Leaning with my back against the massive door, I waited for the guards to start pounding on it, but it never happened. I waited there for a couple of minutes until someone in the room coughed politely. I whirled around to see a raven haired young man waving at me from the line of desks near the right wall.

Young man, what am I? Old? I really need to spend more time with people my own age. Come to think of it, I’ve only ever hung out with someone my own age a few times, I really need to work on that.

I looked from him to the door behind me and he nodded. “The town guards aren’t allowed in.”

“Oh, that’s good to hear.” My shoulders sagged.

I glanced around the room, taking it all in. There was a dwarven bartender working behind the bar on the left wall and a pair of adventurers were sitting along the bar, drinking despite the early hour. The middle of the room was dominated by scattered wooden tables of a number of sizes, from small one to two man tables all the way up to a massive ten foot table with a hole and notch cut out of it to allow ten or more people to eat together. The back wall was mostly empty, minus the stairs leading both up and downstairs as well as a small bounty board.

With one more glance back at the door, I hurried over to the friendly guild employee past a few partially full tables. His desk came up to my neck, which made me grimace.

I’m lithe like an elf and creative like a human, but all I got from my dwarven heritage is my damn 4’ 8 ½” frame. Why couldn’t I have been tall, like Mom? Damn genetics…

I glared at the way too tall desk as I pulled a stool out of my storage ring and stepped up on it. Behind me, I heard someone snicker. Without missing a beat, I whirled around and hurled a knife into the table in front of the person who looked the most surprised.

“What’s funny?” I fumed and Raiju growled.

The man stammered. “I-I-I… my bad.” He looked around at his party of fellow humans and a sea elf before looking back at me. “Sorry about that, we just don’t see many dwarfkin around here and it surprised me.” He pulled my knife from the table and hefted it.

I waved for him to toss it back and caught it when it wobbled through the air to me. “Trust me, most dwarfkin would have done worse for what you did, you should be more careful when you leave this place. Honor duels are System enforced for anyone who insults a dwarf or anyone descended from them.” I whirled the blade before sheathing it against my ribs once more.

The guild employee was looking at me with newfound respect. “Apologies for the desk, we used to have one for dwarves, but it never got used, so it was taken down.”

“Understandable, if annoying.” I huffed before leaning forward against the desk. “Now, who do I need to speak to about registering as an adventurer?”

He blinked a few times. “Oh, that’d be me.” He looked really confused.

“Fabulous. I’d like to register now if possible.”

He woodenly reached under the desk for a small plate of brass and set it before me as he gave a pre-prepared statement. “Just pick that up and call your [Status]. The plate will bind to you and record your name, Class, and level. It will serve as your guild ID and should let you get into almost any city in the world without too much issue, minus a few sacred cities.

“As you advance through the ranks here, either by completing missions or leveling up your plate will evolve. Brass is for newbies up to level five. Iron covers up to level fifteen. Steel is for anyone up to level twenty-five and is the highest anyone can start, regardless of their level. Mithral adventurers are next and they’re rare, especially after what happened thirty years ago. Adamantine and Orichalcum ranked adventurers are unheard of out this way, but I heard an ‘Addy’ settled down in the capital.”

“Got it.” I pressed my thumb to the plate and hoped [Status Shield] was as good as I’d been told. The plate flashed white and gold in an alternating pattern for almost a minute before finally settling. It was a fresh steel plate with the following information on it when I scanned it with [Essence Reading].

[Name: Arthur Bajbub Neilson

Adventurer Guild Rank: Blue Steel

Class: Starlord - S

Level: 24

Bonded Beast: Raiju - S]

My eyes widened, but the employee gasped out loud. I looked at him curiously. “I know what surprised me, but what’s got you so out of sorts?”

He bowed deeply once and cracked his head on the desk. Stumbling back, he pressed his hands to his forehead where a line of blood formed. “My apologies, sir. Let me take you to the manager’s office. She’ll want to meet you.”

I mentally slotted [Healing Light] and held up a hand to him. With a thought, I produced [Healing Light] and the cut on his forehead healed in moments. A second later he stood up quickly and looked at me in shock.

“Just a trick I picked up.” I grinned. “You were going to lead me to the manager’s office?”

“Of course, sir.” He started toward the stairs at a pretty good clip. “After me.”

Since he hadn’t introduced himself by that point, I allowed myself to view his [Status] with [Essence Reading] as I followed him. From what I’d been told, it was considered bad form to [Analyze] someone else unless you were fighting them, but since one of the upgrades for [Essence Reading] from [Analyze] was the ability to use it undetected, I took advantage.

[Name: Gregory Foghorn

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Race: Human

Class: Scribe - Uncommon - Rank C

Level: 7

Emotional Status: Embarrassed/Scared]

Huh, he’s a [Scribe]. I wonder if he’s unlocked his [Arcane] stat yet? Mom told me about a cousin she has with that Class, they make pretty decent mages once they get past the early levels. It has [Wits] and [Arcane] for base growth rates.

Gregory led me up to a mahogany door on the second floor before knocking on it twice. We waited a few moments before someone inside replied.

“It’s open!”

With a grimace he did his best to hide, Gregory opened the door and led Raiju and I inside. Raiju’d been right at my hip the whole time I’d been inside. From how irritated she seemed, I didn’t think she liked being inside too much.

The walls of the manager’s office were the same greyish blue as the rest of the upstairs, but there were bookshelves in all four corners to break it up. A huge dark wooden desk covered with piles of paperwork dominated the room. Behind said desk sat a slim woman with piercing pink eyes and narrow black horns. She wore a set of finely crafted black leather armor over her impressive curves, at least the bit of her I could see over the desk and papers.

“Ma’am, this young man just registered as a Blue Steel Adventurer.” Gregory’s voice shook and he hung his head.

The manager’s voice was sweet, like honey in summer iced tea. “Greg, you don’t have to call me ma’am, I’ve known you since you were five.” She smiled at him. “Thank you for letting me know. I can take it from here, you’re free to go back to the desk.”

“Thank you, Miss Whitney.” Gregory bowed low and backed out the door, not looking up to meet my eye as he closed the door behind him.

“Please, take a seat.” The manager waved to a pair of empty leather chairs in front of her desk. “I’d love to hear the story of how you came to our little burg.” Her eyes grew wide as I took one seat and Raiju took the other before curling up in it and setting her head on the arm to look at me.

“Hello, I’m Arthur Neilson and this is Raiju, my bonded companion. She’s a unique evolved [Gale Wolf].” I saved her the question I knew she had brewing.

“Raiju,” she snorted before licking her chops. “Can I have meat now? I’m hungry.”

The manager took a second before nodding. She reached into her desk and pulled out a three inch cube of some kind of jerky with a few flakes knocked off of it and held it up for Raiju. “Does this work? I can have something fresh brought up from the bar if not.”

Raiju sniffed the air before nodding her head. “It smells interesting, it shall do. Throw it here.” Whitney nodded and tossed the brick of meat, which Raiju took to dismantling with her forepaws and teeth.

“Raiju is quite the companion, but she’s not the reason you’re Blue Steel, is she?” Whitney rested back in her high backed leather chair. From the looks of the leather, she did that a lot because where her horns rested was far more distressed than the rest of the chair.

I shrugged. “I have no idea what a ‘Blue Steel’ adventurer is. I obviously know what Steel refers to, but the Blue descriptor is new to me.”

“Well, you see…” She trailed off before standing and walking around her desk with her hand held out. I got down from the chair and was surprised to find we were almost the same height, minus her horns. “I’ve had you at a disadvantage, my name is Whitney Rosecorne. I’m the branch manager of the Cliffhaven Adventurers Guild. Before settling down, I was a Steel Adventurer myself.”

I shook her hand firmly. “It’s nice to meet you, Miss Rosecorne.”

She snorted. “Whitney, please. I’d be willing to bet I’m not much older than you in the grand scheme of things.” She pushed some papers back and hopped up to sit on the desk.

“Alright, Whitney.” I smirked as I took my seat again, we were now at nearly the same height. “I see what you did there.”

She blushed nearly the same dark pink as the fur by her hooves. “It’s not often I don’t have to sit in my big chair to talk to someone eye to eye. I figured I’d take advantage of it.”

“Can’t argue with that logic.” I winked. “Care to explain the whole ‘Blue’ thing now?”

“Of course,” she fanned her face with her hand. “There are three colors that can modify an adventurer’s rank, red, green, and blue. Red means the person is an ex soldier of at least ten years, it’s a badge of honor. Green is for those who are dedicated support adventurers, think healers or functionaries. Blue is reserved for one of two things, royalty or adventurer royalty.”

“Hmm, I’m actually not sure which of those is more likely to apply.” I rubbed my chin, where I’d never even seen a hair despite my dwarven heritage. “My parents were adventurers, if that would help?”

She nodded. “I have access to the System database for the Adventurers Guild. If you can give me those names, I can look them up for you.”

“My father is Neil Ironwind of Clan Ironwind, his father was human, so they didn’t have him take the traditional surname.” Whitney’s face started to pale. “My mother is Hildegard Sunbeam, daughter of Archibald Sunbeam, the Ray of the East.”

Whitney looked like she got lightheaded and almost fell backward before I caught her extended hand. “Are you OK?”

She shook her head, nearly clipping me with her horns. “I’m fine. Do you really not know why you have that title?” She narrowed her eyes on me.

“No clue. Mom and Dad were pretty tight lipped about their adventures and I think they’d have told me if I was royalty.” I laughed.

She didn’t. “You’re the son of Shrike and Conflux and you’re unsure about…” She shook her head. “Nevermind. If they didn’t tell you, I shouldn’t either. Suffice to say, they’re adventurer royalty. Did they train you in their specialties?”

“They did. They also had their party members teach me theirs as well, just in case. I didn’t do so well with Arlo’s…”

I trailed off when her jaw nearly hit the floor. “The Reapers are still alive!?”

“Mom, Dad, Arlo, Megara.” I ticket them off on my fingers. “Yeah, all of the party members they’ve told me about are alive. I know their [Paladin] died before I was born and they might have had more, but I grew up with those four.”

“Where exactly did you grow up?” She stared at me.

Damn, I was hoping she wouldn’t ask.

I got up from my seat and turned to bow to her. “Whitney, it’s been wonderful speaking with you, but I must bid you adieu.” Raiju burped as she finished her jerky cube before jumping over the top of the chair to join me by the door.

She looked panicked. “Why? What did I do?”

“You asked the one question I can’t answer. I meant it when I said it’d been a pleasure. I hope to speak to you again sometime, but for now I have to take my leave.” I spun on my heel and exited the room with Raiju at my hip.

As I closed the door I heard her mumbling to herself. “How did I not figure that out? Stupid cow!” The sound of her slapping her forehead matched the click of the door closing.

Raiju and I padded down the stairs and I felt her solidify the air around us. “Why did we have to leave? Why can’t you tell them where you grew up?”

I ruffled the fur on top of her head. “It’s one of the rules of the village I come from. You can’t tell outsiders you live there or you can never return. I already can’t go back for a year at a minimum, but that’s nothing with my lifespan. A lifetime of not being able to go home would break me, I know it.”

“What about me?”

I laughed. “We’re bonded, of course I can tell you about it. You’re basically an honorary citizen. It’d be the same if I got married. As long as the System acknowledges the ceremony with a Bond in our [Statuses] my wife and I would still be welcome.”

She nodded sagely before letting the privacy barrier drop.