I remove the paper from the machine and take a glance at it. Then I gently roll it up like a scroll and put it into my pocket. I don’t know what any of this means, to me it is just a collection of statistics. Without context what did 16 mean? Is it good? Is it bad? I will just meet up with Kay and go over it together. I hope that is isn’t too annoying to explain it to me.

I make my way out of the testing area and back to where I had locked up my belongings. I stick the key into the lock and say, "Let it be opened". The lock swings open and I am able to remove my items.

Now then, I needed to make my way to the Shinoa library. I glance around me, and it doesn't take me too long to orient myself. I had done my best to imprint in my mind where the library was, as that seems as though it is going to be a significant place for me.

Had me and Kay decided that we were going to meet at the library right after the test, or after I had wandered around and found a place to live? I think about it and realize that our plans were not that well set. I suppose I should go meet up with Kay first and then I can wander around and look for a place to stay. Maybe they can also give me a map?

Feeling more confident with a plan in my head I make my way towards the library. I take in the sounds and the smells around me. It was still a strong cacophony of life, more than I am used to. I find it unpleasant yet energizing at the same time.

I suppose this is what people mean when they talk about the chaotic nature of the masses. I never knew what people meant before now.

I dodge and slide my way through the crowd, making sure that all of my precious belongings are right up against my skin. It won’t do to have some sneak thief come along and relieve me of my precious keepsakes. No, that would not do at all! I stamp my foot a little bit harder into my step as I have this thought.

Kay said that it would take about ten minutes to get to the library from the testing point, and I am quickly finding out why that is. The streets are crowded with massive amounts of masses, some small and others quite large. There are all sorts of people surrounding me. There are elves, dwarves, and a variety of animal-kin. I have never had to navigate such a busy street, or, well, any street!

I step onto the road and immediately almost collide with a heavily armored dwarf only half my height. “Oh, pardon…”

“Watch where you are going, all that height and unable to see a thing. Bah!” With a dismissive wave he keeps on going.

I step backwards to get out of the way only to wind up in the path of… I’m not really sure what it is, it could even be a steed of some sort. I crane my neck looking to see if anything was riding it, and I see…

One of the legs calmly but with unquestionably and forcefully shoving me out of the way and off the street. I don’t like this, I don’t like this one bit. I try once, twice, three more times to integrate myself into the cacophony of movement. But each and every time I get pushed out of the way.

I try a calming breath and repeat to myself “Calm, polite and dignified at…” the swinging tail of a bull man hits me in the face. Twitch, my ear spams slightly.

“Calm, polite and… GET OUT OF THE WAY!” I give a shout that is easily covered by the city. Yet somehow things click, and with shoulders square I make my way in the crowd. It brings to mind the words of a slightly drunk adventurer.

He grabbed me by the shoulders, looked me dead in the eyes, and spoke as if conveying words of ancient wisdom. ‘If you ever find yourself in the city, you need to walk with purpose. A weak walk means prey, an easy target. Head up, roll your shoulders back, look dead ahead, walk with a measured stride each step consistent. And your face, now this is the important part. You need to narrow your eyes and when anyone looks at you, they need to be afraid, because you are out for blood. This is the murder walk.’

No one can see my face beneath the hood, but surely that is the semblance I wore upon my visage. I reach my hands up to touch my face, indeed, this was the scowl and eye narrowance of homicidal rage of which he spoke.

Since I kept my gaze straight, I could only observe things from my peripheral vision. What I see is, well, that, it is sort of everything. One of the unique structural choices I notice are some buildings built on slopes. They had long sticks beneath them to help hold them up. I would not want to stay in one of those locations. No thank you. I shake my head. What is this place that the voice had led me to.

I try not to gawk at the life around me as I make my way to the library. People are out here, living their lives as if this chaos is normal or reasonable. I see some people look at me and then back to what they are doing.

Even wearing my cloak and carrying bags underneath the cloak, which I thought rather peculiar, is apparently still normal enough to not register for these people. This baffles me.

This is such a different world from the one that I grew up in. This has to be intentional. People live in this chaos and then come to the pleasure gardens as a change of pace, an escape from how hectic daily life is. I just never knew.

Soon enough I get to the library and walk in. Holy cats this is a lot of books! We have a small library back home. but it is nothing compared to this place! And it seems that anyone can come in.

I walk through the stacks, and see that books are shelved first by category, and then alphabetically by author. How neat! It seemed that there are books on everything here from weapon maintenance, craftsmanship, and even a book on deadly couches!

Apparently the uprising is coming. Does this mean that someone took a couch monster from the dungeon and they are biding their time on the surface, just waiting for the right time to attack? I shake my head. The world will never know. Or maybe it will since there was a book about it. I shrug my shoulders and keep moving, only realizing after I walk away that it is shelved as non-fiction.

Stolen story; please report.

After a couple minutes I realize that I will not be able to find Kay on my own, so I go to the person working at the counter to ask.

"Umm, hi. Can you please point the way to Kay? I am not sure where to meet with them."

"Oh! You must be Amaya. Kay said that there might be someone coming in to meet with him."

Him. That answers that question. However, with his gender-neutral appearance we might be able to get up to some fun hijinks in the future. How fun! What kind? It wouldn't be half as much fun if I already had some ideas.

"Yes, that's me." I tell the girl behind the counter. She looked human in appearance with red hair, and green eyes partially hidden behind large blue glasses.

"Very good. Please follow me." she says, and I follow her.

She leads me through the library, to the back, then down some stairs and into a room on the right. "This is his room. Well... Bye." she says, and awkwardly leaves.

That was... Uncomfortable? I don't know why but that is the best way I can describe our interaction. Uncomfortable is the best words that I have but it is such a lacking word. I like creative words best.

I knock on the door, not willing to enter unless invited in. That's just good manners.

"Come in!" I hear through the door, so I do.

I walk in the room and look around. I see books scattered here and there, clothes folded neatly into a few piles at different places in the room, a bed which looked to be hastily made, a mirror hung on the wall, and there are some stuffed toys on the bed as well. It looks like a very cozy place. I like it.

"Hi!" I say brightly and give a small wave of my hand.

"Hi, hi, hi! I was just busy cleaning, haven’t had guests over before." he says, bouncing a little with each hi.

I thought that his energy levels would have gone down after the test, but I am apparently very mistaken. Not that I mind. His energy levels are adorable and almost infectious. Almost. It has been too long of a day for me to be completely affected by them.

"Would you like to take your shoes off, set your things down and take off your cloak? I have a comfy chair over, oh wait no I don’t have that anymore, I mean a super comfy bed." he offered all at once.

"I would like to set my things down, but I do not feel comfortable removing my cloak. I hope that you understand."

"Yup! That's okay with me!" he laughs and then comments out loud, "My new friend is kind of odd. That's awesome! Yay! I have a very odd friend!"

"Do you usually say everything that comes into your mind?" I ask him, amused.

"I wouldn't say always, nope, but some days I do! I guess this is one of those days. Oh! Or it could have been the spell. I think it will last until the end of the day. Too bad you don't want me to guide you around. I totally would. I have a lot of energy!"

"I can see that. And normally I would take you up on your offer, but I think that I will take my time to explore and find lodgings myself. Oh, and I will most likely need a job. I won't be making money as an adventurer for a while yet, correct?" I ask.

"That's right! We have six months of classes before they let us go to even the first floor of the dungeon. Without training we would pretty much die from the first monster, something like Ahhh! Ergh, blahh, dead."

"Six months?" I ask, surprised, though I wasn't certain if I thought that was too long or too short of a time. I guess I won't know until I go to the classes.

"Well... Some people have to take classes longer, or shorter depending on their beginning stats. Oh oh oh! Let's compare stats! Wait, but first I want to hear what the had the girls do as a test. They divide the tests by genders."

"Why is that?"

"Not certain, though, personally I believe that they do it just for fun."

"For fun?"

"Yup!"

"Any reason why you feel that way?"

"Nope!" It was a very chipper nope.

"Huh, well. Okay then." I say, and just accept his thoughts. He grew up here after all so I assume that he would have a better idea about these types of things.

"So..." he says, drawing out the word.

"So?"

"What did they have you doing?!"

At that question I walked him through what they had me do, giving him a lot of details without embellishing. I think that embellishing is an adventurer trait, but not one that I have developed. I think that if something should be a story it needs to be good enough to tell without all the extra details.

"And when all of the lights went out I really thought that I was going to be scared. Well, I mean, maybe I was a little but only because of what I was going to do next!"

"Oh my goodness, what you were going to do next!?" Kay was almost vibrating with excited anticipation.

"I took a flying leap hoping that I would be able to grab the rope. I felt it almost slip through my fingers. Had my hands been slick with sweat, I do not know what the outcome of my leap would have been." I may sounds as though I am embellishing, but that is the truth of the matter.

"You jumped, in the dark, that high up, without being sure if you could grab it, are you insane?"

"Indubitably I am! That's right, I jumped without knowing if I would catch it. Luckily I did. But the test didn't end there!"

"What! There is more?"

"Yes well, the final test was the most interesting one yet!" I say and launch into telling Kay about saving the creature in distress. As I vocally illustrate the moment of my skill activation Kay bounds into the air with a shout.

“So yes, I guess you could give me praise and acclaim that I did, indeed, save the day. And a very cute creature I might include, I was sorely tempted to abscond with it.”

"Huh, I guess they might have done that to flip the trope on its head."

"The trope?" I ask him.

"In many stories the dashing young man saves the damsel in distress, kisses her, marries her and they live happily ever after. Well until he grows bored, obtains a mistress and then mysteriously dies of poison. The end."

"I see what you mean. They needed to show that adventurers don't fall into the normal, boring old gender stereotypes."

"Old? I don't know where you are from, but that is the way a lot of people still view things. Women are more fragile, so they are in charge of the children and household while the men go out and work."

"I thought that the dungeon towns would be more progressive."

"Maybe we would be if so many people didn't go off into the dungeon and get themselves killed all the time. They need to keep the women safe at home to raise the kids, or the town might die out."

"I guess that makes sense." I say. "But I don't like it."

"A woman not liking being oppressed, how novel. Hehe, I joke because, well… Where are you from?"

"Not around here." I say. I am not ashamed of where I am from, but I didn't feel like talking that much about myself yet. Further into the friendship I will tell him all about home. But not yet. "I come from a place where the genders are much more equal though."

"Sounds nice."

"It was" I still feel a little homesick, and I think he was able to detect it from my intonation.

"But you still left, what made you want to be an adventurer?"

"I did. It seemed to be my destiny, so there was not use in ignoring it. Probably better for my health that I followed my destiny."

"Into a dungeon? You sure have quite the silly destiny."

"Yes, I sure do. Now then, you have to tell me all about what the examination was like for the males." I say, I am really looking forward to hearing all about it.