The meal passed uneventfully. Simple questions regarding each other's lives were asked and answered by all parties.

“So, now that we’ve finished this wonderful meal, would you be able to tell us more about the guilds?” Elijah asked, wiping the corners of his mouth with a napkin.

“Of course,” Porter said, pushing his chair back and rising to his feet. “If you would follow me, please.”

The three got up and followed Porter towards a large dark wooden door. It was lined with a golden trim and mosaic designs covered its face. He pulled the doors open revealing a vast room with an octagonal table in the middle. The room mirrored the shape of the table, and each of the eight walls bore a different banner.

The door closed behind them as they entered. Avery tensed beside Elijah. Her eyes darted around the room and she subtly shifted to a fighting stance.

Porter didn’t appear to notice the change in Avery’s behavior. He made his way towards the table and the two assassins followed him. The table was entirely covered in a three dimensional map of what Elijah assumed to be the world. Various locations were marked with small multicolored flags.

“This is a map of Alpha 13-A,” Porter said, setting his hand on the outer rim of the table. “Our current world.”

“Where are we on this?” Avery asked, approaching the table and peering down at it. Her movements were slightly more relaxed than they had been a moment ago.

Porter pointed towards one of the flags on the map. It was red, with a small golden crown wrapped in ivy emblazoned in the center. The flag was on the north western portion of the map, next to a long mountain range.

“This is Volville,” Porter said. “It’s part of the Ivorian Kingdom and relatively untouched by the guilds. They’re more interested in the cities with easy access to dungeons. That’s one of the many reasons I reside here. The guilds are more of a hassle than a benefit.”

“A hassle?” Avery asked. “Why is that? We want to get stronger, and I would have thought that they’d be a promising avenue.”

“You might get stronger with a guild, but not at any meaningful speed,” Porter replied, scoffing. “They’re meat grinders. There are a few guilds that are actually decent, but they’ve also got such restrictive rules that it’s pointless. Almost all of the guilds are on a fool’s errand anyways. If you want to grow stronger, train on your own.”

“Fool’s errand?” Elijah said, tearing his gaze off the map.

“Their impossible mission,” Porter replied with a dismissive wave. “ They believe that there is something to be gained at the end of these worlds. They spend countless resources and lives conquering the most recent dungeons only to find nothing but more monsters to fight. Then they repeat the process ad infinitum.”

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“Hold on.” Avery cocked her head to the side. “Other worlds?”

“Yes yes, my apologies,” Porter said, adjusting one of the flags on the map. “It’s hard to remember that the two of you are new to this realm. We are currently on Alpha 13-A. So far, there have been eight other worlds discovered, each more treacherous than the last. They go from Alpha 13-A to Alpha 5-A. The guilds are convinced something awaits them when they arrive at Alpha 1-A. Frankly, I think they are delusional.”

“Delusional or not, power is to be acknowledged. If there’s something important, then I’d like to get my hands on it,” Elijah said, crossing his arms. “We appreciate the information, Porter.”

“Hold on,” the old wizard said. “You are absolutely in no position to even think of conquering this world, let alone any others. You need extensive training and experience so you can level up, not to mention gear and items to keep you alive.”

“We’ve already been doing a bit of that,” Elijah said. He reached into one of his pouches and pulled out one of the small orange stones that had dropped when they’d killed the monkeys. “Killed a bunch of apes and got this thing. I was going to ask - is it worth anything?”

“That’s a monster core,” Porter said, raising a bushy eyebrow slightly. “They’re useful in a lot of professions and sell for a fair amount of gold. The exact price depends on how strong the monster you killed was. From the color on those, the monsters were probably around level five or ten, right?”

“They were,” Avery confirmed. “How much gold could we get for one of these?”

“Depends who you go to,” Porter replied. “Certain cores are more useful for some applications than others. The core tends to perform best in a role most similar to the attributes of the monster it came from. So, if this came from the Desecrator Apes in the forest, it’d be good for anything that needs to be reinforced or strengthened. You might be able to sell it for as much as ten gold a piece if you’re lucky.”

“Interesting. What if we used it ourselves? How difficult would it be to do that?” Avery asked.

“You’d have to dedicate a fair amount of time to learning enchanting and refining,” Porter replied. “They’re jobs, just like anything else. If you put in the effort, you could probably pick something up. Most adventurers don’t bother - it’s just much faster and more efficient to sell the cores.”

“That makes sense,” Elijah said. “And where can we sell these cores? I assume there’s a market of some sort?”

“In the north of town. It takes up the entire Valmark district,” Porter said. “Even if you don’t sell or buy anything, you should visit the area. It’s one of the main meeting points in the city, so there’s a lot going on there.”

“We’ll make sure to do that. Thank you for the advice,” Avery said politely. “Are there any other locations we should visit before we set off again? We’ll probably need to earn some money before we can afford to do much shopping.”

“Oh, don’t forget to visit the huge tower at the center of the city. It’s impossible to miss, and it allows rapid travel between all the major cities on the continent,” Kat exclaimed. “Even if you don’t use it, the system is incredible. There are so many high level mages there. I wanted to try to get a job at it, but they wouldn’t hire me.”

“You need to learn some useful magic if you want a competitive job,” Porter said, ruffling Kat’s hair. “But you aren’t leaving this city again until I’m confident you can protect yourself. Your safety must come first.”

“But…”

“No arguments,” Porter said. “We will begin extensive combat training tomorrow.”

“Thanks again for everything,” Elijah said, inclining his head. “We’ll probably take our leave now. Might be fun to swing by that market you were talking about.”