They were standing outside the city gates. Jason was practically bouncing up and down in his excitement. Finally after three months of stupid studying Baghric considers me legible enough and skilled enough to actually go into a city. Jason had gone through what he considered absolute hell before Baghric said it was now time to go and get into the guild and maybe start putting together his own team. Apparently Common was easier to learn than Jason thought it was going to be because he had gotten a good grasp of it in three months.

It was probably because after making sure I had memorized the basic alphabet and words Baghric only started to use Common to talk. I remember something about how immersion in the language and culture can help you understand and learn it much quicker.

There was a line to get into the city. It seems they had come on a slightly busy day. The line wasn’t long, only about fifteen people were in it, but Jason and Baghric were at the very back of the line having just arrived. Baghric fit in completely with his golden gilded robes, but Jason on the other hand… people looked at him in disgust mostly. He was standing there with the same wolf suit that he always had on with the hood up. He looked every part the barbarian including how scarred his body was. Even the guards shot glances of disapproval at him.

Jason didn’t care one bit. He was finally going to see a guild. A GUILD!! Jason ever since finding Baghric and getting his feet had been wanting to see and join up with a guild. Frankly it was the most appealing aspect of this world that he had found insofar. Well besides the fact that he could now probably run faster and bench more than anyone else back on Earth. This place is doing wonders at keeping me fit and healthy. Well besides the whole almost dying every few days thing. But that’s normal over here. At least in the wild it is.

Eventually Baghric gave Jason a quick slap on the head. It didn’t hurt Jason at all and in fact he barely felt it. He was now level 24 as well and his defensive skills were extremely high as well. As Jason was rapidly looking around he noticed that a part of the wall of the wall crumbled and slid off. Falling right towards a family. Without really thinking about it Jason jumped up and caught the rubble and then landed with it safely on the other side of the family.

He placed down the rubble and turned around to go back to his spot in line only to see everyone staring at him. Most had looks of shock and surprise, but Baghric just looked weary. One of the men in the family came up and stood in front of Jason with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

He was a tall man with black hair and brown eyes. He had a strong and hard jaw with a wide and built frame to match. It looked like he’d been doing farmwork or something similar all his life because he was tan and built like an ox. He extended his hand and said in a gravelly voice.

“Thank you stranger. My wife and I would’ve been fine but maybe not so much the children. My name is Keld and I’m in your debt.” Jason took the extended hand and shook it looking behind the man to where a small boy of maybe seven years old stood waving at him. Another child being held by the mother was probably only a few months old and Jason really couldn’t tell whether it was a boy or girl.

“It was nothing. It happens a lot to be honest.” Jason grinned at the man and then went back to his spot in line. After a minute or so everyone went back to what they were doing and the line started moving again.

“Done playing hero boyo.” Baghric asked under his breath. Jason looked at Baghric with mock offense.

“I just saved a child there Baghric. I am a hero.” All Baghric did was snort and shake his head.

“Ye and I’m an elf. We both know it was yer aura that caused that.” Jason sighed at that and looked helplessly at Baghric.

“It’s not as if I can stop it. It’s passive.” Baghric nodded and muttered at that. They moved forward in line. Only a few people in front of them. Baghric seemed to decide on something and nodded his head turning and facing Jason.

“At the guild I’ll get ye a skill sealer.”

“A what?” Jason hadn’t ever heard of anything like that before. Well considering he had only ever spoken to Baghric then that was actually expected.

“It’ll be a necklace or an earring or something. It’ll seal up that aura skill o’ yers until ye deactivate it. Ye just keep that on and then whenever ya want ye can seal te skill.” Jason thought about it and was hesitant. What if I don’t unseal it in time or just forget to completely. Then I’m giving up a huge advantage I have during battle. In fact my entire build is based on the fact that they won’t be able to kill me before my aura causes them to run into horrible accidents one after another. Baghric saw Jason with his scrunched up face and knew he wasn’t completely on board with the idea. Just then someone in front of them tripped on a rock and then fell face first on the ground. They got back up with a bloody and broken nose.

Baghric looked straight at Jason and then slowly and deliberately turned his head to look at where the blood was smeared on the ground. “Ok you don’t know that was me.” Jason’s flimsy attempt at a defense was nullified when another person behind them also tripped. They didn’t bleed or break anything they just tripped and fell over.

“Ok maybe it was. Fine fine yes give me the sealer.” By the time that the one sided discussion was over they were at the gates of Invetia. The two guards in front of them were both wearing metal plated armor with spears in hand and shields on their backs.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“That’ll be ten copper for each of you. Twenty copper total to enter the city.” One of the guards said lazily. They obviously would rather have been home or relaxing rather than stand in this heat the entire day. Baghric handed over twenty copper coins and we were then waved through. The currency of this world was very simple. Copper was the lowest denomination of coin which then led to silver, gold, and platinum. Each metal coin is worth a hundred of the previous coin. One silver was worth a hundred copper, one gold was worth a hundred silver, and one platinum was worth a hundred gold. Really nice and simple. Only took Jason a minute to learn it.

After entering the city Jason enjoyed the sights of it. Stone and wood was used to build everything. The streets weren’t paved and there was no smog in the air. The streets don’t have names so I’m going to have to just memorize where to go and where I am. The houses look like they’re going to be a lot better than the cold ground I’ve been sleeping on recently, but definitely worse than what’s on Earth. Very medieval looking and I very much like it. I wonder which is the guild.

Jason was once again almost bounding every which way trying to get a good look at everything. He was even about to jump on top of a roof to find the guild when Baghric grabbed his arm and then forcefully led him through the streets. From how Baghric was acting it seems that he tried to get Jason’s attention multiple times and then just gave up eventually. I’m probably being too excited. It’s just a city. A completely new city, but just a city. Although it’s a city with magic!. Look at that guy! He’s juggling fire. Not torches, but just literal balls of fire. That’s so cool! As Jason was freaking out over every little thing, Baghric continued to forcefully pull him through the streets to their destination. After a while Jason calmed down and Baghric removed his hold on him.

Walking under his own power for the first time in a few minutes Jason took in the sights more calmly. Still not as good as the forest, but it has its own charm in a way. There were shopkeepers harking their goods and people bustling this way and that on their business. Jason felt that it was full of life, noisy and boisterous life unlike the forest, but life nonetheless. Which was a pleasant feel in its own way. The dead and dark caves had scarred him and shown him that what he really wanted in life was a place full of life. Beautiful life. Although it might have also been the beastial part of him telling him that. More life, more fuel, more food, more power.

Baghric stopped in front of a large building. It was built of stone and looked like a tavern. A large tavern with what appeared to be multiple floors, but still just a tavern. Extending from the sides of the tavern were long extensions which really just looked like halls of some sort. All together the building made what looked like a squashed T shape.

Baghric went to the gatekeeper. This gatekeeper had leather armor on and two swords at his sides. In the middle of the armor was a symbol that was an archway where the middle portion of the archway extended downward into a sword blade with the bottom points of the archway connected back to the middle of the blade. This created an archway with two pincer-like ends and a sword extending downward through the middle of it.

“Hey Baghric who’s this barbarian you’ve brought with you.” The grinning guard waved his hand in a lazy greeting to Baghric, then turned and nodded to Jason.

“This ‘ere boyo’s name is Jason. How’ve ye been Del.” The guard whose name was apparently Del scratched the back of his head and opened the gate.

“I’ve been good Baghric. Your team is in the sparring court in the back right now if that’s what you're here for. If you’re here to get this man admitted into the guild then you know where the testing facilities are.” After getting us through the door Del closed the gates back up and went back to standing watch.

The insides of the guild were just as it looked from the outside. The center portion seemed to be a bar and then to the left and the right were halls that contained what looked like shops and other similar things. Baghric immediately led Jason to the right hall and they went to the very end of it. There at the end was a counter where a girl was standing. I guess it’s your typical adventurer guild receptionist. Glad to see that things are still similar to stories and such.

“Marissa hello lass. I ‘ave a person I want to test for admittance into te guild.” The receptionist Marissa was a lovely girl. She had nice brown wavy hair and beautiful brown eyes to match. It might’ve been because it was his first time seeing and talking to a girl in a few months of only being able to see Baghric’s ugly mug but she looked especially beautiful to him. She was wearing leather armor like all the other guild employees apparently with that same symbol. She turned to Jason and looked at him up and down inspecting him.

“Alright well I’ll place him on the list. For now though he can stay here. He’ll be tested tomorrow. Also Baghric one more thing… it’s nice to see you again.” Marissa ended the conversation with a soft smile and then went back to whatever it was she was doing before. She almost completely ignored me the entire conversation. Well no ya that’s about the reaction I normally get… damn.

Baghric was apparently trying to waste no time and immediately went back to the main tavern hall and talked to the barkeep up front. The barkeep was wearing a white shirt and was currently cleaning some mugs with a hand towel. After a brief discussion Baghric handed over five copper and got a key in return. Then he turned, grabbed Jason's arm, and led him upstairs through the staircase at the back of the tavern.

The second floor, which wasn’t the top apparently as the staircase kept going up, was full of rooms for the guests. Baghric led Jason to a room number twelve and then unlocked it leading Jason inside. All that was in there was a chair, a desk, and a bed. The window was overlooking the back of the building where there were dirt squares laid out for sparring and a bow range on the side. Jason from where he was could see multiple people training throughout the sparing range although one particular fight held his attention.

One of the people fighting was a werewolf and the others were similar half animal half human hybrids. There were four of them total. The werewolf was fighting what looked like a werehippo and there was also a werehawk fighting a werepanther. The werewolf was a typical werewolf having the head of a wolf and the rest of the body being covered in fur yet being human-like, besides the feet and hands which were elongated and clawed. The werepanther was the same way. The werehawk had the head of a hawk and the body of a human yet it had bird legs and wings on it’s back. The werehippo was a fat human with the head of a hippo.

The werehippo was wearing tank armour. There was no other way for Jason to describe it. It was armour that encased the werehippos entire frame being bulky and hard. It was using two shields as its weapons, if you could call them that. The werewolf was wearing metal plate armour and was using a two handed greatsword. The werehawk and werepanther were dressed as a ranger and a rogue respectively. The werehawk had a bow and leather armor while the werepanther had two knives and dark coloured leather armour.

They were all fighting in a skirmish in the field. Remembering what Del had said Jason turned to Baghric. “Those your teammates?” Baghric walked over to the window and then grinned. He turned to Jason nodded and then practically ran out of the room. A minute or two later Jason saw Baghric appear on the field. The moment Baghric was there all the therianthropes came and talked to him using animalistic noises and Baghric replying in kind.

Smiling Jason laid on the bed and stared at the wooden ceiling. I guess that means that I’m almost officially on my own. That soured his mood somewhat and Jason sighed. I have more important things to worry about right now. For example the test tomorrow.

Jason brought up his status knowing that he needed to plan what he would train for the remaining time he had today.