Reed looked around the guild, spotting Mordhal sitting at a table with with a group of teenagers of about 15-16 years old with him.
As Reed noticed them, Mordhal waved to him.
Reed walked up to them, taking a quick glance at all of them.
He noted their hair colours, clothing and equipment.
"This is your protection." Mordhal gestured. "Introduce yourselves. Rina you go first."
Rina, sitting directly to Mordhal's left, was one of the two with red hair, she had a wand placed in a holster on her hip. She was dressed in fine garments.
"My name is Rina Hordig, I am proficient in wind and fire magic."
'A somewhat wealthy family, I presume.'
Mordhal gestured to the one sitting next to Rina.
"You can call me Blot, I'm good at wind, fire, and earth magic. I can also fight with a dagger."
"I am Rorde Hordig, I specialize in fire magic, but I am also proficient with ice magic as well."
"Porret Skyling. I use water, earth and wind magic."
"Lark. I can use fire and earth magic."
"Assonletly, you can just call me Let. Fire and wind magic, with a bit of ice as well."
"Layla. Only ice magic."
Blot had black hair, was dressed in similar robes as Mordhal, but with a blue colour and white linings, he had a dagger strapped to the side of his leg.
Rorde was the second red-haired one, he was dressed similarly to Rina, and did not have a wand from what Reed could see.
'Probably closely related.'
Porret Skyling was the one that Mordhal had spoken about, almost half a head shorter than the shortest one of the group.
Lark, Let, and Layla, were dressed similarly to Blot, and Let and Layla had brown and blonde hair respectively.
Reed nodded at each of them as they introduced themselves, then introduced himself.
"You can call me Reed, I know a few basic spells, but I don't use magic for battle since I'm still learning, but if you want to learn about melee combat, tell me, I might be able to help."
They all murmured greetings, then sat in silence.
Reed turned to Mordhal.
"Is there anything else?"
"Meet us at the dungeon at ten in the morning."
Reed nodded, and left.
The next morning, Reed stood and waited at the entrance to the dungeon.
It had been twenty minutes since he had arrived, and he pretty sure that it was past the agreed time.
'Are they running late? Or was the clock I looked at set wrong?' Reed mused, he didn't have his own clock, after all, those things were quite expensive, the cheapest one he had found was priced at the high price of 50 silver.
The most expensive ones he had seen were priced at the exorbitant price of 200 gold coins, and didn't even look that visually appealing, at least according to his standards.
"Haaa..." He exhaled.
'Regardless, I need to get me a good clock.'
It was important to know the passing of time was may reasons.
Reed continued his musings for a few minutes before he noticed the group of eight approaching.
'They took their sweet time, didn't they?'
He saw that they were all wearing some form of armour, and all of them had daggers strapped somewhere.
Rina, Rorde, and Porret were carrying wands, while Lark, Assonletly, and Layla were carrying staffs. Blot had a shortsword with him, and was more armoured than the others.
He waited for them to get close before getting up.
"Finally! What took you so long?"
He questioned them, and Blot looked down at the ground and let a sound through his teeth.
"Nothing important, Blot here decided that his robes were feeling thirsty, so we had to wait for him to get changed into another pair."
The one who answered him was Rina, and Mordhal chuckled at her response as she glared at Blot, who turned his head away from the ground and looked into the forest, determined not to meet her eyes.
Reed looked at Blot who stared into the forest as if he was entranced by something from within it.
He sighed.
"Alright, before we get going, can you tell me exactly when I should and shouldn't interfere?" He asked Mordhal.
"If you think that someone could be seriously injured, than you step in, there's no problem with letting them get roughed up a bit, but try not to let them be stabbed."
Mordhal replied calmly, as if he was talking about something irrelevant.
"Hmgh." Lark snorted, but did not say anything.
"How deep are we going to go?"
"That depends on how well these seven will do."
Reed nodded, and gestured to the arch.
"Shall we?"
"Rorde, Blot, the two of you take first encounter."
Rorde and Blot stepped in front of the arch.
"Mr. Reed, please." Mordhal gestured, and Reed nodded and stepped behind them, with the rest following as they entered the dungeon.
The goblins were quickly killed by the two of them, Blot holding them off with his sword and Rorde occasionally hitting them with his spells.
Blot did most of the work with melee combat, and Reed understood why.
'It does make sense, you don't want to squander all your mana on low-level enemies like these.'
Before they entered the second level, Mordhal arranged Rina, Rorde, and Assonletly as the vanguard.
'Fire and wind? Is he planning to have them incinerate all of the bats?'
That was exactly what the eight of them had done. They had planned to use their usage of 1 wind spell and 2 fire spells to burn all of the bats in one go.
It was surprisingly quiet for a fiery storm that set multiple unsuspecting creatures on fire, condemning them to a blazing doom.
'Poor bats.' Having experienced what it felt like to be set on fire, Reed could sympathize with their agony.
It was quite easy for them to pass through the level, as the real threats for them only started deeper into the dungeon, which is why Reed did not get the opportunity to make a move, but instead he casually followed the apprentices as they killed all of the creatures.
At the entryway to the third floor, Mordhal stopped.
"Be careful, and don't make idiotic mistakes, understood?"
He seemed to be glaring at Let, who winced.
"Yes sir." She quietly responded.
Mordhal nodded, and stepped into the gate.