Gaius stood there for a long moment, the dust settling back to the floor around Ludger’s boots. The boy had just demonstrated something rare, something Gaius hadn’t seen in years outside of old bloodlines. And still the old guildmaster didn’t move to teach.

He grunted, reaching down to pick up his bottle again. “Don’t think this means I’m going to start handing out lessons,” he said at last.

Ludger only arched an eyebrow. “Didn’t expect you to.”

Gaius snorted. “Good. Then we understand each other.” He took a swig, eyes narrowing faintly at the taste. Someone who’s lived like me doesn’t give up habits that easily, he thought. Especially not for free.

Above them on the balcony, the faint breeze rattled an old guild banner. Gaius let his gaze drift to it for a heartbeat, and an old memory rose up with it. The crumpled letter tucked into his desk drawer—the one written in Torvares’ heavy, blunt hand.

I’ll send some skilled kids to you, the old bull had written. Teach them what you can.

Gaius’ lips twisted into a bitter half-smile. Skilled kids. Sure. I never expected he’d send his own heir. Or a boy who isn’t even ten. And a maid who moves like a knife.

He took another drink, watching Ludger wipe the last dust from his palms. What the hell are you playing at, Torvares?

Across the hall, Ludger looked back at him with that small, unreadable smirk. He hadn’t expected the man to start teaching yet anyway. Someone who had spent years drinking himself into silence wouldn’t change course after one display. Ludger could wait.

Gaius raised the bottle one more time, his gaze heavy on the three of them. Stubborn old bull sends stubborn little calves, he thought. Let’s see how long this lasts.

The guild hall was quiet except for the soft hiss of grit moving against stone. Ludger stood near the center of the cleared floor, eyes closed, hands low at his sides. He’d moved from just a faint swirl to a thin, steady vortex of dust circling him from the floor to his knees, like a pale halo rising from the cracks in the wood. Each breath he took drew the particles tighter into formation, then let them drift a little before gathering them again.

On the far side, Viola and Luna had pulled a table closer, parchment spread across it. The rough map of the labyrinth’s first zone lay pinned under a few iron shards to keep it from curling.

“We’ve pretty much found all the dead ends in the first zone,” Viola said, tapping a finger against one corner. “If we keep going the same way, we’ll just run in circles.”

Luna nodded once, her cloak slipping from one shoulder. “Then tomorrow it’s time for the next layer.”

Viola glanced toward Ludger, then back at the map. “He’s going to say the same thing, right? That it’s ‘about time for the next step.’”

Luna’s mouth curved slightly. “He already decided. He’s just testing himself while he thinks.”

A swirl of dust spun higher around Ludger’s legs as if to punctuate her words. He opened one eye, still controlling the flow, and said quietly, “We’ve mapped what we can here. Tomorrow we step deeper. Different terrain, different ambushes. We’ll have to adjust our formation.”

Viola grinned, already itching for it. “Finally.”

Ludger let the dust settle in a slow drift back to the floor and stretched his fingers. “Get some rest. Deeper layers aren’t forgiving.”

Across the hall, half-hidden in the shadows of the balcony, Gaius watched the boy practice and the girls plan, his bottle untouched. The old guildmaster’s expression was hard to read—equal parts curiosity, suspicion, and the faintest flicker of something like pride.

By the time dawn burned through the cracks of the old guild hall, the floor was no longer just dusty — it looked like a miniature storm. Ludger stood in the center, eyes closed, palms open. A wide belt of sand and grit hung in the air around him, swirling in a steady, controlled orbit from his ankles to his chest. Each breath drew the particles tighter, smoother, steadier.

Viola blinked from where she sat lacing her boots. “Are you… enamored with sand and dust all of a sudden?” she asked, eyebrow arched.

Ludger opened one eye and let the smallest smirk tug at his mouth. “No. I’m progressively improving my skills.” The sand drifted down and settled at his feet in a soft hiss as he released the control. “Control is everything down here.”

He dusted off his hands and looked at the two girls. “Plan for today’s simple: we sell the ores we’ve stockpiled, use the money to buy mana potions, and then we go as deep as we can.”

Both Viola and Luna frowned at the same time. Viola leaned forward. “That’s… sudden. You’re just going to jump straight into the deep parts?”

Luna’s expression stayed calm but her voice was cool. “Descending that far without more preparation is risky.”

Ludger shrugged, slipping his armguards on. “Mapping the first zone’s done. Staying there any longer won’t teach us anything. If we’re going to test ourselves, it has to be where it counts. With potions, we’ll have a cushion if things go wrong.”

Viola huffed and crossed her arms, still looking uneasy. “You and your plans…”

“Plans keep us alive,” Ludger said simply, buckling the last strap. “We’ll move carefully, but we’re moving.”

The guild hall fell quiet for a moment except for the faint crunch of sand under their boots and the distant city sounds filtering in from the street.

As they gathered their packs, Viola eyed the pouch of cores at Ludger’s belt, her brows drawing together. “Why only use the money from the ores?” she asked. “I know you’ve got more coin than that. You don’t look like the stingy type.”

Ludger slanted a look at her, the faintest smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. “You talk like someone who’s never worked a day in her life.”

Viola bristled. “I work plenty!”

“Swinging a sword at things isn’t the same as paying for it,” he said dryly. “I could fund all of this myself, sure. But if our progress doesn’t fund our next step, it’s not really progress. It’s just burning through a purse until it’s empty.”

He tightened the strap on his pack. “You want to grow strong, you use what you earn to buy the next thing that makes you stronger. Not somebody else’s coin.”

Luna, already checking her knives, gave a small nod at that. “That logic holds. Gains paying for further gains creates stability.”

Viola rolled her eyes and blew out a sharp breath. “You’re thinking too much again.”

Ludger just shouldered his pack and moved toward the door. “Thinking too much keeps us breathing.”

Viola groaned but followed, sword tapping lightly against her hip as she muttered under her breath. Luna fell into step behind them, silent but faintly approving of Ludger’s reasoning.

Outside, the morning light caught on the red-silver of his armguards as they headed for Meira’s market.

The morning sun was bright over Meira’s market square, striking sparks off piles of ore and polished weapons. Merchants barked prices from under faded awnings, adventurers bartered over bundles of arrows and coils of rope.

Ludger led the way through the maze of stalls until he found an older merchant behind a counter of dull iron. The man’s beard was streaked grey and his eyes narrowed at the sight of the red-silver armguards. For a heartbeat his expression flickered—recognition.

“Iron Vein…” the merchant murmured under his breath as Ludger dropped a pouch of cores on the counter.

“Selling,” Ludger said simply.

The man picked up one core, turned it in his fingers, then nodded once. They struck the deal quickly. The merchant counted out the silver coins, hands steady but eyes still darting between Ludger and the two girls at his back, like he was trying to see the guild’s ghost standing behind them.

Next they crossed to a crooked stall at the edge of the square where a thin old alchemist sat behind rows of glass bottles. The man’s hands shook slightly as he set out the potions, but his prices were blunt. “Five silvers for one mana potion. Cheapest in town,” he rasped.

The rate was one mana potion for five silver coins, and each ore was ten percent of that. Ludger slid the coins across the counter without a word, eyes flicking over the bottles’ watery blue glow. I don’t know how much these will actually recover, he thought. Cheapest stock usually means weakest stock. But it’s better than nothing.

He distributed the potions between their packs, slipping two into his own, one into Viola’s, one into Luna’s. Viola peered at the little bottle in her hand and frowned. “This won’t last long.”

“It won’t,” Ludger said. “So don’t waste it.”

They stepped back into the flow of the market, coins lighter, packs heavier with glass. Around them, a few older merchants still stole glances at the trio, murmuring “Iron Vein” under their breath like a name out of the past.

Ludger caught one of those glances and didn’t smile, but there was a flicker of satisfaction in his eyes. Step one.

The three of them left Meira behind, the city’s noise fading into the morning air as the road curved toward the mountains. The dark mouth of the labyrinth waited ahead, torches flickering like watchful eyes at its entrance.

Viola walked beside Ludger, her sword balanced across her shoulders. For once she wasn’t humming or bouncing on her toes. She glanced up at him with a serious expression. “Ludger… cover for me.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “I do that all the time. Even when you’re breathing—keeps you from inhaling too much dust.”

Viola’s cheeks colored. “Stop joking around.” She dropped the sword from her shoulders, gripping the hilt. “I’m serious. I want you to cover for me while I test something.”

Ludger’s pace slowed, his eyes narrowing. “Test what?”

“Instead of you stunning the monsters like before,” she said, her voice firm, “I want you to stop their bullets. All of them. I’ll handle the rest.”

Ludger studied her for a long beat, red-silver armguards glinting in the light. “You’re asking me to be the shield while you charge in blind.”

“I’m asking you to trust me,” she shot back.

He exhaled through his nose, gaze flicking toward the jagged peaks beyond which the labyrinth lay. Always pushing. Always reckless. But her eyes were steady now, not playful.

Finally he nodded once. “Fine. But you slip once, and we pull back. Understood?”

Viola grinned fiercely, her earlier seriousness breaking for just a heartbeat. “Understood.”

Luna, walking a step behind, glanced between them but said nothing, her expression unreadable.

They reached the worn stone steps leading down into the labyrinth. Ludger adjusted his armguards, the faint shimmer of mana already gathering around them. “All right,” he said quietly. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

At the edge of the worn stone steps, Ludger paused and flexed his fingers inside the red-silver armguards. The faint shimmer of mana gathered at his palms like static before a storm. He glanced at Viola.

“Listen,” he said evenly. “I can’t block all the attacks with just these.” He tapped the armguards with a knuckle. “Too many projectiles, too many angles. You’d get shredded before I caught them all.”

Viola tilted her head, frowning. “Then—”

“So I’ll use my magic instead,” Ludger cut in. “Mana Bolts. It’ll be good training for my precision and reaction speed. You focus on striking. I’ll handle the bullets.”

Her eyes widened for a second, then she smirked. “So you’ll be my wall and my artillery.”

“Think of it as target practice,” he said dryly. “But if you push too far, we pull back. Got it?”

Viola nodded once, her grip tightening on her sword. “Got it.”

Luna stood behind them, cloak drawn close, scanning the dark mouth of the labyrinth. Her expression didn’t change, but she gave the smallest approving nod.

Ludger drew a slow breath, mana pulsing around his arms in a faint blue glow. “All right,” he said. “Let’s see how well we both react.”

Together they descended the rough steps into the cool dark, the echo of their boots swallowed by the labyrinth’s depths.

The cool, stale air of the labyrinth wrapped around them as they descended the last step. The torches along the walls hissed softly, their orange light flickering across twisted stone. Ludger rolled his shoulders once and drew a slow breath. Focus. Armguards are easier, but that’s not the exercise.

He let the faint glow of mana creep from his [Spiritual Core] down into his palms. Blue light danced across his fingers, flickering like tiny sparks.

A grinding noise echoed from the ceiling ahead. “Incoming,” Ludger muttered.

With a clatter of floating plates, a random iron elemental slid out of its camouflage above the corridor and dropped to the floor, its core pulsing red. It didn’t hesitate—chunks of iron shot from its body like bullets, streaking straight toward them.

Ludger didn’t move to raise his armguards. Instead, he adjusted his stance, mana coiling at his fingertips. “Let’s test this,” he murmured.

[Mana Bolt] snapped out in a staccato rhythm—quick, precise pulses rather than heavy shots. The first few collided with the incoming iron bullets midair, bursts of sparks lighting the tunnel as the projectiles shattered.

Another volley from the elemental. Ludger’s eyes narrowed, his hands flicking almost too fast to follow. Bolt met bullet, power against power. He had the beast beat in sheer output, so he started throttling his shots, bleeding off some power from each pulse, tuning them until they weren’t smashing but canceling.

Sparks hissed and died midair where the bolts and bullets annihilated one another, a rhythm like hammer blows in reverse. Behind him, Viola held her sword ready but didn’t charge—watching, eyes wide as she realized what he was doing.

Ludger exhaled slowly, mana thrumming through his arms. Precision and reaction. That’s the training.

The elemental paused, its core flickering uncertainly as its attack pattern faltered under the unrelenting counter-fire.

“Your opening,” Ludger said flatly.

The elemental hesitated under Ludger’s rapid counter-fire, its core flickering as another volley of its bullets crumbled into sparks mid-air. Dust and iron shards floated in the corridor like frozen rain.

Behind him, Viola lowered her stance. She drew in a sharp breath, one hand loosening from the hilt so she held her blade in a single grip. Slowly she shifted the sword to the side, tip angled toward the target, her free arm moving in front of her for balance. The point of the blade turned just enough to line up with the elemental’s glowing core.

For a heartbeat she stood like that—still as a drawn arrow.

Then she burst forward in an explosion of movement. [Weapon Enhancing] and Overdrive flared around the blade in a bright surge, mana flooding her muscles. Her boots struck sparks from the stone as she closed the distance faster than she’d ever moved before.

The elemental tried to lift its arm, but another quick flick of Ludger’s bolts shredded its projectiles midair, leaving the core exposed.

Viola’s sword snapped upward and then thrust straight through the creature’s center mass. The enhanced blade punched into the core with a sharp crack—and the impact blasted the whole thing apart. Plates and fragments spun outward, clattering across the corridor as the core shattered, its glow snuffing out like a dying ember.

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