I met with my party members and announced that our debt to Gremlock has been paid and that we had a new job.

  - Do we have to stop working for Gremlock? - asked Luara: - I was talking to him about artifacts that I would like for him to make.

  - No, but we will have to sell at least half of our loot to Adventurer guild. Kannan was nagging about it for a while. And it will improve our retionship with guild.

  - Sounds reasonable, - nodded Trevor: - So what about the job, you were telling us?

  - I was contacted by the representatives of amazons. It was a personal request for our party. It will be dangerous, but reward was too good to path out.

  - What did they offered? - looked at me suspiciously Nelly.

  - Some improvements to my bow, and money for you. We are supposed to meet with the amazons in a few days, and they will expin us the details. But we will have to go to neighboring kingdom of Denbing.

  - Cannot say that I like the idea of working for amazons,- sighed Trevor.

  Like all men he heard a lot of prejudices about amazons.

  - They will just accompany us, and they will follow our orders. Or at least mine.

  - What exactly are we supposed to do? - eyed me Nelly, who still looked suspicious. Not that she had no reasons, but they should trust more their leader, right?

  - Have you heard about moondeer?

  - Holy animals of the amazons, - nodded Nelly: - I have read about them. They are native to Denbing and had never been seen outside that kingdom. I also read that killing them is forbidden, for some religious reasons.

  - Yes. But some adventurers broke the w of Denbing and started killing those animals Our job will be stopping them. Well, amazons already tried talking to them. So unless we can find other solution, we might be forced to kill them.

  - What adventurers? - asked Luara. She probably was not comfortable with idea of killing other adventurers.

  - Do not know exactly. Amazons that we are supposed to meet will tell us more and also take us to their location.

  - Sounds suspicious, - said Nelly.

  - Like I said, it will not be easy, but the reward should be worth it. Now, get prepared and for now we will suspend our dungeon visits. So rest and get ready.

  * * *

  I received my reward from Adventurer guild and was rich again. At least until I use the money to pay my party.

  I was sitting in my room and sharpening my adamantium dagger, when someone knocked at my door.

  - Come in.

  Luara came inside the room and looked around:

  - You're alone?- Yes.- Good. I wanted to talk to you.

  - Sure. What have you on your mind?

  - I wanted to talk to you about my position in the party. When we fought Hugo, you ordered me not to fight him under any circumstances.

  - Yes, and you know why. He was strong. Stronger than me, and you would not stand a chance against him.

  - But you let Trevor fight him. When we started adventuring together, I was strongest warrior among us. I am a member of beastmen. Proud warriors, who are stronger than humans. But now, every time we fight strong monsters, I am just a distraction. I should be fighting in front line, not to be a bait!

  I sighed: - You are strong. Much stronger than when we first met. But not strong enough. Trevor has surpassed you, and you know that. Even Nelly without her magic could fight you as an equal. The difference is in your stats and skills. Even your weapons. They are excellent weapons for C rank adventurer, and you even had Ashurga to use his rune crafting skills on them. But what can those runes do? Make them sharper, more resilient to fire and magic, and that is all. That is not enough, far from it. But do not misunderstand. You are a scout, a valued member of our party, and I want for you to stay with us.

  - I am strong. I want to prove myself in battle, and I am tired of taking the second line.

  - Then prove it. Our next job, it will require us to go against adventurers, who probably will be stronger than us. If you want to fight in front line, as you said it, then prove that you can win no matter the odds. We will not win if we fight. We will only win if we kill then. The same way that I killed most floor guardians. Not by fighting them, but killing them. No honor, no speeches, no facing your enemy. If you do not have it inside you, I will never put you face to face with strong enemy.

  - Is that what you want for our party?

  - No, but that is what is necessary, if you wish to prove your skill and ability to win and survive. But, I did think about the way for you to become stronger. Have you ever heard about the King of Iron Mountains?

  - No, - Luara shook her head.

  - He was the ancient king who ruled the Iron Mountains. According to our maps, Ashgrin is neighboring kingdom to Holy Griffin empire, just like Rakshasar. But between those kingdoms are Iron Mountains. Because of them, it is impossible to go to Holy Griffin empire from Ashgrin or Rakshasar. There are no human settlements, but many centuries or even thousands years ago things were different. There was a king who ruled those mountains. He was a powerful warrior, but also an alchemist and artifact creator. He created many artifacts and used his power to conquer nds that currently surround Iron Mountains. Ashgrin, Rakshasar, Denbing, Holy Griffin Empire, and even Beast people kingdom lost part of their nds, that were conquered by the King of Iron Mountains. But when the king grew old, he realized that he had a fw. He did not had a heir.

  When his death was not far behind, King of Iron Mountains went to one of the nds that he conquered and hid four of his most powerful artifacts in four oldest and most difficult to conquer dungeons of a kingdom, that we now call Rakshasar. There are only six dungeons in Rakshasar now, and four among them are known as the ancient unconquered dungeons.

  Then the king died. People from his kingdom started to fight among themselves to seize the throne. Conquered kingdoms revolted, and it weakened the empire of Iron Mountains even more. And so, the empire was destroyed. People who fought for the throne used powerful magic, and when the fighting ended there was nothing left from the old kingdom. No one victor, was left, and the only nds in which humans could flourish were burned and destroyed. Few survivors run and migrated to other nds, and Iron Mountains became infested with monsters that were used in battle for the throne. But the legacy of King of Iron Mountains, his most powerful artifacts, survived, just as the king envisioned it. He left those artifacts for his successor, someone worthy of them.

  If you want to become strong. Stronger than Trevor currently is, then you will need those artifacts. I was thinking about our party's future. Conquering those dungeons, was one of our possible goals. But we are not ready for them, not us we are now. For us to even try to go to those ancient dungeons, we need to get stronger. We should be at least strong enough to deal with the likes of shadow walkers, and now we are not ready for it. Maybe two or three level ups could change that, but not now. So what do you think about that possibility?

  - How do you know about all that?

  - From Magic academy. I spend a lot of time in its library. And then I used our second visit to Alven to get more information about the dungeons that are still active in Rakshasar, and their age. Four of those dungeons were known as ancient ones, and another two were less than two centuries old.

  - But you cautioned us many times, about buying the artifacts in Tyco?

  - Yes. Because those artifacts would make you only slightly stronger. Better to have none of them than have something unreliable. At least that is my opinion.

  - I see. Those artifacts of the dead king, what are they?

  - I do not know. No records, which would have their description survived. But I do believe that they exist. Buried in deepest floor of the dungeons, and waiting for someone worthy.

  - Why do you think that I am worthy? You just said that I am not strong enough?

  - I do not. But if you want to become powerful, than become worthy. Such power cannot be granted, you must take it. Want to be strong. Stop saying that you want to be, and just be.

  - I will. I definitely will become stronger and worthy of those artifacts.

  * * *

  Kannan send us a message that someone is looking for us, and that I should arrive to Adventurer guild as soon as possible. I gathered my party embers, and we went to the guild.

  In front of the guild were several women. They were sitting on horsebacks, and anyone would recognize the amazons from the kingdom of Denbing. They were dressed in skirts that reached their hips. All beautiful and armed with bows and swords, they stand out even among Tyco citizens.

  I stepped forward.

  - My name is Avone. My I ask if you are the amazons, whom I was supposed to meet?

  One of the amazons stepped forward and bowed her head.

  - My name is Heraldia. If you are adventurer Avone, then yes. I was told to meet you here.

  I looked around: - Would you mind if we go inside and talk in the Adventurer guild?

  - That is acceptable.

  We went inside the guild, and one of the receptionists run towards me.

  - Miss Avone. We were expecting you.

  - Yes, I received message from guild master. My we use one of the guild rooms for private conversation?

  - Of course, please follow me.

  She led us to one of the back rooms and opened the door for us.

  - Please use this room for as long as you want. I will inform guild master about it.

  - Thank you.

  After she left we all took seats, and amazon again introduced herself.

  - Like I said my name is Heraldia. I am leader of one of the amazon tribes. Our holy woman came to me and told me to go to this town and find you. She told me that you would help us to stop intruders, who are killing our sacred animals.

  - We will. But first, could you tell us more about what happened?

  - I will, - she sighed: - Around a year ago, group of adventurers arrived in our nd. There were two elves among them, and we trusted their good intensions. After all elves always valued nature and were our allies for hundreds of years. They told us that they are adventurers, who came to our nds to train and kill monsters. We allowed them that, but few months ter we discovered corpses of our sacred animals. Sometimes monsters kill the moondeer, but wounds were inflicted by weapons. No one on our nd would harm them, not without our goddess's permission. We send our representatives to the adventurers, hoping that it was an accident, but they just ughed at them. Nearest tribe send their warriors to stop them, but they were defeated. Survivors returned and told us about great strength and magic that these adventurers wielded. We would have asked druids for help, but our holy woman told us that goddess Artemis talked to her in a dream. We were told to come here and ask for your help.

  - I see. Can you tell us more about these adventurers?

  - Like I said, two among them were elves. Archers, but they also had swords and used magic. The other four were humans. Female mage, two warriors and a male priest.

  - What magic did they use?

  - I am sorry, but I do not know that.

  - I see. Their party, did they have a name? And where did they came from?

  - They called themselves Swords of destiny. They told us that they came from Holy Griffin Empire, and had golden adventurer tags.

  My friends almost jumped from their seats, but I waved my hand, telling them to stay quiet.

  - Do you know their current location?

  - They are still hunting moondeer in the southern forest. Our people are tracking them, so, when we arrive to the forest, we will know exactly where they are.

  That sounded good. As far as I knew, in Denbing were too rge forests. One in the north west, and another in south west part of the kingdom. There was a single town near southern forest, also called Denbing. The rulers of Denbing were druids. Amazons inhabited most of the kingdom, but were rare in town. The forests were inhabited by another intelligent race - sentient trees. Sentient trees, amazons and druids, established the kingdom of Denbing, but the rulers of the kingdom were druids, who inhabited the town of Denbing.

  - How long will it take us to reach them?

  - If we ride fast, we can reach the southern forest in five weeks.

  - Fine. We will need to buy horses, before we depart.

  - We should leave as soon as possible.

  - We will. We will buy horses and meet you here after sunrise. You should use the time to rest, before our journey.

  - Very well. We will meet tomorrow then, - amazon got up and bowed.

  After she left, my party members bombarded me with questions.

  - Did she said golden tags?

  - We will need to travel for fifty days?

  - My horse riding is not that good.

  - Enough! - I raised my voice. When everyone went silent I continued: - We will need to travel for a while. Yes. And they have A rank adventurer party, but their levels are just the ones that B rank adventurers have. Besides we will have an element of surprise. I doubt that they will expect that another adventurer party will attack them. And I have a pn. So trust me. Nelly you already had some lessons how to ride a horse, so consider this an opportunity to improve your horse riding. And more importantly, - I took out my wallet: - Our reward. Each of you will receive twenty orichalcum coins.

  I counted the money and pced the coins in front of my party members. They silently stared at coins. That was a small fortune. We could earn such amount hunting in the dungeon, but we would need around a year to do that.

  - I know that risks are high, but I think that you will agree, that the reward is worth it. Now we will need to buy horses, and we do not have too much time, so no compins and let us get ready.

  On our way out, receptionist stopped me and asked to visit guild master.

  - Wait me outside, - I told the others and followed receptionist.

  - My hair almost went gray, - compined Kannan, as soon as he saw me: - Amazons from Denbing, are not the guests that I would want to see.

  - You do not think that they are beautiful?

  - They are. But too much trouble, if you wish to know my opinion. What did they want? Do I need to worry?

  - No. They wanted to hire as for a small job. We will leave Tyco for a few month, but we all will be leaving tomorrow, so you do not have to worry.

  - I see. Just when I was expecting a steady supply of magic stones from your party, you are leaving the town. That makes me sad to hear. But you will be back?

  - Yes. Just not very soon. But we still pn to stay in Tyco for several years, so you do not need to worry.

  - Gd to hear that. I will not ask what amazons want from you, but keep in mind, since you took the job not from the guild, we will not be able to help you, if something goes wrong.

  - I know that.

  - Well then, good luck with your job.

  * * *

  Next day we left Tyco and went east for the kingdom of Denbing. We all traveled on horses. Amazons were born riders, and among my party only Nelly had little experience with horse riding. But she was not a complete novice and could keep up with the rest of us.

  Heraldia and her five amazons were familiar with the road, and we traveled quickly. Amazons rode with haste, and, after a week, Nelly was compining that most of her lower body hurt, and she needed to use her Cure spell daily. We all felt tired and fell asleep almost immediately in the evenings. We passed Golden town, the capitol of Northern Gremlin kingdom. I wanted to make a stop there, but amazons insisted that we need to hurry, and we passed the town without entering it.

  During our journey amazons felt freely among other woman, but avoided Trevor. As far as I knew, they saw all men as inferior creatures. I did not know much about their culture, but apparently they avoided men, and only looked for a company of a strong men when they wanted to get pregnant. I did not understand their culture, but our travel did not left us much time for conversations. On our way we were few times attacked by monsters, but quickly disposed of them. Amazons proved themselves to be experienced warriors and archers.

  I used my Appraisal spell on them and discovered that all of them had levels between ten and sixteen, which would make them as strong as D rank adventurers. Month ter we crossed the border between Northern Gremlin kingdom and Denbing, and needed another week to reach the amazon settlement near southern Denbing forest.