For the first time in months, I was actually up before Grim, and I quickly got dressed. Trying to get a little bit of payback for the rough awakenings lately, even though I asked him to, I grabbed a pitcher of cold water and dumped it on his head. He jumped up in bed and quickly got up, his feet tangled up in the blankets and he fell on his face. I quickly ran out the door. Grim ran after me forgetting that he slept in the nude and ran out into the hallway stopping just short of bowling over the gorgon twins.
The snakes around Sissy’s head quickly tried to cover her eyes, even though you could see her trying to peek through.
Missy was not so bashful “Hi Grim, didn't know that half-orcs were part snake” and her eyes slowly moving downward. Grim who wasn't the brightest one took a few seconds to figure out what she meant. He blushed then gave her a wink turned around and slowly strolled back into the room, giving a little butt shake after Missy whistled at him.
Sitting down in the dining hall for breakfast I was wondering how long it would take me to miss this place. Like a lot of adventurer children, I was orphaned at a young age. My adventurer parents weren't even my birth parents. I was a foundling at the church my mother was working at. Getting a bit nostalgic I thought back to how they died.
The last apocalypse ended thirteen years ago and my parents were killed in the aftermath of it. By now apocalypse and age were used almost interchangeably. For the last two thousand years, the sea-based races had been in a state war with the land-based races. Nobody knew what stated it but for those thousand years, any ship going out of sight of land would be attacked and destroyed. All of the different continents were isolated and on their own, as no teleport magic or portal was long-ranged enough to cover the distances involved. Continent after continent fell. It wasn't until a group of mages discovered spells of mass water breathing that they were able to march armies across the seafloor to the shahuagin capital. The twisted shark humanoid hybrids were found out to be the masterminds of everything. After their emperor was killed the seas were safe again, or so people thought. The nations that survived started to send out ships to the lost continents finding that most of them had been pillaged and looted long ago, any intelligent populations being taken as slaves or food, so they started programs to repopulate them. My parents were killed in an attack on the colony fleet that brought us to this continent. Grim also lost his parents that day. We were both brought to the new adventurer's guildhall and boarding school set up in the only free city on the continent at the time, and have been here ever since.
I was shaken up from my reminiscing by Grim dropping his plate on the table opposite me. “Thank you for this morning. I ran into Missy again after getting dressed and she asked me out on a date, with both her and her sister.”
“You mean like a double date or?” Wiggling my eyebrows.
“Nope, apparently gorgons don't mind sharing” He replied with a grin. “I had to decline though as even though they are nice girls, I know they will be leaving to join their parents at Maiden’s rest soon. Besides who knows how our adventurer exam will go.”
“Do you have any preferences for a class?” I asked.
“Well you know that I love cooking, but I’m also half-orc so no idea what I will get. How about you?”
“No idea, my strength isn’t too bad, not orc good of course but not bad, I’m pretty fast on my feet and I’ve done well in school so far. The only thing I know is that as no single god of the pantheon seems to suit my nature I will probably not be a cleric.” I replied, “Besides for me the most important thing Is that I will finally find out what race I am.”
“Yeah, it's too bad you can't take the adventurers exam until your eighteen. Thank you for waiting until I was able to take the exam with you by the way.” Grim’s birthday being last week.
“What are blood brothers for.” Winking at him. Both losing our parents at the same time and having no other family we decided to call ourselves blood-brothers at a young age. “So let's finish up and head over.”
Dropping off the dishes in the kitchen. We made our way out the front door and across the street to the guildhall.
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A nice old lady named Janet was sitting behind the reception desk. “Hello Grim, Drakon you guys finally ready to take the exam?”
“Yes ma’am.” We both replied at the same, looked at each other, and laughed.
“Well, now that you guys are eighteen I can finally show you around this place.” She had one of the other staff take her position behind the desk.
“This is of course the main entrance. From here there are stairs going up to the bedrooms, we will come back to those after you have had the exam. Just next to the stairs you will find the local job board. Most of the citizens will post their quests on the local board, no need to post a quest to deliver a few items from one side of town to the other on the big board ill show you later, that's broadcast to all the guildhalls.”
After walking to the back she stopped in front of some double doors. “Now through here is where the real magic happens.” Opening the doors all that was seen as a purple void. “No need to be scared, most of the guild is in one of the dungeons. We made a deal with this one after the great dungeon wars ended to help us set this up. He was actually one of the first to switch sides in the conflict. It's also one of the reasons you have to be eighteen to join, the portal will not work for children. Some races have different allowed ages by the way. Pure-blood orcs and a lot of the green-skin races can come in as young as age five. While elves won't come of age until they are at least one hundred.”
Stepping through the portal was a little bit jarring.
“Who said that.” I was a bit startled and then was bowled over by Grim coming up behind me.
With that Janet pulled both me and Grim off the floor. A bit strange to see this old lady pick up Grim who looked to weigh about five times her weight.
“I wasn't always a receptionist you know.” Janet laughed at our stunned faces. “My class before I retired was a bloodrager, a rare version of a barbarian. Which is why nobody dares to piss me off.”
Finally gotten to my feet I had a good look around. The room we were in was massive. It was circular with a big spiral staircase in the middle and at least a dozen or so portals. All of them had the name of a town above the portal. I turned around and saw the name Storm’s Cove above the one we just came from with the name lit up.
“You can only exit through the same portal you came in. It was one of the agreements we made with the council, they didn’t want him to be a way to fast travel after it was abused in the past. There are probably a couple hundred of these chambers all with portals to the different guildhalls across the globe. And don’t worry as soon as you come downstairs you will always end up in the correct chamber that has your portal back.”
“Yes sir.” I gulped looking around the room.
“Stop scaring the kids' Dave.” Janet laughed again.
We headed to the middle of the room and went up the stairs. Noticing that it wasn't as busy as I thought it would be, Janet explained, “Dave makes it so that portals in different timezones are in the same room that way it sort of staggers how many people are coming and going at the same time. Most only come in briefly in the morning to pick up quests and in the evening to drop them off. Or in some cases breakfast and dinner.”
By the time she finished that explanation, we made it to the next floor which was even bigger than the last one, at least a mile in diameter. All around the perimeter were booths with people sitting behind them. And all around you could see small sitting areas, each with a big white table in the middle of each of them “Up here you will find the real heart of the guild. The guild auction house and the global quest boards. Let's start with the latter one first shall we.” And with that, she walked up to one of the sitting areas that didn’t have anyone sitting there.
“Have a seat.” And we all sat down around the table. “Now these tables are the global quest boards. It is where adventurers can come and see where there are any quests in the areas around where they are from. The higher your level the bigger the range it will show you quests. For instance, if I were to do a search it would show me quests probably about half the planet away. If you two did a search it would only show quests within a couple of miles from the guild house you entered from. After you get your class I can show you a bit more.”
“Speaking of which, are you ready to take your exam?”
Me and Grim both nodded eagerly. “Well hold on to your hats, Dave if you would do the honors” and with that, she clicked her fingers and we were both teleported away.