Chapter 30

[Snake Report]

Ahem:

Behold, the Farstrider Guild!

Recognized and bestowed with the rights of operation by the Emperor himself, this renowned and respected institution holds a legacy stretching back hundreds of years.

Handed down by direct descendants for generations, passed from father to son ever since the first founding, it is the only independent, legally-licensed, Adventurer's Guild in the Entire City of the Emperor. The Farstrider Guild proudly stands, even in the trying times of late: a symbol of resilience. Proof that if a group of like-minded individuals work hard, they can survive any challenge.

Marked by the prominent crest of a most legendary and respected beast, they are also, undeniably, the chosen people of the Tiny Snake God.

All Hail.

Yes.

Something like that.

Completely accurate?

I stopped paying attention to the history spiel by the time we got out of the kitchen. So, I might have filled in the blanks with some improv, a little.

Here and there.

My focus was more on convincing Imra not to try and hit anyone else with a chair, because lord- did she want to. Seeing me set on fire was not good for the potential comradery.

Gonna have to work on that.

Ssss…

Adventurers, though.

Guilds.

These are not a totally new concept for me.

Miss Paladin was an Adventurer, as was Young Gandalf, as were those humans that tried to murder me when I broke their sanctuary, and the group I followed before finding the goblins...

Compared to all the weird things I've had to deal with, at this point, the premise of people being in the “Adventurer” profession is almost familiar.

Already had the general gist, even before Alem gave us the Guild tour.

He’s the big guy, by the way.

Tall fellow, build like a truck, main weapon appears to be a giant hammer. Probably tough as nails, too, considering Imra decked him with a piece of furniture and he’s still walking around. From what I’ve gathered, Alem is the “in-charge” person, but not the Guild owner.

So… the second in command.

Probably.

Anyways, like I said: every before the tour, I already fit together the pieces of how this all worked. Contracts are taken to do certain tasks by the Guild members, and the members get paid based on those. Fractions of the pay go back to the Guild, itself. So, it's like a freelance based business, but scarier. In summary, Adventurers are basically people who don't mind taking risks for rewards, and a Guild is a bunch of them lumped together.

Or, so I'd assumed.

The "a bunch" of Adventurers part, might have been an overestimation, as there are only three people in this Guild, currently.

Alem, the big guy I mentioned. Already went over him.

Eveth, the omelet slaying Mage. She set me on fire. Not my favorite.

Then, there’s… Dren.

Trickier to puzzle this one out. He’s a Paladin? Heard him called one, but it might have been sarcastic, because he’s still kind of young. Presuming, some sort of healer.

The rest of the Guild members are "out."

Fishy?

I’m not one hundred percent sure. Alem went over a lot of boring stuff with us today, while we were walking around. Showed us the building, the lodging spaces- we’ve got our own room, which is nice. He went over the main hall, the storage room, opened the door to the basement- but didn’t go down because Eveth seemed to have some excused for why we shouldn’t.

I guess she does some sort of studying down there, and it’s a mess?

Oh, also: Alem told us to pick out a weapon.

By us, I mean Imra. I guess they’ve just assumed I’m some sort of tamed monster, and at this point I feel like it would be too much work to correct them without making Imra sound crazier than she already does.

Besides the point.

There was an old spear hanging on one of the walls, and Alem said we could have it as long as we paid the Guild back for it with our work, which was nice of him. It has some sort of metal for the pointy end piece, but the rest is wooden. Imra seems happy with it.

Anyways, seems like our first day has been spent wandering around the building, helping them pick things out of the backroom to sell, or to clean… sort of dull, for Adventuring standards.

Alem had a bundle he filled up with random odds and ends, I guess heading out to the markets. Said something about getting food and seeing what he can convince someone named Stefano to buy from him.

Mentioned something about floorboards…

Eveth took off in the middle of the day, too. After trying, and failing, to talk with Imra about magic related things for about an hour, she gave up. Mentioned something about a contract and that she’d be back by the evening, bailed out of cleaning right after.

Which left us, and Dren- who apparently messed up and got in trouble for something, recently, as Alem told him he had to dust the entire hall.

Boring day, really.

Dren tried to talk to Imra, but she was having none of it. Didn’t get much out of a one-sided conversation, other than the fact that Dren likes to talk.

About food.

About ships.

About the coming festival and the food which comes with it, here in the city.

About how tomorrow we’ll be helping him with a job before Alem sends us out on a few tougher ones.

About how he likes life as an Adventurer a lot more than life in the Church…

Ssssss…

Okay, I take it back. Maybe I did get a lot out of that one-sided conversation, but not all that much of it was of any real value. Just Dren, talking… a lot.

Like, a LOT.

Man.

The only real bit of information that seemed to be a true importance is that the Farstrider Guild is probably in massive debt.

Guess times have been tough. Contracts that pay well are getting trickier to find, and the Guild’s leader, Varar, has been away.

Dren seemed a little worried about this.

Make’s sense, but he shouldn’t be.

He’s got nothing to worry about.

Nothing at all.

Clearly, the Tiny snake God sent me here to get this place in order.

Just you wait.

Everything’s gonna be just fine.