We finalized a few things with the guild master regarding our living arrangements. He dispatched Saya to fetch the paperwork for both our special housing and to join the guild and left when she returned with two stacks of documents and some wooden boxes. I imagined he had a busy schedule.
"I wish you both a pleasant day," he said. "My door remains open if you need anything."
"Thank you, guild master," Vel and I said.
Saya dropped all the paperwork on the table and sat in front of us.
"I've brought everything," she said. "Our guild has a standing arrangement with your capital to provide all Dark Elves with some starting funds as well since most villages do not trade either in gold or guild currency. You are also exempt from the entry evaluation as long as you have passed your trial."
I nodded. It sounded extremely generous. Still, I had no doubt there were some intricate trade deals backing the whole thing. I took the first document she offered and gave them a look. It was for the warehouse, a simple contract that the guild would provide the necessary accommodation in any branch I visited. I would need to warn them if I left for an extended period of time so they could reclaim the warehouse. The same applied to travel, I needed to contact the branch ahead of time or pay a small fee. The contract was refreshingly straightforward.
"No rent or anything?" I asked.
"It is taken care of by the guild trust," Saya answered, "and funded by guild taxes."
"Guild taxes?" Vel asked.
"The guild takes a part of each contract's bounty to fund its operations. How much depends on your own rank as well as the job's difficulty. The easier jobs have a bigger cut, it also increases if you take jobs too far below your own rank."
She handed both of us another document. This one was the guild membership. It was also fairly simple, the guild acted as a broker between clients and adventurers for contracts. They levied a fee to fund their operation and provide ancillary services. Members were expected to adhere to the guild's code of conduct and provide assistance in case of major disaster.
"What do you think?" I asked Vel.
She leaned against me and I pulled her closer.
"We don't have to join a big team?" She asked. "The wanderers were nice but …"
"… you like it better with only the both of us?" I kissed the top of her head.
She nodded with a slight blush. I gave Saya a glance.
"There are no party size requirements," she said with a smile. "Many of our members operate alone or in pairs."
"Then we'll join," I said. I wasn't sure if we needed to sign something.
"Excellent," Saya clapped her hands together, "here are your guild badges." She pulled two small metal plates from one of the boxes.
[Guild Badge (Rank: ???)]
The small iron plate was around four centimeters wide and twice as long with a small hole punched through to thread a cord or a chain. The rim was made of a black metal and a small flat gem was embedded in the middle of the top half. With my fingers, I could feel that some grooves were carved into the surface. The other half had a slightly raised circle on both sides.
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When I took it, I felt a small pull on my mana. It was heavily enchanted, not quite as dense as the Ravri equipment but more than any other item I had seen. When I looked at both the one Vel had received and mine, there didn't seem to be any differences in the patterns.
"How does it work?" Vel asked.
"You push some mana inside," Saya said.
"I think she meant the enchantments," I looked at Vel who nodded. "What do they do?"
"In detail? No idea," she shrugged. "It binds with your mana and allows us to look at your guild file from any branch. The central headquarters makes them."
I pushed a small amount of mana in and the badge lit up, both physically and to my magic senses. It wasn't quite the same as when I accepted a bound item but it looked to be based on the same principle. The gem at the center changed and the central groove turned a copper color, as did the border.
"It worked, good," Saya said. "Hand them here."
She had a flat stone in front of her carved with hundreds of runes. When she placed the badge at the center, I saw the mana surge and complex spell patterns started to form. Above the slate, a complex illusion formed. It wasn't quite as advanced as the computer inside the Ravri Bracer but it almost looked like someone who had tried to reproduce a small part of it. Saya pressed on some parts of the slate and the illusory screen changed in response.
"Normally, you would start at the Silver Three rank until you can complete a few missions. Since you helped the Windmire Wanderers with a Gold ranked mission and took down another Gold rank threat, your adventurer rank is increased to Gold One like them."
"Is that good?" Vel asked.
"Most members on this layer are between Silver Three and Gold Two. We have very few missions above the latter so adventurers usually move to the next layer once they feel ready to take on a Gold Three mission."
The rest of the registration process was relatively simple. She asked for our names and village of origin. For the latter, we answered with Asril to avoid raising any suspicions in case someone managed to read our files. We both signed on as healers on Saya's advice. Once everything was done, she handed us our badges back and pulled two small books from somewhere.
"These are the guild handbooks. They contain everything from the code of conduct to how to use the guild's currency, the Dini. Speaking of Dini…"
She fished out two small cloth pouches from the last wooden box.
"Now that everything is in order, here are your starting funds. The guild provides three Gold Dini each and you received three more from the Windmire Wanderers for completing the mission. If you are frugal, this can last you several months." She handed one pouch to each of us.
I stored everything away.
"Congratulations," Saya said, "as of now, you're both full members of the guild."
After thanking Saya, we said our goodbyes and left the guild. On the way out, another clerk handed us the key to the warehouse and directions to find it.
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I was glad to be out of the guild. I had kept my legs close during the meeting out of politeness for the guild master and Saya but they had started to cramp after so long at a table. Vel and I took a slow walk around the plaza surrounding the guild building. Since we had the time, we peeked at several of the shops to get a feel of what the prices were. Basic armor hovered around eighty to a hundred copper while anything with enchantments jumped to a dozen silvers at minimum. Weapons were in a similar situation and we even saw a sword that cost more than one gold.
After a quick peek at the handbook, we found out that currency increased in multiples of one hundred and twenty from copper to silver then to gold and finally to platinum. There were also intermediates of brass, cobalt, and electrum worth sixty. Another dimension was the shape of the Dini, a pyramid was worth one, a cube was worth six, and a dodecahedron was worth twelve. Thankfully, it was possible to magically fuse and split the coins with a small burst of mana. Checking the bags Saya had given us, they were filled with a mishmash of every denomination.
Our first stop was at a small food cart where we spent a few copper each for some meat skewers. The vendor raised an eyebrow but didn't protest. I had a feeling it would take a while for the locals to get used to my presence.
When we reached the warehouse, the crystals in the ceiling had started to dim. The building itself was well maintained and, from what I could see inside, recently cleaned. The lock wasn't the most foolproof, at least against rank five adventurers, but the inns we had found along the way didn't have much better. Only the shops had a variety of anti-theft wards, including some that blocked my sphere, and better locks.
"It's pretty spacious," Vel said as we entered.
The warehouse was around the same size as the workshop we had occupied in Asril but without the equipment and furniture it seemed larger.
"Let me make a quick web and we can rest," I said. "I think I can make some good enough wards with my catalysts that we won't be bothered."
"Alright," Vel yawned.