Chuck followed Erwin and the others through the town until they approached a building made from stone and wood. It only stood two stories tall but something about it spoke to him. He couldn't read the words above the door but a hanging sign displayed a shield, overlayed by a sword, the whole thing wreathed in flames.

'This must be the Guild.'

The guys hadn't told him much about it, saying they wanted it to be a surprise, something about first times. Chuck was noticing a theme with this group and letting him experience his first time through surprise. As long as they were good surprises like the Broken Knee he would allow it.

The entry was rather small. A group of six would be pushing the capacity of the small room.

An older woman behind the counter looked up as they entered, "Welcome to the Guild. Are you here to hire or join?"

"The three of us are already members," Erwin said, producing the metal tag he used to enter the town. "We need to get our friend here signed up."

"Will he be joining your group then?" she asked, pulling a large book from under the counter.

"Yes, we will be sponsoring him."

"Yes, well I need to hear from him," she said sternly, motioning Chuck forward. "Will you be joining this man's team, if you join the Guild?"

"Yes," Chuck answered in reply, not knowing why it would matter but apparently it did.

"Good, are you aware of the Guild rules?"

"No."

The woman sighed. "Guild fee is ten silver. You can take any solo job you wish but you are responsible for damages or failure to complete the job. Team jobs are available, your team leader will be the only one that can choose those.

Harming a fellow member is severely frowned upon. Killing another member will lead to a bounty being placed on your head. Theft of any Guild assets will result in the same. Do you agree to these terms?"

Chuck's head was spinning, the woman spoke everything so quickly his mind had to catch up. "Yes," he replied after he managed to process the woman's words.

The woman wrote something in the book, then looked up. "Name?"

Chuck went through all the woman's questions, name, age, specialty, and some other stuff that Erwin had to answer for him.

After that was done, Erwin handed the woman the required coin. It had to come from him because he was the sponsor. After all that was completed, the woman handed Chuck a steel ID tag with a set of numbers and letters on one side and the symbol for the Guild on the other.

"Is there anything else I can do for you today?" the woman asked after we didn't immediately leave.

"There is," Erwin added, "We just arrived from Far Reaches outpost. The postmaster asked us to relay that there was a basilisk sighting in the area. He would like a Guild issued writ to eliminate the beast."

The woman showed no sign of surprise as she pulled out another book. "Do you have the letter?"

Erwin pulled out the correspondence he was given.

The woman snatched it out of his hand and opened it with a flick of a knife, showcasing that she wasn't always some desk jockey. She read over the letter, stamped it with a wax seal in the shape of the Guild, then stamped a second piece of paper.

"Anything else?"

"One more thing," Mellas placed Sha's bag on the table, "killed by the basilisk."

The woman nodded solemnly. "Do you have his name so I can look him up?

Erwin relayed the pertinent information before the group walked away from the desk to a door on the right side of the room. The other side of the area sported a large open room filled with tables and people. Everyone was armed and armored as they stopped by a board or sat at tables eating and drinking.

The woman from the front counter entered a few minutes later, tacking another sheet to the board. Everyone made way for her. Once she left they quickly examined the notice. Most shrugged and walked away. One group looked at it, discussing amongst themselves before they snatched the new notice off the board.

Chuck hoped they knew what they were getting into. He still shuddered at the thought of that massive creature and its magic.

Chuck followed Erwin and the others to a table.

"So, fearless leader, what are we going to do next?" Mellas asked after sucking down half a glass of beer.

"First we need to get Bargo a healer for his arm. After that, we can take it easy for a few days before we plan the next excursion. Might be nice to find a protection job heading towards the capital, it has been far too long."

The three men clinked their cups together at that. Chuck could understand wanting to visit home after being gone for a long time. He was happy for them, it wasn't something he would ever be able to do himself. His homesickness would fade in time. This world felt more like his home in some respects already.

They finished the meal quickly and got up to leave.

"Chuck, did you want to do anything while we're in town?" Erwin asked.

Chuck had to think about the question for a bit before answering, "More skills."

Erwin nodded, "Mellas can you show the kid around. I'll go with Bargo. We can meet up here in the evening."

Mellas nodded, slapping the kid on the shoulder, "come on Chuck."

Chuck followed Mellas out into the bustling streets.

"Keep up, and watch your pack. There may not be as many pickpockets here as in larger cities but they are around."

Chuck made sure to grip his pack tight, and eyed anyone that got too close with suspicion.

Mellas smiled when he saw Chuck's reaction to what he said. The kid didn't need to worry about pickpockets, Mellas could spot them from a block away. It was easy since he grew up doing it himself. A knowing glare steered most of the brazen ones off to other targets. A hand on his sword deterred the rest.

The really bad ones were the easiest to spot, missing fingers were a dead giveaway. These were usually the most desperate ones. He only had to grab one kid's hand, "You want to lose a few more fingers kid?"

He shoved the kid away and he disappeared into the flow of people. Mellas was glad he had never been caught as a kid. Sure with enough money, he could have replaced a missing finger but the cost was prohibitive.

The two walked until they arrived at a shop that sold skills and other books.

A bell chimed as they walked into the building. Chuck watched an older man appear from behind a stack of books.

"Ah, greetings. What brings you to my humble shop?"

"Kid wants to purchase some stuff," Mellas stated, pointing with his thumb over his shoulder.

"Ah a young mind wishing to expand his knowledge, a fine thing. What sort of books are you looking for today?"

Chuck thought about what he wanted before he replied, "Not speak local, I learn. Can't read, you have book to teach?"

The man scratched his chin in thought, "No skill books but I have a few books meant for children to learn letters."

"How much?"

"For the three books... that should get you to a decent level to read, three silver and five copper."

Chuck heard Mellas huff at the price, but he didn't interrupt the sale. Chuck countered with a different price, "Two silver."

"No, I can't possibly take anything less than three."

They haggled a few more times before Chuck got the man down to two silver and seven copper. Mostly because he said he wanted to buy other books.

"What other types of books do you have in mind?"

"Skill books, common, uncommon."

"Anything particular?"

"No, please tell all, I decide after."

The man went through his entire inventory of skills. Most Chuck had no real interest in. He decided on four common attack spells: flame lance, grease, water blade, and earth blade. An uncommon defense skill, called wind barrier, and a common skill called elemental shield. Chuck haggled with the man on the price until he got him down to two and a half gold. That was a large portion of his money but it was worth it to have more skills to train.

Mellas said nothing as he leaned against the wall. He only watched the kid spend a fortune on skill books. He figured the kid must have found the money along with that bag of his that Ricardo had made off with.

Chuck added all the skills to his list, noting that enhanced vision had finished and stealth was getting close to level three. He decided to queue up all the common ones first, then the uncommon. Once he got a level in all of them he would decide what to do next. He looked at all the skill descriptions to see what he got with his money.

Name: Flame Lance

Rarity: Common

Level: 0 - 3

Damage Type: Fire

Status: Active

Stat: Intuition

Range: 1m

SP to Next level: 100

Description: Creates a 3 second jet of flame that shoots from your hand.

He was pretty sure this was one of the spells Ricardo used.

Name: Grease

Rarity: Common

Level: 0 - 1

Damage Type: None

Status: Active

Stat: Intuition

Range: 5m

SP to Next level: 100

Description: Creates a circle of grease that coats a 3m area. Small chance to cause targets inside to slip and fall. Can be set ablaze.

Chuck was glad to see the grease could be set on fire, it may come in handy.

Name: Water Blade

Rarity: Common

Level: 0 - 5

Damage Type: Water

Status: Active

Stat: Intuition

Range: 5m

SP to Next level: 100

Description: Creates a blade of water that can slash a target, has no armor penetration.

Name: Earth Blade

Rarity: Common

Level: 0 - 5

Damage Type: Earth

Status: Active

Stat: Intuition

Range: 5m

SP to Next level: 100

Description: Creates a blade of earth that can slash a target, has no armor penetration.

Chuck wasn't all that impressed with the earth and water blade spells, but they gave him other elemental options. Perhaps they could be combined using mana manipulation. Last were the defensive spells. Any good mage should have a few, and his lack had made him feel exposed, even with his leather armor. So far, it hadn't done anything to save his life other than blunt a few attacks.

Name: Elemental Shield

Rarity: Common

Level: 0 - 5

Status: Active

Stat: Intuition

Range: Self

SP to Next level: 200

Description: Creates a shield that absorbs 20% of elemental damage. Lasts for 10 minutes or until three elemental attacks strike the shield.

This was definitely a spell Chuck was going to max out quickly. Last was the wind barrier.

Name: Wind Barrier

Rarity: Uncommon

Level: 0 - 5

Status: Active

Stat: Intuition

Range: Self

SP to Next level: 600

Description: Creates a barrier of air 2m around the caster, that redirects all projectiles for 3s

It wasn't a very wide barrier but a few people should be able to still fit inside it if worst came to worst. The first levels shouldn't take long at all with his high intuition. He was glad that all the attack and defensive spells seemed to be intuition-based.

Before Chuck left the store the store, the man offered him one more book. The man explained that is was an old book written on magical theory. Seeing as Chuck had purchased so many basic spells the man must have figured he was a novice. The man was correct, and Chuck decided to purchase that book for four silver. It would be some time before he could read it though.

The two left the store and Chuck asked Mellas to take him to get a better pack. After trading in his old pack, he got a much nicer one with more space for two silver.

The two of them headed back to the Guild hall to wait for the others.

When they returned to the Guild Erwin and Bargo were still out.

"Can train where?" Chuck asked Mellas.

"There is a training hall in the basement," he replied, pointing to the door.

Chuck headed for the door. Stairs wound down at least three floors until they led out into a large open floor made from bedrock. Thick wooden beams were high overhead, supporting the rock ceiling.

A few people were scattered around the large room, most using one weapon or another to attack wooden dummies. Occasionally he would see a spell fired off. The twang of a bow drew his attention as he watched a lithe woman firing rapidly into a target on the far end of the cavern.

Chuck checked his skills, he had about an hour left until stealth finished. His attack skills would take a little over an hour to train each, if he left them on the slower slot. He decided to switch out mana manipulation once stealth finished.

The first hour he dedicated to training short sword, managing another four points towards the skills next level. He was going to have to devote a full week just to training if he wanted to level it up any time soon.

Stealth finished and he swapped the skills around using the faster slot to train up his new skills.

After another hour or so went by and flame lance and grease had completed their first levels Chuck paused. He was breathing heavily and his body ached from repeating the sword form. His weariness was showing as he only upped it by another three points. He was also getting hungry, deciding to head back up and have some food. He wondered if Erwin and Bargo had returned yet.