went for one of their special egg dishes, though I was curious if they’d be chicken eggs or something else.

Said old hag came to greet us personally. Or rather, came to greet Ugnash personally. She was like the moose-headed person I had seen at the Adventurer’s Guild—mostly humanoid except for the head of an animal. In this case, a shaggy cow with a very expensive hairdo. There was tension between her and Ugnash, but they remained forcefully polite.

“Ugnash has a gambling streak,” Cerea informed me. “That’s how he’s been going around wagering with people to collect on favours. Or have them collect favours from him. He’s a bit of an addict.”

“I would not call it an addiction,” Ugnash said, forcefully polite still. “I just know how to judiciously spend all my hard-earned coin.”

Well, that at least explained how Ugnash and Kostis knew each other.

“What about you, Ross?” Ugnash asked. “How are you going to spend your money?”

“Depends, I think,” I said. “Do you have a ballpark idea of what we’re going to make in the dungeon?”

I could already imagine dungeon delves weren’t as clear cut as a job from the Mage Guild, which Cerea confirmed.

“It all depends on what we’re able to secure within the dungeon and how far we go on our delve,” she said. “There are treasures to be found, monster loot to be brought back, and all that fun stuff. But I will say that we should come out with a minimum of fifteen-thousand gold per person.”

I whistled under my breath. That was a hefty sum of money. More than either of my Mage Guild jobs had paid. And Cerea had said that was the minimum they expected.

“What are you going to do with the money?” I asked. I grinned. “I meant the other two, Ugnash. You’re an open book.”

He harrumphed and went back to eating his vegetarian dish. The server had brought our plates while we had been talking, and I was enjoying my eggs with relish. This was probably the first time I had actually enjoyed a meal in Ephemeroth.

“Well, Khagnio won’t say what he’s going to do with his money,” Cerea said. “But I suspect it’s going to fund more of his illicit activities with the underground gangs of Zairgon.”

Khagnio scowled at her, though he was too busy chomping down on what looked like grilled, skewered rats. I was enjoying my eggs too much to question anybody’s tastes.

“And you, Cerea?” I asked. “Are you going to take it back to Claderov?”

“Oh, not at all. Well, eventually but not yet. I’ve got a little stake in a clock shop over here, so I’m going to lavish myself with my winnings in Zairgon for a bit. But you Ross, we still don’t know what you’re doing…?” she asked with a sly smile.

“I’m going to use it to buy something magical,” I said. Khagnio muttered something about mageling again, but we all ignored it. I just smiled. “And maybe do another little celebration when I finally break through to Silver. Shouldn’t be too long now. Although, I admit I don’t know what happens when you’re on the cusp of hitting the next rank, like Iron X for example.”

“Oh, it’s just a mini bottleneck. Whatever you’ve been doing, you just try something different until you’ve broken through the obstacle and reached your next rank tier. Nothing too complicated.”

I wasn’t so sure about that. Trying to think of changing the way I had been training left me stumped. Though, my brain was firmly lodged on devouring these delicious probably-not-chicken eggs.

It was odd to be sitting at a table and enjoying a meal with people I had only come to know that day. Especially when one of them had tried to beat me to a pulp not that long ago.

“You good now?” I asked Khagnio. No point in beating around the bush. “Or do I actually need to punch some of your teeth out?”

The Scalekin noisily swallowed another grilled rat before fixing me with a sharp glare. Despite the look, I got a sense of amusement from him. “Oh, yes. We’re good. I enjoyed our little scuffle.” He grinned at me. His teeth were bloody. “I’d like to test you even more at some point, but not yet. You’re still a little bud, mageling. We need you to sprout and grow before I get any satisfaction from chopping you down.”

I didn’t appreciate the metaphor, but it would suffice for now. That fight had been transformative, in a way. Like I could tell I had shifted everyone’s opinions, even Cerea’s, who had already approved of me without the need for any silly worth-proving.

We finished our food with some occasional chatter. Ugnash was the first to finish, and he got to his feet after pushing his plate away. “Two more days. Then we head out to the dungeon. Make sure you’re prepared.”

While his words were addressed to everyone, his eyes lingered on me the most. I nodded. Proper preparation was important. It was why I had waited to spend my money. Now that I had a better idea and companions who could guide me, I was suitably ready to, well, get ready.

But first, I needed to purchase something important. Something to use Sacrifice on and give myself a bigger buffer from the imminent mana implosion.