Chapter 108- Meeting at the Guild.
The woman answered Leo’s question with obvious reluctance.
"Yes. That perverted old man is simply too strong for his own good."
"Perverted old man?" Leo blinked, caught off guard.
He ran his forge sense over the blade one more time to be sure. The crack itself was clean—no branching fractures, no ragged edges. Whoever had struck it had done so with precision and controlled power, the kind that came from decades of practice, not brute force.
He nodded to himself. "Give me a minute."
He carried the sword to the forge and laid it across the anvil. His hammer materialized in his grip, and he called the eternal flame to heat the steel, the process almost effortless now. A few minutes of light, off-handed hammering was all it took—a touch of heat here, a clean fold there, coaxing the grain back into alignment where the crack had torn it apart. He watched the metal soften under his will and settle back into shape, the fracture line shrinking, thinning, and finally vanishing altogether.
He let it rest in open air to cool, then plunged it into the water trough beside the anvil.
Once it had cooled fully, he ran his fingers along the flat of the blade, checking for any lingering irregularity. Nothing. Smooth from tip to hilt.
"Good as new," he said, holding it out to her.
She reached for it, visible relief washing over her face the moment her fingers closed around the hilt.
"Whoever broke this hit it with real precision," Leo added. "And from the clean nature of the fracture, I’d guess he was actually holding back."
The words landed harder than he expected. Her hand froze mid-motion, still cradling the sword, the realization sinking in that the old man had gone easy on her—and still managed to shatter something she clearly treasured. She looked at Leo for a long moment, then let out a slow, defeated sigh.
Hugh, meanwhile, had finished the second sword she’d commissioned earlier. She collected both blades, paid without another word, and walked out, the door swinging shut behind her.
Leo glanced at Hugh. The old man just shrugged, unbothered, and went back to his work.
[Ding~]
[First Foundation: Guild Hall, Guild Forge, Treasury, and Training Ground construction complete.]
[All four primary structures are now available for use.]
Leo blinked at the notification, still catching up to how fast things were moving.
Elly’s voice followed right on its heels.
"Construction is finished, and I’ve completed a perimeter scan of the fortress. There is, however, a complication. The site is surrounded by a cluster of high-rank monsters."
"Of course there is," Leo muttered.
He thought it over for half a second before deciding. "Open the channel to everyone. Tell them we’re heading out to clear the area—and take a look at the new place while we’re at it."
Hugh, who’d been gathering ore for his next crafting run, paused mid-motion, eyebrows lifting. "We? Who’s ’we,’ exactly?"
"Old man, do I really need to spell it out? We’re in the same guild now. Time you saw the building for yourself—you’re going to love the forge. It’s linked straight to our Eternal Forge Dimension. You remember being in there, right? Now that you’re part of the guild, you can access it anytime. Even when I’m not around."
Hugh set everything down at once, eyes lighting up with genuine excitement. "Wouldn’t miss it for the world. Let me grab the cubs first."
Leo fired off a message to the guild chat. "Everyone—drop what you’re doing and head to the guild hall. You can teleport straight there.
"Alright, Elly. Let’s get moving."
"Confirmed," she said.
[Ding~]
[Guild Teleportation activated.]
The world folded around him, and a moment later he and Hugh—one cub tucked under his arm, the other perched on his shoulder—stood inside the guild hall.
Shen, Elona, and Rook teleported in one after another right behind them, each pausing to take in the sight of the place.
The hall was pristine, freshly built, its deep foundation etched with intricate carvings, its walls and floors laid in clean, seamless stone. A massive chandelier hung suspended from the vaulted ceiling above them, catching the light in a hundred directions at once.
Rook let out a low whistle. "You built all this already? You broke yet?"
"Completely broke," Leo said with a chuckle. "But hey, at least I’ve got a nice house to be broke in."
Elona turned in a slow circle, taking in the architecture, nodding to herself. "This place is stunning. Peaceful, even."
The building rose several stories, with the main hall occupying the ground floor and a range of facilities spread across the levels above.
"We’re not here just to admire the view, though," Leo said. "We’ve got monsters to clear out around the perimeter. Let’s move, people."
They moved toward the exit. Most of the ground floor was taken up by the hall itself, with a reception desk positioned just beside the main door—unmanned for now. They passed it without a word, and Leo pushed the door open.
Beyond it lay the ruins of Blackstone Fortress. Once a proper stronghold, now nothing but bones—broken courtyards, the stumps of collapsed towers jutting up like jawbones left to bleach in the dirt, black stone walls rising in jagged, uneven shoulders against the sky. Abandoned for who knew how long.
"Elly. Map it out."
Golden light swept outward from her, and a hologram bloomed into view—terrain lines resolving into walls, courtyards, and the dark, gaping mouths of tunnels burrowing beneath the ruins.
"Master, the iron ore deposits sit to the east-northeast. A possible gold vein lies southwest. Both are accessible through the tunnel network."
She paused. "There also appear to be two high-rank monsters in the immediate vicinity."
Right as she said it, Leo’s own passive detection caught up.
[Ding!]
[Hostile detected. High-rank monster pair approaching from the lower ring.]
"We’ve got company. Get ready," Leo called out.
He drew his sword.
Rook already had his blade in hand, and the others fell into position around him, weapons and skills readying in near-perfect sync.
Two shapes broke from the tunnel mouth, moving fast despite their bulk—broad-shouldered, low-necked, hides the color of old cinder, thick scales running the length of their spines. Small eyes sat sunken into their skulls, unblinking, watching.
Just the two of them. No horde behind them, at least not yet.
Leo and Rook each claimed one. Hugh stepped in from behind, black flame flickering to life in his palm, ready to shift between offense and defense as the fight demanded. Gold light rippled outward as Shen advanced, each step laying down rune circles in overlapping arcs.
[Ding~]
[Seal Warden’s Precision active. +30%.]
The monsters closed the distance without hesitation. Leo met the first one head-on, his blade catching and redirecting the arc of its claws. Rook slipped past him, sword already drawing the second creature’s full attention.
Hugh’s flame came down in a burning arc, landing square in the center of the first monster’s chest—Leo’s opponent—and drove it back several staggering steps.
[Ding!]
[High-rank monster identified: Cinderhide Tunnel-Brute.]
[Level: 35]
Elona joined in from a distance, fire magic raining down in controlled bursts.
She’s really coming into her own as a mage already, Leo thought, impressed despite the chaos.
Caught in the crossfire of five coordinated attackers, neither monster stood much of a chance. They went down fast, almost anticlimactically, given how imposing they’d looked seconds earlier.
The group pushed forward into the tunnel system beyond.
Inside, the compartments were laid out like an old underground survey site—rooms branching off a central passage, some clearly meant for storage, others for shelter, all linked by narrow escape routes worn smooth by time.
"East, then north," Elly guided them as they moved. "Ore deposits lie west. Possible gold mines are straight down the connecting tunnel."
Room after room was packed with lower-tier monsters, clustered thick in some of the deeper compartments.
They cleared it methodically, chamber by chamber. Leo and Rook held the front line, trading blows at close range. Shen’s arrays layered defense and buffs over the group in a steady rhythm, while Hugh split his attention between offense and cover. Elona kept the pressure on from range, throwing everything she had into the fight.
[Ding~]
[Lower ring cleared. Monster cluster eliminated.]
Everyone finally sat down to catch their breath.
Silence settled over the tunnel.
That’s when Leo felt it—a faint tingle at the edge of his senses. Something vast lay beneath the fortress, deep under the stone, moving like a river trapped beneath a frozen field.
He reached out with his foresight, trying to get a clearer read, but the floor gave him nothing. No shape. No detail.
Still, he could feel the weight of it—the mass, the pressure of something ancient that had been sitting there far longer than the fortress itself. He pushed his senses further, trying to probe deeper.
Nothing came back. He pulled his focus away sharply, a dull ache flaring behind his eyes from the strain.
"Master?" Elly’s voice cut in, picking up on the shift in him immediately.
"Something’s under us," Leo said. "I think it’s the mana vein you flagged earlier—it might run right beneath the fortress. But I can’t get a proper read on it. I just know it’s there."
Shen, listening closely, stepped forward and crouched down, sketching out a quick formation array against the stone floor.
"My anchors are drifting," he said, frowning. "Like the ground underneath isn’t fully solid."
Rook’s brow furrowed. "You’re saying there’s lava down there? That sounds like a problem."
Leo shook his head. "I don’t think it’s lava." He looked instead toward the black stone walls, where faint static charges seemed to be gathering, thickening the closer they got to the heart of the fortress. "That’s the actual problem."
Small sparks crackled visibly off the stone, and the air itself had taken on a faint charge, the hair on Leo’s arms prickling from it.
He took a step forward—and a new notification blinked into view, one that left him completely confused.
Even Elly, for once, seemed unable to make sense of it.
[Ding~]
[First Foundation: Status — OPEN.]
[Secure Retainer plus 10 members. Retainer 1/1. Members 3/10. 7 remaining.]
"Elly, what is this supposed to mean? "
She didn’t answer right away. She ran a series of simulations, cross-referencing everything she had access to, and came up empty.
"Master, I can’t connect this to anything in my existing framework either."