New Town, New Problems

The town spread out in a radial shape from the mountain, with three spokes. Each spoke reached out to one of the three gates into the city. Behind John lay the east gate, which led back to the forest, and beyond that, the naval city of Buildport from which Luna had most recently travelled. The main entrance pointed north towards the capital city of Lanagros. And according to what Luna had taught me of the continent's geography, the west gate should lead towards the trade city of Regrad.

I took in the sites of the town around us. There were pools of hot spring water throughout the living area, typically surrounded by stone walls, giving off sulphuric fumes. The houses were made of a stone foundation with timbers for the skeleton of the walls. The walls themselves were made of adobe, and they had clay tile shingled roofs. We saw families milling around in the afternoon sun, walking between some of the nearby stores. Jeorge informed us that the area we were in is mainly residential and that the dddddGuild hall was on the main street. As we headed to the centrally located main road, which stretched from the mountain to the north gate, I decided to ask Jeorge again about what he meant earlier. "Um, well, the only demi-humans we see these days are slaves..."

"And why is that?" I asked, seeking more information from the man. "Whaddya mean why!? Obviously, it's because of the brimming war. The demi-humans are banding together to strike against their betters." Jeorge exasperatedly explained, treating me like a child that had not been paying attention in class. He stepped in closer to me while Luna was slightly ahead of me on the other side. " Better keep your eyes peeled on that one. Even with the crest, you don't know what sort of sneaky business their kind might be up to..." He whispered into my ear. Feeling my blood boil at his words of hatred and disgust towards the sunny, delightful girl next to me, I felt my reasoning start to slip. I felt the soft, furry fingers of Luna's right-hand slip through the fingers of my left as she entwined fingers with me and wrapped her arm around mine.

Her warmth got through to me and returned my head to a more balanced state. Looking over to Jeorge, I saw that he had backed off a few steps with a horrified look on his face as he saw how I was treating the beast person he had just criticized. I emitted some of the strength of my high Charisma score as an aura of intimidation. I could see Jeorge's knees shaking as the oppression took over him. Feeling my hand be gently squeezed, I pulled the dreadful emotions back inside. Jeorge, now free of it, fell to his knees. He bowed his head and begged for my forgiveness. I commanded him to finish bringing us to the Guild.

After a few minutes of walking, we now stood on a broad central avenue. A marketplace stretched the majority of the length of the road. Near the middle, two large buildings faced each other. One was three-storied and wooden. It had glass pane windows at the front, showing a large office that reminded me of a government service building where one would apply for their licenses or register a car. I assumed it was the Adventurer's Guild based on the sign that hung out front, showing a crossed sword and staff.

The building across the way looked to be a sizeable multi-dwelling unit of some sort. It was built similarly to the residential zone houses, except that it was two-storeys-tall and stretched 100 metres along its street front side. Impressed by its scale, I stared for a moment until my eyes came across the sign that showed a bed. I suppose it is most likely an inn. At that size, I more would want to call it a hotel or resort.

Looking towards Jeorge, I ordered him to stay outside and await our return. "Yes, sir!" He barked back, saluting me on instinct. Luna and I headed in. We were greeted upon our entry by an attractive smiling woman, who seemed to direct the traffic flow appropriately. "Hello, we are looking to sign up as adventurers. However, we have no identification due to being attacked in the forest on our way." The woman raised her eyebrows at this, "Oh no, and you two managed to get away unscathed?" She asked, seemingly a bit surprised by our undamaged condition. "Sorry, let me clarify. We are the only survivors. We came across the tail end of the fight and witnessed the last few members of an adventuring group get killed by the orcs before the orcs attacked us, and we wiped them out. Actually, here, I brought the guild tags from the fallen adventurers." To prove my story, I pulled out the handful of tags I had collected from the bodies of the men in the forest.

The greeter's eyebrows had been slowly creeping farther up her forehead as her shock at our tale increased. I was starting to worry that her eyebrows might disappear into her hairline. As I stood there looking at her, I could practically see the gears spinning in her head as she took in the sight of the tags dangling below my closed fist. Finally coming to a decision, she spoke, "please wait here, I will return in a moment." She indicated a nearby bench. Luna and I took a seat. Feeling a little uneasy, I got Luna to hand me the rucksack. Using it as cover, I retrieved our weapons from my Storage. I first gave Luna her rods and holsters, which she quickly snapped into place while trying not to draw too much attention. Unfortunately, clipping my heavy brawler style Gauntlets to my belt was unable to be done subtly. A few of the passing staff and adventurers gave me appraising looks.

After a few minutes wait, the woman from before returned and said, "The Guildmaster will see you now. Please follow me to the training area where he is currently doing an inspection." Luna and I followed along; I mouthed to Luna that she could not engage other than for self-defence until I gave an order. We arrived at a small field behind the building. The ground was compacted earth from decades of men stamping down upon it. In the middle stood a man in his early forties. He was 180 centimetres tall, so a bit shorter than me. His horizontal presence, though, was where he was the most impressive. He was barrelchested to a frankly incredible degree. It went well with his bald head, bushy eyebrows and matching walrus-esque mustache. He had a massive practice zweihander strapped to his back.

"Guild master, here are the two applicants you asked to see." The greeter handed us off before quickly turning to leave. I slowly approached the man, extending my hand for a handshake to show my respect for his position. "Greetings Guildmaster, I am John, and this is my travelling companion Luna." As the Guildmaster looked up and I caught the look in his eye, I immediately knew we were in for a fight. I let the mana flow to my limbs, enhancing my muscles as I equipped the gloves at lightspeed. The man had already started moving. But it was not toward me, but rather, past me directly for Luna. Letting the anger that had just recently been restrained by her flow through me, I struck the ground between the two of them. My Ground Smash raised the earth into an impromptu wall, blocking his path to Luna.

"Leave her out of it. If you need to test and see if we were strong enough to fight orcs, I alone can prove that by crushing you." I spat at the new target for the bloodlust roiling forth in my heart.

Doing my best taunt, I extended my gauntleted hand before using my fingers to do the classic 'bring it on' gesture. I smile breaking across the middle-aged man's face, he kicked off the ground, leaving a plume of dust in his wake.