It took them almost a full week of travel, stopping in a few villages along the way, where the merchant did some more trading and they spent the nights, before they reached their destination. Along the way, they had encountered one more similar ambush party, this time consisting of only ten or so goblins, that Rex once again wiped clean, leaving ten little, green, atrocious and foul smelling corpses behind. The merchant did lament that the road was getting more and more dangerous, probably an indication of a rather large tribe forming in the region.
"There must be quite a few goblin extermination quests popping up in Valrun then. Well kid, you seem to be in luck. With those little shits swarming the area, there is bound to be a lot of work for the novice adventurers like yourself." a comment that Rex just slightly hummed and nodded to. While he cared little for the weaklings that the goblins were, he was well aware that he would probably have to deal with them for some time before he could either take a bit more challenging jobs or find a proper party to team up with to either dungeon dive or take on more demanding jobs.
Valrun was your typical medieval city. A stone wall, three meters tall, surrounding the city. A rather large stone gate stood before them as a couple of rather bored and annoyed guards stood by it. One of the two guards seemed half asleep, while the other was picking his nose, moments later seemingly examining his findings with quite the expert stare. The low clacking of the carriage soon attracted the attention of the two, a slight smile spreading on the face of the half asleep one, the light drowsiness quickly flushing out of his system.
"Halt there. What brings you here?" the guard spoke, a slight glee in his voice.
"Free merchant just peddling his wares." Replied the merchant, stuffing his hand inside his shirt and pulling out a rather large sized necklace that looked more like a badge than anything. Upon seeing the badge, the guard scoffed. Not a target they could extort, as the free merchants were always shrewd and extremely vindictive, as well as well aware of the laws that the counties they operated had passed.
"Tsk." the guard clicked his tongue, then directed his eyes to the other person on the carriage, but before he could, the merchant added.
"We encountered a couple goblin parties on our way here, one even with an archer. So think carefully, do you want the trouble your planned actions could bring?"
The guard wanted to scoff at that, but upon closer look at the man he had planned to try and extort some 'toll' for entering the city, he noticed the worn out spear, as well as a rather large string of slightly tried goblin ears hanging on the carriage. And while slaying a goblin was no feat to brag about, dealing with an ambush of the green little shits, while not getting wounded, as the man looked perfectly fine? Now that was a whole another story altogether.
Gulp. The guard swallowed hard, quickly rethinking his initial plans. speaking moments later. "Got an identification on you merc?"
"He just left the village he grew up in. You know there are no such things there. He was on his way to the adventurers guild though, so if you want, ask there later."
'Just left the village?' the guard sneered in his mind 'Sure, the village of masters? Ain't no way that a youth with aspirations of becoming an adventurer has such skill' Still he was smarter than to speak it out loud, only nodding his head and retrieving a strange crystal from his pocket.
"Sure, as you say. Still need to check him." he spoke as he extended the crystal forward, and Rex, with the prompt of the merchant hopped of the carriage, walking towards the guard. Once next to him, he extended his hand toward the crystal, almost touching it. A few second passed, yet there were no reaction from the crystal. With that, the guard nodded and moved aside. "You may pass. Obey the laws while in the city. We dont like troublemakers."
Rex just waved at the guard as he walked by, the carriage following just right after. Once inside, he thanked the merchant for allowing him to tag along, who in return just smiled and shook his head, returning the thanks for his presence. Without him, the merchant would have probably been a snack for the goblins by now after all.
"Right, do inform the guild of the parties that you slew on the way. It should only reaffirm what they already knew, or if not, cause a few investigation to be made. Well, anyways. Good luck on your adventures."
"Thank you sir. Stay safe." With those words, Rex and the merchant continued on their own way. The inside of the city looked rather similar to what he would expect from a fantasy middle age city. Somewhat cleanly streets, with all sorts of single, sometimes two story buildings, made out of many different materials, with only roofs being mostly clay brown color, creating a rather unique sight to behold.
And while there were people moving about, Rex could not classify the place as packed. Clearly the city was a rather small one. Likely just a pitstop on the way towards the major cities of the region, where all the activity and chaos would accumulate. Still, for his needs the place served well enough. At least for now.
He looked towards the center of the town, where two, much larger buildings than the rest stood out. One was the typical castle that should be decorating every town in the time period that this world seemed to be in, with a defensive tower on each of the four corners surrounding said castle. The other building was slightly smaller, though its roof still rose above the rest of its surroundings, clearly indicating its significance.
'That should be the adventurers guild then.' Rex mused as he started his walk towards it. First, he would register as an adventurer and figure out the rest later. He also had to hand in the goblin ears to be paid for. And while not much, it would still help him secure a place to stay the night if nothing else. If possible, Rex wanted so save as much money as he could, since it would matter quite a bit in the early days of his adventures in this world, and while he was sure that eventually money would become a simple afterthought, he was still far from it, having to live rather modestly for the time being.
With an obvious beacon in the shape of what he could only assume was the adventurers guild, Rex walked down the streets, looking around and taking in the medieval fantasy setting of the place. While true that most people he encountered were humans, or what looked like ones, he spied a few members of other races, Manning a stall on one of the streets was a enormous, two and a half meter tall and bulky lion man. His body was covered with very short fur, no more than a centimeter long by his estimation, except of course his mane, that looked like bushy hair that reminded him of certain few anime characters he had seen in his modern life, a life that seemed like something he had experienced ages ago. And yet, he had been brought over less than a couple of years ago. Funny, how the perception of time changes when you are having the time of your life.The lion man was selling some sort of trinkets, as far as Rex could tell, but he was not overly interested in the giant of a man, just a mere curiosity, thus he kept on walking towards his goal.
He also noticed a couple of dwarfs, if his assumption and knowledge about the slightly shorter and stout men was correct in this world. The two, bearded men were going at it in an open air forge on one of the corners, quite a large building with spacious courtyard right behind them. The furnace was well distanced from anything it could set fire to and the duo were hammering some sort of a tool, or weapon, with vigour and determination. A couple more youngsters were sweating hard on the side, working the bellows to keep the forge hot, the fire within looked like the hel lwas just on the other side, heating the metal inside and readying it to be worked on by the two masters next.
As Rex walked deeper into the town, he could see that the quality of the buildings slowly started to improve. What previously was shoddily built homes, sometimes even barely able to be called shacks, making his own one back in the village look steady and luxurious in comparison, were now replaced with well built brick buildings, more and more similar to one another. The simple brown brick walls, with nicely sized windows, each and every one being framed and filled with glass and covered with nice looking curtains from inside, obscuring whatever was on the other side. Simple, but beautiful wooden doors graced each of the buildings, some of the larger ones even had a plaque above said simple, yet beautiful doors, stating the establishments name. Of course, the buildings with the plaques also had their window curtains open, displaying something of their wares in said windows, with a few exceptions of course.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
'Madames sweet dreams' being one such establishment. Rex did not need to ask what sort of services it provided, the couple of scantily dressed ladies near the building, winking at passerby males from time to time, while making quite lewd gestures with their hands, or suggestively licking their lips. Unfortunately for them, Rex was neither interested in such services, nor the quality of the 'product' that he saw, the middle aged women being way below any beaty he had even considered as a possible partner. And with a whole world to explore and no personal realm to secure any possible partner, he would focus on the more exciting and unknown aspect of the world. Thankfully, his getup did not radiate the feeling of a rich guy, in need to lighten his coin purse, so the two workers by the establishments door did not pay him any attention as he passed by, on his way to the guild.
Another half an hour later, he finally stood before an incredibly large building, at the very least when compared to any other, besides the castle in the city center of course. The building was made of of bricks, like most others in better part of the city, but unlike others, the lower half of it seemed to be made out of large rocks and a substance that held the rocks together and looked like concrete or cement. above that, followed a layering of bricks, until finally the roof took over that. Roof too was made of what looked like clay shingles in a light gray colour.
A large, three meter high double door served as the entrance, with a large skull of a monster, either a troll os some sorts or another monster of similar kind, hanging above said door. Two spears were 'stabbed' in the sides of said skull, a rope from each hanging down, and just below said skull, a board attached to the two ropes hanged, two clear words -Adventurers guild- written on it. With a slight nod, appreciating the style and aesthetic of the visuals before him, Rex walked forward, entering the wide open door of the building.
As he stepped over the door still, he found himself in a rather large hall, with a few large boards decorating both side walls and quite a few people examining whatever posters were plastered on them. Clearly adventurers hunting for their next job to be. At the far end of the hall, in front and to the center of two stairs leading to the upper floors, stood a rather large counter, with a few attendants sitting behind it. It seemed as if said attendants were each in their own section, a boot if you will, with another plaque above each of them, indicating the purpose of their task.
The first attendant worked at the exchange section, the second took care of job postings and completion. The third one was miscellaneous. He assumed that it fulfilled the tasks of the other two, should the crowd grow too large, while handling its own duties, whenever such cropped up. Rex walked over to the third attendant, a brunette human lady, no more than in her mid twenties, with light green eyes, modest figure and somewhat cute face. She was dressed just like the other two attendants, with a white shirt that had a pin with her name on it, and what seemed to be simple brown suit pants, if Rex saw correctly what out peaked from behind the counter as the girl straightened her back when noticing the approaching Rex, as she slightly pushed up her chest, emphasizing her non existent, some would say modest, chest.
'Lolicons and carpenters would swoon over her', Rex though as he stepped in front of the girls.
"Morning sir." a light and sweet voice greeted him as he stood before the girl, reaffirming his previous thought, but not stopping him from doing what he had come here for. Such body types were not his cup of tea, preferring the more developed and mature bodies with curves in all the right places.
"Wanted to sign up as an adventurer. Did I come to the right counter?" he asked, his facial expression relaxed and calm.
"Yes sir, it is indeed she replied. Anyone recommended you here, or are you an independant?"
"Would you elaborate?" Rex questioned, having not heard the terms before, quickly adding another request before the girls started her explanation "And the rules that the guild expects the affiliated adventurers to follow would also be appreciated. I like to know what I am signing up for."
"Of course sir. It would be my pleasure." the girl replied, quickly reaching below the counter and fishing out a few forms from below it. Rex was pleasantly surprised at how non judgemental the girl was, since his attire left much to be desired, making it possible to mistake him for a simple village peasant, not a fighter that had taken a few goblin groups out during his way here.
"Lets start with with the former then." she spoke in her soft and cheerful tone, taking on the expression of a scholar, enlightening their less accomplished colleague, or a junior. "As you might know, the guild has class halls under it, with each hall having their own unique techniques that they teach their new members, creating a rather specialized and focused skill sets, fulfilling a certain role within either the parties they join, or any other task that requires a group work. It is the easiest way to know an individuals' value if you have knowledge of their class and rank. Independants, or Solo's, as they are often referred to, are the people who do not join a specific hall, thus not acquiring said special techniques. And while such people are usually less specialized, and can perform most tasks rather well, it is much more difficult to estimate their capabilities." She took as small break as he took a few deep breaths, having gone through the first part of the explanation in a rapid sequence, almost forgetting to breathe during it, quite the spark of excitement in her eyes while doing so.
"As a result, the members of each hall are often in search of promising new members, who, once found and identified, are then referred to the adventurers guild. If you are one such individual, you should have been already instructed of the fact, and why it is necessary. As to why it is? The guild records the hall that had referred said individual, and other halls have to respect the priority said hall has on the new member, as it is not unheard of for a prospective new adventurer to exceed in two distinctly different roles, becoming quite the interest for more than one hall."
"So, referring someone is basically calling dibs on the person to be brought into the hall of the referencer. Is that about right?" Rex asked, getting the gits of it.
"Precisely so sir. While the guild does not mind a small competition between its different halls, it only goes so far as to what should be considered a healthy rivalry."
"And how do the Solo's get into said halls, should there be a desire?"
"There are three ways, two available for the solos. The first one is being referred to the adventurers guild, but as you might have already guessed, that one's a no go for Solo's. Just mentioned in case you thought that there are some backroom deals happening within the guild. We like transparency as much as it is possible. A trusted guild has an easier time to do what it is supposed to do after all. Now, as for the options for the Solo's, there are two. First. you can be noticed by a member, or members of a hall, seeing a potential for said job in you. Then, said members would reach out to the scouts of their hall, who then would contact guild, requesting to meet with the Solo in question and offer him a chance to join their hall. Whether there are tests that said hall would like said Solo to take on, to ensure there is a true compatibility between him and the hall, or they straight up offer the chance to join, depends on the hall in question. As for the other option, is is a much simpler one, as well as the choice that most of the rich folks use to get their offsprings a good class. With good old method of cash. Each hall has a certain price they demand for a set number of lessons with one of their instructors, should you wish to learn their techniques, but once a technique taught, you become a part of their hall, ineligible for the same in any other hall." she spoke so cheerily about buying oneself, or their descendants a spots that Rex could only smile in return and scratch his head awkwardly, though he supposed it made sense, especially if the hall could then lower the membership fee of the existing members, or provide a set of other exclusive services to the members of their hall.
"Anything else I should know about the halls, before you switch over to the guilds rules?"
"Yes sir. Unlike the guild, who receives a small percentage of the reward money for each job adventurers complete, the halls require a yearly membership fee. But fret not sir, there is a good reason for that. halls usually provide their new members with their initial gear, once the first few techniques are learned, as well as a few exclusive benefits that depend on the hall in question. Tamers hall, for example, always help their new members to tame their first monster. Hunters offer their new member not only their first set of bow and arrows, but also a collection of lure recipes to make it a bit easier and safer for them, and so on and so forth."
She then tilted her head cutely to the side, placing an index finger to ger lips, a thoughtful expression overtaking her face for a moment. "Yes, regarding this topic, that's about it."
