31 A tour of the city

Once inside, Finn and Jess talked with Pete to sort out the registration and living arrangements.

Jess only had a backpack full of belongings so storage wasn't a problem.

After lunch at the bar, where Finn introduced her to the bartender and Mürstein, they went out for Jess to see the city. Finn took her to the Seagulls Roost and to some of the more interesting locations.

Finn showed her around for a about an hour before they arrived at the obstacle course inside the guild warehouse. Pete had generously offered Jess a free trial, but knew that if she was serious about being a mercenary she would be back for more and his investment would pay off.

This time, Finn was the one taking the lead while Jess tried to keep up. She fell behind a little when it came to balancing and jumping, her medium armor being much harder to move in.

Finn's sense of superiority was quickly dashed however, when Jess caught right up to him during the parts involving straight sprinting or vertical climbing.

Looking at her arms, he wondered how they managed to lift the weight of her body, armor, and giant sword with such ease. He was curious how she would score for strength on the measuring device.

After two hours, they decided to stop. They had pushed themselves extra hard, as there was some friendly competition to motivate them, and were exhausted.

Sweaty and panting, they locked up the warehouse and headed back to the guild to freshen up. Finn showered quickly and waited for Jess at the bar while drinking a few mugs of water.

She joined him a few minutes later wearing loose comfortable looking pants and a modest shirt. She had a different sword attached the belt on her left side, this one was much shorter, obviously intend to be wielded single handedly. On her right, she had a small book, a pouch, and a wand.

Surprised, Finn didn't realize he had been staring. 'What? Never seen a want before?' Jess teased. 'I only bring it when I'm not wearing my armor. I only now a few spells, but you never know when you might need a little extra protection.'

'Sweet!! I only know mage hand, and learning that was hard enough. I'm not really cut out for magic, I can't connect with nature's mana,' Finn said.

'That's alright, I prefer using a sword. Wouldn't have picked up much magic if my mother hadn't forced me to learn some. She was a proper magician, I take more after my dad though. He introduced me to swords.' Jess paused when she noticed an odd look on Finn's face.

Finn explained, 'sometimes I wish I had a family, I grew on the streets here. Later on I was stuck working and n a factory. It's only recently I've started making friends here at the guild. In a way it's like my new home.'

They kept talking for a little while longer before being interrupted by Pete.

'Hate to interrupt, but just wanted to let you two know something.' The elf paused for dramatic effect, his enjoyment of being the center of attention betrayed his true feelings. Pete wasn't sorry at all.

'Finn you probably have met your two roommates, so you might have noticed. The guild usually assigns more important tasks to teams. In fact, E rank tasks are the only exception. Everyone else needs to have a partner in order to take on a task at their level. If you want to go at it solo style, you'll need to pick a task below your rank.'

Finn was a bit surprised by this new information. It did make sense to not be alone. Working in pairs reduced the risk of losing members. If one was injured, the other could help bring them back for treatment. Jess already knew about the benefits of teamwork so she was unfazed.

Seeing that the two trainees had understood, Pete continued.

'Since the two of you are the only trainees at the moment, leadership has assigned you to work together until you are promoted. After that you are free to continue doing so or ask to join some of the other teams.'

The two looked at each other briefly before nodding.

'Oh, and I'll need to record your six attributes to complete the registration. Someone was borrowing the measuring device earlier so I didn't have the chance to do it back then.'

Pete went and fetched the talent sensor as he called it. Jess put her hand on it and soon it started to work, she felt the same weird sensations asFinn did before.

Seeing Jess shiver a couple times, Finn reassured her. 'I felt weird too when I got measured.'

The device stopped and Jess took her hand off. Meanwhile, Petrosilinus was busy hitting down the results.

'Do you want my comments and suggestions with the results? You seem to have already chosen what path to take for future development. Finn here looked so confused that I thought he needed a little guidance.'

'I'm fine with just the results, thanks.' Said Jess.

Passing over a slip of paper, Pete left them and went back to his work.

Finn looked so curious that Jess just handed it to him directly and asked him to read it.

Strength: 16 'wow!

Dexterity: 13

Constitution: 10

Intelligence: 14

Wisdom: 10

Charisma: 12

Finn read it out loud to Jess, yelling out in surprise when he saw how strong she was.

'You scored more than double what I did!'

Looking up, he saw Jess looking at him with a satisfied smile.

'Well, good thing you're the one using a sword.' Finn conceded. 'I did score high on dexterity, wisdom and constitution though. Since I'm already bragging, I'll let you know that I'm pretty tough and heal pretty quick.'

Amused at Finn bragging posture, his nose high in the air, Jess laughed a little before suggesting they head out again.

'You haven't taken me to the market street yet, I'm looking forward to seeing what they have in stock.'