"We'd like to take the test please," Kenji said as the boy knight.

"That will be three silvers sir - oh, thank you," the cute counter girl smiled warmly even though Kenji had slid the coins along with a bit too much enthusiasm. Pretty cat ears and tail made her stand out even more in Tariak, and Kenji had heard no amount of small talk as to the girls kindness and good looks.

"Calm down you two," Violet said with a noble demeanour, as Kenji had begun breathing quickly and Tenko was running around with equal excitement.

"We're actually testing a whole lot of people this afternoon. So you'll have to wait until then, unfortunately," the counter girl said, seemingly terribly apologetic for souring the good mood. "But we can check your stats instead! Most of the cost of being tested comes from the expense of the materials used to determine your level, class, abilities and the like. We record the information in the Guild leger, so feel free to return and check up on anything that you've forgotten. Although it will take another silver to actually update that information."

Kenji gulped and began to sweat, "is there a way to keep that information confidential?"

After all, if '#18 of the 18 evil souls' came up, his species or the dead corpses in his internal storage Kenji feared the testers wouldn't take to that too kindly. Peering around at all the adventurers milling about, he didn't like his chances of escape either.

"Certainly there is a confidential option," the counter girl said pleasantly. Kenji sighed with relief, wiping some of the sweat from his face.

"It'll cost one gold coin. Alternatively, for 50 gold coins, you can purchase a card that auto-updates from a drop of blood, and that you can carry around with you."

Kenji groaned, but forced himself to shake his head. They needed this card to do any significant quest, to get guild information and protection. Without it, they had no one looking out for them, and it wouldn't be fair to ask the other two to hold back just because Kenji was afraid of being found out as a Forbidden species of Mimic.

"The Golden Goose Guild doesn't discriminate, does it?" Kenji gestured at his purple companion, the serving girl quickly shaking her cat ears side to side.

"As long as you don't use your powers for evil, non-humans are more than welcome. We're not like those big-city Guild's that force those kinds of people into strict regulations or anything....to be honest, we can't afford to push anyone away at the moment. There are too many quests that pay too little and until we can build up a good enough rapport with the local population that won't change either."

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"I've been meaning to ask about that. Why is everyone trying to pay you so little for good work? Did something happen?"

"Yes and no. It's a combination of things really. The old Golden Goose Guild used to be pretty strong, but all the best members went elsewhere in search of high paying quests, rare materials and glory. Guild Master Almanac is the last to stay, and the only one capable of taking care of the strongest enemies. But the local Lord says his not enough and has stopped paying for quests. Instead, he pays to train his own warriors and has greatly expanded their combat potential over the past years. While we have slowly worked up a good relationship with the people again, now that they have to bear the full brunt of the cost it's proven difficult to get anywhere near the right amount of reward for how difficult various quests are which in turn means everyone levels either rise really slowly or not at all."

After a bit of a grim silence, the counter girl sucked in a big breath and brought back her beaming smile.

"So if you come this way, you'll find why our guild is called the Golden Goose," she said, gesturing up to the second floor. Carefully Kenji followed, peering at the grey bearded guard with some apprehension. Yet the counter girl touched his arm lovingly, the grey-beared smiling back with warm eyes before the counter girl ushered them upward.

From the souring mood of the tavern's singles, Kenji guessed this was the man she was dating at the moment.

Up there on the second floor, Kenji could just breathe easier. There was a nice bar, beautiful men and women, fine equipment and trophies on the walls. More importantly, he could peer down at all the first-floor commoners, and it made him feel as if he had finally made it.

"Please hurry, we don't want to disrupt the senior adventurers. They don't like juniors being around if they can help it-"

"Hey! Green beans, getting your cards checked?" Boomed a huge bear humanoid.

"Ah, yes." Kenji smiled up at the bear and admired how it's armour had little pictures of bears and paws on it. Slung down the bear man's back was a large iron morningstar.

"Mr Grawg, these adventurers were just passing through," the counter girl said with a forced smile as the bear-man pulled her into his side.

"And yet here they dawdle, enjoying the clean air while they muddle it with their inferiority. You can enjoy the second-floor newbies once you've earned it! So stop gawking, and get moving!"

"Mind letting her go," Kenji hissed and Violet raised her nose. Tenko meanwhile went straight for the butt, biting deeply through his fur and into his exposed behind.

"YOW!" the Bearman cried, rubbing his butt ruefully as he peered around for the culprit. Yet small and swift, Tenko dodged his sight to reappear by Kenji's side. Before Mr Grawg could realise what had happened, the counter girl had pushed them into a back room guarded by a pair of stone elementals shaped to appear like huge geese.

"Just through here, please. We'll begin shortly," entering an alchemy lab, Kenji was met by the sight of bubbling potions, books chained to the walls, arcane equipment sprawled across several pieces of furniture and a fireplace filled with a bright blue flame.

An adjoining door opened, and in through came the dashing Almanac.

"Welcome! You want your adventurer cards right? We'll let's get started~" Almanac said with such a bright smile and shining charisma that Kenji almost didn't notice his eyes.

Eyes filled with a piercing terror.