“Damn.” That’s all I could say as I stared up at the massive building. It had a massive marble staircase with round marble pillars that supported the extended roof that cast a shadow in the square in front of the building. It gave off an imposing image of both power and wealth. However the main building paled in comparison to the one building besides that castle that could be seen from the entire city.

“I guess thatʼs what a real wizard’s tower looks like…” The massive spiralling tower rose almost to the same height as the castle despite its much lower elevation. The building glittered in the sun behind the main building of the guild and sent colourful rays of light dancing over the nearby building. I felt a strong sense of discrepancy as I looked at the truly ostentatious building. Was there not supposed to be only a few mages in the city?”

I looked over at the building to the left that I had been informed was the mercenary wing. It was large, if the main building was made to intimidate the building of the Mercenary was clearly meant to house a lot of people and goods. It was an unornate blocky stone building of five floors. From what it looked like the top four floors were meant for housing. The top once even had balconies giving the impression that there was greater comfort the higher up you lived. A lot of tough looking people were traveling in and out of the building from the several doors on the bottom floor of that building.

“From the looks of it most traffic to the Guild is tied to the mercenary guild.” I frowned and looked at the building to the right that looked almost shabby as it seemed to lean towards the main guild building. “That must be the Explorers Guild…” I was not sure what to feel about what looked like an oversized Inn. The two ground floors looked to be made in the same style as the mercenary building. It was just much smaller, however. “What a mess…” I could not help but voice my thoughts with a sigh.

The three upper floors of the Explorers Guild were an absolute mess of wooden construction that looked to have been added on haphazardly as the need arose. Different styles and ideas were built next to one another as if fighting for position. I felt a headache coming on from just watching so I strode up the marble staircase and entered the main building.

The insides were far less ostentatious than I had imagined, it looked similar to the reception area of a really large hotel. There was a large and well-appointed seating area just inside and at the back of the room there was an ornate desk that ran along almost the entire back wall. Behind said desk stood ten people dressed in similar dark uniforms. “Those uniforms look similar to the one’s I saw in the castle.” The castle staff and these people were dressed in something similar to a butler’s uniform without the jacket. Even the four women wore the same thing and exuded a very different aura from the ladies in the castle and the women on the streets.

“Well considering the queue to get to the women they must indeed be popular.” I chuckled. There were queues for each of the four women, the longs had six people in it despite the fact that one of the men was free and the others only had one or two people waiting. “Maybe they have different rolls?” I shook my head and walked up to the free receptionist.

“Good day good sir, how may the Guild be of service to you today?” The man said with a bow. His movement and speech was so impeccable that it took me a moment to respond.

“Hello, I was told to come here…” I was a bit flustered at this point as I thought over how little information I had.

“I see.” The man answered with a somewhat stiff expression. I laughed a bit and looked over the man as I pondered the next move.

“He looks both extremely used to wearing those clothes and at the same time exceptionally uncomfortable in them.” I thought as I looked at the man’s rather chiselled face and well trained body. “It is men such as this that make me appear as hole’s in the air…” I thought bitterly.

“Well, might I have your name?” The man asked with some scepticism.

“Oh, sorry. My name is Victor Lynth.” I gave the man an apologetic bob of the head.

“And who sent you here?” The man asked professionally.

“Umm, well…” I hesitated. “Should I just tell him?” I mulled it over for a bit but there was not much choice. “Hector Alvian told me to come here.” I stated with a sigh and noted that the man’s eyes widened perceptibly before he managed to school his expression.

“I-I see. I will go and confirm with my superior, do have a seat for now. I will send for refreshments.” The man stuttered slightly and gestured at one of the sofas close to the left side of the desk where we now stood.

“Alright.” I did as I was told and sat down on the sofa, and was almost immediately served a glass of honeyed wine with ice. My eyes widened and I thanked the lovely serving maid who bowed gracefully before retreating behind the desk and into an open door.

“My first cooled drink in over a day!” I did not expect to find such joy in something that I had come to see as natural but as I sipped the sweet wine I couldn’t help but smile.

“I suppose that even in this world comfort is just a matter of power and money.” I was starting to think about the future when the man from before approached me.

“Sir, I have confirmed your appointment.” He bowed and continued. “Now if you would follow me this way.” He gestured to one of to the right side of the long desk and hallway that led further into the building.

As I followed the man past the entire length of the desk both the receptionists and the visitors shot me curious glances. “This might be the most amount of attention I have gotten in my life.” I felt a bit embarrassed to admit that and I could not help but think of my rather plain life until today or rather yesterday.

As we entered the hallway I could see several small to medium sized offices to the right and left. I was however escorted past these and for a moment I thought that I would be taken to the mages tower but at the end of the hallway there was a round room without windows with a small pedestal in the middle.

There was no other exit and when I was about to ask where we were going the man touched the pedestal with his hand and I felt the sudden shift as the room started to rise. “An elevator!” I almost shouted as the realization struck but before I could the room came to a stop.

“This way.” The man gestured at me to follow and walked off into a corridor similar to the one on the ground floor.

“Umm, how does that room work?” I asked as I followed closely behind the man.

“There is an enchantment in that part of the building that allows that room to shift position when supplied with mana.” The man answered in a professional tone.

“Well that explains nothing, but okay. Maybe enchantments are rather common in this world? I mean in a world of magic that might be a given…” My internal thoughts were cut off as the man stopped and knocked on a very large set of ornate doors. “I guess I am meeting some bigshot of the guild then.” I might have made a face at that but I managed to get a hold of myself as the man opened the door for me and gestured for me to enter.

“Thanks.” I gave the man a slight bow and entered the door to find myself in a well-appointed office with massive windows that overlooked the city.

“Welcome!” Greeted a strong voice, the voice belonged to a man that looked very much like a slightly younger and buffer version of the chancellor. A man stood and walked over to me and shook my hand vigorously. “My name is Albert, Albert Alvian. I’m the guild master of the Elianor branch of the Guild.” He smiled widely.

“Thank you, I am Victor Lynth.” I introduced myself and nodded my head. “Talk about bigshot… not only is he the guild master but he has to be the chancellor’s brother.” Before I could ask, the guild master spoke.

“Yes, my brother informed me.” He grinned. “Well for now let’s have a seat, I’m sure you have a tonne of questions.” He gestured at the two sofas that stood in front of the large desk the guild master had been seated behind. I sat down on the sofa closest to me and the guild master to the one opposite, he must however have noticed me glancing at the massive window.

“Haha, quite the view, no?” The guild master laughed and looked out over the city below.

“Indeed.” I answered, looking at the city. “This office must be located on top of the roof above the stairs.”

“Well, enough about that. My brother, asked me to help you get your feet under you and to get you out of Elianor.” He wore a slightly troubled look and drummed his fingers on the desk. “Where do I even start…” He trailed off thinking.

“Um, how much do you know?” I had to ask.

“Everything my brother knows.” The Guild master stated flatly. “Normally everything about you would have been kept secret even from me.” He sighed. “But as you know your circumstances are a ‘bit’ unusual.”

“Are there a lot of people like me?” I asked in wonder. “I vaguely recall something about being number 0021.”

“It is not unheard of, but I only know of three confirmed cases, yours included. The guild however suspects eight others to have backgrounds similar to you.”

“I see.” I wondered if I would ever meet anyone else from earth.

“However, you are the first confirmed case that the guild handles.”

“Handles?” I asked, stopping myself from swallowing a mouth full of dry saliva.

“Well, you are welcome to try your luck on your own. We will not force you to join the guild nor are we planning anything untoward at the moment.”

“At the moment?”

“Well yes, the Guild has to protect its interest after all. So should you become our enemy you will obviously be treated as such as well.” He gave me a half grin that seemed rather vicious.

“Suppose that’s only natural.” I responded with a rather strained smile.

“That, it is.” He answered with a nod. “Not that I expect that to happen, not only is it rather hard to become an enemy of the guild but most people who tread on such a path where they’d become an enemy of guild tend to live rather short lives.” He leaned back. “With that out of the way, let’s start with what my brother has already arranged for.” He pulled out a sheet of paper from a pile on the desk. “My brother has arranged for me to give you a transportation job. This is as you might assume only a formality, the main objective is to safely get you to one of the neighbouring cities.”

“Is traveling dangerous in this world?” I said, a bit unsure.

“Why yes, that’s why people generally travel in large groups or with powerful guards. How do you deal with monsters and bandits where you come from?” He asked, eyes sparkling with curiosity.

“Ehh, w-we don’t have monsters where I come from… and bandits aren’t really a thing anymore.” I spoke a bit hesitantly and the guild master’s eyes widened in surprise.

“No monsters and no banditry…” He hummed and tapped his fingers on the table. “That would make travel much simpler.” He chuckled and I did not know how to respond.

“I mean, it is not only that there are no monsters and no bandits, we have airplanes and other forms of transport that’d probably be beyond his wildest imagination.” I thought with a wry smile.

“Anyway, before I get to side-tracked I’ll tell you which cities you can go to with my brother’s arrangement.” He looked over his papers again. “You can go to Espos, Krahm or the Capital Eiethar within this kingdom, or you could go to the city state of Amar.” He looked up and grinned. “Looks like that told you just as much as I’d expected.” He laughed. “Those are the closest major cities from here. My brother likely has yet to give up on convincing our great niece so he would prefer if you stay as close as possible without contradicting his orders.”

“Great niece?” I had to ask.

“The Duchess is the daughter of my nephew, thus she is my great niece.” He sighed. “And I have to say, normally she is very good at her job and we are mighty proud of her…” He gave me another troubled smile. “But as the Duchess her will is law, especially in a case like this.” He sighed.

“Why especially in a case like this?”

“Because your summoning was supposed to be a boon for Elianor. A boon arranged for us by the city's patron goddess Amoria. If we asked the king to intervene he would just snatch you up for himself.” The Guild master shrugged. “Thus there is nothing we can do except to try and convince her.”

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“Do I have any say in all of this?” I was a bit put off by their plans for me. He must have noticed because he snorted.

“’Course you do. I doubt anyone would be willing take the risk involved with making a puppet out of a champion, not after what happened to the Uthran Empire a few years back.” He shook his head as if to dislodge such unpleasant thoughts from his mind.

“What happened?” I was very curious. If there was some kind of power looking out for people like me it’d be wise to know about it.

“Hard to tell.” The guild master shrugged. “There are a lot of different stories about what happened so it is hard to know the exact truth. What I do know is that the Uthran crown prince more or less enslaved their champion and forced her into becoming a tool for their wars. This must have displeased the gods greatly for when the champion was forced to stand as the vanguard against a horde of demons a man appeared before the champion. The man, Aion, is said to have cut the very fabric of this world and sent the champion away before massacring the prince and his bodyguards. Along with anyone that attacked him, this included the demonic horde.” I was flabbergasted and the guild master chuckled dryly.

“Are umm… are you telling me, that a single man slaughtered a horde of demons and an imperial prince with his presumably elite guards?” I swallowed hard at the amused nod I got in response. “Dear god…” I shuddered.

“And that is something that the Guild has confirmed, there are other more outrageous claims that state that Aion trapped the entire army in some kind of barrier and then killed all of the black sinners of the imperial army.” He shook his as if to say how impossible that would be.

“Black sinners?”

“People who have so many or such grave sins that the gods themselves have forsaken their souls.” It looked like he was about to continue when he blinked and cleared his throat. “I’m sorry it seems as though we have drifted quite far off topic once again.” He stood up. “For now come with me.” He walked over to the side of the large office and gestured to a very large full body mirror by the wall. “This is what is called a Mirror of self, it allows you to see your status…” He looked over at me “Do you know what ‘Status’ means?”

“Um, yes I have an ability that lets me check my status.”

“Oh.” He looked pleasantly surprised by that. “That is rare… humm..” I thought for a moment. “That means that if you are able to learn an identification spell…” He trailed off speaking to himself in a voice that was too low for me to hear. After a few moments he came back to himself. “Oh, um sorry about that. I was a bit lost in thought.” He looked a bit disappointed as he looked at the mirror. “I suppose that you won’t need the mirror then, unless you want to join the Guild.” He gave me a wink as he said that.

“I mean… I know almost nothing about this world, this obviously means I know very little of the Guild as well. What I have heard though...” I trailed off thinking about Imon’s face as I had mentioned that I’d be going to the Guild. The guild master made a face.

“I can assure you that what you have heard is probably rather far removed from the truth or it’s about the Mercenary guild and it is probably all true. Haha.” He laughed as he said the last part before he assumed the friendly face he had greeted me with. “But irrelevant of what you have heard, you should probably consider joining the Guild. “He looked serious as he continued. “My brother has done what he can for you but even here his power is limited and as soon as you leave even that goes away.”

I looked into the eyes of the guild master and thought I could see genuine concern in his eyes. The slight green colour he gave off made me want to trust him. He had a slightly fuller shade of green than Imon, so the guild master was the second most friendly person I had met in this world. “According to my Sixth sense at least.”

“…” there was a moment of silence before I took a deep breath. “What are the benefits and disadvantages of joining the Guild?” Was what I asked in the end.

“There are many merits and only a few demerits I’d say, but I’m the guild master.” He said with a wink and led me back to the couches. “First of all, as a guild member you will receive a guild badge that denotes your rank, association and works as a form of identification.”

“Oh shit, I didn’t think about that. Is it important to have identification in this world?” I remembered that there had only been the vaguest of identifications in medieval times. “Outside of the nobility, I think?”

“Why yes, very few places will let you in without some form of identification and those that do are generally better to stay out of.” He grabbed a cup that had been hidden behind some papers and an inkwell only to frown as he noticed that it was empty. “Would you like something to drink?” He asked as he retrieved what I can only describe as a waiter’s bell.”

“Sure.” I responded. The clear note of the bell echoed in the room and soon a middle aged woman entered the room with a tray. On the tray were two glasses with an amber liquid that she placed in front of me and the guild master before she curtsied and left.

“This is my favourite brandy.” The guild master had a happy smile as he leaned back in his chair and sipped from his glass.

The brand was, well it wasn’t great. I mean don’t get me wrong it was not bad, but I have tasted a whole lot of brandies with deeper flavour, better after taste and most importantly with clearer liquid. This brandy was a bit murky and a bit sharp. So I chose not to comment.

“Well back to the Guild I suppose.” He straightened in his chair. “One of the biggest benefits is that you gain access to all of the jobs that are posted in any of our guild halls.”

“What kind of jobs are those?”

“Any kind, there are very few things the Guild doesn’t do if I’m honest. But as an example we handle almost all the caravan security in the world through the Mercenary guild. But we also do things like monster subjugation and dungeon exploration.”

“Dungeon exploration?” I was probably feeling a bit more excited by this than was entirely called for.

“Yes, most of the discovered dungeons in the world are under Guild management and as a member you are granted unlimited access to them. Well, as long as you meet the requirements that is.” He finished his brandy with a pleased sigh. “So the big bonuses of being a member of the Guild are that you will have access to almost every city in the world with only a small entrance fee. You will get the ability to take jobs from the guild, a job that becomes extremely lucrative when you get to the higher ranks. And finally you have the dungeons and the guild sponsored training you will have access to as a guild member. The last thing might be the most important as it is what saves the lives of more adventurers than you’d ever imagine.” He paused and ginned. “Now as for your responsibilities. First you are required to pay a 15% fee of everything you earn as long as you are a member and yes that includes activities you perform outside of guild jobs. Moreover, if you join the Mercenary guild you may find yourself drafted to defend the city or country you are in from monsters and demons should such an event occur. You are also required to take the guild oath, swearing to not work against the guild and to help your fellow members should they need it.” After talking for a bit the guild master took a deep breath. “The other two guilds have their own requirements and liberties but you are not able to join the Explorers guild.”

“Does that mean I could join the Mage guild and the Mercenary guild right off the bat?” This question made the guild master frown.

“Well to join the Mercenary guild you only need to pass a simple combat test, but the mages guild…” He looked at me curiously. “To join the Mage guild requires you to have Mana, a magical skill or you must know a spell which you can cast.” He suddenly looked at me expectantly. “Do you meet those requirements?”

“Um, yeah…” Before I could continue the guild master talked over me.

“Then you should without a doubt join the guild!” He stood and leaned over the small table in between the couches. I leaned back into the couch as far as I could go.

“If this was an anime the guild master would be breathing heavily and his nose would start bleeding.” His intensity made me picture it clearly.

“If you join the guild as a mage not only will you get a signing bonus, you will be granted access to the mage tower both here and in any city with a large enough guild hall to have a mage tower. Short of going to one of the great Academies, this is the best way to learn new spells, especially for a beginner!” He must have noticed my distress at this point as he cleared his throat and sat back down. “Also mages are exempt from all guild obligations and have their fee lowered to 10%. Instead once a year the guild can force you to take on an appropriate assignment.”

“What kind of bonus are we talking about?” I thus far saw no problems in joining the guild. “Also if I am honest, learning spells sounds terribly exciting.”

“That depends on how much Mana you have and what skills and spells you have.” He paused here and became serious again. “I should also tell you now, your spells and skills are recorded when you join the guild and whenever you want to increase your rank. Normally it is in your best interest to keep all of your skills, spells and such a secret. “He gave me a hard look. “But to ensure the safety and integrity of the guild as well as the security of our members we record that information so that our jobs are given to the correct people.”

“Why keep it secret?” I had a good idea but I felt like I should still ask.

“Because if people don’t know what you are capable of they are less likely to do something you or they’d regret. Also the more tricks you have up your sleeve the more ways you have to get out of tricky situations. Thus most people reveal as little as possible to anyone but the people they trust most.” He chuckled then and leaned back on the couch. “Back in the day a lot of people simply refused to have their statuses recorded at the guild, I was told it was quite a headache.”

“It sounds like joining would be my best bet…” I still had a few reservations if I was going to be honest.

“Indeed, I can guarantee that it’d make your life easier. All the more so considering your special circumstances.” He grinned. “I don’t know what your old world was like, but I can guarantee you that this world won’t bore you.” The guild master smiled widely.

“May you live an interesting life…” I mumbled.

“Indeed!” The guild master just smiled, obviously unaware of Chinese proverb.

“I guess…” I sighed but honestly felt more than a bit excited. “I guess I will join the guild.” I had planned on becoming a doctor or a teacher and I still might but going to a fantasy world without becoming an adventurer just feels wrong!”

“Excellent!” The guild master stood and shook my hand. “Who would have thought that shaking hands would be a thing even here?” I wore a wry grin and the guild master walked me back over to the mirror. “Now this mirror is the first step to sign up to the guild.”

“Do all the new guild members use this mirror?”

“By the gods no. Only very special cases and higher promotions use this mirror. We have several such mirrors in every guild, this one is but the highest ranked one.”

“Highest rank?”

“Yes items, skill, monsters and even demons come in varying ranks depending on the strength. We define this in the ascending order from, iron, bronze, copper, silver, gold, mithril and orichalcum. Most basic skills are iron ranked, such as Novice swordsmanship and Bash. Same goes for a crude iron weapon or basic leather armour. For monsters a single goblin would be Iron ranked.” He paused and looked at me then. “Do you know what a goblin is?”

“Small, green, long eared and ugly semi-intelligent humanoids?” I asked, thinking of the stereotypical fantasy creature.

“Aside from green, yes. I thought you said your world did not have monsters?” The guild master asked, confused.

“We don’t. But we have vivid imaginations.” I answered with a wince. “That is just too much to be a coincidence…”

“That so.” The guild master shook his head amused. “Anyway back on topic, this mirror is gold ranked. Meaning it can detect statuses, skills, titles and such up to gold ranked skills. In the capital they have a mithril ranked mirror and in the guild headquarter the original Mirror of self is kept. That one is supposed to be orichalcum ranked and it is said that it can even see through unique and special skills.” The guild master's eyes glittered.

“Wait, do you mean that ‘this’” I pointed at the mirror in front of us. “can’t see through special skills?”

“Well no, special skills lay outside of the normal system and even mithril ranked mirrors can only see through a handful of them.” His eyes widened and he smiled even wider than before at me. “I heard that you might have a special skill from my brother but was that really true?” His eyes almost sparkled.

“I do… um…” I looked at my status window.

Name: Victor Lynth, lvl 1 Human.

Class: None

HP: 90/90

E: 62/84

MP: 132

Will: 220

Attributes: Str: 8, Agi: 9, Dex:10 , Vit:9, End:7, Int:12, Wis: 11, Cha:9.

Skills:

Special: Interface, Skill point system, True familiar (Simon), Sixthsense, Telekinesis

Passive: Mind palace 1, Mind 2,

Active: Storage 3, Soul weapon 8, Dimensional magic 3(new).

Boons: Esper

Skill points: 4

“I have five of them I thought.”

“That is truly extraordinary! As I mentioned before, special skills lay outside of the normal system and are far more personal, they are also said to be limitless in how strong they can grow. An added benefit is that it is impossible to tell how strong the skill is so even if someone would learn of your special skill it won’t help them determine your strength.” He clapped me on the back heartily. “Now I’m even happier that I managed to convince you to join the guild Victor!” He laughed merrily. “Well this is getting me very excited, let’s see what the mirror says. Put your right hand on the mirror and let the feeling wash over you.”

I took a deep breath and did as I was asked. As soon as my hand touched the mirror I felt like a wave of ‘something’ washed over me and in the next moment when I opened my eyes text started to appear on the mirror. It was in a language I had never seen before but I could read it without problem.

Traveller: Victor Lynth, lvl 1

Title: None

Physique: Low

Cognition: Medium.

Mana: Medium.

Skills: Unknown, Unknown, Unknown, Unknown, Storage 3, Dimensional magic 3, Mind 2, Mind palace 1.

“That’s it?” I thought, confused and looked at my status window again. “It didn’t even detect all my skills, it only registered eight skills. I have 10… I wonder which ones it was unable to detect.” I looked over at the slack-jawed guild master.

“… Level 1… 8 skills, 4 of which are unknown…” He just stood there gaping like a fish out of water. So I cleared my throat and the guild master looked at me with vacant eyes. It took him an additional moment to get his shit together.

“I guess I’m more out of the ordinary than I had expected…” I glanced back at the screen. “I should probably try and keep this under wraps as much as possible…” I then looked at the thing that bothered me the most. “What does “Traveller” mean?” I asked, hoping to get an answer that was different from the one I had guessed.

“That appears to be your race…” The guild master said as he looked sideways at me then he fell into thought.

“One more thing, what language is this? This is the first time I have seen it but I can read it as well as English.”

“What is Englrish? No nevermind I got it from context. It is written in Veriidian, same as the language we are speaking right now.” I probably looked as shocked as the guild master just had when I learned that.

“I for sure thought that I was speaking English… but I guess that’d be strange in an entirely different world. Then again it might just be some sort of translation magic or some other thing along those lines.”

“I must say I am surprised though, to think that you would have all of that at level 1!” He let out an incredulous laugh. “This is beyond my wildest expectations.” He took a deep breath and touched the frame of the mirror and a sheet of paper appeared in his hand. “Let’s sit back down, I need to think this over.”