Feyreightor

Arthurs wagon stood patiently in the line to be inspected. They were near the back in a long train of wagons carrying various cargo. At the very front of the line stood a customs-type area behind a grand gate. The gate complimented the magnificent 20-meter walls. If Daniels were to guestimate the thickness, he'd say 5 or 6 meters.

Daniels passed the time by practicing taking down and field stripping the Colt. It was a shame he didn't have anything to clean it with. Even though he'd spent less than a full mag his father had drilled into his head to always keep your weapon perfectly maintained to standards that would make competition shooters blush.

He smiled thinking about his pops as he put the pistol back together one last time. It seemed they were next in line to enter the city.

Soon a group of 5 guards approached them.

"May I inquire as to what goods you are transporting sir?" asked the guard in the lead.

Arthur nodded, "Fine silks and rice from the eastern nations," Arthur presented paperwork from the merchant's guild.

"Splendid news rice is always in high demand in town." the guard snapped his fingers and two guards stepped forward with him.

"As is customary sir we will have to check the contents to make sure you aren't transporting illegal goos, and that your report is accurate."

The two guards went about checking the cargo as the head guard asked for identification. Arthur presented his merchant's guild card to the guard. The guard scanned it with some odd magical tool and nodded his head.

"And you sir?" the guard asked Daniels.

"About that, he's from a very distant place. Upon my journey the guard I hired betray me and attacked me with his eyes on the cargo. Fortunately, this lad was here to save me. He managed to take down all four of the bastards on his own in less than a minute. He's from a faraway land and isn't registered with one of the guilds."

The guard checked the paperwork again, then looked Daniels up and down.

"The guard you hired while on suspension from the adventurers guild due to charges brought against him was a D rank adventurer. It is quite impressive that your companion here was able to take him and his cohorts down." the guard said.

"Would you happen to be a mage by chance?" the guard asked Daniels noticing he only carried a knife. The guard of course was oblivious to the colt on Daniels belt, passing it off as a trinket from where he came.

"No I don't happen to know any magic," replied Daniels.

The guard pondered for a moment but resumed.

He spoke to Arthur, "Something is wrong if the merchants guild approved your ex-bodyguard for the job. The adventurer guild shares information like suspensions to assure something along these lines doesn't happen. I'd be cautious if I were you sir."

"As for your companion, since he lacks guild registration or citizenship ID, that'll be 10 silver coins for him to enter. I recommend he register with one of the guilds to prevent this in the future."

Arthur nodded and handed the guard the 10 silver. The other two guards rejoined the leader and gave the wagon the all-clear. The guards stepped aside and allowed Arthur to drive the wagon into the town.

The town itself was very clean and tidy, with paved roads and what appeared to be candleless streetlamps. It was very different than the depictions Daniels had read about medieval cities from Earth. The innovations of magic must have really improved the quality of life for the residents.

They passed by street stalls selling various foods and goods to passersby. Past that was fixed businesses peddling their wares, and finally past that a grandiose building.

Arthur pulled the wagon into a wide area reserved for wagons. Some men wearing uniforms walked up to the wagon and asked Arthur for the paperwork. Arthur handed it over, and the men began to unload the products.

"This sure is quite the system. I assume this is the merchants guild then?" Asked Daniels.

"Ah yes, it is. Since you're from far away would you like me to explain it a bit for you?"

"If you wouldn't mind."

"Well, let's see here. The merchants guild acts as an intermediary between merchants and requesters. Requesters of any kind can come in and post an order for goods at the price of the guild's tax. From there merchants can take the orders and travel to procure the goods. The merchants must procure the goods with their own money, but they will be rewarded the asking price as well as an extra fair from the guild for their troubles. The guild will then hire out couriers to travel the goods delivered by the merchants to the order placers. That service comes at a fee, and some choose to be notified instead and come and pick up the order themselves. That said, after two days of sitting in their warehouse a fee for storage will begin to rise. After too long they will re-sell the merchandise themselves.," Artur explained.

"That's really quite a convenient and well-thought-out system," replied Daniels thinking back to services like Amazon from Earth.

One of the freight workers returned and gave Arthur back the paperwork with a signature denoting the goods were all there.

Arthur hopped down from the box and gestured for Daniels to follow. Daniels hopped down and did so.

They entered a very pleasant reception area and made their way to one of the receptionists. Arthur presented the paperwork, and the receptionist scanned it over.

"Thank you sir it appears that everything within the delivery is within order. The payment will be the promised 1800 gold coins plus a long-distance travel bonus of 150 gold. Would you like to withdraw the currency for external banking or put it in savings within the guild?" asked the pretty receptionist.

"If you could please store it in my account. Oh, could you please withdraw 250 gold coins for me miss?"

She nodded and headed to the back room. She returned with a bag full of gold.

"And if you would please sign here for the withdrawal and here for the savings deposit from the delivery"

Arthur did so and was handed the gold.

He turned to Daniels, "I'd like you to take this as my debt of gratitude to you for saving me from certain death hand providing me a safe escort. I can see you are starting to protest the amount but it is within my pride as a merchant to pay back such debts in full," he stated firmly.

"I could pay and open you a nonmerchant's savings account or would you prefer to take it elsewhere?" asked Arthur.

"I appreciate the offer but I think I will look for external banking," replied Daniels.

Arthur handed him the gold and he placed it in his backpack away from prying eyes, before he stored it in the item box. He had no idea how rare a skill it may be so he did it in secret.

"Could I guide you to the adventurers guild so you can get registered? I could use a nice stroll," offered Arthur.

"I'd be much obliged," replied Daniels.

They walked out of the guild and back from which they came. They took a right and found themselves walked past numerous taverns, a couple of brothels, and what appeared to be a slave shop. Daniels scowled at the latter but knew he couldn't do anything about it.

Finally, they came to a large structure.

"Here you are. Once again I'd like to offer you my thanks. If you ever get into any trouble ask for me at the merchants guild and I'll see if I can help you out," he reached out his hand and Daniels shook it firmly.

"And thank you for getting me here and helping me get started."

"It's the least I could do."

With that Arthur strolled off into the street. Daniels gave the man a two-fingered salute and entered the adventurers guild.

The inside was clean and neat. On the left were benches and tables with adventurers chatting away, on the right a large quest board took up space. At the front was a large reception manned by beautiful women. Daniels noted, however, just like the merchants guild none of the workers were demi-human. For that matter, he hadn't seen many here in the first place.

[I suppose prejudice isn't just an Earth thing] he thought to himself.

A couple of adventurers sized him up as he passed by their tables, but none said anything. He made his way to the reception and was greeted by a pretty brunette.

"Welcome to the guild of Feyreightor sir. Will you be putting out a request today?" she asked him not seeing him as the adventurer type.

"No, I would like to register to the guild," he said.

She fetched some paperwork and handed it to him, "I will need you to fill out some basic information and then pay a fee of 3 silver."

Daniels nodded and looked at the paperwork. It was stuff like name, age, home country, class, etc. He filled in the slots filling in his home country with the United States and then he stopped when he was going to fill in the class section. He furrowed his brows. He wasn't any of the typical classes of a fantasy setting. He thought for a moment and put down a ranger. The blanket term should work he figured.

He reached into his pocket and drew a gold coin from the item box. He handed that in with the paperwork to the receptionist.

"Alright, sir you're just about set. Let me explain a couple of things and then I will have you register your guild card," she paused, "The guild works as an intermediary between adventurers and requesters. Requesters post their requests through the guild at the price of the job and the guild's tax. Some jobs are requested by city officials or in rare instances even nobles. Adventurers come in rank from F, E, D, C, B, A, and finally S tier adventurers. You have to progress through each rank with rank skips being an incredibly rare event usually relegated only to heroes. You will face suspension or expulsion from the guild for criminal offenses. The guild will not step in between fights between adventurers, but will not tolerate violence inside any guild buildings. Is that all understood?"

He nodded and she handed him a piece of glass and a pin. She instructed him to prick his finger and press the blood to the glass. When he did, the glass glowed and soon depicted a small stat sheet with guild rank and an active quest section, which momentarily was blank. She handed him his 7 silver in change.

"If you lose the guild card it will cost you 5 silver to replace the first time, and 1 gold each time after that. Don't lose it. It is required for any actions within the guild," she explained.

"I'm new in town, could you recommend a good inn with meals?"

"Yes, the Silver Torch is well reputed among lower-ranking adventurers for being tidy and serving good meals."

"Thank you. I will take my leave," Daniels said.

As Daniels walked out of the guild, he noticed a couple of less than savory individuals get up to follow him. He stepped out of the guild and walked into an alleyway. He drew his pistol and kept it behind his back. As expected, the two men entered shortly after.

"How about you go ahead and give the rest of that gold to your seniors eh?" they chucked and drew blades.

Daniels was starting to sense a theme of him being sorely underestimated.

"Wouldn't want nothing bad to happen, would you?" one of them said with a glint in his eye.

"So I take it you chucklefucks are planning to rob me then?" Daniels raised an eyebrow.

The men snarled, "Listen here give us the money right fucking now and we'll let you off with only a couple of broken limbs for your insolence." they stepped closer.

"About that..." Daniels trailed off as he brought the .45 to bear.

He aimed it at the first man's chest and pulled the trigger. The boom echoed off the walls of the alleyway. The other man used the tried and trued tactic of running with a blade at a man with a gun. It went about as well as you'd expect, with the man being shot right below his neck. He too fell like a sack of bricks.

Daniels wickedly grinned, "I think you just got very intimate with the result of two world wars and a war on terror." he chuckled to himself.

Instead of running at the noise, people came to the alleyway and looked on in shock.

"Are those the Rudel twins?"

"Did he really take both of them down himself?"

and similar questions filled the air.

soon a couple of knights pushed through the crowd.

"Roight, what's all this then?" one of them asked.

"These two 'gentlemen tried to rob me, so took the liberty of stopping them from doing it again."

While the first guard was talking the other guard examined the bodies.

"Rudel twins eh? Seems like someone finally got tired of their pestering and threats. These two are known for picking on less fortunate individuals to make a quick buck. Sad sacks of shit went into adventuring and realized it wasn't all that easy. Looks like your story checks up." The guard spoke.

"In fact looks like you did us a favor, before they robbed you they finally were set to be arrested after enough testimony was provided. Can't say I'm sad to see them go. Since they were criminals, we'll go ahead and handle this one for you. Go ahead and go about your day then sir."

And that's just what Daniels Did.