Traveling through Westlin with his new teammates was a strange experience for Shada. He perched on Acolyte Vreen’s shoulder and appeared in his ghost cat form. He noticed, now that he thought to look, that animal companions and spirit familiars were actually quite common among the general population. It was actually hard to determine which animals were familiars and which were just pets.

  The Adventurer’s Guild or Delver’s Guild, depending on who you asked, had branch offices throughout the city to act as training, recruiting, and administrative hubs for hunters, adventurers, and delvers. The three groups were actually considered distinct even if they had a lot in common. Hunters focused primarily on Beasts and wild Monsters, Delvers focused on fighting in Dungeons and the Depths, while Adventurers were roaming jacks of all trades.

  Shada’s team, besides helping him with the Hag Hunting Quest, were going to focus on Delving. The local Dungeon had many levels going down for miles and the deeper you went the more dangerous things became. As low rankers they would be focused on the upper levels closest to the surface.

  “So we actually have to register with the Guild just to access training facilities?” Shada asked the group as they walked through a busy market square on their way to the main Guild office near the Trunk.

  “Of course, why would they give us access without something in return? The Guilds are mercenary like that,” Frea said.

  “Registration just seems like such a mundane thing, a bureaucratic thing, and I haven’t really run into much bureaucracy in my time here,” Shada said in an annoyed tone.

  “Oi, as my mama says the world is run by scribes. The bureaucrats are everywhere and you be lucky you haven’t had to deal with them much. Benefits of being a spirit eh Shada?” Alo said.

  “I suppose you are right about that Alo. No reason to deal with them when you don’t have any material needs or you have family to do that stuff for you.”

  Shada watched curiously as a woman that looked like some sort of beastkin argued over the price of some weird green vegetable with a Wylderfolk woman before returning his attention to his companions. “So tell me, what made you each choose to become Delvers?”

  “As I be saying before. It's practically a tradition in me family to fight in some way. Besides there is a Dungeon right in the middle of this city. Who wouldn’t want to get the blood pumping with a little monster hunting eh?”

  “My family aren’t well off and I have to work to get what I need for Cultivation. I figured why not get it directly from the source. Everyone knows Beasts and Monsters are the best source for Essence Crystals, but like Alo here said; who doesn’t like a good fight?” Frea said next.

  “What about you Carsan why become a Delver?”

  “My family are merchants and I hated numbers and haggling. During my Academy years I learned I have a talent with the bow and Delving gives me the chance to use it.”

  Vreen looked at Brumo before speaking for the pair. “We are here for you Shada. Squire Brumo wants to be a paladin and that requires a certain amount of combat experience. As for me I like helping people and this just seems to be where my Path is leading right now.”

  Overtime Shada had noticed that unless something required his input that Brumo preferred to let Vreen do as much of the talking as possible.

  “What about you Bless…I mean Shada? Why are you doing this?” Vreen asked.

  “Because I have to. It is complicated, but there is something I need to do and Delving is part of that. I can’t really say more.”

  The group continued talking about nothing in particular as they finally arrived at the Delver’s Guild’s main branch in Westlin. The Guild building had its own unique style compared to the Imperial and Wylderfolk architecture he was used to. It reminded Shada of a combination of bank and fortress. There was a subtle elegance and wealth to the design, but with clear militant influences.

  The interior was a lobby with several rooms branching off up it. Directly in front of the main entrance there was what appeared to be a round service desk where a receptionist was directing traffic. The group waited in line before being directed to a side room for registration.

  After a short wait a man with a completely shaved head entered the room carrying a stack of papers and writing equipment. Seeing the quill and ink reminded Shada that he needed to work on better pens for this world.

  “Hello folks, I am Administrator Deylor. I understand you all are wanting to register as a new Delve team and become members of our Guild, yes?”

  “Yes, that’s why we be here,” Alo answered for the group.

  Shada had started to answer until he remembered that in public that he wasn’t supposed to be the obvious group leader. After a lot of back and forth the group had elected Alo as their spokesman as he turned out to be the most social of the group.

  “Good, good let’s see here, ah here,” Deylor said as he handed a series of forms to each team member. “These are the standard registration forms. I see you have a spirit familiar with you. There is a section of the third page where you can list its information.”

  Apparently, registration was not the quick and easy process Shada expected. He watched as Vreen filled out their form. The form was surprisingly detailed. In fact it asked questions Shada was surprised people were willing to divulge about their builds and Status Sheets. Privately he asked Vreen about that and they responded with confusion.

  “Shada the Guild has branches everywhere. They are one of the most powerful organizations on the planet and are even said to have had branches off planet before the worldgates shut down. Everything we tell them is kept confidential. If you look closely you will notice these forms are enchanted to obscure our information. They take privacy very seriously in the Guild.”

  “I see, but it seems sketchy to me. There are a lot of things on my Status that I can’t share with just anyone.”

  “If you have concerns, ask Administrator Deylor. I am sure he will answer any questions you might have,” Vreen replied while focusing on their neat penmanship.

  “Excuse me, Administrator Deylor, I was curious about some of these questions. I am not sure I can really answer some of them,” Shada said out loud for Deylor’s sake.

  “Oh? What’s this now? You can speak?” Deylor asked rhetorically. “How rare!”

  “Yes, I can as you can see.”

  “I can’t imagine what you might not want to divulge here, but I can assure you everything is kept confidential. Do you have a specific concern? Please keep in mind that we do ask you to show the relevant sections of your Status Sheet to confirm this information, but as a Guild Administrator I am Contractually bound not to reveal your information to anyone that isn’t part of the Guild’s administration,” Deylor said in a practiced manner.

  “I see,” Shada said out loud before connecting to Deylor privately via Spirit Speech. “Does that include Divine Contracts?”

  Deylor blinked several times before replying via the open channel. “There is no reason it wouldn’t. A Divine Contract is part of the oaths taken by the clergy. I am surprised you didn’t know that already. Unless your Contract has a secrecy clause then there should be no issues.”

  “How many people will see this information?” Shada asked.

  “Quite a few, but they are all under confidentiality Contracts. They will literally not be able to talk about your information except with other Guild Administrators and Guild Leadership,” Deylor replied.

  “Why collect so much information? What is it used for?”

  “Ah, that is easy. One of the Guild’s main missions is to better understand the System. By studying different people’s builds and Statuses we can gain ever increasing insight into the Systems inner mechanics. There is a lot of statistical analysis done by our archivists as well.”

  Shada nodded, but still chose to limit what Vreen wrote down. In particular he was not going to list his Traits or his dual nature. After several more questions he learned he could use his Divine Contract as an excuse not to answer certain questions.

  It took far more time than Shada would have expected to fill out the forms and go through the verification process. It turned out that Deylor had a Truth Sensing Skill and used it during the subsequent interviews. Everyone’s papers were collected and placed in individual folders before being placed in a group folder with their team name on the cover. The Shadow Delver’s were officially registered as a Delving Team.

  __

  Group combat training was an odd experience for Shada. He was new to the idea of combat in real life as he had never really been in any sort of fight before. His team was using one of the training facilities that could create realistic illusions of various Monsters and Beasts. Of course the illusions weren’t perfect and were still intangible, but they did help train group coordination.

  Alo was standing behind his tower shield in front of the group. Frea was playing rearguard with her daggers out. Carson and Brumo stood to either side of Alo bow and sword drawn respectively. Shada and Vreen were in the center of the diamond formation. Spirit Speech allowed Shada to create a web of communication, which allowed the group to move as a unit. Their coordination grew quickly from that ability.

  The illusion they were fighting against was a swarm type enemy that looked like giant rats. They outnumbered the team 2 to 1. Shada’s job was to provide crowd control by using Material Mastery to distract and hamper the rats. Alo called out instructions via the Spirit Speech link and acted as their tank. Brumo was the primary melee damage dealer and Carsan was ranged damage. Frea’s job was to pick off anything that got past their formation and prevent them from getting surrounded. As the group's healer and buffer Vreen had little to do beyond cast protective spells and prayers over the group.

  Everyone was surprised at how smoothly they could move together under the influence of Shada’s Spirit Speech Skill, but attack timing and appropriate responses were much harder to get down.

  Daily group practice would become a part of their normal morning routine for each of the team members, but in the evenings they started on investigating Ms. Esabela’s disappearance from the Temple.

  __

  “So according to the priest Ms. Esabela escaped from her room at the hospital sometime around when the Hag's main body was killed. Based on the Quest and speculation from my family we know that the Hag is likely possessing Ms. Esabela. That means our first order of business is to see if we can track her down. Luckily grandmother Vanestra gave me a sweet tracking artefact. We just need to find someone related to Ms. Esabela then use the artefact to find other relatives. Eventually it will lead us to the Hag or at least that is the idea. The problem of course is this is an Ancient Hag we are dealing with. She likely knows more about hiding than we can learn about finding people,” Shada explained to the group after a successful training session. “I am open to ideas or suggestions.”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “What do we know about Hag’s and their habits? Know thy enemy, and all that, is the first thing they teach at the Academy,” Frea said while looking around at the group that had settled into a booth at a local tavern.

  “Uh, yes, I have been going through the archives at the Temple. Inquisitor Jeris gave me special depensation to look into Hags, including the more secure sections of the library. Hags are typically women who for whatever reason choose to employ dark magics to extend not only their lives, but their physical beauty. They could achieve the same thing through leveling of course, but the Dark Arts can be quite seductive and at least appear easier.” Vreen took a deep breath before continuing their explanation. “Hags use various rituals and spells to essentially steal the life and vitality from others. Their preferred victims are young women, and uhmmm, children. They are known to not only sacrifice their victims, but well you see, they eat them.”

  “Oi, you be telling us we be hunting a baby eater? Seriously?”

  “Yes, that is uhmmm, that is what it said in the archives.”

  “How does this knowledge help us?” Shada asked the disgusted group.

  “Well the Hag is weakened right?” Frea said rhetorically. “So it stands to reason that they need to feed off others to regain their strength. Does that make sense with what you learned Vreen?”

  “It does, yes.”

  “Ok, then we start looking for missing persons I would think. We can use the blood compass artefact Shada mentioned to start with Ms. Esabela’s family.”

  “Frea, that sounds like a good idea, but Westlin contains tens of thousands of people. In a city these large people are bound to go missing all the time. I am not sure if we could cover the area we need to,” Shada said in a contemplative tone.

  “Oi, we can just ask the Guard. They keep records.”

  “You have contacts in the Guard, right?” Shada asked while turning his feline head in Alo’s direction.

  “Yessiree spirit captain, sir.”

  “Carsan and Brumo, do you have anything to add?” Shada asked the silent group members.

  “I can help track Ms. Esabela once we find any sort of trail. I figured we would start at her house and go from there,” Carsan replied before turning to Brumo.

  “It seems we have several options. We can start at Ms. Esabela’s house, track down her relatives, contact the Guard about missing persons, and see if any other leads come up. Seems like we already have a solid plan. We just need to put it together and get to work.”

  That had been one of Brumo’s longer speeches to date. The group discussed the details and agreed to start the next day.

  —

  Alo’s Guard contacts had helped them track down Ms. Esabela’s residence in the Roots of Westlin. It wasn’t too far from the main Root clinic where Shinobin spent most of her time. Ms. Esabela had rented a room above a pastry shop where she worked part-time while apprenticing as a baker. No one had seen her since the Hag was defeated. Not even her boss.

  Shada was somewhat annoyed at how easily the man was to convince to let them into Ms. Esabela’s apartment to investigate. Apparently, search warrants were not a thing in Westlin. He decided it was likely another concept he should introduce to the locals at some point. Searching Ms. Esabela’s apartment proved more fruitful than expected.

  The apartment was wrecked and anything of value had been taken. Based on some of the claw-like markings the Hag had ransacked her hosts home. Besides taking anything valuable it appeared that anything that might have been able to track Ms. Esabela down had been systematically destroyed or befouled beyond use. Except the Hag and been in a hurry and hadn’t taken Shada’s Essence Perception into account. He was able to find several hairs, skin flakes, and other personal debris that had just enough of Esebela’s Essence that he could force the artifact to work in conjunction with his Essence Perception Skill. Most people couldn’t have used these small traces, but Shada’s Skill was extraordinary.

  Carsan apparently had some Skills that allowed him to track by scent. It was odd to watch a grown man sniffing around an apartment on all fours like a dog, but they were able to also pick up a subtle trail. Between the tracking compass, Shada’s Essence Perception, and Carsan’s tracking Skills they began the laborious process of finding Hag's trail.

  Unfortunately, for the group the Hag was far from stupid, even if she was quite insane. She had moved in circles. Crossing and doubling back multiple times. It left a very confused trail that felt like untangling a ball of string. Eventually they chose to check with the local Guard outpost to check for missing persons to give them another reference point to work from.

  “So you are looking for missing people? Are you all Adventurers then? Doing some odd jobs eh?” the man behind a desk asked after they explained what they were looking for.

  “Aye, we are looking for any people that have went missing since that old Hag got blasted down in the Shelves. Any new reports like that captain sir?”

  “There are only two: Ms. Esabela, a baking apprentice, and a child called Cloe.”

  “Oi, can you give us the address for the wee one? We are already been looking into Ms Esabela.”

  “I can’t just go around handing out personal information. You should know that already.”

  “Sir, uhmmm, I am a member of the Temple. I can personally vouch for our group. Want you please help us? We have a Quest!” Vreen said earnestly.

  “I suppose, if the Temple is asking, I can bend the rules. I am a pious man after all.”

  “Oh, thank you so much, may Sierra bless and protect you sir!”

  Not surprisingly the address led to another small apartment near the bakery where Ms. Esabela worked. A distraught looking woman answered the door when they knocked.

  “Hello, yes? What is it?” the woman, likely Cloe’s mother, asked when she opened the door.

  “Hi there miss, we are here about wee Cloe’s up and disappearing on ya.”

  “Oh my, have the Guard found her? Wait you aren’t Guard, who are you?”

  “Me and my friends here be the Shadow Delver’s. We be looking into disappearances as part of a Quest we have. Can ye help us find Cloe?”

  “Of course, I welcome any help. The damn Guard has been giving me the run around. Saying they are short staffed and have no leads.”

  “Thank ye kindly there ma’am. If you could show us ta the wee one’s room we have trackers with us.”

  Cloe’s mother let the group in where they repeated the process they had with Ms. Esabela’s apartment. Shada was again surprised at how open and trusting people were here. He would have never let strangers into his house like this back on Earth, but then again Social Skills helped smooth interactions and establish trust in a way not available to the people of Earth.

  From Cloe’s house they picked up a new trail. Apparently Clue had been playing in a nearby rooftop park and the group found traces of blood. They weren’t hopeful that they would find Cloe alive and suspected that the Hag may have used her.

  With two points of reference they were able to get a clearer picture of the Hag’s movements through the neighborhood. Their search led through to a shuttered basement entrance below a slaughterhouse. The tainted Essence surrounding the doors were a dead give away that this was the Hag’s new lair. They weren’t as strong as those at the shop where the Hag had lived, but to Shada’s senses they were practically a neon sign saying: Hag Here.

  “Ok, people. This looks like we have found the Hag’s new lair. I do not know what we will find down there, but I am not stupid enough to go in without letting people know. Every retreat while I send out some messages,” Shada told his team before teleporting back to Luca’s location. From there he contacted the Shadow Guard who in turn sent messages to the Guard and Temple. After which Shada flew back to his teammates.

  “I let people know where we are and sent messages to the Temple and Guard. So we should get backup eventually, but this is our Quest and from what I understand it is best if we complete it by ourselves. I will take care of the wards and doors. Everyone get into formation. Brumo you and Alo are up front, followed by me, and Vreen then Carsan and Frea in back. The Hag likely already knows we are here and it is not going to be pleasant in there. So everyone prepare yourselves.”

  Shada dematerialized and began to work on the door. It took him 20 minutes to systematically banish the Essence that made up the wards and banish enough for the locked door for them to open it. As soon as he did, a monster leaped from the basement and slammed right into Alo’s shield.

  Brumo quickly activated a Skill that made his sword glow with Holy Essence and began hacking away at the monster Alo was distracting. Frea was using throwing knives to try and hit vital points and disable the tar black tentacled monstrosity while Carson fired arrows at practically point blank range. Vreen and Shada stood back providing what little magical support they could, which in Shada’s case involved Conjuring ice to slow it down and Vreen providing quick heals.

  It didn’t take them long to finish the monster, which was fairly weak. Especially compared to those Shada had seen in the Shelves during the first Hag hunt.

  “Everyone ok? Anyone need healing?” Shada asked the group who all chimed in that they were fine. “Then let’s head in.”

  They moved as a group down the basement’s loading ramp. It seemed the basement was mainly used for storage, or had been at one point. The building had an abandoned feel to it. Shada Conjured light so the group could see. There were multiple corpses in the basement. They mainly looked like pets, a few rats, but also a few human corpses of unknown origins. In the center of the room stood Ms. Esabela or rather Hag Gabby with a knife held against the throat of a young girl who must be Cloe.

  “Well if it isn’t the little snack and more dogs of the Holy Bitch. Now I must be getting down right careless if a bunch of kids tracked me down. You must tell me how you managed that feat.”

  “Hello again Gabby. I see you remember me from last time,” Shada said.

  “Indeed, little snack. I wasn’t expecting to see you again. I would have prepared a surprise or two. You got another of my babies killed! Why do you keep popping up like a bad boil? Can’t you just leave me and mine alone?”

  “I wish I could actually, but the System doesn’t seem to like you very much. It gave me a Quest for this after all.” Shada said as he continued to stall and distract the Hag while his team moved to surround her.

  “That old broken thing is giving out Quests again? And it made little old me the subject of one? Why flattered I am. Little do please tell your flunkies to stop moving or I may have to give this adorable little girl a rather severe haircut.”

  Everyone froze in place. “Let’s not be hasty now Gabby. Why don’t you just let the girl go? Maybe we can make some sort of deal,” Shada said reluctantly.

  “I am not one to make deals with those that have the stench of the Holy Bitch on them. Besides, what could you possibly offer me as weak as you all are?”

  “We may be weak, but we have powerful backers. Besides, I have something you might be interested in,” Shada said before pulling another of grandma Vanestra’s spirit golems from his inventory.

  “You don’t want to die right? You are pretty weak right now. Even this group of kids could kill you. Of course, we don’t want to harm Cloe or Ms. Esabela. You know of Vanestra Aseralis right? She created this golem just for you. You could possess it, you know and you wouldn’t have to worry about decaying flesh or the like anymore. “

  Gabby looked at the rare well crafted golem with greed. Creating something like that was well outside her skill set and those that could were rare. She could do a lot with such a golem.

  “What prevents me from just taking the golem and both girls?”

  “You can’t fight us all, in your state, can you?” Shada saw the grim look that flashed briefly over the Hag's face.”Besides, backup is on the way.”

  Silently, via Spirit Speech, Shada contacted Vreen and Brumo who had formed a triangle with Shada at one point and the Hag in the center. Silent Spell Casting had allowed Shada to form a shaky if serviceable ritual circle. It was taking all the concentration he could spare to keep the circle stable. On his signal all three began pouring Holy Essence into the makeshift ritual.

  “No! What do you think you are doing!” Gabby shouted as she froze in place.

  “Vreen, Brumo chant now! Like we practiced!” Shada ordered.

  Together three began a simple, but serviceable exorcism spell/prayer in Celestial. When casting and praying Vreen’s voice lacked the difference and clumsiness they normally spoke with. Instead their voice filled the basement with power as they channeled the strength of the Goddess into the words.

  Gabby’s mouth opened in a silent screen as her disembodied spirit was ripped from Ms. Esabela’s body by Holy power. As soon as it was free it tried to escape. Only Shada could see the twisted black spirit struggle against his ritual circle. It was at that point that the hidden enchantments on the doll activated and began reeling the spirit in. Vanestra had spent a lot of time creating the perfect trap for the Hag and Shada was somewhat surprised it was working. There would be no secret escape routes available this time.

  Vreen’s prayer reached its crescendo right as the spirit was pulled into the Hex doll that Gabby had thought was a golem. When the chant ended the power of the ritual collapsed inward creating golden bindings around the doll.

  Shada had to dematerialize and Vreen collapsed to their knees. The rest of the group rushed forward to help Esabela and Cloe while the clergy and spirit recovered.

  “That went much better than expected. Good job Vreen! Those tutoring sessions in Celestial definitely paid off.”

  “Thank you, Blessed Spirit, I mean Shada. That was exhilarating! I could feel the Goddess working through me. It was amazing!”

  Brumo grunted after sheathing his sword and beginning to check the room for any surprises or traps Gabby may have left behind before making his way to the Hex doll. “Is it safe to pick up?”

  “Yeah, it is bound in Holy magic. Though if Gabby has Spirit Speech or some form of Telepathy she may be able to still talk. Grandma Vanestra thought the Temple might want to interrogate her so left a small loophole.”

  As soon as Brumo picked up the doll the irate Hag’s voice echoed through the Spirit Speech link Shada maintained with the group. “You foul fucking piece of shit! You did this! When I get out of here I will eat all your hearts then revive your corpses so you can watch as I…” the Hag continued venously until Shada shut down the speech runes.

  “Well that was unpleasant.”