When the healthy–healthier, rather–adventurers returned to the group, they reported no signs of other orcs.

  Sven’s eyes locked on the orc prisoner. Blood puddled around its knees, it carried on cursing at Hans.

  “Why–” Sven began.

  Chisel shook her head to stop him, as if she worried the question would anger Hans.

  “The job isn’t done yet,” Hans said, raising his voice so the party members scattered all around the gully could hear. “Honronk and Chisel, can you confirm these tusks are free?”

  While the Apprentice Black and White Mages moved to investigate the bound tusks, Hans explained that Bel, Sven, and Buru were going with him back up the mountain. As tired as they were, the Minotaurs needed their help as soon as possible. They nodded their agreement, though their empty faces said that they badly needed a respite to process the battle. Respites had to wait another few days.

  Honronk and Chisel confirmed the tusks were free of the orc magic. Hans instructed the two Apprentices to undo the bindings on the liberated tusks.

  Quest Complete: Confirm the new tusks are free of any Blood magic influence.

  “Becky, Yotuli, Lee, Honronk, Chisel–You’re going to Gomi to get those injuries properly treated. You’ll take our new friends with you. Chisel, when you get to Gomi, give Charlie or Galad the update, then ask them to send a group out to the battle site. We need to burn or bury these bodies. Honronk, get our tusks warded up. We don’t know if we are beyond the range of influence, so do it as soon as you can.”

  “I’m staying,” Lee said.

  “No, your orders–” Hans saw the Silver Spellsword staring at the dead tusk.

  Oh.

  “Okay. He deserves an adventurer’s sendoff. People will be along to help, and we’ll do it right. Okay?”

  Lee nodded slowly.

  Becky’s group departed less than ten minutes later. When he could no longer hear their footsteps, Hans returned his attention to the captured orc.

  “Are there more of you?”

  “Fooktu,” the orc hissed.

  Hans kicked the orc in the knee, sending the monster back into a stream of orcish slurs.

  “Mr. Hans?” Sven asked, gently.

  “Not now, Sven,” he replied gruffly, not taking his eyes off the prisoner. He knelt down. “Are there more of you?”

  “Fooktu. You nubgruk hummie buub. Fooktu.”

  “I understand just fine. Answer the question.” Hans punched the knee this time. “You got caught by hummies, my guy. You’ve already failed Wargod. Umm… Wargod lat gug’ye. Wargod gug’ye!”

  The orc glared at Hans, gasping short, quick breaths to endure the pain.

  “This is your chance to die quick. The other option is really, really slow.”

  Sven walked away, averting his eyes.

  “What will it be?”

  “Nub lusk’re-u,” the orc said, dropping his head, defeated.

  Hans waited for the orc to continue speaking. When he didn’t, Hans asked, “Mojoka?”

  “Nub.”

  “Nub? You’re sure.”

  The orc said, “Yub.”

  “Why are you here?”

  “No gruk.”

  Hans punched the orc in the knee again. The monster inhaled sharply but didn’t scream. “Why…” he trailed off, trying to remember the word. “Fauth. Why fauth?”

  The orc shrugged. "Me no durub. Me glob grunt."

  Hans stared the orc in the eye for a long minute, judging whether he was being truthful or not. He decided the orc was not lying. No more orcs were coming–warrior or mage–and the orc wasn’t privy to the grand plans of his commanders. He was just a soldier, a grunt.

  “Duhkta magru?” the orc asked, warrior to warrior, speaking in a normal tone rather than in anger or with a yell.

  “Fine.” As Hans pulled the orc up to his knees, the monster gasped and winced. The orc knelt on his ruined knees with his neck exposed.

  The orc looked up and held a hard gaze with Hans. “Fooktu, pushdag–”

  Hans swung his sword.

  Buru led the party–Hans, Sven, and Bel–back to the dungeon, cutting through forest whenever a trail bent in the wrong direction.

  No one spoke as the blood on their skin and gear dried. For Hans, his burned leg delivered piercing pain with every step. He was certain his flesh beneath his greeves was essentially gone, whatever was left wasn’t attached. It was loose, sliding up and down on exposed muscle.

  They marched through the night instead of stopping to camp, arriving at the dungeon in the dark hours of early morning.

  Pogo was outside on watch. He fetched Luther and Tandis, and the three met the adventurers in front of the dungeon dorm.

  “Hans?” Tandis asked, carefully.

  “Our people are whole,” Hans said, lacking the energy to explain how they found three tusk adventurers but could only save two. “The dungeon?”

  “Nothing got to the blockade,” she replied. “We think we heard some goblins in the bayou, but it was faint.”

  Hans nodded. He turned to address Bel, Sven, and Buru. “We’re going to rest for two hours, and then we’re clearing the dungeon.”

  As Hans walked by, Luther stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “What can I do?”

  “Tell the carpenters we need the blockade down. Tandis, I need a new pair of greeves if you could grab one for me.” With that, Hans continued on to his cabin.

  He needed to dress his wound before the dungeon run. In his mind, he heard Olza telling him not to go. Burns were hotbeds for infection, and the larger they were, the more that risk increased. He cut his greeves off, used a Cure Disease potion to flush the exposed tissue, and wrapped it as best he could.

  The mission had passed quickly enough that the dungeon regrew only once in their absence, but its residents had plenty of time to wander. The goblins, especially, were all far from their usual positions. The party found the remains of three of the monsters in the bayou, eaten by alligators most likely.

  Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

  Though the enemies were no more plentiful and no stronger than previous runs, the party struggled. Two hours wasn’t much sleep, and Hans suspected that most of his party managed only an hour or so at best. They were tired, battered, and brushing dangerously close to delirium.

  They cleared every section except for the geode gecko and ogre valley. Dungeon hallways weren’t convenient for monsters as large as ogres, and throwing Sven and Buru into that fight–especially in their present condition–was too great a risk. Leaving them unculled another day was also a risk, but it was better than having the Apprentices’ first ogre battle happen now.

  The party slept in Luther Land, for how long, Hans couldn’t be sure. Everyone was stiff and sore when they woke, partly from the battle, and partly from pushing their bodies hard for so long without proper rest. The party spoke very little, and when they did speak, no one complained any harder than the usual communal bellyaching.

  After slaying the geode gecko, Hans sent Sven and Buru back to the surface while he and Bel started the hike through ogre valley.

  Quest Complete: Confirm orc defeat and return to the dungeon to contain the regrowth.

  Hans’ party did one more unaided culling of the dungeon a day later. A day and a half after that, Hans answered a knock at his door. He found Thuz on the other side.

  “The boys?” Hans asked.

  “Our party is safe. They are with Izz in the dorms at present.”

  Thank the gods.

  “They did well, Mr. Hans, but such stories can wait. Galad is outside with a wagon to take you and your group to Gomi.” Before Hans could speak, Thuz added, “We will watch the dungeon in your stead.”

  Hans didn’t protest. After everyone had been checked out by Thuz and were given a few rounds of Healing spells, Hans grabbed a half-packed rucksack and joined Bel, Sven, and Buru on the wagon back to town. The four sat in the back. The hard wood of a bouncing wagon had never felt so comfortable.

  It was over. The crisis had passed.

  Other than to offer the adventurers assistance with their things, Galad didn’t speak or ask questions. Partway down the road, Buru and Bel were fast asleep. Hans, as usual, couldn’t.

  Sven couldn’t either.

  “Mr. Hans…”

  “Hmm?”

  The Apprentice Rogue seemed to hesitate and then said, “About the prisoner…”

  “What about him?”

  “I’m not one to talk about honor, but my understanding of war is that prisoners are not to be harmed.”

  Galad looked over his shoulder at the comment, but didn’t say anything. Though his eyes returned to the road, he listened.

  “Your understanding is correct,” Hans said.

  “So…”

  “Rules of engagement are a mutual contract for wars between people. Orcs aren’t people, and if there ever was a mutual contract between them and us, they broke it a long time ago.”

  Sven thought for a moment. “The rest of us in this wagon have orc blood.”

  Galad’s back stiffened.

  “You’re not orcs,” Hans said.

  “My grandfather was an orc.”

  Hans tried to adjust his seated position for the sake of his knees, but with Buru in the wagon, space was limited. “Who you are is your choice. If your parents were from two different kingdoms and you wanted to honor both, fine. Lots of people do that. But that's not the only way. Have you heard me talk about my father?”

  Sven shook his head.

  “That’s because he was a piece of shit. Half my blood came from him, sure, but I left his legacy in his grave. The legacy I carry now is my own. My life is mine. My choices are mine. I am Hans the Gold-Ranked Adventurer because that’s what I chose.”

  Sven pursed his lips, unconvinced.

  “Listen,” Hans continued. “If you disagree with how I handled the orc, that’s fine. That’s why I did it myself. No one else is responsible for what happened but me. Not you, not anyone. I feel no guilt whatsoever, but if there is guilt to be had, I’ll claim it.”

  The wagon jostled side to side as it climbed in and out of a particularly rutty patch of road.

  “I know fuck all what it’s like to be a tusk. I never will, but I’ve heard it put that all tusks have the same father. He isn’t around, so fuck him and wherever he came from. You’re not a half- or a quarter- or whatever-orc. You’re Sven. If you feel like you have no choice but to have some connection to orc blood, fuck that too. As far as I’m concerned, tusks are their own peoples and not some sub-race or some other bullshit.”

  Looking at the wagon beneath him, Sven nodded, acknowledging he heard Hans’ words but not that he agreed or disagreed.

  “If you disagree with any or all of that, it’s not my place to say you’re wrong. Like I said, I don’t know what it’s like to be a tusk, and from where I sit, being a tusk is fucking hard. Wherever you land on legacy or what have you, I tortured the prisoner. Not you. If that was an affront to honor or morals or some divine precedent, fine, that’s on me. You have enough to carry.”

  Somewhere in their conversation, Hans had raised his voice, not in anger but in passion. Bel and Buru were awake, and Hans couldn’t be sure how much they heard.

  When Sven drifted into reflection instead of continuing their dialog, Hans looked from adventurer to adventurer.

  “I’m proud of all of you,” Hans said. “The last few days have been fucking miserable, but in a few hours we’ll see a town full of people who are alive because of what you endured.”

  Quest Complete: Deliver injured adventurers to Gomi.

  “Gods, Hans,” Olza said, looking at the burn on his leg. “You’re lucky this isn’t infected. Why didn’t you use any potions?”

  Hans looked up at the ceiling of the guild hall, his back on one of the downstairs tables. “I did. I’ve got a tolerance.”

  Olza sighed. “You didn’t ask Thuz to heal you?”

  “I did that too. It looked worse before that.”

  “I’d tell you to stick to bed rest for the next two days or so to let your body recover, but I know you would ignore that. Can you at least promise me no training and no runs until this is healed?”

  “Promise.”

  “Any other wounds?”

  “Few broken ribs. Nothing you can do about those.”

  “You did two dungeon runs with broken ribs? Gods, are you trying to kill yourself?”

  Hans shrugged.

  After she flushed the wound, Olza gently slathered a medicinal salve over the burn. Every touch felt like he was getting licked by the magic flames all over again.

  Hans did his best to ignore the pain.

  “You must be proud of the boys,” Olza said after a while. When she saw that Hans didn’t know what she meant, she continued, “Kane and Quentin. The tournament. You didn’t talk to them?”

  The Guild Master shook his head.

  “Well, act surprised when you see them, but Kane took first in two divisions. Quentin took second in his division. I assume you know what all that means because I don’t.”

  “They both fought in their weight class at the Apprentice level,” Hans said. “If Kane took first in two divisions, the second was probably the Absolute.”

  “Absolute?”

  “Open weight class. Still Apprentice level, but what you weigh doesn’t matter. Not uncommon for a lightweight to face a heavyweight in the Absolute.”

  “Wow.”

  “Did they have any trouble?” Hans asked.

  Olza knew what he meant: Did anyone bother Kane because he was a tusk? “From what Izz told me, only a little bit. A few people shouting, but no fights.”

  Good.

  “Have you seen Annalee?” Hans asked.

  She nodded. “She will need some time. The tusk she fought… Apparently he was an Iron-ranked out of her chapter. She trained with him quite a bit from what I understand.”

  Gods.

  Olza was right. Lee would need time before she was ready to adventure again, if she returned to adventuring at all. Were he in her place, Hans knew he’d never forgive himself if he had to run a sword through someone like Kane or Quentin. Even if it was justified and unavoidable. He couldn’t imagine a reality where he came back from that.

  “Izz gave Charlie and Galinda instructions for an adventurer’s funeral. They took care of preparations. They were waiting for you to return to run the service.”

  If the fallen adventurer was an Iron under Theneesa, he was likely no older than seventeen or eighteen.

  My job has become sending children to die.

  “Sunset tomorrow,” Hans said. “We’ll do what we can for the boy’s memory.”

  Open Quests (Ordered from Old to New):

  Progress from Gold-ranked to Diamond-ranked.

  Mend the rift with Devon.

  Complete the next volume (Iron to Bronze) for "The Next Generation: A Teaching Methodology for Training Adventurers."

  Find a way for Gomi adventurers to benefit from their rightful ranks in the Adventurers’ Guild.

  Secure a way to use surplus dungeon inventory for good.

  Finish transcribing the manual and decide on the next course of action.

  Help Izz and Thuz bring new opportunities to their home village.

  Investigate the locations of old Diamond Quests.

  Await the delivery of lockpick training tools.

  Give the fallen tusk an adventurer’s farewell.