North of the continent lies Kings island. a huge island almost fully covered by a massive city. The biggest city in all of Portuna and  capital the only human kingdom on the continent. The island's city was so big it would take 2 days to reach the castle from the main harbor. The city was divided into zones each assigned a number and a noble to govern it with little any dispute between them. But the shiniest beacons have the darkest shadows. The divide between rich, poor and slave was drastic. commoners who were well off were a rare sight and were vastly more common in the city of St Baalz, Edgehelm, Tradebreak and the city of dagos among others. Those were all on the mainland and were prone to monster attacks. 

However, the island was devoid of the usual forests and caves, it was facing a problem with monsters itself. namely undead. In recent years the western side had lost 4 zones to the undead. one day undead started roaming the graveyard and not even weeks later the gate to that was breached. spilling undead zombies and ghouls into the city. The guards quarantined the affected zones and prevented the undead from spreading but did nothing to reclaim the lost land. This caused the surrounding zones to become slums. people wanted to be far away from the undead in case the guards could not prevent the spread. The main road to the castle was a vast contrast to these problems. as if they didn't exist in the first place. marble, gold and gems were seen all along this road. Inns did business with people traveling throughout the city on business and shops would see a drastic rise in business if a prince or princess from the castle favored their store whilst they traveled to the main harbor. Many people came to this city to try and strike it rich. but commoners had no money to even start a business on the main road. but worse off were any dwarves living here.

“You stupid dwarf! you need to use less materials! if this is the best you can do i wonder if you even are a dwarf.”The blacksmith berating bruce was the owner of the weapon shop in one of the sidestreets of the main road. 

Bruce was a dwarf with long black hair and a complimenting beard. He tried to ignore the remarks because he knew it was a ploy to get him to lose his temper. He's gotten used to this treatment. It was a shock when he arrived here 2 years ago but now he'd seen it quite enough. After several more verbal lashings he stood up and said “you really claim that my work is clumsy? Fine.”

Bruce laid down his tools and walked to the storefront. He approached a customer who just bought a fancy looking sword. “Excuse me, you just bought that sword right?” 

The customer, slightly annoyed that he was approached by a dwarf, said “yes. 3 gold but at least it's a fine sword decorated with the finest diamonds.” 

Bruce nodded and said “yes I remember when the owner made those fake gems when I came for a job , I had noticed most of his own sword handles are held by a rat tail tang and will fail after a few strong swings. it's barely worth 20 copper and can only be used as decoration. had to save material and it's not as if the customer would return if he tried using it as an actual weapon so I hope you're not planning on that.” 

He hurried away from the store as the customer swung the sword to the ground and he could feel the handle break already. Bruce turned around the corner and towards his shack in the slums while the shop was swarmed by a group of customers who also checked their new swords to find Bruce told the truth. Bruce had been rather loud. The metal inside the handles was barely a stick, gems were fakes and wood rot was in several wooden handles.
Bruce knew it was normal in kings island. He'd met decent blacksmiths that did their jobs well and with pride but those rarely made a profit and could not hire help. After a few hours of walking Bruce arrived at his shack and gathered his stuff. “Back to guildwork to get home.”

 He left the shack and approached a nearby house and knocked. An old man opened the door and seeing Bruce with his backpack saddened him. “you're leaving too huh.” 

“Yes, my good friend. this town is just getting too unfriendly for a dwarf.” 

the old man nodded, “I understand. I assume you either have funds for the trip or are you planning on being a guild adventurer?” 

A guild adventurer was usually broke adventurers living in group rooms in the guild. In return the guild would take a cut of their earnings. they could be assigned to unfinished jobs or join other parties to fill the guilds quest requirements. These prevented adventurers from going on missions with too few members or lacking a skill required. For example if the quest was to hunt a certain flying monster they would require an archer or mage to avoid parties of melee oriented groups to end up swinging their sword at the air or even get decimated.

“I was a paladin in brinthorn and on my way to kings island. I still know how to heal and cleanse. that will be useful for the recent undead problem.” 

The old man shook Bruce's hand and said “with you leaving my last tennant will be gone.” 

Bruce was not surprised you could see the barricade holding the undead in the infected zones. “The air is getting unhealthy here. Not just for dwarves. I suggest you move as well.”

Hearing that the old man sighed “I was planning that and wondering how I'd tell you. Some nobles will probably buy my properties for cheap. So I might be able to get a cheap house on the other side of the island if I sell everything at once.”

“I figured as much” said Bruce as he strapped his backpack “well i best get going. I wish you good luck in your future.”

“and I wish you safe adventures,” the man shouted as he waved Bruce goodbye.

Now to the guild. Bruce hoped his old guild badge still worked. He got to a broader street and a cart passed by holding several slaves. Usually  most of these were beastmen but in recent months he'd notice a new type of slave. “it seems they aren't hiding the fact they're enslaving elves anymore.” he mumbled.

***

A few streets away was a young mage. She had been working all morning on her tasks for the mage tower. When she was done  she walked to the old staircase “AMY! ARIEL! get ready to go to miss isabelle!” the mage shouted as she cleared the table of her enchantment tasks from the mage tower and prepared some food. 

It wasn't much but it would be enough to feed her sisters. she would buy an apple on the way. The mage had purple short unkempt hair, a small stature if it wasn't for her cheap robes she'd easily be mistaken for a young noble. The 2 young girls ran down the stairs  and to the table “can you stop treating us like children.” murmured Ariel

Amy excitedly asked “sis will you cook at the table again?”

“Of course I'll cook at the table and if you want to be treated like an adult then pay attention to what Isabelle teaches you.” the mage said, holding out her hand under a pot holding the prepared potatoes. slowly a small flame came up from her hands. After they ate, the sisters left the house. 

Amy immediately approached their neighbors window “miss isabelle! we're back!”

In the window was a woman in her 40s. She looked up from her sewing and smiled “are you going out today again Arce?”

The mage nodded, “I'm going to deliver the usual job for the mage tower then I'll visit the guild to earn some money so we can have some meat for today's dinner.” 

Arce's sisters were rejoicing about  tonight's menu as they entered the house but Isabelle looked sad “adventuring is such a dangerous job. can't you just take some extra work at the mage tower?”

Arce shook her head. “Aside from undead hunting there's not enough work to go around. too many people have become mages in recent years.”

“there should be something safer to do.”

“It's not just to earn money. If I can help resolve this undead situation I might prevent what happened to dad from happening to anyone else.”

“Oh my, I forgot, has it been 3 years already?”

Arce cut the conversation short “I should get going. Amy! Ariel! be good while i'm away.”

“safe adventures!” Isabelle and the 2 siblings shouted after Arce as she ran towards the main street. 

While she passed some food stalls she bought a cheap apple. When she reached the main road it was very crowded. As she crossed the crowded street she passed a slave cart. The wolfmen and women were severely starved.  the purple chain on their neck enforcing their enslavement. She could see the necklaces with the master stones on the arm of the cart's owner. She continued on her way. there was nothing she could do for them. It wasn’t very normal on kings island to help them anyway and she had her own problems to worry about. She approached a massive tower reaching 8 stories high. The mage tower was conveniently located close to the guild house. 

As she delivered her tasks the receptionist handed her a new package saying “we'll need these gems enchanted by next week.”

“Can you hold them till later? I plan to take a quest in the guild. I'll pick them up when I get back.”

“very well.” the secretary returned the package to the closet behind her. “safe adventures then miss arce.”

After thanking the secretary she made her way to the building at the end of the street. entering the guild reception she checked the guild board for a good quest. as usual undead extermination was there and she took the note off and headed to the front desk. “Are there any open parties for this quest?”

“There's a party of 3 guild adventurers getting ready for that. you can apply with them for it. though it'll only give you 1/5th of the reward.” that still left her a gold coin. enough for today’s dinner. 

“mind if i join that party before i register as a guild adventurer?” said Bruce who had arrived at the guild house.

The secretary politely nodded. “as long as the young miss here is ok with it you can join the party as a regular adventurer and receive your full cut of the reward.”

Arce allowed it and they met up with the party. There was a swordsman, an archer and a priestess. The church usually helped out the guild with the undead and would send a volunteer to assist groups who could not find anyone using light magic. The group was finalizing the paperwork for their quest as someone looked on from a seat in the nearby guild bar. “Well, let's see how she does today.”

After Bruce left his backpack with the guild they left for the quarantine zones. The task was to defeat 20 undead and bring their core to the guild. Everyone and everything in this world had a core. It was a crystal that was very valuable and varied in color depending on who or what it came from and how strong the person was. if a magic stone like the guild badges was held up near your chest where your core was it could even store your information. name, class and other details. the guild was able to even add notes to it. and finally it also contained the person's mana. undead had a corrupted mana core which could be cleansed if tended to early on but once several hours had passed there was nothing that could be done. The party had it easy upon entering the quarantine zone since the undead tended to be shot by the guards on the barricade. There were several corpses containing arrows. they were allowed to take a few if most of them were given to the guards. 

After they left with their share deeper into the zone bruce spoke to Arce “you're lucky you can still be a regular adventurer. i'm not looking forward to months of this.” as he gestured to the swordsman and archer. 

“why not stay a regular adventurer? Debts?” 

“luckily I don't have it that bad yet. I couldn't afford the shack I was living in anymore and the guild provides rooms.” 

Arce nodded, “I guess owning my own house is cheaper.” 

“Not quite these days. my old landlord told me today he was already planning to sell all his houses once i left.” 

a bit later they found a group of undead. just some brainless zombies. The archer took out one of the undead with a well placed arrow as the swordsman and bruce rushed in to attack the remaining ones. arce used a spell to slowly make icewalls on the side alleys to prevent any unwanted surprises. The party took care of 5 zombies and arce would melt an ice wall once the party was ready, letting any undead that was attracted by the noise in then blocking it up again after a bit. Bruce and the priestess could heal small wounds and prevent anyone from getting corrupted. 

“Hey there's a big one at the end of the street” the archer shouted.

Bruce finished off a zombie and looked.what he saw was a bloated figure, holding several pieces from other unfortunate victims on him. its belly had an opening holding parts it had gathered and was leaking a pungent smelling fluid. 

“it’s an abomination” shouted the swordsman.