After that short visit with Gerald, Kron helped me navigate the city to reach the Adventurer’s Guild. The place was filled with twenty-year-olds like me and the rare younger teen like Murr. In one small corner of the vast hall, a human fighter sat at a table with his arms crossed. In front of him was the sign, ‘Recruiting for the White Empire’s Army.’
I pointed to him. “What’s that about?”
“Oh? There are rumors going around that the Red Empress is finally going insane. She sent small units to attack settlements at our borders so the army has been recruiting extra hard.”
That wasn’t good. When Emperors went insane, they started wars with their peers in hopes that one of them will kill them. It was a bit fucked up, but it was what it was. The fae were so powerful that nobody could do anything about it.
In fact, this world was called Faeruled because a few dozen immortal fae controlled vast empires across the globe. They restricted the size of each settlement and forced people to find their resources in various dungeons. There were even non-combat dungeons set up for farming, so most of the land available could be used for housing and manufacturing.
They even restricted where my father could build things in his fort way out on the outskirts of civilization. It got to the point where we had to save our land for manufacturing and commerce. Everyone built houses in the trees that we weren’t allowed to cut down.
Did we elves like living in trees? No! We had no choice.
Did dwarves like living underground? No! According to the few who I’d talked to. But they’d gotten used to it since they could only build underground.
Just thinking about the lack of horizontal space had me itching to create plans for skyscrapers, now that I remembered them and how to do it. But creating plans was pointless if this world lacked the materials to build them. I’d need some kind of cement and a lot of really good steel.
Maybe I could find that something somewhere.
Of course, that would only be if I even survived the next four years.
My friends still didn’t know. I couldn’t break it to them while they were so excited after their destiny reveals. It would ruin the mood.
A twenty-year-old man walked up to the table. The recruiter scowled at him and pointed to the sign that said, ‘We’re not recruiting New Adults. Only Tested Adults.’
“That is how we know our emperor is still sane,” Kron said. “Only insane emperors recruited untested New Adults.”
And yet, the military in my previous world preferred them. It was always young men fighting rich men’s wars.
I, for one, was uninterested in PVP... war. Especially after what happened in that alley earlier. If Murr hadn’t shown up, the two of us would have died once that fourth guy killed Kron.
If I were taking part in a war. Ha!
I noticed Brad and Kimmi at the front of the line. Kron queued at the back.
Moral dilemma, do I cut in front of all these people, angering the shit out of them to be with my friends who’d said that they’d hold my spot? Or do I hang out with the guy who messed up, almost got me killed, and then brought me to someone who actually gave me good advice?
There was only one option, really.
I stood in line behind Kron and waited. Fortunately, the guild had around twenty people just taking in new applicants. It didn’t take long before I had my Rank K token. With it, I could form a party and enter any of the bunny dungeons that were scattered around the city.
[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/949515587766329405/1037137538344828998/SPOILER_token_copy.jpg]
Of course, it was best to get a mission from the guild for those so I can quickly get into a better bunny dungeon, then a Rank J dungeon.
The variety of dungeons here was one of the reasons I had us come to this city. Out in the backwater part of civilization, the lowest rank dungeon that wasn’t used for farmland was H. Suitable only for levels 20-30. Obviously death sentence for a level one.
The only problem was that a party had to have some missions under their belt, and be in good standing around the city, to get tokens to the higher rank dungeons. But, that should be easy enough to do.
“Are you worried about reaching level 300 in four years?”
I grimaced. “Don’t remind me.” Then I remembered. “Hey, I’m treating my friends to some drinks at the inn we’re staying at. You want to join?”
“I would, but Gerald wanted to talk to me once I received my token.”
I nodded. “I guess this is where we part ways. It was good to meet you, though I can’t say I had fun.”
The golem chuckled. “If fate allows, we’ll meet again.”
***
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After ordering everyone’s drinks, I sat down at a table with Dos, Bradvin, and Kimmi.
Finally, I could relax!
Of course, this was the calm before the bitch-slap. I refused to let that stop me from enjoying myself.
A barmaid came by, set a glass of wine in front of Bradvin and Kimmi. A mug of glowing liquid slid across the table and landed in front of Dos. He winked at the girl and handed her a coin for her troubles. Lastly, she handed me a mug of lemonade.
Of the things I remembered from my past life, the thing that stood out the most was that staying sober so I could be the one to help my friends was always the best choice.
Besides, I’d already spent too much time today with a foggy head.
I took a sip. It tasted fresh, sour, and lacked enough sugar, but at least it was flavorful.
I glanced at Bradvin, who stared deeply into his wine. “Tell me about your Destiny Reveal.” I wanted to see what weird things they ran into compared to me. It had to be wild.
Brad smiled. “The only word I could use to describe it is amazing. As soon as I stepped through the gate, it was like I was lifted into a warm hug. Then I stepped onto a soft cloud, where an angelic figure descended upon me. They showed me a truth about magic, one I still cannot seem to comprehend. Then they handed me a golden card that listed my class and designation. Mage DPS.”
Kimmi’s eyes widened. “That sounds beautiful, Bradvin.”
Yeah. Seriously. Well, I couldn’t have been the only one with a seriously sus Destiny Reveal.
“We should talk about what you learned later,” she whispered.
“What about you, Kimmi?”
Her cheeks turned red. “For me, when I entered the gate, I could have sworn that my mother came and escorted me to the vast field of flowers where I ended up.”
She held her hand out as if imagining the scene, trying to grasp the feeling of holding her mother’s hand once again. Since she had passed away last year during a dungeon delve, it was easy to see how terribly Kimmi missed her.
Her hand fell to the wood table. “Then, a beautiful valkyrie riding a white-winged horse stopped in front of me. She solemnly read a passage from a book titled, The Mage’s Art of War. Then she handed me a golden stone. Carved into it was my class and designation. Mage DPS.”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
My eyes widened. “You’re a DPS? Not a healer?”
She blushed. “I’d always been more attracted to the... destructive spells. Life magic intrigued me because of the Life-Steal and Mana-steal spells. But, the sheer joy of wielding the power of destruction.” Her eyes glittered.
I was glad she was on my team and not my enemy’s.
“That sounds like a fantastic experience.”
“That’s not the end! The Valkyrie then lifted me onto her horse and we traveled through various battles. She showed me how to see an enemy’s magical weakness and where to cast each spell.”
Okay, now I was getting a bit pissed. But there was still Dos. Surely, he didn’t have some magical experience.
I turned to him and stared.
He took a long sip from his glowing beverage. When he finally set his mug down, he stared into each of our eyes.
I couldn’t help it and leaned forward.
“When I first entered the gate, I felt like I’d stepped into a fire.”
Oh! That didn’t sound good.
“The fires of creation that first formed the original golem core, that is.”
What?
“When I’d passed through the life giving flames, I found myself in a hallway where the statues of my predecessors all looked down at me with pride. When I reached the end, I encountered the very first golem who ascended and became a god. The one who uplifted our race from mere created slaves chained by magic into living beings that reproduce.”
Well, they didn’t technically reproduce like regular living creatures. When two or more golems decided to make a child, they’d hold a special ceremony. There, each of them would take a part of their mana core and combine it into a very small core. They would then feed it with the materials that they want to make up their child. Also, mana stones. A lot of mana stones.
Friends and neighbors would offer precious metals or good clay they’d carefully selected and would feel honored when their offering was accepted by the family.
It was a really intriguing process.
While I’d heard Elven and human parents complain about how much money they’d spent raising their children only for them to not give the respect they’re owed, I’d never once heard that from a golem. Maybe they all knew, deep down to their very core, the amount of effort and money their parents went through to create them.
“What happened next?” Kimmi asked.
“He told me the stories of my ancestors. I must have spent days listening to him and learning, but only a small amount of time passed in the real world.”
Days?! He spent days in his Destiny Reveal?
“While telling me these stories, he placed a mana stone on the floor for each ancestor he spoke about. By the end of those days, he’d spelled out my class and designation — Fighter Tank.”
What? What?!
“You don’t look so good, Samalrune,” Dos patted my shoulder
I laughed a little hysterically. These guys! They’d all had epic experiences! One had been given the knowledge of magic, another went on a ride-along with a damn valkyrie, and the last spent days talking to his ancestor in a near religious experience.
“What happened during your Destiny Reveal?” the golem asked.
I covered my eyes and sucked in a deep breath. When one deep breath wouldn’t cut it, I took another and another.
“Take your time,” Bradvin said.
“It can’t be that bad. I’ve never heard of a Destiny Reveal going wrong,” Kimmi’s voice reached my ears.
“For starters, there wasn’t any of this walking through clouds nonsense. As soon as I stepped into the gate, it felt like I’d been caught in a riptide and pulled under.”
“That’s an unusual start, but not unheard of.”
“Then... hahahaha. There wasn’t some amazing being or person waiting for me. I ran into two fairies smoking some kind of rainbow drug. Can you believe that?!”
They shot looks at each other like they doubted me.
“They took me to this gambling machine. It was huge. About the size of a house in this city. And can you guess what they had me do?”
“There is no way they had you gamble on your future,” Bradvin said, appalled.
“I mean, they said I wasn’t, but now that I’m not concussed, this whole situation is looking a bit more different on the other side, if you get my meaning.” I gave them an exaggerated wink.
“Wait,” Kimmi waved her hands in the air as if clearing the picture I drew with words. “You followed fairies to a gambling machine, and you didn’t think that was suspicious?!”
I pointed to my temple.
“Being concussed does not—”
Yeah, even I felt like I had been an idiot.
Bradvin waved a hand to stop her. “Just let him finish the story.”
“And when I pulled the lever and gambled on my future, what do you think I received?”
The table stayed quiet.
“Come on, guesses. Anyone.”
“Cleric DPS?” Dos spoke up.
Everyone turned to him.
“What? I just guessed the least likely class for him to get.”
I held up a finger. “Oddly enough. I would have been happy to have that compared to what I received.”
“Non-combat?” Kimmi guessed.
I looked around for a pillow or piece of bread to throw at her. Not a thing. Damn.
I grabbed my too sour lemonade and drank a fortifying gulp. “Worse.”
“It couldn’t have been rogue?” Bradvin said.
“I would have preferred that, too. No. My class is Fighter.”
Bradvin looked at me exasperated, like I’d pulled everyone’s strings only to cut them loose.
“That doesn’t sound—”
“Tank. Fighter Tank.”
The table grew silent.
I hadn’t even told them the most terrifying part!
“Well, I obviously expressed my anger a bit... then cursed out the system. Did I mention that I met the Goddess of Intelligence yet?”
They still look frozen. Like a thousand horses were running through their brains at impossible speeds.
“Yeah. It was incredible. Unlike you three, who all had amazing, wonderful, and beautiful conversations with meaningful entities, I got to see a giant hand come down from the heavens. I was so shocked I fell on my ass! I seriously thought it was going to smush me like a bug!”
“Wait, you’re here, so the Goddess of Intelligence must have just picked you up. That doesn’t sound too different from ours,” Kimmi said, obviously straining for anything nice to say.
“Oh, she picked me up alright. So she could glare at me with her eerie glowing eyes and terrifying beauty.”
“There’s no way that happened,” Dos said. “I know you like to tell amusing stories but you shouldn’t joke about meeting a goddess. The clerics get upset when people lie like that.”
“A joke! I assure you that this is no joke! Once the goddess finished berating me, she dropped me. I fell for a mile and landed back in the AllChurch.”
When I peered at their faces, I wondered if I made a mistake by telling them all this. I’d wanted the good mood to continue, but after basically becoming Kate McKinnon’s character from the Close Encounter SNL skit that was my favorite in my past life, I’d gone a bit mad.
“Samalrune,” Bradvin said seriously. “You realized that if you want to survive, you’ll have to reach level 300 in four years.”
“No, Brad. I wasn’t aware of that,” I said sarcastically.
His ear twitched. It was one of the signs that he was annoyed.
“Of course I know. And I wanted to ask each of you to join me as I speed level my way up to 300.” I grinned. These were my most trusted friends. If I didn’t ask them to help me, then who would I ask?
Dos gave me a sympathetic look.
Kimmi’s eyes turned glossy, and she blinked rapidly.
Bradvin, though, he looked at me with hard eyes. “I’m sorry, but no.”
My smile strained. “What?”
“No.”
“I agree with Bradvin,” Kimmi said. “Samalrune, you’re a dear and wonderful friend. But parties can only consist of up to five members, the perfect layout being a tank, a healer, and three DPS. For tanking, we already have Dos who is excellent at everything he does.”
“Oh, come on. It’s not impossible to have two tanks in a party. That’s twice as safe.”
“Actually, it really isn’t a good thing unless you’re in a large raid. You’d split the healer’s attention too much,” Dos pointed out.
“And the whole group would do less damage, making it take longer to level,” Bradvin said. “You joining us would do neither of us any good.”
I couldn’t believe it. “So, you’re kicking me out of the party?”
“We were never in one in the first place.” Bradvin ran his hand through his hair. “Honestly, Samalrune. You should pack up your things and head back home to spend your final four years with your family instead of chasing a dream of becoming immortal.”
“Immortal? I don’t care about immortality.” With a wince, I remembered the words I said to the fairies and didn’t finish my sentence. “I thought we were friends. That we had each other’s backs?”
“We are friends,” Kimmi said. I could tell that she meant it, but I also knew that she’d always respected Bradvin over me.
“But we have to do what’s best for ourselves.” The blue haired elf tapped the side of his glass.
“And that’s to not party with me?”
“Trying to work with us will only waste your time and ours.” He placed his palm on the table and stared into my eyes. I’d never seen him look so hard before. “Let’s face the facts, while you’re our friend and we love you—you’re too mediocre to be part of our team.”
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