Winding through the narrow streets of Dawntown, Kaius and his team followed behind Hurrin as he led them to the far end of the settlement.

Hushed whispers followed their every step. Individual words hid under the clamour of cartwheels on cobble, and the distant ring of the smithies, but it was still unmistakable. The way passersby slowed, watching them pass out the corner of their eyes. It was… not subtle.

Ahead of them at the corner, an older woman with sandy hair opened her window, and leaned bodily out to stare at Porkchop — the object of most people's fascination. He recognised her, though he didn’t know her.

A moment later, she noticed him watching. Flushing a deep red, she smiled awkwardly and vanished back inside.

“Know her?” Kenva asked, taking a long step to fall in line with him.

“Not really, though her face is a little familiar. Probably from Threefields — place was small enough that I crossed paths with most people on my visits.” he explained, shrugging.

She wasn’t anywhere near the first person he found familiar. There’d only been a dozen or so small villages and hamlets around the edges of the Sea, so the people of Threefields made up a decent proportion of the town.

“How’re you so unbothered by it? We got attention in Deadacre, but this is…a little unnerving.” Kenva replied, frowning slightly as a man carrying a basket of bread stopped mid stride to watch them past.

“They’re my people — or the closest thing I have to that. I expected it,” he said, smiling at the man as they passed. “Silvers are practically unheard of, out here, and I'm damn sure that the entire town knows I only got my class a couple of years ago.”

That didn’t mean he enjoyed the attention, but it didn’t surprise him. Plus, even if it was a bit more obvious here, it had still happened in Deadacre. He was getting used to it.

“Too right lad,” Hurrin added from just ahead of them. “You might have gotten away with it, if not for Porkchop. It’s a mite hard to turn up with a spirit o’ the woods and not draw eyes. If ye are here for a few weeks like ye mentioned, they’ll get bored soon enough. For now, we’re not far from where we’re meeting Yanmi.”

Kaius perked up a bit at that — he’d been looking forward to today. The plan was to visit one of the training classes, specifically the first batch to take a year long delve.

It was still a few months off — finding a group of kids who were the right kind of talented and insane had taken work, especially from those young enough to fully benefit from the wealth of Legacy Skills that were shared in Dawntown.

Their visit had come at a good time. For obvious reasons they lacked anyone who could counsel the youngsters on what it was actually like to be in the Depths without a class. Even with an extremely thoroughly mapped first layer delve, and chaperones ready to temper some of the most grievous risks, it was still the Great bloody Depths.

Kaius was happy to share what he knew — and was more than a little excited to see the fruits of the risk he had taken in sharing his secrets.

Beyond that… the prospective team was a man short. Dawntown was sizable, and there were more than three unclassed in the final years of their selection period, but few had the hunger. Few were the special kind of mad you had to be to willingly throw yourself into a lethal situation in pursuit of Honours.

Entering the depths as a trio wasn’t the end of the world — after all, both he and Porkchop had managed by themselves. They’d had an advantage in skill quality, sure, but they were also on the second layer, not the first. Nor would the team have to fight a Guardian to escape.

That said, four was better than three, and wouldn’t impact their ability to gain the Birds of a Bloodsoaked Feather honour. Conveniently, Kaius knew someone who was roughly the right age, had the right drive, and had a decent collection of skills.

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Niles as the young man idly stared at one of the standing stones that poked above the rows of houses.

Hopefully they’d get along — they couldn’t force them to be a team, not when they had to rely on each other in matters of life and death.

Continuing on, they made their way across town, approaching the eastern edge of the standing stones. The tall, closely stacked houses and shops disappeared gradually, replaced by stouter buildings. Wooden weatherboards and clay roofing were replaced by shaped stone and arrow slits as streets narrowed into tight, winding corridors.

Kaius recognised them as intentional choke points immediately — they’d made the heart of the town into a defensive kill box.

Despite looking like small forts, the buildings still seemed in ready use. Flag poles jutted out of monolithic stone into the street, draped with flags of bright reds, yellows and greens — each displaying the sigil of some trade. Passing an open door, Kaius got a brief look at a wide table covered in raw leather. Two men were bent over, carving out raw patterns.

Workshops then, rather than a market.

As they got deeper, gaps started to appear between the buildings as valuable space was converted into training grounds. Most were empty, but they did pass a group of ten men sparring with blunted wooden weapons — though oddly, half of them seemed to be carrying pitchforks and hewing axes rather than tools of war.

“What’s up with that?” Kaius asked, nodding towards the group as they passed.

“Hmm?” Hurrin questioned, before he noticed what Kaius was referring to. “Ah — it’ll be their Skills. We’ve noticed those with tool mastery skills tend to be better off using them in battle, even if there are similar weapons that technically fit the description. A woodsman's axe over a war axe and the like.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“They’ve been training to fight?” Porkchop asked, curious.

“Training? We’ve been fighting,” Hurin said with a proud grin. “Half the bloody town’s been making use of the delve, and a few nearby ones. We play it safe — bigger than normal group sizes, low level delves, and capable hunters and warriors to chaperone — but no one around here wants to be caught with their trousers around their ankles. Sea was dangerous enough before every bloody thing with a heartbeat got System access.”

Kaius finally put his finger on why he’d felt so at ease since he’d arrived. It wasn't the familiarity of the people — it was their attitudes. There wasn’t that air of desperation; that undercurrent of fear that had been present in Deadacre. That might have started to fade after the Tyrant’s siege, but it seemed like it had never taken root in Dawntown in the first place.

Eventually, the stone wall of the town drew near. Right before its edge, an open square came into view. Directly across from where they entered, there was some sort of fort. Squat and over-built, it was made of the same grey stone as rocks that surrounded the city, and butted right up against that natural wall. From his limited angle, it looked like it was built to encapsulate some sort of courtyard — perhaps a defence for the delve the town had been built around?

Regardless, Yanmi was standing next to the large reinforced doors that led into the structure.

Reaching her quickly, Kaius gave her a quick hug.

“What’s this?” he asked, gesturing at the monolith that towered over them.

“Defence for the delve — first thing our masons built. Mostly, it’s used as a place for the unclassed to train their skills, but the idea is that it's a fallback point. Somewhere we can hold and evacuate into the Depths if the town is overrun.”

Kaius raised an eyebrow. That was…impressive. All of what he’d seen was — though he supposed with classes and an entire town working together, he shouldn’t have been surprised in what was built over the last year.

“You’re surprised? You warned us of the end of the world, Kaius — we’d be fools not to act on that,” Yanmi replied. “Ready to meet the team?”

“Of course,” he replied.

Smiling, Yanmi led them through the door, into an austere hall that was utterly empty other than a few wardlights. The mayor explained that the exits on each of their sides lead towards class rooms, and other training spaces. They ignored them, heading for an equally large door at the far end of the hall — an exit to the training space that held the delve.

Over their short walk, she told them a little about the team they were about to meet. Despite having only three, they were relatively well balanced. They had a heavy fighter who favoured an axe and shield, Gerald; a ranger, Balen, and a caster — a girl by the name of Kestia.

Ianmus perked up at the mention of the would-be mage. “She’s casting? Kaius mentioned that you had access to mana manipulation, but I didn’t realise you had the capability to train mages.”

“Oh, we’ve got a few hedge wizards,” Yanmi replied.

“Aye, and Kestia’s damn near drove all six of them to the brink of insanity with her questions — ye should probably ready yourself.” Hurin grumbled, giving Ianmus a warning look.

The mage laughed, “Oh, I think I’ll get along with her just fine, I know plenty of affinity-neutral shaping exercises.”

The way to the training fields drew close — as did a muffled roar, followed by a crash. Yanmi paused as she rested her hand on the door to the training field. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

“Thank you,” she said, before she swept her gaze across their entire group. “All of you. You’ve just been in a bloody war. You should be resting, not offering to teach some over-enthusiastic brats.”

“Nonesense, Yanmi. For the first time in a long time, we have nothing pressing. The plan was always to stay here for a month — we’d have to be pretty bloody callous to not spend some time helping a few trainees who’re planning on delving without a class,” Kaius replied, shaking his head.

“Hear, hear,” Kenva agreed, “Anyone with that sort of guts is interesting enough for me.”

As Yanmi smiled and started to open the door, Kaius turned and clapped Niles on the back.

“What about you, feeling ready?”

“Ready to throw up, maybe,” Niles muttered, his face more than a little pale.

Kaius just laughed and followed Yanmi through the open door.

The training field was sizable — easily a hundred strides across. It was a sandy field, surrounded by a thin strip of paving stones that encircled the edge. Immediately, he spotted the entrance to the delve, a glowing ring of system runes carved right into the standing stones that acted as the far wall.

A sudden clatter drew his attention away from the portal — an arrow deflecting off a shield raised swiftly in defence. The team they were supposed to meet, sparring. One boy, tall and wiry, was already drawing another blunted arrow. His target, his teammate who’d hunkered behind his shield, a broad-shouldered boy with black hair. Gerald and Balen, Kaius assumed.

Their third, Kestia, was watching them from the wall, leaning on a gnarled wooden staff.

The spar halted the second the team noticed them. Kaius watched them curiously. They looked capable — that block had been swift, at least — but he wondered if they had that bite; the fire they would need to survive the depths for a year. Time would tell.

“Boys! Kestia! I’ve got some people I'd like you to meet!” Yanmi called out to them, waving them over.

To Kaius’s surprise, they didn’t move. Instead their heavy fighter, Gerald, stared dead at Niles and pointed at him with his wooden waraxe. There was a glint to the boy's eye, a bit of hot pride, a touch veiled curiosity, and a whole lot of excitement.

“Who’s that?” the boy said, drawing a sigh of resignation from Yanmi.

“That is Niles, a potential option for your fourth.”

Gerald grinned. “So ye the one with Honours, then?”

“How do you even know that?” Niles replied, frowning.

Gerald laughed. “Walls are thin, people talk. Wanna fight?”

Kaius watched Niles closely, wondering how he would take the challenge.

Tensing up for a moment, Niles suddenly grinned with the same eager enthusiasm that was plastered over Gerald's face.

“Yeah, yeah I do.”

“They get along!” Porkchop said, watching Niles rush towards a rack of wooden weapons.

“A copper on Niles?” Kenva questioned softly, raising her brow at Hurin.

“Bah! Terrible bet, he’s got nearly double the stats — unless you reckon he could take ‘em two on one?” the innkeep shot back.

“Deal,”

Kaius only smiled — the next few weeks had suddenly gotten a whole lot more interesting.