The afternoon was slightly too warm for the liking of a curious pair of individuals traveling along a well-used road towards their goal. Leading the way was Gilbert, a massive bear of a man well in his forties, covered in an assortment of gear and armor, he towered over regular folk by more than an inch or two. Though initially a bit threatening, his kind demeanor and premature graying usually reminded people of their grandfathers and that made him easy to be around.

His companion couldn’t be more different, as Anastacia was barely the size of one of his legs. Short, lean to a point of malnutrition and impossibly pale, gave her a slightly ghastly appearance with the help of her long white hair.

“We're almost at the northern wall. There's a lovely inn there, that's basically my home these days. All the adventurers there are good people. Though some might be a bit weird, but you need to be a bit weird to make it in here.” Gilbert explained and pointed towards a massive gray city wall in the distance.

For kilometers around the walls, the area had been cleared of anything larger than a small bush, and you could see all the way to the horizon, unhindered by trees or hills. The walls themselves continued just as far in both directions and made for a stunning sight. Beyond those walls was the gigantic city called Valor. Though calling it a city was technically not entirely correct, as it was a sovereign nation as well. The uniqueness of Valor didn’t end there either, as the vast majority of its citizens were adventurers by trade, and the rest either provided services for the adventurers or worked for the city itself.

If anyone, of any creed or race ever felt like they didn’t belong or simply needed to disappear, Valor would gladly allow them to join the ranks of adventurers, without asking so much as their real name. All one needed to do was to abide by the laws of Valor and the guild controlling it and earn their keep by completing quests for the guild. In return for organizing everything and keeping the bounty boards full of new quests, the guild simply took a small cut from every reward one of their adventurers received by completing a quest.

Gilbert himself had been an adventurer for ages, but the young girl following him was arriving to the city for the very first time and planned to become an adventurer.

“Can't be worse than Mournvalley anyway.” Anastacia said and picked up a flower that was growing by the side of the road. She frowned slightly before sniffing it and immediately gagged. “Ugh… Gross, there’s a ton of corpses under these fields. Even the flowers here smell horrible.”

“Really?” Gilbert took the flower from her and sniffed it a couple of times but didn’t notice anything odd. “Seems fine to me, though you are right about the corpses. It's a small country with a single walled city, so around the time the adventurers seized it, there were a few nations stupid enough to think it would be a good idea to attack a city full of adventurers.” He explained. “They cleared the corpses from around the walls though, so you won't even notice it from inside, besides there’s always fresh snacks on sale right past the gates and their scent covers just about anything.”

“Good, I'm so tired of this smell.” Anastacia sighed and covered her nose.

Closer to the city they got, more people they came across on the road. Most of them Anastacia had only seen in books, and she managed to make a few of them uncomfortable by staring for too long. Not only was is it exciting to see elves, dwarves, beast folk and a few rarer races for the first time, seeing them all in a single place was mind blowing to her.

Eventually Gilbert got tired of stopping for every passerby and hurried the girl along until they made it to the gates. Standing by the gates were a few guards that briefly stopped everyone trying to enter the city, seemingly just to greet them, no bags were checked or reasons for entering asked.

Eventually one of the guards noticed Gilbert and waved him and Anastacia over. “Gilbert! Where’s the rest of your party? I highly doubt that they stayed behind to enjoy the sights…” He asked and looked a bit worried.

Gilbert sighed and shook his head. He had parted for Mournvalley with three relatively green adventurers he had just met, but things had gone south during the quest and he was now the sole survivor of the group.

“I see... I'll mark them down and have their names added to the walls. If you don't mind me saying, they had it coming. All talk and no show, you know the type. Glad you're back though, Rosie would be devastated if something happened to you, and if something happens to her, it happens to everyone living by the north gate.” The guard said, lazily leaning on his halberd.

It was customary that the names of adventurers that fell during a quest would be engraved onto the walls of the city. Usually there was no way to recover the body, and there was no room for a graveyard, so the wall was used as a massive cenotaph for them. Lining the foot of the wall under the names was a thick coating of candle wax from the candles left by friends, lovers and family members of the deceased. Anastacia lost track of time while going through all the different names from different cultures around the world.

“And who is this?” The guard asked and gently tapped Anastacia’s shoulder with the blunt end of his polearm.

“Anna is-“ Gilbert started to explain but was interrupted by the girl.

“The name's Anastacia Mournvalley, like the country. I'm here to join the guild and form a party with ol' Gibber here!” She introduced herself and did a quick curtsy.

The guard rubbed his chin. “Mournvalley you say? So you're a necromancer then? Alrighty... No necromancy within the walls, if you have thralls with you, they have to wait outside, further away the better. Can't risk them spreading some disease inside. That applies to gear and ornaments made from corpses too. If a guardsman like me thinks you're too covered in corpse parts, you'll be issued a mandatory bath ticket. I know how you necromancers like to get out there.” He listed the rules specific to necromancers while counting with his fingers to make sure he remembered all of them.

“Now wait a seco-“ Gilbert started protesting what seemed like unfair treatment to him, but was interrupted by Anastacia again.

“I know! It's disgusting! Back home everyone reeked like they were undead themselves. You don't have to worry about me dragging anything like that with me.” She said cheerily.

The guard was pleasantly surprised by how readily she accepted the limitations. “Where'd you find her, Gil? I like her already.” He asked and turned back to the necromancer herself. “Anyway, don't worry about the tickets too much, on some hot days I wish I was one of you corpse risers too. The bathhouse is amazing, but it costs quite a bit with my pay. Not that we’ve issued any tickets for years, your kind isn’t exactly a common sight nowadays.” The guard said and quickly grabbed something from a satchel he was carrying and handed Anastacia a paper that appeared to be a contract and a grape-sized glass ball. “Here's your paperwork and adventurer's pearl, I trust Gil and Rosie will help you fill them. Once you're registered, you can use the pearl to prove your identity while accepting quests and so forth. Welcome to Valor, kid.”

To not keep the guard busy for too long, Gilbert suggested they head through the gate.

“Keep her alive ol' Gibber!” The guard hollered after them, and laughed with the other guards and adventurers by the gate.