They followed the main road through the town, passing shops of all sorts. Some people called out to the group to buy their weapons or armor, others called out to entice them with expensive looking clothing and jewelry. Blixie floated closer to a few carts that sold various grilled or baked foods.

"Ahh, that smells delicious!" Blixie exclaimed as she flew closer to a stand selling grilled meats.

"I know right?" April agreed as she walked closer to a stand that was selling loose gems and various raw ores.

Kyle bubbled in frustration and Garrett just chuckled. "We need to be on the lookout for the adventurer's guild guys, not looking for dinner."

Blixie and April both sighed and turned away from the stands to follow after Garrett and Kyle. Garrett thought about it and realized that he was being selfish. What else are going to spend our money on right now? Garrett thought. "All right let's get some treats for you guys." He walked over and talked to the jewelry stand first and handed over a handful of silver coins for a small chunk of copper ore. He then went and talked to the stand that Blixie had gone to and handed over a few copper coins and received two juicy looking ribs dripping with some kind of a dark sticky sauce.

"Here you go." Garrett said as he tossed the copper ore to April, one of the ribs to Kyle, and handed the last rib to Blixie. "You will have to let me know how they are."

Blixie picked up the rib that was almost as big as her and took a large bite. "Mmmmm." She groaned in delight. "That is amazing. It's tangy with a kick of spicy."

April grabbed the chunk of copper and placed it into the mouth on her stomach that had opened, revealing a void of inky darkness. "Chewy. Reminds me of caramel from home." She said quietly, so as not to draw attention.

Garrett looked over to Kyle. "How is it Squishy?" The rib was slowly floating through Kyles gelatinous body. Small bubbles could be seen around the meat as it dissolved. Kyle flattened a bit and plopped two tentacles on the ground in a slumped motion. "Huh. Can't taste it?" Garrett asked. Kyle shook his body. "That sucks buddy. We will figure something out later."

They continued on their way down the main road looking for the adventurer's guild. They turned right to follow the road and were surprised as the road ran straight into a huge stone building that was shaped like the stylized 'A' that they recognized as the symbol for the adventurer's guild. The building was massive, and easily stood almost fifty feet tall. The building seemed to have been carved directly from the wall of the cavern.

"I think we found the guild." April said.

They climbed the couple of stairs to a set of wooden double doors. Small panels were intricately carved with scenes of adventurers fighting different monsters, there was even a scene they recognized as Grandma Jenny fighting a dragon, but there were a few panels by the door handles that really stood out. These few panels were completely blank.

Garrett pulled the door open to reveal a large tavern with dozens of tables taking up the large space between him and the bar at the far end. Only a few tables were not filled with the various races that he had seen on his walk through the city. The groups nearest the door hushed as they turned to scrutinize those that just entered before going back to their own conversations.

The group headed through the tables and walked up to the bar where a large dwarf stood cleaning and putting away mugs. "If you want a room head to your left." The dwarf said and pointed to a small desk near a door at the side of the tavern. "If you are looking for quests head to your right." He pointed to a wall that was covered in small slips of paper organized by adventurer rank and a long desk where several clerks sat assigning quests and answering questions. "And if you need a drink or food, find a table." he finished.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Thanks." Garrett said hesitantly, put off a bit by the dwarf's direct nature. He led the group to the right where the wall was practically covered in slips of paper. He walked up to one of the open clerks and got their attention. "Hi. This guild hall is completely different compared to the ones I have seen so far." Garrett said cheerfully.

The clerk looked would have passed for human if you ignored the black cat ears sticking out of his short scruffy black hair, and the cat like nose perched on his slender angular face. "My, oh my." He said in a slightly husky voice. "It looks like we have a little country mouse come to play." A long sinuous black tail rose from behind him and flicked mischievously. He wore a dark blue shirt with a black vest and pants. "Well, we are one of the busiest guild halls in the country so naturally we have to be a bit larger than what you are probably use to." He looked at the rest of the group intrigued. "My name is Nyathanial. What can I do for you country mouse?"

"Hi Nathanial. I'm Garrett. My group and I are looking for some quests to do to raise our adventurer rank. Can you help us choose some that would suite us?"

"First off, it's Nyathanial." The clerk said slightly irritated. "And of course I can help you. We have quests for every adventurer level. Let me just get your guild cards please."

"Actually," Garrett said with a bit of hesitation. "I'm the only one that has a guild card. I'm a tamer and these are my beasts." He said as he pointed at Kyle and April. "And this is Blixie. She is sort of like a trainer or guide for me." Blixie puffed out her chest as Garrett pointed at her.

Nyathanial looked at the group with a much more critical eye this time. "I see. You don't see many tamers around anymore, much less ones with humanoid pets." He stuck out his hand. "Alright, let's see your guild card then." Garrett handed his card over to Nythanial. "Just an 'F' rank." Nyathanial said in surprise. "I figured you would be higher since you have two pets." He handed the guild card back to Garrett. "The only quests I can assign to you are on the far right of the wall." Garrett looked down the wall where the quests were hung and noticed the amount of quest slips became denser the farther down the wall he looked. "It'll mostly be running errands or gathering herbs from outside the city for now, but if you work hard, you could raise your rank to 'E' in just a few weeks." Nyathanial said with a smile.

"Can I take on several quests at once?" Garrett asked.

"Of course you can. in fact, it is recommended for lower-level quests. Otherwise, it would take a lot longer to raise in the ranks."

"Is there a test I need to take to increase my rank like I did for joining? Maybe I could just take it now and move up to 'E' rank." Garrett said hopefully. He always hated doing the fetch quests in games.

"Only for rank 'C' and above will you need to take a combat test for promotion. At the lower levels it is all about doing a required number of quests to raise in the ranks." Nyathanial responded. "It helps to show who is committed to the guild and builds up the required levels needed for more difficult quests. Just pick a few 'F' rank quests from the board to start and bring them to me and I will add them to the quest log on your guild card." Nyathanial waved Garrett and his group away.

The group headed down to the end where the most slips hug on the wall and looked over the quests that were available to them. Please gather ten green medicinal herbs. Gather five slate mushrooms. Rabbits have infested my fields, please help. My poor pet has run away, please help me find them. Rats in my basement. On and on the quests went asking for various things. Garrett looked at Kyle and April, but they just shrugged. "Guess it really doesn't matter which ones we grab for now." He sighed and grabbed several at random and headed back to the counter.

The group had to wait as a couple other groups had come up to register quests while they had looked for their own. "I see you have found some to start you off with." Nyathanial said as Garrett stepped up to the counter and handed the slips over with his guild card. Nythanial took the guild card and placed it in a slot in the wooden base that held a perfectly round crystal ball. As Garretts information floated above it he feed each quest slip in one by one. After he verified that all the quests were added correctly, he pulled Garretts guild card out and handed it back to him along with a folded piece of parchment. "Here is your card back and a basic map of the city and surrounding area so you can find where you will need to go for the quests."

"Thank you, Nyathanial." Garrett made sure to emphasize the clerks name to make sure he had it right.

"You very welcome Garrett and friends. Good luck out there." Nythanial smiled and waved the group off to help the next group in line.

"I noticed that some of the 'E' rank quests have you go into the actual mines, so let's get these ones done as quickly as we can so we can raise our rank." Garrett said to the others. Garrett and the group left the guild hall in high spirits, excited to be on the path of adventuring once again.