“Welcome to the Akaross Adventurer’s Guild! How can I help you~?”

Lyra, Nedror, and I stood in front of a short merwoman, who was apparently the receptionist of this guild.

“We’re looking for a skilled tracker to join our team. While combat abilities would be appreciated, we’re capable enough to cover that.” Lyra said.

“One moment please; I’ll check for available adventurers and get back to you~”

While Lyra was dealing with the guild – she was the only one amongst the three of us with any familiarity with this place after all – I took the time to look around.

At first glance, this place looks very similar to the adventurer’s guild from the Serpent’s Throat, but there seemed to be some crucial differences. There was no bulletin board holding lists of jobs, nor did there seem to be ranks and such in this guild. Instead, according to Lyra, adventurers register with the guild and wait for a job suited for their skills to be assigned directly to them.

“Honored commissioners, I am back!” the merwoman said, carrying a stack of documents.

“I presume you wish to pay in loot shares rather than in an upfront coin~? In any case, please sign on the dotted line here, here, and here. A fingerprint here, and a mana seal here. Please write your date of birth here…”

…Well, that part was still the same.

***

“Thank you, honored commissioners. Please wait a short bit until your assigned adventurers finish signing their own documents~!” the merwoman said as her eyes already moved onto the next customers.

“Hey, long ears, is this your idea of productivity?! At this rate, my fingers will fall off fighting paperwork faster than my swordarm against a goblin horde!” Nedror complained.

“G-goblin horde? Hehehe…” Lyra breathed heavily.

“Hey, I didn’t even say anything weird yet, dammit!”

“My, my, looks like we’ve found ourselves a lively client.” A sultry voice said behind me.

Nedror and I turned around, and we ended up face to face with two adventurers.

One was a scarred, one-eyed kobold with dark purple fur and a permanent scowl on his face. He had a large and well used two-handed sword strapped across his back, and he looked ready to split the next person to talk to him in half with it.

The other one, likely the source of the earlier comment, was a birdwoman-looking creature apparently called a harpy. Judging by how small and tight-fitting her clothes were, I could only assume that she was poor enough to only afford children’s clothing – something that evoked both pity and concern in me. The only real piece of equipment she had were pair of steel claws over her hands and feet each, both of which held wickedly sharp points.

“Let’s stop wasting time and get this over with. Go and ask them what they’re after.” the kobold said to the harpy, as if we weren’t right in front of them.

“Just let me do the talking, dear; this is not the time to use your exceptional talent at driving away jobs from us.”

The kobold shivered slightly.

“I know you don’t mean it that way, but don’t ever call me ‘dear’ again. That’s a nightmare I am better off without.”

I heaved a heavy sigh.

Behind me, Nedror and Lyra were going at it as usual, and now it seemed that our new partners were just as prone to infighting.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

At this rate, I was going to die of old age before I get back to the surface.

***

“Hello there, little one. My name is Phloraphine, but you can call me phiphi.” The harpy giggled.

“My grumpy partner here, who can’t quite manage to introduce himself to a stone wall without glaring at it, is called ‘Medru.’”

“Hello.” The Kobold, Medru, said, before going back to staring at a nearby wall.

“Err, hi, Phloraphine and Medru. Glad to have you with us. My name’s Kiara.” I said.

“What are we hunting?”

Before Lyra and Nedror could introduce themselves, Medru interjected irritatedly.

An awkward silence loomed over us until Nedror’s laugh boomed over us.

“You’re a lively one, aren’t you, mutt? Hold yo-”

Before Nedror could finish, Medru nearly lunged at him. The only reason he didn’t was because Phloraphine’s hand moved to the Kobold’s shoulder faster than I could blink and held him in place.

“Don’t ever call me a ‘mutt,’ dwarf. I’ll skin you alive.” He growled.

“No, you won’t.” Phloraphine said, and the easygoing tone of her voice was all but completely gone.

“What’s wrong? A few words got under your sk- Oww!” Nedror said, only to be interrupted with a kick to the shin from Lyra.

She then grabbed him by the shirt and glared at him.

“Stop being a Divine Tree-damned racist, you stupid idiot! Why are you picking pointless fights with our partners?! I told you to cut it out before!”

Nedror laughed and shrugged off Lyra’s hand before staring down Medru.

“Dwarves don’t mince their words, girlie, nor do they back down from a challenge. I am not going to trust my back to a fool who would attack his allies because a couple mean words got through his paper-thin pelt.”

A tense staredown began as the rest of the guild slowly gathered around to watch the show.

“Ehem.” I said, grabbing the four’s attention.

“Nedror, I know you say dwarves don’t care for anyone’s sensitivities, but we’re not in a Dwarven settlement and you’re not talking to a dwarf. Here in Akaross, it is expected of you to treat others with a minimum of politeness and respect, especially if you’re going to work with them.” I said.

“You can criticize Medru all you want for his willingness to resort to threats and violence, but if you can’t even treat your teammates properly, then you’re no better than him at all, and you and I will go our separate ways. Got it?”

Nedror, stared at me for a moment before he scoffed and looked away.

“Fine, fine, I got it, ye pain in the ass.”

I turned around to look Medru in the eye.

“And you, Medru. Nedror was wrong to provoke you, but he’s right to raise concerns about your volatility and trustworthiness. From the moment you showed up, you’ve clearly held us in contempt. At the very least, you spoke to us impatiently, as if we and the job we had for you were not worth your time. This is disrespectful and unacceptable, and no one wants to be treated like that. More importantly, if you can’t get a handle on your anger issues, then it’s best we avoid partnering altogether. I do not want to deal with you losing your temper and attacking someone because of a real or perceived offense. Do you understand?”

Medru stared me down and clearly wanted to respond, but he took a deep breath, swallowed his pride, and simply nodded at me.

“There we go. Was that so hard?” I said, sighing in relief.

“Well, well, well! I didn’t know you had a silver tongue, dear. You managed what I couldn’t for years now!” Phloraphine said.

“After this job is done, why don’t you join our party permanently, cutie? You’re more than welcome to knock some sense into Mimi’s stubborn little head to your heart’s content…” she said.

I rolled my eyes.

“You just want to throw that job off your shoulders and onto mine, Phlora. By the way, can I call you Phlora? Phloraphine is a mouthful, and ‘Phiphi’ is a bit much.”

Phlora’s smile widened.

“Of course, dear! You’ve made my day.”

The nearby adventurers started jeering after realizing that a fight wasn’t going to happen, then the crowd quietly dispersed on its own.

“Well, to answer your question,” Lyra said, “we’re hunting a trio of Kobolds. Kiara here saw them kill my sister and eat her corpse. While we’ll be searching for them, we’ll also be killing monsters on our way for Kiara to level up. Do you have any objections?” she asked Medru with a hard glint in her eyes.

Medru shook his head nonchalantly.

“None, whatsoever. I have similar reasons to yours to hate feral kobolds anyway.”

“Splendid!” Phlora clapped her hands.

“Now, let’s talk more on the way, shall we?”

***

Anyone looking at the sky near Akaross would likely be scratching their heads in confusion. After all, their eyes would be telling them that five people were straddling a flying tree log that was tearing through the sky at an unbelievable speed.

“Divine Tree preserve me, I hate this! When are we returning to the ground?! Those of us without wings don’t belong in the sky!” Lyra screamed as she closed her eyes and held onto my back with a steel grip.

Nedror laughed out loud.

“Speak for yourself, girlie! I can’t get enough of this!”

“Well, the view from above is gorgeous – it never gets old. Say, Merdu, how far do you think our destination is?” Phlora asked.

“At this rate, we’ll arrive at the feral kobold forest in a few hours at most. There isn’t anything of note on the way either.” Medru said.

“A forest of man-eating cannibal kobolds – I am sure it’s a pleasant place to be.” I sighed.

I’ve still got a long, long day ahead of me.