Severin, all by himself, was sitting in one of the many half-circle booths on the second floor’s meet-up room.

The atmosphere was quite lively, with both groups and individual people like him alike either waiting for more members or discussing their further actions.

Still, the room was large enough that it didn’t feel overly crowded and was laid out in such a way that the arrival of any newcomer would not go unnoticed as long as one did not space out.

After he had been done with his business of the third floor, Severin for a short time played with the thought of further exploring the building and some of the other services the Society had to offer and which were available to anyone who could afford the fees.

A library spanning over the entire eighth floor of the massive tower, the advertised wellness area on the fifth, or the many different adventurer classes and workshops which, Severin quickly found out, taught everything from basic and mundane adventurer knowledge as how and where to choose campsites and finance management, to lessons teaching the characteristics of specific dungeons and their inhabitants, over to in-depth theorycrafting services to successfully plan one’s future class progression.

These were simply just the most prominently advertised services that caught his immediate attention.

But alas. As much as Severin was interested in each of these things, since he didn't know how much time he had available at the moment, he decided it would probably be a better idea to take a whole day or two off for it-provided the opportunity would present itself.

And it wasn’t like he hadn’t had anything else to do, anyway.

Like the newly emerged issue regarding his own brand. But even if the waiting room wasn’t as noisy as one would expect, Severin deemed a quieter and less public environment more suitable for this occasion.

Because of that, he instead decided to take a look at the maps he bought following the receptionist’s advice.

The first ten minutes or so Severin looked at the map depicting the Golden Mountains.

Though mostly uninterested in the many dungeons and outposts with the vast majority of them located on the far west side of the land bridge connecting the two kingdoms of Rhenia in the north and Malcos in the south, Severin was still curious enough to look up the entrance of one specific dungeon called The Harrowing Plains, before dedicating his attention to another, more deserted-looking part of the map.

The east side still harbored plenty of dungeons and outpost, more probably than what was average in most other regions, but in comparison to the west, what really stood out were the many floating rocks of various sizes. In were so many of these rocks, in fact, that Severin had a hard time pinpointing the one he claimed for his own.

After narrowing it down to three especially large mountains, Severin called it quits and decided to ask Timothy and Miriam-or better yet, Samuel-to help him to identify the right one.

Only when he was one hundred percent certain might he return to hire one of the [Cartographers] to make some custom-made maps for him.

Severin disappeared the map into his inventory and quickly took out another one to take its place.

Or rather an atlas, as the map depicting Hanvia was split over multiple sheets of paper. Not to mention the attached pages-long register, which matched the names and short descriptions of hundreds if not thousands of establishments and other points of interest to their corresponding locations.

Severin spent the better part of the next hour flipping through it to see what else this city had to offer.

To orientate himself, Severin decided to first look up the few places he had already visited; the Arena and the building he was currently in were easy enough to find. So were the few shops he had checked out on his way, if only because of their immediate vicinity to the easily found, aforementioned skyscraper.

Finding the place called Milly’s, however, turned out almost impossible. Only after wasting a good amount of time, and only because he knew its general direction and memorized some of the surrounding landmarks to find his way back, did Severin finally succeed.

He could easily see how not being recognized as one of the Society’s official business partners-which meant one was not listed in their publicly available registers- could massively hurt a business; he also recognized that keeping an updated map of every single establishment within the city was rather unfeasible. Even with magic.

Easier to find on the other hand- again because of its sheer size, but also because of its somewhat more remote location near the city wall- was the docking station the group had arrived at. And the nearby shipyard that, considering the lack of water access on this side of the city, seemed more intriguing to Severin than it otherwise would.

But not enough so to keep his eyes from gravitating towards an even more eye-catching structure whose size rivaled even that of the Colosseum; if not in width, then certainly in height.

“Her Holiness’ Cathedral. Home to one of the kingdom’s few soul anchors,” Severin read the corresponding entry and fell in thought.

He had been warned that the prices charged to bind one’s soul were exorbitant, even for adventurers’ standards. But surely, it still had to be worth a visit. If only…

Severin was still debating whether it might not be a wiser to give the fantasy world’s church a wide berth, no matter how tempted he was, when at long last something in his pocket started vibrating.

…

“Sorry for the wait!” Seeing how the two could barely hide the smiles on their faces, Severin was inclined to doubt the sincerity of Miriam’s apology.

‘At least Timothy’s gear doesn’t look that ridiculous anymore.’

“Right. We might not have immediately noticed you were missing,” Timothy admitted, oblivious to Severin’s thoughts. “And when we traced back our steps, you were already gone.”

That he could believe. Having already figured as much, Severin waved them off and changed the topic.

“So what now? I’d say we head back. Unless you have something else to take care of?”

Not only had the day started early, and he was already feeling a bit tired with still some work ahead of him, but a certain innkeeper by now should have a generous meal waiting for all of them.

“Agreed.”

“Fine with me as well. That guy is probably already waiting for his badge.”

“Remind me to thank him for this new hat!”

“What do you mean? How about you thanking me? You know, the one you actually paid for it?”

sigh

“Let’s go then, kids.”