Trulda wandered through the alleyways, whistling happily and enjoying the hustle and bustle. She had deliberately chosen a remote village to stay in the VR. The time with the wandering people had been wonderful. Afterwards, she enjoyed working in the tavern of the tiny village. A place where she soon knew everyone by name and everyone greeted her in a friendly manner. But after a few months of rest, it was good to have new, fresh faces around her again. Most of the players were forced to log out while the system underwent an update, but the few perms could stay. She hadn't found any clear evidence of this yet, but had a strong suspicion that her small village had been completely excluded from the time acceleration. While two hundred years passed in the rest of the world, it was only a few months in her village. It had been a relaxing time, and she had needed it. But now she was eager for a little more action. Weylan's departure for adventure had suited her just fine, even if she would have accompanied him in any case to protect him. She enjoyed the big city atmosphere of Mulnirsheim. Countless new people and other races. A dwarven merchant occasionally passed by in the village, but otherwise she had only seen humans. Here she also saw harefolk, anubians, elves, the odd dwarf and the occasional orc.

Weylan had been a little annoyed when he learned that she already had city citizenship rights as a Perm. That meant she was free to choose where and what she wanted to work. A little asking around had brought her the address of a decent tavern that was still looking for a barmaid. She stopped at the end of the cobbled street. The Golden Cauldron was four stories high. Polished wood and real glass panes. The door sign with the golden cauldron swayed back and forth on a well-oiled pole above the inviting door. The guests who came in and out looked clean and well-mannered. There were also quite a few women. She could settle in well here.

She hesitated. Did she really want to work as a barmaid again? Well, she knew what was coming. What other choice did she have? She hadn't had any talent for any craft in real life and hadn't acquired any relevant skills in this world. What she had learned was some cooking, cleaning and everything else needed to keep a tavern running. What else could she do with that? Her eyes wandered up and down the street. Saleswoman? It didn't take much. There were plenty of stores in the town. But was that much better?

She set off again. Along the street, without a destination at first. Then she followed the paths along which the most interesting passers-by moved. She spent an hour crisscrossing the city. Then she came to a halt in front of a building that was quite different from its surroundings. A wide staircase led to three large open entrance doors. There was more traffic here than she had seen anywhere else in the city. Six guardsmen were busy doing nothing but controlling the crowds. Many were sternly turned away and sent back down again. Trulda approached one of them: "What kind of building is this?"

He replied without looking in a annoyed memorized singsong: "Admission for members of the Adventurers' Guild only." He turned and his eyes focused on her chest. He paused, then looked up at her face, "Sorry, citizen. Force of habit. What was your question again?"

She smiled winningly at him: "What kind of building is that?"

"The guild headquarters of the Adventurers' Guild. Down here is the entrance for guild members. If you want to apply for membership, you can do so at the side entrance back there. Just wait at the end of the queue." He glanced in that direction and sighed, "That should be somewhere three blocks that way."

"You can't keep up right now?"

He laughed humorlessly: "Not even close."

"Do you need help?"

He looked her up and down in surprise: "I don't think you're up to it. Some of the revenants can react very aggressively if things don't go their way immediately."

She stared him firmly in the eye: "Tell me that again to my face."

He opened his mouth... and closed it again. Then he grinned, "Well... come along." He turned and made his way through the crowd into the main entrance. The crowd parted in front of them, grumbling. The guardsman stomped his halberd on the ground. The wood lit up and a shockwave swept over the crowd. Strong enough to whirl hair around, but not so strong that it knocked anyone over: "Make way people, I have a new employee with me. You want this to move faster soon, don't you?"

That was enough to open a path for him. Through one of the three archways, they entered a room that took up almost the entire basement. In front of the walls on the left and right were continuous reception counters, behind which stood stressed guild employees. At the back, two wide staircases led up the sides. On the large wall opposite the entrance door were large pinboards with countless notes. There was a door in the middle from which employees kept coming and going.

While Trulda was still getting an overview, an adventurer who was looking around with wide eyes wandered towards the left staircase. Directly in front of it, runes flashed in a line on the floor and he bumped into a barrier, visibly irritated but unharmed. A metal sign next to the stairs lit up to draw attention to the finger-high inscription: "Access only for guild members of Gold rank and above!"

"Down here, adventurers can sign up for guild events, accept special guild quests, collect rewards for successful quests, buy information or hire trainers. A lot of quests are given out by Questgivers all over the city, but if someone is looking for something specific, they can ask here for tips on where to find a suitable quest. Unfortunately, the creator gods seem to have decided to give us a particularly large number of revenants. We are not yet prepared for such an rush."

He led her to the back. In front of the door, he held his hand in front of a rune on the wall and a glowing semicircle of runes briefly flashed red on the floor, turned green and went out. He waved Trulda through. At the back was a much cozier room. Tables and chairs were scattered everywhere. On one side there was a self-service bar with various drinks. Steam rose from a few jugs. The smell of coffee, tea and sweat mingled in the air. People sat around in small groups. Large hourglasses stood on the tables. At one table, the last of the sand was just running through and a soft gong sounded. The three women at the table interrupted their conversation, quickly finished their drinks and went back through the door to the front.

The guardsman led Trulda to the back to an elf who stood a head above the average of the crowd. Not least because she stood stiff and upright. Her snow-white hair was combed back tightly. Her attention was focused on a map several paces wide that showed the city and its surroundings in detail. Numerous colored dots were scattered across the map. Most of them in the city and its immediate surroundings.

The guardsman stood at a polite distance behind her and coughed. Without taking her eyes off the map, she said, "Rutgar, I'm curious why you left your post. If another adventurer has tried to sneak past the queue unseen..."

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"No, Master Gerelda. I have someone interested in a position with us and..."

"... we urgently need more staff." She finished his sentence. She turned around and looked at Trulda. She shook her head and pointed to the exit: "Go!"

Every muscle in Trulda's body began to move without her input, making her turn and walk away on the spot. After the guardsman had taken inside because of her intransigence, she was prepared for something similar. She used every ounce of willpower she had to stomp hard on the brakes with her mental foot. Except that someone had obviously cut the brake hoses. After a slow and reluctant quarter turn, anger flared up inside her. This was no way to deal with her. No one just ordered her around like that. No one! Her eyes seemed to blaze as the fine veins turned red and anger welled up inside her. She stopped and turned back emphatically. "No."

The elf nodded. "Good, someone who can be shooed around with such a simple spell is useless to us. That look on your face... barbarian?"

"Steppe-Barbarian"

"Nice. Something different. We'll try it with you. I'll assign one of your new colleagues to teach you everything you need to know. In two to three weeks, you can throw yourself into the chaos out there."

Trulda took the outstretched hand and shook it briefly with a firm grip: "I won't let you down." She hesitated for a moment: "It may be the wrong moment, but... What do you actually earn in this position?"

The guild master was just opening her mouth to reply when a young man rushed in through the door, took a quick look around and then hurried through the hustle and bustle to the guild master. She sighed softly: "Good news is never delivered like this."

"Master Gerelda! The spawn point!"

"More revenants?"

"Dozens at once! All in cheap armor and visibly disoriented."

Master Gerelda held her hand in front of her face. An expression of weariness flickered briefly across her face. "Dozens of noobs..." She stared in front of her for a moment.

Trulda hesitantly intervened in the conversation. Normally, she wouldn't have dared to do so with the guild master's authoritarian air, but there was still a bit of barbarian rage and courage coursing through her veins: "Mistress Gerelda, how about setting up a stall in the marketplace? A sort of outpost? With two or three people, you can offer the most important services right there. Membership to the guild and a few simple beginner quests. The cheese merchant wanted to give up his stall this morning. His normal customers are no longer coming with so many revenants around. And the revenants are mostly interested in weapons, armor and alchemicals. Not cheese. I'm sure he'll rent out his stall cheaply."

The master looked ahead for a moment, then grinned and made a decision: "Excellent idea. I'll arrange it immediately. I'm afraid we don't have time for the usual training this time." She walked along the wall and placed her hand on an unmarked spot. A circle of runes flashed into view. She spoke a few words that were too quiet for Trulda to understand. A round part of the wall folded out, revealing a safe. The Guildmistress took something out and slammed the vault door shut again. She held up a black coin with a gemstone in the center: "A skill crystal. It contains everything a good employee needs to know. I actually wanted to keep this for emergencies, but if this isn't one, I don't know what is." She pressed it into Trulda's hand. She hesitated: "But that has to be worth at least..."

"It's worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it. Nobody would spend vast amounts of gold to save a few weeks of learning."

Trulda nodded and pressed the skill crystal to her forehead.

Skill: Administration (Adventurers' Guild) acquired: Journeyman (V)

Skill: Bookkeeping learned: Journeyman (II)

Skill: Knowledge (Adventurers' Guild) acquired: Journeyman (I)

Skill: Geography (Mulnirsheim and surroundings) learned: Journeyman (I)

Skill: Politics (Mulnirsheim) acquired: Layman (III)

She had heard of skill crystals, but had never used one herself before. With NPCs, she understood how they worked. You could simply add additional data to programs. She had never quite understood how it worked with humans. Weapon skills and crafting skills made the job easier. With a high enough cooking skill, she simply sprinkled a handful of spices over the food and the skill provided the desired flavor. The wife of the innkeeper she had worked for even had effects that could not actually be created with spices. She had always thought of knowledge skills as a kind of help function. When she asked questions, she got some kind of Wikipedia entry or something. This was completely different from what she had expected. Colors and images flashed incomprehensibly before her inner eye, then the glow of the crystal went out again. She looked around her. Things that were previously unknown were now completely familiar to her. The map of active quests hung on the wall. A magical artifact that was present in every major guild headquarters. The clairvoyance spells of the powerful artifact marked every quest assigned by a Questgiver. Depending on the viewer's rank in the guild, he could read further information. Content of the quest, name of quest giver, objectives, reward amount, possible penalties for failure and much more.

She looked around the room with wide eyes. She suddenly knew everyone present by name and their position within the guild. Or almost everyone. "How old is this skill crystal?"

The guild master smiled mischievously, "Why do you ask?"

"I don't know all the employees in this room. I assume they were hired after the skill crystal was enchanted?"

"Excellent. You think for yourself. I think you'll manage. She pointed to two female employees at one of the tables. Both women were only slightly older than Trulda and reminded her of before and after shots from a diet advertisement. Both looked quite similar with blonde hair and about the same height. The chubbier one had talked incessantly during the time Trulda had been vaguely aware of her in the room. The slim one listened patiently and nodded occasionally.

"You two, take our new employee Miss Trulda and rent the cheesemonger's place on the market square. We have to keep the new arrivals busy first to gain time. Chase the noobs through the basic quests: rabbit hunt, herb hunt, the missing dog and..." She hesitated for a moment to think: "...the messenger quest."

The two had nodded along, but now hesitated. The slender one looked briefly at her colleague, but when she had nothing to say for a change, she grimaced and answered herself: "Not the messenger quest! If more than three are active in the quest at the same time, chaos breaks out in the city all the time. It's almost as if the quest causes disasters just so someone has to deliver a message."

"That's superstitious nonsense. But fine. Keep that one in reserve. The mages have a long list of required ingredients, which should exhaust the herb hunt. Remember that they will be attacked by highwaymen after the second round. So make sure you don't send out a group too well equipped for combat. The Thieves' Guild won't be amused if their contribution to the quest ends in death."

The three of them hurried off. One block further on, they slowed down. The plump one held out her hand: "I'm sorry. When the old dragon gives orders, I always react with panic. You should see how she gets when someone doesn't respond immediately to a friendly request to get moving. Last time, my ears were still ringing three days later. I'm Sindri, by the way." She pointed to her slender counterpart: "And this here is Indris."

Indris just nodded silently.

"Are you twins?"

"What gave us away?"

"Monozygotic or dizygotic?"

"What?" The two looked at Trulda, completely uncomprehending.

"Just a figure of speech. I am Trulda. Do you know the quickest way to get to the marketplace? It must be somewhere in that direction, but..."

"Of course. We go around the corner at the butcher's and then along Crooked-street. It runs straight through the southern part of the city. That brings us to the main street, but we should take a side street parallel to it, there aren't so many carts there. Ever since the magicians replaced the cobblestones on the main road with this layer of liquid stone, they've been driving like maniacs. Life-threatening, simply life-threatening!"

Sindri led the group through the city, continuously pointing out sights to Trulda or recounting anecdotes from city life. Indris stomped along silently behind.