The Adventurer's Guild Hall was a living hive. Clerks darted between desks with scrolls, scribes clutched quills like daggers, and the air hummed with the clamor of steel, coin, and contracts.
Eliakim and Gideon stood at the main counter, the Pest Hunt notice in hand.
The clerk, a sharp-eyed woman with hair bound in a tight knot, scanned them both and shook her head. "Newcomers can't take sewer work. Too dangerous, too… unsanitary. You need guild credentials first."
"We'll take care of the filth," Gideon said flatly.
"That's not how it works," she replied, sliding the notice back across the counter. "No guild ID, no contract. You want in, you register. And for sewer hunts, you work as a unit. One application—two names."
Eliakim's brows lifted slightly. "A duo registration, then."
Her lips twitched into a smirk. "Desperate, are we?" She pushed two forms toward them and called over a quill-runner. "Ink them in, process now. We'll bend the rules this once—blame the 'urgent infestation' request from the city council."
Ten minutes later, their names glimmered in the Guild Ledger.Eliakim Darkmoor & Gideon Ravenscar – Registered Duo.
A guild guide led them to the eastern district's old storm drains, now functioning as the city's sewers. The iron grate groaned as it swung open, releasing a wave of foul air that slapped them in the face.
"Clear the pests, check for cause," the guide said. "Bring proof of kill for payment. Don't get lost."
The moment their boots hit the damp stone steps, the torchlight above faded into darkness. The Codex of Imreth in Eliakim's pack pulsed faintly, mapping each turn as they walked.
The eastern district's sewer entrance was as welcoming as a coffin lid.Moss-covered stone arched above the tunnel, and the smell… was a mixture of rot, iron, and something sweet enough to make the stomach turn.
Gideon wrinkled his nose."Of all the places for our first quest…""Pests don't wait for prestige," Eliakim replied, stepping over a trickle of brown water. "Let's clear it quick before the infestation spreads."
They advanced by the light of a single lantern. Their boots splashed quietly, though the distant squeaks and scrapes promised that quiet wouldn't last.
A sudden ripple of air—then a black storm descended.
Bats exploded from the ceiling, wings a blur, fangs glinting in the lantern light. The shrill chorus was enough to rattle the eardrums.
"Cover your eyes!" Eliakim shouted. He crouched low, protecting the lantern with his body.
Gideon moved forward, twin axes flashing like mirrored moons. He swept one in a wide horizontal arc, catching three bats mid-flight, and then brought the second down in a vertical chop, splitting another in half. Each movement was precise but powerful, like a smith hammering steel.
One bat darted for Eliakim's head—Gideon's axe intercepted it in a brutal sideways slash."You're welcome," Gideon grunted, flicking blood from the blade."I had it under control," Eliakim muttered."Sure you did," Gideon smirked, stepping over the twitching body.
A flaming oil-soaked stone rolled from Eliakim's hand into a pocket in the wall, igniting a burst that scorched several more. The survivors scattered deeper into the dark.
The next sound was worse—a wet, churning shuffle.
From the darkness ahead, rats the size of small dogs poured forward, their slick bodies slipping over one another. Among them slithered snakes with black, oil-slick scales and yellow slit eyes. The tunnel filled with the hiss and squeal of the combined swarm.
"They're coming fast," Eliakim said, already pulling a bent grate from the wall.Gideon stepped in front of him, planting his boots wide. "Then they're dying faster."
The first rat leapt—Gideon's left axe split it midair, and his right axe chopped down instantly on a snake trying to coil around his leg. Another rat lunged at his flank—he spun the left axe in a brutal hook, flinging the body into the oncoming swarm.
Eliakim tipped a small pouch into the water at their feet—powdered lime. The swarm hit it, coughing and squealing as their eyes burned."That's your opening!" Eliakim barked.
Gideon surged forward, twin axes blurring in a crisscross pattern. The corridor became a narrow killing zone—each step he took left twitching bodies in the muck.
"Remind me not to stand in front of you," Eliakim muttered.Gideon just grinned, swinging both axes in a final cleaving motion that left the path momentarily clear.
They didn't get to breathe.
A chorus of sharp clicks echoed from the ceiling. Dozens of poison cockroaches—each the size of a man's hand—swarmed down the walls. Their mandibles dripped green fluid, eating tiny pockmarks into the stone where they landed.
"I hate bugs," Gideon growled."You'll hate this one more in a minute," Eliakim replied grimly.
Gideon attacked low first—slamming an axe into the floor and sweeping along the wall in a rising motion, cutting through a whole line of them. Then he reversed, the second axe spinning in a tight half-moon to slice the ones clinging to the ceiling supports.
Eliakim spotted a rusted steam pipe overhead and drove his boot into it. The metal groaned before bursting, scalding vapor blasting outward. The cockroaches shrieked, curling in on themselves before dropping into the water.
"That's three," Gideon said, catching his breath. "How many more until—"He stopped.Something gold flickered in the dark ahead.
It stepped into the lantern's reach, its carapace gleaming like molten coin, each segment ridged with jagged spines. Its mandibles clicked, spraying droplets of venom into the water. The legs were long, jointed wrong, and ended in barbed points.
Eliakim's eyes narrowed. "That's not in the infestation report.""Nope," Gideon said, raising his axes. "But it's going in mine."
The bug lunged—faster than its size should allow. Eliakim barely ducked in time, the mandibles snapping where his head had been. Gideon intercepted with crossed axes, the impact ringing like a bell and sliding him back a step.
He twisted his right axe to hook the joint of one leg, then slammed the left axe down in a vicious cleave. The bug shrieked—an unnatural, grinding sound—before vanishing in a blur.
"Where—" Eliakim began."Behind you!" Gideon roared.
Eliakim dropped to one knee as the bug appeared behind him, mandibles closing. Gideon's left axe came down, severing a piece of armor from its flank. The exposed tissue beneath pulsed like molten gold.
"Think you can crack it open?" Eliakim called."Give me an opening!" Gideon shouted back.
Eliakim's eyes darted to a cracked gas pipe along the wall. He yanked it open, releasing a hiss of fumes. "When I say—jump!"
Gideon pressed the attack, axes spinning, battering the bug backward step by step toward the leaking pipe. The creature raised its forelegs to strike—Eliakim lit a rag and hurled it.
"Now!"
Gideon leapt back. The rag touched the gas—flames erupted, enveloping the bug in a roaring wave. It shrieked and thrashed, armor plates popping under the heat. Gideon dove in through the fire, bringing both axes down in a savage cross cut.
The bug collapsed, twitching, its head split in two.
Only Eliakim saw it—the same thin, curling smoke that had escaped Varek before, rising from the bug's carcass. It drifted upward and vanished into the air.
He stared for a long moment."Something wrong?" Gideon asked, wiping ichor from his blades."…Nothing," Eliakim lied, turning toward the tunnel exit. "Let's get the proof to the guild."