The adventurer Healing Center / Healing House / Infirmary / whatever you want to call it! Healing for all! Praise this wonderful building that provides free healing for the poor souls who enter the dungeon!

  Have a deep cut? Restored! Suffering from blood loss? Let there be blood! Missing a limb? That'll be several visits and cost you a pretty dial, but fear not, we have a payment plan! That is what you'll hear from newly budding adventurers.

  From the more experienced adventurers, you'll hear grumbling about how much money was taken out of their pay when they turn in materials. "I have to pay how much?!", "I don't even use the infirmary!", "I've never suffered a serious injury!"

  Yes, nothing is free in this world; the healing center gets its funding directly from the Adventurers Guild, and their cut isn't cheap.

  The Guild takes a scaling percentage of all your profits and redistributes them amongst its fellow ilk. The Guild gets their cut, then the Earthen Union with their ongoing war, followed by the country you're in, and don't forget about the city's cut. Oh! And don't forget about the Healers Guild and all the other organizations that have their hand in the pie.

  If you are a poor nobody, 10% taxed! Hmm, you're starting to make some money, let's bump that up to 12%. Oh look! He's making a lot! We'll take a 40% cut. What are you going to do with all that money? And we're taking the smaller cut after all, a mere 40%! Someone needs to feed the system.

  Oh! A noble adventurer who's already greased the hands of those running things? Let's give him an exemption since he does so much for us! Hmm, is that an expensive gem on the ground? Let's give him a cut as well!

  In all seriousness, the system works out all right. Those at the bottom get a break, those in the middle get squeezed, and those at the top get a break again. You'll find corruption everywhere, but what can you do? If we didn't fund these places of healing, so many more adventurers would die from infection or other things.

  Those saved adventurers grow big and strong, make more money, and put that money back into the endlessly churning system.

  Don't look at me! I'm just your average adventurer. I don't have the solution for a better system or a way to stop government and corporate corruption.

  Once you've let a snake lay its eggs in your roost, you'll be surrounded by snakes in no time at all! Corruption breeds corruption after all. The person who's embezzling your funds won't hire an honest worker. They'll give the job to the guy who will take the money and look the other way.

  Ugh, these thoughts aren't helping as a distraction.

  'sigh'

  Saved from his own thoughts, Damian noticed Alex and Fergus rounding the corner of the healing center. Alex was subdued in mood. The boisterous woman looked reliable and cool when she didn't have a shit-eating grin on her face.

  Please throw on your usual grin and say something to cheer everyone up. Hell, say something that'll make us think 'What the hell?'

  "Ahem", Damian coughed.

  "How about we head back to the Guild and see if we can get more information about what happened in the tower. There have to be rumors circulating by now."

  "We can go get something to eat and then turn in for the night. Tomorrow, we can... get Isaac and his things. We'll have to see about his burial. He was from Concord, right? We'll have to get in touch with his family."

  "That won't be necessary." Damian flinched at Frey's voice. Everyone but Donna gave her a strange look.

  "Isaac was from the Montblanc family... I found out by accident."

  Montblanc family! That was a well-known Count's lineage!

  "Due to his status, the guild will take care of his affairs."

  That's why Frey kept on me about the nobility! But Isaac never looked uncomfortable when I went on rants... if anything, he looked pleased... Damn.

  "He was the Count's third son and wanted to make it on his own in life. Become an adventurer, then a traveling merchant."

  ? That's a little more than something she found out by accident.

  Clutching the fabric from Frey's armor, Donna squeaked, "But, but... We won't be able to see Isaac one last time before... before..."

  "Likely not, but I'll go ask," Frey said softly.

  Alex swapped in for Frey as a pillow to cry on.

  Donna buried her head into Alex's bosom. Her sobbing became muffled. The giant of a woman was mostly muscle, but she still had sizable curves... well, more than sizable really.

  Not long after, Frey returned with depressing news. "They said that no one is allowed to enter the rites chamber and that a mass burial would take place in two days' time."

  Shit, how many people got caught up in this?

  "Did they say anything about nobles?" Damian inquired.

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  "They didn't, but in all likelihood, the guild will hire convoys to deliver the bodies separately."

  Ok, short-term goal. Get on Isaac's convoy somehow.

  "Hey! Enough of this depressing talk. I say we go to the Guild and drink to his honor! He saved all of our lives today, well, except maybe Fergus's. My little man barely had a scratch on him!" Alex snorted.

  If Fergus ever got injured, we'd all be in big trouble without a healer. But thank the goddesses for Alex's suggestion.

  As they moseyed along the outer ring of the plaza that housed the Earthen Spire, they could see more adventurers being teleported out of the dungeon. Bright lights would flash wherever there was an open space outside, bringing a group out.

  Some of the adventurers looked mostly fine, just a little worse for wear after days in the dungeon. Most others were hauled off to the infirmary.

  Still, it was strange not to see the hustle and bustle they had seen when arriving in the city. Other than guards, medical staff, and adventurers, Damian didn't see many people. All the stores lining the Spire courtyard were closed. Members from the various guilds could be seen leaving for the wider city.

  Hmm, two of the Light Goddess's own went in to deal with the situation. How the hell is it still going on?

  Just as Damian was finishing that thought, he could see a golden figure fly by overhead and touch down at the base of the tower. The figure radiated golden light, making it hard to look at. Straight white hair cascaded down her back, meeting two large pure white wings that extended from her back.

  Another bloody Valkyrie... Damian's eyes were about to fall out of his head at the sight.

  An instant later, the golden figure zoomed into the Earthen Spire.

  Looking over to the rest of his party, he could see that they were all wide-eyed as well. Even Fergus's slit-like eyes were showing the whites of the eye.

  "Nothing to worry about! With three Valkyrie on the job, this will surely get sorted out quickly." Damian lied as unease bubbled up from below.

  With a sped-up stride, the party didn't take long to make it to the Adventurers Guild headquarters. The building was the second-largest in the immediate area around the Earthen Spire, the first being the Merchants Guild building.

  The base of the building was made entirely of golem stone, piled as high as Alex was tall. Giant pillars made from tree monsters rose tall as supports. They were the whole trunk, not even cut. If you were to spin the pillars, you'd likely see the monsters' gnarled faces still in place.

  The entire building was a testament to adventurers and their accomplishments. Even the roof held pieces of former bounties of much stronger adventurers of old. Horns and antlers from goddess knows what decorated the area below the roof. Not to mention that the roof was made from giant feathers of all things. What level would you have to reach to find the monster that shed those?

  Entering the building, Damian's party was met with the buzz of staff running around and angry adventurers shouting for answers. Most of them were human, but a couple of dwarves could be seen amongst the crowd. Among the staff, Damian noted a blonde elf wearing librarian glasses, rare in these parts. Not the glasses, but elves! You wouldn't find any merfolk here, though, too far from water.

  At the end of the railing above, Damian could see the Guild Hall master was preparing to address the worried masses.

  The burly man was stuffed into clothes a noble typically wore. A blue jacket with unnecessary buttons, pins, and tassels decorating it. It was clearly a size too small, but it accentuated his bulging muscles.

  An insolent thought didn't come to Damian, only respect. To even be considered for the position of Guild Hall Master, you had to be at least tier 5. If you were located somewhere important, tag on a tier.

  But the man in front of Damian now was a legendary tier 7 adventurer, Dalen Horowitz!

  He was a walking, living legend. Not only that, he was a commoner who rose from nothing! Damian couldn't even imagine the hardships he must have endured to reach his current standing.

  What about someone being tier 8? They'd be the elite amongst the elite. Tier 9? That'd be legendary heroes from storybooks. Tier 10? Unheard of!

  But what of the Valkyrie? Surely they must have high tiers. If you managed to make contact with one of the Goddess of Light's soldiers, they would claim that they didn't have tiers. They have never explained further. They are simply above tiers! And the goddesses are above that!

  As the sight captured Damian, he could feel a tug at his side. Frey was motioning to some side tables. Alex was already seated, getting comfortable. She signalled a distressed-looking waitress to get a round of beers for the group.

  Fergus stopped her from ordering food, though. He claimed that he wanted to cook for the group, and boy, did we need it.

  He stepped up to Donna and patted her on the shoulder. Knowing what he meant, she used her spatial skill to drop some meat on the table, along with his cooking tools and spices. It looked to be the same meat they had earlier in the day...

  Promptly after, Fergus gathered everything on a tray and went off to the side of the main hall. Fortunately, the Guild provided stoves and grills for hungry adventurers or even commoners. If the staff in the back had to provide all their meals, people could end up waiting hours for their turn during rush hour.

  Like most appliances, the stoves worked by channeling mana into them. Whatever magic that occurred inside would turn any mana into the flame type and store it for a period of time.

  Our group had actually been saving up for a portable showerhead, a magical appliance. Other than for the girls, it would have been too awkward to ask Donna to provide a shower service. The guys had to make do with a bucket and rags.

  Alex actually had spatial magic as one of her skills, but it could only affect rocks or other earth-element-related things. Since the dungeon was made of immovable, indestructible stone, Alex would summon earth so she could use some of her more elemental skills... not that it would have helped this time.

  She may have had the capacity to fill the entire hallway, but the rate she could pull those stones out would have been far too little to matter.

  Continuing about spatial magic, if it is constrained to hold a narrower field, the space you can have increases exponentially. If someone could only hold iron swords, they could carry enough to arm a battalion, maybe two.

  The constraints of what you could hold didn't even need to be physical in nature. Blacksmiths could bring their entire smithy, including ores and products, wherever they went. As long as it was considered something a blacksmith might use, it could be stored.

  Merchants could bring cartloads of goods with them as long as the goods were of the same type, carrying only clothes one way and only salt coming back. They often brought carts of goods with them anyway, since it'd save time and allow them to carry a wider assortment.

  Whenever a power was more focused, the more powerful it typically was. Although when your only tool is a hammer, all of your problems start to look like nails. There are many benefits to having a more versatile skill as well. And even if it is weak, as you level up, all of your skills grow stronger. There will be a day when Frey soars through the sky at high speeds.

  Lost in thought, Damian finally refocused to see Dalen preparing to make his announcement. The elf assistant quickly approached him on the balcony and handed him a stack of papers. Boring holes in the guild master's head, Damian and every other adventurer waited with bated breath.

  A few minutes later, he tossed the carefully prepared papers over his shoulder and began his speech.