With a full stomach, Cain and Cyrene decided to start at the beginning, with the Guild Houses in the Beginner's Valley. Cain hadn't seen Char or Elmira in ages, and they both spent all their time in the Beginner's Valley, only rarely coming out for functions. They didn't even make it to the big international gathering, using the excuse that they had already planned a function with the younger members.
Instead of giving them a warning that they could use to make other plans, Cain simply decided to show up with Cyrene and see how things were going. The first stop will be in Sunnybrook, at the ladies' preferred Guild House in the forest city.
The sight that greets him there is not what he was expecting though. The moment he stepped out of the travel circle, Cain was swarmed by children. Over a dozen of them, all apparently under the age of ten, in their species development scale, heard the circle activate and came to see who the visitor was.
"Look, look it's the Guild Master! He's bigger than I thought he was. Hey Guild Master, do all humans get that big?" An elven boy, who according to his status sheet was a level 12 Mage and a Guild Member, asked Cain, before noticing Cyrene wrapped around his waist.
"Miss Cyrene, it's good to see you again. We have been practicing the books you left behind last time. We've got them all memorized now, we just need to get a little bigger and we will be the very best outreach workers ever." The boy tells her proudly, not waiting for Cain to answer the first round of questions.
"What's all this noise? You're supposed to be doing schoolwork." Char's voice comes from upstairs, followed by the sound of her footsteps.
"But Mom, we wanna talk to the Guildmaster," Cain calls in a fake childish voice.
"Very funny, now you little... Oh, Guild Master Cain, welcome. I didn't know you were coming." Char greets him with a smile that lets Cain know right away that she's hiding something.
"This is an interesting little daycare you have going on. All Guild Members as well, I see." Cain smiles, knowing that the Shaman has always wanted more kids of her own to replace the ones she lost when she lost her last life and got transferred here.
"We were the city's orphans that nobody else wanted and Miss Char took us all in as her own." One of the little Elven girls informs Cain.
She looks to be about five years old, which should be fairly accurate, it's at about age eight when the Elves start slowing down in their maturation, and in their late teens when it practically stops. She's far from the only one in that age range, so Char has secured herself children to raise for at least the next two decades. But, Cain is willing to overlook her oddities, since she did turn out quite a few capable Guild Members so far.
"Is Elmira here? I brought some sweets for her to try." Cain asked with a smile.
"Oh, she will love you forever for that. She should be right upstairs, resting in the sunlight. She took the kids through the market earlier to gather supplies, so she's pretty exhausted." Char says with a wink, then turns a motherly glare at the kids who are still watching their conversation instead of doing their schoolwork.
"I will be down again to check on you, so don't think you can slack just because we have a visitor," Char informs the kids, who rush back to their seats.
"You have them pretty well trained," Cyrene says, looking at how hard they're working once reprimanded.
"Not as well as hoped, but kids will be kids. There are rewards for doing well on their schoolwork, so they don't slack too much though. A few days back we all went to see the new play at the theater, that's why I couldn't come to the big Guild gathering. It was one night only, and they had been looking forward to it for weeks." Char explained.
"That's fair. Now, where is my favorite Pixie?" Cain asked as Elmira came rushing through the house to land in his pocket.
"How was the Southern Continent? Did you bring back good stuff? I was going to go see you, but it's not safe out there, and there was nobody else going." Elmira greeted him, entirely overlooking the fact that the Travel Circle would have brought her directly to the Long Fang Valley Manor.
Or maybe she's just become so obsessed with safety that being outdoors in an unfamiliar area is more of a risk than she's willing to take.
"I brought back lots of good stuff. Including mythic quality sweet juices and some new snacks." Cain's answer is almost enough to draw her immediately out of his pocket, but Elmira managed to resist the temptation to beg for an entire six seconds while he brought a small glass of juice out of his inventory.
"Oh that's good, not too sweet, not too tart and it works as a potion. You should tell everyone about this stuff." Elmira sighed, sipping at the mixture of Peach and Pear juice, heavily diluted for drinking.
The only truly important part of this visit is finding out how the Beginner's Valley is doing. Outside, the monsters have started rapidly leveling up, but here in the Valley, there is no chance that the locals could deal with a single level 200 Elite rank monster, much less an Epic grade former dungeon boss.
From the conversations that Cain can hear the kids having while they're supposed to be studying, it sounds like the Dungeons in the valley didn't collapse though.
"How is the situation in the valley?" Cain asks the Pixie, whose paranoia should make her a good judge of changing danger levels.
"The same as always. The barrier stopped the spell from collapsing, and everything stabilized by the end of the day. There were some people that went missing inside unstable dungeons, but other than that, it's all business as usual in the valley. The monsters outside can't get in if they're over level 100, and with Montauk right there to guard the valley, they don't even bunch up at the gate anymore. The hunters from the exit city cleared them all out for rewards." Elmira explained while Char nodded her agreement.
"That's the best news we could have hoped for. I thought they might have needed to send Guild Members to protect the cities like they did so many other places, but if the valley is safe, then I am content to leave things as they are. The kids that level up here can move on to the other Guild Houses once they reach the first advancement, and then they can help with the outreach work."
Cyrene giggles a little at Cain's mention of Outreach Work, since he is the only one that doesn't know that he has been framed as the object of their devotion, the Immortal Guild Master and Guiding force of the Darklight Host.
Everyone here is fully devoted to Cyrene's vision though, so they aren't going to say anything about it that might cause trouble or upset the Guild Master.
"Why don't we take a walk through the city and then we can go check on the situation in Graska? I'm sure the old dwarves would be very happy to see you again, and the staff there misses you." Char deflected the topic away from talk of the Guild's work and on to topics that weren't as serious.
The children were only half the reason she stayed here in the valley since children are born everywhere. The rest of the reason Char stayed is because of the laid-back atmosphere. Sure, the people are mostly very poor, but the greed and backstabbing of her previous life didn't make it here. There is no political intrigue anymore, just everyday people living everyday lives in the last protected area of the planet.
They didn't get far before things got strange though. High-level transfers give off a sense of danger simply due to their immense power difference with the population here. Cain had progressed past level 400 with the help of the world's mana increase, and to most of these transfers in the mana-starved Beginner's Valley, his very presence felt like an existential threat, a smaller version of the aura he constantly kept turned off when he was in Ancient form.
"You know what, I'm going to make this a quick visit to the dwarves, and then I'm off to Assah to go visit Earl Rhickjaymz." Cain decided, not wanting to frighten the elves of Sunnybrook anymore. This might be where he came into the world, but it wasn't his home anymore. He had changed far too much to come back now.
The reception in Graska was a much warmer one. Unlike the sensitive Elves, the Dwarves were happy to ignore the sense of danger and come to drink with an old friend. The pub had plenty of Ale, and Cain had plenty of stories, what more could a Dwarf ask for?
By the time they had finished catching up on the basics, the sun had gone down and come up again, leaving piles of dwarves passed out all over the tavern and only a weary-eyed Gramps to listen to Cain's stories of Mythic Beasts and cities of Demons on the Southern Continent.
"Come back and see us again. We'll keep a spot open for you." The old Dwarf told him as Cain stood up to leave, wrapping the unconscious Cyrene around himself.
It was a pleasant bit of Nostalgia, and Cyrene had never been to Graska before or enjoyed the wonders of Dwarven Ale. In only an hour or two, she would be awake again and learn the most valuable lesson about drinking with dwarves. To always have a cure potion handy for the morning after.
