Devil Bee Hive (labyrinth mob, collective), level 132

  base class: red-devil bees (affliction->torment#3, physique->constitution#2, biology->adaptation#1, transformation->superform#1), level 48

  primary class: horror nest (preparation->ritual#3, affliction->torment#2), level 60

  secondary class: customer (system->shopping#3, dimension->pockets#1), level 24

  I recognized the chamber immediately. It was the same one we saw more than two months ago, the one immediately adjacent to where we'd entered. Here I was, finally looking down on it from the other end. To think, three lives lost and two months of slow exploration, all just to circle around this one anomaly.

  Every sector has its own ecosystem, and these tend to be in a stable state as long as no one interferes. Sector tier indicates the amount of ambient mana available for mobs to absorb. While tier does give a rough estimate for difficulty, things aren't always that simple. At times, you find places like this where the balance has broken. A level 132 insect hive mob in a tier 3 sector—we call that an anomaly.

  I'd been delving for a long time and knew how to piece things together. Jaguar chamber plants are ideal food for devil bees, but the large cats quickly eliminate any that appear. The monstrosity before me must have been one they failed to remove until it was too late. Most likely, adventurers had come through here and killed the six-legged cats, leaving this nest with the opportunity to snowball. At least, that was my best explanation for how this got started, but it would not have been enough. To get like this, perhaps it had managed to kill sentients at some later point. Labyrinth anomalies are, more often than not, the result of outside disturbances.

  The chamber we cleared earlier was the one I'd failed to sneak through repeatedly. With that obstacle removed, the rest of the sector was quickly subdued. Well, most of it. Given that every sector must have at least two exits leading up at at all times, there must be more chambers behind the anomaly, but that was no longer important.

  Chase spotted the portal first. Those minutes it took us to get close enough to trigger a prompt were tense. Had this one led to a deeper tier as well, our next course of action would have been to descend further. Luckily, it led to the overworld. And with that, our appointment with death was once again postponed.

  Before leaving, I built grave markers for our fallen comrades and gave a eulogy. It was the first time this task had fallen to me alone, and a sign that I was getting old and approaching the end of my luck. Mediocre adventurers become desperate as their time runs out. Typically, around their mid-forties, they realize they need to win big soon or miss retirement. Was that why I had been so impatient? Was that why my team had perished?

  We emerged near the top of a hill, and with a bit of climbing, it was easy to figure out our location. Since we only went down to level 3, it wasn't too far from where we entered, and I could spot the sea and identify the Dullspire mountains—though, now we were to the south of them. That put us somewhere in Pelagion, which had guild representatives in most large towns.

  Traveling south and towards the sea, we reached a road past the first valley and soon got directions to the nearest town with a proper adventurer's district.

  As the sight of people became more common, I could tell Deluge was getting skittish. It seemed to trust us now, but was clearly still apprehensive about other humans. Perhaps a week ago I would have been inclined to just let it leave, but now I needed it again.

  Let me give some context here. Our team of five had planned to go down to at least tier 5, and to not return before clearing a dungeon. We failed terribly. We cleared one tier 3 sector, partially, and found no dungeons.

  Chase was still young, and with a rank 3 class at his level, would be just fine—at least, as fine as any adventurer could ever be. As for me, I was approaching retirement and had nothing. My team was dead. I had no confidence to assemble a new one. I had no savings and nothing to show for a delve that we had spent months preparing for.

  On my back was a bag filled with the recovered belongings of our three lost members. These would be sold with the proceeds going towards payouts for their families. At best, I would get a small fee for returning it. There had been little of value in that sector. We collected some rare flowers before leaving. Something an alchemist might find use for, but otherwise, we had gained nothing.

  So how does this relate to Deluge? Well. Our hydra tank—it turns out—had been the greatest anomaly of the whole journey. Not long after leaving the labyrinth, the uplifted monster switched its class. Now, by itself, that would not be unusual. The level 20 milestone is a popular point for changing classes and re-specking. No, the anomaly was the class it got,

  Deluge (uplifted), level 16

  base class: hydra (physique->constitution#1, biology->restoration#1, affliction->poison#1), level 11

  primary class: surgeclaw (environment->water#5, physique->strength#3, physique->constitution#2, conjuration->puppets#1), level 5

  Absurd—a rank 4 class at the level 20 milestone is something you only see on pearl-fed nobles—and even then, only the very rich and very lucky ones. To see it on a rogue uplift raised so many questions.

  The sun hung low over Pelagion's coastal cliffs. The scent of brine and decay grew as we neared Vellithor. Our journey had been slow thanks to Deluge not being much of a climber... or walker really. A determined slither seems to be the best he could do.

  I left the uplift with Chase and instructed the boy to find a place to camp where Deluge would not be spotted. Less exposure to people would reduce the risk of the hydra deserting. We only needed him to stick around a little longer for my plan to come through, so it would be worth the risk having them camp out of town—despite the possibility of getting fined if caught.

  I wasn't too worried about finding them again. Knowing Chase, he would spot me returning regardless, so I left the rest to him and headed to town alone.

  I'd never been to this side of the lesser peninsula, but Vellithor had a familiar layout. Near its main gate, and very much outside of the defensive walls, lay the adventurers district. A single guard asked some questions but didn't even bother to search me.

  It didn't take long to find the guildhalls, their cramped wooden frames lined a muddy road—the usual types skulking about outside. Serpent's Eye wasn't the biggest guild here, but it was present. There was no guard, just a few layabouts and one receptionist. Deluge would be my real sale here, but before revealing him, I would need to do some research.

  I started with reporting the three deaths and returning the fallen's belongings. The receptionist—a man likely in his sixties and with several body parts replaced by wooden substitutes—spoke his condolences, but the speed with which he continued writing showed that he had been through this countless times. To me it was new. Never before had I been the one who had to report a death or return belongings.

  He brought up the return fee on their gear before I could—likely out of consideration—and calculated it without needing input from me. Adventure guilds tend to have strict rules for these things, and failure to follow procedures could get nobles involved. Guilds survive on their reputations.

  Next, I took out the flowers we had gathered and asked what I could get for them. It was standard procedure that loot from expeditions be sold through one's own guild whenever possible. If there had been no Serpent's Eye here, I would have needed to go through an affiliated guild—which would have added their own handling fee.

  In the end, our profits were barely enough to cover board and food in a town like this for more than a few weeks. The authorities would not overlook us camping on the outskirts forever, and sleeping in the shared plot set aside for vagrants would be too dangerous. I could have managed it alone, but Chase was too much of a target. I might not be his true father, but I'd been looking after the boy for over three years now, and I did know his parents. I had no intention of taking him to a place like that.

  Next, it was time to do some recon. I went to the nearest drinking spot and bought a pint of the cheapest poison available. I shared some stories and started asking questions. What jobs were available locally? any new wars in the region? how are local guild relations?—basically, the things one would expect someone in my situation to ask about.

  Eventually, I moved to the topic of new recruits. Apparently, a rival guild had recently recruited a pair of direwolf uplifts. Direwolves were the most common type of uplift on the continent, but two at the same time would make noise anywhere. Aside from that, there were also two rank 3 recruits in the last year, and none had gone to Serpent's Eye.

  It seemed some luck had finally come my way. Vellithor's branch had not spent anything on star recruits recently, leaving the budget set aside for it probably untouched.

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  Finally, I probed for opinions on the local head for Serpent's Eye. All I managed to learn was that he had come to the position through strong noble connections and had a reputation for laziness. That bit was concerning. Men like that in positions of power tend to walk over wanderers like me. I would need some backup.

  Leaving the tavern, I headed back to the guild hall and asked the receptionist if they had any guild primers on hand. They did, and the collection was surprisingly extensive for such a small branch. The primers were being kept in a safe somewhere inside the town proper, so I didn't get to see them, but I made an effort to memorize the list.

  After some internal debate, I decided it was best to get professional help. Passing through the town gates was a good deal more tedious than getting into the adventurers' district. In the end, I was forced to leave my weapons and a deposit.

  Once inside, I got the standard adventurers welcome, with commoners sneering and spitting as I walked past. This wasn't the ‘nice’ part of town exactly, but people here had safe jobs and homes that don't move. In the past, I wouldn't have let it bother me. "One day I'll find a dungeon and score big," I would tell myself. It only needed to happen once, then I could pay the indulgence fee. Then I could live like these people. And, with enough luck, maybe even better than these people.

  I don't believe that will happen for me anymore. I'm destined to work risking my life until I expire. At best I might keep Chase alive long enough that he can stand on his own feet and not get dragged down with me.

  Eventually, I found what I came here for: the cheapest law firm in town. My would-be advocate could not have been much older than seventeen, but he asked only sensible questions as I explained my situation. The grin on his face showed that he felt confident about things going in my favor, and we agreed on a twenty percent commission.

  I had to wait three more days for the appointment and was getting annoyed at how we were being forced to sit around bleeding money. Enzio, my teenage lawyer, arrived just as Master Thale and I were making introductions.

  "I'm sorry. I had a conflict that arose last minute. Have we started yet?"

  I hadn't mentioned that Enzio would be joining our meeting, and it had been his idea to show up slightly late. The annoyed look on Thale's face suggested the guild master knew the young man and wasn't pleased to see him here.

  "You've missed nothing. Let us move to my office," Thale grumbled. "I can't remember the last time someone brought in a mediator to a simple recruitment meeting. You must have brought me something truly special then? I know it's an uplift. But that's about it."

  The man's demeanor seemed more bored than hostile. Enzio had told me that the guild head would likely not bother to prepare for this.

  "It's a hydra, somewhere around the hatchling-juvenile transition. Approaching the size of Enzio here." I began. Thale gave no indication that this surprised him, but that could only have been an act. Anyone would be surprised to learn that a hydra uplift was even possible.

  I continued, "Level 11 on the base class and level 5 on the primary, surgeclaw, rank 4."

  Thale's poker face lasted a few more seconds, but at some point he seemed to decide that continuing to act disinterested wouldn't fool anyone. Rank 4 at level 16 is what you'd expect to see on royalty.

  "That certainly does sound remarkable. You understand we will need to verify this and ascertain its mental stability?"

  "Of course. The uplift has been in my party for several weeks now, and I can vouch for its behavior."

  In truth, I wasn't too sure of Deluge's ability to integrate into sentient society, but this was basically an all-or-nothing gamble for me. If the hydra did end up causing trouble, I would just have to accept it.

  "So, Master Thale. Let us break down the sign-up fee," Enzio began. "In the case of uplifts, the rank price is adjusted by species. But this situation, I'm sure we can all agree, is unusual. How would Serpents's Eye value an uplifted hydra?"

  "Hmm. Damned if I know. Projected base strength is typically how we approach it. But hydras have no upper size. The longer they live, the bigger they get. And if they do ever die of old age, well... guilds don't last that long. I obviously can't use an infinite multiplier."

  "I've done a bit of reading, and I think we can find appropriate precedents. Naga uplifts are the most comparable case I've found, at least in terms of having an extreme lifespans and a similar ability set. In almost all cases, forty years is used as cutoff for calculating projected base strength."

  "I don't think that is comparable at all. Naga's attaining sentience is not that unusual, and they can learn speech. With a hydra, we cannot be sure it will ever learn to even speak."

  "It does not speak," I interrupted, "but it is able to learn verbal and hand commands."

  "Picking such a large number seems off to me. Considering the risks and costs. We would need to train it in team combat. We would also need to bring in primers. And there's no telling how it will react to all the human laws being forced on it."

  "Standard practice here is to have a probationary period of two weeks. Should it fall through, the client pays for the costs of the induction up to that point."

  Thale nodded, but said nothing more.

  "Do you agree, Master Thale?" Enzio pressed.

  "Yes... I believe that will work. But, I cannot accept a forty year projection. Hydra uplifts are a complete unknown, your Naga precedent doesn't work here. There is also the matter of training and primers, which will cost a lot."

  Here I wanted to speak up, but Enzio had warned me not to argue with the branch head and to leave it all to him, so I sat back and watched, waiting to see what the young man's tactic would be.

  Enzio sighed, "That is a fair point, Master Thale. Very well. Let us consider a different precedent. About a decade ago, Serpents's Eye recruited an Ifrit. This was on the greater peninsula. The decision there was to use a twenty-year projection. Does that sound like a better fit?"

  Both me and Thale paused here to do some calculations. Twenty years from now Deluge would likely be about twice the size of a large human. Big, but still smaller than a fully grown direwolf by weight.

  "Twenty years... yes, I can accept that."

  "Ah. But it seems to me that going from forty to twenty is a bit too much simply because of training and primers," Enzio said.

  "Did we not just agree?" Thale asked with barely concealed anger.

  "No, Master Thale. I simply asked if you thought twenty seemed like a better fit. But for training and primers alone, dropping from forty to twenty still seems unfair. And let's not forget, Ifrits are far more aggressive than hydras, which tend to only cause problems when their territories are encroached on."

  "You seem to know guild laws well, Enzio, but do you understand business? Transporting primers is expensive. They need to be guarded while in transit, and that costs a lot. Furthermore, the two weeks probationary period does not include actual training. For sentients, there are established on-the-job training methods. For a hydra, we would need to invest in training for months before allowing it on a delve team. There is no guarantee it will learn fast enough, or at all."

  "Okay. I am beginning to understand where your reluctance is coming from, Master Thale. And these are all good points. Primers are expensive to transport and training a hydra will be risky and expensive."

  Enzio paused here and sipped from his glass of water. I could see a slight tremor in the young man's hand, but he hid it quickly. At this point his tactic was becoming clear to me, and the apprehensive look on Thale's face revealed that he too was suspicious of Enzio conceding these points too easily. He'd been led to a battle ground prepared by his opponent, and here the young man's true attack would begin.

  "Mr. Vassos. Did you inquire about primer availability."

  "Yes. Same day I arranged for this meeting. I was given a list of Serpent's Eye's Vellithor collection. Here, let me take it out."

  I placed the list on Thale's desk. The man froze at first, but regained his composure quickly.

  "I see. My apologies. These have never been used during my stay as branch head, so I was unaware."

  Given that Thale had neglected to ask his own staff if anyone had inquired about primers recently, I could easily believe that he truly was lazy enough to not know about the local collection.

  "Moving on to the matter of training. I have some very interesting information regarding that. I learned this from a noble who passed through our town recently. Before its fall, the city of Perlin had been training hydras as weapons of war. Every known case, in all of recorded history, of an uplifted hydra came from that program. It is said that at the battle of Perlin, many hydras escaped and fled into the wilderness."

  This part was new to me. It certainly did explain a lot though.

  "Mr. Vassos, how would you describe the uplift's combat abilities and training?" Enzion asked me.

  "He knows most hand commands and many verbal ones. He understands formations and was quick to learn new drills as I came up with them. He displayed the ability to calmly adjust to combat challenges and to come up with innovative tactics. Overall, it was clear that someone had spent a considerable amount of time training this hydra. And also, that he has considerable combat experience going beyond that which a wild monster obtains from simply hunting prey."

  Enzio leaned forward and continued, "it is said that Perlin started its hydra training program almost twenty years ago, and that each monster was trained from age one upwards, both through drilling, and in the arena. Based on its size, we can expect that our prospect has been trained at great expense for around ten to twenty years now."

  This all came as a massive surprise to me. I had known there had to be something big behind Deluge's origin, but this? Few gladiators can survive a decade in the arenas of the ringed valley states. I wasn't the only one taken aback here, Thale's composure had vanished as well, the older man's jaw was literally hanging open.

  "So big was Perlin's expense that even now, rumors of travelers digging for details on the escapees abound. Some of these hydras, I hear, have been recaptured, but many are still unaccounted for. If the nobles were to learn that one is here, and boasting a rank 4 class, well.. Serpent's Eye would quickly lose this opportunity."

  Enzio continued, "So. In accordance with guild laws. We should actually be adding an experience bonus to the sign-up fee. Somewhere between ten and twenty years."

  With a long pause, Thale relented, "I can accept a ten year experience bonus."

  "That sounds acceptable. Mr. Vassos, do you agree?"

  Enzio's was nodding and I decided to follow his lead.

  "Yes, I agree."

  "Great! Then we can set the experience bonus at ten years and the species multiplier at forty years."

  "Hold on! How is the species multiplier back to forty years?!"

  "Well, Master Thale, your reasons for not accepting forty was the cost of training and transporting primers. We've established those won't be a problem now, haven't we?"

  Thale spent a moment in thought and then said, "It's not that simple... I do not have the recruitment budget for it. My branch is mid-sized at best. It will take weeks to get approval from headquarters to increase it, and that costs money too..."

  "If Serpent's Eye Vellithor isn't big enough for this, Mr. Vassos, your guild has a larger branch in Port Pelagion."

  "Thirty years. That's as much as I can do. No more. Thirty years on the species multiplier, and ten on experience bonus."

  Having reached an agreement, calculating the sign-up fee had been straightforward. The numbers were simply plugged into a formula used by all guilds of the Order of Saints. Thanks to hydras being quite big by the end of their forties, and with the class rank factor being multiplicative, the number we ended up with was much larger than I'd expected.

  Had I been with a smaller guild, this would have been a much harder process. Only the big guilds can afford to play the prestige game. Thale might have been unhappy with the price, but this recruitment could only strengthen his standing. A guild's success depends mostly on its top members. A rank 2 grunt like me exists as a nothing but a spec on their financial ledgers, but if Deluge were to live long enough, he could become one of their big earners.

  We would all be meeting up again soon to introduce Deluge. It was determined wiser to take the primers to him instead of dragging the confused hydra into town right away. Not everything was settled yet, but with this, my biggest hurdle had been cleared. Leaving the guildhall, I felt a massive weight lifted from my shoulders.

  It was a lot of money, but not enough to retire on. Regardless, now I could start thinking about things I had once given up on. Now I could pay for the indulgence.

  The scent of dried flowers lingered on my clothes even now, and continued to occupy my mind as I left Vellithor. I hoped I'd done the right thing by Deluge. The overworld would not be a friendly place for him. Society might tolerate a wild hydra living off in some remote swamp. But the church watched high-potential uplifts carefully. The guild should at least be able to teach him what he needs to know to avoid being seen as a public threat.