“You could’ve told me I wasn’t allowed to be on the grounds!”

“Well I told you you should better follow the instructions.” Trider snided back.

“The instruction didn’t say anything about the way back!”

“Yes it did, you should’ve read it before giving it away.”

“They almost killed me!”

“Don’t exaggerate so much,” The man had the audacity to roll his eyes. “They definitely wouldn’t have done such a thing. Way too much paperwork for them.”

“Who even are they? The people on whose estates I just broke in I mean.”

Trider shrugged. “Business secrets are business secrets.”

They were back in the tavern. At this point Marcel had given up even trying to navigate to their table without spilling anything. The smell of ale on his clothes just came with the jobs for him now.

Marcel sighed. “Can you at least give me my information now?”

“Sure,”

The man took out a little coin and flipped it towards Marcel.

“What’s that?”

“You really are new to this whole thing eh?”

Marcel shrugged, trying to play it cool.

The man rolled his eyes. “Well it is an information coin. If you push some mana into it, it gives you the information you need.”

“Can I use it multiple times?”

“Sure, as long as you want. But it’s branded to your mana. Don’t want you spilling out any hard bought secrets, you know how it is.”

“How did you brand it to my mana?”

Now it was Trider’s turn to shrug. Unfortunately he managed to pull off the coolness factor way better than Marcel.

“Could deliver another letter if you really want that information.” Trider smiled playfully.

“Fuck off.” Marcel turned to walk away from the table but stopped. “You could at least tell me who the girl was, seeing as I almost died there.”

“I told you, it was only almost. But if you must know… I have no idea. It was simply the request of another customer. Must be someone important though, cause he paid quite well.”

Brooding Marcel took off towards the bar and ordered an ale. To his surprise, another barkeeper than last time served him. It was on the side of pleasant surprises though, since that one seemed to know how to keep his opinions to himself.

Not for the first time Marcel wondered if this was really all karma. He had thought things in his old world had gotten worse and worse for him, but since he had arrived here, this was really topping it.

He took a sip of the ale. His eyebrows rose and he looked down at the ale. Almost disbelieving he took another sip. Then another, even bigger one.

It was the best ale he ever had. Marcel hadn't been much for beer in his life before, but this was a dance on his tongue. The bitter elements of the alcohol balanced out with a hint of lemon and a surprisingly sweet freshness.

His mood lifted considerably.

“It’s good isn’t it?” A male voice to his left said.

“It is astounding! Best fucking beer I ever had.”

“Yeah they’re kinda famous for that here.”

“Well must be some reason people come here. Can't be the light.”

“That’s true,” the man laughed cheerily, then turned towards Marcel. “ What are all the bruises around your face from? got into a fight with the missus?”

Marcel was surprised the man was able to see the bruises. He couldn’t even make out any features of the other man. Without its deep barrio voice he wouldn’t have known.

"Took some mission that ended up a little badly."

"Punched over your grade eh? Happens to all of us once or twice."

Marcel mused another sip of his ale. "Guess you could say that."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Was the reward at least worth it?"

Marcel shrugged. "Don't know that yet. But at least I got some experience."

"Yeah I get that, but that's the life of an adventurer. "

At the word a little spark went of in Marcel's head, a small fire kindled by hope and excitement. He turned towards the shadow of a man to his right.

"Did you say adventurer?"

After a short conversation it came out that his hope wasn’t misplaced. There was indeed such a thing as an adventurers guild in this world, and they indeed worked on quests for rewards.

"Only guild members can invite new members though." The man who had since then introduced himself as Marty said.

"Ohh I see," Marcel tried to swap away the wave of disappointment with another swig of ale. His third by now.

"Luckily for you, I am a member of the guild."

The smirk on his face was audible even in dim light.

As their night progressed the ale they consumed kept pace. At a certain point the dim light was offset by the fact that Marcel couldnt even see anyways.

The guild hall was an impressive building. It was towering so far above the surrounding houses that a spell had to be kept around it to not make it stand out too much.

As Marcel stared it up, it reminded him of some of the skyscrapers he had seen in his old life. Once he had been to the empire state building on a school trip, but the guild hall could almost rival that. He hadn't expected to see such high houses again when he landed in a medieval world, but here he was trying to keep his mouth gaping.

"Pretty nice isn't it? Marty said to his right.

Marcel nodded. The hangover pounding his head with a sledgehammer.

The entrance hall was rather plain though. It was what Marcel would have expected from a properly lit tavern. There was one giant desk sitting at the end of the room and a lot of benches lined up in neat rows on both sides of the long walkway through the middle.

It was kind of cosy in a way, the benches were simple and entirely made out of wood. Marcel glanced at the tables as they walked towards the desk, their stains and marks told stories of friendly gathering and wild evenings.

There were few people there, only a handful of small groups gathered throughout the room. None spared them even a second glance. But it was early, and MArcel could almost imagine the air that must be in these halls at night, after adventurers returned from a long day of questing.

Were things turning up for him?

They arrived at the front desk, and were greeted by a welcome looking man. His features were rather simple, with short brown hair, but his face turned into a warm smile when he saw them.

“Marty!” He said. “What can I do for you?”

“Good to see you Fredrik. My friend here would like to register with the guild:” He put an arm on Marcel's shoulder and pushed him forward.

“I see, I see. You want to vouch for him?”

Marty nodded. “Aii, guy seems pretty alright to me, and I know he has been doing some missions under the table before anyways. I think he will be fine.”

Fredrik raised an eyebrow and looked Marcel down. “Missions under the table eh?”

Marcel had to keep himself from blushing. Maybe he had exaggerated his story a little when he told Marty about it the night before. And maybe, just maybe, he had added a few details and even other stories that hadn’t quite happened like that. The ale was to blame though, no man should be held responsible after a night like he just had.

“I know my way around a quest,” Marcel said simply. Nobody had to know he was mostly relating to games with that.

It seemed to satisfy Fredrik though as he nodded and took out a paper to hand to him. A quick glance revealed it seemed to be a sign up sheet in which he had to fill in his most important details. For a magic world such paperwork was surprisingly old fashioned. It made Marcel question how much he wanted to join for a second.

“This is the form for applying,” Fredrik explained. “You can hand it in, and then there will be the admissions round.”

“Admissions?”

“Yeah, every Tuesday and Thursday around noon some of the higher ups from the guild come down to examine the newcomers. It’s nothing special, mostly just a quick background scan to make sure you have no criminal past, a few questions and a screen of your class, to see you have no class or abilities that are on the forbidden list.”

“Oh, it is Tuesday?” Marty asked and laughed.. “Well perfect timing then. Might be you will be on your first mission before the night then.”

Marcel wanted to ask about the forbidden list Fredrik mentioned, but kept his tongue in cheek. That would probably sound a little suspicious. Not that he had anything to hide, but with him having no past in this world, he was already afraid that there would be some complications when they talked about a background check.

Although he was also a little worried about his new class. It wasn’t like he had gotten it in an illegal way or anything, but from the small steering he had done towards that topic in last night's conversation with Marty, he had gathered that class changes were a very uncommon thing. So whatever the old man had done to him was definitely out of the norm.

“Sure sounds good.” Marcel said.

“Good, feel free to take a seat here and wait if you want. I can let you know as soon as the admissioners are ready.”

“Thanks,” Marcel patted his pockets and held up his sheet of paper. “Uhh would you have a pen for that?”

Both men turned surprised glances towards him. Fredrik turned a little suspicious but then Marty broke out laughing.

“Pen.” He chuckled. “That was a good one. Didn’t I tell you he’s a funny one Fredrik.” He clasped a hand on Marcel shoulder. “Fuck almost had me there for a bit.”

Not knowing what else to do Marcel put on a fake smile and tried to play over his awkwardness. “Yeah…”

The corners of Fredriks mouth curved upwards a little. More out of politeness. “Well, just bring the sheet filled out to the admissions later.”

As they walked away Marcel turned towards Marty. “The admissions.”

“Yeah?”

“Is there a way to fail them?”

The man shrugged.”Don’t know. Never heard about it happening. But then again, the only real way to fail is by meddling with things you should not meddle with. So I guess the people that did fail, didn’t really tell their tale if you get what I’m saying.”

Marcel swallowed. Unfortunately he did.