“Do you really need to stop and heal every village?” Val complained to her brother was sitting on a stool in the middle of the small village market. There was a long line of people with a myriad of minor injuries, aches and pains.

“Its the right thing to do, plus its a good source of income.” Saul replied pocketing a few coppers for healing an womans broken toe.

“You barely charge them anything. You could charge silver for this kind of healing in Triton which is where we'd be if you didn't keep stopping.” Val continued half glaring at the young man with an embarrassingly placed rash. Saul had heard all the complaints before so he wasn't too bothered by it. His sister simply didn't understand the incredible feeling he got when truly helping someone.

“I'm not going to let people suffer because you're in a rush. Half the kingdom probably knows about gnomes. The guild probably has contracts on them already.”

Val huffed and stalked away leaving him to heal in peace. Krim watched the two siblings bicker from across the road. He couldn't let out his tentacles in the village for fear of causing a mass panic again, so he was stuck watching everyone else use their boons. He envied Fredd and Bargus who had also found some extra ways to make money in the villages they passed through. Bargus was drying anything and everything from wooden planks to foodstuffs while Fredd was guaranteeing the best harvest the village had ever seen.

There were a few people he could see with impressive looking boons. One woman was forming little balls of light that hung in the air when she placed them. They were used in place of street lights in the small village and gave it a warm glow. Another villager was 'growing' a building out of stone. It was slowly creeping upwards and would only need a roof put on it when done. 'I'll just stick to killing monsters I guess.'

They set out early the next morning and with no more villages to heal they made good time to Triton. They all just stopped at the side of the road and stared when the walls where finally in view, the whole party was speechless. Tritons walls were over a hundred meters tall with large towers at regular intervals. The gate was comically small in comparison but Krim could see several layers of portcullis “I can't imagine anyone breaking into that.” he said watching hundreds of moving dots on the wall which would be men and woman doing maintenance on it.

“Seems a bit unnecessary, I don't think its even been attacked before.” Fredd said finally closing his gaping mouth.

“That's the point, why would you even bother trying to take it. Easier to just leave the city alone and go elsewhere.” Val said eagerly getting back on the road.

Despite the intimidating walls the guards were incredibly lax and just cast a casual glance at the large number of people shuffling through the gate. They forced their way into the stream on people and were soon surrounded by looming buildings blocking their view of the wider city. “Is it all like this?” Val asked slightly disappointed at the overcrowded streets.

“Probably.” Krim said clapping her on the shoulder and nudging her forward. They'd been given simple directions to the Triton Guildhall and they were easy to follow since the City was amazingly well planned. when seen from on top of the walls it looked like hundreds of small squares filled with buildings, boxed in by stone roads on all sides and each block was conveniently numbered.

Krim happily ignored all of that though. All they had to do was walk straight down the main road that separated the city into two halves until he reached the other main road that cut east to west across the city further dividing it into quarters. It took half an hour of walking before they reached the great plaza at the city centre and there they found they found the Guildhall and the biggest market they'd ever seen.

It was an endless sea of people swarming from stall to stall buying exotic goods from all over the continent. Less common were the rich elite of the city going from one richly decorated shop to another, their personal guards viciously making space for them to walk. The entire thing was complete sensation overload and it started to make Krim feel slightly nauseous. He gave more than a few people bruises as he quickly forced a path to the Guild. The others stuck close to him but didn't seem to feel the same intense unease. He was gasping for air once behind the guildhall door and was immediately met with a booming chuckle.

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“Another bumpkin scared by a few people.” he laughed. “We've got a special place for your lot.” Krim gathered enough of his wits to look at the man insulting him. He was a giant. An honest to god giant was pointing and laughing at him. The man was a bit over four meters tall with a malformed lumpy face and had more muscles than humanly possible. 'he's not human though, is he?' Krim was just staring at him pale faced and sweating, only mostly from the crowd.

“Are you ok?” Saul asked while gently guiding him to the seating area the giant was pointing at. Krim just nodded and took some water that a guild clerk brought over. Fredd and Val left with her to deliver the news while Krim calmed himself. “I've no idea what came over me out there. I was fine until we got to the square and it just felt like the world was closing in on me.” He started to panic even now just thinking about it and he mentally berated himself. 'Get a grip! You can grow monster tentacles. Hell, you could probably even fight that giant over there.' He looked back at the mutated human and winced when he noticed the big mans eyes where still on him. 'Maybe not.'

“I thought the king outlawed that kind of thing.” he quietly said to Bargus and Saul who took seats around the table.

“He did but that was only a few years ago, our friend over there is probably from an older batch.” Saul said. “I actually got to heal one a year ago. It took a lot more energy to heal him than a regular person.”

Everyone had a friend who's fathers uncle claimed they knew a guy who'd been taken away by the crown and turned into a giant. The kings boon was on a whole other level.

They apparently weren't being very subtle with they're gossiping as the giant in question lumbered over to the table and took a seat in a struggling chair.

“You talking about me?” there was a dangerous edge to his voice which he kept to a low whisper. Krim and Saul froze, going for the tried and tested 'If I don't move they can't see me' defence. Bargus didn't quite get the message however.

“Yes.”

'We're dead.'

“Is that right!” the giant bellowed slamming his hands on the now cracked wooden table.

“Yep.” Bargus said nonchalantly

'Dead as fuck.'

The giant loomed over the creaking table until he was nose to nose with Bargus.

“Good. My names Gorren” his misshapen face split into a massive shit eating grin and he sat back, unfortunately this was too much for the poor chair and it splintered into a thousand pieces.

“Gorren! You giant pain in the arse. What have I told you about the furniture!” The clerk from before shouted rushing over. Gorren hopped to his feet with surprising agility and ran from the furious clerk. She chased him through a set of double doors that cut off the string of curses she was shouting at him.

“You guys need to relax. He was obviosly kidding” Bargus said to the still stunned duo.

“I saw that going differently.” Saul said settling back into his chair.

Krim just put his head down and tried to gain some kind of grip on reality.

“Theres nothing worth doing here.” Krim said looking over the job board the next morning. It seemed that cities had different priorities than small monster besieged towns. Most jobs were simple errands that people were to busy to do or required strong bodies for manual labour. There was a long list of jobs for finding lost people or animals but in a city this size they were almost impossible missions. 'At least we increased our ranks' he thought while rubbing his new tag. Krim, Bargus and Fredd had increased to wood one which seemed ridiculous after the number dangerous jobs they'd done. The guild ranks were mostly based on time served and number of jobs completed at the low ranks. Only after silver did it really indicate strength or skill level. “Still bullshit.” he muttered.

“I got one.” Val said unpinning a note covered in chicken scratch. “This innkeeper's hearing strange sounds in his basement. My bets on hidden flesh cult.”

“Giant rats, its always giant rats.” Bargus said taking the slip of paper to read.

“I'll say ghosts.” Saul added his thoughts before taking the slip to the counter.

“How do you even fight ghosts?” Krim asked while they waited.

“Some kind of priest I guess or a necromancer. I doubt my mushrooms will do much to them.” Fredd said still scanning the board.

“The jobs ours, the place is called The Miser's Cup. Who would name their inn that?” Saul wondered and led them out of the Guild. Krim braced himself and followed his team.