As Haze was making his way to the adventurers guild he noticed he was being watched. The intense stare he was receiving came from an alley not far from the street he was now on. He moved on acting as if he could not tell he was being watched and proceeded to go around a corner and waited for the obvious stalker to follow him.

As he expected the stalker went around the corner and banged into him. The stalker looked surprised before resuming his or her walk and tried to act like he or she wasn't just following Haze. Haze grabbed the stalker by the hood and pulled it off revealing a thin girl. The girl was obviously malnourished and had sunken cheeks. She was around 140centimeters tall and looked to weigh around 28 kilograms. The girls hair was brown and dirty as she had probably not taken a bath in her entire life. Her face was in even worse condition with bruises and a couple of scars all over her face.

“What has happened for you to make me follow me with that kind of glare?” Haze asked the nervous little girl.

“M… me and my sister are having trouble with food and money and I decided to try and get money a different way than to beg...” The little girl said while sobbing into her hands.

“And so you decided it would be a good idea to try and steal some?” Haze asked in a friendly way.

“Yes sir...”

“'Tell you what. If you carry my coat for me until I get to the adventurers guild I will give you the gold I make from an assignment.”

“Really? Just for that?” The little girl asked Haze, surprised by the easy job offer she was just given.

“Yes honest gold for a job well done” Haze said and winked as he handed her the coat.

“What is your name little girl? My name is Haze.”

“Nora… my name is Nora.”

“Well let us get going to the adventurers guild.”

…

And so Nora and Haze went down the main street towards the adventurers guild. Nora has her hood and cloak on so her face was hidden and she was carrying Haze's coat. As they where getting closer they could see a 2 stories tall and 20 meters wide. The building had a sign outside that read: Adventurers guild.

They entered the well maintained building which was packed full with human and elf adventurers.

There was a notice board with missions for groups and for solo adventurers on the left where there where no tables. There where small meeting tables where groups of adventurers gather to discuss payments or what provisions to buy before setting off.

There are guards in every corner which are there if fights break out over money or other things.

Haze followed by Nora as they entered and headed towards the mission board. A couple of the adventurers laid eyes on them and stared them down while others turned away and continued minding their own business. One of the adventurers who was staring at them rose up from the table followed by his comrades.

“Hey What are you doing looking at missions while bringing in a little kid?” The adventurer asked Haze.

“isn't it pretty obvious I am going to accept one?” Haze said as he looked at the burly man tanned man.

One of the lackeys of the man didn't like Haze's disrespectful tone towards his comrade and lashed out at Haze trying to get a punch in on him. Haze raised his hand and when the man hit it his arm broke and all that was left of his hand was a bloody pulp.

At this point the everyone in the building was focused on Haze and the adventurers group. Loud metal boots broke the silence as the guards rushed over and a man in his early 30's rushed up to the injured adventurer. He used healing magic on the arm and it slowly healed back to its normal state. Haze thought 'Healing magic has come a long way since my time.' As he noticed the man was not screaming in pain while being healed and there where no scars.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

A guard approached Haze with caution and asked for Haze to come with them so they may interrogate him. They took him up to the second floor leaving a confused and scared Nora to the guards whilst he attends to the matters. They put him in a room and said for him to wait until the director of security would come. After a while a well dressed handsome man entered the room.

“Excuse me but I need to ask you for your side of the story mister…?”

“The name's Haze director.”

“I see you are very polite and calm considering the situation you caused. What happened down there?”

“That rash man tried to attack me and damaged himself in the process after I spoke with disrespect against his companion.”

“Well Haze luckily for you the witnesses say the same. And so we have decided to let you go after you pay a little sum for the damages caused to the man and the fact that healing magic was needed.

“could I perhaps pay by doing missions for the guild?”

“I don't see why not, although if you die while on a mission your little friend will pay the price.”

“That seems fairly logical.”

“Well then. Haze I am glad to have you working for us instead of against us.”

“You can choose what missions to do but the total gain of the missions needs to be 60 gold before the whole debt is paid.” The director finished the conversation with that and stood up and opened the door motioning Haze to leave.

As soon as Haze left the room he was led to the room where Nora was waiting. When Nora saw Haze both fear and awe was present in her eyes but mostly awe. She slowly stood up and walked over to Haze and they then continued down to the lobby and looked through the missions although now in peace.

The missions listed varied from things from children stories such as killing a rampaging beast or gathering a rare ingredient from a cave guarded my mysterious magic, to going out killing some dumb trolls outside of town.

Haze naturally picked a mission that would pay the debt off and at the same time make some money for the girls needs. It was a mission to clear a den of Razoreels. Razoreels are nasty bastards which grow up to 2 meters in length and have spikes all over their body. When they grow old they learn to shock people with their spikes to paralyse prey.

Haze would gain 90 gold for clearing it, 60 would go to the guild and the rest would go to Nora as payment for carrying his coat.

As he had picked which mission to do he told Nora to wait for him in the guild building. She looked a bit uneasy about it but knew it would be too dangerous for her to follow him to the den.

And so Haze went out in town and passed the gate house into the forest on his way to the Razoreels den.

…

And that is the end of this chapter and I know many of you wonder if I have given up on the story but as I have said I will continue this but I have been very lazy the past month or so. Sorry and I hope you know I do this to improve and to write a story that I as well as some other people might enjoy.