The adventurers were like bees on the defensive.
The little four-man party was no different. They were all waiting for the guild master to give his verdict.
The one-eyed man was observing them silently. They didn't know what was going through his mind, but they all knew what a Code Red which had not been resolved by a single party meant.
They were all going to go there, to the dungeon, in force.
To take it down, stone by stone.
"A minute of silence," Arnold ordered.
He might as well have slapped them all with the harsh truth.
The beehive quieted. All looked down at their feet. Some even clapped their hands in a player.
The silence fell over the guild house like a mourning shroud.
When the minute was over with, the guild master cleared his throat.
"As you have been informed, the Stone Rhinos are no more. That was our only S-ranked party. This is no longer a code red. This is now a code orange."
The adventurers sucked in a breath as one.
"For those of you who don't know what that is, this is the code before we ask the army for help," the guild master said, looking at the four new adventurer trainees. "But if we ask the army, then they have the right to conscript each one of you for 15 years of service. This guild is at stake!"
The adventurers nodded their heads. None of them wanted to be in the army.
"We must find the corpses of the Stone Rhinos. Lay them to rest. Nate, their healer, sent this per spirit animal to describe the dungeon. Please, listen carefully!"
A small ghostly sparrow materialized by the guild master. He nodded to the bird, and it turned into a system screen.
"This place is the Dungeon of Flame now!" The man who spoke sounded weak. It was obvious that he had not drunk any water in quite a while. "I don't know where Dereck and Antonio are. I lost contact with them a couple of hours ago."
The healer began to cough in his hand.
The guild members kept their silence.
"You can bypass the first floor with a barrier, but there is nothing we can do about the heat. Please — send a water mage! Or someone who could get rid of the flames! We are waiting… wait, what was that?"
Dimitri blinked.
The healer had been alive when he had sent off the message.
"Guild master," Dimitri made a step forward. The guild master stared him down. "If you allow me to trace the soul thread of this man, I can tell if he is dead or alive."
It paid to be a vampire. And it paid even more to be able to decode some older tomes in the library.
The guild master nodded. Dimitri stepped forward. When he reached the sparrow, he touched it on the head. Letting some of his mana, he traced the soul part which was in the bird.
He heard a heartbeat.
His face grew grim.
"He is alive, but barely," the vampire said. A loud cheer was carried in the guild hall. "Guild Master, we have to hurry! The other two might also be alive!"
Arnold nodded. He pointed at the door.
"We leave in full force! The walls and the guards will protect the town! March!"
The adventurers began to line up in their party formations.
Dimitri went back to his party. He was not very good at giving the formation signals, but he was the leader, as the healer, and he had to pull through.
"Dimitri?" Nikola asked, as he nervously began to play with his flute.
It was his only weapon.
But it was made from jewels and bamboo. Not something one could use to battle with a hoard of fire demons.
"Will we come back?"
Dimitri turned to look at his fiancé.
"Fear has no place in here," Dimitri told him gently. "Is our life worth living, if we leave these three to their fate?"
Nikola had no answer to that.
He straightened up. Following Dimitri when the parties began to move out.
****
They were running.
Nikola had never run for so long and so far, before. Sure, their party was at the very front, as the new ones, so they could decide the pace, but Nikola was red in the face and could barely breathe.
The sun was rising. The forest paths were slowly turning into deer trails.
Nikola laid a hand on Dimitri's shoulder, trying to prevent himself from falling over.
"Stop!" Guild Master Arnold said. The guild stopped as one. Nikola was still using Dimitri for support when the guild master came to them.
"Are you tired, trainee?" The old man asked, as he looked at Nikola from head to toe.
"Sorry, guild master. I just…"
"Then why didn't you say anything?" Arnold hissed.
Nikola bowed his head.
"What use are any of us, if we can't fight upon arrival? Next time, if you are all so tired that you have to use another for support, just say so! I am not running a suicide squat! I am running an adventurer's guild!"
Nikola wanted to sink into the earth.
"But, sir, what of the Stone Rhinos?" Another out of breath trainee asked.
"If you all come to them so, you will only serve to feed the fire demons! All adventurers B and above, step forward!"
The crowd separated into two groups. The weaker and the stronger, more experienced, adventurers.
"Keep marching to the dungeon! If any of you get tired, stay where you are! Secure the dungeon! The demons can't be allowed to go out of their cave!"
The stronger adventurers gave out a roar of approval and continued to jog.
"What about us, Guild Master?" A trainee who was using his battle staff as a crutch asked.
"I am your guild master! You stay with me! I will protect you!"
Nikola blinked.
The strongest were going to remain with the weakest links?
He bowed to the guild master, his admiration of the man growing.
Arnold nodded to him.
"You will get better. All of you. But for now, I don't want any more casualties! Now, gather around! I will teach you how to fall asleep in a minute!"
The adventurers did so.
The only person who was not asleep was the one-eyed guild master.
His sword in his hand.
Ready to defend his children.