The wagon ride lasted many hours of constant plodding along. In that time, Morgana pestered Vesper with dozens of questions, gaining a basic understanding of the world she'd found herself in. The woman was obviously perplexed by Morgana's simultaneous rationality and obvious insanity—insanity meaning, she lacked or even rejected an understanding of many 'common' things. Morgana made no attempt to truly obfuscate her situation, though she admittedly didn't outright say she had traveled through worlds. Instead, she left it at the simpler explanation: that she'd somehow, for whatever reason, traveled a very great distance, and her home didn't operate on the same principles as the ones Vesper knew.

Beyond just learning what classes, stats, skills, guilds, dungeons, and so on were, at least in the broadest of senses, Morgana also more concretely discovered what Vesper and Flint's situation was. They were street rats—brother and sister—who had spent their lives bouncing between solitude, gang employment, and even the rare regular employment, before reverting back to their natural states: picking pockets. Not especially enamored by that lifestyle, however, they'd been planning for quite a while to save up enough money to pursue something different—a permanent solution to their employment woes. Adventuring life.

Something made especially suitable thanks to Vesper's recent unlocking of a class. While [Thiefs] weren't exactly the most sought-after class to team with, neither were they the worst. Many guilds—which were organizations of adventurers and delvers—would take in whoever could pay their registration fees, including regular folks seeking a class, much less someone who had already earned one. From whatever walk of life.

Especially in a burgeoning 'sprout-up' town like Quarrygate. Named such because the dungeon entrance had popped into existence within an old, depleted copper mine. That meant there was already some infrastructure in place for supporting the sudden surge of population. Not that most of the townsfolk were natives—the old town had been all but abandoned, and the new arrivals outnumbered them many times over. It'd even been renamed in celebration of the sudden burst of prosperity.

About three months had passed since Quarrygate's dungeon had opened, and the town had exploded in activity. It strained at the seams to accommodate all of the new arrivals. Not just the adventurers themselves, who Morgana could easily pick out, walking down the streets accompanied by Vesper and Flint, but also the many eager civilians who had flocked here for a similar reason. While adventurers sought prosperity through plumbing the lucrative depths of the magical construct—a magical construct Morgana was extremely interested in, if perhaps for slightly different reasons than the average [Mage]—many civilians recognized their own easy source of income, a better quality of living. Wherever wealthy clientèle frequented, the establishment owners also benefited. Even in everyday goods, like food, shelter, clothing, and every other product under the sun. Picking up one's family and life in general to relocate to a dungeon opening attracted a certain kind of person, Morgana suspected, but overall, there was a general air of excitement in the many varied peoples crowding the town.

"Alright," Vesper said. "We made it. Now the hard part. Finding a guild that'll actually take us in."

The three of them were cleaned up from their original rags; Vesper and Flint from before the wagon, and Morgana after their arrival. They had to make good first impressions, after all, and not seem like street rats to their prospective employers. Morgana was still curious why she'd shown up in ragged clothing herself. Something odd was obviously happening with her entire transmigration through worlds, but she had no way to get answers on what, exactly.

Prospects weren't looking great on finding a guild, even before they began their search. While many would accept whoever could pay their registration fees, Vesper, Flint, and Morgana might not be able to even clear that first essential hurdle. As a pair of street urchins and a recently teleported woman, the three of them weren't in the best financial straits.

"There's like a million guilds here, though," Vesper said. "Surely one of them will have some wiggle room when it comes to registration fees."

The hunt began inside the hub—the central locus of activity within Quarrygate that serviced adventurers. In more developed cities, the casually named 'hub' would be a massive, multi-level complex filled with bulletin boards, recruitment stations, taverns, equipment shops, and more. Everything an adventurer would realistically need. In Quarrygate, though, it was just a collection of buildings in the center of town. Construction for the more official complex was well underway, a few blocks down the street.

On the 'Guild Recruitment' bulletin board, there were twenty-six postings seeking new members. Undoubtedly there were other guilds already filled or not recruiting, and likely more prestigious establishments not open to the general public. From what Morgana had pieced together, guilds could be both smaller organizations local to a town, or massive ones that spanned even kingdom lines.

Scanning the various postings—joined by three others who were also peeking at the board—a frown grew on Vesper's lips. And also on Morgana's, who saw the problem.

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Even the cheapest guilds were asking for eight silver each, just for the basics—which meant a room and access to the Guild's infrastructure, usually including places to store loot, a training yard, a common room, and other adventuring necessities. Luxury depending on the guild's affluence, of course. But most importantly, to even enter the dungeon, a person had to be registered with an official guild. Probably a preventive measure for stopping random, desperate people from running in and getting themselves killed.

They had—or rather, Vesper and Flint had—six silver and some bronze between them.

Not even enough to buy one of their slots.

"Well," Vesper said. "I hope one of us has a silver tongue. 'Cuz we're gonna have to do some serious talking to make this work."

***

They split up, since there were a lot of guilds to work through. Morgana, obviously, was mostly clueless on how the world worked, even after some long discussions during the trip to Quarrygate, so she stayed with Vesper while Flint visited various guilds on his own. Seeing how each trip required them trekking through the city to find the guildhall, then speaking with the administrative staff—usually the guildmaster themself—it was a tedious process. When they couldn't afford to waste a single copper on lodging, it would be for the best if they managed to get things sorted as quickly as possible. Before nightfall, ideally.

The first three guilds rejected them outright. The fees were 'non-negotiable'. The fourth seemed slightly more promising, but when Vesper finally had to admit to only having six silver to stretch across three applicants, the Guildmaster—a portly, balding fellow who had allegedly once been an impressive adventurer, now retired—all but laughed in their faces.

When they left, Morgana was pulled aside for a private conversation by him, where he offered to waive her registration fee. But hers alone. Proving that [Mages] were, indeed, as desirable of a class as Vesper had made them out to be.

But Morgana didn't need to consider the offer; she simply declined. For a variety of reasons, she intended to stick with Vesper and Flint. While having an immediate solution to her housing and financial crisis would be admittedly relieving, her two greatest concerns were neither of those things. Rather, having someone trustworthy at her side, and two, minimizing the amount of people who knew the truth, or even half-truth, behind her circumstances. Until she better understood the true meaning and context of what crossing dimensional lines meant—and until she regained a portion of her strength, and could defend herself—she cared much more about staying covert, which joining a random guild without Vesper's alliance would preclude.

Besides. Vesper had, in a way, possibly saved her life. Though it had been a mutual effort too. But while Morgana considered herself mostly a practical person, she had some sense of honor.

"They offered you a spot, didn't they?" Vesper asked sourly, having waited outside while Morgana and the Guildmaster spoke.

"Yes," she said. "I declined."

"Why?"

Morgana gave her an odd look. Rather than stating her previous reasons aloud, she simply said, "Where next?" Her reasoning should be rather obvious, anyway.

Vesper stared at her a second longer, then pulled up the next slip of paper notating the various guild addresses they intended to check out. She had to study the paper for a long while, enough Morgana was briefly confused—before realizing that reading might not be this woman's most practiced skill.

"33 Convergence Street," Vesper finally said. She slipped the paper back into her jacket. "You know, I've got a good feeling about this one."

The next several hours consisted of many more rejections of varying levels of swiftness and politeness. By that point, Vesper was starting to look dejected. Morgana likewise was beginning to worry, since it wouldn't be long before the sun set. If they had to start paying for their own food and lodging, especially in the expensive adventuring town, even the paltry savings Vesper and Flint had would evaporate—turning an inadequate registration fee into a nonexistent one.

"Last shot," Vesper muttered, looking at the last name on the list. "Let's check it out. Maybe Flint had better luck, anyway."

Morgana doubted that. She was starting to resign herself for a much more complicated 'new beginning' than Vesper's shaky plan had suggested.

After consulting the city map, though, they discovered that the last address wasn't even within the city's boundaries. Returning to the registration postings board, they found directions on the paper itself. Morgana had taken note of that guild in particular—the 'Gryphon Company'—when first looking through their options. Because the advertised amenities, which usually included things like 'Access to Guild Vault,' 'Veteran Mentorship,' and 'Weekly Alchemy Requests,' was instead filled with statements of nothingness, the person who had written it clearly grasping for straws. Like 'Quick Guild Rank Advancement Opportunities' and 'A Supportive Environment.'

"It literally only mentioned room and board, right?" Vesper said, somewhat amusedly. "They have to be the poorest guild in the whole town, then. How'd that happen, though? It's so expensive to even register a guild. Figure everyone starting one is rich as sin."

"I'm not sure. But maybe it's a good thing," Morgana said, considering the situation with a sudden optimism. "Might be more amenable to the idea of 'reduced registration fees,' if they themselves don't have much to offer."

Vesper perked up. "Huh. Yeah, that's possible. All we really need is access to the dungeon and a place to sleep." She grimaced. "Not that a training yard, starter gear, and access to a personal alchemist wouldn't help. And it did still say eight silver on the paper."

"That's what all the lowest prices were." Some were higher, but none lower. "Maybe that's a mandated minimum, by some governing body." Morgana shrugged. "Or however that works. Could be bureaucratic stuff."

Vesper blinked. "I wouldn't know."

"It's worth checking out." Morgan frowned at the city map they were referencing. "Seems like it'll be a bit of a walk, though. The guildhall isn't even in the city's limits."

Vesper shrugged. "Not like we have much choice. Let's go see what we're in for."