“Then, can I check out the map?” I ask impatiently.

“Only when you take a request that requires you travel to an abandoned dungeon.” Jesus Christ, just let me look at the damn map already. I go to the request board, and I look for a request for travelling to a remote dungeon… Only problem is, I forgot I can’t read, and the general queues and formatting that made the request semi-legible before I was sealed have changed. Shit. Wait.

“Amina, can you read?”

“Then please find a request for abandoned dungeon. The closer it is, the better, the recommended number of people doesn’t matter” I am confident in my absurd strength now. Wonder if I basically did 800 years of workout?

Amina appears very pleased with helping me. She has grumbled a little about being useless these past few days, and before long, she has a request for us.

“1 day’s return trip, recommended 6 people, reward 25 asti. Goal is to retrieve six sacks of the fruit that grows on the eight floor” Huh, I wonder where we could get some sacks.

I ask the man behind the counter quickly between handling clients, even though I am not in the queue “Can I borrow sacks from the guild?”

“You can, for a 5 ibris fee”

“What’s an ibris?” I ask Amina in a low tone of voice.

“One sixtieth of an asti” is the reply I get. So we got both dollars and cents, huh? Though the denomination breaks down a bit weirdly. Ah, I need some quick money again. I wait for the man behind the counter to take one more customer, before I skip the queue with a quick question again.

“Any chance I can get a few sacks on credit? I’ll cover it with the mission fee.” He looks madly at me.

“Shut up and go stand in queue, but no, if you won’t even put down such a small fee, we know you are just going to run with it” Shit, I probably look like a bum.

“Please, I paid ten asti for the exam. Does it make sense for a guy to pay ten asti to steal sacks worth half of one? If you cover the fee for me, I’ll double it when I return!”

“Shut up! Get in line if you need anything! I will have you fined if you continue disrupting the line!” Shit.

“Hold up, I’ll take you up on that” A voice approaches me from behind. It’s the guy I played the strength game with.

“How about I lend you that half an asti and you pay me back that and the ten you hustled out of me earlier. I know your strength is good for it, and I know how it is to have no money.”

Hey, even if he looks like a bit of a bandit, he is actually a nice person. “Thank you very much, we have a deal” I say as I receive some bronzish coins. There is two with two circles with a line through them, probably twelve, then a coin with a single circle, a 5, and one with a single line, totaling 30 ibris, half an asti. But what the hell is up with the coin denominations?

We go back in the line, but the man behind the counter, who probably hates me by now, protest as we try to take the request. “You are only two people and only one of you registered, you are going to fail no doubt!” He states.

“Take it easy, didn’t you hear from the guy I took the exam from? I am crazy strong. Besides, isn’t it rather a recommendation, rather than a requirement?” I ask.

“Tch, just listen, if you abandon a request, you will get fined. If you can’t pay the fine, you become a 3rd class”

I look at my badge. Wait, what?

“I thought I was 5th class, wouldn’t that be a promotion?”

“You are 5th rank, idiot. I am obviously talking about 3rd class citizen” Huh, sounds like something everybody knows about, I’ll ask Amina later.

“It’s fine, I am going to complete it properly.”

He emits a single grunt, as he pulls out a map to show me where to head to. Bingo!

“Wait a second, could you also quickly point out the meadow dungeon?”

“What? That makes it sound like you are going to run there.”

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t tell you if I was going to run.” I think a little of my reasoning for it. “I was just told to meet a friend there, so I plan to head there eventually. I even came in here just looking for the map at first, right? I’ll properly do the request.”

He groans and shows me the map. The landscape depicted is severely different from what I know. Several of what seems to be larger settlements, where they shouldn’t be according to my memories, are depicted, and there are even road marking to abandoned dungeons. Maybe infrastructure has been significantly improved.

He carefully shows me first the route to my current request, then the route to the meadow dungeon. I actually have half a mind to just head to the meadow dungeon right away, but it could bring trouble, so let us just complete the request properly. I then arrange to borrow six sacks.

As we exit and start to head in the direction I ask Amina what a 3rd class citizen is.

“When you fail to provide for yourself or your family, the government will take you in and provide for you, but give you harsh labor in return. You can also be sold off to private individuals, but you will have to demonstrate your capacity to feed and house them”

So, basically debt slavery? I think back and remember something about indentured servitude, but I never really encountered it. Oh well, let’s head off for this request.