The Adventurer’s Guild was as Adam had expected, similar to the others, but surrounded by water. This Adventurer’s Guild, however, was far larger than the previous Adventurer Guilds. Adam thought back to the other guilds he had seen in the larger towns, and realised they were slightly bigger than the guilds he had seen in Red Oak and Deadwood, but this guild? It was easily four or five times as big as the guild in Red Oak.

‘She’s a big girl,’ Adam thought.

“I should stop here,” Timothy said, not wanting to approach the guild any further. “Adventurers don’t appreciate us guards hanging around too close.”

“Yeah, I noticed there was some bother between guards and adventurers in other towns,” Adam said. “The guild protected me quite a few times.”

“What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything,” Adam replied, frowning. “Right, Jurot?”

“Yes,” Jurot said.

“For once, Adam is right on this,” Jaygak said.

“What do you mean for once?”

Jaygak smiled innocently, raising her brows towards him. “That time you didn’t try to aggravate anyone, from what I remember. Though, it might have been after you and Sir Harvey fought?” She snickered quietly.

“It might have been,” Adam replied, clearing his throat. “Either way, Vice Master Paul pulled me out.”

“Well, I hope that they won’t need to pull you out while you’re in East Port,” Timothy said. “You’ll find that the Duchess doesn’t give the guild as much leeway in our fine city, though we barely find any trouble from the guild anyhow.”

“Don’t worry,” Adam replied. “I’m just here to win the tournament with my companions and nothing more.”

“Right,” Timothy replied. “Sir Vonda, it was a pleasure to see you again. If you need any assistance, the guards are always eager to assist.”

“It was a pleasure to see you again too, Timothy,” Sir Vonda replied, the pair placing a hand on their hearts and bowing slightly.

Timothy stepped aside, his eyes glued to the young Devilkin boy, who was still carrying the golden cloth. Kalid looked up towards Timothy, placing his hand on his heart before pointing with his entire hand towards the guard, and tilted his head, as if to tell the guard to have no worries.

“Alright, let’s head in and…” Adam narrowed his eyes, glancing around the group. “Where’s Pual?”

“He left after we entered the city,” Jurot explained.

“Oh.”

The elks made their way around the guild to laze around to one side, while the porters began to unstrap their saddlebags.

The rest of the group entered the guild, which struck them with a blast of noise. At least seven different groups of adventurers, most which were between four and six members, sat and chattered between one another, sometimes conversations spilled over between other groups. The inside of the guild was similar to the others, except much bigger. The quest wall held so many more requests, with quests across the ground, first, and even the second and third floors.

“Damn,” Adam whispered to himself, before approaching the desk. There, several beautiful young men and women awaited for the approaching group, a pale skinned Aldish woman, a darker skinned Aswadian man, and a Devilkin woman with deep red skin. Adam approached the Aswadian man in the centre, whose name tag read Bashar.

“Good afternoon,” Bashar said. “How may we assist you?”

“Adam, of Fate’s Golden,” Adam said, motioning his head to the rest. “We travelled from Water Ford to here over the past few days. We didn’t meet much trouble, thankfully.”

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The worker bowed his head, finding the file for the Half Elf’s party quickly, writing down the notes. He casually glanced at the note left on the file, and made a mental note of it.

Adam placed down the coin for the group’s stay, and then placed down two gems. “I’d like to set up an additional payment to a previous plan through the Adventurer’s Guild. Five gold monthly to Ted and Annie, starting from the month after the extra payment ends, so it’s a steady influx of coin.”

“Of course,” Bashar replied, writing down the note. “Is there anything else I may assist with?”

“Not right now.” Adam bowed his head.

“There is a Sir Landon Littlesea who has asked we message him once you have arrived,” Bashar informed. “Shall I send word?”

‘His family name is Littlesea?’ Adam narrowed his eyes at the worker, a smirk encroaching his face through his visor. “Sure.” ‘Wow. The guild really doesn’t care, do they?’

Adam returned back to his group, where he saw Kalid pretending to refuse Sir Vonda’s silver. He held out his hand for it while pulling his head away from her, as though he was trying to refuse.

“How can you do this to me, Sir Vonda?” Kalid complained. “So beautiful, so generous.” He slipped the coin into his robe the moment he felt the cool silver against his palm. “Hoi hoi hoi, what am I to do?”

“Thank you for carrying the cloth here,” Sir Vonda said, smiling down at the boy.

“Hey Kalid,” Adam called, flicking the boy a gold coin.

Kalid turned to face Adam, seeing the blurry gold coin in his peripheral, before his hand blurred and snatched it from the air with reflexes Adam had only seen from an Iyrman. Kalid brought it down towards his robes in a fluid motion, double checking what it was in an instant, before slipping it into his robes. “Mister Adam, you are the most handsome man I have seen in my life.”

Adam, who was adorned head to toe in full puthral plate mail, without having taken off his helmet, chuckled. “I’m sure I am.”

“If you need this Kalid, I charge you only nine copper,” Kalid said. “I am sure you give me one silver because you are so generous.”

“Right, right,” Adam replied, still chuckling. “Kalid, you’re the best.”

“If you call yourself second best, I can only say I am third best,” Kalid replied, not even needing to think about the compliment.

“You stay safe out there, Kalid.”

“You must keep your pouch like you keep your heart,” Kalid replied, placing a hand against his heart and then pointing at Adam with his whole hand, before finally slipping away out of the guild.

“Jaygak, why can’t you be as charming as him?” Adam asked. “That kid is going to earn ten thousand gold before any of us.”

“Ten thousand gold is a pittance for the likes of Yellow Turban,” Jaygak replied. “I can’t be as charming as anyone being groomed to be the next Yellow Turban.”

“That kid certainly is going places,” Adam said, nodding his head slowly, taking a seat to one side. “Rose, Rick, take a seat.” As the porters entered, Adam nodded, motioning a hand to the table beside them. Rose and Rick sat down opposite him, while Jurot took his place at Adam’s right.

“We came here with the intention of splitting the shares evenly between us all, and though the party fund has taken care of our needs, we didn’t really come across anything.” Adam shrugged his shoulders. “Unfortunately, that means we didn’t make a lot of gold, and though none of you are down anything, I’m sure there’s probably some slight disappointment in not being able to slay anything.”

Rose bowed her head. “A fair assessment.”

“Agreed,” Rick said.

“Of course, I’m sure your Red River Squad is probably fine, considering you didn’t really have to pay for anything, and managed to safely traverse the land, though it was quite hurried.” Adam cleared his throat. “I apologise for that, of course. I was thinking, perhaps we could remain together for a short while longer, with the same rules. We’ll go out and quest, and we’ll split everything in even shares.”

“That…” Rose paused, thinking about what Adam had said. Typically, adventurers went out to adventure once every short while, making enough coin for their expenses, with very small amounts put aside for savings towards one thing or another. At first, she had thought against it, but two things came to her mind. Firstly, Adam and his cohorts were strong, meaning their ability to quest was greater than their own. Secondly, Adam was a slave driver, who apparently quested multiple days in a row.

“I won’t hold it against you if you don’t want that, but Rick here isn’t an adventurer, not like us. He came with us very specifically for coin, not to adventure through the land.” Adam turned to meet Rick’s eyes. “We’ll quest here for a few days so you all can send something back to your families, I won’t let you return empty handed.”

“It is greatly appreciated,” Rick replied, bowing his head. He had planned to bring up the matter to Adam at some point, but he was glad that Adam had thought about it.

“Let us do that,” Rose said. “Until the end of the next month.” She didn’t want to push her luck, but it was also a good way to give her and her group an out, just in case the deal was too bad, or too good, for them. “I think that is fair since you didn’t split the big blacks.”

“Oh, right,” Adam replied, clearing his throat. “I suppose we didn’t. I think most of that went into the party fund. I think that was what, twenty gold to everyone?” Adam tried to use his maths. “No, nevermind. Let’s just do this new thing. I’m sure we’ll beat more than just some big blacks. Let’s take a few days off and then start adventuring. I’ll pay for the stay while we’re splitting it this way.”

Jurot wondered if they would take a break before they started adventuring.