We talked a bit as the day passed, and Diran even gave back my stuff. Of all the things I learned, the weirdest was that dragons were considered the same as normal people. That didn't make sense in my eyes. The others looked humanoid, but dragons, while they could assume a humanoid form, were in another realm of existence.
"It seems that we are arriving at our secret base. I hope that you won't pick a fight with anyone."
"Aren't you the guys who are prone to cause trouble?"
"Only when it is necessary."
Diran moved the cloth above us and then got up while stretching his body. At that point in time, my butt was already used to staying asleep, but I got up as well and stretched a bit. Before long, I saw the wagon getting closer to a stone bridge. It was night again, so a lot of time had passed since we started talking.
"We are dropping here. Thanks for the ride."
The rider was an old man, and he got some coins from Diran when he jumped from the wagon. He was human, but he valued that more than the difference between the species or simply didn't care and just worked as a smuggler. The old man nodded at me before I jumped from the wagon.
"Don't worry. He belongs to the smuggling guild. Give them enough coin, and they will transport anything for you without asking any questions."
"Smugling guild, huh?"
It seemed that I was destined to live in the underworld of crime for a while… Still, I couldn't complain. Diran walked until the middle of the bridge and then jumped to the other side and landed on the shore of the river. The fall was only five meters tall, and it looked like there was some sort of passage below. I followed him, and the fall made my legs shake for a while… my endurance and vitality were that low, after all.
"By the way, this is an affiliated base of the thieves guild."
"You were the one who left that letter…"
"Not quite. It was the innkeeper, and we had a deal with most of them to leave those letters for anything that seemed shifty. It was thanks to them that we were informed of you and came in a hurry."
Money truly makes the world spin, but it wasn't the only thing. Regardless… it looks like trying to keep myself hidden will be a massive pain in the ass. Using an inn was a mistake. I should just have slept rough for a while longer. Still, perhaps that led to a good situation.
Diran pushed some rocks together below the bridge, and then a passage was revealed. He got a torch on the side of the wall and then lit it with a snap of his fingers… magic. I wanted to learn that but didn't know if I had the time to do so.
"We will help you learn or recover some of your magic so you can relax. Your… Leon."
"I am sure since that will benefit you as well."
"Obviously. Now, enter. I need to close the entrance."
Diran pushed some stones, and then the entrance closed once again… I wondered how they had such mechanisms without electricity. Maybe there was an ingenuity or engineering skill tree somewhere. Still, from what I had heard, I was the only one who could use the system, thanks to Elysion, the god of humans.
I wondered if there was any connection between the name Elysion and Elysius… the paradise of the gods of Greek mythology. In any case, the gods' names were a bit weird… Drakonis, Nosferatu. Maybe that world and Earth had some sort of connection.
Before long, we found a bunch of twists and turns in the hidden passage, and then the path splits. It was truly an impressive maze that probably took years to build. The weird thing was the fact that this kind of place should be connected to some sort of town or city, but I didn't find any when we left the wagon.
"This place is filled with traps, so don't try to return to the exit by yourself."
"There is only one exit? You guys are certainly confident in this place holding up against an army."
"An army wouldn't cross this place, and they would die one by one."
That was probably why the place was like that, and it made me feel a bit claustrophobic. After walking in the corridor for one hour, we eventually found a wooden door, and then we were welcomed by the sight of a bunch of shifty-looking dark elves wearing dark cloaks. As one would expect, they studied me with caution and suspicion. There were only four of them there, though.
"It looks like the branch of this thieves guild has seen better days, huh?"
"Hahaha. You can thank your ancestors for that. They didn't make things easier for us in this country."
"I am sure that you aren't expecting an apology… anyway, how many are we going to rescue with these numbers."
"Twenty of my brothers and sisters."
"It seems your parents liked to work, then."
"I don't get what you are saying, but they aren't exactly related to me by blood."
"I see then."
"No need to keep staring, everyone. He won't go anywhere, and he is a lot more reasonable than we expected. We will follow the plan and proceed with the attack in three days. Do your jobs as planned, and then get ready. In the meantime, I will give our new friend here the necessary support for the great start of our alliance."
Diran looked around for a while, then found some books behind some boxes, and then he gave them to me. They had the symbols of a flame and a hand glowing, so I could tell what they were supposed to be.
"Read them and learn the basics of magic. I heard that the royal family of the human kingdom could learn magic much faster than others, so it is time to confirm that theory."
"Just reading a book is enough?"
"It teaches you the basics, then you have to practice it. Elves usually learn pretty fast, at least with the elements they are talented at. The others take a few weeks."
I wondered if I could learn magic faster by getting a wand or a magic staff, but I was in the thieves guild, so it was a difficult place to look for such a thing. Besides, cutting corners all the time wasn't a good idea, so I began to read the Flame book.
The book started by teaching me the basics of how to feel mana. That was pretty simple. I just had to close my eyes, take deep breaths, and feel the energy inside me like a pond. I tried that, and I could actually see an imaginary pool of energy that seemed like a pond right now… I wondered if it was just my imagination.
Still, when I tried the second step of enveloping the energy in my hand, I felt the pond decrease in size and feel warmth in my hand as well, so it looked like the pond was truly there.
Apparently, the book's only goal was to teach me how to cast Fireballs, and it was a rather simple method: I focused energy in the palm of my hand, ignited it with my anger as a trigger, and then fired it. I tried to flip the book to see if there was more, but there wasn't. The pages were rather thick, so the book fooled my eyes.
In any case, I decided to try that and aim at a wall, not expecting much from my level. Then, a perfectly shaped fireball emerged and burned the wall when it hit it.
(You have unlocked a new skill tree.)
Elemental Magic: Improves your skill in harnessing the energies of the elements to attack your enemies and causes a bit more damage..
Novice Mage
By learning elemental spells, you can deal ten percent extra elemental damage. (Requires Elemental Magic skill tree at Level 01)