In the city, Lan at least got to plead his case a few times, but the moment he mentioned apprenticeship, most clearly stopped listening, others laughed him out of their shops, and some even became openly hostile. Lan had known this would happen. When it came to the mundane Classes, there was a level of jealousy about knowledge. Each person guarding their secrets with their lives, as not doing so meant the possible end of what were most likely ancient family crafts. If they had to pass it on to someone that wasn’t in their family, it would be in a situation much like he had been in. The last thing one wanted was to train someone only to have them run off with their Knowledge and Skills. But Lan was sure that most weren’t even thinking that deep into it.

All they saw when they looked at him was a potential business rival, and why would they have helped make their own lives even a little more difficult by helping him out. Lan was still walking the streets by nightfall. Consciously he knew how dangerous it was. As a level one, Lan would be easy pickings anywhere, seeing as most adults were around Level ten, and it would be a little higher for someone who made a living stealing from others. Even still, it wasn’t that which got him to enter an inn he passed, but the fact that if he was going to lose his money, Lan would rather have it be to the bottom of a mug. Lan was onto his second mug of beer when the pretty Barmaid stopped in front of him.

‘Are you alright, sir? You are going through those pretty fast.’ She said with a hint of concern.

‘I don’t know; this is my first time drinking in some time.’ Lan smiled, noticing that he was slurring his words a little. Even still, Lan didn’t feel… anything. Although by checking his Tome, he could see that he was indeed getting drunk. He still just felt empty. The Barmaid looked at him weirdly.

‘If that is the case, then should you be drinking that fast?’ she asked with a raised eyebrow. Despite the attempt at a motherly tone, she looked no older than Lan was.

‘I don’t think it’s a case of should or shouldn’t. But I’ll let you know when I find out. Lan smiled before draining the rest of the mug as he tried not to think about how the young woman’s hair reminded him of Eliza. A part of Lan had hoped to find her. But like everything else, he wasn’t so lucky.

‘Just be careful. The last thing I want is for you to pass out or throw up in here or to hear that something worse happened to you on the way home.’ Lan smiled. Both at the concern and the thought of anything worse that could happen to him.

‘I’ll try.’ He didn’t know what, but she seemed to see something in his words or expression and frowned before walking away. After three mugs, Lan still felt nothing but felt it was getting more challenging to keep his eyes open and was about to leave when he heard a commotion coming from outside. Turning his head just in time. Lan watched as a tiny woman in armour, carrying what looked to be the head of a massive bird, on her shoulder. Kicked open the inn doors and marched up to a table, and slammed the head down on it before being lifted onto the shoulders of two of the people with her. All to the consternation of the inn staff, who started yelling at the celebrating group even as other patrons moved to get a better look at the Monster's head.

Even Lan couldn’t help but look. It wasn’t every day that someone like him got to see a monster in any state.

‘Damn, Vaela, how the hells did you kill this thing on your own.’ someone at one of the tables said. The woman Vaela said something that made the others laugh, which Lan couldn’t hear over the growing sound in the hall. What he did hear was when she shouted,

‘The next round is on me.’ those in the inn cheered. The Barmaid placed another mug in front of him and smiled. Taking it gratefully, Lan found his attention returning to the group even though he didn’t move from his place at the bar. Although Lan, like everyone else, was used to seeing and living alongside adventurers, they were from a world of their own. Being people who focused on their own Level and their skill levels, giving them a higher level than most people in the world, but they did so by putting their lives at risk and being well paid for it. Although the perception of adventurers seemed to differ wildly from the person making the observation, the place and the adventurers themselves, with combat skills being a necessity for the Class, it only made sense that all would come from another combat class of some kind. This is where the stigma originated. Not only did some people dislike changing Class, but not all the classes that adventurers came from were the noblest. Even still, Lan knew that he and his old friends had always wanted to be adventurers. Lan smiled a genuine smile. Maybe he should join. Not like he was going to find another Class now, and perhaps he could just not tell them his Level, and perhaps he could stumble onto a dying dragon and get a bunch of free experience.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

It was a stupid enough idea to make him laugh if nothing else.

‘So you can smile. I was starting to worry.’ The Barmaid said, placing another mug in front of him, ‘this is on me, in celebration of the last drink I am going to serve you tonight.’ She winked at Lan.

The night quickly came to an end when some guards drunkenly stumbled through the doors and, after seeing the Monster's head, tried to confiscate it. When the adventurers wouldn’t let them, Lan learned that there were more adventurers in the inn than he first thought, it being a popular hangout for them, and there were way more guards and even soldiers waiting outside. The moment of slowly building tension snapped as someone threw a chair at one of the guards; when a few moved to arrest the chair thrower, they found themselves facing a wall of skilled mercenaries. But instead of anger, the adventurers looked excited as they broke off into individual brawls. One pointed at a soldier before letting out a war cry a leaping over a table at the guards.

Lan watched, stunned at the whole scene. When his senses returned, and he decided to move, Lan stopped as a soldier was thrown directly into his path. Looking around for the person who had thrown him and finding no one, the guard locked eyes with Lan, and as the man charged, Lan’s hands flu up into a defensive stance as he stuttered out some words before a pair of hands grabbed him and pulled him over the bar with no effort. It was the Barmaid who quickly dragged Lan out to the back of the inn. Just before Lan passed through the doorway, he looked back one last time at the chaos. More guards were pouring in while the adventurous showed no signs of backing down or even slowing. One large grey-skinned man had two guards by their faces as he swung them in a circle, all while shaking the walls with his booming laugh. The woman, Vaela, had somehow not only managed to get on the shoulders of a soldier but had shoved the monster's head over the man’s as she rode her creation around.

‘Sorry about that.’ The barmaid said as she closed the door behind her, muffling the sound of the brawl. That was until a guard was thrown through a window at the side of the building, bringing back some of the volume. ‘this is why we don’t get regular customers who aren’t adventurers.’ She sighed. ‘Oh! they aren’t bad people, you know.’ she added quickly to Lan. ‘but when you spend most of your days watching each other’s backs, you can get a little protective of your Own,’ she shrugged. ‘oh right, you never got to finish your drink. I'll tell you what. If you ever come back, then the first round is on me.’ she smiled before quickly disappearing back into the inn. Lan blinked, not entirely sure what had just happened, and with all the excitement, he realised he was no longer drunk when he checked his Tome. Still trying to process what he had just been in the middle of, Lan looked down and saw his hands shaking, but as he squeezed them, they stilled.

When Lan reached his family home, he found his father waiting up.

‘how was your search?’

‘Hopefully, I will have better luck tomorrow.’ Lan had only been able to visit less than half of them.

‘I can smell alcohol on you.’

‘It’s not like it can hurt at this point.’ Lan smiled weakly. Lan's father looked like he wanted to say something but then shook his head. ‘get some sleep.’

Lan did without another word. Laying in the same bed he had as a child, filled with mixed emotions. Undirected anger at everyone and everything, a sinking feeling of being lost, he wanted to cry and scream, to do anything. And all of this was kept from him by an unbreachable emptiness that only allowed him to know their existence without being able to express any of it. There was another thing… when the soldier had charged him… it was the only time Lan felt something. But it wasn’t fear. The stuttering had been more so down to adrenaline than even the alcohol, which was crazy. To even earn the title of soldier from initiate, one had to be at least Level fifteen, amongst other things, and seasoned Soldiers quickly earn another five levels in times of war. And he hadn’t known that Lan was just a level one. A punch meant to bruise would easily kill him. Lan had known all this as the man charged but still hadn’t felt fear.

Lan wondered if, after everything he had been through, if he had let the last ten years beat the fight out of him so thoroughly to even become numb to the idea of death. Thinking about it, it wasn’t any worse a fate than he faced anyway. As things were, it was where He was going to end up anyway. But before then, it would be months if not years of jobless, meaningless existence, burdening others until everyone abandoned him and he was left to die, or if he was lucky, a life of slavery where he worked only to eat and work again until his body broke down. Perhaps it would have been better if that soldier had just punched a hole in his head. Maybe he should go back. Lan had a free drink coming to him, and maybe the next time, he wouldn’t be saved in time. It would at least make a good story. The soldier who had accidentally made a man explode in an inn for adventurers would no doubt get around the city quickly. Imagining the confused and horrified look on the soldier's face, Lan spurred into a laughing fit and found himself drifting off to sleep soon after.