1 Welcome Party

"What the hell is going on?!" An angry voice cried out, there were more cries of the same coming from the thirty-something people that had suddenly appeared in the dimly lit room. I was thinking the same things as I had just been saying goodbye to my mom in the hospital, I blinked, and suddenly I was here. I could feel the wooden bench underneath me, and I could see the old-timey looking wooden table in front of me. The murmurs of confusion continued for a couple of minutes before we heard a different voice cry out.

"Excuse me, travelers!" A sing-song male voice rang out above all the others. "If you have quite finished, we have a lot to cover before you leave here." The entire room went dead silent as we looked at the owner of the voice. It was a man maybe mid 30's with long blonde hair; he had one of those earings that connected to another piercing in his nose by a small golden chain and wore a fur coat open to reveal a crop top white shirt. He stood behind a bar that no one had seemed to have noticed up until this point.

"Who are you?" Came the same angry voice as before it belonged to a big muscled man who didn't seem like the friendly type anyway.

"I-" continued the man in the coat. "Am just the welcome party. So welcome, do you want me to explain why you're here or do you want to continue shouting at me?" This sentence seemed to shut the man up as he was probably just confused and scared like the rest of us, and the thought of an explanation seemed to calm down the entire room. "You are what our world likes to call travelers." The man paused and scanned over the place as if to make sure that we were all paying attention. "Travelers-" He went on with his explanation. "Are people that just so happened to slip through there world into ours, seemingly randomly." A few people timidly raised their hands to ask questions.

"Please hold your questions until I finish!" The people slowly put their hands down. "Now this lovely tavern you find yourself sitting in is a hot spot for your kind, you show up in here sitting in my seats, and I suddenly find myself with more customers. However, you never have any money that I can use; it's always some paper nonsense which isn't worth anything here." He pauses a moment to let some of the information sinks into our minds.

"Now that means that you need jobs, and the best jobs out there for making money are of the adventuring type. The government here gives me a list of adventuring jobs that are available to you, and you can find that list on that table over there." He lazily pointed over to a table in the far corner of the room. "Once you decide on a job, if there are openings to be trained as the job of your choice, you will receive a level 1 tag. You can upgrade these tags over time with hard work, a little luck, and a hell of a lot of money." He smiled at us with that, the thought of more money made him very happy.

"If you pick a job and there are no more positions available for it, then it will disappear from the list. You must; I repeat you must choose a job; otherwise, you will starve and die, as there are very few people who will help you in this world out of the kindness of their heart." The answer to this was a few murmurs from the crowd some angry, some scared.

"Now, before you ask your questions, I will answer some of them that I know that you plan on asking. No, I do not know how you can get back to your world; no one does; however, you are free to look for a way on your own, although I've never heard of a traveler getting back to their world. I also can't tell you what job is best or most lucrative, seeing as you will all try to vie for that job, and we need to spread you around a little." Those were pretty much the only questions that the room had. Those of us who were desperately wanting to go home had our hopes dashed very quickly, and the ones that were looking to get a leg up in this world by picking a good job were pretty dissapointed as well.

"Now, if you would all single file up to the list and pick your jobs, you can start picking up and starting your new lives in this world." Some of the people in the room stood up and headed over to the list. Others sat in their seats, either crying or looking blankly at the walls. It was as if they were staring into a void, wondering how they were going to survive in this new world, and when they might see their families again. I was one of those people in stunned silence.

'There's no way this is true.' I thought. 'How can someone just fall into another world?' It just wasn't possible; people do not travel to other worlds. Unless that is, you can afford a rocket ship, and even then, it wasn't possible to live there with the technology available to us today. But here I was, sitting in an unfamiliar tavern surrounded by people I don't know, and a flamboyantly dressed bar keeper staring at me with a condescending smile.

I stayed like that for a matter of minutes just going over all of the information I had received when I noticed that the other seats around me were all slowly emptying, I wound up being the last person still seated before I knew it.

"You're a little slow, aren't you?" The barkeeper smiled at me. "But that's ok I like them a little dense." He winked flirtatiously at me and tossed his head back with laughter. I turned a deep red before getting up out of my seat and making my way towards the table with the job list on it. There were still a couple of people ahead of me, which I was grateful for because that meant I could see what the process was like to choose a job. A small girl with purple hair walked up to the list and looked over it for about thirty seconds before groaning.

"Paladin." She said just loudly enough for the line to hear her choice. There was a small flicker of light as the job disappeared from the list, and a little bronze tag with a chain connected to it appeared in her hand. She put it around her neck and quietly left the building. It was strange just a few minutes ago most of the people in front of me were crying or too shocked to move, but now it seemed like everyone adjusted to the information and started doing what they needed to do. I wondered if that might be a prerequisite for being a traveler having the ability to compartmentalize. A few more people had moved up in line, picked their job, and left the building.

There was now only one more person in front of me. He was a tall skinny guy who looked like he was just a few years younger than me. He came up and sighed at the available choices.

"Cleric, I guess." He said, exasperatedly said. The same light appeared, and he received the same level one tag that everyone else had, then he left without looking back or acknowledging my existence. I stepped up to the list and looked at it. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw the little black letters there on the page.

"Oof, shoulda moved quicker!" The barkeeper had snuck up behind me, and now he was chuckling to himself. On the paper, there was a single word 'Alchemist.' I'd heard of alchemists back in my world a little bit, but I didn't know much about it. In my world, they weren't real; they were just a made-up magical job, like a wizard or witch. I had never really been into the fantasy world type of stuff, so I was confused at what a job like that would entail. It was the only job available though, so I had to pick it.

"A-alchemist." I choked out the word, and sure enough, the light shone from the letters on the page, and in my palm appeared my tag I turned to look at the bartender, and he pointed towards the door telling me silently that it was time to get out of his establishment. I did as instructed, pushing the heavy wooden door open and stepping out into the light of day.

I took a look around, and it was made abundantly clear that I was in some fantasy world. Most of the buildings were made of stone with wooden doors and lamp lights hanging outside. The street that I was standing on was made of cobblestone; people were walking down the street in all manner of strange clothing. Some were wearing robes and carrying staffs, and others were in leather gear or full sets of armor. There were also carriages being pulled by what I could only describe as reptilian looking cats.

I stood there with my mouth hanging open for a good minute before I moved. I walked down the side of the street. I had no clue where I was going, so I stopped the nearest person to ask where I would go for alchemy training. Unfortunately, they had no idea; it took me an hour to find someone that even knew that there was an alchemist nearby. The stranger gave me directions out of the city because the facility I was looking for was about five miles outside of the gate just down the main road. They recommended me to find a porter to take me, but unfortunately, I hadn't made any money just yet, so that was out.

Another three hours later and I was walking up a dirt path to what looked like a dilapidated old cottage. It had what looked like dead plants all over the front yard, and there was a damaged fence around it. I sighed because, unfortunately, it was looking like my job of "choice" was not going to pay well. I groaned before taking the next steps forward towards the small green door. Just as I was raising my hand to knock on the door, it burst open, revealing a beautiful woman with flowing red hair. She looked at me with distaste and clicked her tongue.

"Yer late ye idiot ye know." She had a thick accent, and I just stared up at her like a dear in headlights. She clicked her tongue again and huffed. "So I'm te train another wee brained one am I? Well, come on in ye thick boy." She turned around and disappeared quickly into another room, leaving me to pick up my jaw and follow her. I could hear a a rustling sound from further into the house and followed it to find her going through a trunk.

"Good you're here, ye can wear this from now on as ye won't find anythin but odd looks in the get up yer wearin now." She handed me a simple white tunic with black trousers and a pair of leather boots that looked like I'd need to lace them up to my knees. She also gave me a black cloak that came down to the middle of my back. "These will also help with the work I'm gonna have ye be doin round er'e." She faced her hand and a few strange looking circles suddenly glowed on the boots and cloak that I'd been given. They disappeared quickly though.

"What do those do?" I asked she chuckled a little bit and just told me that they'd help me work a little harder, which I didn't know if I liked the sound of. "So what is your name?" She looked me dead in the eye and stared me down for a good fifteen seconds.

"Ye mah wee brained boy will call me Master, and that's all."