The day had started normal enough. The mages had gone to the library, because of course they did, while the girls had gone out shopping, because that was what girls did, right? At least, that’s what Shiro thought they did. He hadn’t had much experience with girls before meeting Sarah, but they did that in TV shows, so clearly it had some basis in reality.

That left David and Shiro. They’d stood awkwardly in the inn after the others had left, none willing to break the silence between them. After all, David still hadn’t gotten over his fear of Shiro, and the other boy was well aware. His style of fighting — ripping enemies apart bare-handedly — was nothing if not disturbing, and David had died to it.

In the end, it turned out their manner of thinking wasn’t that different from one another.

“So, what—”

“Do you—”

They paused, giving the other the chance to continue.

“I was thinking—”

“Maybe we should—”

This time, Shiro barreled through. “I’ll go first. So, I was thinking of checking out the Adventurers’ Guild. Do you wanna come with…?” He left the question hanging, unsure if David would be receptive.

“Shouldn’t we be waiting for the others to do that? I thought Julian had business there, anyway.”

Shiro shrugged. “Can’t hurt to check it out in advance. Plus, aren’t you curious if they’re really like in the books?”

“I guess…”

“What, it’s not like you had anything better to do, right?”

David had been about to suggest catching up with the girls — Ravenrock’s market had been unimpressive, which made sense given how the town was still rebuilding, but David’s leathers were in dire need of being replaced. He cursed inwardly — why hadn’t he tagged along with Alexis in the first place?

Because Shiro had been staring at him the whole morning, probably. It was kind of funny, really. David had warmed up to the big scary Dark Lord, but he was still scared of the youngest boy in their group.

But there was nothing that could be done, now. He’d missed the chance to go with the girls, and he wasn’t about to let Shiro think he was weak. So he calmed down his nerves and nodded. “Right. Maybe we can get the team registered while we’re there, too.”

Shiro’s eyes lit up. “And we can pick whatever name we want,” he whispered.

David’s fear dissipated in an instant. “We’re not naming ourselves Teamy McTeamFace.”

Shiro rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry. I have plenty of other ideas.”

“Oh, I’m worrying. I’m absolutely worrying now.”

Shiro brought his fist up as if to punch David in the shoulder but stopped mid-air. He hesitated, then gave the other boy a tiny smile as he punched him lightly. David’s eyes went wide and he froze for a moment. He was just trying to be friendly, he knew that. But he couldn’t stop the shivers from going down his spine, even though he was pretty sure undead weren’t supposed to do that.

And just like that, the two young Revenants made their way to the Floating City’s Adventurers’ Guild. And when they got there, there was a single thing they could do.

They stared.

The building itself was a work of art. Columns extended towards the sky, and the walls were covered in intricate carvings depicting battle scenes. It was a lot like the ruins they’d seen around the Circle of Stars, except where those had been crumbling remains, these had been carefully maintained over the centuries — or perhaps, even the millennia? Because whatever else it may have been, it was clear that the building was ancient.

As he looked up, David realized the Adventurers’ Guild wasn’t actually a skyscraper. The columns had created the illusion, but the building itself had merely five levels to it — though, merely was a misnomer, as it easily dwarfed all of its surroundings.

“Do you mind?” someone said, startling David from his wide-eyed admiration. He turned to see an annoyed lizard-like man, impatiently tapping his left foot.

With a start, David realized they’d been blocking the street. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled as he pulled Shiro to the side. Touching him felt wrong, but the other boy was still in as much of a trance as he’d been in.

More staring ensued as David watched the lizard person enter the Adventurers’ Guild. He’d only seen humans on the continent, which had led him to the incorrect assumption that humans were the only intelligent species on the planet. But as he looked around, it became clear just how wrong he’d been. In Alasvir, humans were just one of many species — not quite a minority, as there were still more of them than any other species, but nowhere near a majority, either. A quarter of the population, at best.

He snapped his fingers before Shiro’s eyes. “Hey, stop staring. You wanted to go in, remember?”

“What? Oh, right. It’s amazing, though, isn’t it?”

David nodded. “It reminds me of the ancient Greek temples, except scaled up a few times.”

The two rejoined the flow of people headed into the Guild. As they stepped through the gargantuan double doors, they were met with a cavernous hall filled with people, and spiral cases leading to the upper floors. Across the room, a row of receptionists attended to the many lines of adventurers waiting to report on their missions or to take a request. On the other three sides, numerous request boards adorned the walls, distinguished by color.

David and Shiro moved to a side, as to not impede the foot traffic a second time while they took in the new sights.

“I was expecting something less… business-like,” Shiro said, shaking his head.

David found himself agreeing. He’d read his fair share of books, and whenever guilds like this were mentioned, he’d imagined something like a smaller wooden building, a nice receptionist, and a tavern-like common room where adventurers could sit around — and a cork request board. That one was mandatory.

But the cold marble, the endless queues, the sheer volume of people, and worst of all, the noise — all of these made David think of something like a bank. One of the big ones — or maybe some other big city public office. In any case, the sounds echoed unpleasantly in the gigantic hall, and it was already beginning to chafe David.

“This is extremely impressive, but I don’t like it at all,” David said, finally.

“I’m kind of disappointed too,” Shiro said with a frown. “I guess it’s cause there’s just so many adventurers in the city. It’s probably insanely hard to manage, what, twenty thousand active adventurers?”

David fidgeted, clearly uncomfortable with the crowds. “Let’s check what’s upstairs? Maybe they have something less crowded there.”

Perhaps sensing his companion’s discomfort, Shiro nodded, and the two walked up to the spiraling marble staircase — but they weren’t even able to make a step before someone stopped them.

“Where do you think you’re going?” asked a short, burly man — and David’s eyes went wide as he realized he was talking to an actual dwarf.

“Upstairs…?” David asked uncertainly.

“Registered adventurers only,” the dwarf said, in a tone that made it clear he was tired of repeating the same line again and again.

“Can I ask what’s up there, at least?”

The dwarf regarded him for a moment, as if wondering if the boy was trying to make fun of him, but he must have seen the bewildered look on David’s face. “Training rooms, lodgings, an auction hall, and administrative offices, among other things. Now beat it, you’re holding people up.”

David and Shiro retreated to a side.

“What now?” Shiro asked.

David looked around helplessly. “I don’t know. This isn’t at all what I thought it would be.”

“Maybe you could—”

“Hey, you two!”

David and Shiro turned to see a tall, imposing man heading their way as he waved his hands.

“You’re with the new Adventurer School class, right? You have that lost puppy look about you.”

Shiro started to protest, but David cut him off. “Err, yes, that’s right. We got lost,” he said, schooling his face to look pitiful — but inwardly, he grew excited.

“I knew it,” the man said warmly. “Happens all the time. Come along, now, the meet-up is on the other side of the hall.” He pointed over his shoulder at a group of kids, all looking anywhere between scared and excited.

David nodded, and they followed the man to the larger group, where they settled towards the back.

“What are you doing?” Shiro whispered.

David’s eyes sparkled. “Just play along. If I’m right, this will get us in, the easy way.”

“They’re going to realize we’re not part of their group.”

“Just let me do the talking. It’ll be fine.”

“…Sixteen, eighteen, twenty, twenty two,” he muttered under his breath. “That should be all of you, unless I’ve finally lost my mind and forgot how to count.” He cleared his throat and addressed the crowd. “Alright, listen up. I’m Kellas Wright, one of your instructors. First of all, look around you — these will be your classmates for the next three years. You’re all here because you want to become adventurers — which is probably suicidal for most for most of you lot, but I’ll be doing my best to stop you from getting yourselves killed. But that’s something for another day. We’re going to start right at the beginning, which means all of you register first. Now, follow me so we can get that done quickly.”

They followed Kellas past the queues, earning themselves some glares from the assembled adventurers, as he led them to a smaller receptionist’s desk on the side of the room. A sign stood above it, engraved with the words ‘Reservations Only’.

“All of you, form an orderly line. This won’t take long.”

“Are you sure about this?” Shiro asked as they took their place near the back of the queue.

David shrugged. “I give it good odds we won’t be kicked out. At least… 60%.”

“That’s not good odds.”

“Eh. We’ll see.”

True to Kellan’s words, the queue moved quickly. Not ten minutes later it was already David’s turn.

“Write your name here,” the receptionist said, pointing at a blank space on an already completed form. “And then I’ll need you to touch this stone to record your aura’s signature.”

David followed the receptionist’s instructions, then moved to where the group was gathering as Shiro did the same.

“So they just record your aura and that’s it? Pretty efficient,” Shiro said as they waited for everyone to be finished.

“The forms were already filled in. I’m guessing the school dealt with the details.”

It wasn’t long before the entire class of students was done.

“Congratulations. All of you are now officially trainee adventurers. Because it’s your first day, I’ll be going easy on you — so we’ll be headed to a training room to give you a taste of what you signed up for.”

He motioned for the group to follow him as he led them up the marble stairs and onto the second level. David almost expected the dwarvish guard to stop them a second time, but he merely watched impassively as the group marched past him.

And then, they were on the second floor.

It wasn’t anything like the first — where the first floor was a wide, open hall, from the stairway David could only see an endless corridor.

“This is the administrative floor,” Kellan explained. “It’s full of offices, mostly, where the Adventurers’ Guild’s clerks do their jobs. It’s not easy managing tens of thousands of adventurers. But that’s not what we’re here for.”

Instead, he led them to another set of stairs — leading to the third floor, the archives, and then another, until they finally reached the fourth floor.

“These are the training rooms,” he said as they entered the third room along the hallway. David could hear fighting and yelling coming from the first two. “They’re all equipped with magical dummies that mimic common dungeon monsters, but we’re not going to be using those yet. Instead, I want you to find a partner and get sparring. I don’t care if you’re archers or mages or what have yous. I want to see how you all do with basic, hand-to-hand combat. Now, begin!”

David looked warily at Shiro, who gave him a shrug in return. The rogue fell into a simple defensive stance, resisting the urge to draw his daggers.

“You can go first,” Shiro said, looking quite relaxed.

David couldn’t believe his eyes. Was Shiro looking down on him? Did he think he was that much better?

David’s fear all but evaporated. Shiro may have killed him once, but that had been then, and this was now. It was time to show his killer exactly what he was made of.