Master Of None

The party was prepared to push and shove their own way inside to check things out but instead were surprised to see the people parting for them to enter. Many mumbled about the color of their plaque. Apparently those with silver tier plaques really made an impression here. Noticing that there were few groups like them around was an even stranger fact. The party easily made it to the front counter where things seemed to be pure chaos, staff rushed around carrying large piles of documents, many started to drop and not a single one stopped for them. If Clara was here to see this she would have a heart attack.

Soon a woman with cheetah spots all over her body stopped from rushing around to greet them, Hello there, welcome to the adventurers guild. May I ask which quest you are accepting today?” The woman eyed their plaques and knew the group must be there to accept a challenging quest. ”With so many of you gathered together it must be a very big quest. We rarely see such a group.” This further confused them since it was very normal for groups to form a party, it was actually the rules in their kingdom.

” Well actually our party is just visiting from the Crystal kingdom. We decided we should broaden our horizons by stopping in here to learn how this city’s guild operates.” The cheetah woman was fairly taken back, it was a very rare occurrence for those of another city to stop in especially in a party. 

”Oh you must forgive me, it is rather rare to see a party form here unless it is a large quest, Many prefer to travel as solo or duo groups here. I am sure this is very different but it is the preference of the king, his rules help keep each individual as powerful as possible in case we ever need our strength.” after a short pause. ”It is often very busy in the mornings, within two more hours every quest but a handful will be gone, it is part of the competition to earn a right to battle in the coliseums. One must be at the bronze tier as an adventurer, then they just complete twenty quests to assist the city. This system is very advantageous for the growth and functions here.” this was actually a very great idea, it was plain to see the citizens drive to be involved with anything related to the coliseums, and if they always had challengers they would need a way to regulate it. On top of this they also geared that drive to assist the city itself not only helping growth but also ingraining the adventurers guild in to the traditions of the demi-human culture. 

”That is very different from our home but it sounds like it must be quite the life.” Walker was showing how unimpressed he was yet again in his face.

”Would you like to take a quest while here or are you all here to exchange items from travels? I am sure you came across many different enemies on the way through the plains.” The cheetah women had nailed their goals down solid. Walker was very much hoping to sell the snow imp bodies they had gathered, he wanted to hold on to the greater ice imp until they were back home but the snow imps were of no great use to them. They had left most to the rabbit tribe but still managed to keep seven of them from their hunts and travels.

”Where would we bring snow imp bodies to be dissected and appraised for gold?” Walker couldn’t locate a staircase to go to a downstairs discretion area. 

”Of course, you can just bring them to the counter, we can take them for appraisal in the work space in the back.” Having her this Walker realized that the counter was in fact much more reinforced than their home guild was. ”If you have exceptionally large prey to have dealt with you can have carriers come to where you have it held to pick it up.” Ah that would make sense, Walker could tell that based on some of the equipment the pushing adventurers had they were most likely trying to grab carrier quests. 

”No it’s ok we have them with us.” Walker confused the woman who wasn’t seeing any other bodies with them at all. When Walker began to pull them from his inventory more than just the cheetah woman behind the counter were stunned. Multiple staff members stopped in their tracks. Even the noise in the hall lowered as those with a view were sunned. The rare space magic and the higher tier party dropping some snow imps with severe damage on the counter was not a normal sight. 

Quickly recovering the cheetah woman moved very fast to grab an appraiser. She was very in her element using her speed to dodge around the staff still moving around in the chaos. She returned in the blink of an eye dragging an older looking man who had larger leathery ears. The man seemed to have some traits of a bat and had a blindfold covering his eyes. Making several clicking sounds with his tongue towards the pile of snow imps he nodded his head. It was very impressive to see an appraiser that was able to use sounds to appraise monster remains. With a whisper to the cheetah woman’s ear he turned to head back to where he had just come from. 

”Our appraiser says some are damaged very much and it will affect the price. All together the guild will offer a total of three hundred and fifty gold. This is reduced from four hundred due to damage, Due to your status as silver tier adventurers we will waive the dissection fee this time. Would you like the gold directly or have it deposited in to your party account?” Signalling that Walker wanted it in the party account he held out his plaque. After some small magic the transaction was complete and some other staff grabbed the snow imps to bring them off to dissection. ”Will there be anything else you need while here?”

Walker thought for a moment, ”Actually we are looking for some materials we may want to craft with, are there any specific places in the market to check that may be more unique?” This was most likely the best place to ask since the guild would directly sell the materials to a forge or to merchants that used the market place. 

”Oh of course, there is one shop that always brings in very strange items. A young woman and her father recently started here about two months ago, they said they couldn’t set up shop until after the crisis had passed but now they wanted to sell their wares as much as they could. They are known for their red and green fabric carpets you can;t miss them on the market road!” This was exactly the kind of place Walker wanted to check out. Strange items? Perfect, maybe his appraisal skill could sniff out something amazing. 

”Thank you for all your help today! We will definitely tell our guild manager about our time here, I wish you luck with the crowd.” Giving a thankful smile the cheetah woman was off in a blink. There were many more in need of help after all. The party easily left as many parted again for their exit. This was overall much easier than they expected after seeing the large crowd. 

Making their way back to the market road more and more demi-humans were on the streets. They still waved every so often but it seemed the general morning rush was enough to keep most focused on themselves. 

They were all happy to have eaten earlier because not the stalls were so swarmed with customers that getting anything to eat seemed i possible. Some merchants had already opened shop trying to sell various clothing, tools, and even gems. However these didn’t really interest them since they were mostly after materials. Walker couldn’t forget that he wanted everyone in the party to have some form of item that could store mana for later use. This meant that he would need to find unique materials to give to a blacksmith to create better equipment. Judging by what they currently saw nothing really jumped out saying that it would be useful. 

They continued down to almost the middle of the large road before they spotted a large patch of red and green carpeting. The space had three medium wood tables holding a large variety of different materials, gear, accessories, and even a few magic staffs. The variety was astounding. In the very middle a man sat cross legged eyes closed almost waiting for something. A smaller girl rushed around trying to attract attention from any that walked by. Some stopped and asked her questions while others ignored her. The girl seemed to be doing all the work, something was definitely putting Walker off though...