As I trod my way to the entrance of the guild I start feeling a bit worried, would they even let me join?

‘If it’s just a matter of a fee then I should have enough.’

I think as I look towards the pouch where I put the money.

‘But what if it’s a matter of something else? Something that makes it so I can’t actually join?’

Feeling three quarters grateful to her for cheering me up, but still a quarter annoyed at her tactlessness, I arrive at the guild’s door.

The door is the same kind of door that you would see on a saloon in old Wild West movies, you know, those that have a big gap at the bottom, and I prepare myself to stride on through while dramatically pushing the doors to the side as though declaring to everyone that I am here.

*silence*

Only to discover that I’m too short to even reach the actual door and instead just walk underneath it through the opening.

At the very least it seems that Lizz didn’t know what I was trying to do, and thus didn’t realize I had just messed something up.

When I get inside and looked around there were only a dozen or so people inside, they were sitting at round tables that four chairs around each of them and were spread across the room.

Next to the left hand wall there were rectangular tables with a wide bench on opposing sides, while on the right hand wall there were wooden boards hanging off of it with pieces of paper on them.

At the end of the room, straight ahead from where we entered, there were multiple booths, small wooden one man booths with glass windows, very similar to what you would find in a bank, at the back of these booths were doors leading to the room on the other side of the wall.

To the right of these booths, still on the back wall, was another door, presumably leading to the same room as the booths.

‘I guess those doors lead to the staff room.’

And on the left side of the booths there was a staircase that lead upwards.

As I walk up to the booths I see that the few people that are here don’t seem to have noticed me since I didn’t actually open the door or make any sound.

When I get to the booths I see that only one of them was actually occupied, and the person within was sleeping.

Since I can’t actually reach the glass window I instead climb up one of the sides and stand on the wooden outcropping at the bottom of the glass window, presumably there for transactions, and try to see what I can do to wake him up.

I harden my claws and try to knock on the window, but it doesn’t seem to have any effect, however I did notice something, when I hardened my claws they became white.

It wasn’t a white glow like how phasing gave me a green glow, instead the purple cloth that made up my skin became white and porous, like bone, and looking like there was an actual claw sticking out of my finger, this effect spread from the tip of my claws, fading back into purple cloth the further it went from there and becoming completely normal at where the claws connected to my hands.

After having looked at this for a few seconds I decide to try something else, I phase my hand through the glass and try to flick his forehead.

However since I’m using phasing my finger just passes through his head, not having any effect at all.

I try to draw back the green light from my finger so that I can materialize my hands, and after a lot of effort I now have a green arm going through the glass and a purple hand on the other side, however-

‘Wait, if I can do this, then can I…’

I then cover my hand in the green glow and pull back, I then cover my leg in it instead and move it to the other side.

‘And then…’

I pull back the green light from my foot and put it down on the wood, I then slowly keep moving through the glass while drawing back the green glow from the parts that have already passed through it and spreading it to the parts that haven’t.

After a few seconds I’m fully on the other side of the glass, the man in the booth is still sleeping and the people sitting at the tables still haven’t noticed me.

I then go back to the other side, pleased with having discovered that this is something I can do, but before I pull out my right arm I harden it and give him a light flick.

*pok*

I then retrieve my arm before the man then looks up at me.

The man is wearing a pair of round glasses and has his hair combed back in a ponytail, he also has a pair of goat horns growing out of his temples.

Good morning.

“He-hello?” The man looks to still be half asleep, maybe if I don’t do anything to surprise him too much he’ll still be groggy when I leave and go back to sleep when I leave and think I was just a dream when he wakes up, though I’m not really sure what good would come out of that.

Before I can even come to a conclusion about whether it would be more beneficial for him to remember me or not he suddenly jolts up from his position, sorts a bunch of the papers that had been laying around messily in front of him into neat piles and then sits upright, now with an aura of a professional.

“Welcome to the adventurers’ guild, how can I help you?”

Err… Join? Can I join the guild please?

“Very well, however seeing as you seem to be a species we have yet to record, the guild would like to know what sorts of abilities you have.”

Err… Is that… necessary?

“Ah, yes, let me explain, the guild sometimes issues direct requests to its members in order to send the most suited people to certain quests, you don’t need to tell us the abilities that belong to you and you alone, you only need to tell us the ones that your species as whole share. Although if you tell us all of your abilities it will let us decide more easily what sorts of quests we should send for you.”

Ah… I see… Well in that case is there somewhere a bit more private where I could show you?

I look around the room at all the people who have now noticed that I’m here.

“Well I won’t be the one to write them down, I just send you and any others who come here to the right person. Speaking of the right person.”

He then pulls a rope that was attached to the left side of the booth and I can hear a bell ringing from somewhere above.

“They should be arriving shortly, are there any other questions you would like answered while waiting?”

Umm… You seemed very prepared for a new species, is this something that happens often?

“Yes, the guild is currently the only place keeping track of all the different species that exist, however we have only existed for ten or so years so there are still many new halfs and demis that enter the guild every so often.”

I se-

“I’m up! I’m up! Please don’t dock my pay!”

*slip*

“A-”

*THUD*

“SHI-”

*THUMP*

“FU-”

*CRASH*

“MOTHER FUCKER!”

When I try to respond to the man in the booth we both hear someone shouting and swearing from the stairs, and then a small black ball of fur rolls down and crashes into a table, breaking off one of its legs.

“Miss Lines, though I applaud the speed of which you were able to get here, that table will however be coming out of your salary.”

The black ball of fur then then stand up, revealing what looks like a black cat standing on it’s hind legs, while clutching its head and screaming-

“NOOOO!!!!!”

-it then points to the man, who I have yet to ask his name, and shouts:

“YOU EVIL, EVIL MAN!!!”

This is?

“This is Catherine Lines, she is one of the best we have at keeping track of paperwork and making it easily accessible, she takes care of most of this branch of the guilds information...”

Catherine then starts smiling smugly after the man reluctantly praises her.

“...despite the way she acts.”

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean!”

As she says that she’s stomping one of her feet on the floor, though despite her apparent anger it only produces soft sounds due to her paw pads, making me feel a certain comradery to her.

“Miss Lines, if you wish to make up for your earlier blunder then standing around while you have a customer waiting won’t help.”

Said the man while adjusting his glasses and producing a menacing glint in one of the lenses.

I would definitely say that this man seems to be the one holding the reins here, if it wasn’t for one thing…

“Hey, mister perfect secretary, is that a trail of drool going down your cheek? Were you sleeping on the job again?”

Catherine says this while covering her mouth with one of her paws, yet not covering it enough to hide her mischievous smile.

“That showed him!” She whispered while doing a guts pose.

“Well, a job's a job, so follow me and we’ll get started.”

Catherine then leads me to the door on the right of the booths while the man desperately tried to come up with a comeback, with no luck.

After we enter a door we come to a small room, on the left is another door while on the right there's a set of stairs going downwards.

“Down there we have some special equipment so you can prove whether you actually have the skills that you say you do, but don’t worry, there’s nothing too dangerous.”

After she says that we both start descending into the unknown depths below.

Also it feels really weird walking next to someone the same height as me...