“Wakey wakey sleepy head.” Maya hears while being pushed awake by Emma.
Groggily Maya opens her eyes, “Why do you hate sleep so much?” now almost sounding like a whining child rolling over to cover her face from the light.
“I don’t hate sleep, there is just always so much to do. Can’t be a lazy bum like you and waste hours in bed haha.” Emma, smiling now, changing her clothes. “Seriously time to get up, we can grab some breakfast downstairs and then I need to hit the Adventurers Guild and I know you’ll want to see that.”
Summoning what little energy she could muster, Maya grumbled in a muffled tone, "Fine!" She reluctantly rolled out of bed and wearily climbed to her feet. Her movements were sluggish as she retrieved Enit, extracting a black turtleneck-like long-sleeved shirt and a pair of tan overalls from within. Despite the persistent fatigue, she managed to change into her fresh attire before gathering her long hair into a hastily assembled messy bun, before unceremoniously shoving her dirty clothes back into Enit. Maya puts Enit on, "Alright, I'm ready for breakfast."
“Great, let’s go eat!” Emma replies as she leads the way out.
~ You know you could have cleaned your clothes before storing them ~
“I’ll clean them later.”
“Huh? Talking to Enit again?” Emma asks.
“Yeah, no worries.”
As they arrived downstairs, Johnathan was already at a table eating breakfast, noticing them he waved them over. “Ya’ll took your sweet time getting out of bed this morning” he said with a smile.
“No, just the one actually.” Emma says pointing over to Maya.
“Hey, don’t call me out like that!” Maya says but wasn’t upset.
They both sit down and order breakfast and the three of them eat together, no one really saying much since their mouths were all full of eggs, bread, and ham. As most of the food clears up, “I don’t know if you ladies had much of any plans today, but you’re welcome to go do whatever. I still need to finish up paperwork for the delivery among other errands.” Johnathan says as he finishes up his plate.
“Well, I still have to go deliver the letter for the guild and I figured I would drag Maya around with me since she hasn’t been here. There is a lot to see.” Emma replies.
“Alrighty then, if y’all need me I will either be at the warehouse or back here” Johnathan says as he stands up and heads out the tavern. Emma and Maya soon finish the rest of their meals and head out as well.
As they ventured onto the street, there was a lot more foot traffic than last night. Between everyone walking mingled with the rumble of carts traversing the road, rendering the prior evening's hustle and bustle rather tranquil in comparison. “This way” Emma says as she turned right down the road starting to leave Maya behind. “The guild is closer to the port since they receive fishing contracts all the time between sea beasts or just security on the sea.” As they continued down the slope of the road getting closer and closer to the ocean.
The closer they got to the port, the more pungent the air smelled of fish. Mixed in with the salty water, some may find this to be a great aroma, but Maya was never a big fan of fish. Simultaneously, the air also got a little brisker the closer they walked. From where they were on the road, you could see the road go all the way down to the docks. Some ships were docked and some out at sea either sailing in or sailing out. It was a beautiful view, “Here we are!” Emma said, interrupting Maya staring out. Emma, now standing in front of a decently large building. "Quite a bit larger than the one back home, isn't it?" she says with a smirk.
They both walked inside; it wasn’t just big on the outside; it was large on the inside too. The lobby, like the first, second, and third floors above, boasted soaring ceilings that extended up to the third level. A grand space awaited them, with the second and third floors wrapped around the interior like balconies. These circular walkways were adorned with tables for patrons. Nestled in opposite corners of the room were spiral staircases that wound their way up to the second and third-floor balconies. Right as you walked in was a sense of familiarity, reminiscent of the small guild in Wolfcrest. A reception counter with several employees all wearing similar clothes to Gilbert, all of them were wearing a vest and a bowtie. The pants and shirts changed between them, but it looks like the official wear is the vest and bowtie.
The lady directly in front of them at the counter greeted them as they walked in. “Hello and welcome into the Adventurers’ Guild of Summerport! My name is Ava, how may we serve you today?” Smiling wearing a white shirt and black pants under the vest and bowtie, with brown eyes and dirty blonde hair put back into a very tight and neat bun.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Emma gets all the way up to the counter, pulling out the envelope. “I have a letter I am supposed to deliver to this guild.” Setting the letter down on the counter.
“Understood, I’ll be right back.” Ava says as she scurries off leaving the letter on the counter. After just a minute, Ava returned with another member of the guild's staff. This time, it was a tall and slender man, his features characterized by distinctive pointy ears. He had jet-black hair pulled back, not quite into a bun, but held in a short ponytail. Adjusting his half-circle glasses to cover hazel-green eyes, he joined them. "I apologize for the wait. This is Jassin, our Information and Exchange Administrator," Ava introduced him.
“Nice to see you again Emma” Jassin says almost pompously but very politely and endearingly. “It’s been a while; I see you brought a letter today and…a friend I presume?” Looking over at Maya.
“Yes, this is my friend Maya, she traveled with me from Wolfcrest, this is her first time here to Summerport and a real guild” Emma replies.
“Fascinating, well do be sure to register her name into the guild while you are both here. She should get some credit for assisting you. Now let’s see what we have here in the letter.” Jassin opens the envelope breaking the seal, lifting the letter up to read, “Uh huh….ok……ok…..I see….very well.” Putting the letter down, he re-folds it and grabs a new envelope, puts it inside and then seals it with a new wax seal. “I will get this delivered to the guild master later today” He smiles before heading back.
“Are we going to register your friend today?” Ava speaks up handing Emma the payment for the delivery.
“I don’t see why not since we are here.” Emma says pushing Maya to the counter.
“Ok, let’s see here. What is your full name?”
“Maya………...Thorne”
~ Not very original for the last name but that should prevent someone from knowing who you are ~
“Very well, age?”
“18”
“Based on appearance and name is it safe to assume you are female?”
“Yes”
“What is your major focus within the guild?”
“To help people?” Maya says confused.
“No, no, like are you a swordsman, archer, wizard, etc… That way if a party needs the help of a specific person or if you would like to have help within training of your field, we can focus on that.”
“Oh, well, Spell Swordsmen I guess.”
“Ok, give me one moment to get this completed.” Ava says as again she walks off.
“You know you could have just said swordsman and they would have never dug any deeper for questions.” Emma says to Maya.
“Well, I have an idea I wanted to try, and I think a Spell Swordsmen would be the easiest way to go, plus I can always use you as a backup for letting them know who is training me…. if someone were to ask.”
“Trust me, no one will care nor ask.” Emma shrugs.
“So was Jassin an Elf?” Maya asks, “Also why did it matter if I was a girl?”
“Yeah, Jassin is a half-elf. His dad is human and way tall, making him the tallest elf I have ever seen. And as for whether you are a male or female, two reasons. First are some missions can only be completed by one or the other member of sex. Second, like I said on our way here, some parties will automatically not choose you or myself based on that information alone. Not that I care since I typically solo everything.”
“Well first part makes since I guess but the rest of that is plain crap.” Maya says, as Ava walks back towards them.
“Great, here is a copy of your form, and your Adventurer’s Guild ID.” Ava says as she hands a piece of paper and what looks like leather wallet with a single fold on the long edge. Maya opens it up to see a card with the basic information on it held in with a bronze clip. “As everyone does, you start out at a bronze level within the guild, as you complete more contracts you can raise your level. Contracts on killing beasts are not limited to levels however we do have suggested rankings within the guild based on experience. What you are limited on are niche contracts that are convoy or security for upperclassmen because they only want the best of the best. Do you have any questions?”
“No, I don’t think I do for now. If I think of something, I’ll be back to ask.” Maya replies.
“No worries, that is what we are here for.” Ava says smiling waving at both Emma and Maya as they walk away, “Looking forward to seeing you again.”
“So, you have one of these Emma?” Maya looks over to Emma asking.
She pulls hers out and opens it up. Bronze clip as well but it has 4 stars on the left side. “Bronze rank 4. After so many contracts you get a star to add. After receiving 10 you can rank up. Not everyone will because you do have to show you are ready for the next level in the guild before they will approve.” She says before folding it back up and putting it away.
“Guess I have a while to go before going up anywhere with the guild.” Maya says putting hers away.
“Well, that depends on the contracts. It’s pretty easy to get rank 10 within bronze but I mainly take small jobs so it’s not a fast process, if you get in with a group you can get harder contracts which will give you the stars faster.”
“Well, I see no reason to rush, we currently are working for Johnathan and don’t really have time to take much else on.” Maya says. “So where to next?”
“Because you had such an interest in learning how to use a sword, I figured we should go to the smith shop and look at a sword for you.”
“I don’t know if I brought money enough to buy one.” Maya says sounding slightly down.
“I wouldn’t worry about that too much, first of all smiths typically carry enough variety for everyone and since you did accompany me on my letter delivery, I figured half of this is for you anyways.” As Emma holds up the small pouch Ava had handed to her just a moment ago.
“Are you sure? I mean Gilbert asked you not me.”
“Yeah, I’m sure. You were technically in my party so it’s only fair if we split the money, also if you’re not well equipped and we take on a contract then I’ll be stuck protecting you the entire time.” Emma says laughing.
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