Now there is something that is of particularly important note. In the… past eight months? Yeah, Tsar was pretty sure it had been around eight months since he’d been born into this new world. So yeah, in the past eight months Tsar had barely ever caught a glimpse of the sky. Inside the swamp was always overshadowed by tree cover that was thick enough that in many places it practically nighttime all the time. And all that time spent with Iggy and Radgar had been under the cover of Iggy’s canopy or within her trunk. So, this was the first time that Tsar was actually seeing the sky and sun in all of its alien glory. Which to his utter disappointment wasn’t any weird shade of color, there weren’t multiple suns, or anything visually different about the sky. The only odd thing was that Tsar was damn sure that it was getting pretty late, but the sun was still at the noon position in the sky, directly overhead. They must be on the equator or something because it looked like it was directly over his head.

Tsar was headed west, away from the swamp at a full out sprint while keeping an eye out for humans or any other races that might be around here. He’d only been going for about fifteen minutes when the sky started to dark and he slowed down, then came to a stop and looked up at the sky in horror. The sun was still directly overhead but it was growing darker and darker by the minute. Changing the shade of light, it was giving out from yellow white to silver blue. In a process that seemed to take about an hour the sun… became… the… moon…

Now you might expect Tsar to just kind of shrug his shoulders and be like ‘just ignore the blatantly magical shit’ but that is not what happened as he stood there gazing up at a full moon that was perfectly smooth and silver blue, still directly over his head. What happened was an utter mental break down. What he’d just seen with his own eyes completely broke physics. Also, there were no stars. At all. How did gravity work here? Why were his insights into how electricity worked correct in a world where the sun and moon were literally the same thing? And it just floated there directly overhead without moving. Tsar had seen a lot of magical things, like his Grimoires for example, that just defied reality as he knew it to be. Even though his Grimoires looked to be the size of a pocketbook, each one had practically an infinite number of pages. For some reason Tsar didn’t really have a problem with that. He could just accept it. It felt small and ultimately not important to dwell on the little things that shattered physics. He’d been collecting souls after all and that didn’t really make sense. But the fact that the sun and the moon were the same thing and that that thing just hung out directly overhead at all times. It basically plunged Tsar’s mind into crisis.

Tsar stood there looking up at the moon for nearly an hour before he could finally break the mental funk that took him from this revelation. Now he was wondering what the world was shaped like. Shaking his head Tsar decided he had better find a place to sleep. It didn’t take him long to find a nice grassy hill and lay out a large bedroll. He fell asleep after only a bit of tossing and turning.

The next day Tsar pointedly did not look up at the sky as he set off on his manifest destiny journey to the west. There was a river to the south of his position that seemed to be flowing towards the swamp. And Tsar decided to follow it. once he got close enough to the river Tsar realized that there was a worn path on its banks. Like people regularly trod down this side of the river, back and forth. As he continued making his way west Tsar came upon probably the most Cliché thing he could think of.

A group of twenty or so bandits. He’d analyzed them and they actually had both the Title and the Class Bandit. Their five highest stats were around the 250 mark and all of them B+ Tier Humans.

“#$& ^&%@ (*&^ Boys? A lone adventurer whose lost his party?” one of the groups spoke, apparently trying to come off as intimidating, “Seems like he even lost his shoes!”, “Maybe he’s a Druid dumbass.”, “Still easy pickings.”, “He doesn’t have anything on him!”, “Expanded bags, idiot.”

“Hey Frogger, hand over your stuff and we’ll let you be. No harm, just a bit of coin out of your pocket.” The first of the group spoke.

“Are you guys sure you want to pick a fight with me? Any of you got Identify? Or a better skill?” Tsar asked them. He was pretty sure that he could take this bunch. He was faster and stronger than them by quite a bit, but a numbers advantage was still a numbers advantage. Tsar really should have made himself that Shield Talisman it could have helped here.

“Yeah, It says you are a race level 0 Frogman [Shaman] [Sorcerer] [Skald]. I only know one of your Classes Frogger, but a low-level guy like you against 20 of us is still a bad match for you.” The first guy spoke again.

“You should really get that skill leveled up there pal. I’m a Grinder. I just evolved Laterally. Do you really want to get yourself and all your friends killed over the absolutely nothing I have on me?” Tsar attempted to reason with the group.

“Grinder?” the bandit spit on the ground after that word. “There wouldn’t be no Grinders coming out of the swamps. There’s nothing there worth killing unless you go so deep that the monster shows up and slaughters you.” The bandit said but he looked unsure of himself now.

“Look I’m not trying to be a hero and fight you all just because you are [Bandits]. I can see the Class and the Title. I can also see that most of you are [Farmers] or [Peasants] first. I’ll be honest I didn’t even know that [Peasant] was a class until just now. But I can tell you that your highest stat is only a third of what my lowest stat is. Obviously, you all Chose banditry either because you had little choice, or because you were desperate and needed to do it to put food on the table. I don’t have anything against you all personally, but if you make me have to fight… You will all die.” Tsar focused on putting as much emphasis on his little threat as possible. Hoping that the power of Baritone Voice would make these men back down. Although twenty more souls certainly wouldn’t hurt.

It worked. He smelled urine and spotted several of the bandits now sporting wet pants. The lead bandit was pale. Tsar took the moment to leap over the bandits’ heads and activated Instant Acceleration as soon as he cleared their heads. He landed with a quick roll nearly two hundred feet away from the group. He could hear them shouting at each other as they turned to see him sprinting off down the path. Slightly winded from using Instant Acceleration. Dumping 1/9th of your entire stamina pool all at once was pretty tiring even if it didn’t leave you low.

It only took an hour after the little bandit confrontation before he was met with the sight of farmlands all around the river and a town in the distance that actually looked fairly large. Granted Tsar had no idea what the local governments were like or the economics of the area. This could be a tiny trading hub, or a large one. He just didn’t have any reference points.

The town was a classic medieval era fantasy design. It had a thick stone wall that surrounded the entire area with houses in it. Tsar estimated that the wall was about thirty feet tall and circled an area larger than five miles. Crossing the river at two points with a metal grating that would keep people from swimming into the town from outside. On the outside of the wall a setup of docks with small riverboats attached to them looking kind of like a boat rental for those looking to head down river towards the swamp.

Tsar took all this in as he slowed to a jog while aiming for the gates. There were hundreds of people going through the gates in both directions. those coming out were spreading out immediately and seemed to be heading off to the different farm plots around the area. When Tsar reached the gate, he heard muttered conversations all around him, and noticed quite a few nasty looks thrown his way. There were two guards posted at the gate who were not paying attention to anyone until he made to go into town.

“Oi! Frogger! Get your arse over here.” One of the guards called.

“Is there a problem,” Tsar said, using analyze on the man to see who and what he was, “Constable?”

“Aye thereisa problem. We ain’t seen you round here afore.” The man spoke gruffly and Tsar wouldn’t have thought it out of place if he’d had a spitter and was chewing tobacco, “We needs ta scan you afore you go into town and make a record of ya. That way we know who’s to blame when you do somethin stupid. Standard Procedure.”

The guard pulled out a stone of some sort and Tsar felt him push mana into it. The guards eyes went wide when, Tsar assumed, he was reading whatever amount of information his scanning tool allowed him to get.

“Well… Now don’t go causing any trouble in town now ya hear? If you do, depends on what it is, it could mean a fine or jail time.” The man said with a quiver in voice.

The guard was visibly shaking as he stored the stone back in its pouch and gestured for Tsar to go on through. He wondered what that was about. The man’s stats had actually been pretty decent at around 450 as his highest stats. Tsar was unsure why the guard would be afraid of someone like him.

“Could I ask for direction to the local Adventurers guild if there is one here?” he asked the guard.

“Straight up the main thoroughfare. Cain’t miss it.” The guard spoke, obviously wanting Tsar to leave. So, he did.

The Town was more like a small city, probably held a population of somewhere between five and ten thousand. The streets were wide if not the cleanest. The pedestrians seemed healthy enough, and the buildings looked sturdy. All in all, not a terrible place.

Tsar found that the guard had been absolutely right. The adventurer’s guild hall was not something easily missed. Mainly because it was a giant square that looked like it was made of solid steel. It had a big set of rotating doors that were eternally spinning, also made of steel. And above the doors inset in the otherwise perfectly flat surface of the metal were the giant capital letters A and G.

Tsar mustered up his courage and walked through the rotating doors. The oddest thing about walking through the doors was that it felt almost like when Iggy teleported him. Something magical was happening just entering the doors of the guild hall that used a tremendous amount of mana.

The inside of the Hall was not at all what he expected it to be. He’d expected what is normally associated with adventurers’ guilds in books and games. An open tavern with a quest board and the like. What he found was a massive hall with checker tiled floors, Greek style pillars rising to an arched roof far above his head with massive chandeliers hanging from it. between each of the pillars was another rotating door labeled with the name of the room. Directly in front of Tsar was a huge desk just after the entrance. There was a single woman manning the desk with her nose in a book that looked to be a Grimoire. She seemed to be an elf, tall with pointed ears and pale skin. Slender build. A face that most actors on earth would have committed genocide to have. The hall was far from empty though. He could see people coming and going through the different doors leading rooms with various different names above them.

Tsar stood there for a few moments not sure exactly how to proceed before he cleared his throat.

“Good morning, ma’am.” Tsar spoke, getting the woman’s attention, “I was hoping to possibly join the guild if that is allowed?”

The woman nearly dropped her book as she glanced up rapidly and let out a little squeak.

“By the gods! You startled me.” She said while gripping her chest like she was afraid her heart would jump out of it. “I’m sorry what was your question?”

She turned her full attention on Tsar, and he couldn’t help but feel a little self-conscious. This was possibly one of the most beautiful women Tsar had ever seen and he was feeling incredibly underdressed in her presence. He mentally centered himself before responding.

“My apologies, Ma’am. I am new to all of this.” He said, gesturing around the hall, “I was wondering if this is where I come to sign up to become a member of guild.” As Tsar spoke, he felt a large mana signature moving towards him.

“It would indeed.” A mans voice called out from across the hall. “Send him up to me and I’ll take care of this one personally Maybell.”

The woman, Maybell, he guessed glanced over her shoulder at the retreating form of the man as he entered a set of rotating doors with a label over them saying “Branch Manager’s Office”.

“Well, it looks like the manager wants to handle your case personally. If you’ll just head on over there everything should be sorted.” Maybell said, sounding slightly disappointed, “I look forward to seeing you around.”

“Likewise miss Maybell.”

“Just call me May, only the manager uses my full name.”

“Ok, May, I look forward to seeing you around as well.” Tsar said, and he meant it to. She should have the Skill [I’m Too Pretty To Die], not him. It brightened up his mood at just the thought that he might see her around.

Tsar walked around the massive desk and made his way over to the doors to the branch managers office. He walked through and found a waiting area with about fifty seats set up in rows. It was very modern looking. The manager’s office was set behind a wall that looked to made of frosted glass, the door to the room was ajar and Tsar could see the manager sitting at his desk.

“Please come in. I don’t get many appointments and have a pretty open-door policy. When it comes to meetings. Can I get you anything? Tea, water, scones?” The manager said as Tsar took the seat across from.

The Manager was well-dressed in a kind of Jedi Combat Robes kind of way. He looked like human man, that appeared to be middle aged. He had short cropped brown hair and dark brown skin. His face was clean shaven and overall, he seemed unassuming and definitely wouldn’t stand out in a crowd. But to Tsar’s magical senses he stood out like a sore thumb. He practically radiated mana.

“No thank you. As you heard, I’m here to join the guild.” Tsar replied.

“Indeed, though I do find it curious. You see when anyone enters or leaves the guild hall there are enchantments that scan them. The scan is fairly detailed, Guild Status, Race, Name, Race Level, Classes and their levels, and even Resource pools. I get an alert when specified unusual characteristics appear in the scan data. Namely, Unknown Classes, specific classes designated as dangerous, unusually high resource pools, Unknown Titles, and specific Titles. That sort of thing. Its all very complex. You came to my attention the moment you walked through the door as someone with not only two royalty titles, one of which has never before been seen, but also the [Skipper] the [Grinder] and the [Evolver] titles on top of multiple others. Not only that but you have Two classes of interest. Shaman, and Skald.” The manager spoke.

“Ok… do those things disqualify me from joining the guild?” Tsar asked

“Absolutely not.” The manager stated with emphasis, “In fact, it puts you right on the fast track. Getting you to see me, the only person in this shithole of a town that can actually certify new members of the guild. I am, however, curious. It is obvious from your level that you only just evolved into a natural Sapient recently. Most of those with the Evolver title have had tremendously negative experiences with adventurers in the past and tend to avoid us rather than immediately seek us out. Why come to us?”

Tsar thought about it for a moment before he decided on telling the manager an abbreviated story of life so far. Explaining about Radgar, but he left out what Iggy was, he just called her a big tree. He didn’t want to lie and set off any skills or enchantments that might be in the room to detect falsehoods, so he just made the story short simple and with too much detail. When he finished telling his story the manager stared at him with his mouth agape for several moments.

“Let me get this straight… The Monster of the swamp is actually a Hermit Druid Berserker that used to run a school for adventurers before he got the Berserker Class. Now he cleans up the swamp to ensure that nothing get to too high of a Tier for the surrounding lands to deal with. He found you as a low Tier monster during one of those cleanups and helped you get the Grinder title, put you through his training program for the First In Class Title. Now you are out here to grow strong enough to go back with a Class Removal item to make it so that he can reopen his school.” The Manager surmised.

“That’s the long and short of it, yes.” Tsar replied.

“This explains so, so much about that cursed swamp. No one ever understood why the place didn’t get more dangerous than the occasional B Tiers… You do realize that Class removal items are exceedingly rare. Practically national treasure level items in and of themselves…” The manager rubbed his chin for a moment, “As to joining the guild, absolutely. I will sign off on it in a moment, we just need a drop of your blood on this here card to activate it.”

Tsar looked at the card with suspicion it was a dark grey metal with nothing on it, about the size of credit card only thicker. He picked it up and analyzed it.

Adventurers Guild Identification Pendant (Incomplete)

Material quality: (Uncommon)

Workmanship quality: Masterwork

Description:

A pendant made by a machine that many master Enchanters built for the Adventurers guild long ago.

Effect: Completed with a single drop of blood from an approved applicant to the guild. Once completed the Pendant will not count towards any gear slots or attunement slots. It functions as a record keeping instrument for contracts, Guild Credits, and identification for any major faction. Color indicator of thresholds passed.

(note: Returning the pendants of adventures who were KIA is rewarded by 2 gold coins per pendant returned.)

It wasn’t anything bad like he’d expected. He grabbed the proffered needle, pricking his thumb before pressing it too the flat surface of the metal. Half a second later the card flashed his name, titles, and classes displayed on a card that had suddenly become a strikingly shiny silver instead of its dark grey from before.

“I knew it would be silver.” Tsar heard the manager mutter.

“What do the colors mean?” Tsar asked

“Oh, the guild doesn’t like to use Race Tier as a measure of ranks within the guild. We like to go by the thresholds one has passed. Silver means that you have passed the first threshold in your primary stats. Then it goes Gold, Platinum, then Mithril. Obviously, you don’t need to worry about those for a while. For now, I need to know if you want to be a provincial member, or a full member of the guild so that I can complete your card.”

“What’s the difference?” Tsar asked

“Well, a provincial member is someone who want to remain loyal to their country of origin, be able to help them fight their battles, work in politics, that sort of thing. We have many nobles who are provincial members. Provincial members have full rights to access to almost all of the guild facilities within their home nation, however they are not allowed to utilize the fast travel network between guild halls located in other countries without first filing a form. A full member is someone who casts aside all national interests and is not allowed to participate in international or political affairs, but has full access to all guild services, additionally they have guaranteed rights of passage to leave cities that are under siege or in some way embroiled in war. The only time a full member is allowed to participate in national interests is in competitions, or if they need to in order to save their own lives.”

“Let’s go with Full, I’ve got no interest in politics or countries.” Tsar responded.

The manager nodded and tapped the ring on his finger to the card and beneath his name the words “Full Member” appeared in bold print. The manager gave the card a look then handed it over to Tsar.

“Now that you are a member of the guild there are a few things I would like to ask you. The class [Skald] is a ‘lost’ class. The guild has records of its skills and strengths but lost the knowledge of its requirements during the Purge war of the Overlord. The reward for getting the secret of how to obtain the class is 10 Platinum coins… I am going to assume that you are not in the know about currency given your origins, but the denominations are copper, silver, gold, platinum, mithril, and adamantium. Each one is 100 units of value higher than the last. The average [peasant] with a roof over their heads and a job makes about five silver a month, and that is enough to pay taxes, eat, and still save a small bit if you live frugally. So, you see, 10 platinum is a fortune.” The manager leaned back in his chair before continuing, “The reward for brining in a class that has never been seen before though? That is 100 Adamantium. It’s been over a thousand years since someone brought a new class to the table. And the Shaman Class is exactly that, a brand-new class that the guild has never seen or heard of before. If you would be willing to share the requirements, I can authorize the exchange immediately.”

Tsar didn’t need to think that hard about it. He would keep a hold of the Shaman class for himself until he got to a certain point. Then he would reveal it to everyone. The Skald class he was willing to give the requirements for.

“I would like to keep the Shaman class to myself for a while. But I will gladly tell you all about the ridiculously stupid requirements for the Skald class. You are not going to believe how ridiculous it is.”

With that Tsar wrote out the requirements on a piece of paper as the managers face grew more and more incredulous with each line written down. When he was done writing it out the manager picked up the piece of paper then made a strange gesture and a stack of ten platinum coins about the size of a quarter appeared on the desk.

“You were most certainly not wrong about the requirements being ridiculous. But for an Epic Class it kind of goes without saying that its going to very, very hard to get.” He said as Tsar made the stack of coins vanish.

“First what do you mean by Epic Class? Second, I never got your name and I’ve just been calling you ‘The Manager’ in my head this whole time.” Tsar said.

“Oh, I had forgotten to leave it up. Sorry about that.” The manager said as he reached into his desk and produced a placard with the name “Leroy Longbottom” written on it.

“Do you prefer to be called, mister Longbottom? Leroy? Or something else?” Tsar asked

“Honestly I prefer it when people call me Lee. But, as to your other question. Epic Classes are Classes that give +40 to +45 stat points per Class level and some form of unique skill that applies one set of stats as a modifier to another set of stats. They also add 25,000 the EXP needed to level your Race. Classes like Sorcerer fall outside of the standard conventions and are labeled as Unique Classes. Legendary Classes… they provide +75 stat points per class level, a unique skill that applies one set of stats as a modifier to another set of stats, a unique skill that increases the multiplier of one or more of the resources pools stat values, and a unique skill that changes the base regeneration rate from a per hour basis to a per minute basis for one of the resource pools. But they add 100,000 EXP to the requirements to level your Race and have nearly impossible requirements. The one that I know of has one of the requirements set as: Has Reached Bond level 100 with a (Timeless) quality Grimoire. Among other requirements.” Lee lapsed into silence after that.

“…Well, where does one go to find a tailor around here? And after that where should I go if I want to dungeon dive?” Tsar asked

“There is a rotating door back in the hall labeled “Services” there you will find shops of all sorts. The Guild likes to keep things in house. If it is Dungeoneering you are interested in, then I would recommend using the fast travel network to go to Dungeon City. Before you say anything, yes everyone thinks it is a stupid name. It started out as a joke and has become the actual name of the place. It’s the only known place discovered to Seven Dungeons within walking distance of each other, Infernal, Celestial, Fea, Fire, Air, Water, And Earth. The Big Seven they are called. They start off at Copper rank danger and go up in difficulty every ten floors. I would recommend creating a team or joining one if you wish to delve any deeper than twenty floor or so.”

“Thank you for the information.” Tsar spoke as he stood and reached across the desk to shake Lee’s hand.

Lee looked at his hand for a moment with a confused look in his eyes, before tentatively reaching forward. Tsar took his hand in a firm shake before turning around and heading out of the room in search of the Services department.