Chapter 6: The Guild
The Guild doors swung wide open, making way for a constant tide of warriors.
Inside the tavern, the thick air smelled of freshly poured ale and cider. A vibrant murmur of laughter, toasts, and hunting tales filled every corner of the room.
In a secluded corner, the trio of youths waited around a worn-out table.
"So... we're here," Andrew broke the silence, toying with the edge of his new dagger. His gaze danced over the light reflecting off the metal. "Hey, Isil... is there anything I should know before going in there? How dangerous is it, really?"
"Not too much. Since we're rookies, the system will automatically assign us to a low-rank Nexus."
"And how many ranks are there?"
"From Rank D up to Triple-A," Elian chimed in, settling into his chair. "And remember, Andrew: right now, you're a dark elf. Try not to draw too much attention."
"Alright... but how exactly is a dark elf supposed to act?" Andrew asked, touching his ears.
"Just... stay away from normal elves," Isil snorted. "Seriously, you don't want to get caught in the middle of their ancestral feuds."
"Right..."
At that moment, the bells of the great central tower echoed in the distance. A second later, the Guild's wall clock synchronized its chime with a dull echo that made the mugs rattle on the tables.
It was time.
"Alright," Elian said, standing up and stretching his arms. "This is it. Come on, guys, it'll be a short walk."
"Elian, if I die in there, I swear I'll come back as a wraith and drag you down to the Gray Forest or whatever it's called."
"Heh. I'll keep that in mind."
The three pushed their way through the crowd until they reached the transit chamber.
There, a rift glowed with an emerald-green radiance. Dozens of explorers waited in line, crossing the threshold one by one and vanishing in a flash of light.
"Here," Elian handed each of them a silver metal card. Engraved on the surface were their names, assigned roles, and initial rank. Their official Nexer licenses. "What kind of Nexus do you think we'll get?"
"Wait, there are different types?"
"Uh... yeah," he said, scratching the back of his neck. "I guess I really should've explained what the brochure said..."
"At least you know magic," Andrew muttered. "That gives us an edge."
"Yeah... wait, you don't know how to use magic?"
"No. I told you I just arrived in this world a few days ago. Where was I supposed to learn?"
"But you shot a blast of fire at that wolf pack..."
"That was the book, not me."
"And the wolf you butchered to use its pelt as a coat?"
"I killed it with a trap."
"We are absolutely dead," Isil muttered.
"Completely screwed," Elian agreed in a faint whisper.
Before they could turn back, the portal's gravitational pull enveloped them.
With no escape, they crossed over.
Elian instinctively closed his eyes as he passed through the threshold. The sensation of weightlessness lasted only a second, immediately replaced by a cool breeze brushing against his face and the scent of damp grass.
He opened his eyes.
Beneath his boots, the ground was a blanket of vibrant vegetation. Looking up, the sky lacked a visible sun, but a diffuse, hypnotic light permeated everything. He took a couple of steps and stopped, his breath caught in his throat.
"It's a..."
"It's a floating island."
The massive block of rock and earth hovered amidst white clouds and dense mist.
Gentle dewdrops slid down the leaves of the trees.
Suddenly, a song broke the silence: small birds with midnight-blue plumage and four red eyes fluttered among the branches.
"It's beautiful..."
"It's incredible. I never imagined my first Nexus would look like this."
"Don't let your guard down," Isil warned. "This place only looks like paradise because it's a beginner ecosystem."
"The cat is right," Andrew said, unsheathing his dagger. "What's the plan?"
"Gathering and hunting," Elian explained, drawing his polished wooden wand and pointing it down the trail winding through the grove. "It's simple: we move forward, gather rare materials, take out any lesser beasts we find, defeat the zone boss, and head back."
The trio set off, venturing beneath the canopy of leaves.
"I'm still worried about the combat plan," Andrew admitted, touching the tips of his ears. "I already told you I have no real experience. If I can't use magic, what am I supposed to do if we get attacked?"
"Well, just kill whatever attacks us."
"Easy for you to say. But I've never killed anything."
"Seriously?" Elian glanced at him sideways. "I thought you came from a place devastated by the Red Sun. Didn't you guys fight off the undead on a daily basis?"
"Where did you get that idea?"
"Andrew... are there really no horrors in your world?" Isil pressed.
"Nope. My world was peaceful. Way more than this one. Why would you assume that?"
"Because that's what the High Elders saw," Elian replied. He aimed his wand at a thick branch blocking their path, channeling a beam that blasted it out of the way. "They saw the horror. People losing their skin, structures destroyed... everything in utter chaos."
"What exactly is the Red Sun?"
"The Red Sun is what destroyed Zurthur..."
His words hung suspended in the air.
A piercing roar—sharp, metallic, and distorted—cracked from the heart of the vegetation.
It wasn't the song of an ordinary bird.
It was a territorial screech.
A deafening impact shook the ground. Several small pines toppled over, kicking up a thick curtain of dust and dirt. The dull thud of heavy claws against the earth made the air vibrate with every stride.
From the dusty gloom emerged a colossal beast.
It had the same midnight-blue feathers and four red eyes as the tiny birds from before, but on a monstrous scale. Its beak was packed with rows of serrated teeth and a crimson forked tongue that hungrily licked its edges.
The beast opened its beak and roared.
The acoustic impact generated a visible shockwave in the air. The vibration was so violent it struck the chests of the three youths, sending them stumbling clumsily backward several meters.
Andrew quickly tore off the bandage covering his eye.
Elian stepped forward, raising his wand to channel a shield, but the creature was faster.
With a sharp jerk of its head, it unleashed a second, head-on roar. The shockwave hit Elian squarely in the torso, lifting him off his feet and brutally slamming him into a tree trunk. The air was knocked out of him in a gasp, and he fell to his knees, stunned.
The human tried to run toward him, but the monstrous bird cut off his path.
Spreading its left wing, the beast launched a horizontal sweep. Its feathers, as sharp as scythe blades, sliced through the air with a deadly hiss. The human dove headfirst into the dirt, watching as the tips of the feathers severed the bushes.
A blast of fire slammed into the monster.
Isil, flying at a low altitude with his membranous wings, let out a roar from the air as he readied a second fireball.
However, the beast, infuriated by the burn, snapped its neck around with inhuman speed.
It unleashed an ultrasonic shriek that disoriented the cat mid-flight; then, with a precise strike of its beak, it snatched Isil out of the air.
The fowl's toothed jaws clamped down on the feline's torso. Isil's bones crunched under the pressure as the monster savagely thrashed him against the ground.
"Let him go!" Andrew bellowed.
A pulsing crimson glow flared in his iris.
Upon hearing the command, the colossal bird's body convulsed.
That fraction of a second was all they needed.
Andrew propelled himself forward and drove the edge of his dagger into the bird's flesh.
The creature shrieked in agony and reflexively opened its beak, freeing Isil.
The cat, battered but conscious, unfurled his wings and took off in a wobbly flight to get out of range of its claws.
Andrew tried to focus, but the beast gave him no opening. It opened its beak and unleashed a continuous roar at point-blank range. The sonic pressure trapped the young man in an invisible storm, dragging him across the grass, battering him with rocks and debris, and preventing him from focusing his vision or uttering a single word.
Isil, descending in a suicidal dive, traced a perfect diagonal arc with claws steeped in energy. A flash cut through the air. The beast's right leg suffered a deep gash; thick, black blood gushed out, forcing the monster to drop to one knee as it let out a guttural howl.
"Run!" Elian yelled from a distance, leaning against the tree with his wand raised.
A sphere of condensed water emerged from the tip of Elian's wand, multiplying its volume as it absorbed the ambient moisture.
The hydro-projectile shot forward. The bird tried to raise its healthy wing to block it, but upon contact with the magic, the water froze instantly. Within seconds, the frost expanded at a terrifying speed, encasing the entire wing in a heavy block of solid ice that dragged it down to the ground.
Trapped and maimed, the beast took a massive breath, inflating its chest to unleash a final roar that would end both the hearing and the lives of its hunters.
"shut up!" Andrew roared, his voice cracking.
The air vibrated. The bird's roar cut off instantly.
Silenced.
The monster opened its beak in sheer panic, but no sound came from its throat.
Taking advantage of the confusion, Andrew buried his dagger up to the hilt in the beast's thigh.
Elian channeled all his remaining mana into his wand and fired an arrow of sharp, translucent ice.
The projectile crossed the air like a lightning bolt, cleanly and mercilessly piercing the creature's neck before embedding itself deep into the trunk of a pine tree behind it.
The beast convulsed a couple of times, its four eyes lost their crimson glow, and finally, its massive body collapsed lifelessly onto the grass.
"We won..." Elian panted, letting himself fall flat on his back against the grass, feeling his heart pounding.
"We sure did..." Andrew muttered, slumping down to sit next to the monster's corpse, wiping a trickle of blood from his cheek. "For a second there, I didn't think we'd make it out."
"Guys..." Isil's voice carried no relief. His ears were completely flattened, and his gaze was locked on the thicket of the forest.
In the distance, the crunch of dozens of breaking branches and the rumble of heavy footsteps began to multiply.
The wind shifted directions. The thick stench of the slain beast's crimson blood scattered quickly through the air, acting as a beacon for the island's predators. The ground beneath their boots started to vibrate with a steady, sinister rhythm that was drawing ever closer.
"We're not alone..."
From the fog of the forest, multiple pairs of red eyes ignited in the dark.
"We need to get out of here."