Guild Beginnings

In the town of Laagard, if you weren't a combat alchemist, an explorer, there wasn't a very large space for you in the world. With the right chemical combination, an alchemist could command the elements, but if you weren't willing to risk your life in the Yggdrasil Labyrinth seeking fame and glory, you were relegated to moonlighting in restaurants providing new and interesting cooking techniques, or entertaining at parties. Life for the alchemist that wasn't an explorer in the labyrinth was full of back to back gigs, and no steady employment.

Sacha was one such alchemist, and his shoes smelled like vomit. His feet hurt from walking home from down town, and as he climbed the stairs to his apartment, waves of stench from where the child had gotten sick all over his shoes hit him. "No more birthday parties…" He muttered, lying to himself as he fumbled with the lock on his door. He was already undoing his gray alchemists coat as he stumbled inside, kicking his puke shoes off, deciding to clean them later. His living space was meager at best, a small one room apartment that he shared with his boyfriend. Pausing in the middle of the room, he sneered at the metal gauntlet on a small shelf above the bed. It was mostly unused. A traditional alchemy gauntlet, it was a propulsion device that was the perfect delivery system for combat formulas. He'd never even been in a single battle.

"I'm tired…" He told himself, shuffling to the gauntlet and pulling it off the shelf. He collapsed on the bed, holding the gauntlet like an infant. Turning himself onto the his side, he gazed through the small window of his apartment at Yggdrasil. "Are you tired too?" He asked the labyrinth.

Rumors told of labyrinths just as vast as this one, but Laagard's Yggdrasil Labyrinth was the only one that went high into the sky. You could almost see the levels, or at least Sacha thought he could see the floors built into the great tree. Gentle lines of brick built into it that he sword he could see. Some mornings he would count them, and at night he'd imagine the inside.

Sacha slowly slid the gauntlet on, flexing the fingers and feeling the triggers. He wasn't sure how he would use it in combat. He wasn't sure how to fight. People that went into the labyrinth didn't usually live long. And yet, the itch he'd had since he was a child, the itch to explore, had never gone away. Staring at the labyrinth as he did, the need to explore swelled like it did every so often. He could hear Kenneth, his boyfriend, unlocking the door. As the door opened, the need to explore finally broke something.

"I'm doing it."

"No you're not." Kenneth said, putting his spear in the umbrella stance by the door and pulling his long braided hair back. Kenneth was a highlander, a mighty warrior from a clan far away from Laagard. He had moved into the city to get away from the nomadic lifestyle his people lived. He was a freelance hunter that occasionally took monster extermination jobs. He was fine with combat, and he'd fought on his own countless times. While exploration wasn't high on his list of things to do, he knew his boyfriend.

"I-"

"Yes, I know, you mean it this time." Kenneth collapsed on the bed next to Sacha, and grabbed a pillow, hugging it to himself. "You're gonna go down to the Guild Hall tomorrow and fine a new guild recruiting. You told me last week."

"Kenneth, you're being very dismissive right now." Sacha said in a high annoyed tone. "I need this, I want to do this."

"I know, I know." Kenneth turned towards Sacha, giving him a kiss on the forehead. "You just say it a lot. And a boar gored me today. It was a bad day." Sacha could now see that he was holding his side.

"Did that medic actually heal you correctly this time?"

"I can move. I can fight. I can complain." Kenneth closed his eyes and snuggled into his pillow. "That's all I need to live. I'm fine."

"Good." Sacha grabbed Kenneth's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. They laid in silence for a spell, Sacha holding Kenneth's hand, and flexing his fingers in his gauntlet, staring at the labyrinth. "I think I mean it this time Kenny."

"I don't want you joining a random guild."

"I'm doing this."

"You're doing it with me then."

"Really?"

"Just like hunting boar. Bigger, nastier boar."

Sacha smiled, "Thanks Kenny."

"Sacha?"

"Yeah?"

"Your shoes smell like vomit."

"No more birthday parties."

"I think that's fair."

First thing he next day, an excited Sacha dragged a sleepy Kenneth to a weapons shop to get a cheap wand. Any alchemist that plans to be in the labyrinth needed to be armed with more than just their gauntlet and their wits, they needed a real weapon for when their formulas ran out. A staff or wand was perfect. Not only was it a bludgeoning tool, but often times if the weapon was made well enough, an alchemist could use it as a tool to focus thought and gain more precise formulas in battle. After picking out a want that looked more like a small branch with the leaves plucked off of it, they moved toward the labyrinth.

The second thing they needed for labyrinth exploration was a map. Maps could make or break labyrinth exploration. If you didn't know where you were going, you were certainly dead. Sacha had hoarded the materials to make a map sometime last year, and he was finally going to have a chance to use it.

"Entrance marked!" Sacha proclaimed loudly, drawing a tiny set of stairs on the graph paper he was making the map on. The labyrinth's architecture was strangely cubic so that anyone could etch it out on graph paper using straight lines. Sacha drew the hallway they walked as he shuffled behind Kenneth.

Kenneth had a hunters stance, his head was low, and he walked with his spear in his hand, which Sacha found quite silly. It was the first level, he doubted there was anything they would face here that was a real threat.

Shortly through the hall was a larger room, brightly lit by sun beams streaming through the trees that were interwoven through the bricks. Sacha smiled softly at the beauty surrounding them, from the streams of light, to the tall trees that made up the walls and roof around them, to the flowers that bloomed along the path. Kenneth, however, kept a stony look on his face.

"Tragic," Kenneth breathed, "I wonder how old some of these are."

Sacha suddenly noticed it too. The graves. Along the walls of the room, and even behind them through the hall all the way back to the entrance, were grave markers. Planks of wood, some with names, some without, and a few with prayers attached to them, but all of them with flowers, the flowers Sacha had just been admiring appeared to be a mix of those that sprouted from the graves and those left behind. Looking around the room, which had two exits on either side of them, it seemed the grave markers continued both ways, and seemed to line the labyrinth halls. Certainly an omen for what's to come.

"Babe," Kenneth put a hand on Sacha's shoulder. "Are you comfortable with this? We can turn around now."

Sacha drew the room they were standing in onto the map, and said "I'm fine." In a determined tone. "Let's keep moving."

Like a gunshot, a purple blur leaped from a dense patch of flowers, gleaming white claws extended towards Sacha. Kenneth was faster though, slamming the blunt end of his spear into the beast and throwing it far from him. It got up without missing a beat, and turned towards them. Sacha hastily tucked the map into his coat, slipping his gauntlet on. "Bout time, thanks Kenny."

"No prob bob." Kenneth flipped his spear to point the tip towards the beast.

The monster was a clawed-mole. Razor sharp longer than average claws on it's hands with wide pupil-less eyes that took up most of it's round head. It was snarling at them, and despite it's tiny form, it looked quite vicious and intimidating.

"Kay, Sacha, try shooting a fire formula at it. I'll follow with-" Sacha let loose a guttural battle cry before Kenneth could finish and ran past him towards the mole. "Shit." Kenneth muttered, chasing after his idiot boyfriend.

The confused clawed-mole tilted his head at the raging alchemist. Due to the narrow passages in the labyrinth, battles were generally relegated to a front line and a back line of combatants. Alchemists, being the fragile darlings that they are, were stuck in the back line of exploration parties. Sacha was not being smart right now.

He swung his gauntlet, letting loose a short fire charge that bathed his hand in flames, slapping the mole across the face with a fiery bash attack. Kenneth grabbed Sacha by the shoulder, pulling him away from the beast. With expert grace, he spun his spear, catching the residual flames from the gauntlet on it's tip, and stabbed the mole with his burning spear, ending the mole.

"We did it!" Sacha cried out, giggling to himself as he crouched over the monsters immolated corpse.

"Yeah," Kenneth wheezed, his attack taking a lot out of him. "We did. Great."

Sacha pipped the claws off the mole, they were worth a bit of money in town. That was how all explorers made ends meet, was by selling monster parts, and any fruit, wood, or minerals they found in the labyrinth.

"Sacha dear…" Kenneth sucked in a deep breath, "You gotta use ranged attacks, and stay behind me. Otherwise, you could get killed by these things."

"It wasn't so bad." Sacha shrugged him off, putting the claws in his bag.

"Look who's being dismissive now…" Kenneth grumbled. "That wasn't a boar. A boar would have gone down after one of your formulas. I'm thinking this may be a bit rougher than I thought it would be." He took another deep breath, and wiped sweat off his forehead. It wasn't necessarily the encounter that had him exhausted, it was the elemental follow up attack he used to end the fight quickly that had him pooped.

Sacha already had the map out again, and was pointing ahead where they should go. Kenneth ran after him. It wasn't long before there was another encounter.

Vicious, spiky yellow hedgehogs, three of them, had burst from the trees. Kenneth was quick with an opening attack, jabbing one of them. As he backed away to give Sacha space to let loose elemental fury, Sacha ran past him again, slapping a frosty gauntlet across a different hedgehog. "Sacha no!" Kenneth cried, the remaining hedgehogs doing a jump in the air, flipping once and slamming into Sacha spikes first, leaving Sacha open for the hedgehog he attacked to slash at him.

Sacha gasped, clutching his stomach wound, his sides badly bruised. He stumbled backwards, and collapsed. Kenneth roared, bringing his spear in close to his body and performing a series of jabs, stabbing the monsters each with a strong thrust that defeated them. Breathing heavily, he turned halfway towards Sacha, flicking the blood from his kill of his weapon, and onto his boyfriend who sputtered at the spray. But his wounds found themselves healing nearly completely from the spray.

"Highlanders can use the blood from recently slain foes to grant minor healing." Kenneth helped Sacha back up. "Are you okay?"

"I can walk." Sacha said, gingerly taking a step and realizing his stomach wound was gone, "And I'm pretty sure I can complain. Not sure about fighting though."

"Indeed." Kenneth remarked, brushing the dust off his boyfriend before grabbing him square on the shoulders. "Are you seriously going to use short range palm formulas on everything we encounter?"

"Well, uh, maybe?"

Kenneth pulled Sacha in close and narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

"Efficiency?"

Kenneth narrowed his eyes. "Explain."

"Uh, it's faster than normal alchemist formulas, and while it's only about half as powerful, I think I can get to the point where I can hit multiple times. And since I'm not wasting time mixing powerful formulas in battle, I'm just using basic ones, and I don't have to aim, or anything, I expend less energy, leaving me able to use more formulas."

"And you don't want to maybe do this from the back line?"

"I can't."

Kenneth took a deep breath and tucked his spear onto his back. "Alright, let's go back."

"What? Why?"

"Tired. I can't really keep up fighting like this, I'm used to a bigger party. And," He clapped Sacha and the shoulder and said, with a touch of disappointment in his voice, "I don't think I can protect you by myself."

Kenneth walked past Sacha towards the entrance of the labyrinth, and Sacha chased after him. "Are we getting a protector?" He asked excitedly. A protector was an explorer in a large suit of armor that shielded their party members, lessening damage taken in combat, and sometimes either negating the damage entirely or absorbing it on behalf of their party members.

"Huh? Oh, no." Kenneth shook his head, "No, no, no. Uh, I don't have very good experiences with protectors." He tapped his side.

"No freaking way!" Sacha exclaimed, "It was the protector that got you gored?"

"Yeah," Kenneth nodded, "They don't stop you from getting hurt, they just make you get hurt less." He suddenly grabbed Sacha's face, a hand on each of the tiny alchemist's cheeks, and spoke with an intense sincerity. "And I don't want you getting hurt, my dear Sacha. Not ever."

Sacha nodded through a squished face, and held his boyfriends hand after they let go, escorting each other out of the labyrinth. Kenneth cared about Sacha so much, even when Sacha didn't understand it. Even though he knew Kenneth had been being silly smooshing his face to say that, he knew he also meant it.

"We'll need a healer." Sacha said quietly, as they descended the stairs out of the labyrinth. "If we want to get far into Yggdrasil."

"I know."

The first stop after they left the labyrinth was the same first stop every explorer made. Sacha was nearly giggling with excitement as they entered Sitoth Trading, the proper shop for labyrinth explorers. The shop keepers daughter ran the place, it seemed, and she happily traded Sacha's spoils from the labyrinth for money. He exchanged the claws and hide they had picked up from the monsters they'd slain, and then happily traded that money for a staff, a real one. It was nearly as tall as he was, and was a heavy on the top so it could be used as a bashing weapon.

Staff in hand, Kenneth took Sacha up town, where the fancier shops and restaurants were. Sacha wasn't sure where he was being taken, but he could easily enjoy the time out with his guy. He pointed out alchemy cloaks and gauntlets in the fancier alchemy shops, and likewise he found himself pulling Kenneth away from expensive plaid clothes that he'd only get bloodied in battle. They didn't do any actual shopping though, just window shopping. As they passed a small cafe, Kenneth stopped Sacha and handed him a few ens. "I want you to stay here for a little bit."

"What? Why?"

"I want to surprise you with something, and I obviously can't do that if you come with me."

"Oh. Alright." Sacha watched his boyfriend disappear into the crowd as he took a seat at a table and ordered a coffee.

He'd been sitting there long enough that he had gotten bored, and was doing the math on the chemical breakdown of his coffee in his head and then considering the battle implications of a coffee based formula. Spoiler alert, there was none.

Very suddenly, a very large, but happy, black dog was snuffling at Sacha's hand, rubbing up against him for pets. "Woah there!" Sacha explained, giving the dog a scratch behind the ear. "Where'd you come from big guy?" He attempted to find a collar on the dog, and realized that it was wearing a collar, an impressive thick leather armored collar, but no tag.

To add tot he confusion, Kenneth collapsed into the seat opposite of Sacha and laid his head onto the table.

"Hey! Kenny, look at this happy puppers!"

"I've made a mistake Sacha."

"Oh no, what is it?" Sacha continued to pet the dog who seemed content to lean into Sacha's leg.

"I went to find a healer."

"Okay?"

"And now we've adopted an animal."

"We've adopted an animal?" Sacha looked at the panting drooling beast sitting at his feet, looking up at him with big loving eyes. "Uh, was it this dog here?"

"Yeah, that's him."

"And why did we adopt this delightful fellow?"

"Because it was either that or the saber tooth tiger. And it's not a dog."

It slowly dawned on Sacha that this dog was about chest height, bulky, and wearing armor. It was a wolf, or rather, a beast. Beasts were noble animals that were used on the front line of combat. They were loyal no matter what, absorbing damage for their allies with spit that could heal woulds and claws that were deadly as blades. They were so resilient that they were rarely killed, and so intelligent that they're considered full members of the guilds they're apart of, and not pets.

Sacha stopped petting the beast, and watched it stick it's head on Sacha's hand and look up at him with those big soft eyes. "Kenneth, I love him." Sacha found himself hugging him, "He's the greatest thing. He's our child now."

"Great." Kenneth said into the table he still had his head laid on.

"What's his name?"

"I don't know. You name him."

Sacha thought about it, and looked the beast directly in the eye, searching for the perfect name. "I'll call you… Tater Tot."

Kenneth bolted upright. "Sacha no."

"Do you like that? Tater Tot?"

The wolf barked with a playful hop, doing a small happy dance with it's front feet.

"Sacha, please. No."

"Tater Tot's a good boy, isn't he?"

Tater Tot barked again and did a little spin.

Kenneth groaned, and sighed. "Yeah, Tater Tot is a good boy."

Tater Tot barked a few more times, and Kenneth grimaced as he found the wolf leaning up against him for affection. Begrudgingly, he started scratching behind the beast's ears.

"Well, I couldn't find a medic anywhere out here, but we still need one. We might have to try the Guild Hall…"

Sacha's heart skipped a beat. The Guild Hall was where guilds were formed, where they trained and recruited members. It was a place that created life long friends and legends. Sacha had always wanted to join a real guild, or even form his own. But he never wanted to push Kenneth into that decision, or force him into someone else guild. "Do they let non-guild members recruit there?" Sacha asked calmly, sipping the dregs of his coffee.

"Maybe. Realistically, we should try the bars, but there's some sort of conflict happening with a large group of monsters that most of the medics in town have been summoned for. I think the Guild Hall is the best place to check for one right now."

"Okay, okay. Alright." Sacha nodded, trying to play it cool as he slipped a practically empty cup of coffee.

The two of them, happy wolf in tow, went back towards the center of town, both Sacha and Tater Tot excited to see Guild Hall. It was a tall and imposing stone building, a literal fortress. Their footsteps echoed as they entered the immense stonework halls, sounding like a small bought of rain. Deep in the sunlight draped halls was the most imposing woman that Kenneth, Sacha, and Tater Tot had, or would have, the honor of being in the prescience of.

Seven feet tall, thick black and red armor with trails of blond hair spiraling out of her helmet onto her shoulders, and a sword that was easily the same size as Sacha very gently held in a single hand. She appeared to be practicing her swings, each powerful slash punctuating the air with a visible wave of air. She was Marion, the guild master.

When she noticed them entering, she paused her swings and turned her attention to the group. "Hello explorers." Her voice heavily echoed in her helmet, "How can I help you? Are you looking to join or start a guild?"

"Neither!" Kenneth blurted out, "We, we're not looking for either."

"Oh." Marion turned away from them, striking a pose and practicing another swing that even made Kenneth flinch, "If you don't have guild business, I'll have to ask you to leave."

"We, uh…"

Despite wearing a helmet that masked her features, everyone could feel her glare as she slowly turned towards them. "Yes?" She said sternly.

"We need a healer." Kenneth said meekly. "We were hoping you had a medic available."

"For exploration?"

"Yes."

Marion swung her sword one last time, then rested it against the ground with a resounding thud. "I don't have any medics available."

"Oh, sorry for interrupting-"

"I do have a healer available though."

"Really?"

"Yes, she-"

"OH-HO-HO-HO-HO!" Laughter echoed violently throughout the halls, causing Sacha to grab his ears and Tater Tot to groan.

"She's coming this way now." Marion said with a slight tone of disdain.

Sacha and Kenneth turned around to find a woman in a conical red hat and fluttering red gown walking into the Guild Hall. She held a staff with a sword hooked into the top, and a hand covering her mouth as she laughed again. "OH-HO-HO-HO-HO! I hear some sorry excuse for explorers are in need of my skills!"

"Uh, Sacha?" Kenneth probed his boyfriend of his thoughts on the woman.

"No." Sacha said firmly.

The woman was a healer in only the loosest terms. Members of her class were people who had trained for years to be medics, only to realize the tactical function of healing and leave the fold before they can take their Hippocratic oath. Instead of healing, they infected opponents with the same illnesses they treated, instead of stitching up wounds, they ripped the stitches out of wounds, taking their opponent apart piece by piece, while healing allies in the most stream lined way possible no matter how they might feel about their unorthodox methods.

They are the War Magus. War machines that were both soldier and medic. People tended not to care for them.

"That's Joanna." Marion said, sheathing her sword, "I'll leave you alone."

As Marion left, Joanna stopped in front of Sacha and company. "Well my darlings? What's your offer for a mighty healer like Joanna?"

Sacha frowned and looked and Kenneth, who said, "We do need a healer babe."

"Kenny!" Sacha grumbled, like he had just suggested something horrible.

"Well well well darlings." Joanna huffed, twirling her war edge, a staff with a sword clipped to the tip. "Don't bother asking. I don't think you're up to travel the labyrinth with a wonderful talent such as me."

"Oh, okay." Kenneth nodded, linking arms with Sacha. "Come Tater Tot." He pulled Sacha along, Tater Tot trotting after them, and the three of them began to pass Joanna.

Her smug grin instantly wavered, and they weren't more then five steps away from her when she broke, shouting in her shrill voice, "Please wait! I need this."

"Yes?" Kenneth turned back, "I would have never guessed the great and powerful Joanna needed work."

"Look, no other guild wants me. I'm… I've been told I'm a bit much. I'm a good healer, I really am. And I can dish out damage too. I know my way around the first stratum, I can be an asset! Really!"

Kenneth looked to Sacha, who rolled his eyes, "Fine."

"OH-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO!" Joanna laughed loudly, "You won't regret it darlings!"

"I think I already have." Kenneth muttered.

"Same." Sacha nodded.

Refreshed, re-equipped, and with a few new party members, Sacha and Kenneth re-entered the labyrinth. Sacha was in the front line, Tater Tot there to protect him, and Kenneth ready to mow down anything that came their way. Joanna walked in the back line, complaining.

"Why is he up there?" She moaned, pointing at Sacha. "He's the alchemist. I should be up there! So I can fight!"

"He's a front line, combat alchemist." Kenneth said, eliciting a smile from Sacha.

"Bull. There's no such thing." Joanna scoffed, "You could at least throw that mutt back here."

"Tater Tot is there to protect Sacha."

"Then-"

Kenneth stomped his foot, and turned towards her, "Please tell me you were not about to suggest that I, the highlander, a combat expert, should hide in the back line so the War Magus can stab things instead of healing?"

"No, I wasn't gonna say that." Joanna said, kicking at the dirt a bit.

"Then what were you going to say?"

"Uh… Then, I sure do love being a dedicated healer… Back here… In the back…"

Sacha almost felt bad for her. Almost. He was just glad that they had a healer, and a shield. He felt confident that they could make it through the first floor of Yggdrasil. He carefully kept track of the map as they walked, and noticed that they had bad it through the hall they had already passed through, but without any monster encounters. "Uh, Kenny?" Sacha tugged on his boyfriends sleeve, staring at his map. "Why hasn't anything attacked us?"

"I don't know." Kenneth said, taking Sacha's hand and stopping him from walking. "That's not what I'm concerned about right now though."

Sacha looked up to see a figure standing in the middle of the path, clothed in a blood red hooded cloak that curled and whipped unnaturally around them. Heavy chains hung over their body, jingling slightly in a non-existent breeze. A red tribal tattoo curled over their temple above their eye, and they stared at the group with a stare that seemed to right through them. The shadows seemed to twist underneath them, and Sacha knew exactly what they were. A hexer, a combatant that used bell chimes to inflict status ailments and binds on their opponents, and could even go so far as to frighten their opponent enough to take their own life. They were not to be trifled with.

"Uh hello there?" Kenneth said.

The hexer tilted it's head at Kenneth's words. There was no malice in their appearance, they simply looked on with a childlike expression on their face.

"Hey, hi." Sacha waved, "Are from a guild?"

The hexer remained silent. They slowly raised a hand from the holds of their cloak, and everyone grabbed their weapons ready for combat, but the hand was empty. They were pointing behind the guild.

"Oh dear." Joanna muttered, the entire party freezing upon turning around.

It snorted actual steam, the large blue deer staring the party down. It was three times larger than a regular deer, and every time it pawed at the ground it left huge divots in the earth. It was a Ragelope, a Formido Oppugnatura Exsequens, or FOE. A boss level monster that had slayed thousands of unprepared adventurers.

Joanna quietly got behind everyone, happy to be in the back line, and the hexer came up next to her, and said quietly, "Run."

Sacha, Kenneth, Tater Tot, and Joanna ran, the Hexer joining them and falling into a natural formation next to Joanna in the back line. They managed to keep a short distance ahead of the deer, but it stayed immediately behind them as they ran. With in moments, the adrenaline fueled race came to a grinding halt as they found themselves at a dead end.

The party turned to face the beast.

"Okay!" Kenneth said, getting into position with his spear. "Sacha, start with a formula, I'll follow with-"

Kenneth was cut off as the deer's back hooves slammed into the side of his head, causing him to crash into the ground. The deer pulled back, getting into a position to come at them again.

"Kenneth!' Sacha screamed, falling onto his boyfriend, Tater Tot standing in front of them protectively. He was still breathing and slowly picked himself up. "Are you alright?" Sacha grabbed him by the shoulders.

Kenneth smirked, and looked up at Sacha. He seemed like he was okay for the moment, he even let out a small laugh, and then continued to laugh as he got up, a panicked look in his eye. He thrust his spear at Sacha who could do nothing but shut his eyes, Tater Tot leaping in front of the friendly attack, the spear glancing off his thick fur.

"What's… I don't understand…" Sacha said softly.

"What do we do?" Joanna shrieked, holding up her blade, "I'm talented! Not a leader!"

Sacha looked at his party. Tater Tot was standing protectively between him and Kenneth, who was panicked, a status that explorers sometimes contracted. Joanna was holding her war edge in front of her, clearly freaked out. The hexer was crouching, ripping grass out of the ground and sprinkling it out of their hands, clearly unperturbed. Sacha stood, and brushed his cloak off, determined.

"Joanna, what's this thing weak to?"

"Volt!"

"Okay, heal Kenneth. Tater Tot, you're with me. You," Sacha pointed at the hexer, "Who the hell are you? Are you with us?"

They looked at Sacha, nodding and pointing at themselves, "Relic." They said softly.

"Relic! Immobilize that thing!"

Sacha ran at the monster, Tater Tot holding a pace next to him. His gauntlet launched into a ball of electricity and he leaped, slapping the deer across the face. In return, it roared and attempted to swing it's antlers down onto Sacha, only to be blocked by Tater Tot, taking the full brunt of the attack. Joanna slammed the bottom of her staff into the back of Kenneth's head, who grunted in pain as the staff took on a glow. With a swing, she launched the panic status at the Ragelope, only for it to splash harmlessly against it's torso. The hexer, Relic, cleared their throat and spoke in a deep growl that resonated throughout the hall.

"There is no quarter here for you on the mortal realm! All that awaits you is domination and subjugation!"

Bells from within their cloak rang out, and large roots launched themselves from the earth, wrapping around the back legs of the Ragelope, binding them to ground. It struggled for a moment before letting out a roar.

Kenneth groaned, but took up his stance again. "Okay, that sucked."

Sacha didn't miss a beat, "Alright, Kenneth! I'm gonna hit it with a volt palm, follow up with a spear assist! Relic, poison it! Joanna, ailing slash! Tater Tot, protect!" Without waiting for any confirmation, Sacha leaped at the deer again, slamming his electrically charged gauntlet against it. Before the deer could react, Kenneth was thrusting a spear bathed in lightning into it's side. With the chime of bells, the Ragelope reared back as an imaginary cobra bit at it, poisoning it.

"OH-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO!" Joanna cried out as she leaped over her compatriots, slamming the blade of her war edge through the beast, exploiting it's weakened state for maximum damage. A cloud of free earth bloomed from her landing, exploding into dust as the Ragelope hit the ground as well. Joanna triumphantly held her war edge into the air. "Victory!"

"Oh my gosh." Sacha breathed for seemingly the first time in hours, "We did it? We really did it?"

"You did." Kenneth said, clapping him on the shoulder, "With your direction."

"Wow, I-"

Sacha was cut off as the Ragelope screamed, standing up from where it fell. It kicked at it's bindings and continued to snort steam, more pissed than ever.

"We could run." Sacha quietly commented.

"Yeah." Kenneth agreed.

Relic was already running past the Ragelope, so the rest of the party followed suit, rushing past the squirming deer and back towards the entrance of the labyrinth, victorious only in that today they lived.

Back in the opening hall, Sacha collapsed against a tree, Kenneth following suit and the pair sliding to a sitting position on the ground. Tater Tot walked over and landed next to them, Joanna taking a seat near by. Relic melted into their cloak as they crouched again, the five forming a circle.

"Well that was fun." Sacha laughed, "Real big boar, right Kenny?"

Kenneth laughed, "Yeah."

"Boar?" Joanna questioned softly.

Relic was tearing grass out of the ground again to watch it sprinkle into the pass breeze.

"So what now?" Kenneth asked.

"Hey, Relic," Relic looked up at Sacha, "You wanna join our party?"

Relic looked around at them, and nodded.

"I think," Kenneth said, "We have ourselves a guild."

Sacha's breath stopped in his throat, "Wait, are you sure?"

"Yeah, it'll be fun."

"So, what's this guild called?" Joanna asked.

"I dunno." Sacha looked up at the sky, and the floors of the labyrinth above them. High above them, he could see purple butterflies in a swarm that looked like they were searching for flowers. "Hey, Joanna, what are those?"

"Ech, Venomflies. They might look beautiful, but those things will mess up first time explorers."

"Huh. You know, we could do that."

"Mess up first time explorers?"

"Mess up first time labyrinths." Sacha grinned, and grabbed Kenneth's hand squeezing it. "Let's show this labyrinth that we are not to be trifled with. That we might look weak, but we'll crush it like those venomflies crush first time explorers."

Everyone nodded, Kenneth giving Sacha a kiss on the cheek. "That's perfect."

"This labyrinth will rue the day that Guild Venomfly stepped into it."

That night, Sacha and Kenneth's apartment was no longer an apartment. It was now their very own guild house. Sacha and Kenneth lay sprawled on the bed spooning, Tater Tot at their feet. Joanna slept under a large blanket on their meager couch, and Relic slept couched in the corner with their eyes open. They were rough, and not well put together, but they had an entire labyrinth ahead of them.