Chương 167: Introductions

In his office at the Port Singhni Adventure Society campus, Ilmaril Thenston, supervisor of the eastern branch of Task Group Gauntlet, finished reading the report, reordering the pile of papers into a neat stack in front of him. The contracted strike against the major smuggling operations of the island city of Havenpeak had almost been a disaster. The unforeseeable elements in the task group's every day operation were always manifold, but this time had been particularly bad.

Even so, the crafty adventurers had pulled through, used their judgment and done their job. Although three of the silver-rankers deployed hadn't come back. Ilmaril knew that under the circumstances, those numbers were actually way lower than expected. Still, each of them made for such a waste of potential. But what remained had secured the island for long enough to seize all the goods currently stored there, with the exception of much of the liquid assets.

Out of the leaders of the smuggling ring, four had managed to escape the island through teleportation or portals, the adventurers too more focused on sending in reinforcements rather than setting up a dimensional net of their own. The whereabouts of these criminals were so far unknown, but Ilmaril would leave tracking them down to the more investigative elements. He was far more interested in all those restricted pieces of magic that had been seized. And so was apparently one of their recruits.

"Kite, I both understand and appreciate your concern with this matter. The amount of goods sent here and other details in the manifest does seem to indicate that this is not the first shipment sent to your homeland, and I assure you that we will make sure to forward this to director Temren in your capital branch. But you have barely been back half a day, and you request that we send your team out again immediately, fresh out of debriefing?"

"Supervisor Thenston, I understand your doubts. But as I have tried to convey, this might be connected to something bigger going on in my homeland. The goods were going to be shipped out today according to the manifest, and we even have a location. I am sure that you see what this could mean; at worst we stamp out a random gathering of cultists and at best…," Kite said, taking a moment to steady himself and reign in his budding frustration.

"At best we could uncover something vital for the direction of Hua-Xi's future. And we have both the means and opportunity to act if we do so quickly." Ilmaril treated himself to a sigh as he rose from behind his desk. The young man was nothing if not earnest, that was for sure. But he still carried a lot of the naiveté of youth. Still, Ilmaril reminded himself to be gentle.

"Kite, you know how Gauntlet works by now. You wouldn't still be here if you didn't. Even though we might work on a different scale than most, we are still adventurers working through contracts. And while we have a responsibility to protect people as is our founding creed, it is not Gauntlet's place to just step in wherever we want. But we will forward this to the director of Heavenward, and she in turn can bring it up to your country's leader. Your…"

"King," Kite replied, filling in the expectant gap, even if Ilmaril's reasoning caused his frustrations to churn again.

"But that will take time, supervisor. Time we do not have if we are to use the opportunity given here."

"Even if there was a will, Kite, there is also the matter of funding. You know how well you are remunerated, so it should not come as a surprise to you that it is almost exclusively the heads of cities or even countries who send contracts our way. Deploying elite silver-rankers to almost anywhere in the world is not cheap," Ilmaril explained, trying the crass route as the organizational one hadn't worked.

In most cases, Ilmaril wouldn't have bothered with this conversation, but the young man had served well so far and had excellent potential within their ranks, so he had decided to take the time to at least address the matter personally. And his words did seem to have finally worn down the younger man's resolve, as his spirit seemed to deflate slightly even though his posture remained proper.

"I… see," Kite said, his voice filled with resignation. And what Ilmaril sensed taking shape in his aura caused the elf's brows to knit in concern.

"Now, Kite, I would recommend to sleep a bit on the matter and-""Supervisor, I believe that I will have to thank you for the time and resources invested in me by the task group. This has been an amazing opportunity, but I believe that I will not be able to remain in order to finish my final month of assessment. This development in regards to my home is simply too urgent, and beyond what I personally stand to lose for leaving."

Ilmaril regarded Kite for a moment, but as he saw no false meanings or bluster in the man, he couldn't help but shake his head.

"I would still urge you to think this through Kite, and will take your words as spoken rashly while still recovering from a most intense contract. Gauntlet has a place for you. It can add to your growth as you can add to it. Do not squander this chance, as such flippancy might be to your detriment should you seek to once more apply to join us." He added a bit of aura pressure to accompany his words, just enough to impart the severity of them rather than scare the young man.

Kite met the gold-ranker's gaze for a moment, and while Ilmaril sensed the hurt in him, the man's resolve was unchanged.

"A shame," he thought, stopping to stand in front of Kite.

"Then, as the supervisor of this branch of Task Force Gauntlet, I acknowledge your wish to-""What I believe that dear Ilmaril here was about say, is that a contract that could be of much interest to young Kite here has apparently just arrived," a pleasant voice suddenly interjected as a scaled hand landed amicably on the elf's shoulder.

"Sir Darnos," Ilmaril greeted, looking about as startled as Kite at the draconian's sudden appearance.

"What do you mean? I-""It's not your fault, Ilmaril. The contract just came in, after all, the ink barely having dried. Apparently, an unknown, most concerned and handsome gentleman of means has gotten wind of troubling developments in the small nation of Hua-Xi. I'm sure that you have heard of it," Darnos of the Rending White, overseer of Task Group Gauntlet's eastern operations said with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Word among the functionaries even says that his scales glimmered like nothing they had ever seen before. Truly, a spectacular piece of man, that one." Ilmaril didn't even look at the paper offered by the draconian, disbelief written all across his features.

"Sir Darnos, you truly don't mean- This… This is so far outside protocol that-""I believe that you did say that Task Group Gauntlet is still comprised of adventurers, dear Ilmaril. Adventurers that protect people. And wouldn't getting to the bottom of a trail of restricted magical contraband to a troubled kingdom be just that? You know the destruction a single death essence in the wrong hands can cause in the more rural regions."

"But… the funding-""Will be paid in full for a single team of eight silver-rankers with at least one local among their ranks, the cost for the portal included. Said gentleman apparently had some spare funds lying around, and found this to be a good cause. But he did stipulate very thoroughly that the team had to volunteer, should they just have come back from another contract. How generous and foresighted, wouldn't you say?"

Realizing that any further argument would be pointless, Ilmaril gave his superior a helpless look before turning back to Kite, the younger man still trying to comprehend what had just happened.

"Well, Kite, it would seem that Fortune has a good eye towards you. As you are the only Hua-Xian in our ranks, the choice of team is a foregone conclusion. Would you like to bring the contract to present to the others? As was stipulated, they do have to agree." Reaching out to receive the stack of papers, Kite bowed deeply to each of the two gold-rankers, clutching the documents to his chest.

"Thank you, truly. And I hope that the concerned benefactor knows that this is a bond of karma that I will not forget. Am I excused?"

"You are," Ilmaril agreed, and Kite swiftly left the room. As the door clicked shut behind him, Ilmaril slowly turned to Darnos, whose eyes still twinkled with mirth.

"Sir?"

"Yes, Ilmaril?"

"I hope I'm not overstepping when I would like to know; what was that? While the draconian looked entirely unapologetic, he at least had the decency to not play dumb.

"That, dear Ilmaril, was me doing something that felt right."

"But-""Do you disagree that it was a good thing to do, Ilmaril?"

"... No, sir," the elf said honestly.

"And a fully funded contract has been sent. So there shouldn't be any fuzz. Kite did have a point in that time was of the essence." Ilmaril was silent for a while, but eventually asked; "May I know why, sir? While I can imagine that many individual adventurers would agree with Kite, we as an organization are not vigilantes."

"Oh indeed we are not, Ilmaril," Darnos chuckled.

"And while the opinions within the task group's leadership tends to differ, I personally like to think that it is in times like this that the old adage 'the end justifies the means' is most applicable. I saw a chance to do what I felt was something worthwhile, and I had the resources to do it within the boundaries of the rules."

"Debatable."

"Well, I may be skirting some of them a bit, that's true," Darnos admitted.

"But what also had a little bit of influence over my actions is that I believe that it is an opportunity for young Kite there. We've both had quite a bit of preconceived notions about him, which we've both found reason to reconsider. Seeing the matter's importance to him and judging by the feeling I got from his aura, there is something more at work in his homeland. Something which Gauntlet as a whole cannot just dive straight into at the moment.

But a concerned local who just happened to be involved and has ties to us? Well, isn't that a mighty fine accident should the time come when we would actually be called upon to step in? So we give him a chance to prove himself some more, show him that we aren't entirely above supporting him and get an excellent addition to our ranks while rooting out what, from the look of it, would be just what Gauntlet exists to handle? I, for one, would call that money well spent."

"Thank you, everyone. I truly, truly appreciate this," Kite said, bowing deeply to each and every one on his team. They were all spread out around one of the more secluded portal platforms of Port Sighni's Adventure Society campus, waiting for their express-scheduled portal to arrive.

"Oh I don't think that you're the only one happy about getting to follow this little trail to the end," Christine answered, from where she was leaning back on a stone-shaped divan.

"It would have been rather unsatisfactory if you just had to leave things. Such a major shipment has to go to something, right?"

"Such evil lurking needs to be stamped out," Gray Sky agreed. Of all of his teammates, it had been the runic and Ryker that Kite had been the most worried would deny his plea for them to take the follow-up contract on such short notice. But it turned out that the man's pride worked to Kite's advantage this time, as the man was at least zealous in his drive to stamp out what he deemed to be evil. As for Ryker…

"We will still approach this with caution. Scout properly and prepare as best as we are able. With the short notice and… peculiarities… of the contract, we'll pretty much be on our own. Had the delivery location been anywhere a gold-ranker could comfortably reside, I would've been against this from the start," the stern team leader said, still leafing through what their scribes had been able to summarize on short notice from the captured documents of Havenpeak.

If Kite wasn't mistaken, the location specified for the smugglers was a hidden complex in the mountains of western Hua-Xi, south of the city of Boundary. While more mana-dense than Kite's childhood home of the Autumn lands, it was still a region of Hua-Xi where a gold-ranker would need to consume several spirit coins per day or start degrading, as the ambient magic was simply too lacking to sustain them.

Still, the lack of information and the plan they had agreed upon sent flutters of trepidation through his stomach. Apparently sensing his internal turmoil, Kite felt an aura nudge his. Looking up, he saw Sztyka give him a supporting nod. As it came from a priestess of Justice and the one team-member who had seemed to be straight-up excited to join this venture, the gesture did make Kite feel better.

Sztyka had indicated that she might not have been able to join such a venture for any other reason than a completely mundane contract unrelated to any other clergy, giving Kite a bit of a glimpse into the complicated life of those sworn to the service of the gods.

"Justice, if this is you showing your approval, I give you my thanks," he sent in silent prayer while acknowledging the other's confirmations with nods, smiles and words of thanks. Having been away for over five months and seeing so many parts of the world, from barren mountain hideouts to packed cities, it felt almost alien to return home to that which he knew.

Kite was even unsure if his friends back home would believe him when he told them about fighting a man-eating pirate at the bottom of the ocean inside a flooding underwater hideout. Or if he should even tell his aunties about it.

"I will have to curate things heavily for little Raven," Kite thought, the tightening in his chest making itself known once more. Almost half a year since he saw his little sister.

"I bet that she has grown so much." Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. His thoughts were once again interrupted as Amica floated into his field of view, hair falling like a curtain to block his view as she hung upside down in the air.

"Relax, Kite. You don't have to be particularly sensitive to note that you're basically a ball of homesickness and tension right now. Things will go fine. I mean, we're supposed to be among the best at this kind of thing by now, right?" she asked with an attempt at encouragement, and Kite had to admit that it worked.

"And besides, you'll even be able to make a grand return with your shiny new gear," Amica finished, gesturing towards Kite's armor. A few weeks before the strike against Havenpeak, Kite had commissioned a new, proper set of armor to replace the rather nondescript one he had worn through silver rank so far, and Fortune had truly favored him in that it had been completed the day of his return.

While it had cost way more than a literal arm and a leg - recovering lost limbs weren't that expensive to a silver-ranker after all - Kite did feel that the expense had been worth it as he looked down upon what he felt was a true work of art. WWJS: Spellplate of the Wardsmith Heavy armor Silver rank - Epic [Effect] Increases the durability of any shields or barriers conjured by the wielder. [Effect] Whenever you cast a shield or barrier, gain an instance of [Impervious].

All instances will be consumed when used against an applicable attack. [Impervious] (Boon, magic, stacking): Resistances are increased and damage reduction is gained against non-physical damage. Additional instances have a cumulative effect. [Effect] The durability of this armor increases while channeling mana into ongoing effects. Increase is proportional to the amount of mana channeled, up to a certain limit. [Effect] Pay an ongoing mana cost to self-repair.

Speed of self-repair is proportional to ongoing mana cost. The articulated plate Kite was currently wearing was mostly made from a silvery metal called mana chrome, a malleable material which could be enchanted to react to mana in differing ways depending on the needs of the smith. Actually commissioning the piece had been a quite formal affair as Kite met up with a silver-ranked mentee of a local gold-ranked master.

In the end, what Kite had wanted had required the ordering of some rather exotic materials and the smith bringing in another of his former fellow apprentices to help. Both now had their own businesses, but apparently still shared contracts and referrals when the need arose. While the cost was steep, there was a certain feeling when luxuriating in armor made just for you alone.

The resulting mana chrome was light and surprisingly comfortable, as Kite had splurged a bit extra on the enchantments in that regard, and the boost it gave to his barriers, be it the extra durability or the gathering defensive boon it generated, was nothing to scoff at. But the idea Kite had been most proud of was that the suit could utilize his near constant channeling of mana while in combat.

Kite had become rather proficient in walking the spiritual tightrope that was using his mantle, making sure to keep the arms active only when he could land enough hits and counters of his own to balance out the cost, and now his spending of mana would add even more; creating a thin layer of barrier across the surface of the armor as long as he kept channeling.

The effect even grew as he spent more, which meant that when Kite had his mantle active along with the 'air walking' of Leyline warding or using his racial gift to sustain magical effects, he became even harder to damage for the blows that would inevitably slip through his defenses.

"I'm very impressed with what they could accomplish," Kite agreed, before adding.

"And most pleased that they could lacquer it to dampen its reflectiveness. If you think that this is shiny, you should have witnessed its more raw splendor while it was made."

"Wouldn't a dazzling presence be good for a defensive type like you?" Amica teased, poking the metal of his pauldron.

"Not if it's so bright that even the most dim-witted monsters turn away from me to seek other prey," Kite countered.

"I for one am still disappointed," Emilio said haughtily from the side.

"You would have made for better target practice, and- oh, I believe that our portal is here." Kite didn't sense anything, but knew the elf to be the one most sensitive to shifts in dimensional forces within their team, something to do with a racial gift evolution earlier in his career. Emilio's prediction was soon proven correct too, as an empty, square gray doorway rose from the ground of the portal platform. Within its opening it looked like row upon row of similar empty door frames led off into dour infinity.

A moment later, a short elven woman peeked her head through, giving them each a dazzling smile.

"Riz is the name, and portals is the game. Please step through, and I will show you a world of wonders!" Her little speech was even accompanied by conjured sparkles and a rainbow appearing above the portal, a stark contrast to the slate-gray aperture that looked to be leading to some kind of dull purgatory.

"Eight people and one familiar, right? My power just reached gold last month, so you're in luck. Not many of us know any places where you're going, and now this will be quick and easy!" True to his usual self, Ryker just nodded in greeting to the bubbly elf and otherwise ignored her as he led the way into the portal, the rest of the team following suit. Bringing up the rear, Kite stopped next to the courier and bowed politely, hands cupped.

"Thank you, mistress Riz. Your path is most impressive to bring me back home while still silver-ranked. The sparkles were a nice touch too," he added, feeling bad that her little display had not otherwise been acknowledged. From the look of pure, unadulterated joy the elf gave him at the compliment, Kite assumed that it didn't happen too often.

"Really? Really really? Thank you! Most just ignore them, so I had started wondering if it was even worth it, but now- oh, I'm so happy! Do you think I should add more pink into the mix? Or-" she said, starting off a long, rapid-fire list of her aesthetic ponderings as Kite entered the portal aperture alongside her. And much like the single step he had taken from Heavenward just over five months ago, a step which had allowed him to cross out into the wider world, a single step took Kite back home.

Because while the world was huge and the sights many, the thought of home brought a sense of familiarity which could only be highlighted by the contrast of new experience. But this time, home was not just a place to return to. This time, Kite had a contract. A trail of something foul had pointed him back home, something that Kite doubted was pure happenstance given what he had learned might be lurking beneath the veneer of Hua-Xi. This time, Kite would return as the hunter.

"From the feel of your spirit, this was more the 'I'm exasperated' kind of urgent rather than the 'this is a crisis' kind of urgent," Maximilian Brackenstar, deputy director of the Heavenward Adventure Society branch noted upon entering the office of his superior. In response, branch director Anasta Temren just threw a letter at him, her gold-ranked dexterity making it easy to send the envelope spinning through the air with absolute precision.

Snapping the document from its flying trajectory, it only took Maximilian a moment to skim its content, and another three seconds to read it again, more properly.

"Oh," he said. Apparently finding his reaction lacking, Anasta looked up to glare at her second in command.

"That's it? Oh? We have a strike team from Task Group Gauntlet entering the country for a contract given by an outside source, and that's all you've got. Do you realize what the sects - fuck it - what the king would do if this got out?"

"It's not like it's illegal, or even uncommon. Contracts often cross borders even without the involvement of the likes of Gauntlet."

"Yes, but the legality is not the problem. You know the political situation here, Maximilian. You know that all they want is a reason."

"So we better make sure that they don't find out then. Given the location, I'd say that it isn't likely."

"I've already started to arrange the cover-up. I just wish they could give us more warning than a polite 'a team will arrive in three hours. Deal with it'," Anasta grumbled.

"Still, if you think about it, Gauntlet just doesn't move for anyone. And the king certainly hasn't sent for them. Do you think that this is related to…?" Maximilian said, voice full of meaning as he trailed off.

"It better be. It better be good. And it better not cause this country to explode. Metaphorically."

"I believe that the adherents of Destruction would love for it to be literal." That did get a chuckle from the branch director, pushing back a strand of her chestnut locks which had escaped the hair arrangement of the day, held in place by a beautiful comb.

"I suppose that you are right. Sorry for snapping at you," she said, and Maximillan felt her sincerity as it no longer felt like her aura was threatening to cut anything and everything to pieces.

"But please, keep a look at it if you can while I start mustering the most discreet support teams that I can manage? If any of the locals except the Tengu clan even seems close to catching a whiff of it, we need to act quickly." Anasta then turned back towards her panoramic window with a grand view of the city, the dusk outside painting it in warm hues. As Maximillian turned to leave, his sharp ears caught her murmured words:"Fortune, please let this be a good thing.

We're doing our best, but we could really use an unexpected win right now." Portal users could travel to most places they had visited, but to really anchor a location in one's mind, there usually had to be a special, distinctive feature to help form that abstract connection. Most often, it was a designated plaza in a settlement or city, such open spaces often having other distinct buildings, statues, parks or similar landmarks nearby to ease the process.

While in the wilderness, distinct rock formations, steep valleys or other such things were most often chosen instead. That was why Kite was rather surprised that Riz's portal exited onto the backyard of a noodle shop; a lone waystation with some separate buildings and stables for the occasional traveler in need of lodging. The nearby heidels all looked up with their two pairs of eyes at the arrivals before walking off to the other side of their enclosure to continue their grazing away from the dimensional arrivals.

"What- how… Why?" was all that Kite could manage, trying to process the sudden turn of events even as all of his senses were assaulted by the feeling of home. There was a certain quality to the air and ambient mana that he had never noticed before, and definitely hadn't known that he had missed until he was suddenly back.

Combined with the familiar architecture of sloped roofs, glazed tiles and sliding doors, as well as the distinct blends of spicy broths that came wafting out of the establishment before him, Kite couldn't help but smile even through his disbelief.

"This place has the best spicy mushroom broth," the odd elf courier beside him said wistfully, already seeming drawn in towards the back doors of the restaurant.

"When you can go anywhere, why not make sure that you actually like the places that you commit to memory." Riz's last words were said as she slid the doors open, immediately calling inside.

"Old man Steam, I'm back!" Looking to his team members, Kite saw all of them inspecting their new surroundings with interest. He met Ryker's gaze with a questioning look of his own as Kite glanced to where Riz had disappeared. Ryker seemed to think for a second, but as none of the other members of the team seemed to detect any danger, he eventually shrugged. And nodded. That was how the team from Task Group Gauntlet soon found themselves slurping down steaming bowls of noodles.

Old man Steam, the wrinkled man running the place along with his daughter and grandson, had taken the team of silver-rankers filing into his restaurant in stride, and had even directed his grandson to rearrange the tables to give the adventurers a corner to themselves. Kite was thoroughly enjoying the noodles, giving Riz a gesture of thanks through the privacy screen which currently surrounded them before turning back to point at a map he had splayed out on the table.

"See here east of us? That is Convergence. While it is small to what most of you are used to, it is one of the bigger cities of northern Hua-Xi," he explained between bites.

"It is most fortunate that Riz could get us to somewhere more remote like this. From what she told us, we should be around here somewhere," he continued, indicating an area along the western trade road.

"If the shipment was indeed intended to be delivered to this area west of us, we have some trekking to do."

"That's not too bad. We can cover the distance fast enough, and that'll give Emilio time to scout things out a bit before they should start getting suspicious," Ryker said, placing his second empty bowl into the first.

"Assuming there is someone there, of course. But everything did indicate it, and our scribes couldn't find any magically hidden messages or mundane ciphers in the notes." They spent another hour setting up a preliminary plan, reaching the question of transportation just as Kite had finished paying for their food.

"If we run there, we should go cross-country," Emilio noted.

"While I don't think we'll be more than a story for the people living here, we still want to minimize further exposure of where we are going. It's a shame that we weren't closer to home, or I could have borrowed a sky ship from my family or one of our vassals."

"It probably wouldn't fly here, at least not models made for your home region," Mtanga pointed out.

"The ambient mana is too sparse."

"Then running it is," Ryker agreed, but turned to Kite as he raised a hand to interrupt.

"If you don't mind a bit of cramped seating, I believe that I have a solution to that part. With all the portals we've been treated to, there hasn't been any real need until now," Kite said. Sensing that it would be her time to shine, his glittering carp familiar came floating up from her bottle at his side.

"It has been some time since Glint really got a proper workout, after all." And so it came to pass that Kite's first evening back in his homeland was spent seated atop his familiar, enchanted boat floating through the air behind her as they raced west like a comet trailing mist which glittered in the last rays of sunlight. Most of the team relaxed in the relatively cramped insides of the vessel, but Kite couldn't help enjoying himself as he leaned forward on Glint's back, chasing the horizon and the setting sun.

Somewhere among the jagged mountains that were gradually becoming visible in the distance, a hidden threat was waiting for them; a gathering of magic most foul. And the team from Task Force Gauntlet already had a plan on how to make their introductions.

"Master! Maste- out of my way! Master, they're here!" Split Shard of Mirrors, priest of Discord, had already risen from his meditations as he had sensed his bronze-ranked acolyte approach, the eagerness clear in his aura. To the others in their hidden compound, he was simply known as master Shard, the aura mask given by his patron church hiding the touch of divinity upon him as Shard took the role of ostensibly neutral leader of their growing cell.

As his acolyte was invited into his personal sanctum, its magically camouflaged windows actually letting some real daylight inside, Shard activated his privacy screen.

"The shipment? I was almost beginning to wonder," Shard said, deducing the reason for his acolyte's excitement.

"And they signaled as agreed upon?"

"They did, master."

"Good. The others were getting rather tedious to deal with as things were taking longer than expected. While their bickering is like words of prayer to our deity, a few more days might have sent our little venture down Destruction's gullet instead. Our latest batches of followers need to be given the powers promised to them, after all. We will need to have patience as they are trained over the year to come."

"Discord's creed is patience. Sow the seeds, nurture them over the years and watch his garden grow," Shard's acolyte intoned, earning himself a pleased smile from his master.

"Well said. Meditate further upon that image. With your plant essence, it will be important to you. But for now, send some of the others to collect the shipment and bring it inside. We will be quite busy for the foreseeable future."