Emily entered the adventurers guild and found a packed room. There were all manner of species laughing, drinking, looking at the job board, and a line of people waiting to speak to the guild receptionists. Navigating through the crowd, passing drunk dwarfs, beast kin tails swashing about, goliath races that had massive battle axes strapped to their backs, an elf petting a tiger, Emily finally arrived at the shorter of the two lines.

Waiting patiently, Emily slowing made her way towards the reception desk. The people came with all sorts of requests and needs. Some were turning in posted jobs, some were turning in monster corpses and were pointed towards a processing room down a hallway, some wanted help finding a room to stay at, Emily made a note of this, to ask for a room herself, and a few were like Emily, signing up for a life of adventure.

Finally Emily made it to help desk. “What can the Hatfordian adventures guild help you with today?” A human woman, in an elegant dress, asked professional. Emily smiled. “Yes, good day to you, I am here to sign up for adventure!”

The guild receptionist laughed lightly. “Well I can certainly help with that.” So saying she reached under her desk and pulled out a form and a crystal orb. “Now please place your hand on the orb, it will record your stats and class. Do not worry about your privacy, the guild guarantees to keep your information confidential and if you can prove your information was acquired from the guild, the guild will compensate you for the breach.” Emily had read all the dense legal books she could and knew this was lawyer speak to not pay any compensation. How could Emily prove beyond doubt that her information was leaked form the guild? Without hesitation Emily placed her hand on the orb. As the secretary pursued her information, her brows started going up, and she made an almost soundless exclamation of surprise at Emily stats.

Name :

Class :

Emily Warden L1

Tier 1 Warrior Monk L1

HP

228/228

MP

842/842

SP

540/540

Strength

28

Agility

21

Dexterity

19

Vitality

14

Endurance

22

Intelligence

71

Willpower

33

Charisma

11

Luck

6

Emily’s class gave her an impressive 30% boost to stamina, giving her almost 125 extra SP.

“Well I have to say you are off to a good start. If you do not mind be asking, did you attend an academy?”

Emily nodded. “Yes I just graduated the Havardr Academy.”

“The Havardr Academy is a great school. I can see you made the most of your time there.” The receptionist praised. “The guild has an agreement with all the major academies in the capital and the fee for graduates is half of the standard fee.”

Emily was glad to her this. Her money had been further reduced to just 22 small gold. The cost of the growth elixirs, the strength elixirs, the new heavy armor, weapons, a larger bag of holding, and especially potions for heath, poison antidotes, and stamina boosters, had all eaten away at her remaining funds.

“Now instead of the standard 3 large silver, that well be 1 large silver and 5 small sliver.”

Emily pulled out her old bag of holding, hidden in a pouch on the back side of her bandolier. Emily’s new larger bag of holding was hidden behind her chest plate, where even experienced high level thieves would have trouble accessing. The old bag held 5 large silver, a lessor heath potion, a lesser poison antidote, and a lesser stamina booster. If anyone stole this bag they were not getting much, while Emily could use the potions in an emergency, the better, more expansive potions where in the new bag. Emily handed the receptionist 2 large silver, and the receptionist drafty handed her back five small silvers.

“Now please fill out this form and we can get you on your way to adventure!” The receptionist smiled.

Emily returned her smile, then started filling out the form. There were standard disclaimers stating the guild was not responsible should she die while working for the guild and where she would like her possessions to be sent to if she did die. Emily answered with Golda, with Golda’s father’s house address listed as Golda’s location. If she did die she wanted Golda to have something to remember her by. Finishing the form Emily handed it back to the receptionist.

“Thank you. Emily your bronze adventurer card will take some time, is there anything I can help you with before I go take care of this?”

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“Yes, do you happen to have any long stay rooms?” Emily she could get another discount if she paid for a longer stay.

“We do have a few rooms opened at the inn across the road, what room would you like? We have a larger two room at the top of the inn, it has a receiving room and a bedroom, or we have a very small single room on the second floor.” The receptionist clearly hoped she would take the larger room; she probably received a bonus for renting it. Emily found that the larger room was a large silver a night and if she rented for seven days she only had to pay five large silvers. The smallest room cost two small silvers a night and if she wanted it for a week it would be reduced to ten small silver or one large silver. Clearly prices in the capital were expensive.

“I well take the smallest room.”

Thinking wistfully of her room at the academy, Emily paid for two weeks, saving almost a large silver. She had thought about just meditating in the common room and forgoing the room but she would to vulnerable. When Emily meditated the outside world faded away, even though she found Tranquility drastically reduced her need to sleep or meditate. At the academy she only needed to meditate for two hours to feel fully refreshed, she only meditated longer in order to train in her mental dojo, now with the new skill she only needed to meditate for an hour or sleep for four. Still being unaware of her surrounding for an hour, in a room filled with people, was not a risk she was willing to take.

The receptionist left to create Emily’s adventurer guild card. Now with a long wait, Emily drifted over to the jobs board, interested in what jobs there were for a newly bronze rank adventurer. Pursuing the jobs Emily quickly realized that bronze rank were not highly regarded.

“Infestation of rats that need exterminating, a package needing to be delivered to the outer distract, help delivering furniture, lab rat…” Emily blinked at that an reread the post. ‘It really does say lab rat. Who is stupid or desperate enough to actually drink unknown potions and elixirs just to see what happens?’ Given that college students in her old world routinely took anonymous medical pills for funds, Emily reconsidered; the difference between the two was here the pills could actually turn you into a monster.

Emily started reading other job posts for steel, silver, and gold. Emily would become steel rank after she completed her first class and took another, the silver and gold ranks were Tier 2 adventures. There were higher ranks in the guild, like platinum rank for Tier 3, but Emily was a very long way from that coveted Tier.

Emily found a post that was actually classless. Someone named Benton wanted legal advice, regardless of level, reading further Emily found it stated a time that person would be at the guild. Looking at the enchanted clock on the wall, Emily saw it was just about the time the person listed. Taking down the job post, Emily looked around. A large human male had been watching intently and seeing her with the post, waved her over.

Walking towards his table Emily saw an elastic mix of five people. The large male that waved her over, a lizardman, two females, one a human and the other catkin, and the final member was a male halfling.

“Are you Benton? The one that posted this job?” Emily asked politely, holding up the job post.

The large male, Benton, nodded. “Yes I did post that job, but are you not a little young?”

Emily wanted to sigh, this question always found her. “Yes I am but I have read all the law books, and memorized the laws.” The catkin leaned forward. “Really? What is current laws about bonded pets?”

This was an easy question to answer. “Bonded pets are seen as an extension of their owner, whatever the pet does is considered the same as the owner doing it.”

“What are the laws regarding property rights in regards to bank loans?” The catkin continued.

“That is a maze of complex laws and depends very much on the situation and the parties involved.”

The catkin nodded. Benton took back the conversation. “Well it cannot hurt to give you a chance. Can you please read this and tell us what you think?” Benton pulled out a stack of documents and handed them to Emily.

Emily sat down and quickly went though the documents, not seeing Benton start to frown at how quickly she flipped through the pages. Emily got a clear view of the problem immediately. It seemed this group had taken out a bank loan to buy a house and now a large merchant store with noble backing wanted to annex the property and expand the store. Worse the bank was leaning heavily on the group to take the deal. Emily had the since that the noble was directly responsible for the bank pressure.

Seconds later Emily looked up at the now glaring group. Ignoring their glare Emily explained. “New this seems straightforward. Banking laws and practices the thirty first edition clearly state in chapter 17 paragraph 12 subsection 5 that the bank cannot foreclose or force a sale when the borrowers are current with their payment and have been for the past six months. Chapter 28 paragraph 8 subsection 2 states that borrows have the right to have the courts review the loan contract if the borrows are in dispute with the bank or the bank is in breach of contract. Now in Property Laws twenty second edition Chapter 18 paragraph 10..” Emily went through a half dozen books, business law books detailing how the merchant was violating their company’s business charter, noble high laws, even books on noble code of conduct and etiquette.

Emily was glad there were laws and courts, lesser, meddle, and high court, and was farther delighted that there were no actually lawyer class. That would be the same evil as cultists.

“Now what you have to do is take these documents here to the high court and request a detailed review of these documents and the actions taken by the bank. Then you need to file a complaint about noble collusion with an Empire charted bank, the Emperor takes a deem view on anyone influencing his Empire’s banks and finances.” Emily concluded forty minutes later to a stunned audience. Emily waited patiently as they come to terms with everything she outlined.

It was few minutes later that Benton finally spoke. “Damn.” The whole group started laughing.

“That was amazing! With this information we can keep our house and stick it to the bank!” The catkin gushed, her tail swishing violently behind her. The other woman finally spoke. “Thank you. I had thought all our hard work to raise the funds to secure the loan, and finally buy a house, would be wasted.”

“You are welcome. I am glad I can help your group.”

“If there is anything you need, just ask. We owe you.” The woman replied.

Emily had an idea. “There is something but please do not feel obligated to say yes.” Emily looked at each person in the group and got an assent. “From what I gather your house is modestly large?” Emily could see the woman had an idea of where she was leading. “Would your group be open to a renter?” Living with this group had to be cheaper than spending a large silver a week. That would be over five small gold a year.

The group looked at each other, silently questioning and answering each other. Finally Benton who seemed the leader of this group answered. “We do have a small room in the attic. It is not much.” He warned. Emily did not care, all she needed was a safe place to meditate.

“That will be fine! I do not need a lot of space.”

They quickly discussed the rent and settled on two large silvers a month, saving Emily two large silvers a month now that she did not need to pay for a room at the inn.

“I plan to dive the dungeon and will be gone most of the time. I am Emily by the way.” Emily introduced herself.

The catkin answered, introducing the group. “I am Kioko,” Kioko pointed to the human woman, “this is Drusilla, you met Benton, the lizardman is Tellock, an shorty there is Cyneric.” Kioko pointed at the halfling. The halfling glared. “I will have you know I am exceptionally tall for my race!” The halfling was right, most of his race was little over 90 centimeters or 3 feet, Cyneric looked to be 102 centimeters or 3 feet 4 inches.

“We to are gone for long dungeon runs or traveling as caravan guards so we can visit other dungeons while being paid.” Benton assured Emily. Pulling out a copper key, he handing it to Emily and gave her an address in the middle district.

Unlike the medieval times on Earth, this current world had detailed addresses, something that came about because of classers. There were classes related to architecture, engineering, and construction that gave way to people needing to know the precise area to start construction and what was around said construction, that, combined with everyone using numbers because of their status screen, lead to numbered streets and addresses. Most people did not use the formal numbering scheme and instead used descriptions of places. Market street, palace road, north street, all had detailed numbers listed on city plans.

Emily saw the receptionist returning and started standing. “It was great to meet you all! I need to go retrieve my card, then I am going to the dungeon. I do not know when I will get to your house.” The others started getting up to.

“Yes we to need to hurry to file that complaint.” Benton answered, and with that, the group split up.

Emily quickly placed the key into her smaller bag of holding, while planning to go to the bathroom and transfer it to the more secure bag of holding behind her chest piece. Losing the key would not make a good impression after she seemed to have impressed the group with her knowledge of the law.

Emily arrived back at the reception desk and the receptionist handed her the newly made adventures card. “Please place a drop of blood on it, to bind it to you.” The receptionist instructed.

Pulling out one of her throwing diggers, Emily pricked her finger and placed it on the card. It flashed for a moment and Emily saw a photo of her, along with her name and guild rank appear on it before it faded. It would seem that the card was not a simple piece of paper but an actually enchanted device. This explained why the guild fee was so high, enchanted items always cost more than there more mundane counterparts.

Emily nodded to the receptionist. “Thank you for all your help.” With that Emily turned and walked out of the adventurers guild, looking forward to her first dungeon dive.