An hour later, Tim followed Simon into another wing of the guild that he had not been in before. There was an assortment of training rooms and various merchants who were set up to either buy loot the sojourners had won or sell them items they might need.

Apparently, the guild only kept relatively basic gear on hand. This included a good-sized stock of health and mana potion in their armory. Those were made available to members, but it was frowned upon if higher-level members used those resources.

Past the shops was a large room, much like a huge dining hall with tables spread out. There were entrances to a kitchen on the far wall, a bar on the south wall, and a series of boards with jobs on them up against the north wall. Along another section of the north wall was a counter with a pair of women working at it.

Tim took it all in as he entered the room and sucked his breath in. This was strangely exciting. For the first time since being here, he really had the feeling of being part of an adventurer’s guild. The magic had been cool, but this made him feel like this life might be more fun than he had previously imagined.

“Did you hear me?” Simon asked.

“No, Master Gatekeeper, I apologize. I was distracted by the sights and sounds of this room.”

“Okay … so you see our gardens, touch the book of names, learn skills for the first time, and get magical weapons. All things which don’t exist on your world. Yet somehow the dining hall is what captures your interest.”

“Not the room so much as the vibe in it,” Tim said as he looked out over some thirty people sitting in groups at various tables. “And I assume those are the quest boards over there, and that counter is where you turn in a quest that you want to accept.”

“Exactly. Either a lucky guess or you’ve seen something similar before.”

“Yeah, you wouldn’t understand if I tried to explain about it,” Tim said.

“Well, here is the key to your room. It will be waiting for you but will be taken over by the guild if at any point you don’t report in for ninety days. Now, I will introduce you to the Silver Eagles, but then it is up to you to convince them to let you go with them. If you don’t, then you are destined for killing rats in the sewers until you satisfy the council.”

“Can you tell me anything about them?”

“You’ve actually already met them. They were the squad that stopped you in the courtyard.”

“Ah. And if I understand correctly, a regular party is a group of four sojourners, correct?”

Simon nodded and said, “Yes.”

“Won’t that be a problem? They have a mage, a rogue, and a fighter. Won’t they need a cleric?” Tim asked.

“I’m not entirely clear about your terms, but yes, as I mentioned, their party member who died recently was their healer. They have been desperately trying to recruit a new healer, but as you might guess that is the hardest spot to fill on a team, and there have not been any available.”

“I’m not exactly a healer, so I assume that is why you gave me the high-end potions,” Tim said as he looked at the stack of the potions in his soul pouch.

Diamond Class Healing Potion: heals 250 health instantly and 40 health per 4 seconds for 28 seconds. Cool down on use: 40 seconds.

Tim said, “I’m sure that twelve seconds between being able to use potions feels like an eternity during a battle, but you are hoping they are desperate enough to accept me.”

“Yes, but don’t diminish the value of those potions. Each one of those is easily worth 10 gold. So that is a veritable fortune that you are holding. It represents a tremendous investment by the guild in your future success.” Simon’s voice managed to convey the implied consequences should Tim fail.

“One last question,” Tim said.

“You seem to always be saying that,” Simon replied.

“You just try being sent to a strange new world and see how many questions you have. I’d like to see you try to figure out an iPhone or learn how to program a computer.”

“Point taken. Now, what was your question?”

“Do you know what kind of quest that they have to undertake or any specifics about it?” Tim asked.

“To keep this simple, it is an escort quest. They are tasked with escorting the daughter of one of the great merchant houses to their safe harbor in Drieten. Suffice it to say that it is career suicide for them if they can’t complete this task. Even worse if they were to lose Miss Driez before she gets to her wedding.”

“That brings up all kinds of questions, but I won’t ask, for now at least. Please lead the way.”

With that, he followed after Simon as the gatekeeper walked right up to the adventurers he had briefly met twice before.

Reggie, the apparent leader of the Silver Eagles, saw them approaching. “Greetings, Master Gatekeeper. I see you have the newest 1st gen with you.”

“Yes, and the guild master is hoping that soon you will have him with you, at least for the next mission.”

Before Reggie could say anything back, Lacinia jumped to her feet. Tim had been too busy before to really take a good look at her. She must be around twenty-five and was reasonably attractive, even if she had a bit of a pinched nose. Her hair was cut short, which he supposed was a practical choice.

Her leather armor appeared very practical but was also clearly tailored to her figure and left no doubt about her femininity. However, it was not what he would have called the stereotypical bikini-style armor that female characters wore in video games back home. Honestly, he would have been shocked if it had been. Those skins might appeal to the guys playing RPG games, but it had always struck him as uniquely impractical.

“This has got to be a joke. Charles must be losing his mind!” she snapped.

“That is guild master, or maybe even Master Godfried to you, and I assure you he is most serious, but I am not here to bicker about it. You know as well as I do it is wise to get on the guild master’s good side. Just like you know that the guild charter prohibits any master or even the entire council from interfering in the composition of a squad. We can suggest, but that is all.” After a meaningful glance at Reggie and a nod of his head for Tim, Simon turned and left.

Again, Reggie was cut off by Lacinia. “You can't seriously be considering this.”

Armon, the elementalist in his yellow and blue robes, said, “Well, don’t you just know what everyone else can’t possibly be thinking. Just sit down, Lacinia. We need to discuss this, but I’m gonna tell you right now that I am inclined to take him, even if he is on the bizarre side. We don’t have a fourth.”

“You don’t get to decide,” Lacinia responded.

“Right, and neither do you. None of us do. It’s a vote thing, but what harm could it cause to hear what he has to offer,” Reggie said.

Lacinia sat down, but she leaned in and brushed her lips against the guardian’s cheek. Armon rolled his eyes, and Tim got the impression that the other two were a couple and that she wasn’t above using that to get her way.

Reggie simply looked at Tim and said, “Please, have a seat. Everyone is already watching us. Let’s not make any more of a spectacle than we have to.”

Tim sat next to Armon, across the table from Reggie and Lacinia. “I don’t know how this works. I just know that I was told that I need to ask if I can come on your mission. Simon told me that you might need another squad member.”

“Those are two quite different issues. Yes, we have an opening right now, but we are not interviewing you for a spot on our squad. I’m not saying that would never happen, but we generally wouldn’t even consider anyone who didn’t have at least five years of adventuring experience. What we are considering you for is a last-minute fill-in for a mission that starts in about an hour,” Reggie said.

“Sure, sure. I have no actual experience because I only got to Iocusinte a few days ago, and half of that time I have been unconscious or doing the test with the Book of Names.”

“Fair enough. It must be odd being a 1st gen. You know… losing everything that you knew before and ending up in this strange world,” Reggie said.

Armon added, “It is super fascinating too.” When Lacinia kicked him under the table, he said, “I mean other than losing your family and friends.”

“It isn’t so much that. I had a job I hated, only casual acquaintances, and I barely saw my brother and parents for holidays. It is just a system shock. I wasn’t exactly given a choice. One minute I am driving my car, and the next I am lying in a field here,” Tim said.

“I can see how that would be disorientating. It’s not that I am unsympathetic, but we have to decide in the next five minutes if you would be an asset or a liability. I hear you are level 19 and a warrior class.

We don’t really need that. Each of us is level 11. I am a guardian so from the tank class tree like you. I specialize in protecting other people by taking the beating myself. Guardians are low damage but high defense,” Reggie said.

“My class is an assassin from the Damage Dealer tree,” Lacinia said as she glowered at him. “Don’t give me that dirty look. It isn’t just about killing people. I assassinate monsters mostly. I’m not gonna lie. There are some of my classes who do the darker side of the jobs, but for me, it’s just about stealth, critical strikes, and poisons.”

Tim looked at Armon and said, “I already felt part of what you can do. So elementalist means you control the elements. Duh, that sounded way more stupid when it came out of my mouth than it did in my head.”

“Yeah, pretty much.” Armon laughed.

“Since your robes are yellow and blue, does that mean electricity and water?” Tim asked.

Armon stuck his hand up to his face and rubbed his eyes. “I don’t know what mages in your world wear, but no sojourner would go around advertising their strengths with color-coding. I just wear these because I look so good in them.”

Lacinia snorted at that.

“All elementalists have access to any of the elemental skills. It just depends on the build that we pick as well as personal preferences. I personally prefer diversity. So, I have single target lightning and fire spells as well as area effects for damage and control in ice, water, and earth.”

“Okay, what about you?” Reggie asked.

Tim thought about it. He didn’t know how much information he wanted to share with these people. He needed to give them enough to get a spot on the team. Beyond that, holding back on information would compromise their capabilities as a team. “So, back home we have this saying, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. I’m not part of your team, but I need to know that I can trust you all. I don’t want my build being shared around until I learn how things work here.”

The three Silver Eagles looked at each other. Tim could see the unspoken communication that passed between them. After a long pause, Reggie said, “We agree to keep whatever you tell us during this mission secret.”

Tim decided he didn’t have many options. “As you know, my class is warrior.”

Lacinia snorted. “At least, you are now.”

“Look, if this is gonna be a problem, then let me know. I have no idea why I looked one way when I got here and entirely different now. I don’t know why my character sheet first was for a blood mage and now is a warrior. Before I got sent to Iocusinte, I didn’t look like this or that. This is all far newer to me than it is to you.”

“Okay, okay,” Armon said, “we get it. All the 1st gens say that, but we can’t work with you unless we know how you can fit into the team.”

“Fair enough, sorry. I get really upset about what happened to me. In some ways this is a dream, but no one asked me. No one gave me any choice about what I would be in Iocusinte. So, my skills are a little all over the place.” Tim then rattled off his skills.

“Those are a bit unusual, and we still have the problem of not having enough healing. My abilities are fairly limited in that regard,” Reggie said.

“Well, my mentor gave me these as a backup healing option.” He then pulled out one of the healing potions and set it on the table.

Lacinia picked up and looked at it. “It’s diamond grade. These are expensive. How many do you have?”

“Twelve,” Tim replied.

“Look, I’m voting to let him join us. It is gonna be hard enough to cover everything with four of us, let alone with three. He may not have any experience, but hopefully, his levels will make up for that,” Armon said as he stared at the others.

A moment later, Reggie said, “Okay, I agree. What about you, Lacinia?”

She shrugged. “Doesn’t really matter. Even if I disagree, it’s two to one. So, welcome to the Silver Eagles, noobie.”

Tim smiled. “What’s the job then?”

“We were hired by the Dranesti trade house. The job is to escort their heir to a wedding with the heir of the Salycon trade house. The merger will eventually create the largest merchant conglomerate in Iocusinte, and there are numerous people who don’t want that to happen,” Reggie said.

“Oh great… I just love escort quests,” Tim said as he groaned.

“If you did, you would be the only one,” Armon said.

“Where are we escorting her to? And why don’t they just have their own soldiers do it?” Tim asked.

“We are mostly out of time now, but you have to understand sometimes we forget how little you know about this world. You know that everyone in the guild is a sojourner, right?” Reggie asked.

“Yes, and from what I understand that means we have a leg up on the rest of the people in the world.”

Reggie shook his head. “It isn’t just a leg up. We are not even playing the same game as they are. Flats is a sojourner slang term for those who are not us. It’s cause they are mostly level one and can never progress beyond level four. Sure, they can learn skills by practice, but they have an entirely distinct set of class trees with entirely different abilities. They don’t even have mana like we do. Of course, if they have money, they can get magical gear, and so they can’t be completely discounted, but they can never meet the requirements for most of the magical gear.”

“So, we are like supers, and they are normal people,” Tim said.

“I don’t know what that means exactly, but I’m 12th generation. My parents, their parents, and their parents before them, back as far as anyone alive, remember, this is what we were. Every few generations the potential weakens until, in another six hundred to a thousand years, my descendants will be flats too. But for every sojourner I know, this is just the way we are. Even the high gens have a significant advantage in combat over a flat. Oh, and by the way, don’t let our clients hear you call them flats. It is frowned upon outside of these walls. They will have their own soldiers with them, but only a few. They can’t let it be obvious how important this is, so they hired us for quality over quantity,” Reggie lectured.

“Okay, so two last questions. First, what do I do next?”

“Simple, we just need you to meet us at the western city gate in one hour. If you don’t know already, your character sheet has a chronometer on it. Just another advantage that we sojourners enjoy.”

“Easy enough. Just bring me?”

“Yeah, and those health potions.”

“Finally—I always say better asked upfront than complained about afterward— what am I getting paid for this job?”

“Well, that is actually your third question.” Reggie smiled before answering. “That’s the best part, especially for you since you have to give up so much of your loot as a probie. We are only being paid four silver pieces, but then we get a 50% discount for one month on anything we want to buy from any trader within the Draynesti family. Depending on how you use that, it could be worth dozens of golds. I guess it depends on how much money you can get to buy gear. Might even be worth taking out a loan from the guild.”