Back In Town

After a week of trudging through dark tunnels and skinning the beasts underground, it was amazing to be back in town. We quickly divvied up the loot from the trip and said our goodbyes to the party we had spent so much time with. Well, I would think of it that way. A week isn't an insignificant portion of the time that I have been in this world. What's it been. Two or three weeks now? It's already starting to feel like I have been in this world forever.

Now with just me and Venessa again, we went to sell our hard earned loot in one of the many shops. Since we aren't selling anything that will attract attention it's fine to just sell it anywhere.

Soon we were walking away with a significantly heavier coinpurse. The sheer volume of the hides and other valuable bits and pieces from the hunt assured that we wouldn't go hungry for quite some time.

After that, we visited the baths again. It feels so good to be clean! The dirt on me was so thick that I could hardly see my skin! At the baths, I change out of my robes and into the blue shirt and dark grey pants that Venessa got me before.

It feels surreal, the difference that happened in just a matter of hours, emerging from the dark tunnels into the blinding light, and soon being clean and with a comfortable change in clothes.

Venessa meets me again after the bath and we are soon walking again.

"Where are we going this time Ven?"

She stops suddenly in her tracks.

"What did you call me?"

Shhhhhiiiiiiiiiiii....

"Sorry. I didn't know you didn't like it. I'll go back to Venessa, I was just trying it out."

My quick rush to cover my bases is a disaster and even I can see it.

"... It's fine. There's just one other person who calls me that. He's… I don't know. He's a piece of work sometimes. It's fine if you call me that I guess I just wasn't expecting it out of you."

"I call you whatever you want. It's no trouble if you want me to call you by your full name or if I use the shortened version."

"Then Ven is fine."

"By the way, what's next on the list? We aren't going the long way back to your place are we?"

Were still walking down one of the busiest streets in the city. As far as I can tell, both the population and size of this world are amazing, this city is considered relatively large for the region, but as far as what Venessa has heard of the world, we live in the boonies.

"We're going to the adventurers guild to get you registered."

"Hang on Ven, is that ok? They'll know about my class then wouldn't they?"

"It should be fine. The Adventurer Guild is nongovernmental, they don't report to anyone but themselves, and on top of that, you can just opt out of declaring your class on the form. Plenty of people don't trust others easily, so they don't make a big deal out of it.

"As long as what you say is true then I guess I have no problems with it. But why would we do it in the first place? We have a good thing going don't we?"

"We can take quests from the board. That way we can get extra money by giving things to or handling problems directly for the clients."

"Then there's bodyguard missions? I don't have to tell you but I probably can't do anything in plain sight."

"Extermination missions or loot missions are still on the menu though."

"I guess that's fine."

I guess making money is important. If we can do that while also keeping up a good rate of ex grinding then I shouldn't complain. A little extra coin never hurt anyone.

We soon arrived at the guild, In contrast to the buildings around it, while it was still made of stone, it used less of the plaster look and had more of a lodge feel to it. Three stories were also a level taller than most of the other buildings here. Light shone out from two clouded windows on either side of the door.

"Come on, let's get you registered, and then we'll look for some jobs before we leave ok?"

The door was opened by Venessa and I immediately forget the vaguely imposing impression I had of the building before. Inside is round tables of both old and young adventurers, in varying states of armored dress, sharing drinks and laughing. Despite my entirely civilian outfit, nobody gives me much more than a second glance.

It's getting to evening now, so they must be returned from their work, celebrating the exploits of the day with their comrades and friends.

Past the tables, a long reception desk stretches the breadth of the building, and predictably I follow Ven to the counter to be registered.

"Hello! My name is Darcey Osqarna what can I do for you today?"

The employee (Member?) woman of the guild come over to help me.

"Hi! I would like to join the guild, please."

"That's fine. Wait here for a second."

She quickly turns and walks to the back wall behind the counter where from a table she picks up a single page of paper from a stack, and a quill pen with ink, before returning to the counter.

"Here you are. This form is confidential to only the guild. Feel free to put as much information as you are willing. This information is just to help us get a grasp of the general layout of this guild. If you would like, you can also join the rankings for this guild's members!"

"Thank you. I'll get started now then."

On the paper, there is a bunch of questions and lines to answer them on.

I fill out the name and ask Venessa the date, most of the paper ended up blank though. To the point that Darcey looks a bit bemused at the near blank piece of paper. But, she accepts it and before leaving to presumably fill the paper, stops to give me some information about the guild.

"The guild's main function is connecting clients to adventurers. We take requests from citizens who need things and give them as quests to the adventures of the guild. The guild takes a small portion of the reward as a fee in order to stay open.

Most quests are available to all members of the guild but be advised that we highly recommend that you only take jobs that you know you can complete. There is no glory in rushing off to die. Be responsible and know your strength, and you will be fine.

If you ever decide to participate in the rankings, they divide the members into percentiles for the kingdom we are located in. Knowing a global positioning is something that we cant do here.

The bottom fifty percent is called bronze rank. This is divided equally into bronze one through five. Silver rank is next, with the following twenty five percent, then Gold with twelve, Platinum with six, Grand with six, and Hero as the top one percent in the kingdom.

As with bronze, all ranks excluding Hero are split into five tiers. It also pays to mind the unlisted adventurers such as yourself who don't publicly declare their ranking."

After finishing all that she takes a deep breath and smiles at me.

"If you have any further questions please don't hesitate to ask me or one of my fellow guildstaff."

"Thank you, I'll be on my way then"

She nods and hurries away with the paper.

That was a mouthful.

Before I have time to digest this I'm dragged by Venessa over to the quest board.

It is cluttered with papers detailing quests and rewards.

After some deliberation and talking about the different options we pick a quest to get twenty high quality boars hide for a leatherworking shop. So we decide to get up early tomorrow to officially take the quest before someone else does.

Soon we are walking down the street again.

"We have one more stop before we go back for the night ok?"

She really looks beautiful in the pink light just before sundown. She had also changed out of her black outfit and into a more normal pair of tan pants and a very light blue shirt. The tight black outfit really hides her curves…

"A-Ah, yes, ok."

Smooth.

We went over to an armor shop just before closing time and despite the wide variety of stock and choices we soon both had new sets of leather armor with metal plates stitched on with leather cord to protect the vitals.

It should fit under our normal adventuring clothes nicely.

It's really getting dark by the time we are back to Venessa's house. And after splitting a loaf of bread for dinner we both got to bed, once again I'm on her bed, facing the wall out of shame.

On the adventuring trips, it's fine to sleep near each other. We have our own bedrolls and it's easy to go to sleep next to someone you trust when you're in a dangerous environment.

But here I'm more conscious. It's probably silly I know. But what can I do other than weather the storm?

Soon, I'm once again drifting off to sleep.

"KNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCK"

After some amount of time, I get awoken by banging on the door, Venessa is first to react and flies out of bed to open the door as I'm still stumbling out of bed trying not to trip on a sheet or blanket.

As quick as I can in the dim light made by only by one magic lantern, I grab my dagger and stand behind where the door hinges out to, ready to put up a fight.

Venessa nods at me in the dim light and reaches over to unlock the door, within a few seconds she prods it open and a new shadow stands in the doorway.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. They're coming."

"Kyara?"