The adventurer's city of Carilleon was massive. The three of us were currently on a beautiful green hill overlooking the city.

"Whaaaaaaaat? I thought Basten was big!"

"Have you ever left Basten Ember? The royal capital is bigger than this"

"Bigger?! I was born and raised in Basten, this is my first time outside the city walls."

Wow, to think this wasn't the biggest city in this country.

There was a giant wall surrounding the city and I could just barely see a set of twin gates that looked like pieces of art. Unlike the cities of my world, there were no giant skyscrapers. This didn't take away from the beauty of the city though, from where I was standing the construction within looked fairly advanced. I was excited to go inside.

On each corner of the city stood a large tower that somehow twisted in a way, with what looked like a giant ball at the top. There were lots of huge buildings still, and the roads all seemed improved. The streets in Basten had all been gravel, but these looked like brick.

In the center of Calerion was a large hill with a giant castle on it.

So we took everything in. I used this opportunity to try and familiarize myself with some of the roads I could see from up here.

"Identification."

The guard asked in a tone that sounded like he would rather be anywhere else. We had arrived at the front gate and were stopped at a checkpoint, I guess the traffic inside was controlled fairly strictly.

From what Elena told me, the adventurers card issued by the guild is the equivalent of an ID card in this world. Along with that, they also issued normal ID's to non adventurers for a fee. That sounds more like a DMV than an adventurer's guild.

"These two are my guests, we're planning to get them adventurer's cards in town. Can you let us through?"

"Ma'am, I can let you through, but your friends have to stand in line to get a visitor's pass before they can enter. I'm sorry, but I just can't break the rules"

The guard pointed to a line of what must be upwards of 1,000 people, snaking down the castle wall as far as I could see.

"I'm sorry Klein, I was really hoping I could get you inside right now. The line should only take about three days, and the fee is only 1,000 peli per person. I'll see you guys inside!"

Ember broke out into a cold sweat.

"Why is it so long..."

...

Elena was about to abandon us to this line and go inside by herself, what a great companion.

"Sir"

I pulled the attention of the guard, and brandished the letter from my backpack.

"This is..."

He examined the letter, and looked back at the three of us.

"Are you three nobles? The Knight Captain of Lycania is a very famous man, and to get his endorsement despite his seclusionary nature. Very well, I can let you through. This is a one time thing though, so make sure you get your adventurer's cards."

"Thank you."

I looked over to see Ember breathe a sigh of relief, and we all headed inside.

It was already evening by the time we got in, so we decided to search for lodging. We were down to about 4,000 Peli, so we had to find some jobs pretty soon.

Apparently all the inns here were full except for one that seemed to be particularly high class.

"2,000 Peli for a single room?!"

The registration fee for adventurers was apparently 1,000 Peli, so that was everything we had set aside.

The astonished face was from Elena, who was blushed slightly.

"I guess it's ok, I mean it's not like we have a choice but to all sleep in the same room"

I have no idea what thoughts go through this woman's mind. We've been travelling for almost two months now, and most nights we ended up sleeping near each other by the camp. How is a hotel room any different?

"Fine with me!"

It seemed like Ember was enthusiastic about the whole thing. I guess it only really bothered Elena, who seemed to have a dirty mind.

We headed up to our room and dropped our bags.

The room only had one bed, but it was very fancy. The bed was large and had a red drapery surrounding it. In the corner of the room there was a door that lead to a very large magic imbued bathtub, that looked more like a hot tub. It seemed it had some built in spell runes on it. Elena said that there was pretty complex magic involved, so mass producing them was an issue. They had spells to fill it with water, drain the water, heat it up, and make air jets. All of this was operated by a series of buttons.

As an excited Ember inspected every inch of the tub, a thought ran through my mind.

"So who's sleeping where?"

"We're all gonna sleep on the bed, duh!"

I feel like Ember was a bit more enthusiastic than this then Elena, who was standing in the corner acting shy.

I tended to keep to myself a lot in my old world, but I had been with a few women and I understood that I will never understand them.

I was ok with it, everybody here was an adult and the bed looked big enough to hold six people.

We took turns bathing and decided to get ready for bed. I was just going to sleep in what I was wearing, so I crawled in bed and tried to close my eyes.

A few minutes later, Elena came out flushed from cheek to cheek, and I could immediately tell why.

What is it with this woman.

She was wearing a very short silk nightgown that seemed to accentuate her chest, which wasn't as large as Ember's, but wasn't small enough to not be noticable either.

Elena was shorter than me by about a head, and had long dark hair that she usually kept wrapped in a ponytail. Right now it was flowing all the way to her shoulders. I'm starting to wonder if she misunderstood something, but if that's what she wants I'm not one to argue.

She stood there at the doorway, staring at me shyly. It's almost like she was trying to build up the courage to walk over.

Just then, an orange blur darted past her and jumped on the left side of me on the bed.

Maybe this is just how they sleep? Her nightgown was even skimpier, it was basically a silk bra with some fabric hanging down just enough to touch her panties. Honestly, the whole thing went well with her orange hair, being a bright red color.

Elena had a look of confusion. It seemed she didn't realize how much of a free spirit Ember was. Slowly, she walked over and climbed in bed.

I woke up to a loud snoring on my chest, and I realized that at some point during the night both of them had somehow managed to find their way to me. I now had Elena's head on my right shoulder, and Ember's on the left side of my chest, with her left leg sprawled across my legs. If I hadn't been so exhausted from the trip, I probably would have woken up to that in the middle of the night.

Right now I didn't want to wake them, it had been a long trip so they deserved to rest. I slowly pushed to sit up in bed, with the intention of crawling out, as the snoring fox girl's hand connected with my face and pushed me right back down.

I guess I wasn't complaining, I had two of the most beautiful women I had ever seen laying on my chest right now. I ended up laying in silence until they woke up.

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I would call it silence, if it weren't for the chainsaw on my chest.

After what must have been an hour of laying like this, I was greeted by the face of Elena panicking and jumping out of bed.

She started talking really fast with her face bright red.

"I'm sorry I was sleeping my body just moved on it's own it's not my fault I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry"

I laughed out loud. The sight of the embarrassed idiot in front of me was hilarious.

"Why are you laughing! This isn't funny, I've never slept with a man before!"

"Good morning Klein, good morning Elena."

The fox girl lifted her head from my chest. It seemed the panicking Elena didn't faze her at all. Her arms went above her head as she stretched thoroughly, arching. This girl is the definition of erotic.

After calming down Elena, we made our way to the adventurer's guild. We had 2,000 Peli left, and she us told that should be just enough to cover the registration fee.

Walking inside of the guild, it seemed a bit stereotypical of an adventurer's guild from a game. There were tables with various adventurer parties talking and eating, near the end of the guild was a bar with a few rough and roudy looking guys sitting at it, and at the end was a long counter with three people standing around behind them. All along the walls of the guild were cork boards with papers pinned on them, they must have been the quests the guild had active. One of the clerks was an older lady, there was a very beautiful woman dressed formally, and a boy who couldn't be older than 12.

We walked up to the booth and were greeted by the boy.

"Whaddya want?"

Well then.

"We're trying to register as adventurers."

"MOM, THESE GUYS WANNA BE ADVENTURERS."

The kid yelled this as if she were in another room, and the older lady walked over to the counter.

As she walked up, she swatted the child over the back of the head.

"What did I tell you about yelling for no reason? I was standing right over there. Be nice to the customers and talk to them courteously. I really hope you don't think I didn't hear you when you greeted them."

What a scary lady.

The kid looked down and walked away towards the back slowly.

With that, the mother's attitude completely changed to a wide customer service smile.

"How can I help you today?"

"The two of us need to register as adventurers, ma'am."

I talked to the lady I just watched ream the little boy with a bit more respect than I otherwise would have.

"Great! There's a quick test but we should be able to get you guys processed in no time!"

A test? I mean we were already fairly strong, so I wasn't worried about it.

"IRYNA, WE NEED YOU TO GIVE THE TEST TO THESE PEOPLE!"

The woman who had just reprimanded her son for yelling did the exact same thing he had.

"Ok momma, you don't need to yell. I'm standing right here."

Iryna came out from behind the counter and turned to us, putting on the same customer service smile her mother had. This girl was about the same age as Elena, and a world class beauty.

"The admission for the test is 1,000 Peli per person."

I guess money means everything in this world too. We handed her the 2,000 peli.

"If you'll follow me, we administer the test in here."

We followed her through a door to the right of the counter, and into a room with nothing but a small table in it. On the table was an orb about the size of a soccer ball.

"Who's first?"

"I'll go!"

Ember stepped up and volunteered faster than she could probably think about it.

"Ok, this is called the orb of internal seeing. When you put your hands on the orb it will sense your strengths, and create your adventurer's card for you.

"Ok!"

As soon as she touched the orb, it began to glow.

"It's really hot, I cant move my hands."

"You'll feel the heat, but it will have no effect on your body. Relax."

After a few minutes the orb seemed to settle down, and Ember released her hands.

"So what now?"

Just then, a small card appeared in front of her. As soon as she touched it something crazy happened.

It was like a hologram shot out of the card, and a screen like interface was in front of her.

"This is so awesome!"

I can't blame her for being excited, this is really cool.

Iryna took the card from her and pulled the hologram up.

"It looks like you're a vanguard, level 10. It's unusual for somebody to be that strong before they even register."

"I mean we've fought all sorts of monsters, and I've been training myself since I was little.

"Ah, I see. Well then sir, could you step up to the orb?"

I did as she asked, and a similar effect happened. It really was hot, it was as if my hands were going to burn off. I felt like a child who just shoved his hand on a stove burner.

But I couldn't move my hands.

After a few minutes of this excruciating pain, my hands were freed and it was as if there had been no pain in the first place.

"They say the orb is more painful for people with more potential."

The guild clerk looked at me when she said this. As she did, a card appeared in front of me as it had to Ember. I handed it to Iryna and she pulled up the hologram.

"This has to be a mistake, I don't understand."

She was muttering to herself as she scrolled through the contents of the card.

"I need to go verify something, please wait by the front counter."

With that, we went back to the front counter and waited. Iryna had pulled her mother aside behind the counter and they were whispering back and forth. After a few minutes, her mother passed out and fell on the floor.

What the hell is going on?

About five minutes later, the boy came out with a bucket of water and splashed it on his mother. She slowly rose to her feet and walked over to me.

As if the sight that just unfolded before my eyes never happened, she spoke to me with that same customer service smile.

"I apologize for the wait, my daughter thought there might have been a mistake on your card, but we verified it."

"What do you mean?"

"You seem to be a battle mage."

"A BATTLE MAGE?"

The sound came from Elena, who was standing there in awe.

"I don't understand, what's that?"

"Were you born under a rock? Maybe you got our cards mixed up, he's the vanguard and I'm the battle mage. There's no way someone that ignorant could be -"

I think Ember was jealous.

"We have verified the accuracy. As for you sir, a battle mage is a special class of mage that fights primarily as a swordsman, but intertwines magic with their sword skills. It's a very rare class, and there are currently three known to exist. You're also currently level 16."

"Oh"

"What do you mean oh? This is a huge deal, and you've almost caught up to me in level? I just hit level 20 two days ago and I've been studying magic for years."

I couldn't tell if Elena was upset about this or excited, but it didn't really bother me. So I have some sort of crazy ability I guess. Maybe I'll become formidable.

It seemed the rest of the guild heard the commotion, and murmurs started going around the whole building.

"A battle mage? Here?"

"I've never seen a real one"

A few of them came up to me over the next few minutes and asked me to join their party.

I'm not one to relish in the spotlight, so we mingled with the people in the guild for a few minutes and made our way out.

We needed to find this arcane blacksmith, and find out the name of the sword on my waist.

We knew there was one here, but it was difficult to find. The shop ended up being hidden in the back of a dark alley. It looked completely out of place with a large sign reading 'Arcane Arts'. How did they get customers here?

As we walked in there was a bell on the door that rang a few times, like walking into an old antique shop. A short old man was sweeping the floors and didn't seem to notice our entry.

"Umm"

Ember felt out of place too, it was kind if eerie.

"Is he the arcane blacksmith?"

The man stopped sweeping when I said that.

"What business do you have looking for the arcane blacksmith?"

The voice we heard was cold, and I thought I sensed hostility in those words.

"I want to get my sword appraised."

"The Arcane blacksmith is a man who will only deal with worthy customers. If you wish to prove yourself, go to the caves north of here, fight the dragon residing there and bring it here alive. Then you will be allowed the presence of the arcane blacksmith."

The old man's voice was cold and sour.

A dragon? How am I supposed to bring a dragon back here alive? I need to find out the name of my weapon, so I guess my only choice is to try.

"Then we'll be back."

"Wait, stop!"

A man ran in from the back of the shop. I couldn't tell if he was a scientist or a mage, and he had a monocle on his eye.

"Gramps, you need to stop messing with my customers."

The old man let out a hearty laugh.

"I'm serious, even if they managed to capture a dragon, bringing it in the city would be dangerous by itself."

"Fine then, I was only having a bit of light fun"

...

This old man was messing with us?

He placed his broom against the side wall and walked towards the back room.

"I'm sorry about that, my grandfather likes to scare people. My name is Hadrien, the arcane blacksmith running this shop."

"In that case"

I drew my sword and placed it on the counter in front of me. The eyes of the blacksmith went wide.

"Th-that weapon..."

He stumbled on his voice as he said this.

"It-it's nothing special, I'll give you 3,000 peli for it."

What a horrible liar, this guy is trying to scam me. I picked up the sword and pointed it at him.

"W-w-wait, hang on hang on. I just had to try ok?"

"Why are you trying to scam me?"

"I'm sorry, I really need the money, my shop is going to go out of business unless I come across something big."

I laid the sword back on the counter.

Maybe if he set up shop outside of an old alley his business would be better. I'm sure the old man scaring off customers doesn't help.

"Don't try to scam random travelers. Besides, my sword isn't for sale."

"Oh, in that case, what are you doing here?

It seemed like he was still nervous, I guess when you get caught red handed trying to do something like that it makes you feel small.

"I need to know the name of this sword, and whatever powers it has."

"How could you not know that? You're holding a legendary weapon you know."

Legendary weapon? I guess it did belong to a champion before.

"That's the legendary longsword, Abyss. It was used by the Champion Reichard Scharthschil in the war with demons 100 years ago."

"Why did that blacksmith have my grandfather's sword?"

Elena looked at me judgingly, I forgot to tell her who it had belonged to.

"He wanted the blacksmith to give it to someone strong. Either way, Hadrien, what skills does this sword have, and how do I use them?"

"Abyss is a weapon that grows with it's user, so if you're level 1, it will be level 1. It's skills will develop as you grow, and they would be different for each user. You can see the skills your sword has on your adventurer's card."

This is a very interesting weapon.

"It's also very picky. If the sword doesn't like it's user it will become very heavy and awkward."

Ember was still mean mugging the store clerk, and had been ever since he tried to pull that stunt.

We ended up leaving the store and heading back for the adventurer's guild. We needed to get stronger, but no matter what, we were broke. Hopefully we can find a few simple quests at the guild to clear and make some quick cash for dinner.

Back at the guild, we made a quick line for the bulletin with quests posted.

"Hey, look at this one."

Ember was holding a quest to kill a higher dragon. Suggested party level was 80, and suggested size was 15.

Was she trying to die, or am I travelling with two idiots now?

"Can you read? Let's get this one."

As I said that I pulled up a goblin quest from the wall, but something caught my eye next to it.

Imps.

The quest was about level 20, and called for extermination of an imp cave to the north. Apparently they like to kill cattle in the area. I felt like this would be interesting, and the reward was 50,000 Peli.

We walked to the counter with the paper, and set out sights for our first real quest.