The Guild

[If this "enchanting" is so similar to my home, then why have people not advanced? I have seen nothing that would indicate power usage of any kind. Really, why wouldn't there be electricity at least? Surely someone would have come here that has experienced the luxury of toilet paper and electricity.]

Chris kept rambling away, just thinking about how the new "hobby" might work. It is important to get acquainted with your new home.

Not too long after that is when Sarah came to get Chris, she had something planned.

As she walked down the Inn hallway, she noticed him standing in a corner, just looking into blank space.

She shouted, "KID, come on." and waved him over.

Chris followed and found that she was going back into the streets of the city. They were heading out for a stroll.

The stone of the ground was much firmer when compared to the loose dirt of the forest. The buildings often had stone foundations with wooden struts, providing a nice contrast to his sight. Other buildings were so large that they had multiple forges that were constantly manned.

Sarah pointed to her right and there was a small building tucked away between two behemoths. It had the words "Adventurer's Guild" written on the top sign. Next to the door were the posted ranks of quest. A light-blue placard was hanging with the symbol "<E" inscribed on it and another dark-blue "E" placard was hanging above it.

Sarah nudged him. "Alright kid, there is your "guild" that you were looking for. Do you want to get a class and register today?"

Chris' eyes bulged, "YES, WHO DOESN'T WANT MAGIC?????"

He began to get a little too excited for the disappointment that is class selection, she needed to bring him back in.

"KID! Kid…calm down a little. You might not be able to get anything worthwhile. You can check but I do not recommend choosing."

Chris looked understanding and nodded, but asked, "Why wouldn't I get anything today?"

"Because, most people spend their lives training at least in a single subject so we are deemed worthy to practice it. You have your…unique circumstances but that means it will be even worse." Said Sarah as she was looking around.

Chris was thinking back to his "uniqueness" and was considering what she meant. To him, it was seemingly useless to go a full-healing sort of class. He shook his head and stopped her.

"Sarah, I need to know what class to go for. Surely there have to be tons, right?"

She nodded and said, "There are new classes being discovered, but the class does not make the fighter. Most ROLES have abilities that are unique to them. I think you would benefit from a Shielding and Healing class…"

She looked from side to side and pulled him behind an alley way.

"I have a theory about your third "thing."

Chris was confused, that "trait" had caused him to have a bad time for a while. It couldn't have been any good, right?

Sarah looked at Chris in the eyes, she was serious as she said, "I think you might have something that no Hero has ever had. Every Hero that comes here is welcomed and received by the Churches of the world. You woke up in an old forest, that makes you DIFFERENT, but also, there is a "feeling" that I get." Sarah was looking for the words when Chris asked, "It probably wouldn't be very good to reveal myself as a Hero…do you think the Church would attack me?"

She shook her head, "The Church would only bring you in to show you the ways of God." And continued thinking about putting the analogy into words.

[Well, that sounds like a perfectly reasonable thing to do. Just indoctrinate your Heroes so they will only listen to you.] Chris' body shook with the chill that ran down his spine.

Sarah had a look of epiphany on her face. "When we first met, I thought you were a monster, but then I realized that you might be broken. You had a "Lost-One's" look to you and it made my instincts flare up. But now, I think it is going to be very useful. After you were able to make us Allies, I think I have a theory on how it works, but we will need to test it to find out!"

She was done talking and was smiling but Chris was confused, "What is a Lost-One?" to which she explained, "Right…it is when someone has lost their essence and becomes a murderous and uncaring being."

He nodded his head, "That would be a psychopath, or a person in psychosis. But here it might be pretty literal, huh?"

Her head turned and he explained, "So, people can "go crazy" but not actually BE crazy. It is called temporary psychosis and it results in a lot of people dying. Drugs like Bath-salts and tons of other things will cause it. The other one is called psychopathy and it is pretty rare, out of a hundred people, one MIGHT have it. You brain is not able to completely form "reality" and it results in people doing very awful things."

She nodded her head, that sounded close to what she had thought about, but the words were so different. [What would that even be in elvish?]

She looked at him, "How do you know this?"

"I told you that I was going to become a doctor!" and she laughed.

"Child, Doctors are not worth much here. Healing magic is more than enough to do the job." She laughed and started to walk back into the street.

"WAIT! Why do you think that?" and she thought about it.

"It is because the Church preaches that the light of the Gods is able to heal wounds that mortals are not able to. Can "medicine" cure anything?"

He looked at her with a dumbfound and absolutely flummoxed expression, "YES, yes it can! Holy, okay, THAT is going on the "To-Do" list. Right under toilet paper…"

Sarah just nodded. She had never seen him take much of a stand for anything, but apparently, he had passion.

She was happy that he found his passion, it would help him survive longer than a few months.

As Sarah was fully walking out, Chris decided to jog up and accompany her. They were about to enter the "small but cozy" building and see what they had for the day.

The large door creaked as the pair walked in. Sarah was immediately recognized by the gnome running the place.

"Ah, Saradrina! It has been AGES, how have you been?"

Sarah smiled and headed over to talk the lady as she pointed to a board for Chris. "Go take a look at your profession!" She winked.

Chris nodded but kept thinking about that name, [Saradrina? Good name…]

He wandered on over to see the sheets of paper filling this barely active place.

[Let's see…] he looked at a paper near the top that read, "WANTED: Bandit Troupe Reward: 40 Gold Pieces." Then it had a "see desk for details" tab. [Why not just put it directly on the board?] Chris shook his head and kept looking but the others were even worse. They just involved getting ingredients?! [What the hell? Ah, here we go.] The paper read, "Earth-Bear Pelt: x4 Reward: 15 Gold Pieces."

Chris was losing his mind. Why did it seem like all of the quests were either difficult OR easy? Hunting a Bear was possible, spear hunting had been used with tree stands for a long time. You place a "fuckload" of bait in the form of doughnuts and random garbage on the ground, get in a tree, and then LOB a spear at an unsuspecting bear. It was pretty brutal but cool on the discovery channel...

[Where are the super easy ones? Slimes? Big rats? Oh man…]

He kept reading but found that the tasks were just oddly splinting down the middle of difficulty and pay. After giving up, he walked over to Sarah who was talking with the short..er lady.

"Kid, say hello to your first Guildmaster." Said Sarah as she nudged him with her elbow.

"Ah, hello! Um, I noticed that the "Quest Board" was a little light on beginner quests, is there a reason?"

The little lady looked surprised, "My, my, what an observant lad." She chuckled and kept going, "Well, we used to have a large number of new adventurers, but another town has taken over. We keep those as they are private orders, but we do have beginners' quests available, for members." She giggled and pulled out a piece of paper and put her monocle on. "We have a perfect quest! Would you like to kill Rats in the sewers or Slimes?"

Sarah and Bethany began to laugh at Chris, but he was genuinely excited.