"Do you think there are monsters out there you can actually speak with? Like a full conversation?" I said while fiddling with the helmet, it looked like a bowl that rested on my head. 

"Personally? No, I don't think so. If a cockatrice or griffin could talk to you, you wouldn't call them monsters, would you?", Nidle who was sweeping the church grounds said, "or maybe not. They would still look horrifying."

"I guess that's true," the helmet's strap was now firmly under my chin. 

"Also, if animals could talk, they wouldn't be animals," he added, sweeping up a cloud of dust. 

"But that's not the same for humans, is it? If you had a friend who couldn't talk, he still would be a human," I argued. 

"Yes but that's out of the ordinary. You would know that something must have happened to them, so they couldn't, right?" 

I shrugged my shoulders, if I would have been smart I could have argued about things like 'even creatures that could talk could be monsters' or the like but philosophy isn't one of my strong points. 

"All setup," I knocked on the helmet, "off I go then." 

"Good luck," he wished me.

I took the old spear that was lying next to me and made my way to the Adventurers guild again. I got it from the same vendor that I pissed off when I was playing around with the sword a week back. He had already given me a price, and I hope that buying the spear and the helmet from him earned some goodwill back from him.

I had already gotten familiar with it too. I took it instead of a sword or bow because it would be the best weapon for most occasions and I got some quick lessons on how to really handle it from Nidle in his free time.

I slammed open the door, spear bumping on the wooden doorframe while I walked into the guilds’ building. 

With an unsurprised look, the receptionist pulled up some papers, "let me guess, here to join the guild?" 

"What do you think?" I said smugly, showing off the spear I had gotten. 

"Even got a helmet, eh? Came prepared for everything, did you now?" he remarked sarcastically. 

"Can you write?" He asked shoving some paper towards me. 

"Nope," I couldn't lie about something so important.

"Right, that means you also can't read," he sighed, "then I'll ask some questions and you answer. Name?"

After he poked me full of holes with questions he handed me a quill, "you'll have to still sign it to make it official. An X would be enough." 

I had a better idea. 

I wanted something cool and that something I had already in mind. I grabbed the quill, turned the paper around, and started drawing on it. 

It was a crescent moon inside a star, "cool, right?" 

He scoffed at it, "right."

"When do I start?" I asked excitedly. 

"Even if you had been accepted just now, you don't 'start'. In five days you'll come back with this here document and then you'll do a trial run, right? To see if you can handle what being a member is like," he rolled the paper I signed up and bound a string around it. 

I picked it up, "five days, that's on Otmar's day, right?" 

"Right." 

"Right," then went out the door.

I think most would just lay back and do nothing in the meanwhile but I could go earn some more money. Money never hurt anyone, and I almost spend everything on the helmet and spear.

-

The next four days I spent trying to collect some more capital for myself, cleaning out everything I could find in the forest, and hunting some smaller animals I spent every available hour training with him. 

 I even managed to kill a boar with a strong throw of the spear. The kill was ugly, the throw ripped off the face but it didn't matter. I don't think you eat face meat, I think, so it would be worth the same.

I did try to train with Nidle and even tried to get him to fight with me. At every opportunity I had I asked him if he wanted to have a sort of mock duel against me. I never did fight with a spear before, so getting an impression of what it would have felt like would have greatly helped, though I guess his monk’s oath prevented him from even having a mock duel. 

So instead of training with me, he cheered me on while I exercised and fought the air with the spear to get used to it and a grasp on how to fight with it.

And with my newly acquired wealth, I bought a leather backpack. I didn't yet have to carry anything, but I traded in a carcass for some jerky instead of money from the butcher I have visited once already with Nidle. He was nice enough to wrap them into some cloth. 

He wasn't that bad after you got to know him, it looks like we just started off on the wrong foot. I also could store the helmet there. It was uncomfortable to wear after having it on for long times, not fitting right but it was better than nothing. Its purpose wasn't to be comfortable but to protect, and if the need arises my head would be safe.

The only other things I bought were the cheapest clothing I could find, the ones I wore were worn out to an extreme and with all the forest marching I did. They had holes and rips everywhere, so it was a necessity and a water flask, I had food already but water would be more important and I couldn't rely on random rivers or streams I'd find in the wild, so in other words another necessity.

With all that in tow I was the readiest I would ever be. Some hours after sunrise on the fifth day I returned to the guild. Even though I looked really happy, the receptionist didn't and he wasn't the only one. 

Three others were standing around close to him, looking at me, clearly waiting. 

One of them had very impressive-looking armor, I couldn't tell his age, every part of his body was covered in metal.

I approached them casually, handing over the document to the receptionist, "did I crash the party?" 

"You're late," the one dressed in a black gambeson and a leather cap said.

"The sun only come up an hour ago, how can I be late?"

He clearly wanted to have a verbal fight but the receptionist chimed in and cut it short, "listen, I don't have the patience for this. Here is what you have to do. Up north two days out, right next to the village of Loathing is a little mine, right? The local population has complained that it's filled with the undead and wild animals, and it's your job to clean it out. Almost everyone can handle something like that, you guys get it. This guy here," he pointed at the third of our party. He had a big kite shield and was dressed in leather with a chain vest, "I have written down everything you have to do, with instructions and directions and everything and he seems the most reliable, so he'll be this merry little bands leader," he handed over some papers to the third member, "now go out there and make me proud," he added. 

And that was all there was to it, we made our way to the village of Loathing.