I glared at Mister Menu.

Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Cute skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!

Rank E is a free rank!

“Meanie,” I said as I slid out of the bed and dismissed the prompt with a wave. Sure, I was going to accept the free rank, because duh, but it wasn’t a nice thing to see right after waking up. It wasn’t even like I had done anything all night.

Did I snore?

My eyes narrowed.

Did I snore cutely?

It couldn’t be. I slept just like any other girl.

After rubbing my eyes and making sure that Orange was okay after a night spent cuddled up in my arms, I wiped my lips clean of any drool, then unknotted my blouse which had ridden up as I tossed and turned.

Then I got up, picked my underthings off the floor, and got ready for the day.

The free room that Juliette had promised turned out to be quite a bit nicer than the one I had over in Rockstack. It had a single bed tucked up against the far wall, with a dresser and a little desk for my stuff, as well as a window that opened up onto a small courtyard at the back of the inn. The Rock Inn and Roll Inn was shaped sort of like a C, with two large bar areas that were on opposite streets connected through an addition that looked newer than the rest of the building.

Apparently it had once been two inns. The Rock Inn and the Roll Inn, but after years of competing for the same customers, Julien and Juliette had fallen in love and they combined their inns into one big establishment.

Once I was all kitted out and ready to go, I picked up Orange (which meant I was now all kittened out, haha!), placed her in her place of pride on my shoulder, adjusted my awesome hat and stepped out of my room.

Julien was up and about already, serving breakfast to the few people already in the room with a jovial smile. “Ah, Broccoli! How did you rest?”

“Really well,” I said. “Your beds are super comfy. Is there a really rare innkeeper skill that makes your inn so cozy?”

“Oh-hoh! Zat’s a trade secret,” he said with a tap to the side of his head. “Breakfast?”

“I’d love some!” I said as I pulled up a stool at the counter and dropped my backpack to my side. “How much would it cost to rent the same room again tonight?”

“One sil a night,” he said. “It comes wiz breakfast and a smile. For a little more you can get two smiles.”

I laughed as he returned from the kitchen with a plate covered in eggs and sausage and some freshly baked bread. “Thanks. I think I’ll take you on that offer. Though I thought that one silver a night was for a place like Rockstack.”

“Ah, it is more zan what you would pay in ze West end of Port Royal. And zat’s more zen a room near ze docks, zough a pretty young zing like you shouldn’t go anywhere near zere,” Julien explained.

“Huh. Well, I don’t mind your price, especially not if the food is this good.” I stuck my fork in a sausage and took a big bite of it.

“Ah, no wonder Juliette took a shine to you,” he said with a hand placed over his chest. “So, what adventure awaits you today?”

“I need to find the Exploration Guild and then I’m going to see about joining them,” I said. “After that... I guess I’ll head over to the docks. I want to look at the airships.”

“Ze guild is easy enough to find,” he said. “The docks... it would be best to avoid zose unless you have business zere. If it’s the ships you want to see, zen zere is a viewing platform just some streets down. A few cop and you’ll have a perfect view of any ship coming in, and wiz none of the unpleasantness of ze docks.” He slid a blue card with a lanyard across the counter. “Zat’s for you, when you want to come back.”

“That sounds like a plan!” I said as I took the card and watched Julien move off to greet some other customers.

The card was a pass allowing one access across the East gate. I guessed that they tried to limit the number of people passing by at any given time.

Breakfast done, I rushed back to my room and deposited most of my stuff. I wouldn’t need hardtack and such for a journey across the city. At least, I hoped! My spear was also a bit much, though I had seen plenty of people armed with all sorts of things. I decided that my belt knife and my spade hanging over my back would have to do. That and Orange of course!

I tucked a single gold in my bandoleer and two dozen silver and copper pieces, in case I caught sight of something neat to buy. Then I was off.

The East side looked a bit different in the full light of early morning. There were more people moving about and snooping through the windows along the central avenue and plenty more carts being pulled by horses and donkeys and sometimes giant toads. There was even a trolley with a bell that jingled as it stopped every few hundred meters to pick people up and drop them off.

Grinning, I moved over to the East gate. It was easy to forget that the city smelled a lot like poop when it was otherwise such a vibrant and colourful place. People were laughing and talking, some argued over the things written in the newspapers being hawked by young grenoil boys on street corners.

It felt like a scene out of a movie set in Victorian England, but also completely wrong.

Mages with big staves appeared in the middle of the street with pops, entire teams of adventurers with them, and the guards patrolling in twos wore full plate armour and carried long halberds.

I moved over to one pair that had paused to let a trolley pass. “Excuse me,” I said.

They looked over to me, two pairs of froggy eyes hidden under thick metal helmets.

An attentive grenoil City Guard, level ??.

“Yes, ma’am?” One of them asked. I assumed he was the senior of the two because he had a colourful tassel over his shoulder. “Can we help you?”

“Maybe. I’m looking for the Exploration Guild headquarters,” I said.

“Then shouldn’t you explore for it?” the younger of the two asked. It earned him a smack against the chestplate.

The older guard pointed northwards. “Just down Guild Row, ma’am. It’s the building with the large compass rose before it. You can’t miss it.”

“Thank you!” I said with a wave as I ran off in the direction they pointed. I slowed down a little bit later, because if I was running then I would miss all the sights and I didn’t want that.

Guild Row was an entire street that climbed up at a fairly steep angle. There were strange and colourful buildings on both sides, from the rather plain but homey Culinary Association building, to the Courier’s Union that had a strange tower sticking out the top with a bunch of panels on pulleys that were moving this way and that, to the Mages Guild building that had a collection of floating pillars before it.

I found the Exploration Guild headquarters near the middle of Guild Row. It was a simple but stately building with a huge compass rose built into the front with a stylized bandoleer running across it and the name of the guild beneath it.

“Cool,” I said as I moved towards the large double doors at the front. They opened just as I was reaching for them and I had to take a step back to avoid running into a pale skinned and paler-feathered harpy girl. She looked down at me, then scoffed.

“Get out of my way, nobody,” she growled.

“Hey,” I said as I did the exact opposite of getting out of her way and stood my ground with hands on hips. “I’m not a nobody.”

The harpy girl snorted. “You look like an overstuffed pillow in that getup,” she said before shouldering her way past me and stomping down the street.

“Rude,” I muttered before looking down at my gambeson. It was rather... pillow-coloured. And fluffy-looking. But if I looked fluffy that just meant that I also looked more huggable. And while I wouldn’t hug just anyone, it did mean that I looked more like friend material. I hoped.

Shaking off the thoughts about my lame equipment, I stepped into the lobby of the Exploration Guild and paused to take it all in.

It looked like a museum. There were shiny weapons behind glass displays and huge, old maps hanging off the walls next to tapestries and banners that looked positively ancient. Jars and urns sat atop pedestals with little plaques telling of their stories and in one back corner was an entire scale model of something with a bunch of rooms connected to each other in a big spiral, each one with a cut-through on the side to reveal the interior. It took a moment to realize that it was a model of a dungeon in three dimensions.

I stopped gawking after a bit, made a note to come back and read every little plaque, and moved to the far end of the entrance hall where a waist-high desk hid a Grenoil woman. “Hello,” I said as I approached.

She looked up from what looked like a newspaper and smiled at me. “Hello miss. How may the Exploration Guild help you today?”

“I was curious about joining, actually,” I said.

“Oh, I see. One moment, I’ll go verify if anyone can assist you with that,” she said.

“No need.”

We both turned and watched as a man rounded the corner at the end of the hall and strode toward me. He was a human, tall and dressed as I imagined a nobleman would, with a big fluffy ascot and a suit jacket that clung tightly to his chest.

He smiled at me. “I couldn’t help but overhear, young miss. You hope to join our guild?”

“I think I do,” I said. “I have a bunch of questions still. Oh, but I do have this!” I reached into one of the bigger pockets of my bandoleer and pulled out the letter Leonard had given me all of a few days ago.

The man took it and stared at the seal. “Unbroken. From one of our more senior members. Leonard Chand’nuit?” he asked.

“That’s him, yeah,” I said. “We met in the Darkwoods.”

“Well well,” he said with a growing smile. “Would you mind following me to my office? I think you might be just what I need.” He looked over to the secretary. “Oh, and could I have a copy of the registration forms, please?”

“Of course, Mister Rainnewt,” the secretary said before handing over a couple of sheets of parchment.

I followed mister Rainnewt (and wasn’t that a neat name) over to a large and lavish office not too far from the entrance. He had maps on the walls and a few smaller displays with strange knick-knacks, but he gestured me to a chair before his desk before I could really start poking at things.

“So, miss...”

“I’m Broccoli, Broccoli Bunch!” I said.

“Well, Miss Bunch, I’m Tarragon Rainnewt, one of the senior members of the Port Royal branch of the Exploration Guild,” he said while sitting down across from me. He crossed all his fingers together above the forms he had requested. “Do you mind if I read the letter? It’ll take but a moment.”

“Go ahead,” I said.

While he read, I resisted the urge to kick out my legs while I slowly sank deeper and deeper into the plush chair.

“Well well,” he said as he set Leonard’s letter aside. His smile was dazzling. “You’re an interesting one, aren’t you? I think I might have an interesting offer in return, Miss Bunch, if you’re keen to listen to it.”