Arriving at the entry hall Lauri looked around for parties to join. Despite the tell-tale signs that this was once an academy assembly hall, he reckoned it very much looked the part of a guild hall now. An unmanned reception area, an empty quest board, adventurers sitting around tables quietly sipping mead and a kitchen chef acting the alcohol server. Lauri wondered if all guilds were like this but right now he was more worried that nobody was standing out. Thankfully a woman came up to him because otherwise Lauri may have done nothing until the sun went down. Wearing full plate mail the most he could tell was that she had black hair, brown eyes and a gruff female voice. "You couldn't look more out of place. Are you new?"

"Yes," he showed his membership card, "I'm thinking that I need to join a party."

"Lauri the Sealer, hey? I'm Rebecca but call me... wait, a Sealer? Really?"

"Not by choice. Goddess vetoed my first choice, to be a Priest."

"Seriously? That's unheard of."

"She didn't want me as a priest and it's not unheard of. I mean, legend goes that people didn't even get a say, some 2000 years ago."

"No, I mean the goddess talking to someone. Are you having a go?"

"She spoke to me. It's even on the church records."

"Did you lie to the church?"

"If I was then I'm not suddenly going to change my story now. So, want to party up?"

"Don't you know? You need to party with people around your own level. The EXP penalty is a killer."

"Madam, for all I can tell with your visor down, you could be as young as my little sister. Am I the first of this year to join, maybe?"

"How many people were at the ceremony?"

"I know 12 went in before me and I think there was about 24 keen enough to still be waiting their turn after I left."

"That's a strange phrasing but of those 37, you include, how many do you think joined this guild?"

"At least 1, because I'm here."

"1 is correct and I don't think they'll be more this year."

"Might I ask why this guilds nickname is Worst Guild?"

"Silly story really. Before called Survivor Guild it had the unfortunate name of Liver Guild, called so for those who prioritise living. Except that a liver is an organ. People started joking 'more like Liverwurst Guild.' Even after the guild name was officially changed the nickname Wurst Guild stuck around. That's spelt with a U, not an O."

"So this isn't the worst out of all the guilds, then, right?"

"Sure isn't, because on the other side of the continent there's the Mighty Rucks Guild."

A few tables down someone rose their voice, "Mighty Rucks closed down."

The gruff woman let out a huff. "Alright, we're the worst."

Lauri should have been lost for words, but instead he spoke nonsense. "But the goddess told me to join this guild."

"Heaven knows why, literally, only the heavens. Do some solo levelling. It's not as easy as it used to be and costs way more but the lower levels go by in a flash and its better than joining any other guild."

"Why's that?"

"I meant it's better than dying. Basically synonymous, ever since the overpopulation crisis and the academies being forced to shut down."

"Forced? I thought they converted to guilds for the money?"

"Such a young'in." She gives Lauri a hug that's less than comfortable against her cold, metal, plates. "Laws enforced safety responsibilities on academies. With dungeons becoming blood-thirsty and death rates skyrocketing an academy couldn't operate legally even if they were willing to bleed money."

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Blood-thirsty? Everyone knows that dungeons want to be explored. They're an adventurers best friend."

"What? Were you raised by a priest?"

"My dad's a priest, yes."

"They're deadly, kid. Getting more and more deadly every year. With hundreds of thousands of people in this kingdom there should have been thousands at your ceremony and more newbies then every guild could handle. Except that those not raised by delusional, god loving priests, know that gods blessing is worthless. Get a real job instead. Adventuring is for chumps."

Lauri though back to his past jobs, cutting grass with a pair of scissors, pushing heavy carts of bricks, helping putting up fences until his back ached so bad he walked like an old man. "I like the relaxed atmosphere I'm seeing here. We're all going to die someday, so what's the difference between a dozen decades?"

"This isn't relaxed. Despondent may be a good word for what this is. I'd help you if I could but I'm level 16, you'd basically get no share of EXP."

"You'd help me if you could? Well, I can lower your level. Then it won't be a problem, right?"

"Lower my level?"

"Temporarily. It doesn't last more than an hour."

"If that's true then I can still kill the Dungeon of Great Woes. Its entry has a level 15 cap."

"Kill a dungeon?"

"Yeah, kid, there's a dungeon core somewhere within every dungeon and if you can..."

"No, I mean, why would you want to kill a dungeon?" There was a pause before he continued, "dungeons are an adventurers best friend."

"Kid, friends can become enemies and this dungeon is an enemy."

"Well, let me try my skill on you and then we can practice first with a dungeon that's not an enemy."

"Let's see how this works."

Lauri opened his System window, first changing it to show less details, he then targeted Rebecca and activated Drain Level. He noted that his level raised to level 4, a pleasant surprise as before now he hadn't known what to expect.

{

Class: Ritualist

Profession: Level 1 Sealer

Effective Level: 4

HP: 320, PP: 350\400, MP: 12

Strength: 48, Toughness: 32, Agility: 12, Memory: 56, Reasoning: 32, Charisma: 124

Skills: 4

}

Lauri couldn't help wonder what was going on with his Charisma attribute. Trying to stack 'Drain Level' he saw a System log "Target already effected by Drain Level from this caster."

"Looks like that's the gist of it. You should have temporarily lost at least 1 level, yeah?"

Rebecca sounded happy, "I've lost 3 levels. That means I have more leeway. Now, lets destroy that dungeon."

Lauri considered that, with scaling, Rebecca's lost levels were worth far more than the level he'd gained. If this wasn't temporary he'd complain that it was unbalanced. Then again, he supposed the skill was probably intended for use against monsters. Except that Lauri then realised he had no good reason the justify that suspicion. As Rebecca headed off Lauri realised what she'd said just before. He shouted "Rebecca, hang on, that sounds too tough for my first dungeon and we've still got a, ummmm, 9 level difference," as he chased after her.

"I told you to call me Bec."

"You never did."

"Keep up or join someone else."