The Strongest Spellblade

“Moonwood,” I let out a sigh of relief as I looked at the name of the city carved into the bottom step of the dungeon. It was an elvish city, but that didn’t matter. Adventurers were not to be targeted by race.

Elvish cities often had their Adventurer’s Guilds located with the fortress. This was to prevent non-elves from going out into the city and corrupting their culture. But even the elves, prideful and insular as they were would never turn away or target adventurers.

While dungeon traversing skills were rare, they did exist. But using the dungeon transversal for nefarious purposes would get someone blacklisted and targeted. I am sure someone like Xanatos wouldn’t hesitate, but that was a good way to get oneself put on a blacklist and a bounty issued by the Adventurer’s Guild.

“Eldarin continent?” Lanner asked nervously.

“Yes. An elvish city, but it should have an Adventurer’s Guild,” I replied. I began climbing up the stairs with my sword sheathed. While my Danger Sense was increasing slightly, that was just from the guards above.

It wasn’t so much that adventurers showed up wanting to cause trouble, but they could be rowdy. And there was always the risk of monsters rushing out of the dungeon.

Wild Tail didn’t say anything as I felt a sense of relief course through me. It took a little bit longer than I expected, but we had made it back to the Eldarin continent. The biggest problem was that Moonwood was practically on the other side of the continent from where the College had crashed down.

Going over the surface would take time, but it should be faster than the dungeon with magical carriages available. I would pay extra for a speedy one. As I exited the stairs I noted three elven guards tensing up at my arrival.

“Peace. We were separated from our entry passage,” I said right away while holding up my adventurer card. While I could have held up the one from the College, I didn’t want the attention, since Stormy had been part of my team and she was dead.

One of the guards stepped forward and looked at my Adventurer’s Card. “Silver, a bit low,” the guard said before handing it back. “And their cards?”

“They are from the beastkin continent and don’t have one. We ran into each other in the dungeon,” I said. That was the agreed on story. Wild Tail had been confused why Lanner didn’t have a card, but he hadn’t asked thankfully. The story would fall apart under scrutiny, but trying to explain everything was too much of a hassle and too much of a risk.

“Wait, here while I get the Captain of the Watch,” the guard said and walked away with my adventurer’s card.

“Problem?” Lanner asked. I shook my head.

“No. The Adventurer’s Guild while run locally has customs dating back since before the Eldarin Empire. There will be some light questioning but there is nothing to worry about,” I said while the two other guards looked on silently, keeping a close eye on Ozy who was resting on my neck and pauldron.

Soon the elf guard returned with an elf with fancier looking armor. I would estimate around level 60 for the Captain of the Watch. A professional, but not an elite, which was standard. The fact they hadn’t brought an elite or a legend meant that our showing up would resolved peacefully.

“Justin, no last name on your adventurer card. Two unregistered adventurers and a monster pet,” the elven Captain said.

“The pet is registered with the Adventurer’s Guild as you can see on my card,” I replied.

“It is in order, my concern are your companions. Are you the leader of this group?” the Captain asked.

“Yes.” I didn’t offer a bribe until I got a hint I needed to. Our spatial pouches were buried in our packs. I had spare packs and we had filled them up with cores and a small amount of food. Unless they checked everything, which would almost never happen, we would be fine.

I was putting a lot on tradition, but one race targeting another coming out of the dungeon would create a situation like the beastkin continent. Absolute devastation, since most settlements were next to dungeon entrances.

The Captain looked at my adventurer card and then back at me. “Most people don’t make it back once they get pulled to another dungeon entrance,” he said.

“I ran into these two, and it only messed up my return passage slightly. My group plans to depart immediately via magical carriage.”

“Where is your home passage?”

“Near the College of Advancement. They will help Wild Tail and Lanner here get settled and want to talk to them for research purposes.”

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“Are you a graduate?”

“Yes, but I am an adventurer first,” I replied and the Captain nodded.

“Unfortunately, all magical carriage services have been suspended with the war. The war front is closing in on the Moonwood,” he said.

“What? It has expanded this far?” I asked in surprise.

“Yes. The Reforged Eldarin Empire has swept through the human nations. Our brave warriors are holding their forces off for now. Unfortunately, that means racial tensions are quite high,” the Captain explained. I nodded slowly at this.

“I would be happy to make a contribution to the war effort. Is there any magical carriage to a neutral city?” I asked.

“No. The city has gone into a state of high alert along with our surrounding territory. I understand your predicament, but an exception can’t be made,” he explained.

“What about a ship? I would be happy to pay for passage. No offense, but I would prefer not to be locked to this entrance and my equipment is in dire need of repair at the College of Advancement,” I said.

“Depending on your contribution to the war effort, I can forward a request to the Governor of the City. But it will take time.”

I pulled out two pouches. One was bigger than the other. “This is for the war effort and to assist the valiant Elven defenders. This other pouch is for the Governor to dispense as he sees fit,” I said and handed both over. The smaller pouch was for the Governor, but had 10 yellow cores. The larger pouch for the Captain had 100 orange cores.

“That is a generous donation,” the Captain said.

“I know we will be watched, but I hope that things won’t become inconvenient, and we can leave as quickly as possible,” I said.

“You don’t want to use your identity of a graduate of the College?” the Captain asked and I shook my head. While it would help me out, it would clearly reveal my identity as the son of the Emperor. Something I absolutely had to avoid.

While there was a long and solid tradition of not targeting adventurers, nothing was absolute if the prize was big enough. I was a big prize. I hadn’t realized the war was so widespread and so close to the elves, otherwise I would have never left the dungeon.

The Captain put both pouches away. While he could take both of them and do nothing, I was going to follow up a bit more. “The sooner you can take care of our situation, the more grateful I would be,” I said.

“I understand. Your companions are your responsibility. But you will all be assigned a guard to watch over you while inside this fortress. Do not attempt to leave the fortress or lose your guards. If you do, the consequences will be severe and you will be treated as a spy and saboteur,” the Captain said.

“I understand. Both of you understand as well?” I asked my companions who gave an affirmative.

“Your pet must remain with you at all times. Do not leave it outside of your sight or reach,” the Captain said.

“I understand. Ozy will behave and we will cooperate,” I replied. The Captain nodded at this. With the questioning done, we were shown to our room.

We were being allocated one room with six beds for all of us. There were two guards standing on the inside of the doorway and another two outside. At least Lanner and Wild Tail knew not to talk about the spatial storages as we got changed to more relaxing clothes. We took our packs with us as we went to turn more Mana cores for some coin so we could shop.

“Not very friendly,” Lanner said.

“They are our hosts. Don’t complain,” I told him sternly. The guards following us didn’t say anything, but I knew that everything we said or did would be reported. Best to say as little as possible until we were able to leave.

We could always go back into the dungeon, but I would prefer surface travel if possible. It would be faster and more direct, with how long dungeon traveling would take based on my limited experience so far.

Going all the way back down to the 12th or 13th layer and then fighting our way through the dungeon, wasn’t that appealing to me. If I could pay more to smooth things along I would.

The elves would want us to leave quickly. If they didn’t arrange something in the next three days, I would grit my teeth and head back into the dungeon. I would also have to take Lanner and Wild Tail since they were associated with me. Abandoning them here in Moonwood would be a poor move as their team leader.

A team should only disband when the team was in a safe location outside the dungeon, or the team had entered a hopeless situation. Breaking up the team before either point would be considered a scumbag action.

While I didn’t want to keep dragging my teammates along with me, this place wasn’t safe. Both of them were associated with a human and the elves were notoriously xenophobic. They wouldn’t be able to prosper here. I needed to get them to a human city or the College.

The College was no doubt a neutral location. That wouldn’t have changed over the past few years. If my father hadn’t been able to take over the place already, I doubted it would have submitted before he had control of the continent.

The elves would probably reduce the number of elves they sent to the College due to the risk. The College was at the other end of the continent. I had known the original plan had been to fly around the whole thing. But the College had crashed near a lot of human controlled kingdoms.

This would make it harder for dwarves and elves to attend. The Reforged Eldarin Empire didn’t need to directly blockade the College, they just had to sweep any routes the elves and dwarves might use to travel there.

We got new clothing, fresh food, and I restocked out packs with more food in case we needed to run. Not getting food would have seemed suspicious. I personally had my spatial pouches under my clothing and not in my pack. While we were bringing our packs everywhere, that would be the first place anyone looking to steal from us would check.

Thankfully the Adventurer’s Guild was incredibly quiet. Elves weren’t a populus race and they didn’t have the large numbers of low level adventurers that humans had. That population difference was why they had lost against the Eldarin Empire last time despite their superior skills and levels.

Now the humans had more legends, but it really was a question of how many my father could muster. I could only hope that an attack didn’t occur anytime soon on the city and we would be allowed to leave under escort.

Even if it cost a lot, sticking around here was not an option. The elves would get suspicious. While I hadn’t given them a timeframe and they hadn’t given me a timeframe, three days was more than enough to get answer back on what they were planning to do.