Twelve coppers. It’s not exactly a lot but it’s enough to get by on for now, well at least for one day anyway. That’s how much I earned for the last quest I partook in. But considering how extremely low risk it was when compared to some of the other ‘beginner’ options, it’s probably a pretty good pay.

There was one other person with me then, a warrior type, also low level like me. Our client for the quest was a young girl who runs a herbalist type store and needed to get some more ingredients. In this world healing magic is pretty common and people who run healing 'clinics' are a dime a dozen. This was one of my first considerations for a career path. But the skills to do this are all abound and there is an abundance of 'adventurers' that would rather do this for a living than risk life and limb on quests. As a result of the over saturation, the money to be made there is about the same as the most basic forms of labour in this world, suffice is to say not enough.

It is a curious thing that there are still herbalists. Apparently healing magic can only mend flesh and bones and the like and can do nothing for things like old age and diseases. I am very curious to find out at some point what the actual difference is, this needs more investigating for sure.

The exception is apparently debuffs. Status ailments caused by 'things not of this world'. These of course need anti-debuff magic skills or magically enchanted potions, that require the right 'skills' to craft.

But I digress. The herbs the herbalist needed, were at the foot of the nearby eastern mountain range and to get there you had to pass through a small forest that has been known to be inhabited by rabid squirrels.

Of course I only got to find out later that rabid squirrels actually means really big and hungry fucking squirrels. Well no matter, as per my suspicion when I created my permadeath character, a priest does not see much combat. My role is mostly to provide buffs and healing, and for the most part stay nice and safe, while everyone else does the fighting.

This was exactly the case yesterday as the warrior in my party of two, was the once doing all the dangerous work, cutting down squirrels left, right and center. Well, is not to say that I didn’t have to wack a few of the more unruly ones myself, but that was minimal by comparison.

Of course all that money is gone by today, thanks to food and lodging expenses being so high. The economy is good and truly fucked up in this country at the moment, as the result of a long standing war going on, or so I learned on my first day here when I was running around gathering as much information as I could. With the prices of things the way they are and the kinds of work that would be available to me, the rather dangerous profession of ‘adventurer’ was pretty much the only practical choice left to me.

Of course a regular LitRPG protagonist would probably be chomping at the bit to be an adventurer, were he in my shoes. I like to think however, that I have a little more common sense than that. For one, the game that I’m supposedly stuck in here was supposed to be permadeath. This concept alone does not bode well for my chances to ‘respawn at last checkpoint’, should I happen to bite the dust. So all said and done I’m only here in this tavern because I don’t have any other viable options yet.

Although my two days ‘life savings’ are not the only things gone, so is my ‘friend’ from yesterday. He actually has a regular party he normally goes around with, I was just a substitute at the time since they were all busy that day and he had no one to party up with. This is obviously not the case today and I am now currently a bit stuck on what to do thanks to that.

I had already tried to join up with some other parties, but well established groups don’t let outsiders in very easily and most adventurers around here are at least a level four or higher, they are not very keen to join up with a level one adventurer, or I should say a level two, ever since yesterday.

I have already decided to try recruiting a party as well and subsequently put a notice up on the ‘recruitment’ board that is located right along side the quests notice board, but have had no takers as of yet. In the meantime I’ve been going around and targeting the singles to see if there is anyone that will join me.

It is at that moment that I spot a blonde bombshell sitting alone across the room with a rather glum expression. My first instinct is of course, ‘pretty girl’ - run. As would be the case for any self respecting loner, but I am of course not exactly swimming in alternatives and it’s not like I’m trying to pick her up or anything.

With that I muster up my courage and approach her.

“Hi, sorry to bother you. I’m not from around here and as a result haven’t had much luck joining any of the existing parties. So now I’m trying to recruit my own, would you be interested?” On second thoughts I may have come on a little strong there, as she seems quite startled.

“I’m having a very similar problem,” she smiles, “so this sounds like a good idea to me.”

Excellent, nailed it. “Hi, my name is Hardoen, level two priest, how do you do.”

The blonde returns my smile and says, “Hi there, I’m a level four sorceress, the name’s Sarah.”

Jessica tagged along with me in the morning to my job. She planned to carry on looking for work straight after she saw me off. I can’t say I want her running around alone after what happened, but despite how much it shook her up, this morning she seems determined to change her circumstances I guess.

To be honest I am feeling pretty desperate. Neither of us slept much last night after what happened and I’d rather die than see a repeat of that, but I still don’t know what to do about our current situation. Things being the way they are, I still don’t hold much hope for Jessica being able to pin down a job.

As I’m mulling this over, we reach the foreman's office and when I say office, I of course mean mud hut.

“Oh hey there, Aluarc, just the man I wanted to see,” the big burly foreman bellows at me.

“Hey boss,” I mutter in a less than enthusiastic tone.

“So. I don’t think there’s any easy way to say this and I’ve never been one for beatin round the bush either, so I’m just gonna lay it on you straight.”

“Hahahaha. Oh. Hahahahahaha.” I can’t seem to help myself as manic laughter claws its way out of my throat. I guess I’m laughing at the shear and utter hopelessness of our situation.

The foreman is packing up this ‘branch’ of his, due to a cancellation by his biggest client. It is no longer worth his while to maintain a presence here in Heimos, and as a result is letting the handful of employees he has here in Heimos, go. This obviously includes me as well.

The insane laughter has at least stopped, but Jessica is still looking at my with great concern. What the hell are we gonna do now, I just lost our only source of ‘not even enough’ income and the day has already started. Employed for only one day, I’m a laughing stock.

I place my head in my hands, the shear weight of it all is finally coming down on me in full force. I find myself having to bite back tears, I can’t let jessica see me like this.

The scene Jessica had to endure flashes across fresh in my memory. I do my best to shake it off. And here I was talking big about how I would protect her, I can’t help but scoff at my ineptitude. I remember how I felt just a little while ago, ‘I would rather die than see that happen to her again’.

A bold realisation dawns on me in that moment. Well if that’s how I feel then it actually makes things pretty simple, doesn’t it. I stand up, with a new fire burning in my soul, take Jessica by the hand and look her straight in the eye.

“I said I would protect you and I meant it.” I pause for a moment and then drop the bomb, “Jess we’re gonna become adventurers.” Perhaps it was the intensity of my gaze, but all she could seem to manage was a meek nod in affirmation.

Due to the urgency of our dire financial straits, we headed straight back to the tavern where our downward spiral had initially begun. The tavern where that man had been mercilessly killed by a goblin right in front of us. In part we came back to this tavern because it was the one we were most familiar with, I mean we at least know that this one has a quests board and by extension many adventurers gathering here, but I suspect it may also have to do with a desire to overcome our trepidation.

The tavern is as busy as ever, with many different villagers and adventurers mingling and drinking. The place was quite rowdy, not so much from drunken conversation, but more just the hustle and bustle of people going on about their daily lives and in the case of most of the adventurers their livelihood I guess.

This time We’re gonna play it smart. I start by approaching one of the barmaids and tell her that we are new in town and ask about the best way to find like-minded fellow adventurers to team up with. I figure that a party consisting of at least a couple of people would make the most sense from an adventurers perspective, both in a game and in real life. My role as a paladin is quite flexible, as both a light-weight healer and a combatant, it should make it relatively easy to slot in with most existing parties.

The barmaid indicates that while a lot of people don’t openly recruit new party members, some do post recruitment notices on the ‘recruitment board’, she points over to a smaller notice board, next to the main ‘quests board’.

I must admit I didn’t even notice it the first time we were here, must’ve been all the excitement from last time, you know transported to a fantasy world, watching a man get butchered to death in front of you, etc.

I approach the recruitment board, with Jessica in tow and start perusing the various ‘help wanted’ ads. The barmaid mentioned that if I find something useful, I can bring her the advert and she’ll be able to tell me how to get in contact with the owner.

Almost all of the adverts are for parties of a higher level, like level four and upwards and are looking for similarly skilled adventurers. Jess and I are both level one, so they go straight out the window. There is also an ad that doesn’t specify precisely what they are looking for, just lists the members that they have. Unfortunately they seem to have a few melee types in their group already all around level two. I am doubtful they will take on two lower level melee types such as ourselves as well. They would more likely want alternative class adventurers to balance the party out.

There’s one more advert that catches my attention, it lists a party of two, a spellcaster and a support class looking for one or two melee class adventurers of low level. Of course this means that Jess and I will be the only melee types in such a group and would see the most dangerous combat, but considering that we are melee class adventurers to begin with I suppose that was likely going to be unavoidable.

Yep, this is no time to get cold feet, this is the one. Time is of the essence here, we have no money, no income and the daylight hours or ticking by, it’s literally ‘do or die’ time. I snatch the notice off the board and bring it over to the barmaid again.

I am a little concerned, we will likely have to first get in touch with the owner of the notice, then once we find him, sync up with the other member of his party, and then we still have to find a quest to go on. When you think about it that way it seems unlikely we will be able find and do some kind of quest today still. Given our current financial disposition, this is of grave concern to me.

The barmaid smiles after looking the notice over and says, “You’re in luck it would seem, a young man posted this notice not even an hour ago, he’s still here in the tavern havin a drink.”

I swear I could feel my heart grow wings and flutter around inside my chest, finally some good luck for once, god knows our share of it is overdue. I follow the barmaids direction and with Jessica at my side, take a deep breath and stroll over to the table where a young man with dark black hair is sitting.

He looks to be quite bored, just going off of his slouched demeanour and lethargic gaze into the bottom of his now almost empty bear jug. Actually what is that he’s drinking, some kind of pale apricot colored substance, it certainly doesn’t look like beer.

Sitting with him at the table, is a gorgeous blonde girl with a considerable set of boobs on her. Propped up against her chair is a long wooden staff. She must be the spellcaster and he must be the support guy. That’s one more box checked, could this day get any better?

“Hi, we saw your recruitment notice and are looking for a party to join.” The girl looks up at me, I can see her eyes quickly scan over our weapons, obviously determining that we are indeed the melee types that they seek.

The young man practically jumps out of his chair, either by enthusiasm, or maybe he was just startled? “Hi.” He holds out his hand to me and I reach over and shake it firmly. As we shake hands the girl next to him casts a curious glance at us, as if she were confused about something.

“Hi. So I am a level two priest, my name is Hardoen and this here is Sarah, a level four sorceress.”

“Hi,” Sarah casts a beautiful, heart warming smile at us.

My turn I guess, time to get in character, can’t afford any slip ups here. “Hi, my name is Aluarc, I am a level one Paladin, and this is my girlfriend Misty, a level one thief.”

“Well this is better than we could have hoped for, with a spellcaster, a healer and support, and two melee class adventurers, I’d say we have the makings of a pretty good party going here.”

I take this moment to correct him “Actually one and a half melee.” Hardoen gives me a curious glance and I elaborate, “Misty has not had much practice to date with melee combat and has mostly been doing ranged combat, as it has been just the two of us so far, so to jump right in as a melee would be quite difficult.”

Hardoen seems to pause for a moment thinking, and then says, “Given her class, melee combat is something of an eventuality, so best not to avoid it. That being said I think it’s fine if she focuses on ranged attacks and only switches to melee if it is suddenly needed, better that than everyone just up and dying right?”

I nod “That’s fine.” It is actually a reasonable compromise and probably the best I could have hoped for. I will just have to make sure to keep her safe.

“Would you guys like to join as for a drink?” Sarah suddenly interrupts.

“Right, where are my manners, please take a seat.” Hardoen beckons to the two remaining empty seats at the table. I take a seat and Jessica follows suit. “Shall I call the waiter over, will you be having anything?”

I quickly lay the cards on the table. “Please forgive me, I don’t mean to dampen the mood or anything, but to be honest the two of us are flat broke and really eager to get to work.”

“Of course, no worries there,” he responds. “So I already have a good idea of the skills that are involved with the Paladin class, low level personal contact healing abilities and tanking skills like smite and taunt. As for a thief I believe the focus is on ranged and finisher attacks and skills; with other useful survival focused skills like pilfer and disarm. Did I miss anything?”

“No that definitely sums it up.” He basically listed all the skills that currently exist on both of our ‘adventurer cards’. This is a relief as one of my concerns was that they would ask us about our adventurer skills and although I could list them out, I have no idea how half of them even work.

“Do you have any questions about our roles and abilities?” Sarah asks.

I’m definitely not gonna miss that opening, “I must admit that I do not know the specifics of most of the classes outside of our own, if you would be so kind as to fill in the blanks for me.”

“Sure, no problem. From my side, as a priest, my primary role is support. My equipment is obviously not suited for direct combat, but I am able to apply various buffing spells to strengthen those around me and also have a variety of potent anti-debuffing and healing spells.”

Hardoen’s, explanation finished, Sarah begins. “As a sorceress I have command over the elemental magics, although admittedly, I am only really proficient in fire magic. Though as a sorceress, my fire spells carry a real wallop,” she explains with exaggerated hand gestures, signalling what I assume to be a giant explosion and a big grin on her face.

Hardoen carries on with the explanation, “It goes without saying that a priest with his vital support and survival spells, as well as a sorceress with her potent ranged magic typically take a rear position in a parties formation and need to for the most part be kept away from the monsters to be most effective.”

Of course I already somewhat understood this, but it means it puts me and Jess on the front lines, so it’s still a little scary to hear.

“Hey guys, can I get you anything, food, drink?”, a red haired waitress with freckles suddenly interrupts.

“No we’re good here, thanks,” I respond.

The waitress turns to me and smiles. She leans over towards me so far, that her ample cleavage threatens to slip right out of her white blouse and says with a seductive smile on her face, “If ya need anything at all, don’t hesitate to call on me,” she says as she winks at me.

With that she stands up, and walks by me, while casually laying a gentle hand on my shoulder as she walks past. Jessica can’t do anything but glare at her back as she walks away.

“Well since we ourselves are not exactly sitting on personal fortunes here,” Hardoen ignores the commotion and just carries on, “I think we are all eager to get started, shall we try and find a quest, while we still have the bulk of the day ahead of us?”

I nod happily, “We should pick something nice and easy, just to get used to the new party I think.” I had already prepared this excuse in advance, since Jess and I are complete noobs here and I don’t want to dive straight into unnecessary danger.

Hardoen then offers, “Well on the subject of quests, I’ve already looked over what’s available this morning. Most of them are fairly high level for our group and others don’t offer enough chance of success, whereas I think most of us need a more definite payday. There is however a quest to eradicate some slimes that have taken up residence in a cave on the foot of the nearby eastern mountain range.”

“That sounds like a good starting quest, slimes are pretty low level monsters overall.” I agree with him, although I don’t actually know that for sure, but that’s how it usually works in an RPG and he himself offered this quest for our low level party, so it must be the case, but at least I can try and sound like I know what I’m doing here.

“Hmm, I have no objections one way or the other,” Sarah pipes in, “I’ve never actually fought slimes myself, so I’ll just take your word for it,” she adds thoughtfully.

“Well it’s decided then, if you guys have all your gear with you, as it seems you do, shall we set off immediately then?” Hardoen asks.

We all nod in agreement, including Jessica, who up until now had only been listening to the conversation unfold.

“Very well, I’ll go fill in the necessary paperwork,” Hardoen says as he sets off to a small room at the rear of the tavern.

Paperwork hey. I find that kind of funny, you would never find something as mundane as admin work in an RPG that would instead be trying their hardest to retain their player-base.