The Guild's Village Idiot is Actually the Strongest.

The Whispering Quarry

The main Guild Hall Quest Board was a monument to martial prowess. Parchments shouted of goblin culls, dungeon delves, and caravan escorts through monster-infested passes. The rewards were in gold, glory, and powerful enchanted items. Silas's new posting was tacked unceremoniously in a bottom corner, a stark contrast.

< CITY COUNCIL CONTRACT: URGENT >

Location: Old Granite Quarry, North-East District.

Problem: Recurring, disruptive "earth whispers" causing headaches, tool malfunctions, and minor collapses. Suspected low-level geomancy or haunt. Previous investigation (Branch B, Diviner) inconclusive.

Required: Identification and neutralization of anomaly.

Reward: 15 Silver Crowns, 50 GMP.

Special Note: Assigned to Branch C Agent Silas by request of Guildmaster Torvin.

It was a test. A step up from gnomes and soap-eels into the realm of actual, if minor, supernatural phenomena. And Torvin had personally placed his name on it.

The Old Granite Quarry was a scar on the city's outskirts, a deep, stepped pit of sheer grey walls. Work had ceased years ago after a collapse. Now, it was a misty, echo-filled basin. As Silas descended the main ramp, he felt it—a low, sub-audible hum that vibrated in his teeth, not his ears. His [Eyes of the Root Cause] flared, not showing him a thing, but a pattern. The hum pulsed in a slow, rhythmic cadence, synchronized with the faint drip of groundwater.

He found the foreman's shack. The man inside, Garrat, was haggard. "It's the stone," he whispered, paranoid. "It's learning. The picks go dull in minutes. The ropes fray. Men hear their names called from empty shafts. It's not safe!"

Silas spent the day mapping the "whispers." Using [Practical Theorist], he fashioned a simple pendulum from a lodestone chip and string. At certain points in the quarry, especially near deep, water-filled fissures, the pendulum would swing erratically without being touched. The [Catalyst's Touch] ability tingled. There was a resonant system here: water flow, specific mineral deposits (iron veins), and the quarry's precise geometry were creating a natural, infrasonic amplifier. The "whispers" were pressure waves, the "tool malfunctions" likely caused by sympathetic vibration weakening metal at a molecular level.

It wasn't a ghost. It was an accidental, geological echo chamber. But knowing that didn't stop it. He needed to break the resonance.

< IMPOSSIBLE CHALLENGE #010 >

Objective: Silence the "earth whispers" of the quarry without excavation, magic suppression, or sealing the water sources.

Reward: Title - [Harmonic Negotiator].

Hint: You cannot stop a song by shouting. Change the key.

Change the key. He needed to alter the quarry's natural frequency. Not with force, but with a subtle, introduced dissonance. He requested from the city: twelve large, bronze temple bells, the kind used for festivals. They were considered useless for this—too small to be heard over the "whispers."

But Silas didn't want to hear them. He had them suspended on long ropes at precise points his pendulum had identified as resonance nodes, deep in the quarry's belly. He then tuned each bell by carefully filing its rim, adjusting its fundamental pitch based on nothing but his growing intuitive feel for systemic flaws.

It took two days of meticulous, strange work. The quarrymen thought him utterly mad, hanging silent bells in a haunted pit. On the third dawn, as the groundwater flow was at its peak and the hum at its strongest, Silas gave the order.

All twelve bells were struck simultaneously with iron mallets.

BOOONG-OOM-OOM-ONG…

A deep, complex, and profoundly discordant bronze chord erupted through the quarry. It didn't fight the infrasonic hum; it interacted with it. The sound waves, precisely pitched, interfered with the natural resonance patterns. For a moment, the very air seemed to warp, the hum spiking in protest. Then, a sound like a vast, deep crack—not of stone, but of pressure—echoed through the basin.

And silence fell.

Not just an absence of hum, but a profound, total quiet. The dripping water sounded clear and isolated. The tension that had gripped the quarry vanished. The pendulum, when tested, hung perfectly still.

Garrat emerged from his shack, tears in his eyes. "The stone… it's sleeping."

The City Council was astounded. The report, when filed, was a masterpiece of technical obfuscation. Silas described "harmonic counter-resonance therapy" and "geological pacification." The Diviners from Branch B who reviewed it were baffled but could not deny the result. The quarry was safe for salvage operations to resume.

< CHALLENGE #010: COMPLETE. >

< TITLE GRANTED: [Harmonic Negotiator]. >

< Effect: You gain a minor intuitive understanding of resonant systems (sonic, magical, social). You can sometimes identify the precise "note" to disrupt them. >

The reward of 15 silver crowns was more money than Silas had ever held. The 50 GMP shot him up the Branch C internal rankings. He was no longer the new curiosity. He was becoming a specialist.

His success, however, was a beacon. As he left the Guild Hall after receiving his payment, he felt a familiar, hostile gaze. Leaning against a pillar in the main atrium, surrounded by a few of his Branch A acolytes, was Sir Alaric. The Stormcaller's expression was no longer one of pure contempt. It was colder, more calculating. He saw Silas not as a joke, but as an anomaly that had slipped through the cracks and was now… prospering.

Alaric didn't speak. He simply pushed off the pillar and walked away, his followers casting dark looks behind them. The message was clear: Silas was on his radar. Not as a victim, but as a problem.

The system, ever ready, illuminated the next phase of their conflict.

< IMPOSSIBLE CHALLENGE #011 >

Objective: Successfully complete a joint mission with a higher-ranked Branch (A or B) without being dismissed or causing mission failure.

Success: Unlocks [Cross-Branch Collaboration] permissions. Raises Guild standing.

Failure: Reinforces Branch C stigma. Locks you out of high-reward contracts.

Note: A test of integration. Or a setup for a fall.

Silas pocketed his coins, the weight of them a comfort and a burden. He was climbing, but the ladder was slick with prejudice, and someone at the top was waiting to shake him off.