The tunnel ended. Beyond it, Edward saw a gigantic hole. The Town of Promise turned out to be situated in a hollowed out mountain. From where He was looking, it seemed like it was built in a canyon, except the houses were mostly on walls, instead of the floor.

He suspected it was because of a small river flowing at the bottom. Flood wouldn’t be fun for an inhabitant of the bottommost house. Most buildings were built with generous dose of wood, but there were also rocks, bricks, and some concrete. Mostly between rocks. Linden suspected they were built lightly for ease of building on a canyon wall. Speaking of those, they were connected with rope bridges similar to the one He crossed before, and full of holes, which most likely contained more living and storage space.

“So, How Do you like our town? Big, huh?” Asked Mel.

“Looks nice. But big?” muttered Ed, inhabitant of a place much bigger. Even if only suburbs.

“Wait till you see the entire thing. This is just one town leg of eight. And then there is the main crater. And if you’re gonna tell me it’s small, I will declare you full of it.”

Ed figured he should probably express some excitement. Mel sounded pretty defensive about his town here.

“Now, do you want to register first, or go get some rest?” Asked Mark.

“I dunno, what would you recommend?”

“Registering. You can sell that meat and hides of yours immediately after that. And I don’t think waiting until it all rots is a good idea.”

“Well then, let’s do that. Though I don’t know where to go for either.”

“I can be your guide!” Mel sounded pretty enthusiastic.

“E.. Sure. Look forward to your guidance..?” Linden decided to accept the offer.

“Mark, can you take my backpack home?” Mel tried to pull a favor.

His brother would have none of it. “And where do you think you are going, huh? I don’t need you for anything official, but if I show up in front of our house tired, alone, and carrying your stuff with me, Mom is going to come to wrong conclusions. Again. Do you think it was easy to convince her you weren’t kidnapped, dead, or left alone to die last time you decided to come home a bit later?”

This one sounded like an entry to a longer rant.

“Is your home far from here? Ed decided to interrupt a potentially long lecture. “Because we could just go there real quick.”

“Not that far, but not near enough to go there with all those carcasses.”

‘Oh, right. Mr. Dalton already went his own way. We have a grand total of 5 dead animals to carry around.’ Thought Ed “So what do you think we should do?”

“We’ll both go with you. Let’s get those to the butchering place, and then Mel will guide you to the place where you will register as an explorer. Once you are registered, you come there with Mel, we sell those, putting 3 Humalainen and a murisee under your name. Once we get the money, you come home with us.”

“Why can’t we just sell all the carcasses under your name?” Ed was curious. ‘I mean, that’s kinda obvious thing to do, innit?’

“Because as a trainee, you will benefit from it the most.” Replied Mark. “We want you to become a green key as fast as possible, and if we play it right, we might be able to get them to write down those kills as your accomplishments, which will count as ‘Experience in the field’”.

“And how much is that worth?” Linden wanted a clarification.

“Normally You are supposed to spend time in the field with a guild assigned partner, so it might not be worth much if you were to claim you went alone. But if you were in a company of explorer two ranks above you, during an official job, they’ll probably put it under ‘practical lessons’. And that may give you enough credit to save you a month of training.” Calmly explained Mark. “Also, giving lessons will get me some credit too. Not much, but at least it’s gonna put me closer to a red key than some carcasses.”

“So… telling them the truth will be the most beneficial?!” Linden raised his voice in shock.

“Why do you sound so surprised?” Asked Mel. “Isn’t this how it should be?”

“It’s not always that way, but if you look at it objectively, yeah, they work well more often than not.” Answered Mark.

“What, next thing you are gonna tell me they aren’t taking bribes?”

The look he got from both brothers was full of… pity?

‘Why are they looking at me like I’m a child who never experienced warmth and kindness?’ Thought Linden. ‘Wait, more importantly, how do you get government officials to hurry up if you can’t even bribe them?’

This life would be definitely bureaucratically confusing.

……………………………

They started moving in the direction of guild butchery. Fortunately, it was close to the entrance, and depositing carcasses was a breeze. Mark was left in a butchery, leaving both Linden and Mel to go forward and get Ed registered.

The roads were fairly normal, if a bit steep, but Mel visibly wanted to show off his(?) shortcut knowledge, as he led Linden through ladders, small pathways, and such.

They arrived in front of a building with a sign. ‘Registration office.’ Was written in big, albeit not very bright letters.

“Can you show me where to go exactly? This place seem to have several levels.”

Mel obliged him. They entered the place, and immediately headed for the office. There was already a person in the process of getting registered. The boy in question was reading some kind of paper, but when he noticed there was someone waiting behind them, he quickly signed it, took something from a bald office worker, and hurried to climb the stairs up.

It was Linden’s turn.

There was a time, when Ed suffered from crippling social anxiety. Even answers to questions such as ‘Cash, or card’ in a grocery store made his heart race, and his tongue tumble.

It was why he was a bachelor for life. He couldn’t speak to anyone, (let alone girls) when he was young, and once he got older, it just got harder, since most interesting women already had husbands and even kids.

That being said, there was no way he couldn’t take care of official matters, not after years of practice. No one sends his mom to dean’s office at the age of twenty, not even Ed.

Now that he thought about it, rampaging bureaucracy in his country kind of helped him with his communication disorder. He even answered Mark when the explorer first called out to him.

“Hello, have you lost your key, or do you want to register?”

“Register.” Answered Linden. ‘Oh, did I come off as rude?’ He thought.- awkward pause- “Please”

“Name?”

“Edward Linden”

“Age?”

“How old do I need to be again?

“Ten”

“Ten it is.”

“All right, here is your form. I take it you can you read?”

“….Somewhat?”

“Then somewhat read it before the next person comes. And then sign it here.” The office worker pointed at the paper.

The writing was deciphered fairly quickly. Linden was grateful for that paper, even if there wasn’t much to read. Just couple of rules, most of which were already explained to Linden by Mark and Mel during their travel.

Linden’s signature was never especially pretty, but at least it was hard to fake. Not unless you employed a drunk cat with a seizure for the job.

“Registration fee please.”

Fortunately, Ed received more than enough money from Mr. Dalton, so he just payed the fee.

“Here is your trainee badge. Go upstairs for gear, if you need some.” “Your partner will be assigned to you shortly.”

…………………..

On their way up, Linden just had to ask Mel something.

“Hey, He was pretty quick to assume I have money, or that’s what it seemed like. Why?”

“Well, almost all of them were, and sometimes are, explorers. Of course they would be observant.” “And it’s kinda obvious that you would have at least that much on you.”

“Wait, I don’t have shoes, and I am dressed in rags. How is that obvious?”

“You are accompanied by an active explorer” Mel started getting a bit smug. ”And there is a gun dangling from your backpack. And it looks like something made by an actual gunsmith, even if a bit old fashioned.” “Those things aren’t cheap, ya know?”

“Oh” Linden felt a bit like an idiot. He continued to climb the stairs in silence.

“Okay, It’s here.” Said Mel once they arrived before wooden doors. “How about you don’t take clothes?”

He(?) Received an odd look.

“My Mom is a tailor.” Explained Mel.

“Okay. Any further advice?”

“I’ll just go in with you.” sighed boy(?)

…………………

They entered the room. Backpacks, clothes, boots, knives and so on were hanging on walls, and laying on shelves.

There was a woman residing within. She looked at the trainee badge, put her finger on her lips in a gesture resembling that of a seasoned librarian, and pointed at a shelf with various pairs of footwear lined up, and at one with socks.

They had to be organized by size, because when Ed tried some, while not perfect, they were definitely not bad. He had to respect that woman’s craft for judging his size immediately, and correctly.

Finally, he settled for a pair that closely resembled Ed’s old work boots, except smaller. It looked sturdy, and felt comfortable. He started thinking whether he needs anything else.

Ah. A tarp.

Choosing that was quick. Paying for everything even quicker. It put a small dent in Ed’s funds, but nothing too bad.

They exited the building.

“No navigation tools?” Asked Mel.

“Never used them. Having gear you aren’t familiar with is pointless” It was true. Most of the stuff Mark used back then didn’t look remotely close to what would be used on Earth.

“I can teach you.”

“Thank you. I’ll buy them once I’m taught.” “Now, shall we go back to your brother?”.

Mel nodded.

This time, the green key didn’t need to lead the way.

“You are good at remembering places. Is that how you didn’t die without a map or anything?”

“I think so.”

“Hm” Mel paused “You’re pretty lucky.”

“I know, right?” Linden laughed.

He was chuckling the entire way to the butchery.

.