The guild has more than ten counter, but only five or six opened at the same time. Lucy and Emilia took their seat and started with the paperwork, which was placed on their desk.
After a few minutes, Lucy moved her face towards Emilia, who was deep in her work. "I'm tired now, I need more holiday, meow" complained Lucy.
It didn't take long before the first few adventurers entered the guild. A group of three adventurers headed towards Emilia.
"Hi Emilia, we completed the normal dungeon quest". The leader of the group put the quest paper and a fist size dungeon core atop.
The world was filled with thousands of different Dungeons, and each day new Dungeon popped up. They were categorized into three groups.
The urgent Dungeons. There was lurking dangerous soul monster, which could harm people. These had a short deadline to clear up, and also these Dungeons were completed by the strongest adventures.
The normal Dungeons - these were the common one. They weren't a significant threat for the world but still needed to clear up.
And last the low Dungeons - this spawn only weak soul monsters. This type of Dungeons wasn't particulate cleared up because they were used as a training place, or as an eternal supplement of soul crystal.
The leader, a fox guy, pulled a big bag, which was filled with many soul crystals in different shape and size and put it on the counter. "This is the soul crystal we had collected there. It wasn't easy, so I hope you pay us enough" said he with expectant.
"I will see what I can do." Emilia took the bag and brought towards a magical scale, which determined the price. After that, she put the bag on the assembly line, which went direct in an underground. In the underground of the guild were a lot of factories, where the soul crystal was extracted in pure crystal. The purse crystal was distributed over the world for any purpose.
She collected the amount of money which had displayed on the scale and handed it over.
After the group of adventurers checked the amount, they showed a little disappointed. It was common that the adventurers expected too much. But they got used to it.
"Sorry, but that's all," said Emilia with empathy, she knew how hard it was for the adventurers, to risk they own life to collect soul crystal.
"No problem", said the leader and split the total reward.
"Finally, I can pay my debt for my staff," said an elf with relief, the third, a dwarf. "Yeah, with that, I can finally buy a new protected plate. I hope the dropped items are useful."
"I also have several things to do. Do we see tonight in the Caesar Inn? I invite you both" said the leader.
"Oh, a drinking party, I'm in," said the dwarf with a big smile.
"Sorry, but I have another quest, sorry." said the elf with a guilty expression.
"No problem, have fun then," said the fox guy without any grudge.
The three left the party by clicking "Left Party" from their floating window. Partying with others was the foundation to clear up a dungeon. The soul energy distributed equally.
There was a different type of adventure groups. Some adventurers were partying with others lifelong like a family. Other came together to completed a specific quest and left the party.
"Goodbye, Emilia," said the three, and they left the guild.
The next wasn't an adventurer, it was a man in his middle age, wearing a white uniform.
"Hi Gilliam, what can I do for you?" asked Emilia to the well known pharmacist.
"Hi, Emilia, I want to give a quest. I need a kilo Clinban herbs". He opened with his request.
He gave her a quest paper with the important information: description and a reward. Some people brought their quest themselves, or Emilia wrote for them down.
"The reward should be 4000 lux. Please send it to the Star Bloom Clan," also he handed the money with the charge.
"Thanks, I will pin it on the quest board," said Emilia and put the quest paper down. Gilliam thanked and disappeared.
The crowd in the guild became little, also the time past quick, it was already noon.
"I'm sooooo hungry, I want to eeeaat," said the exhausted cat girl beside her. Emilia got furious "It isn't even half of the day, you already complaining. Pull yourself together".
The cat only sulked.
"Hi Emilia," said a shy elf. She wasn't alone, and three other elves accompanied her.
Emilia looked and was surprised. "Hi, Aieries".
"My sister went on a quest, but she didn't come yesterday, so I want to ask you if she is back," said the young elf with a nervous voice.
"Ah, you mean Yinvyre, isn't she back? If I remember she went to the south" said Emilia. Yinvyre was an elf adventurer who was under Emilia.
"Yes, but she took last week another quest. A guarding job towards Beast Groove".
Emilia searched for a paper and took one. "Ah, yes merchant called Brent, a guarding quest, I think she should arrive today. Maybe they have some delay" she tried to cheer up the young elf.
"Thanks, Emilia, I am going to wait here then," said the young elf, left the counter. Emilia looked Aieries with a worried face before she continued with her work. The young elf and Yinvyre were sibling, who lived together since their parent died.
As Emilia prepared to finish the paperwork to go to lunch, a shadow fall on her face. She lifted her head and saw a guy. His appearance didn't match an adventurer, he looked like a vagabond. He wore different cloth parts tied together with several bandages. He stank of ale. Also, his eyes were like dead fish.
From his appearance, she was sure it was a human. She had already encountered several humans, but this guy looked different.
"Hello," said the guy with a deep voice, he seemed a little bit unsure. She smiled as usual, and "Welcome to the guild, what can I do for you?"
"I..I want to join the guild, you know become adventurer," said the guy with a nervous and distracted voice.
She quickly judged him as a bumpkin. She had encountered such people many times, people with a pipe dream. Most newbies romanticized adventures and ended up like death, or ran away.
"You know what an adventurer job is, right? Killing monster, go in a dangerous situation". She doubted if he was able to be an adventurer.
"Of course." said the guy.
She still doubts if he suited for that job, but she couldn't prevent people like him from joining as an adventurer.
"OK. So, what's your name?" she asked friendly while she took a quill.
"Vin. My name is Vin".
Her mind filled with only one thought as she wrote down.
This guy won't survive long as an adventurer.
She had even a little bit of compassion for this bumpkin.
With a jerk, I opened my eyes as the carriage started to rattle.
Oh, not this again
Fortunately, it wasn't that heavy like in the forest. The surrounding had dramatically changed. The salty smell, also the orange stone was gone. The environmental felt more alive, everywhere, green land. I spotted several farmhouses faraway. It seemed we had already past Hell's canyon.
The carriage headed towards a small hill, and the sun was already on the peak. I assumed it was noon. Warm air filled the carriage.
How long did I sleep?
"Behind the hills is the magnificent Magnone City," announced the merchant, who noticed that I was awakened.
He had talked a lot about Magnone City. I was a little excited to see it.
As the carriage reached the top and descended another side, I saw the stunning view. The first thing which my eyes caught wasn't the vast round city with the large white wall. Or the long river, which flooded from north to south with an S-form. It was a large green tree in the centre of the City. From here it looked very breathtaking. It was large enough to cover the whole City. Everything looked like miniatures under the big tree.
I asked the merchant, and he answered. "It is the 'Tree of wisdom'." I nodded. He had already told me about it. According Brent was the "Tree of wisdom" the largest and oldest library. It had more than ten million items, mostly books, also exclusive artefacts. It seemed it also had a function as a museum. I wasn't a big fan of reading books, but I wouldn't resist visiting this place.
A puffing sound interrupted my thought. As I turned towards the noise, I saw a white large and long steam, big enough to build a cloud.
A steam train?
I was surprised to see something like this here. Same time the merchant's eyes sparkled.
"This is our attraction, also our proud. All over the world, people coming here to see this marvel," said he with proud and with more enthusiasm.
"Ah, really?" I tried to give a surprising look.
"Yes. Since last year this vehicle runs between the Empire Veritas and the Magnone City. Normally the travel towards the Empire takes two or even three days. With this, you are in 15 hours in the capital Len. Can you believe that? Incredible, just incredible," said he with an astonishing glance.
He doesn't say, but I assume only rich people can afford this. Apropos rich...
"How much does an adventurer earn per month?" I asked him which interested me more than everything else.
He shortly thought an and gave his honest opinions "It depends, an adventure at level three earn average fifty thousand per month."
"Is that a lot of money?"
"Yes. But adventurers also have the most expenses. Potions and gears, also weapon costs a lot. You as human, you don't need any weapons, but still, you need other necessary stuff. But if you want to make a lot of money, you should aim to clear up Dungeons" said he with a smile.
Dungeons. I am sure that Brent doesn't say it out of selflessness, Dungeon has sure valuable items which he as merchant very interested in trading. Anyway, as long I can make money, it doesn't bother me.
I could already picture my rich life, owning a big villa, living a peaceful life. This City should be the right place for my dream.
While I was dreaming, we came closer to the City. I caught a glimpse of several barns outside of the City. The street became better also wider, three or four carriages could drive abreast.
As we came closer to the gate, a line of the carriage was waiting to enter the City. We didn't stop there and past them.
There was also a second line, only a few carriages, and we stopped behind them.
On the large gate, the crest of the City flaunted in big gold. Under the symbol was the word engraved "North-East". The train which I saw was heading towards "North-West". Due to six district, the City had six gate.
Two soldiers in uniform with cat-like ears approached our carriage. I was surprised at how modern and stylish their clothes looked, like modern military clothes, but dull. They wore a distinctive snow-white, ankle-length cloak with the emblem of Republic on the heart side and the backside. Also, in the same colour, they wore their trousers and boots. The waist was tightened with a silver belt, same as the six front buttons. I was sure that my face mirrored on of the polished silver belt.
I honestly didn't expect such thing, and I was rather sure they would wear a helmet or chain mill like in medieval age. Or a heavy armour like the canyon dwarf.
Brent had explained to me that they were the best soldier of the Republic Magnone, the Defense Shield. A mix of military and police forces which operate inside, also outside of Magnone City.
One guy looked at me and frowned. I didn't give any regard to him. I observed how the merchant took a credit card size plate and handed it over to the other soldier. While one soldier was reading the plate, the other soldier exterminated the outside also inside of the carriage. After everything was fine, both let us pass the checkpoint.
We went through the large gate. It was tall enough for a ten meters giant to walk through, without to bump his head against the ceiling.
The street was built with cobblestone. I saw a lot of three or four stories building. Most of them were built with stone or wooden. This area had more the vibe of the medieval age.
The carriage came to a stop. Brent gave me the rest of the money. "So. That's the rest. Thanks again, without you, I wouldn't make alive from there ." he said, also he thanked from his bottom of the heart. I could tell he meant it honest.
He seemed a nice guy; good people were scarce.
After a little chat, I jumped out of the carriage.
"Please hand this letter over to Emilia. She is an elf, with long blue hair. I have written everything in this letter" said he before he closed the carriage door.
I nodded.
He thanked me again through the window and drove away.
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