As we headed into town I couldn't help but marvel at the buildings. This was the fantasy experience I was looking for! The tallest buildings were likely no more than three stories and all of them were plain wood and stone. Signs hung in front of various buildings, indicating their purposes, and I could see an open market in the distance. On the other hand, the streets were very well paved, not concrete, but a very stable and flat cobblestone. Plus ditches ran along either side of the road, drains I suppose. It seemed fairly clean for a medieval era. And above all else, once again. Everyone is in modern clothes!

“Hey, Alicia, what’s up with the clothing everyone has? You as well, shouldn’t you have armor or something?” Javi gave me a surprised look, guess he thought we were avoiding that question. Alicia however, just gave a chuckle in response.

“You really are odd. These are normal clothes aren’t they? I’d ask if you have different fashion in the mountains but clearly not since you’re wearing the same style. As for armor, you’ll only be seeing beginners wearing stuff like that.”

“Only beginners wear armor? Is it no longer useful when you’re stronger or something?”

“Well, kinda. Armor begins to get overly restrictive once you start moving around at higher speeds. Plus when they started making regular clothes out of monster materials like this guy,” she gave the wolf a pat, “they were able to start adding enchantments. Nowadays anybody with some money will buy clothes like mine that have extra aetheric protections. They work better, they’re easy to move in, and they’re fashionable.”

Shocked. I am shocked. That is so freaking cool. I want some so badly. That’s so cool. I wonder, “How do aetheric protections and enchantments work?”

“Aaah, don’t ask me. I ain’t much of one for aetheric workings. All I know is that it works and that’s enough for me.” Guess we found ourselves with a musclebrain. “So where are we heading to?” Straight to the point as always Javi. Nice.

“The Basin branch of the IAU, shit y’all probably don’t have the IAU in the mountains do you? The International Adventurer’s Union. It’s the place to go for any kind of odd jobs and miscellaneous missions. I’m a member myself of course. They take a fee to be a member but it keeps the work steady.” Holy shit, an adventurer UNION. That sounds really legit. “To be honest I was thinking about getting the two of you to join up.”

“”Us?””

“Yeah, y’all clearly don’t have anywhere to go and you’ll need money. It’s pretty easy to get an apprenticeship and after that you can be a full member.”

“Oh, we’re here! Welcome to the IAU!” Standing before us was a three story building of decent size. In all honesty, there wasn’t much about it that would’ve made it stand out from the other buildings if it weren’t for the large space between it and the other buildings. “Alright, you two can just head on in. Go to the left most receptionist desk, that’s where they accept applicants. Elizabeth should’ve started her shift just a bit ago and she’s a real sweetheart. You’ll do great.”

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We both looked at her shocked and Javi got to the question a step before I did, “Are you not coming with us?”

“Nah, I gotta take this big guy to the warehouse out back.” She pointed around the side of the building. “They’ll check off that I completed my job and give me my pay. I’ll swing back in after I’m done to check on you, don’t worry.” And without a further word she took off around the building. Javi and I looked at each other hesitantly. He put his hand on the door and looked at me, “Shall we?” I nodded and he pushed it open revealing the inside of the building to us.

The inside was bright with light and loud with chatter. There were a good few people hanging around. Straight ahead was a counter manned by multiple people who I assumed to be receptionists. People of all sorts lined up in front of the counter, I could even see some in armor that I figured must be beginners. To the right, there were tables and a bar. It was a smaller area but it looked like they had both food and beer. And to the left must be what we are looking for. A small counter was there with a door to the backroom propped open. Walking over, I could hear someone moving about but could see no sign of them. At the counter was a small sign pointing towards a bell that read “Ring For Elizabeth” and so I did so.

Soon enough I could hear footsteps heading our way and out of the doorway walked a massive man. Covered in muscles and scars and standing at least 6’4”, the man was a giant to us. “What can I do for you today?” And apparently he(?) has the voice of a woman.

“Elizabeth?”

“Yes, that’s me. Is something wrong?” She(?) looked so genuinely confused that I had a hard time telling if she was messing with us or not.

“Uhm, no, you just, uh, look a little different than I expected.” She stared at us for a second before looking down at herself and giving a shocked expression.

“Oh my goodness, I forgot to change back! I’m so sorry for the confusion.” Suddenly she(?) was surrounded by a poof of smoke and was gone. “There! Now we’re back to normal.” Where was her voice coming from? I can’t spot her anymore.

“Down here!” I look down behind the counter and can see her now. Perhaps standing just short of 3 feet tall she now was hidden beneath the counter. She pulled out a step stool and came up to look over the counter again. “Sorry about that, since I’m so short I use an aether artifact to make myself big while organizing shelves. I’ll forget to change back from time to time. Now what can I help you with today?” I was still reeling from the oddity of this whole interaction, but luckily Javi stepped in for me.

“We are looking to sign up for an apprenticeship with the Union. We’re from out of town and Alicia recommended we come and try our hand at it. Though we don’t know any of the details.”

“Wonderful! We love welcoming new members and apprentices here at the Basin branch. Since you don’t know any details I’ll explain it to you. To join the IAU there are two methods. One is to have a written recommendation to join given by a Union officer or three Union members. Second is through an apprenticeship. The apprenticeship is a minimum three month period where you will tag along with one of our members and learn all about adventuring. The only downside is you will have to take the Adventurer class as part of being an apprentice.”

“Is that really a downside? It’s a free class right?”

“Oh! You really are new. You must not know how classes work. Everybody has a limit on the amount of classes you can change into. But you won’t know what that limit is until you hit it. So while Adventurer is not the worst combat class you can get, it’s often seen as wasteful to use up one of your classes on it.” Oh, so not a downside at all for us then. “That’ll be fine with us. When can we start?”