The Survivor Becomes a Dungeon

Krys POV

Krys and his team were led along a winding path through a seemingly messy array of corridors with multiple left and right turns in a row, which, if Krys' mental map were anything to go by, would have made them walk the same corridors more than once.

After a near-silent seven minutes of walking, the hooded figure approached a rather ornate-looking carved wooden door that looked distinctly out of place in the stone corridors they had been walking through until now.

"The Guild Master awaits." The short, hooded figure said simply before turning and walking down another corridor.

Not sure what else he could say or do, Krys watched after their guide as they disappeared around a corner before looking to the door in front of them. After another moment of hesitation, he reached for the door handle and pushed the door open.

While his eyes had thoroughly adjusted to the cool light of the crystals that illuminated the underground passages, he couldn't help but instinctively wince at the afternoon sunlight that filled the room he led his team into.

Stepping further into the room, he was greeted by what appeared to be a rather cozy, if not almost mundane, office space on the second or third floor if the rooftops outside were anything to note. A bookish older human woman sat patiently at a large desk covered from end to end with papers and books strewn about in an almost haphazard way.

She had pale skin that looked rarely touched by direct sunlight, vibrant blue eyes that seemed somehow inviting yet sharp like carved ice, and long silvery white hair that was neatly kept together with a simple black silk ribbon.

The woman in question flashed an amused smile as she brushed some hair from her face with an ink-stained hand before speaking up. "Not quite what you expected?" She mused, sitting up and leaning back in her seat. "Well, don't be shy; take a seat."

Krys didn't realize he had been staring until Sera pushed him forward out of the doorway. Ren and Zax soon followed, with Zax shutting the door behind them. There were only two other chairs in the Guild Master's office, so Krys settled down in one as Sera sat on the arm of his chair while Ren sat in the other chair while Zax just leaned forward on the back of it as his eyes curiously scanned the shelves of their books and knick-knacks.

After a somewhat uncomfortable silence settled in the room for a good minute or so, the Guild Master finally spoke up as she leaned forward on her desk, resting her forearms against the desk and interlocking her fingers together. "So... Krys, Sera, Zax and... Ren." She said as she listed out everyone in front of her while giving them an appraising gaze, "I'm glad to see that you've made it safely to our fair city, especially considering the events that occurred at Lucfan's Rest."

Krys still wasn't exactly sure what to say, glancing over at Sera for a moment before finally finding his words and responding. "Well, the situation was actually resolved by the time we arrived at Lucfan's Rest, so we weren't in any real danger if I'm being honest." He said with silent nods of agreement from the others.

"Right, of course... Because the sudden siege of a foreign army was a matter to be merely 'resolved' in a somewhat timely fashion." She deadpanned before leaning back against her seat, resting her hands in her lap as she mustered a withering stare at Krys and his team. "What exactly have you brought into my city, and how can we get him to leave in a timely fashion?"

"We, uhh... Don't know," Krys admitted as his ears flattened against his curly orange hair. "Vito hired us for some job, but he's kept us in the dark about the details. He uh... Made it hard to say no, and we're not exactly in a place where we can back out of our agreement to work for him at this point."

To say the Guild Master didn't look pleased was an understatement. She began studying Krys more intently with a soft huff before sitting a little straighter. "I need you to understand just how precarious our situation is right now. The whole reason you and your team are even meeting with me directly rather than some handler is simply due to the fact you have a semblance of an association with that eccentric you've been traveling with."

Krys bobbed his head at that comment; what little he knew of Vito marked him as an extremely dangerous man to all those who were against him but also a great boon for those he aligned himself with. "I have no illusions that we'd been granted this audience with you for any other reason than the fact that we just so happened to be acquainted with Vito." What little he knew of the Guild Master made them out to be an especially secretive sort who only makes direct contact with a very select few. So, for some thieving pickpocket from a frontier fort town like him to suddenly be meeting with the Guild Master is nothing short of unlikely.

The Guild Master made a vaguely amused face as she nodded slowly. "I'm glad you're at least aware of that much. Now, back to the main topic at hand... Vito," she said simply before gazing into Krys' eyes. “I know you said he's kept you all in the dark, but what can you tell me about him and his plans here?"

Krys glanced over at Ren before looking between Sera and Zax. Of course, he had commitments to the Thieves Guild, but he now had to be mindful of his pact with Vito and the familial bond he and Ren share with the man. Having given himself a few necessary moments to gather his thoughts, he turned back to the Guild Master before sitting a little straighter in his seat. "Vito is here to meet with his partner, the mother of his children, for a date."

The Guild Master blanched at that, leaning into her desk again as she rested her elbows against it. “That’s it? Seriously?”

Krys bobbed his head intently. “He also plans on running a shop and playing at being some sort of art merchant,” he said, his ear flicking in contemplation. “I mean, he obviously has some underlying motive that brought him here, but that’s all he’s talked about during our travels.”

The Guild Master hummed in thought before plucking a seemingly random folder amidst the mess of papers spread across her desk. “A shop, you say?” She mentioned before flipping through the papers within. “So that explains why that Tilzim fellow had that building rented under his name.”

Krys perked up as he noticed the folder in the Guild Master’s hand before tilting his head ever so slightly. “Wait, you actually have a file on Vito? When I last made a request to the information brokers, they turned up nothing about him.”

The Guild Master looked up from the folder before considering it again. “Well, that’s because everything we have on him is less than a few weeks old. We have absolutely nothing on this particular fellow besides what he has done since arriving in our country.” She explained before flipping back to the beginning of what was evidently a sparse collection of reports. “By looking at who he is currently associated with, we were able to find his trail and learn more about him.” Though even as she said that, she did shrug a bit. “Admittedly, the broker’s investigators had to work with more hearsay than usual, but that’s the risk we have to contend with when it comes to an unknown eccentric.”

Krys couldn’t help but sit a little straighter as the Guild Master spoke; sure, he had seen displays of Vito’s magic and even the aftermath of the morning siege of Lucfan’s Rest, and Vito had enough power to somehow give both him and Ren a manaheart… But is that enough to make even the Under Council nervous about his presence here? “I can understand being cautious, hell I’m the one who initially submitted the report about him after he suddenly killed my team’s last contractor, but is Vito a noteworthy enough figure to be this stressed about?”

"That's the question, now, isn't it?" The Guild Master said as she set the folder down before turning it towards Krys and his team. Sera was the first to react, plucking up the folder and peering at the contents while Zax came over and followed along from over her shoulder. "Tracing his path from the moment he entered Sunspot Keep and then left with that caravan was the easy part, but what he did and the outcomes of his actions are what we need to look at, and that's not even considering the events of Lucfan's Rest."

"So what did he do?" Ren piped up curiously, scooting closer to the edge of her seat while looking the Guild Master in the eyes.

The Guild Master mustered a small smile as she looked Ren over before leaning back in her seat. "Well... Besides going around and spending enough gold to feed and clothe a small army for a week or perhaps an even smaller strike team for a month or two. He visited the Crucible Master of a mining guild known to be on his deathbed due to the foul growth; a few days ago, said Crucible Master was seen walking the streets with his family looking thin, if not rather healthy."

Krys spared a glance at Ren as the Guild Master spoke; if Vito was powerful enough to change Ren's life, then it shouldn't be a stretch that the man knew how to cure the foul growth as well.

The Guild Master carried on talking as she began organizing a section of her cluttered desk. "The following night, Vito was spotted walking to the foundry with Tilzim, and that next morning, the Mining Guild was able to fulfill all their outstanding orders for wolfram. Based on that information, it would seem Vito has either an expansive mana capacity or an extraordinary affinity for fire magic, among his other abilities."

Krys nodded as he considered the massive pillar of flames he had witnessed on his way to Lucfan's Rest. "I actually had the opportunity to eavesdrop while Vito was discussing magic with the Steel-Ranked mage escorting the caravan... Vito had said that his mentor had often compared him to dragons when it came to his mastery of flames. The mage had also mentioned that Vito had three rings around his manaheart." If the guilds now had info on Vito, then it was better to paint him as a clearly powerful figure with his more accurate information, even if Krys didn't have much more to tell.

The Guild Master looked clearly surprised by Krys' words, plucking up a fountain pen and a fresh sheet of paper. "Like a dragon? Three rings?" She echoed while scribbling the words down. "That would put him on par with the Head Mistress of the Academy in terms of raw power..." She sighed softly, setting the fountain pen down and massaging her forehead with her freshly ink-stained hand, which left a smudge over her right eyebrow. "All that, and he's a necromancer with unique, highly aggressive undead that he can basically store in his back pocket thanks to his impressive command of spatial magic."

It was then that Ren decided to pipe up, a concerned look on her face as she scooted back into her seat to seemingly get comfortable. "Umm... Miss Guild Master, I don't mean to interrupt, but... I think you need a new pen."

The Guild Master blinked at Ren's comment before looking at her hand, noting the still damp ink as it seemingly dawned on her what may have just happened as she sighed again. "It seems you're right, little Ren; I'll just have to add it to the list." She says while leaning back into her seat as well.

Sera snapped the folder shut, apparently done with reading its contents as she looked to the Guild Master before studying the messy desk between them. "It seems like there's a lot going on in the Capital. Is Vito's arrival the only thing troubling you, or is there something else that we should be getting clued into?"

The Guild Master twisted her lips in consideration before nodding slowly. "Aside from making sure nobody gets overzealous in their efforts with the sudden uptick of Elites coming into town thanks to the meeting a couple of weeks from now... We're also in the middle of an internal audit since we've had reports from the information guild's beggar faction that a number of their younger members have gone missing. On top of that, a few uh..." She starts to say while glancing at Ren for a moment before looking back at the others. "'Companions of the night' have also gone missing from the entertainment districts in a couple of sectors."

Krys' ears perked at the notion of people going missing as he sat straighter in his seat. "How many have gone missing? How long has this been happening?"

"The last few weeks, as far as we can tell... They didn't start reporting their missing members until after several days had passed, considering they could have just been hiding. But once the first reports came in, more started to follow with a total of nineteen reported disappearances. Currently, none of the other guilds or their factions have claimed credit for these missing individuals, so it's likely we're dealing with an outside group, but we can't be sure." She admitted as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "With that said, I don't have the resources to commit to keeping a close eye on the eccentric you're traveling with, hence our meeting." She said while gesturing at Krys and his team before pulling out a couple of scrolls and setting it out on the desk. "Here are a couple of maps; one is for guild resources and hideouts in the area, and the other marks the part of town you're allowed to operate in. On a hunch, I had it centered around that shop Tilzim had arranged for Vito."

Krys took up the scrolls, unfurling them, checking their contents for a moment, and passing them off to Zax and Sera. The Guild Master then procured a palm-sized medallion on a chain with a small blue sapphire embedded in the middle and set it in front of Krys. The medallion itself appeared to be made of silver, with what appeared to be a coin purse wrapped up in vines imprinted on it. "What's this?" Krys asked before the Guild Master could explain, plucking the medallion from the desktop to look it over.

"It's my token," She said while gesturing at the medallion in his hand. "For all intents and purposes, you lot are just another bunch of normal thieves, nobody special or important." She mused with a smirk. "But with that token, you'll be able to call upon my door in the underground corridors if I'm in my office. You'll also be able to use it to meet with any of the faction leads or even the other Guild Masters in the Under Council. I'm sure I don't need to stress just how much authority that token can wield, so don't go flashing it everywhere, understand? Use it when you need to report any kind of important information to me in regards to the eccentric Vito or if it somehow pertains to our missing fellow rogues."

Krys felt a little apprehensive about having such an item in his possession, but after a moment, he simply nodded before meeting the Guild Master's gaze. "I understand... Was there anything else?" He asked while pulling the medallion on and tucking it away under his armor and clothes.

The Guild Master just hummed for a moment before smirking again. "If you see me on the streets? No, you didn't." She mused while gesturing to the door. "May your fingers be light and the coin be plentiful."

"Thank you, Guild Master." Krys replied respectfully before standing and waving Ren along as Sera and Zax fell in behind him. Approaching the door, he felt something in the air vaguely shift as he twisted the knob and pulled it open.

In the next moment, Krys and his team were suddenly greeted by the hustle and bustle of the afternoon crowd on the busy capital city streets when the Guild Master's door shut behind them. Krys couldn't help but instinctively whirl around on the door, looking it over, only to find the door to the cobbler's shop they were in not too long ago.

"Wow... We sure don't have anything like that back in Sunspot Keep." Zax commented simply, not having all too much else to say as Krys and the others nodded at his words.

"No kidding..." Krys said as he looked from one end of the street to the other before waving his team along and falling into the flow of the people around them. "Come on guys, let's go meet up with Boss Vito... Whatever he has planned here, I'm sure he'll want to know what we've learned about the situation in the Capital."