Panic

Slithering through the door as someone opened it, casually going through someone's two legs and settling in a random corner unnoticed, not due to a wish to remain concealed on his part, but because he just was too short as he moved around with his shoulders slumped.

His white fur appeared quite thin and messy, almost seeming brittle.

Despite have a face of nothing but the same fur, he still managed to make the lower part just a bit longer to give the illusion of a beard.

He sat down at a table, rubbing his beard in a perplexed and mysterious manner as he sized up the different groups he could see.

What was apparent was that the previous adventurer group he had encountered, wasn't exactly a good representation of the norm of adventurers party.

It seems like males and females didn't typically mingle together, although, the golden number of the profession did look to be three.

Most of them seemed to at the very least gather up in this number, rare were the adventurers by themselves or in a duo.

The wretch also noticed that most of them seemed well-equipped, the few exceptions being most likely beginners as they certainly felt weaker.

"You seem like the kind interested in some intel, stranger" some guy dressed in all black suddenly popped out of nowhere and sat right next to the disguised monster.

"Do you say that to everyone you meet?" the shady-looking man somewhat recoiled at the voice of this little furry person, sounding like it was meant for nothing but sceeching at people until they turn deaf.

Surprised but not left any less focused, the man leaned forward against the table and spoke in a low tone.

"Come on, I know everything there is to know around here, I'll cut you a deal, first question you ask, free of charge" he whispered.

"A good bargain, don't you think?" the man desperately pleaded, feeling like the white furball wasn't caring in the least about what he had to offer, the fact that he couldn't see his face didn't help him.

"Fine, why don't you speak in details of the various guilds?" asked the wretch shamelessly, using the generous offer to rip as much as he could from this random guy.

The man in dark paled up a bit as he slightly nodded his head, seemingly taking notes for later uses, still after lightly hitting his chest to get out a cough, he began responding without complaint.

There were many guilds to go over but most were of no importance, either they were ridiculously small or were 'public' guilds, like the great guild had been.

The more interesting ones were the 'private' guilds, as they didn't just accept anyone, they either took people that alread established themselves as competent or handpicked recruits themselves.

Hearing all about them, the wretch wondered why they were even called guilds to begin with, they barely had any similarities in the way they functioned, they were more akin to clans that nurtured individuals based on certain things.

They apparently didn't even accept quests from the outside much too, they just went into dungeons and wilderness, collected materials and such.

The only quests they had were just that, all for the guild itself to gain riches, riches used to nurture their members, members who completed quests and so on.

An infinite circle of wealth.

There were a few big names but what he was interested in was the most powerful guild, Otrera was the name they gave themselves, apparently, the founder was a real big fan of a certain species called 'amazonian' or 'amazon' and she had decided the best way to pay hommage was to make a guild made of nothing but women.

Axiolypito didn't see the point when there weren't any amazons in it but he didn't linger onto it and only stroke his beard pensively as the man drank a cup of something to ease his throat after speaking so much.

He waited for Axio to say something, hoping that he would want to buy some more intel after this, he looked over at the small man, who he presumed was part of some sort of obscure beastfolk or demi-human species.

He couldn't discern his expression but as the small man turned to face him, doing so deliberately in a slow fashion, he felt like he was going to hear something incredible.

He had forgotten the strident noise that his voice was though.

"Listening to you babbling on and on, I couldn't help but notice that you were pretty bad at expressing yourself for an information broker" the wretch hit right where it hurts without realising it.

The broker grasped his chest as if he had been suddenly struck as his heart pained him, not because he felt called out but because this way of bringing things up reminded him of another time were he had been found out merely by demonstrating that he wasn't performant in what he claimed to be a professional.

He had claimed that he knew everything there was to know, acting as if he was the best of the best but he was clearly lacking.

Getting called out wasn't a problem that made his heart sizzle, it was simply that this way of speaking reminded of the time he had been interrogated before being throw into a jail, which he had only gotten out of recently, after years.

The traumatic made him lower his head and hyperventilate, cutting off the wretch before he could continue speaking.

"Are you an inspector? I swear, I won't do it again, it was just a one time thing, I left my grudge behind!" he spoke in an almost inaudible voice as he looked around the guild, he was certain that no one knew him there but not anymore.

"Calm down, will you? Your sweat is making you stink, explain yourself and perhaps, you might just avoid getting your eyes poked out" threatened the wretch, the former criminal swallowed his saliva out of stress.

"It should be only one eye max for an attempt at mass murder! Not both!" he said as he rubbed the sweat of his forehead.

"Mmh" the monster didn't respond, after all, this guy was already telling him everything without him having to do anything, truly a blessing to be as charismatic as this.