They stopped before coming all the way down and instead gazed at those gathered below them. I couldn’t find any trace of the familiar captains I knew. Their faces were cold, and they were dressed in black and green leather armor, though they carried no weapons.
The three Knights behind them were dressed in a similar manner.
Kren nodded at them. "Good morning. There were supposed to be ten Squires here today, but we’ve been reduced to nine." As he said this, his eyes flickered to me, and I understood what he meant, Kade hadn’t been found.
"But we’ll still continue as planned. The Squires will divide themselves into three groups, the same as the workers. Each group will have a Knight as their leader." He paused.
The Knights came down into the hall, and people gave them space to arrange themselves. The workers and Squires muttered amongst themselves, glancing at the Knights with shifting eyes, trying to decide who to choose.
"Come here," I told them, quickly joining one of the Knights. I simply chose the one closest to me, as there was no time to assess who was the strongest or toughest.
The Knight I chose was a woman with light purple eyes. She was short and stocky with a straight back. Her gaze swept over us as if assessing the first to pick a team leader, but she said nothing. Similarly, the workers and Squires turned to look at us.
I pictured what they saw: tall, muscular Tiber, short Slya with eyes heavy with mistrust, and then myself, thin and weary-looking.
Before long, all the workers and Squires had picked a team, and soon everyone was arranged around their team leader.
"I just knew you’d gather attention to yourself," Taiwo muttered to me. She was part of the two other Squires that joined. The second was a thin man with a shaky mustache that looked more like whiskers, named Ham.
Since the workers’ distribution wasn’t equal, we ended up with six workers, three Squires, and one Knight.
Tiber snorted and raised his brows. "Or you joined because of the strongest Squire."
Taiwo smiled faintly, her eyes flickering. "No point denying that."
Arvas clapped to gain their attention. "Alright. We have three teams. You’ll know your team by the name of your team leader. Team Etan!"
A Knight with bushy brows raised his hand and nodded.
"Team Lim!"
A tall, smiling man patted the sword at his waist loudly.
"Team Emily!"
Our team leader nodded to everyone.
Arvas continued, "Good. I will now pass on some instructions. First, you must obey your team leaders. Their orders come from us. And when I say follow their instructions, I mean do ’everything’ they say. They are Knights and have a high sensitivity to danger."
Arvas surveyed us, his gaze passing over us like ice. He said flatly, "I’ll kill you myself if you don’t obey, that is, if they don’t do it themselves."
He stopped speaking, and Kren stepped forward. He glanced at us with a weary smile and adjusted his glasses. "Do not worry about your safety. Arvas and I are Errant Knights, and we have three Knight ranks. We will also bring some enchanted tools with us.
"The workers will focus on doing their jobs. The Squires will look out for them, and the Knights will protect. That’s it. Oh, there are potions made specifically for this operation. Take them before we leave."
As he finished speaking, the team leaders turned to their teams. Emily crouched on the ground and brought out a black metal key. She pressed it into the ground, and it sank like a hot knife through butter. Then she twisted.
A loud rumble followed as an outline grew from the ground into a shelf half her size. She opened the stone shelf and brought out potions in small glass bottles.
"They’ll provide nutrients so you won’t feel hunger. They’ll last for at least three days. The side effect is that you’ll need to eat immediately after it wears off, or you might tear your stomach." She smiled without mirth. "It’ll also boost your endurance and general health."
I collected the dark red potion that looked like blood and couldn’t help but admire the power to create something like it. But what truly held my attention was the enchanted tool, able to store items.
As I drank the potion, I wondered about its advantages in battle, then shook my head, both from the bitter aftertaste of the potion and the realization that the enchanted tool was too slow to be effective in combat.
Does that mean they’re storing their battle potions in other ways? I knew that Alchemist Knights used potions in battle, but I didn’t know how.
After that, another potion was brought out, this one bigger and meant for the Squires to coat their weapons with. A poison.
Once prepared, we lined up behind our team leader, who followed the two captains as they led us out onto the dry ground. The sun was finally peeking out, and the camp’s first layer was coming alive as people began to go about their day.
We attracted plenty of stares but nothing too unusual, teams often organized large-scale hunts. We made our way through the camp toward the mine.
"I feel better with the potion," Slya said.
Tiber nodded. "Must have something in it to boost our confidence. Look around, everyone looks ready to jump in front of monsters!"
I looked around and realized it was true. The way everyone walked, the confident tilt of their heads... ’But I’m feeling normal?’
Hurriedly, I looked at Taiwo, and she shook her head.
’So she’s not feeling it either. Something only for the workers? I must say, those captains are shrewd!’
Then we reached the mine, and this time, everyone seemed to falter a little. The entrance finally drove home what we were there to do. The gaping darkness of the entrance loomed like the maw of some great beast.