When they arrived at the marketplace, they found the cheese merchant packing up. Sindri took over the price negotiations and after a few minutes the merchant handed over his stall for a very reasonable stall fee. Trulda felt sorry for him as he clattered away with his goods on a handcart. "Did you have to bargain him down that far? He has to make a living too."

"Konris? He inherited the stand from his great-grandfather, who in turn received it as a reward for his service in the army. It doesn't cost him anything. What he gets now as a stall fee, he might earn on his best days selling cheese. If at all. He also gets a few weeks' paid leave. Believe me, he'll start dancing through the streets laughing at the next corner."

As soon as Indri had laid out the books and a bronze disk on the table, a translucent red exclamation mark appeared in the air above the stand. Like moths attracted by the light, a few of the revenants immediately approached.

Trulda didn't have to call up the help function to find out what she had to do. She didn't even have to think about it. She just knew. "Welcome to the Adventurers' Guild. Would you like to join?"

The foremost revenant, a tanned teenager in armor made of large pieces of bark and armed with a simple staff, looked at them indecisively:

"Is that compulsory? Is this part of some kind of tutorial?"

"No. Of course not. You can just as easily go adventuring independently. The guild provides structure and a source of quests and tasks for those who prefer that."

"How much does it cost?"

"Membership costs 5 silver plus ten percent of the income from the quests we arrange. We're sure to find you a nice quest in return."

"Something deadly dangerous?"

"Beginner quests. So, if you want to join, I need your name and class."

"Percy Alcott, Druid, Level 1. At home, I volunteer with the Forestry Commission and regularly give guided tours for school groups. I'm also a vegan! There was no other choice. I definitely need a quest where I can show off my superior forest and nature skills." He lifted his finger: "But, I want something special, not some plain boring quest."

Sindri was already reaching for the flyer with the directions for the herbal quest when Trulda grabbed her hand without taking her eyes off the druid. She opened the quest book and skimmed the list of current quests. She had already read through the low-level ones and immediately found what she was looking for: "No problem. This quest will fit perfectly. You're accompanying a few mage students out of the city and north into the mountain forest. They're completely helpless in the wilderness, so this is just the thing for you. You'll look for an ingredient for the alchemists at the mage academy and then come back. Simple as that."

"Great!" The druid paid, received directions and a password for the mage academy and trotted off whistling happily.

Sindri looked after him and then turned to Trulda with a raised eyebrow: "You sent him out to get the hearts of cuddly-squirrels with the mage students? The students don't get anything right, are too squeamish. As their guide he’ll have to gut all the captured animals himself at the end and put the hearts in the jar of preservative. He looked far too fond of animals for that. The quest is also recommended for revenants of level 3 and up. Cuddly squirrels are completely harmless, but the wild boars in that area are pretty dangerous."

"Vegans. I hate these arrogant preachy health apostles. This will bring him back down to earth a bit. Next time he turns up, we'll give him the herbal quest. Believe me, it's better for our nerves in the long run."

The spawnpoint distracted them from the discussion when it lit up unusually brightly. The glow grew brighter and brighter until they had to squint. Then it went out and the squinting onlookers saw a whole group of revenants standing on the platform. Five... people. A colorful mix of hair and body colors in a wide variety of sizes. One of them towered over the others by a full two heads, while the smallest would just reach a human's navel.

The five of them formed a circle, put their hands together and simultaneously raised them with a loud "Reeee... spawn!"

Then they jumped down one after the other and looked around. Trulda was still busy guessing races and classes when one of them ran up to them. The size matched humans or elves, but its face jutted forward a bit, like one of the jackal-like Anubians, though not as far. The towering ears also matched, but he only had heavy body hair and a short trimmed full beard, rather than proper fur. He stopped right in front of the stand, leaned forward and sniffed excitedly, "Hello! Are you from the Adventurers' Guild?"

Trulda pointed to the plaque on the stand with a smile: "Well noticed."

The hairy figure leaned over the counter and gesticulated expansively with his hands: "We've just finished our first quest. We all died! TPK! A true bloodbath! But it was worth it. Epic last stand! Totally epic! We saved the duskgnomes! Did you see the message from the World Voice?"

Trulda couldn't help but grin at so much enthusiasm: "Yes, we did. Good work."

The revenants looked vaguely familiar to her, but there had never been much visibility in the dark and confusing cave. She hadn't had time to make a round to introduce herself or exchange names. With any luck, he wouldn't recognize her in the completely different surroundings.

Something dimmed the light and shrouded the stall around Trulda in shadows. Surprised, she spun around and stared directly into a vast cleavage that held an expansive hillside within its confines. In real life, she might have spontaneously felt envious, but her avatar here was also well enough proportioned. Only much smaller in proportion. She turned her head back and looked up. From a height of almost two and a half paces, a huge but friendly face looked down at her. Trulda registered the colorful and loose cloth clothing and a red cloak.

A muscular man with protruding canines stepped past her and bowed: "Ladies, may I introduce ourselves: My name is Gronk and together we are the adventuring party: The Half-Brothers!"

Trulda cast a questioning glance at the half-giantess. She shrugged her shoulders: "I was outvoted. It was hard enough to get the gang to agree on a name in the first place. But let's leave it at that. We'd like to join the guild."

Now Trulda was in familiar waters: "No problem. Five silver per member, plus ten percent of your income from guild quests. It also costs five gold pieces if you want to be registered as a group. However, this gives you access to group quests and tasks that are above the level of the individual. You start at Iron rank. The next ranks are Bronze, Silver, Gold and Ardamant."

"Adamant?"

"Ardamant. It's a magical metal. A hundred times more valuable than gold, very rare and has an absolutely characteristic violet-gold color. In the guild headquarters there are seals on the wall made of the material. You can take a look there. Just don't touch it, the protective spells are absolutely murderous."

She took an admission form from the pile, tapped the pen into the inkwell and looked at the group promptly: "Well? Name, race and character class please."

The excited bearded one began, "Chigaru, half-Anubian, Ranger."

Indris and Sindri threw themselves forward in sync and stared at him with open eyes. Sindri spoke faster: "A half-Anubian? I thought they didn't exist. The Anubians are..."

Indris overtook her: "... very concerned about her racial purity."

He fell silent and looked down for a moment. Then he shrugged his shoulders: "Long story. I had entered a complex character history into the system. I actually wanted to be a half-orc, but I completely forgot to specify the race. I was a bit surprised when I turned up here with these ears. It's no wonder that hardly anyone wants to play Anubians. Black and white vision and a sense of smell that doesn't allow you to concentrate on anything. Terrible."

The two took the ranger between them and pulled him a little to one side to bombard him with questions. The second tallest of the group looked after him with a grin and then bowed again:

"Gronk, half-orc, thief." Trulda studied the almost two-step-tall figure, the muscular upper body and the powerful paws with doubt. Only then did she notice the equipment, some of which was sticking out of the large backpack: crowbar, throwing hooks and a bundle of rope. At his side, he carried a rapier and several throwing knives scattered around. Leather shoes with soft soles and dark brown leather clothing also fitted. She nodded and noted everything.

"Furoras, half-elf, sorcerer." The sorcerer's mage staff was a sturdy short spear decorated with inlaid runes that rose just above his head. The tip of the spear was made of transparent reddish glass or crystal. The short hair emphasized the pointed ears.

A face appeared from below in front of the counter. The revenant barely reached the human's navel, but looked as if it had been knotted together entirely out of muscle: "BamBam, halfling, barbarian."

"Halfling is not a..."

The halfling interrupted them: "Counts anyway!"

"That's all right. At least it starts with half. Barbarian is an unusual choice for halflings."

The small beer-bellied barbarian adjusted his fur vest and scratched his hairy chest. He braced his two-handed wooden club on the ground and leaned on it. The weapon came up to his chest. He looked up at her calmly: "Halflings are ideal barbarians."

Trulda "Without a bonus on physical strength and with the short... range?"

"We are the toughest breed of all. Plus three on constitution! Yeah, baby. The higher the constitution of unarmored barbarians, the more damage, spells and diseases we can simply ignore. Name me another race with a constitution bonus that high. Can't think of one? There aren't any. The programmers have fully realized what Tolkien wanted. We wear the One Ring and it doesn't itch us at all."

He nodded, put the club back on his shoulder and stepped back with a grin. Trulda emphasized the word barbarian in her form. She looked up to speak to the nearest of the revenants. Then she continued to look up until she had leaned her head fully back on her neck.

"Rhea, half-giantess, bard."

"Bard? Seriously? The attributes of half-giants just scream barbarian."

"I always wanted to play a bard. I took the race on the advice of my psychotherapist. It's worked well so far."

Trulda was unsure how to respond. Rhea wiped her hand through the air: "I don't mind talking about it. I'm over 2.20 meters tall in real life. It just causes problems. Does body dysmorphic disorder mean anything to you?"

Trulda nodded before remembering that she couldn't possibly know that as a npc. Fortunately, her two colleagues were busy handing out the guild pins and weren't paying attention to the conversation.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Many players had played characters of a completely different size and build at the beginning of virtual reality. Mostly without any problems, but around fifteen percent of players had developed serious psychoses after a few weeks. They had become unaccustomed to their bodies in the real world and increasingly perceived them as foreign bodies. Centaurs and Nagas were therefore quickly removed as player races. Sea creatures were only available after extensive psychological aptitude tests. Without special permission from the moderators, you could only create a character that was within narrow limits of your own natural body.

"Being even bigger didn't seem like a good idea to me, but I just gave it a try and... I love it! When I'm back home, my body is graceful and almost too small in comparison. Three weeks in VR have done more than years of therapy."

"But bard?"

"My father is quite wealthy. He made a generous donation to Peituwin and in return he adjusted the character class a little for me. Less deductions for dexterity, but less robust and without the usual immunity to poisons. My free points all went into dexterity and charisma. You wouldn't believe the lung volume I have in this body. Shall I blow up the bagpipes?"

Trulda looked with widened eyes at the huge bag with the arm-length metal flutes attached to the bard's backpack: "No! I mean... there's no time for that here right now. Maybe later."

The bard grinned. The reaction was nothing new to her: "So, do you have a quest for us now?"

Trulda stumbled and listened inside. Nothing. She turned to her colleagues: "Do you have any ideas?"

Sindri nodded enthusiastically: "Of course. There's really only one thing for groups: Dungeons!" Trulda's heart stopped for a moment. Did they know about Malvorik? Would the dungeon appear in one of the documents? What if a quest was spontaneously created now?

Sindri continued without noticing her frozen expression: "What level are you?"

"We are now all at level 6 after the level deduction for the respawn."

"Too bad. The next dungeon accessible via the guild is the Mine of Meklang. Metal elementals, iron spiders and golems. Recommended for experienced hero groups of at least level 8."

The half-giantess waved her hand calmly. The breeze from her large hand swept a few leaves off the table. "Never mind. We'll do that when we're ready. After the chase through forests and tunnels, we could use something simple. Rats in the sewers or something."

Trulda froze at the mention of the sewers. She covered it up by frantically reaching for the quest book and leafing through it again to check if there was indeed a quest in the sewers. Sindri interrupted her immediately: "You don't need to look for it. The Sewers Guild goes to great lengths to keep things quiet down there. Complaints from local residents about rats and the like are the guild's absolute nightmare. The idea of it becoming a quest and adventurers constantly roaming the sewers like during the last plague..."

Sindri stroked her chin thoughtfully, then snapped her fingers: "The Konnroot Decimation Quest!" She reached for the quest book and quickly flipped through it. Trulda noticed that some of the text changed before her eyes as quests were updated in real time. With some delay, her knowledge skill informed her that this was indeed the case. All of the guild's quest books always contained the same knowledge. If one was changed, they all changed.

"Konnroots are mouse-sized... well... bundles of roots. Or brown tentacles. The critters are hard to describe. They're only found in the Forest of Orden, half a day's journey north of Mulnirsheim. They are actually completely harmless scavengers and herbivores. They only become a problem when there are too many of them. Then they join together to form larger clusters. When this happens, a decimation quest is declared. It happens regularly every three or four weeks."

Trulda looked over her shoulder: "The date there is three months ago."

Indris joined in from the other side: "That's impossible. We always had waiting lists for the quest. All the hero groups in the city were fighting over places."

Sindri shook his head: "The Five Knives have gone to the desert to attempt a new exploration quest. The Dirty Dozen joined the dryad queen in the Border Forest. I haven't heard from them since. The other two groups in town are now too high level and are currently attempting the Meklang Dungeon."

Indris pulled the book towards him and leafed back and forth wildly: "Someone should have noticed that!"

Sindri laughed humorlessly: "With the chaos of the war in the border forest over the last few weeks?"

Trulda intervened: "Is that bad?"

The two twins thought and then nodded in sync: "Konnroots are sneaky and often jump down from trees onto their opponents. With sharp weapons and halfway decent armor, they are quite easy to defeat. But if they've been able to multiply for so long now, they could form much larger clumps. No idea how dangerous they are now. The quest is normally for levels 3 to 5."

All three looked down at the description. Behind the name of the quest was written in thick lines: "Recommended for hero groups of at least level 3."

Quest update: Recommended level increases to 6

Sindri took the pen with trembling hands and wiped the back of it across the number 3. The writing disappeared without a trace. She pulled herself together and wrote a 6 in its place instead.

Trulda looked at the others: "Does this happen often? I mean, the world voice interfering?"

Sindri shook her head: "New quests are sometimes dictated by the world voice if there is no suitable questgiver or if they are parts of the world quest. But changing an existing quest? That's never happened as far as I remember."

Hero group "The Half-Brothers" accepts the Konnroot Decimation Quest (Level 6)

Everyone looked up at Rhea, who shrugged her shoulders calmly: "A quest that the Voice of the World thinks is rated too low? We can hardly pass that up."

She raised her fist to the sky and the motley group followed suit: "Half-brothers... Onward!"

The whole group took off like one man and stormed down the road and out of sight as a cohesive bunch.

The guild members looked after them with smiles. Sindri with slightly dreamy eyes: "That's what I call enthusiasm!"

Indris seemed less enthusiastic: "I call it a bad sense of direction."

Sindri nodded without letting her smile fade: "Too low or no orientation skill at all. That happens a lot with beginners. Hopefully they've at least bought a magic map."

Trulda looked from the half-brothers disappearing around the corner back to the mismatched twins, "Is this the wrong direction?"

Indris nodded: "That's the way to the northwest gate. They can get there that way, but they have to walk halfway around the city and take a detour across the fields. The north-east gate would have saved them two hours on foot."

As soon as the half-brothers had disappeared, the next revenant approached the stand with wide eyes: "Do you have to become a member here?"

"Of course not. It's completely voluntary. It's just easier for you to have a guild to support you."

The revenant had everything explained to him, said goodbye politely and then left to look around.

The next new arrival on the platform even attracted the attention of the remaining revenants. A woman, completely clad in red and gold lacquered plate armor. Slender and perfectly fitted to her form. Especially the chest part with its glowing blue and white crystal set in the middle. She elegantly jumped off the platform and looked around. Her hand pushed the golden faceplate upwards. The face of an older woman with graying hair, crisscrossed by deep laugh lines, appeared. She wandered from one person to the next, greeting and shaking hands. No one seemed to know her, but her cheerful laugh was infectious. When she saw the guild's stand, she immediately approached it: "Girls! Those are some great costumes. You three are scrumptious! My nephew said this was better than the cosplay conventions when I was younger, but I didn't believe him at the time. This is going to be so much fun!"

Trulda closed her open mouth and pulled herself together: "Welcome to the Adventurers' Guild. Shall I explain the benefits of membership?"

"That’s not necessary. My nephew said I absolutely have to join your guild. Five silver, right girls?"

"Uh... yeah." Trulda picked up a blank sheet of paper, entered the date with a flourish and then asked, forced professionally: "Name?"

"Iron Ma'am."

Trulda flinched briefly, but immediately regained her composure. Grinning broadly, she wrote down the name and then continued: "Character class is probably Avenger?" Her colleagues looked at her with irritation. Sindri intervened: "There is no such character class."

The woman laughed: "No, unfortunately there really isn't. So I chose Arcane Knight. That's the closest to my concept. I got the armor, but I still need gloves with a shockwave spell and a flying belt to complete the set."

Trulda nodded in understanding, while Sindri and Indris looked back and forth between the two in confusion. The iron lady laughed merrily, "An allusion to an old story from the Classic 2D times."

"Should we wait for a hammer-wielding blond giant and a green skinned troll?"

"No, Gertrude and Henriette claimed they were too old for that." She put one foot on the stool next to the stand and struck a dramatic heroic pose: "Ha!"

Trulda smiled: "Do you still need a quest or do you want to see the city first?"

"Just tell me where you need a hero the most."

Sindri and Indri looked at each other indecisively: "That's an unusual criterion. What exactly do you mean? Battle or gathering quest?"

Trulda shook her head and frantically leafed through the quest book. She muttered quietly to herself: "Which quest hasn't been accepted for the longest time... No gathering quests..." She tapped Sindri and pointed to a page: "That one?"

"Good choice." She turned to the knight: "Look for the village of Mushroom Grove. It's northwest of the city, about two days' journey away. The inhabitants have problems with poisonous snakes. You are practically immune to them in your armor. Take a spear with you. The moss vipers are fast and agile."

"I'll take it to heart." She wandered off with the pounding of the iron shoes on the pavement.

Sindri looked after her: "The shoes could do with a leather sole. Otherwise, the armor makes a good impression. The color scheme is fantastic."

Trulda nodded and then turned to the next revenant.

A slender young man with black hair tied back in a ponytail lifted the slightly too long black robe with both hands to prevent it from dragging on the ground. He went to the other side of the square first and chatted with a few other revenants. One of them pointed to the guild stand and then left. The man lifted his robes again and came to the stand: "Greetings to all the gods, ladies. I would like to join the Adventurers' Guild."

Trulda gave him a friendly smile: "Of course. That'll be five silver coins." She took out the membership form and put pen to paper: "Name?"

"Darken O'Mighty"

Trulda hesitated: "Seriously?" He nodded, grinning broadly.

"Character class?"

He struck a pose: "Master of the Dark Arts."

She took the pen off the paper: "That's not a character class."

"I have customized it. A mixture of sorcerer and mage. Limited and specialized in some exotic fringe areas. NEMESIS approved the combination right away."

All three women leaned forward in synchronization. Sindri was the quickest to ask, "Which fringe areas?"

He lowered his voice and spoke slowly and menacingly: "Dark aromatherapy, dark homeopathy and dark osteopathy."

"What in Cofefe's name is dark aroma therapy?"

"You'll see when I've worked it out a little better."

Indris nudged Sindri, "The World Voice hasn't accepted any new character classes suggested to it for generations."

Sindri sounded thoughtful: "Could be related to the plague. Everything is always turned upside down during a plague."

Trulda interjected: "Maybe it just thought the character class was funny?"

Darken straightened and spoke emphatically low and threatening, but couldn't suppress a slight smile around his eyes, which took the edge off, "Funny? You mock the darkest of arts?"

She put her hand on her chest in mock horror: "No way! I quake and tremble at the very idea of being cursed with... Dark Homeopathy."

"It's not for curses, it's a subspecies of alchemy."

"Then with a curse of aromatherapy."

"This is another specialization of alchemy."

"A curse of dark osteopathy?"

"That’s is an unarmed combat technique."

She took her hand off her chest and became serious: "You're serious?"

"Would you like me to demonstrate?"

She shrugged her shoulders and stepped next to the stand. Then she made the "come on" gesture with both hands. He glided smoothly towards her and grabbed her arm. She prepared to counter a judo throw, but he only twisted her wrist slightly. Sharp pain twitched through the joint and her whole left arm fell asleep.

He spread his arms out in a triumphant gesture: "Well, what did you think..."

A blow to the stomach caused him to collapse. Trulda pulled her fist back: "Ups, sorry. That was a reflex."

Still hunched over in pain, he raised his hand and coughed: "It's... fine. It... hardly hurts..."

Afterwards, a crowd of revenants arrived and, after a quick glance at the stand, wandered off into the city. Sindri looked after them in confusion: "Should we put up a bigger sign?"

Trulda shook his head: "No. I think they're all craftsmen. Look at the clothes. Sturdy, but not armored. No weapons or wands. They'll probably be looking for an apprenticeship and open a store later."

Indris looked confused: "Aren't revenants all adventurers?"

"No... I mean... in the stories of the last plague, many revenants were mentioned who simply followed a trade. Blacksmiths, carpenters, stonemasons. Plus quite a few artists or inventors. Sometimes they get bored and go off with adventurers to gather some rare materials, but mostly they spend their time in the city."

"You come to our world to... What? To make tables?"

"Some of them do. The skill system enables them to learn things in days that would take them years at home. Many are also not physically suited to manual work in their world. They are too weak, too clumsy or even ill. Or simply too old."

"But all revenants are stronger than us."

"In this world. Not necessarily in their own as well." She noticed that they were both looking at her very intently and added somewhat weakly, "At least that’s what I've heard in the stories."

Before anyone could say anything, she hurriedly turned to the next customer.

The rush only died down after a few hours.