“You’ve met Devon, and I suspect you might have guessed this is Mazo, the Blue Mage of our party,” Hans said as Mazo dipped her head respectfully. “I asked them to join us because this is too big of a conversation for me to have alone.”

  “Aye, I understand,” Ewan replied. “We figured you’d have the Paladin here, though. Heard he’s living down here with all of ye.”

  “I’m sorry?” Hans wrinkled his face in confusion.

  “Master Devontes. We heard he’s calling Gomi home, or did we hear wrong?”

  Hans wobbled his head toward Devon. “That’s Master Devontes.”

  Ewan looked between Hans and Devon as if sussing out a hidden joke. “I mean no disrespect, but I pictured ye different. You’ve got the build of a fighter, sure, but I had the idea that Devontes preferred to look more… regal.”

  The dwarf’s eyes went up and down Devon’s faded peasant clothes.

  “I don’t dress up much these days,” Devon explained. “And I’ve got work after this.”

  “...work?”

  “Yeah. Helping a neighbor plow a new field.”

  “You’re farming?”

  Devon nodded.

  Ewan cast a confused glance over his shoulder at his party. “I’ve got too many questions that aren’t about why I’m here. Hard to resist asking them, but aye, it’s an honor to meet the both of ye as well.”

  “We founded the Borderless Association specifically for meetings like this,” Hans said to bring the conversation back to the point. “To be honest with you, though, we didn’t anticipate a partnership this big. Not ever.”

  “I can see how you’d think that.”

  “We want this to happen, and we want to support your people as much as we support our own. The challenge we need to solve is how we vet the folks we give Diamond quests to. We don’t want anyone going in who isn’t prepared, and we don’t want to give the wrong people boons either. As much as I love your country, I won’t be making a trip to your homeland any time soon, if ever again. For this to work, I have to trust you with selecting the right adventurers.”

  “Aye.”

  “I’m open to your thoughts on this,” Hans continued, “but the best path forward I see is you spending some time here in Gomi. I’d like to get to know you as a Guild Master and as an adventurer. I don’t expect our methods to be exactly the same, whether that’s leadership or combat, but we’ll be working together, so there has to be some overlap in how we see things.”

  “We can prove to ye that we’re real hunters.”

  “That’s not-”

  Ewan held up a hand. “That wasn’t a bellyache. I’d have the same concerns were I in your seat.”

  Hans felt tension leave his body. “Excellent. That makes this easier.”

  “How long have you been on the job?” Mazo asked.

  “Hundred years or so.”

  “What are the ‘regular’ jobs in your region? I’d love to hear about the exceptional ones too.”

  The dwarf straightened his beard. “Orcs, goblins, and trolls are always looking for a way in, so we’ve got our share of those jobs just like you lot. Then there’s your typical earth elemental variations. A mining team might disturb a sedimander or a basilisk, but that doesn’t happen too often. We’ve had a hell of a time with minyades recently, though.”

  “Really?” Hans asked.

  “Aye. I wish I was spinning a yarn with that one, but they’ve been popping up all over.”

  A minyade was like the bat version of a harpy. They had the torsos of humanoid females but had the fleshy wings of bats, sharp teeth, twisted faces, and oversized ears used for echo-location. They were good at flying in tunnels and didn’t need light to hunt.

  “Some folks are saying there’s a camazotz somewhere, but no one has seen it.”

  A camazotz was a rare male version of minyade. They were not necessary to the survival of the species as females could reproduce without a male, and there were some suggestions that the females deliberately killed newborn males to maintain their dominance. A camazotz was everything a minyades was but bigger, stronger, and had a knack for dark magic. From what Hans could recall, only two or three had ever been confirmed, which was a blessing.

  “See a lot of underdark problems?” Mazo asked.

  “Not so much these days,” Ewan replied. “We’re hoping the trolls are eradicated completely, but that doesn’t stop the ones outside our kingdom from finding their way to our lands. Still see a few outbreaks of boreworms and the occasional tatzelwurm.”

  A boreworm was a giant underground leech, reaching two feet or so in length when they were fully matured. They had mouths full of teeth and two hind legs that they used to hurl themselves at their prey. A tatzelwurm was a burrowing monster with the head and front legs of a panther and the body of a snake. Hans had never seen one in person, but they were said to grow up to twenty-five feet long.

  “What about the grootslang?” the dwarven Black Mage behind Ewan asked.

  “You saw a grootslang?” Devon asked, mouth slightly agape.

  “Killed it too,” the Black Mage added.

  “Aye,” Ewan confirmed. “We tracked it for a month. I’ll be honest with ye, we got lucky on that one. We shoulda been dead.”

  A grootslang was another snake-type monster, and dwarven legends talked about them the way legends on the surface talked about dragons. Grootslangs were things to be feared and avoided because of their enormous size and immense power. Unlike dragons, grootslangs didn’t have the intelligence for speech or negotiation, but they were skilled predators.

  They had the head and tusks of an elephant and the body of a snake. The grootslang wasn’t venomous, though, and didn’t need to be. With their great speed, they could worm through a cavern faster than most people could run and used their tusks to skewer anything that might attempt to block the way.

  “What happened?” Devon asked.

  “Just a tough battle is all. They’re hard as stone, ye see, so drawing blood isn’t easy.”

  “We were cornered,” the Black Mage said, leaning forward to correct the record. “Ewan told us to run and went to hold it off on his own to give us time. It chomped him up in one bite. He was there, and then snap, he was gone. We’re thinking we’re as good as dead, but the grooty started hissing and throwing its head around. Then it died right there in front of us. Ewan killed it from the inside, put a sword right up into its brain.”

  “Like I said,” Ewan repeated, “we got lucky. If it had kept its head a few inches higher when it snatched me, would have taken all of me except for my feet and my boots.”

  Hans blinked several times. “Wow.”

  “Do you have people in mind for Diamond promotions already?” Mazo asked. She was less prone to getting distracted than Hans and Devon.

  “‘Bout a dozen, counting the six of us here.”

  “How can you tell if they’re ready?”

  “I did my research, Master Mazo.” Ewan crossed his arms. “I know the standards this kingdom uses for Diamonds, and I cannae find fault in them. Those dozen are all men and women who have the skills and the heart for Diamond. Of that, I have no doubt.”

  “Why do you want Diamond?”

  The dwarf raised an eyebrow at that question but answered anyway. “I like killing monsters, and I like when they don’t kill me. A boon would help with that I reckon.”

  “Does your king know you’re here?”

  “Aye.”

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  “What are his interests?”

  “It isn’t military if that’s what you’re driving at,” Ewan replied. “He’s wiser than I’ll ever be, and he knows that giving boons to soldiers would give our allies cause for concern. I don’t know his mind, but he told me his interests are the same as mine. The fewer monsters we got to worry about, the better lives our people can lead.”

  “Would you separate from the Association after you got your boons?”

  “Not if it were my choice. Diamonds live longer but not forever. I’ve got great grandkids who deserve Diamonds protecting them when they’re grown too.”

  “Sounds like your kingdom has a lot of challenges,” Hans observed.

  Ewan shrugged. “The fights in our kingdom aren’t any easier or harder than yours. Difference is, we do it without Diamonds.”

  “It’s feeling like we’re going to change that together,” Hans said, looking to Devon and Mazo for their input. They both nodded their approval. “Here’s what I’d like to do: Pretend you’re average adventurers for the next few weeks, which down here means regular training sessions, some time in the classroom, and culling runs. I know we’re holding the keys for Diamond quests, but I’d like you to check us out as much as we’re checking you out and make your own conclusions about whether or not our Association would truly help your adventurers.”

  “I can see the reason in that plan.”

  “The other part of the process is me and you talking a lot about your work and how the Hunter’s Guild is structured. I’m not keen on running your Guild for you or anything like that, but I do want a better sense of the people you’re representing and what their training is like. Tandis will join us for those talks. She heads up Association operations and is the real reason we function at all. You’re welcome to bring along as many of your party members as you want. I’m not picturing this being a secret meeting if you get my meaning.”

  “I do.”

  “Great,” Hans said. “We have a grappling class starting in about an hour. There’s a training room right across the courtyard.”

  “We’ll be there.” Ewan stood and extended his hand. “I’m already liking how you carry your sword. Ye could have been a right asshole about all of this if you wanted.”

  Hans accepted the handshake. “All I want is for more adventurers to come home.”

  “Aye. That’s exactly what I mean. Ye already feel like a brother in arms.”

  When the guild hall door closed behind the dwarves, Hans and Mazo both looked at Devon to get his report.

  “He spoke the truth,” the Paladin said. “His only lie was that he got lucky with the grootslang.”

  Dwarves had a dramatically different approach to grappling or wrestling than humans or tusks. All of the principles around leverage, balance, and control were the same, but dwarf proportions made them ill-suited for several techniques humans considered standard practice. For example, their arms were too short for rear naked chokes to be practical, a finish where you are behind your opponent with your arm around their neck, grabbing your other biceps for leverage.

  That problem was even more pronounced when they grappled other dwarves because their arms were not only short but their necks were wide.

  And the same trend extended to their legs. One of the most basic positions for a downed human fighting another human was called “guard.” The person on the bottom wrapped their legs around the person on top. It was the most effective position for defending from the bottom and eventually reversing the position.

  Humans crossed their ankles to lock the position in place. Most dwarves couldn’t do that, so they adapted their style to rely on an open guard, requiring a more dynamic style of bracing their feet against an opponent’s hips, chest, and even their biceps.

  However, the same traits that disqualified them from using some techniques made them more adept at others.

  With many throws reliant on undercutting your opponent’s center of gravity, getting low enough to hip toss a dwarf was tough to do. Conversely, it was easier for them. They were good at it, and they were strong. So not only did they throw you through the air, but they tried to throw you through the ground too.

  A traditional rear naked choke might be difficult for a dwarf, but there was an alternative, one of a few dozen chokeholds that worked better with shorter arms. They had less space to close when they squeezed, and good gods could they squeeze. Their anatomy made them far better suited for that kind of strength than humans or tusks.

  Dwarf grips were another pain in the ass. On nearly every occasion Hans grappled a dwarf, he went home with bruises shaped like dwarf hands up and down his arms.

  Lastly, for dwarves raised among dwarves, there was one other style choice that put dwarf anatomy to good use: leglocks. If one of the hairy bastards got control of your leg, you were seconds away from ankle, knee, and hip submissions. The escapes to most of those attacks involved counterattacking your opponent’s legs in order to free yours. Between the stubby lengths of their limbs and the strength of their thighs, out-leglocking a dwarf was a difficult prospect.

  Getting the grip you needed was hard to do, and when you did get the grip, you were caught in a battle where the dwarf had far more practice and experience.

  Before class even started, Hans pulled the visiting dwarves aside and said, “If your game is going after legs, that’s fine. I only ask that you give my people the time to tap instead of gripping and ripping.”

  They grinned and said they could do that.

  That day, Hans taught a footlock that borrowed mechanics from a shoulderlock to bend the ankle to the point of breaking. The way he learned was how he taught it.

  “They call this a footlock, but a good footlock ends up attacking the whole leg,” Hans explained. “So when you get this grip, try to bend their leg so you can stick their own foot up their butt.”

  Which wasn’t literally possible, barring some horrific break, but that description provided an easy-to-follow map for how to torque the ankle to get the finish.

  Hans hadn’t intended for that to be today’s lesson, but he wanted a few excuses to remind all of his adventurers not to be heroes, especially when knees and ankles were at risk. Once you tore up one of those, you never got all of them back when they healed, so put your pride aside and admit defeat. That speech wasn’t always one hundred percent effective, but it prevented most catastrophic injuries.

  When the instruction and drilling portion of class ended, the group began rotating partners for five-minute matches. Before Hans could pair people up for the first round, a very sweaty Ewan, wearing only pants secured with a drawstring, looked at Hans. The dwarf’s body was criss-crossed with all manner of scars.

  “Fancy a roll, Guild Master?”

  “Sure.”

  Trying to keep an eyepatch secured during a grappling match was hopeless, so Hans took his off and set it aside. Ewan looked at the empty socket, which included the vertical scar Hans inherited from his trade with the Merchant.

  “Whose claws got ye?” he asked.

  “It wasn’t a claw.”

  “Well ye didn’t lose that eye to no blade. A bite then?”

  “Not that either.”

  The dwarf wrinkled his face in thought.

  “You won’t guess it.”

  “I disagree.”

  “I will give you unlimited guesses and bet you a keg of beer that you don’t figure it out without someone telling you.”

  Ewan thought. “I’ll take that bet.”

  “Hey, everyone!” Hans shouted to quiet the room and pause any matches. “Nobody tell the dwarves what happened to my eye. I’ve got a bet to win.”

  The room laughed, including Ewan, and the pair returned their attention to training.

  They started the match on their feet and slapped hands as a sign of respect. They circled for a moment, feeling each other out with half-hearted wrist grips and forehead pushes.

  Ewan blasted through a double-leg takedown so quickly that Hans laughed at the slowness of his own reaction. On the way down, he hooked the inside of Ewan’s thigh with one of his feet and used a kick and a twist to sweep, ending the exchange with him on top.

  Right away, Hans spun to a position most people called north-south, which was a chest-to-chest position where the top person’s legs pointed in the exact opposite direction of the person on the bottom. After years of sparring with Boden, Hans had a number of techniques for keeping his legs as far from dwarf grips as possible, and this was one of them.

  He rode out Ewan’s attempts to escape with powerful bridges and strong turns. Hans kept the dwarf’s shoulders on the mat and stayed low. He adjusted position to move backward slightly, catching the underneath of Ewan’s chin with his triceps to expose the dwarf’s neck. Then Hans locked his hands and let all of his weight sink into Ewan’s neck as he squeezed.

  Ewan tapped on Hans’ head to concede.

  The dwarf stood back up with a playful smile on his face to restart the match.

  Hans was happy to see that expression. A lot of upper-ranked adventurers treated a loss in the training room like a stain on their family’s honor. When they popped back up to go again, it was with anger. Ewan, meanwhile, behaved like any other respectful student, which was a very good sign in Hans’ mind.

  They slapped hands and went again.

  Thirty minutes later, class concluded. The dwarves didn’t linger to talk, and that was fine. It wasn’t long before the room was Hans, Terry, and four Apprentices who stayed behind to do extra drills on their own time.

  Terry had been a part of the original class. He did all of the same training as the other adventurers but had to mind his shoulder and adapt his techniques if something irritated the scar tissue. Soaked with his sweat and the sweat of most of the adventurers who had just left, he flopped against the wall next to Hans.

  “Those guys are tough,” Terry said, still slightly out of breath.

  “Mmhmm,” Hans replied as he drank from a waterskin. “I already feel every joint in my body stiffening up. Tomorrow’s going to suck.”

  “I thought you looked more aggressive than usual.”

  “Wanted to feel them out as much as I could.”

  “But you still looked like you weren’t trying all that hard.”

  “I wouldn’t say that.”

  Terry chuckled. “Alright, whatever you say. I know what I saw, though. You manhandled them.”

  Hans shrugged.

  Leaning his head back against the wall for a moment, Terry spoke with his eyes on the training room instead of Hans. “It just occurred to me that I’ve never seen you try your hardest, whether we’re talking wrestling or swords. You were something back in the day, huh?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, I was.”

  Open Quests (Ordered from Old to New):

  Monitor for independently grown sections of dungeon.

  Complete the next volume (Bronze to Silver) for “The Next Generation: A Teaching Methodology for Training Adventurers.”

  Establish a Hoseki-grade library in Gomi.

  Learn to help your advanced students as much as you help beginners.

  Decide how to manage breeding requests for monsters like mimics and shadow scorpions.

  Relocate the titan bones to the dungeon entrance.

  Learn more about the visiting party of dwarves.

  Finalize a process for distributing Diamond quests.