"Hey, look at this Rolanh" spoke Theli as he snuck up on his teammate.
"Once more, I am not interested in whatever 'art' you are trying to show m- Holy moly! Quests pay better than they used to!" sprung up Rolanh as he grabbed the paper Theli had shoved in his face.
Quickly, his surprise turned to suspicion.
"What's the caveat? What is this expedition they are talking of? It must be pretty dangerous for them to pay so much for it and allow adventurers to keep everything but the one thing they are looking for, which they aren't mentioning at all" analysed Rolanh as he quickly concluded that this request was almost as shady as Theli was himself.
"It will be a big no from me, this is fishy" he put the request down on the table before him and sat back down, amongst the ruckus of the adventurer's guild, no one had noticed their exchange.
"As fishy as that time in Lacam?" grinned Theli as he grabbed the piece of paper and tapped it with the back of his hand.
"The reward isn't what is interesting Rolanh, it is a request from a leader of UCT, whom has been spending lots of efforts to find the remnants of an ancient civilisation, civilisation that apparently had access to many artefacts, such as the 'source of excellence', it will be dangerous for certain but the rewards will be beyond your imagination" explained Theli.
"Okay, first of, don't mention the mermaid incident, that is forbidden and secondly, is it really worth it? I once saw you try and fight a stone golem with your bare hands for the 'sake of it', I have little trust in your survival instinct, you have consistently gone into mortal danger for little to no reason" Rolanh continued to lay out various instances of Theli's suicidal tendencies for a few minutes.
"But did I die?"
"No?"
"Then, you should trust me, not dying is one of specialty, right after cooking food in pots, don't you love my pot food Rolanh? I got it from my mother Rolanh, are you going to disrespect my mother Rolanh? Rolanh?" Theli wiggled the piece of paper in his friend's face as he spoke.
"Who is going anyways?" asked Rolanh as he pushed Theli's hand away.
"Everyone in there and some more" casually responded Theli as he slid the request inside of his coat.
"Good lord, that is a lot, I have a feeling most of them will die"
"Feeling? That's why you should put your trust in me, they will definitely die but not us, because he are cockroaches and mostly because I will be there, you can definitely trust me, have I ever been unreliable?" the mage spread his arms widely.
Rolanh had about a hundred of flashbacks informing him that his party member was in fact, quite unreliable or simply the epitome of weirdness but they had also always managed well, despite his insanity or maybe because of it?
"Very well, when is it starting, do we have to go or do anything in particular?" questioned Rolanh.
"It's starting... In ten minutes, I hope you're ready!"
"Theli, you little bastard-"
[Ten Minutes Later]
"Listen here adventurers, mercenaries and whatever you people call themselves!" a big, somewhat plump boar man explained many meaningless things for a long while.
This was the leader of UCT that was in charge of this little operation and it seemed like he would take active part in it as its head on the forefront.
Most of the expedition after that was just walking, walking and more walking with the occasional run ins with monsters or predators that were as threatening as they were rare, with such a big group of mostly experienced and rugged people, whatever happened to show their faces quickly came back from where they came without even looking back.
As such, the going to the actual expedition part was uneventful and lacked anything interesting.
"Hey, would you?" asked Theli as he slipped a folded piece of paper to Rolanh.
Rolanh took in a deep breath, knowing very well what sort of thing would be on this paper, he unfolded it and quickly crumpled it.
"You fucking degenerate, no I wouldn't ever do it with a beholder woman, where the hell do you even get such realistic drawings?" he asked as he noticed a clear improvement in the way it was drawn from usual.
"That's a shame, I thought I could present you to someone... Whatever, I just found myself a new girl, she's a great painter and she's quite experience in this sort of art" he responded as he made the crumpled piece of paper float back to him.
"I thought you already had a fiancée"
"Listen, I have many fiancées, how is it going for you by the way? I can still present you to this miss beholder if you are really despe-"
"Don't even think about it, no one you ever tried to present me was even human, a human girl is best since I want to have children, that way, there is no risk of some weird defect or anything but you keep showing up with girls from species I didn't even know existed, like, I thought until today that a beholder was just a big eye with a mouth that floated and did lasers"
"And you didn't even see anything, there are other species too, like, what comes to mind when I say beholder-taur?"
"Horror, that's what comes to mind Theli, horror" Theli was about to respond to this fallacious statement but it seemed like the expedition had reached its destination.
Standing before them was a large opening in the side of a tall cliff, a few meters deeper into that opening, a grand entrance with neatly carved pillars awaited them.
Judging from the state of the initial opening, it had been there since recently, the side of the cliff had most likely collapsed, revealing this entrance.
Immediately, everyone present could feel something threatening about this place, most clutched their weapons and stiffened up in response but Theli just rubbed his chin, very much intrigued.
"j'aime ça" he muttered to himself.