Lucas woke up early, feeling well rested. His room at Big Sil’s was small and dusty, but the bed was comfortable and the desk served its purpose. Even if there were any bigger issues, he was staying for free, so Lucas wouldn’t bring them up unless they were pressing. Lucas had agreed to meet Bart at the commercial district today, and would need to hurry if he didn’t want to be late. Last night when talking to Sil Lucas had been told it was a good idea to put a cloak on to cover up his shirt so he didn’t stand out as much, but when he tried on a cloak that had also just lit up in rainbow colours. One benefit of staying in Deepoak was that there were no small rodents to pester him.

He quickly walked down through the roots, heading towards the core. Lucas had learnt a lot of information about navigating the lower district last night. Jody had explained how each end location had a unique code. When you come to a crossroads, the number of tunnels from the left corresponds to a number. The string of every number from that then makes your address. Sil’s was one of the easiest addresses to remember just being 333333333333. There were apparently millions of tunnels in the residential district, with the longest one being thirteen branches down.

Lucas found Bart waiting for him at the entrance to the low residential zone, tapping his foot rhythmically. When Bart saw Lucas approach, a broad grin appeared on his face. He waved at him and approached. “I was getting worried for a second that you had been murdered or mugged. Good to see you are still alive and well.”

“Did you think I wouldn’t be?”

“Not necessarily, but you hear rumours about what happens down there. It’s fine though, once you become a full-fledged member of the adventurers society, you can sleep in the guild house barracks at night.” Bart flashed a small pin to Lucas, with a badge of a single large tooth with a knife through it, “You will obviously only start off as a trainee but once we collect all six of our essences, then we can become full-fledged members.”

“I haven’t decided if I want to be an adventurer yet. It’s a big decision and there are so many branching possibilities. I think I will need some time to make my decision.”

Bart nodded his head. “Fair Enough, it’s a hard decision to make. Even if you choose not to, you saved my life back in that cave. I am indebted to you and if you ever need anything, be it money, training or for me to do something for you, let me know.”

Lucas thanked Bart and walked towards the market. He had thought a lot about what he wanted to do last night, but couldn’t come to a decision. He idly looked through the stalls, not paying attention to their wares. There were always so many decisions to make, and even just making a single wrong choice could end up costing you everything. Lucas had to be careful not to end up wasting the second chance the universe had given him, which left him with a single question. What did he want to do? This question had always stumped Lucas. He could act without hesitation in a high-pressure situation, but when there was no pressure on him, he had always struggled with it.

Lucas returned to the inn and ate breakfast. It was like mash potato, but it tasted slightly sweet and had a kick to it. Lucas was unfamiliar with the recipe but found the taste delicious. Lucas wandered into the back of the inn, looking for Sil's daughter Jody to ask her about the recipe.

He found her in a small kitchen at the back of the restaurant, holding a metre long large root, which she was slicing into thin chunks. She saw Lucas enter and greeted him. They talked about how to make the meal and in the end she helped him make it himself. When he tasted the finished product, it was nowhere near as good as Jody’s was, but thanked her for the lesson. Lucas had always enjoyed cooking, but had never spent that much time thinking about it.

Bart headed to the training area after his meeting with Lucas. He had known that Lucas would probably need time to decide, but he was still worried that he would choose to not become an adventurer. He would just have to hope that Lucas would choose to become an adventurer. He enjoyed Lucas's company and he had proven he could look after himself, and even help Bart if he got into trouble.

Bart entered the sparring area and found an opponent. The man he had chosen to fight was over 2 metres tall and stood six times taller than Bart. The thud that the larger abilities fell with had always given him some joy, and he got ready to dive into action. Lucas had told him about how he lost his knife, but he had a spare so wasn’t that concerned. If he wanted to stand a chance of winning this fight, he would have to act quickly.

Bart stepped onto the mat and gripped his knife. The man lunged at Bart and he stepped under him. Exposed knee. The man screamed in pain as the knife slashed the back of his knee. Open target. Bart pushed his knife into the man’s open side and sidestepped a backhanded swing. Bart climbed onto his back and forced a chokehold onto the giant. The man who had already been brought to one knee swung around desperately, trying to dislodge the tiny figure from his back. Bart clung on like his life depended on it, and the man fell slumped thirty seconds later.

Bart dragged the unconscious man to the healer before looking for another opponent. He had a long day of training ahead of him. Bart didn’t fail to notice the stares he got from the other adventurers as he dragged the body. Anyone who stared at him Bart simply stared back at until they looked away. He had grown tired of the looks of distrust and fear because of his people’s reputation.

Lucas sat in a large wooden studio, sitting on a small stool where he worked on a small clay vase. He had decided to take part in a local pottery class to see what sort of opportunities were out there. What he didn’t expect would be to get filled in on all the gossip happening in the medium residential area by the army of forty-year-old adventurer’s wives who also attended the pottery class.

“So then Ann-Marie said that if he didn’t find a Stonelizard and make a ring out of it for her, the wedding would be off.” The short, middle-aged woman spoke in a conspiratorial tone, almost whispering to Lucas.

“But didn’t Jeffrey give her the Jade spider amulet that his mother left him? That’s so cold-hearted of her.”

“Well, this is where it gets interesting, she said that he actually gave her a fake amulet that he just bought in the market for 4 silver, and when she got it evaluated, the identifier claimed it was just a cheap piece of Waterglass.”

Lucas almost lost control of his vase and had to force it back into shape. “So who is lying, Jeffrey or Ann-Marie?”

A small old man stood up at the front of class, as the small copper plates stopped spinning. “That’s all we have time for today, etch your name into the clay and then put it in the forge, we will take them out during next week's class.”

Lucas stood up and put his slightly misformed vase into the large stone box, filled with small glowing chunks of firestone. He got to the door before waving at the group of women he had been gossipping with before heading back towards Sil’s. He had learnt the conversion rates between the currencies when he paid the entry fee of 20 bronze coins for the pottery class. 100 bronze coins to 1 silver coin, 100 silver coins to 1 gold coin, 100 gold coins to one titanium coin. The clerk had seemed confused as to why he asked the questions, but didn’t mind.

Lucas strolled back out of the education district and towards the low residential district, stopping at any stalls that seemed interesting along the way. By the time he had made it back to Sil’s he had spent another 30 bronze coins on a dagger, a common pair of trousers and shirt and a loaf of bread in case he got hungry. As much as Lucas liked his clothes, they were getting dirty, and he wanted a spare change.

Lucas had changed into his new set of clothes and found whilst they were a bit scratchy, they fit him well and he thought he looked good. He sat down and ordered a drink. Even though it burnt the back of his throat as it went down, Lucas enjoyed the warm feeling it left afterwards. The other patrons looked at him and his outfit, but no one said or did anything. Lucas had learnt that Sil had a sizeable amount of sway within the lower residential district, with his inn acting as a sort of neutral ground. Sil was apparently Tier 3, and anyone who messed around in his tavern would have to answer to him directly.

Lucas thought about what he talked to Bart about earlier today and considered. From a financial standpoint, being an adventurer could pay rather lucratively. Lucas was in one of the safer and cheaper parts of the world from what he had been told, and orders that came from the head branch of the adventurer’s guild apparently paid extremely well. The reason it paid so well was because of how dangerous the job was. Lucas wasn’t sure if he wanted to risk his life fighting monsters and cultists. Eventually Lucas made his decision and went to bed.

Bart had ended up training for five hours until there was no one left who wanted to fight him. He had taken a few minor bumps at points, but it was never to the point where he was worried he was going to lose a fight. After he was done with his sparring, he headed to the adventurer’s guild section of the education district and sat in on a lecture on ritual circles. Bart wasn’t particularly interested in making them himself. They were far too expensive for a simple commoner like him, but he was interested in how to destroy and change their purpose. The teacher of the class was an old man with a voice so gentle that it almost put Bart to sleep. Bart looked around the room and noticed that a large portion of the class actually had fallen asleep. Bart snorted quietly before silently exiting the hall and heading towards the barracks.

Bart sat there in bed, staring at the ceiling. Even with his best efforts to distract himself from Lucas, the goblin was still worried that the young man would choose not to be an adventurer. The thing the goblin liked about Lucas the most was his eyes. They were young and naïve, but at the same time he felt like they had seen a lot more than he could tell. What he liked the most was the way they looked at him with no judgement. Everyone else he met had already made their judgements about him before they had even talked to him, but Lucas didn’t seem to even think about it. Bart rolled over and pulled his pillow over his head. There was no point in worrying over something he had no control over.

Lucas woke up and got out of bed. He had made his decision and needed to tell Bart. He hoped the goblin would be waiting for him again outside the lower residential district, and he hurried out of the inn. The lower residential district was much more busy in the morning. He could see people walking up and down the many tunnels, and the dull thrum of conversation could constantly be heard.

People seemed to pay no attention to Lucas as he casually walked through the tunnels, humming lightly to himself. He found Bart standing at the entrance to the district, tapping his foot quickly. Bart smiled as he saw Lucas approach and asked the question immediately. “So, have you made your mind up?”

Lucas nodded solemnly. “I thought about it long and hard yesterday. In the end I realised I had been given a second chance to do something. To be in this new completely foreign world and not explore it to the best of my abilities would be a crime. At the end of the day, if I don’t enjoy going down the path of the adventurer, I can just retire and pursue other career paths.”

Bart nodded and smiled. “I figured you would say something like that. It would be pretty awkward if you didn’t because I brought literally all the paperwork with me.” A large stack of papers materialised in Bart’s hands for a second before going back into his inventory. “I know a great café in the medium residential district, which is cheap. Breakfast is on me.”

Lucas took a sip from his herbal tea and scratched his head. He had finished the mountain of paperwork that Bart had given him and massaged his temples. He felt like his eyes were about to stop working after the amount of squinting he had been forced to squint at small print for so many hours. Lucas insisted on reading all the small print to make sure that there were no clauses in here that would fuck him over in the long run. After six hours of eating pastries, drinking tea and signing forms, he finally had finished the mountain of paperwork. Bart had sat opposite him, watching him fill out the forms quietly.

“Is everything expected to complete this much paperwork? This just seems unreasonable. Who even made these forms? Did a lawyer from my world come here with the express purpose of making bureaucracy a nightmare?” Luca slumped his head as he looked at his hands, which were bright red.

Bart gave him a knowing smile. “You're lucky. This is the reduced paperwork because you're a traveller. I spent an entire week working through the mountain of documents to just confirm my identity and my intentions of joining the adventurer’s guild. It has become so infamous people say this is the first test to join the guild and that it's intentionally confusing to make sure that members have their wits about them.”

“Well, I got it done. Now I can finally rest.”

Lucas collapsed into his chair. He had gone to the adventurer’s guild to hand in all the paperwork and had been forced to wait whilst the elderly clerk checked every single form. In the end he had to stand in an uncomfortably hot room for 5 hours. He examined the pin he had been given by the clerk. It depicted a small silver dagger stabbed into a tooth. Lucas flipped over the token and noticed lines of tiny carved symbols spanning out in a spiral shape. Lucas was too tired to look into it and flopped onto his bed, exhausted.

He woke up the next morning and headed to his normal meeting spot with Bart. The small goblin was waiting there as usual, and also seemed to be impatient as usual. Lucas wondered how the goblin always woke up so early, even with the absence of an alarm clock. If Lucas didn’t set at least five alarms in the morning, he wouldn’t wake up at all.

Lucas waved over to Bart and greeted him. “What are we going to do today?”

Bart stepped forward and grandly swept his arms. “We are broke. I have 5 silver coins left to my name. Luckily for us, we are standing on top of a gold mine.”

“A literal goldmine or a metaphorical one?”

“Metaphorical, but there is still good money to be made. Let’s go to a place where the walls don’t have ears and discuss further.” Bart glanced at the guard standing slightly too close to them, who quickly turned away.

Bart sat on a small stool in the training area of the Adventurer’s guild. “As I was saying, there is a goldmine under our feet. It will require a quick history lesson, so let me catch you up. The actual tree of Deepoak is so old that no records date back to before its creation. It has been around for as long as the volcano has, if not longer. There is a lot of speculation about what it is. Some say it is a tree from another world brought here by the gathering, others claim it is the creation of an incredibly powerful being, most likely tier 8 or higher and some think it is just an accident of nature. What most people don’t know however, is how many creatures used to seek refuge in Deepoak. They were all pushed deeper into the tunnels and eventually the main dwellers forgot about them. Of course some ancient families still know about the deep tunnels but recently the adventurer’s guild discovered an entrance into them and has been letting adventurers go inside for training and explore for treasures to either keep or sell.”

“So basically what you’re saying is that there is an ancient dungeon underneath a city which could hold the secret to the entirety of Deepoak and we’ve been handed a free pass to explore it?”

“Pretty much.”