[Harley POV]

I sat next to the stack of firewood next to the campfire, ready to throw on another log if it begins to grow dim. My nightwatch partner is a female fox-beastman [Monk] named Ashe (Ashley), though she isn’t too keen on talking to me. She is quietly reading a book using a magic light created by an [Artificer] in town, so I decided to not bother her with my presence. Before I went on this trip, Alex actually went talk to me. He told me I had a good head on my shoulders, so I should help out when needed. He told me to give some advice to Michael and others, to watch out for them while he was stuck in town. But man, I think he overestimated me big time.

I first met Alex, other than the orientation conference, during my programming classes. He was a junior at the time but he was good enough to be a T.A., he specifically watched over my computer labs. I was always the best in the lab, so he came to check my work and let me out of class early. We slowly grew closer as friends due to this interaction, and he complimented my programming skills quite a lot. We even played some DnD sessions with each other, though that particular campaign was never finished. He gave me more duties at the guild despite me being a more casual player, because he thought I could handle leadership. But boy, he was wrong about me.

I grew up poor white trash in a trailer park. The type of white trash that hated others if you know what I mean. Truth be told, I was the same until the final year of highschool. I am ashamed of how hateful I was to people, I was lucky I realized in highschool though in a rather horrible way. A gang of wannabe cowboys and I ganged up on a local gay kid, we beat the shit out him and broke the bike he rides to school with. I almost stayed like that, until I heard him crying “Why do you hate me so much?!?” and “What did I do wrong!?!”, for some reason his words hit me a bit. As horrible as it is to say, I never asked myself why I hated him. After thinking about it, I came to realize that I don’t understand why either.

I left that highschool and my trailer park for college, and decided I would be different. I had a full ride scholarship since my grades were so good, I was going to leave the label of white trash behind. But when I got there, I saw so many other types of people. Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, Indians, Asians, all types of LGBTQs and the like. It was so different from my shitty trailer park, it honestly scared me. I thought people would sus me out as the trailer park white trash I really was, but the guild found me instead. Through the guild I slowly overcame my fear, I would like to think I became a better person through them.

That battle showed me that I was still just a scared child, I only killed one of them because I would have died if I didn’t. I always played RPGs to be a hero, to pretend to be a better person than I really was. But deep down I am a coward, the being that placed me here called me one as well. The being who stole me away from the real world and put me here, a terrifying angel-like being with 3 sets of jet-black wings. Though, it didn’t do anything to me. He just stood in a field of hazy mist, before the mist grew denser and denser around me. I awoke in the new world, wisps of mist still hanging around me as I stood up. The being left me one message in the final vestiges of the mist, it echoed in my mind ever since. It told me I was worthless, the only thing it has ever said to me.

Several hours have past of the quiet outdoors night, a few more hours though before I can sleep. I decided to patrol around the camp for a little light exercise. I didn’t tell Ashe since she was still reading her book, she also didn’t say anything when I got up either. I grabbed a lantern and walked around the camp, practicing my silent walking as I patrol. It is surprisingly hard to train rogue skills, since they are essentially stealing and sneak attacks. The knights aren’t too keen on training people on either of those skills, so all I had was basic dagger techniques and grappling. So I take any opportunity to raise my ability, even if it's just so I don’t disturb the sleep of my teammates. Gotta prove that I am not worthless after all.

I made it back around the camp, and sat back down in my old spot next to a stack of firewood. Ashe only noticed me when I dropped another log into the waning fire. I guess she never knew that I left for a little bit, not that she tried to talk to me at all. I leaned back and looked around the dark forest again. It felt so eerie during the day, but at night it feels placid. The frogs croaking and the crickets singing into the night sky, as long as those 2 animals were loud you knew that nothing dangerous was close. I turned my attention to the night sky, promising to the stars once again that I will be better next day. That is the only thing bad people like me can do, try to be better in the future.

Deep in the woods, waiting for the watcher to waver his gaze. A mist begins coiling out of the depths of the dark forest..

[Blake POV]

3 days since we headed out to explore downstream of the river. 3 days of trekking across a sparsely dense forest alongside the river. 3 days of absolute boredom as nothing interesting happened at all. The days were spent mostly walking a steady pace forward, while taking brakes for our Rothe and for Rhyse to draw the map as we go. The river is slowly growing wider as we head forward, perhaps this is a sign that we will hit an ocean. Or maybe a lake, I am not too sure about geography stuff and all. Our merry band of adventurers at least has grown closer, nearly everybody chats during walks and our dinners are full of loud happy talking and laughter. But we have found literally nothing on our journey, not even medicinal plants or any sort of edibles. Hopefully the ocean we find will provide a nice boon.

I stifled a yawn, setting out again in the morning of the 4th day. We had just finished a meal of oats and preserved fruit, hoping that the sugars will make us more energetic for today. We had averaged around 18 miles a day, which isn’t so bad considering we are all equipped with weapons and armor. And the fact that there are forests and no pathways to walk on. Plus Rhyse is happy with the progress, which is a plus in my book since he is the brains for this operation. We followed along the river once again, but this time we saw something unusual next to the river. We saw in the distance another camp of people at the side of the river, still cooking what seems to be their breakfast.

There were 5 of them, 2 human males, 1 male wolf-beastman, 2 female wolf-beastman. They looked like beginner adventurers just by seeing their equipment, it looked ragged and cheap. They took a little bit to notice us marching, but when they did they immediately stopped breakfast prep. They got up and pulled out their dirty cheap weapons, they weren’t being hostile so much as they were wary of a group of 16 well armed and well supplied adventurers.

“Iet dag ven! dafast dag ven dori vem?!?” The male wolf-beastman started saying, but none of us know what any of that means. So we only gave confused looks back.

“Hello sir! I am Blake, we are a party of explorers from our town. There is no reason for us to be hostile.” I said calmly, with hand gestures to hopefully convey what I am saying.

They looked at us confused, not understanding a single word or gesture I said. The male wolf-beastman took a long look at our party before finally trying to say something again.

“Iet dag ven! dafast dag ven dori vem?!?” he said, with what seems like venom in his last question.

We had no idea what to do, I looked towards Rhyse to see if he knew anything. The lanky robe-wearing elf went up to the other party with his hands up in surrender. He tried to pantomime something, using his hands to convey two people speaking to each other. He then turned to me and told we he was going to try to use his magic

“Let us bridge the gap between our understanding. Make my ears understand his words as mine, and let my tongue speak his words as my own.” Rhyse chanted into the air, magic power emanating from his voice alone.

The party of 5 was awed at the power that they felt, unable to react at the sound of Rhyse’s voice reverberating in the air. He finished the chant, he immediately was sweating from what seemed like immense physical exhaustion. He actually staggered back, and almost fell at the finish of his words.

“First, let me apologize for my unsightly appearance. I foolishly used too much mana since I am still weak at its application.” He said to the party, to the shocked faces of their group.

“I can understand you now! You must be a powerful wizard to be capable of this!” the male wolf-beastman said with a start. I am also shocked I can understand him, Rhyse’s magic is much more powerful than I thought it was.

“I am but a simple [Sage] I am afraid, but onto more important conversations. Who are you guys, are you adventurers from a nearby town?” Rhyse said to the wolf-beastman. Trying to sound more sage-like with his choice of diction

“My name Spike, these are my party members. I would tell you more, but you haven’t revealed yourselves yet.” He said with wariness again, the wonder of Rhyse’s magic fading.

“My name is Blake, I am the leader of this exploration team. The elven [Sage] you were just speaking to is Rhyse. We came from our town to map out the river.” I spoke up, taking charge of the negotiations.

“My greetings Blake, it does seem like you are an exploration team judging by that beast of burden you have brought. Though, can I ask you where you are exploring from?” Spike said, trying to pry a bit of information out of us.

“Fraid not, all I can say is that we have followed the river from upstream, not like that information would be any surprise to you I imagine.” I said, trying to tactfully decline his attempt. A slightly tense pause followed my words despite my attempts to be civil.

“If I may Blake, where is the nearest town from here? We would like to purchase extra supplies and find a nice Inn to rest after several days of camping outside.” Rhyse decided to interject with his question, with considerably more tact than I had. Who knew this loner was so capable of negotiations?

“Ah sure, the nearest town is about an 8 hour walk to the north following the river. It is a major port and a bustling city.” Spike said, the rest of his party slowly began to lower their guard. The people behind Rhyse and I also decide to lower their weapons.

“What is the name of this city? Which country does it belong to?” I asked Spike, only realizing how the last question makes us look suspicious.

“Man, who are you guys? How did you guys end up here without knowing anything? Are you spies from the empire or something?” Spike said, back on edge again.

I look at Rhyse who was facepalming at me right now, the people behind us have their weapons readied again. Fuck, I couldn’t keep my big dumb mouth shut. How do I get out of this without killing these people.

“Umm...Blake, Rhyse...why don’t we just tell them the truth? It isn’t like it is any harm at this point. Plus, they might be able to point us in the right direction to go back home?” Anne said, as she walked up to us.

She actually has got a point, there really is no demerit to tell them the truth since we would kill them anyway if they react badly. I looked towards Rhyse, he just sighed and then shrugged Why not? At me. Fuck it, lying was never my strong suit anyway. The whole opposite party seemed to be confused at Anne’s words, they seemed curious about the truth that Anne brought up.

“So Spike, the truth is that…” I began with a heavy sigh.

We told what had happened to us in a rather shortened version of the events. We omitted some details, like that fact it was game to us before or that we came from an incredible powerful guild with vast riches. We just told them that we magically transported to this world through a mysterious phenomena, along with our whole camp. We talked about how this was an exploratory mission to map out locations, with the eventual goal to find a way home. Spike and the others seemed to be taken aback by the honesty and strange tale, but they were no longer hostile. They offered to guide us to the city where they came from, Rompounge. Though, they did require some sort of compensation. We showed some coins that we had, but they had never seen one of our coins so they had no idea on what its value is.

The eventual price was decided by getting the coins evaluated by a bank, which in the case of the coins getting rejected they would instead take a couple of spare swords we have in our supply bags. With both parties settled, we began our march to the city of Rompounge. The first city we have found since moving to this world. The excitement of finally having something interesting happen during our exploration is building amongst my team, even I can barely contain myself. We finally get to see a fantasy port city in a new world! Maybe I can register as an adventurer in a guild! Or maybe I will go to a tavern and get into a drinking contest with a dwarf, this is going to be so cool!

The travel towards the town went smoothly, especially with the 5 adventurers guiding us through the forest. After a long 8 hour journey, I can see buildings and farms in the distance. And beyond that is a massive body of water with a briny scent originating from it, possibly indicating an ocean or large salty lake. We walk closer and closer to that city, the port city seeming more and more like a capital city due to its size. The excitement is growing palpable from our group, as well as anxiety since none of us really speak their language or know proper etiquette.

Rhyse’s magic wore off after a while, and since it takes a lot of mana for him to cast his spells he is holding off until we get close to the city. This meant that for the last 3 hours of our journey, our groups couldn’t talk to each other. Since that was the case, we lost 3 hours of not winning over their trust in us. I am worried that this could bite us in the ass, especially since they reacted so strongly to Rhyse’s magic. I only hope that our honesty was enough for them to not want to turn us over to the guards, I would rather not bloody the first city we found in this world. And the fact Tyler and Jack seem almost bloodthirsty these days, those 2 have been getting more and more unruly as the trip went on.

We made it to the front gate where there was a checkpoint stationed, we immediately had our more unusual races amongst us cover up with hoods and helmets. One of things discovered during our brief 5 hour conversation with Spike’s Party was that Tieflings and Aasimar were exceptionally rare. Having those 2 races will make us stand out a lot, and not in a good way. There is a lot of prejudice against races, even the beastmen here receive some unfavorable treatment. The only saving grace is that Rhyse is an elf, which is considered a noble race in the city. He is essential for us to make it inside without a hitch.

Rhyse casts another magic, “Make his unfamiliar words familiar to me, bring me the understanding to wield these words wisely.” And he alone was able to pick up the language again. This time around, he has permanently gained the language. He downed like 15 mana potions to make this magic work, and his body paid a heavy price for it. His clothes were soaked in sweat, his eyes were bloodshot from sheer effort, and his body looked gaunt and frail like he has been starving for a week. His body was devastated from the magic, we had to use several types of potions and rations to make him look presentable after that. This magic might have to be sealed for a while until he is able to properly control mana.

We made it through the checkpoint with relative ease, luckily. Rhyse, despite his rather haggard state, was able to deftly negotiate for our group’s entry into the city. He greased the palms of the guards with some of our silver coins, he told them that we found them from a discovery site he found. The story is that he is an explorer and we are his retainers along with Spike’s group as hired muscle. He gave them a few more silvers to keep the story of the ruins a secret, which the guards promptly decided to no longer speak a word. Money is a funny thing isn’t it?

Spike and Rhyse went to the nearest bank while the rest of our respective groups found a plaza to loiter in, We took a good look around all of the shops around, bringing in the fantasy market city feel. Though, currently we are unable to communicate with the locals here. So far there has been no unnecessary attention, but I have a feeling a group of 15 mixed raced adventurers who speak a completely foreign language will eventually bring trouble. Luckily, we had a few artificers working on temporary translation tools. Specifically, we had them made originally in Athenaeum, but we needed to attune them to foreign languages and the wielder. (One of the flaws of this device is we need a native speaker of the language to attune to it first, which will be difficult if we can’t speak to them in the first place).We were not able to finish them on the trip here, but we are using the valuable time in the plaza to put in the final details. We have enough for our whole team, but only 5 can get attuned at a time since there are only 5 members of Spike’s party.

They come in the form of an earring with a complex metal pattern hanging down from the ring. We decided that 4 of the women in my party and I will get the items first, we figured this was the best way to properly gain info and explore the shops around here. Also the 2 wolf-girls really want to go shopping with the girls on our team, I am fine with it since women are especially good at finding good prices and nice shops. My plan with my device is go find magic shops with Rhyse, and then end our negotiations with Spike’s group quickly. I don’t mind the girls too much, but the 2 humans were making me feel a bit suspicious of the generous help we had received. I don’t mind greedy people who simply accept coins, but if they push it too far I will let Tyler and Jack blow off some steam.

The unified party of 6 women rushed off to go shopping as soon as the attunement was done. I guess I never realized it, but the women of our group had a lot of stress built up in the last 2 weeks. We haven’t really given them a chance to blow off their steam since we got here, that was a tad careless of us. I should probably tell Alex when we get back so that an issue doesn’t blow up in his face. I went off towards Rhyse and Spike and had Tyler and Jack stay with our [Artificers] to protect them while they get the Translation Earrings attuned. Anne decided to stick with me since she was not very close with other women, and she wanted to directly help Rhyse and I. I liked the spunk of the girl, so I decided to bring her along.

Anne and I walked towards the bank, but never got to see the inside of it. We saw Spike and Rhyse outside looking a bit frustrated. This does not give me a good feeling…

“Yo Spike and Rhyse, everything go ok?” I asked gruffly, trying to snap them out their brooding.

“Yeah well, It did not quite go as planned. The bank was not able to accept our coins without some concessions.” Rhysed said frustratedly.

“Yeah, never expected that a coin could be too pure of gold or silver to be accepted as money.” Spike said with an annoyed expression.

“It was too pure? I don’t see how that is a problem. That should mean our money is worth more then?” I asked, not understanding the problem.

“Well, the problem is that there is no way to get to our purity without advanced alchemy techniques, they wanted to know where we got it since currency like that can only be found in ancient era ruins. We can’t exactly say that they are coins from our Guildhall can we?” He said bitterly.

“Well shit, I guess we have to find a pawn shop or something?” I said vaguely, not sure where to go from here.

“That is actually not a bad idea, if we can’t exchange them as currency, then we should treat them like artifacts and sell them!” Rhyse said with growing conviction, maybe I can have a few good ideas after all.

“Well Spike, do you know a good pawn shop or antique vendor? I wouldn’t mind taking a small hit on value since we are in dire need of proper change.” I said the wolf-beastman.

“Well, I know we can exchange stuff at the Adventurer’s guild, they hire special vendors to buy the spoils from adventurers. You will get skinned a bit from the price, but they will never cheat since they would ruin the Guild’s reputation if they did that.” Spike said, finding a solution.

We set off towards the Rompounge Adventurer’s Guild, happy that we get to cross off 2 things off of the objectives list with one trip. The journey there was short, noly about a 15 minute walk from the bank. But the city changed in a major way, it no longer had the nice fantasy feel to it anymore. The area surrounding the guild was more like a slum, the buildings look older and with constant small repairs done to them that create a rather shabby look. The streets are dirtier, and there were homeless here on the streets and alleyways. The residents looking outside could instantly tell we were outsiders, and they let us know with their intense glares. It seems we had forgotten something about adventurers, only the lowest dregs of society would ever become one.

People who become adventurers are people with nowhere else to go. You are essentially throwing your life away in the hopes that you might strike it rich. The idea of the heroic adventure who saves the day and is admired by people is just something from fantasy. They are essentially job posting boards that keep these people from becoming thieves and bandits. There are people who become top adventurers and make a decent living, but they usually get hired by nobility and wealthy merchants to act as personal troops are guards. The life of an adventurer is short and cruel, with basically no expectations of a future. It is the profession of the abandoned, the mistreated, the hated, and the fallen. Needless to say, my dreams of being an amazing adventurer were crushed upon learning this.

We stepped in front of a rough looking building, with barely finished stone walls and wood structures that had been patched several times. It had western-style saloon doors, and a noisy din was leaking out from the front. We would have thought it was a bar at first, but the sign above the door had the words Adventurer’s Guild along with some sort of strange image next to it. The image is apparently for the people who can't read, illiterates just look at the symbols to see what type of store it was apparently. Spike let us build our courage before finally entering in himself, Rhyse and I follow closely. Finally entering into the adventurer’s guild in a fantasy world.

The inside of the building was just as rough as the exterior. It was loud with the sounds of people talking, shouting, laughing, and whispering. The floorboards were rough with patched up wooden floorboards that were stained with the constant abuse of spilled alcohol and food. The smell generated was an awful mixture of sweating unwashed bodies, incredibly crude and cheap alcohol, rotting food, and faint odor of blood in the air. The place was even more rough than I imagined it, my nose was wrinkling the moment I walked in. I heavily regret not wearing my helmet, since the people sitting close to the entrance can see my scowling expression.

One of the old geezers there saw my expression of disgust and was going to make a sarcastic remark, but decided to stay seated instead. He probably was able to guess I was much more powerful than he was, and wisely decided to leave me alone. The wisest people in the Adventurer’s guild is not the party with the best equipment, but the poor old fool who has survived despite all the odds. The loud din did not stop at our entrance, really only a few people noticed us as we slowly walked towards the manned desk in the back. Slowly making our way past the drunken ruffians and reaching the shabby, poorly repaired desk with an equally depressing person behind it.

“Hey Leon! Got some new people for you here. We also got some private business to discuss.” Spike spoke to the marose Half-elf who was manning the desk. He had a gaunt face that was marred with depression, his dead eyes looked up from whatever he was reading and looked at spike.

“Hello...If you need a private room you will need proper compensation and the names of the adventurers who will be joining you.” Leon said with a modicum of effort.

“Well the 3 people with me are not registered at this guild, is this fine?” Spike asked.

“Hmmm...we would need some sort of identification if you don’t want to pay the special fee, which is 5 large gold coins. Do you have any form of registered identification with you?” Leon turned towards us. Shit, I didn’t expect this to be an issue. Maybe we can register at the guild for our I.D.?

“Perhaps we can register at this guild then? Would that remove the need to pay the fee then?” I said to Leon, he was mildly surprised at my suggestion.

“Ah...I see...well follow me to the registration room. I assume you, the woman in light armor and the male in the robe will be registering?” Leon said to me and Rhyse who was hiding his elf face in heavy robes.

“Yes it will be the three of us,” I confirmed.

“Very well...Mr. Spike you will have to wait outside the registration room. Once we are done then we can move directly to a private room.” Leon responds, before moving towards the registration room.

Leon opens a door to the left of the frontdesk, gesturing for Rhyse and I to walk ahead. Leon then walks in and closes the door, he walks ahead through a long hallway. We follow closely, following along in a cramped dark hallway that seems to only add to the shabbiness of this building. We reached a new room, this room was a circular room with a large magical pattern installed into the roof. In the center, stoop a pedestal with a large perfectly round gem. It looks like a crystal ball, if one was made out of sapphires instead. At the back is another desk, but with a large amount of papers stacked to the side. Leon walks over to the back of that desk and grabs 3 pieces of blank paper, and a register form paper for us to fill out and sign.

He had us fill out the forms, he almost started reading them out to us but we said we could read and write. His eyebrow raised slightly, but did not say a word in response. He just stood quietly behind the desk as we filled out the form. On the form, it asked for our class, our age, our race, and our name. The class detail is simply meant for organizational purposes, there is nothing that gets set when you write it down. They just like to keep mages, warriors, and rangers in separate files for easier management. You can even change it later if you want, though you will be tested to see if you are adequate for the new class. If a mage is required for a request, they want to make sure that mage is actually capable of magic. Though I wonder why you don’t get tested the first time you register in the guild?

He then had us, one at a time, place our hand on the gem pedestal in the center of the circular room. He gave a blank piece of paper to hold with the other hand while we placed our dominant hand upon the gem. It’s apparent purpose is to assess our abilities, as well as change jobs if needed. I decided to go first since Rhyse had some qualms about touching a foreign magical item and Anne never wants to use something first again. I took off my gauntlet, and placed my right hand on the blue orb. It was an instant shock of magic power, It surged through my body like electricity, snaking through every crevice and corner of my body. It wasn’t painful, but the sensation was certainly odd. It reached my brain, which caused a storm of memory flashes to explode into my mind. I couldn’t even process the amount of images flashing in my mind, I could feel my consciousness slipping away…