Lukas led the way down.

The lift arrived quickly, and they rode it to the ground floor in silence, everyone with various degrees of anticipation for their new adventure.

Soon, they were on the ground floor. As they made their way across the lobby, Lukas saw the receptionist, greeting the man with a lazy salute.

The man smiled, giving Lukas a nod.

They stepped out of the building, and the first thing they saw was the car parked directly outside.

It was painted a light blue, and had the broad body of an SUV, but the design was undoubtedly vintage.

Unlike the modern SUVs Lukas was familiar with back on earth, this car had more rounded edges and chrome finishing. It sat quietly on the pavement, looking well kept.

Karrakas walked to the driver’s side. "We’re taking my car."

"This is your car?" Melody asked, impressed.

Karrakas simply smiled widely, taking the driver’s seat. He was clearly proud of his car.

Lukas took the front passenger seat, while Melody and Akira climbed into the back.

Karrakas started the car. It pulled away from the curb smoothly, merging into the morning traffic without effort.

Melody leaned forward slightly from the back seat. "How much did you pay for this car?"

"Twenty million," Karrakas said, checking the road ahead as he changed lanes.

Akira let out a long whistle. "Being a guide pays that well?"

"Being a guide pays reasonably," Karrakas said. "Being employed by the Le Fay family pays well."

He glanced in the rearview mirror. "There’s a difference."

"Fair enough," Akira said.

Melody sat back, looking out the window at the city passing by. Then something crossed her face and she straightened again.

"Wait," she said. "The missions. We get paid for those too, don’t we? Once a month, the Le Fay family sends a mission through you, and we get paid for completing it."

"That’s correct," Karrakas said.

Melody turned to Akira. "I completely forgot about that."

"So did I," Akira admitted.

Melody looked back at Karrakas. "What kind of pay are we looking at? Per mission?"

Karrakas tilted his head slightly. "I can’t give you a fixed number. The pay changes depending on the mission. They’ll take into account the difficulty, the risk, and what’s being asked of you."

He kept his eyes on the road. "What I can tell you is that the Le Fay family doesn’t underpay their contractors. Across the board, they pay better than the guilds." He paused. "Significantly better, in most cases."

"Really?" Lukas asked. "How do guilds usually handle pay?"

"Guilds don’t pay in the way you might expect. Beyond the signing fee you receive when you join, there’s no monthly income for regular members."

"What they offer instead is structure. The main allure of joining a guild is usually gaining reliable teammates, which are people you can trust to have your back in a dungeon."

"There’s also the promise of resources to help you advance faster than you would alone. And when you bring in loot, they buy it at rates that are usually better than what you’d get selling independently."

"So only the people at the top see actual money," Akira said.

"Executives get a monthly fee, yes. Everyone below that works for the benefits rather than a wage."

"The Le Fay family operates differently. Every person directly employed by them receives a monthly fee regardless of the workload. Contractors like yourselves are paid per mission. The structure rewards output, but it also ensures no one goes without."

Lukas nodded, processing that. Then he remembered the billboard outside the Faustian Bank branch.

"The Infinity Guild," he said. "What do you know about them?"

Karrakas frowned at the question, his eyes narrowing. "They’re one of the top three guilds in Salaria. They’ve held that position for years and they don’t look like giving it up."

He paused. "The Sacred Trinity are their headline. Three young Adepts that the guild has been building up as their next generation. The elf, the human, and the tiefling."

"They’re promoting them as homegrown talents to show the people that they’re capable of building people from nothing to become powerhouses."

"What helps is that they’re already A-rank, which puts them well ahead of most Adepts their age. Word is they’ve already been given executive positions within the guild." He tapped the wheel once. "Whether that’s true or just something the guild wants people to believe, I can’t say for certain."

The car slowed.

Karrakas turned into a wide parking lot and brought the car to a stop. He cut the engine and looked ahead through the windscreen.

"We’re here."

They climbed out of the car and Karrakas moved without stopping, leading them across the parking lot towards a plain door set into the side of the building.

He pressed his ID to the keypad beside it. There was a beep and the door slid open.

He walked through and they followed.

Inside, he led them up several staircases, each one identical. There were no decorations, or any signs beyond directional arrows, but the route was easy to memorize, unlike the Lotus hall.

They arrived at a checkpoint.

A barrier blocked the way, with a keypad on either side. A guard stood behind a glass partition, watching.

Karrakas pressed his ID first and stepped through as the barrier dropped, then rose again behind him.

Lukas went next, then Melody, and finally Akira. Each one pressing their ID to the pad, waiting for the drop before stepping through.

The guard watched all four of them pass without a word.

Beyond the checkpoint, the corridor opened into a large hall.

The spatial gate stood in the center of the room. Adepts moved through it in both directions, some arriving, some departing.

Karrakas walked straight to it and stepped through.

Lukas followed.

The shimmer passed over him, cold for half a second, and then it was gone.

A notification appeared in front of him.

[Welcome to the Second Floor]

He dismissed it.

The hall on the other side was similar to the one they had just left.

Karrakas was already moving towards the exit, weaving between the Adepts coming and going. They stayed close behind him, following him out the door.

The first thing that hit them was the heat. It felt almost scalding across bare skin, the light of the sun almost overwhelming their vision.

The sun sat high in the sky, but Lukas could swear it was somehow closer than usual.

He blinked, and the moment his vision adjusted, he saw the city sprawling out in front of him.