Chapter 4.11 - Two week Twilight

It had been 2 weeks since Serin had started casting Bring to Life. It seems that at his current ability, bringing adventurers back from the dead was a full time responsibility.

Each time he cast the spell, Serin would watch his mana plummet, and darkness would come to him. As he woke, he would find himself in bed. Serin would rise, find Olma cooking breakfast, and kiss her on the neck. Her smile greeted him back. After breakfast with Olma, Serin would then meet with Luna and Nok. He was still amazed at the development speed of Changeling children. Nok was already moving around at the same ability of a 2 year old human. Serin was just happy to see his son happy and thriving. As a changeling, Nok's people's history was a violent one. He came over, held his son, and then went to get dressed to go out to town. Serin would make his way to the town center, where Liza or Rufala was present, as they had to take turns to continuously cast regenerate to ensure the bodies of the fallen did not begin to decompose.

Serin would greet them, and shortly afterwards would be greeted by the patient's town representative. Serin would nod, cast bring to life, and fall unconscious.

From what Serin was told, they would catch his body, and move him back to his home, where Olma would set him to bed and care for him while he was unconscious.

This continued every 2 days. Serin watched as Life Magic skill grew by large leaps with each casting. Serin had the feeling that this spell was not supposed to be cast this often.

Serin was informed that while he was unconscious, the first thing to happen to the fallen was a stern berating by their representatives. Then they were given the fees and charges for 'emergency services rendered'. Although they were happy to be alive, and the town was a fairly wealthy one, a 45,000 credit bill as well as a 100,000 mana bill was quite a costly mistake. Between that, and their memory of being sliced apart or trampled to death, Serin felt that was an adequate punishment for the team.

Serin also didn't restrict their income or garnish their wages. If they were to make the money and mana, they would do it on their own time. In a town such as theirs, the dungeon was still the highest prospect for earnings and personal growth. This left quite a few spots for odd jobs around the town at an increased rate.

Time seemed to have leaped forward by over a week for Serin. Mostly because he spent it unconscious. When he awoke for the last time, he was greeted by Olma laying on his stomach, waiting for him to wake.

"I have timed it you know?" Olma smiled. Serin had missed her. In lieu of making breakfast and waiting for a kiss, this time Olma leapt forward giggling and planting a kiss on Serin's lips.

***

Serin, out of habit, walked to the town center. There he was greeted by the leaders of the Demis, Changelings, Humans, and Planetouched. They had set a table out where they had previously had the fallen adventurers, and they were enjoying a cold drink. Serin could smell honey and lemon.

When Serin arrived Ephraim smiled and said, "We thought you would show up." Jericho slid him a glass. Serin looked at it, they could tell he was a bit frazzled, "It's not dusted honey is it?"

This elicited a laugh. Jericho kept laughing, "No. we have decided to keep those supplies strictly labeled to ensure no repeats of last year." They had narrowed down the real reason for their baby boom. The dusted honey, besides being highly euphoric, was an aphrodisiac. And following the incident with Queen Narissa, the entire town had imbibed heavily for three days of festivities.

Serin sat, and sipped the drink. It was sweet and sour. A perfect cool drink for the cooling weather.

"We have a list of acceptable dungeon guides for you. Since it's just us leaders, we thought we would let you know we agree with the imposed penalty and requirements for longer delving."

Serin looked at the list. From the changelings, Olma, Sakina the changeling wife of Peter, and Edel the leader of the Changeling protectorate. Serin saw their stats and was most surprised by Sakina. "How did Sakina progress so far?" Bilol laughed, "She is mated to a Demis who is an expert in summoning numerous forms of insectoid challenges. What did you think would happen?"

Serin just shook his head. From the human list, it was short. Serin was listed with a question mark (?) as well as Allister and Rachel. From the Planetouched, the only volunteers were Mast and Flick. Serin then looked at the Demis List. Gorge, one of the wildscouts, and Farrah, one of the tamers, had volunteered.

Serin looked. So three humans, three changelings, two planetouched, and two Demis.

Serin then looked. "The most important aspect is safety. Starting tomorrow, all of the guides will gather together, and we will evaluate a guide's ability to go one at a time. Additionally, on the hours that we are not testing, the mine is open to adventurers. I have a feeling we will not have any repeats of last week's issue."

Bilol was smiling, "This should work out for the guides as we don't need many. Even if there are 24 starting times and locations, there are only 6 biomes. And within those biomes we have determined they contain similar types of creatures in the first level. Past that we have no knowledge."

Serin smiled, "Perfect! Then starting tomorrow, we will have a guide pick a time and solo the dungeon while the rest of us observe. When the group or the guide feels they are unable to continue farther on their own, that will be the level they are an approved guide for."

Nods of approval were seen all around. Serin then said, "As an upside to their volunteer activity, a guide is waived from having dungeon entrance and exit fees, and if they wish they can request to retest with the other guides on their designated starting biome or another biome whenever it is able."

Serin then had a stern look. "It is a serious responsibility of a guide. If they are called, they are the sole approver of a group going down farther. They must also make this judgement on individual members. Just because 4 members of a team could be approved to a certain, that doesn't mean they all should."

Serin remembered his biome of choice. "I will volunteer to go first. Have every guide prepared for delving tomorrow. Since I am the Lord of this land, I am using my privilege to select the 16th biome." Serin very rarely used his position of authority to his advantage, but this was one of those times. The 16th Biome was the biome they had left for on their rescue, and Serin had noted that the creatures were relatively slow. He felt pretty confident on his ability.

Now all that was left was to prepare for a solo delving. It had been a while since Serin had to prepare like this. He felt like he did on his first night, shooting undead outside his burb.

***