At the notification that he had broken his second of three harmonic threads, his chest burned. The bouncing sensation of his inner mana he associated with the affinity briefly became unbearable, as if a bullet was ricocheting against his flesh from the inside.

Shit shit shit.

It had all happened reflexively. Aetherlens had apparently activated, and Logan could only assume that was from his new perk in the skill to mask his active use of mana. As for CryoPyre, he didn't have time to figure out how it had invoked Chaos. He would have to figure that out soon, though… And more important, not have his last thread unravel.

While these thoughts all popped into Logan's mind like a crowd of schoolchildren trying to beat each other in a race through the door once the school bell rang, the world around him didn't stop.

The swell in the fire roared, and Logan felt its heat from here. Half of the mana used in his instinctive magic burst recovered, and Logan suspected that fire was enchanted. But even better than the unexpected mana refill, the sudden flare up became the new target of the seated mages' attention.

With them distracted and struggling to find out what had happened with the fire, Logan kept Meditate active the entire time he ran to the second pillar. The trek felt like wading through molasses, and even though he knew he was moving relatively quickly, he still wished it would go faster.

Still, he made it down the second pillar, and this time without issue. He was now on the third tier.

Climbing is level 37!

With his back pressed to the wall, he scanned the platform to find his target. His heart almost seized yet again as he saw the figure coming toward him. Still, though, his target hadn't seen him. Illusions obscured their face, but they weren't paying Logan any heed as they slid among the shadows to a door, cracked it open, then slipped inside.

The precious few seconds of quiet as the door remained motionless and nobody else was around to risk seeing Logan allowed his racing heart to calm down. After taking a deep breath, he crept to the door. Hands prickling with nervous energy, he reached for the handle.

To his surprise, the door opened before he touched the knob.

A broad-shouldered man stepped out. His expression was friendly and he looked like he might laugh at any moment. When Logan saw the sawdust clinging to the man's sleeves, he suddenly recalled the mages above talking about summoning the master carpenter to inspect the assumed-to-be faulty dummy.

This had to be him. Lambert. Logan hadn't realized the carpenter was already on site.

Walking beside him was a woman wearing regal robes. Her presence commanded her surroundings without a word, and a circlet of braided gold rested atop her head. Logan didn't have a guess as to who she was, but she was clearly important.

Through the door and behind them, five devices towered upright in the center of the room. Sleek in design, the shape was unmistakably similar to the mana-scarring detection rods the Adventurers' Guild had given Logan and his team. These, however, were far larger, and reinforced with Lambert's high-quality wood. Each one glowed with a different light.

And beyond the devices, someone else lingered in the shadows, tapping a foot impatiently as if waiting for the pair to leave.

Veilpiercer is level 9! Veilpiercer is level 10!

Logan froze. That skill only triggered in the presence of reavers.

The door shut before he could see more, and suddenly the duo bumped into him.

The woman gasped, and even though the door was closed now, she lifted her elbows slightly from her side so the robes widened her silhouette to hide anything behind her. "Who are you? Where did you come from? This is a restricted area."

Her voice was gentle and silky, but that didn't make her any less commanding.

Logan fumbled, words catching in his throat.

Before he could finish, the carpenter grunted and smashed a thick finger to the scrubber badge on Logan's chest. "Ah, badge 1234. A memorable number. I thought you left hours ago after delivering the new target dummy." To the woman, he added, "My apologies, Archmage Marina. I'm sure he just came down to fetch me." He faced Logan again. "I heard about the blast above."

Lambert patted Logan's shoulder and kept walking, so Logan fell into step beside him. He struggled to keep the bewilderment from his face. He didn't like the idea that a reaver stood mere feet behind him, even if separated by a door. Mariv and Avalyn had said they had taken care to direct any suspicion of Logan's involvement with the reavers so that it would fall on Avalyn. But that didn't change what Logan knew of the reavers and the danger they posed.

The woman, Archmage Marina, relaxed and fell into step behind Logan. It was a subtle thing, but Logan suspected she was still trying to keep a buffer between Logan and whatever was happening behind those doors. The archmage exuded authority and in any other circumstance, Logan suspected she would be leading the way, not taking the rear.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"It's good you're still here," Lambert said to Logan. "I may need you to bring the dummy back to the shop in your wagon."

"Okay," Logan said. He didn't know how the heck was he going to get a wagon, but he had to play along. Hopefully it didn't come to that.

Lambert was making casual small talk the entire time they traveled up the tiers using the stairs, which was significantly easier to do than scaling pillars. When they passed the mages on the second tier circled around the fire, all three stood.

That, though, had nothing to do with Logan. They were simply bowing to the archmage as she passed. She acknowledged them with a warm nod.

Alden watched from the first tier, and Logan had to resist burying his face in his hands. The elf kept leaning and watching Logan.

If Marina suspected Logan wasn't actually a scrubber, she didn't let it show. Sure, Logan was pretty confident she was hiding something, but he suspected she would treat any unauthorized person the same way. Regardless, if Alden didn't stop throwing so many surreptitious glances his way, that might change Marina's concerns over Logan's actual identity and unexpected appearance.

He tried, unsuccessfully, to get Alden to stop by bulging his eyes at the mage and jerking his head upward. That just made Alden peer all the harder, trying to figure out what Logan was trying to communicate. If Logan could send a chat message to the elf, it would be much simpler.

"Are you quite all right?" Marina asked when Logan jerked his head for maybe the fifth time. Alden, despite being just about directly overhead, was still craning his neck over the ledge.

"Oh, yes." He raised his voice loud enough for Alden to overhear. The next best thing to a text chat at this point was just to speak out loud. "Sorry Archmage Marina. I just can't stop admiring the architecture down here before we get back up to the surface."

From his upper peripheral, Logan saw Alden finally sink back a little from the ledge at the mention of the archmage. He must not have ever seen her to not have recognized her. But the elf still wasn't taking the hint that he should get up to the training area. How blunt could Logan be without being overly suspicious?

"You know," he continued. "Because we are going to investigate that target dummy. And I know most scrubbers like me, who are employed by carpenters and not mages, don't usually get the opportunity to see how impressive your guild is."

After a moment of awkward silence, Marina coughed. "I see…" She let the words spill in a drawl.

She probably thought Logan was dense with how he restated the obvious, but it had apparently worked enough. When they reached the first tier, Alden was no longer in sight. Hopefully Alden kept up the front that Logan wasn't his scrubber. For someone who seemed so composed and aware of his surroundings all the time, Alden seemed like a different person in the actual Mages' Guild.

It actually made Logan feel a little bad for the guy. All that confidence in his own abilities he had outside seemed to shrink away when he was in the presence of others who could do things he couldn't. That kind of thing had never really bothered Logan, but he could understand insecurities in general, and therefore sympathized with the elf.

On the surface, Alden had joined the gaggle of mages puzzling over the dummy, but he didn't give Logan more than a second glance, which relieved Logan.

Now that they were on the surface, Marina had gracefully slid to the front and led Lambert and Logan to the dummy. Yeah, she was definitely just trying to keep an eye on me. Hopefully he didn't give her any reason to question him.

What had she been up to down there? Now that Alden's visual tells were no longer a concern, his thoughts were on the archmage. What reason did she have for housing those detectors? The Adventurers' Guild had been confident the Mages' Guild didn't know anything about the designs. And even though the mysterious Amatra clearly had been sharing information, how much had Amatra known about the device? Apparently enough for the Mages' Guild to create multiple large-scale replicas, with what seemed to be upgrades.

If those devices somehow synced up with the blight… Logan shivered at the thought of what kind of devastation might hit this area if the reavers completed whatever their plans were.

Was Amatra a reaver? If the Guild was working with reavers, were they even aware of it? He still couldn't figure out a clear motive for Mages' Guild to be involved with something like the blight. There was a clear animosity between the Adventurers' and Mages' Guilds, but how was sowing destruction going to benefit anyone? Even Amatra had seemed to be frightened.

It just didn't make sense. Not yet.

"Hm," said Lambert as he crouched on one knee and inspected the underside of the dummy. He pursed his lips as he stood and looked at it from another angle, then another.

Finally, he shook his head.

"Nothing seems out of place. I don't understand how it would have caused that blast."

That was good to hear, because Logan didn't have a wagon to take the dummy back.

"I guess," Lambert continued, "I need to take it back to the shop and completely take it apart."

Of course.

"Remind me, what's your name, son?"

Logan gave it. He considered giving a fake name, but decided against it. The carpenter probably worked with the Adventurers' Guild too. For a scrubber earning money to be a member of the Adventurers' Guild would make sense, but not if it came out they were lying about their name.

"What do you say, Logan?" Lambert now spoke to Logan. "I'll pay you another ten silver coins to bring it back."

Logan's ears perked up at that. Ten silver coins? That seemed like an awful lot of money. He hadn't been to the Adventurers' Guild market yet, but he also didn't have much money to his name. Ten silver coins would open up a lot in terms of quality items.

Lambert didn't stop there "And then that fare again to deliver the replacement once I make it."

New quest available! Bring the new mana-resistant decoy back to Master Carpenter Lambert's shop. Back? Well, Lambert clearly thinks you're the same scrubber who already handed in their badge. He won't know the difference. Then deliver the replacement. Reward: 20 silver coins Accept? YES/NO

That was too good to pass up.

Quest accepted!

As Logan opened his messages to ask Mishki about hiring a wagon and sending it here, Mariv ended up messaging at the same moment.

Mariv: Logan, be careful. We received some intelligence. The reavers are planning something in Caerwyn. Keep a low profile, and minimize all contact outside your necessary Adventurers' Guild interactions.

Logan swallowed as he shook his hands with the master carpenter.

"Thank you, Lambert," the archmage said. "And you, too. Logan, was it?"

Hopefully it wasn't a problem that Logan had just met two very high profile people. And they both knew him by name.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.