I'm not sure what I was expecting the guild to look like but I'm sure it wasn't what I found. The door swung in revealing a rather large reception area. The room was pretty well furnished having enough seating for twenty people. At the far end was a desk with a receptionist sitting behind it. The receptionist was a rather well-dressed male elf that was currently helping out a client.

I looked around the room noting that the seats had numbers carved into the armrests. I made my way over to the first chair quickly finding a built-in ladder that made it rather easy to seat myself if the large chair. I curled my tail around my waist doing my best to ignore the conversation happening ten feet away.

I had to hold onto my tail to keep it from reacting. I forced myself to focus on my tail and fur. My fur was matted, stained, and had dirt dulling its shine. I resolved to buy a bath and brush. What surprised me was Emma and Jareld didn't say anything about my appearance. My hands twitched to brush out my fur but I forced them to stop once I remembered where I was.

Footsteps followed by a gasp had my head snap in the direction of the noise. I gave my best smile and a wave to the scaled woman. Her face was a mask of worry, her finger picking at her sleeves. I slid off my chair and made my way around the woman and up to the desk. I climbed up a platform that was placed to the left of the receptionist.

"Hello, how can the guild help you today?" The receptionist asked

"I'd like to join the guild." I said as I pulled a silver coin out of my inventory and slid it over to the man.

"Certainly. I just needed you to put your hand on this and accept the prompt."

The receptionist placed a box made of crystal on the countertop. I let out a soft whistle as I reached out and placed my hand on the top of the box. A notification forced itself into my vision.

You have found a guild node.

Would you like to join "Adventurer's Guild"? [Yes/No]

I mentally hit 'Yes'. I felt something prick in my palm and pulled my hand back. I looked at my palm seeing a long thin cut that was already healing over. I looked back at the receptionist about to ask about the cut when the box opened. Inside sat a wooden badge just like the ones Emma and Jareld wore.

At a nod from the receptionist, I picked up the badge and ran my thumb over it. I looked at the back and studied a glyph engraved on it.

"You just need to press it to where you want it. The badges are enchanted with a few things they can't be lost, will fix any damage done, will record accomplishments, and a few other things I'll let you find out. To grow in ranks you have to complete quests. Once you've completed the right number you'll have the chance to take a quest of a higher rank that will be supervised if you're successful your badge be updated to reflect your new rank." The receptionist said before I could ask my questions.

He gestured at a door set off to his left before continuing. "You can go into the guild proper now either through that door or from outside. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"Where's a place I can get a bath?" I asked.

He chuckled and gave a nod. "The guild provides room and board for all its members for a discounted price."

"Thank you. I think that's everything for now." I said.

I hopped off the platform and made my way across the room and through the door leading deeper into the guild. The room was huge compared to the welcoming area. A pillar was standing in the middle of the room with tables spread out around it. Off to the left of the room was a desk large enough for three attendances to sit at. A staircase was set off to the side of them headed upstairs and a bar was set in the back of the room.

I spotted a few people sitting down and chatting between themselves while servers moved from table to table dropping off new drinks only to slip through a door I could only assume led to the kitchen. I made my way to the desk at the back of the guild with my wooden badge on display over my left pectoral. I walked directly up to the attendance with a raised platform in front of them. I hopped up onto the platform and smiled kindly at the beautiful human woman.

"Umm….hi. Yes Hello. I'm Theseus. I just joined the guild. It's nice to meet you." I stammered and blurted out.

'SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!' I screamed inside my head. She gods bless her chose to ignore the foot I shoved into my mouth.

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"Hello, Theseus. How may I help you? Are you here to turn in quest items or sell monster parts?"

"Yes, that. I'd like to sell something to the guild." I said.

I started to pat where my pockets should be only to stop myself and pull the map out of my inventory.

"I was in Oberon's Hunting Ground and got this map from a hidden room after beating its guardian. I also have some giant horned rabbit meat and pelts I'd like to sell. Oh, I also need a room and bath." I said finally getting my brain to kick into gear.

"We can certainly help with all of that. First how long did you want to rent the room for? It's one silver a night for guild members." She asked.

"Well I'm not sure how long I'm going to stay in the city so let's just do the one night for now." I answered.

"Very good. Now please place the items you'd like to sell in this box please." She placed a strange box on the table.

I looked down at the roughly shoe size box only to see the opening was pitch black. I placed my hand on the box and brought up my inventory. Two grids popped up in my view on the right was my inventory and on the left was an empty grid that looked to have about one hundred boxes. I let out a soft whistle as the size of the transfer box.

I split up the rabbit meat keeping twenty pounds of it. I also put in the map, all four of the rabbit pelts, both spider chitin plates, the four spools of spider silk, the boar hide, the weasel pelt, and all twenty flame-touched feathers. I decided that if I was going to craft items for myself it would be after I got training to do so and since most of my crafting materials were rather common I'd only keep the jewel of my collection The Essence of Night. I closed both inventories and rubbed the back of my neck.

"I may have forgotten a few things I wanted to sell." I explained.

"It's fine. That happens to everyone. Let me just go through everything and I'll get you your money minus the one silver for your room. Would you like a receipt?" She reassured

"Yes please." I said.

The receptionist nodded and pulled out a pad of paper along with a book. She would write notes down before flipping through the book and noting the price of each item, taking more notes. It took about five minutes for her to find and double-check each item. She took out a new piece of paper cleaning up her notes before sliding the paper over to me along with the box.

129 lbs of Rabbit meat +12 gold 9 silver

1 Map of Oberon's Hunting Ground +50 gold

4 Giant Rabbit pelts +2 gold

2 Spider chitin plates +5 gold

4 Spools of spider silk +8 gold

1 Boar hide +1 gold

1 Weasel pelt +5 copper

20 Flame-touched feathers +20 gold

One night stay at guild rates -1 silver

Total: 143 gold 8 silver 5 copper

My mouth went a bit dry at the total and flicked my eyes back up to the attendance.

"H-how wealthy am I?" I asked

"Well Theseus if all you did was live in an inn you could take most of the year off or about four years in the guild but we kick members out if they don't complete quests at least once a month." She explained.

"Thank you, Mis. You've been a great help." I said.

I opened up the box's inventory and pulled the coins and a key from there into my inventory. I pulled the key out checking the number. The key had two hundred eleven engraved on its stem. I smiled and pushed over a gold coin to the attendance.

"For all the help. I really appreciate it being new to this whole thing and all." I said

She took the gold coin smiling softly and gave me a curt nod. I hopped down from the platform and headed up the stairs looking for my room. Once I was on the second floor I found to my surprise that about a fourth of the doors were sized for someone of my short stature.

I made my way over to the shorter doors and quickly found my room. Unlocking it I stepped inside before closing the door behind me. The room was small but that was to be expected. Just eyeing it I'd say the bedroom was about six feet by five feet. There was plenty of room for myself being just a few inches shy of three feet tall with my shoulder being about nine and a half inches wide. At the back of the room, was a door that opened into a full bathroom with a tub that looked like it would easily fit me. Apparently being small did come with some perks after all.

I luckily didn't have to hull bucks to fill up the tub as the guild at least had indoor plumbing. I filled the bath with steaming hot water and took my armor off before slipping in and enjoying finally getting clean.

I scrubbed away at my fur for what seemed like hours getting the dried blood and dirt free having to refill the tub twice. After my much-needed bath, I turned my efforts of cleanliness to my armor and greatsword, washing the dirt off my armor and re-sharpening my blade to the best of my abilities. With cleaning complete I stored both in my inventory and collapsed on the bed wrapping my arms around my tail and slowly drifting off to sleep.