My meal of Horned Rabbit, potato, and some mixed vegetables was perhaps the best thing I have ever eaten in my life, and I savored every last bit of it. I was so engrossed in my meal that I inadvertently ignored Nic and Lea until I was finished. Looking up from my now spotless plate, I see both of Nic and Lea staring at me in a mixture of laughter and confusion, all I can do is give them a small smile.
“Damn, boy I know you didn’t starve on the way here why did you just eat that like you haven’t seen a morsel of food in years?” Nic asks me while laughing at how I consumed my entire meal.
“Oh… I, ah… haven’t been able to eat anything this good in a long time, and uh… go a little over excited I guess,” I respond embarrassedly at how I just acted and how weak my white lie sounded to me.
“Nic, honey leave Nox alone, and now why don’t you take these and write out “Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow” in all lower then upper case. That has every letter in the alphabet so I should be able to completely judge your letters at the very least if not your grammar.” Lea says passing me the writing utensils.
Taking everything I smooth out the paper, open the bottle, dip my pen, and as neatly and legibly as possible I write out the sentence in the way she wanted. After I was finished I blow on the ink lightly to dry and looking at it I’m proud to say that it should be satisfactory at the very least, so I hand over the paper and wait expectantly. She took the page and looked at both sides muttering as she does, “It’s legible, and the ink hasn’t seeped through so he should be able to write on both sides without it being any trouble.” Then in a louder voice to everyone at the table, she says, “This is very well done Nox, I would be happy to hire you as a transcriber for the Guild’s library. Your starting salary won’t be much, only 10 Talons a week, but I will also give you room and board. Does this all sound fair?”
“More than fair Learna, thank you, but I do have one question.”
“First off please call me Lea everyone does, and sure what is it?”
“Will I still have time to go to the dungeon or will this work occupy all my time?”
With a smirk, she responds, “Well now that will depend on you, I will make you a list of books to start with and a deadline to have them done by. So it’ll be up to you to budget your time appropriately.”
“That sounds completely acceptable when do I start?”
“Well Nic said he told you that I would take you by the Guild after dinner to get your license so we can do that first, then I’ll show you to your room in the library. Tomorrow morning I’ll have a list of books to start with.”
At this time Nic finished off his drink and says, “Well dear, I think Nox is done gorging himself if you want to take him now I’ll take care of the bill.”
“That sounds fine, don’t drink too much you old man or I’ll have you sleep in the stables with Tug, come along Nox the Guild is near the dungeon.”
Getting up I turn to Nic, and with a small bow I say, “Thank you again for dinner, Nic and for all of your help.” Then follow after Lea who is already making her way through the crowd.
Once outside a white thing flashes right in front of my face causing me to stumble in fright and lands on Lea’s shoulder.
“Bubo… you naughty boy scaring Nox like that,” says Lea as she affectionately scratches the neck what I can see now is a snow white Blizzard Owl. Holding her hand out to help me up she says, “I’m sorry Nox, Bubo here likes to be a little trickster.”
“It’s okay. He just surprised me. If you give me just a minute, I’ll go grab Notch.”
Lea gives me a nod, and I run into the stable. Once inside I see the stable boy sitting in a chair next to the door.
“Ah it’s you, your little slime is quite a productive little thing, he has already cleaned the whole stable. Which is a lot more than I was expecting to be honest so thank you. Here are two Talons for the extra work that was done, thank you again,” the stable boy tells me handing me the two small coins.
“Thank you,” I say taking the two coins adding them to my small collection.
“Where is Notch now anyways?” I ask to which the stable boy answers by just pointing up. Looking up I see a small green blob getting bigger and bigger until… I am on the ground again. Muttering to myself, “Why the hell am I always on the ground, what is with these damn monsters and taking joy in watching me fall on my ass…” and a little louder to the now wiggle laughing slime in front of me, “Notch what the hell you couldn’t have just come over to me normally, or at the very least just fell in front of me instead of on my head.” Shaking my head at the still laughing slime, I allow him to crawl back onto my shoulder. With another more annoyed thank you to the giggling stable boy I leave and find Lea right outside.
“Ready?” she asks so I nod and we make our way down a few streets in the darkening evening in silence. We finally reach a large two-story building with a sign that says “Dondton’s Adventuring Guild” right above the door after about 10 minutes.
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“Here we are, normally we are only open from about 7:00 am to 7:00 pm, it’s the same for the library, but since Nic gave me a heads up that he wanted you to sign up for a license tonight. So I asked Adile to stay a little late to sign you up while I finish some paperwork and make a list for you to get started on in the morning,” Lea explains as she holds the door open for me to enter.
Walking in I scan the room seeing that it has a counter directly across from the entrance, inbetween are a few tables and chairs. I also notice a staircase that leads upstairs on the right and a closed door that has a sign that shows a book and the word library above it. There is also another stairwell leads downstairs on the left, the left wall is covered in pinned up slips of paper and a massive map of the local area... maybe, I was never good with maps. Sitting at the counter, I see a pretty young woman, with blond hair and blue eyes, who I assume is Adile petting a red cat, probably a Fire Cat.
“Hey, Boss is this the guy you wanted me to stay late for?” she asks giving me an unimpressed look.
“Yes, it is and be nice Adile this is Nox he’ll be working in the library from now on. Nox this is Adile the pain in the ass that works for me,” she introduces me giving me a wink at the end.
Adile sticks her tongue out at Lea, then turns to me, “Nice to meet you Nox like Lea said I’m Adile why don’t we get started then.”
“Sounds good,” I say walking up to the counter.
“Alright I’ll head upstairs and finish a few things, I’ll be back down in a minute,” Lea says before she walks up the stairs that were just to the right of the counter.
Walking up to the counter, I see Adile take out from below the counter a small testing orb and setting it on to the counter with a few pages of paperwork. “Alright, you know the drill put your hand on the orb, and I’ll be able to see your Spirit Level and element. After that, you'll fill out some paperwork that basically states, commisions and dungeons can be dangerous, and the Guild is not liable for any injury or death.”
That last part makes me hesitate but thinking about it even for a second makes me realize that it is dangerous to delve into a dungeon so I put my hand onto the orb and a blue screen appears before Adile and me.
Name: Nox
Spirit Level: 1*
Element: N/A
Talking more to her self, Adile is filling out a form of her own, “No family name? Kind of weird but I guess it’s not all that strange. Spirit Level 1 wow that’s the lowest I’ve ever seen, and Element is… what the hell does that mean?” She looks up from the form, “Hey uh... Nox… why does this say your element is not applicable?”
Thinking quickly I say, “Maybe it’s because I’m a Spirit Level 1 see that star next to it…”
“I guess that makes sense… I’ll make a note of it in your file…,” Adile says after she stares at the screen for a few minutes then shakes her head then continues, “Anyways just sign your name in all the places marked with an X.”
Filling out the rest of the forms takes about half an hour as I do read through the forms to make sure there isn’t anything outlandish in them but they do seem to say precisely what Adile said it would. After finishing the last paper, Adile takes them and looks through to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Once she is done, she looks up and says, “Everything looks good but there a few things I need to tell you. First, is that unless the Guild Leader Lea gives permission otherwise, you cannot take any commision that has a Spirit Level that exceeds yours by five levels. Second, no fighting with other members unless it is in self-defense, a sanctioned duel or sparring match. Lastly, the cellar is a training area but try not to use and very destructive spells on anything other than the training dolls. Other than that welcome to the Guild and I’ll see you around.” After explaining everything, she packed up her things and called up to Lea that she was leaving. About a minute later Lea made her way downstairs handing me a list of book names.
“Alright, lets head next over to the library then so you can see where you will be working and your room,” Lea said as she walked through the doorway on the right.
Following behind her, she leads me down a narrow hall, through another door, and into a room packed with bookshelves that go from floor to ceiling and tables scattered throughout. Looking around at all the books I can only say one thing…, ”I have to rewrite all of these books?”
“Well, not all of them… but most of them yes. I’ll have you start out doing the most important ones like the Monster Compendium and Wild Eats. Stuff that every good adventurer needs and honestly stuff that will be great for you to learn if you do plan on leveling up,” She explains as she leads me to the opposite side of the library from the door to the main building.
When we get to the far wall, I see five doorways. Lea leads me to the second from the left doorway explaining, “Most of these doors lead to a small individual study room but this one and the one to the left will be yours.”
Opening the door, I see what looks like a small office with a small window above a single desk, chair, a stack of books already sitting on the desk, and a mage light on the ceiling. “I was the only one using this office before so no one should come in and bother you. Most of the books that are on the desk are the ones on that list I gave you. Just get them all done within two months and I’ll consider you a good investment. You can get two meals a day from the inn I will inform Reg, the bartender, in the morning that you will be on my tab. Other than that I will pay you at the end of each week and your rooms next door. Just let me know if you need anything else, my office is on the second floor of the main building. Good night.”
Lea hands me two keys, and after I say goodnight she makes her way out, and I head into my new bedroom. The room is small, but there is a bed, nightstand, and a small bathroom with a shower and toilet. Taking a quick shower, I then head to bed for the night. Tomorrow, after I transcribe some, I will take a look at the dungeon.