"Um... it's a mushroom, and it's magical?" Tyro tried.
Phillipe chuckled. "Examine it closely."
Tyro squinted at the [Blackbottle Night Watcher] as if it owed him money, but after a while he lowered it and shook his head. "I could describe it, but I don't see anything special about it."
"Does your threat-warning skill activate on seeing it?" he asked.
Phillipe grinned. "A good delver ought to have a skill that warns them of threats. [Danger Sense], [Premonition], [Threat Sight] or an equivalent skill. If Tyro's skill isn't activating now, that means that the mushroom isn't a threat, or at least, it's not actively harmful."
I nodded along. "Sounds like a useful sort of skill to have."
"It's absolutely necessary. Though the younger generation will often forgo it. They'll have one member of every team whose entire job is to sniff out traps and trouble, and instead they'll use those free slots for other skills. It's not the wrong thing to do, mind you, but I always found that it was a poor trade to make."
"So, this is safe then?" Tyro asked. "Why all the paranoia, then?"
"Because you didn't know that it was safe yet," Phillipe said. "Don't assume in the dungeon, that's the quickest way to end up dead. Now... ah, I bet that's Cavendish's team."
I followed his gaze to the entrance of the room we were in. My eyesight hadn't started adjusting to the darkness yet, but I still squinted as a team walked into the room carrying little lamps fixed to their fronts or hanging from their hips. Their entrance almost lit up the cave as if it was day.
At the head of the group was a little man in nice armour. Plate over clean clothes, with a brown-green sash going from shoulder to hip. The others had bands around their arms of the same colour, marking them as a single team.
The leader gestured to the side when he saw that the bridge in the centre of the room wasn't laid out yet and then shifted to the side to wait. Then he saw us, paused, said something to one of his men, and walked over. "Phillipe," he said.
"Jack," Mister Greene said. "Didn't expect to see you here today. Saw you had the third floor today?"
Yeah," the man said. His eyes narrowed. "No band today. You working a special job?"
Phillipe nodded and smacked Tyro on the back. "This is my son, Tyro. He's a good lad, taking after me in all the best ways. Going to be showing him around later."
"Huh, good show," Jack said. "Which floor are you heading to?"
"Lower than you. We were waiting for someone to clear the path."
The man rubbed at his jaw. "Your son looking to learn how to work with a team?"
Phillipe's laughter filled the cavern. "Don't be too clever, Cavendish, it doesn't suit you."
Jack grinned back. "Got to try. But really, wouldn't mind a hand. We're trying to beat Reece's team to the third floor today."
"Ah," Phillipe said with a knowing nod. "Explains why you're up so early. Going to be forcing your way through the second floor?"
Cavendish nodded. "That's right. Going a round-about route. Don't want to make it easy for Reece. But you know how he is. Probably isn't even awake yet."
"Sorry," Tyro said, interrupting the two. "But what are you doing?"
Phillipe sniffed. "The guild tries to keep the back-biting to a minimum, but when two clients want to exploit the same area, the first to come and clear it gets to make their client happy. Cavendish here wants to beat Reece to the same spot."
"Won't that Reece guy be annoyed?" I asked.
"Oh, he will," Cavendish said with a mean smile. "But he nabbed that arboretum on the second floor before my team about a month ago. Had to bend over backwards for my client not to blackmark us."
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"Will Reece respect it if you arrive first?" I asked.
"He damned well better," Cavendish said. He eyed me up and down. "Phillipe, who's this one?"
Phillipe shrugged. "Friend of the family."
"Ah, alright. Anyway, we wouldn't say no to two more pairs of hands," Cavendish said.
Phillipe nodded, his smile still in place. "Let me talk to my son about it, we'll probably be saying yes though."
"Fair's fair," Cavendish said. He nodded, then clanged his way back over to his team. The four of them welcomed him back, but I didn't pay them too much attention and instead turned back to Phillipe as soon as Cavendish was out of hearing range. The bridge, I noted, was almost complete.
"It comes down to what you want," he said to me. "But I'd accept. It won't save us any time, but Cavendish is fair. Might be worth it down the line."
"If we don't go with him, we'll just be following behind him, won't we?" I asked.
He nodded. "Keep in mind, Cavendish doesn't want to be followed. He'll be leaving some dungeon monsters alone and some traps unsprung. If we're going after him, we'll need to deal with those."
"That... seems kind of unkind of him," I said.
"It's business," Phillipe said without further explanation.
I supposed that it was, at that. "I say we work with him, then. It'll make the trip to the third floor a little safer."
"Good choice," Phillipe said. He reached over and patted me on the head.
I... wasn't sure what to feel about that. I blinked fast, then focused on the bridge. "We can cross," I pointed out.
"Cavendish!" Phillipe called out. "Lead the way for a bit, we'll be right on your heels. Need to teach the boy about handling himself in a group."
"Alright," Cavendish said. "But if you're not with us by the third room, we're leaving you behind."
Phillip nodded and waved Cavendish on. The man crossed the bridge second only to a worker who bounced along atop it to test the planks and their fittings.
"Why aren't we following him right away?" Tyro asked.
"Because I have a question or two," Phillipe said. Then he turned the brunt of his attention onto me and I almost flinched back but managed to hold my ground. "How honest do you want us to be?" he asked.
"With regards to what, exactly?" I asked.
"Your capabilities, and our destination." Official source ıs 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩⚫𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢⚫𝔫𝔢𝔱
I considered it for a moment. It was a fair question, one he didn't need to ask at all. I didn't owe him that. "Keep my capabilities to yourself unless it's urgent. Our destination... is it suspicious?"
"It's not common," Phillipe said. "But you'll see someone going down to the very bottom once or twice a month. It's a point of pride for a delver to have gone all the way, and it's good for the experience and skills too. "
"Would anyone believe that that's inwhat I want?" I asked.
He frowned. "Not if they take a look at you. But on paper, certainly."
"Well then, we probably won't be encountering many people deeper in, so we should be fine, right?"
He nodded. "I suppose so. That's all I wanted to know for now." He grinned, big and boisterous, almost. "Ready to tackle the dungeon then?"
"Yes, sir," Tyro said.
"As I'll ever be," I replied.
Phillipe led us across the bridge, then into the very first room of the dungeon where Cavendish was waiting with his arms crossed. "About time," he said. "If Reece discovers that I'm trying to pull a quick one on him, he'll be properly annoyed. Come on, your boy and the kid can take mid-guard with me. Ah, right, what're your names?"
"I'm Tyro, sir," Tyro said.
"And I'm... call me Ginger," I said with a cheeky grin.
"That'll be easy to remember," one of Cavendish's teammates said with a glance to my hair.
"That's the idea," I replied.
Cavendish pointed to his team. "George, William, Grace, and Nathan. Our trap-checker, ranger, striker, and vanguard respectively. I can switch with Grace and Nathan as it requires."
"And I know a spell or two," Nathan said with a wink.
The entire team were all equipped in armour, most of it thick, padded cloth, but a few had some proper plate on top of that, or chainmail, and judging from the packs they carried, they all had a fair bit of extra gear besides their weapons.
I was feeling woefully unprepared compared to them. Hopefully that feeling was only a feeling.