Chapter 458: Beyond The Walls

Several days after Irene finished convincing Sage that the Adventurer Guild could somehow earn more than a million gold coins every day and still have reasons to worry about money, Rowan Flintpath returned to the Kingdom Headquarters carrying a bloodstained map.

He found Sage shortly before noon inside the Mission Hall, where Garran Holt was reviewing a growing collection of assignments with three evaluators.

The number of missions leaving the Royal Capital had increased considerably over the past two weeks.

Escort requests now connected the Guild to nearby towns and villages, merchants were paying Adventurers to investigate attacks along trade roads, landowners wanted monsters removed from estates beyond the walls, and independent requests for rare herbs, ores and monster materials appeared almost daily.

Most were still relatively ordinary jobs, but the Guild’s reach was steadily stretching beyond the districts surrounding its Headquarters.

Rowan placed the folded map directly in front of Garran.

Garran looked at the dark stain covering one corner before raising his eyes. "Your blood?"

"No," Rowan replied, pulling out the chair opposite him. A shallow tear ran along the shoulder of his leather coat, although he appeared otherwise unharmed. "Ashback Wolf."

Garran examined the damaged coat and frowned. "That answer doesn’t make me feel better."

Rowan rested his forearms on the table. "It shouldn’t."

Sage stepped closer as Rowan unfolded the map. The Half-Elf had marked a large stretch of wilderness northwest of the Capital, beyond the cultivated estates and smaller settlements surrounding the city.

Sage recognized the main western road, several villages and a forested region known as the Greyfen March. What he didn’t recognize were the numerous circles Rowan had drawn through its southern half.

Sage pointed toward them. "What did you find?"

Rowan traced one finger across the map. "Too many monsters in too small an area."

Garran’s expression immediately became more serious.

Rowan continued, "I took a hunting request three days ago. Two shepherds from Dunmere reported livestock disappearing near the northern grazing fields. The original request mentioned Greyfang Jackals, probably six or seven. Easy Bronze mission."

"But they weren’t Greyfang Jackals," Garran said.

Rowan shook his head. "The jackals were there. So were Ashback Wolves, two Ironhide Boars, a nest of Razorwing Carrion Birds and tracks belonging to something much larger than any of them."

Sage studied the circles again. "All near the same village?"

"Within half a day’s travel of it," Rowan replied. "That’s the problem. Those monsters don’t normally tolerate each other at those distances. The wolves should have driven away the jackals. Ironhide Boars would avoid an established wolf territory unless food was scarce or something forced them into it. The Carrion Birds make sense if enough things are dying, but I found three nests within a few miles."

Garran leaned over the map. "Migration?"

"Possibly," Rowan answered, his expression thoughtful. "But not normal migration. I followed the wolves north yesterday. Their original territory was deeper inside Greyfen. Something pushed them south."

Sage remembered Rowan’s earlier Ashback Wolf mission and how quickly he had recognized that the apparent problem wasn’t necessarily the real one. "And you don’t know what yet."

Rowan looked toward him. "Not without going deeper."

Garran tapped the table once. "Then nobody goes deeper alone."

Rowan didn’t argue.

That alone told Sage how seriously he regarded the situation.

Within the hour, Garran had pulled every recent mission concerning Greyfen March from the Guild records. What initially looked like unrelated requests began forming a pattern. A merchant caravan had reported unusually aggressive monsters along the northwest road.

Two herb gatherers had abandoned a harvesting area they had used safely for years.

A farming estate had offered payment for the extermination of burrowing beasts destroying fields. Three days earlier, another request mentioned a missing hunter near Dunmere.

Garran leaned back after reading the final parchment and rubbed his jaw. "We were treating these as separate missions because they came from different clients."

Rowan nodded. "They probably aren’t separate."

Sage looked around the Mission Hall. "Then let’s stop treating them that way."

Garran immediately understood. He called two evaluators over and began reorganizing the requests.

Instead of sending individual Adventurers blindly into scattered locations, the Guild would divide the southern Greyfen March into several investigation zones.

Existing missions would remain active where appropriate, but additional reconnaissance requests would map monster movement, identify nests, speak with villagers and determine what had changed deeper within the wilderness.

By midafternoon, a new collection of missions appeared on the Mission Hall boards.

The reaction was immediate.

Lucan Auremont arrived less than twenty minutes later.

Sage watched him cross the hall wearing expensive travelling clothes that were considerably more practical than his usual Capital attire, although the silver embroidery on his coat suggested Lucan’s understanding of practical remained questionable.

Mina walked beside him, already carrying her shield, while Iris followed with a satchel stuffed so heavily with notebooks and instruments that Sage suspected she intended to research the forest rather than survive it.

Lucan stopped before the newly posted missions and turned toward Rowan. "I heard you discovered something interesting."

Rowan adjusted the sword at his waist. "I discovered something dangerous."

Lucan smiled. "Those aren’t mutually exclusive."

Mina looked toward him and shook her head. "That’s something Gregor would say."

Lucan’s smile immediately weakened. "Why does every conversation somehow become about this Gregor?"

Mina grinned up at him. "Because he’s the first Adventurer."

Lucan pointed toward the mission board. "I’m going outside to risk my life, and you’re still attacking me with a man I’ve never met."

Sage ignored them and looked toward Iris. "Why are you carrying four notebooks?"

Iris tightened the strap of her satchel. "One for monster behavior, one for environmental mana observations, one for plant samples and one for anything unexpected."

Sage stared at her. "You could use one notebook."

Iris looked genuinely offended. "And mix categories?"

Rowan glanced toward Sage. "Don’t argue. We’ll lose daylight."

That afternoon, the Kingdom Headquarters became busier than Sage had seen it since the auction. Adventurers purchased supplies, repaired weapons, collected maps and gathered around mission evaluators for instructions.

The stables prepared horses while Tobias coordinated wagons carrying food, tents, rope, medicine and spare equipment. The Healing Hall assembled field packs, and the Exchange posted notices offering purchase prices for specific Greyfen monster materials.

For once, Sage could see Irene’s financial lesson happening directly in front of him.

A mission didn’t merely pay an Adventurer.

It created movement throughout the Guild.

The Adventurer bought supplies from one facility, repaired equipment at another, hired a horse from the stables, returned with monster materials for processing, sold those materials through the Exchange and spent part of the reward preparing for the next mission.

But money wasn’t what interested Sage most today.

He wanted to leave the city. By the time Boren discovered that intention, Sage had already changed into travelling clothes and was checking the contents of his storage.

Boren stood in the doorway of Sage’s office and stared at him. "You’re going too?"

Sage fastened his coat. "Yes."

Boren’s expression became suspicious. "You have employees specifically hired to investigate things."

"And?"

"And you’re the Guildmaster."

Sage looked toward him. "Exactly. I should occasionally remember what the Guild actually does."

Boren opened his mouth, reconsidered whatever argument he had intended to make and finally sighed. "At least take people who know what they’re doing."

"Rowan is leading the field investigation."

Boren immediately relaxed. "Good. Listen to Rowan."

Sage raised an eyebrow. "You have remarkably little faith in me."

Boren shook his head. "I have plenty of faith in your magic. I have less faith in your ability to see something suspicious and decide not to touch it."

Sage couldn’t entirely dispute that.

The first groups departed before sunset, while Sage’s party left early the following morning. They weren’t travelling as one enormous expedition.

Garran had deliberately divided the Adventurers into smaller teams, each responsible for a different route and investigation area. Some would escort merchants while collecting information.

Others would investigate abandoned hunting grounds, track displaced monsters or complete extermination missions already posted by nearby villages.

Sage travelled with Rowan, Mina, Lucan and Iris.

Leon remained in the Capital because the Ardent Sun Knight Order had its own responsibilities, although several registered Knights from the Order accepted separate Greyfen missions.

Boren also remained behind after deciding that someone sensible needed to prevent the Headquarters from collapsing while Sage wandered through forests.

The western gate of the Royal Capital appeared ahead shortly after sunrise.

Even after weeks inside the city, Sage still found its scale difficult to comprehend. The walls stretched so far in either direction that distant sections disappeared behind buildings and terrain, while traffic entering and leaving the gate resembled a moving river.

Merchant wagons waited beside farmers bringing produce into the city. Armed escorts rode beside caravans. Travelers, laborers, minor nobles and wandering Warriors passed beneath towers large enough to dominate the defenses of smaller towns.

Lucan rode beside Sage and noticed him looking upward. "First time leaving the Capital since you arrived?"

Sage nodded. "I’ve been busy."

Lucan smiled. "That’s one way to describe building an organization, annoying half the merchants in the western districts and selling one hundred and fifty million gold coins worth of liquid."

Iris, riding behind them, corrected him with a serious expression. "The Golden Mana Liquid sold for one hundred and fifty million. That wasn’t the total auction revenue."

Lucan glanced backward. "Thank you, Iris. The story was in danger of surviving without mathematical accuracy."

Iris nodded. "You’re welcome."

Lucan stared at her before realizing she wasn’t joking.

Rowan rode at the front and eventually lifted one hand. "Save your energy. Greyfen is still hours away."

Mina urged her horse forward until she was beside him. "Do you think we’ll find whatever pushed the monsters south today?"

Rowan looked toward the distant road before answering. "I think we’ll find signs of it. Whether I want to find the thing itself depends on what made those tracks."

That answer quieted Mina considerably more effectively than a warning would have.

They passed beneath the western gate.

The noise of the Royal Capital slowly began fading behind them.

Ahead stretched open roads, farmland, scattered villages and, far beyond them, a dark line of wilderness covering the horizon.

For weeks, Sage’s world had been offices, auctions, recruitment, politics and the enormous Guild complex he was trying to turn into the heart of a Kingdom-wide organization.

Now the Mission Hall was sending Adventurers beyond the walls in growing numbers.

And somewhere inside Greyfen March, something was pushing monsters toward civilization.