30 copper coins, a delicious soup, and a nap later, Avan was back at the same table downstairs in the inn, this time drinking hot herbal tea.

That's right, I still have the herbs in storage. And the runes for the blacksmith in Cyntha. Cyntha... I can only hope that Elisa is okay and that the bastard wasn't telling the truth...

Deeply immersed in his thoughts, Avan noticed almost too late that one of the other guests had gotten up from his table and was on his way to him, slightly drunk. The three others at the table looked over with amusement and interest at what their companion was trying to do, and Avan frowned, only slightly annoyed at having his peace and thoughts disturbed. But the man did not notice all this, because his group was out of his field of vision, and Avan himself had made a small modification to his self-made robe in his room. The "fabric" had previously ended at his neck, but now smoothly merged into a hood, which he had pulled into his forehead and inside consisted of a complete deep black to hide his face. Of course, this did not prevent the many curious glances he had received in the city and also in the inn, which was undoubtedly due to the expensive-looking robe.

Avan had created a robe out of his head, from what he had seen in all his online games, and the robes he had seen since his arrival on Eos. To his own pride and what he had seen in reflective surfaces, he had done exceptionally well, and his mana had instinctively corrected small mistakes, almost as if the system was coming to his aid.

So he had created a robe, and the system had even given him confirmation of his intention now, when he had apparently completed the robe with the hood into a real semi-permanent item.

[Celestial Robe of Avan Leaf]

Even though he still couldn't identify anything more than the name of an object in his small but clean upstairs room, a comforting warmth had risen in his chest when he seemed to have created his first object of his own in this world.

And so he sat there now, indulging his thoughts, when this guy had made it his goal to disturb his peace.

With a more than unnecessarily loud noise, the bearded young man set his wooden mug with overflowing contents down loudly on his table and plopped himself down on the chair opposite Avan without asking.

He faltered only briefly when he felt the pressure of an aura and an annoyed look from the bearer of the robe at the table, but the alcohol dismissed this as a figment of his brain and he simply babbled on.

"Yo! My mates, and I, well - actually me, were thinking if you wanted to join us? I saw, earlier, so without spying or anything, believe me you just registered fresh. And we can help! And take you under our wing. It's not because we desperately need a mage in our group, either. Absolutely not! So, how about it?" the guy just babbled on and failed to read the situation and mood of his counterpart.

A few silent seconds passed, and the drunk looked confused as he was stared at but got no response to his big speech.

Just as he was about to open his mouth to say something more convincing, at least in his head, an answer came. "No. Not interested."

And Avan took another sip of his tea, which was now sadly empty, and raised his right arm to wave to the barmaid that he wanted another tea, studiously ignoring the confused guy in front of him.

"But...!" Said the young man again, earning only another sharp annoyed look from Avan. "No means no. Besides, I've already found a group. Now, if I may continue to drink my tea in peace until my comrades arrive? Thank you."

With that rejection, and with relief from Avan, the man stumbled back up from his ill-gotten seat, grabbed his jug of ale, still confused, and stumbled slurping back to his comrades, who laughed at him as they saw his defeated expression.

Fortunately, he didn't set up a scenario and took it relatively well... Would have now unwillingly caused trouble for the innkeeper.

Avan couldn't suppress a slight chuckle as he watched the amusement of the others, who were taunting their confused comrade, who had just plopped himself back down on the vacant chair at their table.

But as quickly as the exhilaration had come, it had also disappeared again to the cold and calculating logic that had become Avan's constant companion since his escape from Haipu.

He leaned back against the warm wooden wall at his back and looked up at the ceiling, while the warm spices and the crackling of the fireplace had a calming effect on him. Not to mention the general exhilaration, the voices of various groups, and the general good mood in the tavern. If he wanted, he could easily listen to all the conversations, up to 250 meters away by now, although he didn't think it was necessary and still wanted to maintain a certain level of morality. Especially when he had been working on his robe in his room, and suddenly, without wanting to, had not only listened to the sexual intercourse of a man and a presumed prostitute in the neighboring room, but had also "watched" it by mistake.

He shook himself briefly at the thought of it, because the sexual preferences of the man came back to his mind, and he quickly pushed his memory of it aside, exactly at the same moment in which the tavern door opened and the cold evening air was let in uninvited.

An older gray-haired man with short hair stepped inside in full plate armor, his helmet under the crook of his left arm, and looked around the inside with a practiced look for danger, only to wave outside and gesture to the people behind him.

Directly behind him, the young woman, Jen, entered with her white and beige robe, accompanied by the young hunter Dani and her warrior friend Patris. The young healer looked searchingly around the room, while her guard remained stoically standing inside next to the door, and grinned with joy when she saw Avan sitting alone in the corner. The barmaid had just approached his table at exactly the same time as the newcomers entered and brought him a new steaming herbal tea.

To the great surprise of the three, and even the older man at Jen's side, Avan lifted his glass teacup in their direction and took a sip of tea.

This time he listened to the reaction of the group of three, and nodded inwardly with satisfaction at his mysterious appearance and his surprise greeting, which had exactly the desired effect.

"How, I thought WE were surprising him! Haha, I kinda like that guy already." Was the first sentence that came out of Jen's mouth, surprising even Avan back.

I just wanted to get a feel for them, huh...

"Jen, are you sure we can trust him? Did he overhear us? That doesn't seem very confidence inspiring." Came directly the statement of the young ranger, or huntress, while the young warrior with his leather armor, the shield on his back and the sword on his belt only looked over to Avan with interest.

"Well, don't be a doomsayer, Dani! After all, we started talking about him. It just shows how competent he is, and that he has some ability that either shows him when people are talking about him around, or even directly has a sphere of influence! We'll take him!" the young healer bombed the other woman mercilessly and with a wide grin on her face, only to march straight over to Avan, the others defeated in tow.

Avan couldn't quite help a brief smirk inside his hood and hidden face as he listened to the lively young woman and watched her pull her team mates along with her regardless.

Fun-loving, laughs a lot, gets what she wants in the end. Naive, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. Then let's see what exactly the three want from or with me.

With the teacup still in his right hand and taking another sip, he waved with his left to the people approaching him and gestured to the free seats at his table.

Jen sat down first, unashamedly, right next to him, while her guard glared menacingly at Avan. The other young woman sat down more hesitantly, right next to the young warrior, who had waved directly at the barmaid without comment and held two fingers in the air until he turned around again and exchanged his amused glance back and forth between Jen and Avan.

The healer clasped her two hands on the table in front of her a bit like a noblewoman and then turned her head to Avan's right. "Soooo, you heard us in the guild already, right?" She grinned mischievously at him.

He just nodded back and replied dryly. "That wasn't too hard, after all, as loud as you talked about me. Especially if I didn't misunderstand the group invitation from the other guys over there." And pointed his chin over to the other table from which the drunken young man had come earlier.

Admittedly, I'm not entirely sure they even saw my chin...

"Sorry." Avan pulled down his hood, knowing that the group had already seen his face during registration.

"Ah, we get it." Waved Jen off as the group's conversation leader with a wave away motion of her right hand.

"So, you heard we could use a mage on the team?"

Avan nodded briefly at her, but remained quiet again, continuing to drink his herbal tea.

"Good!" The young healer clapped her hands in delight, and the young warrior just chuckled again, seemingly a bundle of amusement whenever Jen did her thing, while Dani looked to the side on the floor in embarrassment and shook her head.

"We took a system assignment in the guild, silver rank. Red wolves have appeared in droves in the surrounding countryside, and we need to keep an eye on them. Dani here is our scout and hunter, while her friend Patris can taunt opponents and distract them from us. I myself heal, but can not do much damage except undead... And that's where a mage comes in! Namely you!" She explained enthusiastically, and Avan briefly wondered how sheltered the young woman must have grown up to be such a bundle of cheerful energy. The guard at her side only further confirmed his suspicions, as she must be a noblewoman or something similar.

As if noticing his sideways glance directly, she immediately commented. "This is only Linob, the guard who was assigned to protect me. He will not fight with me, but has the order to intervene and bring me home as soon as my life is in danger. So we urgently need someone else who can deal out damage!"

"You are a mage, aren't you? Your identification, at least, indicates you as a battle mage."

Oh, and there was my question answered, how the heck did she actually come up with that I was supposed to be a mage...? I wonder if my excessive use of my dungeon skills changed the system from battle monk to battle mage? Curious...

"Hmm, yes. I'm a mage of sorts, that's true. However, as you have seen, I have almost no experience as an adventurer. How does that work?" Avan first stated for all involved.

He had, of course, asked a few questions when he registered as an adventurer and got the standard questions answered. Avan knew that there were two types of quests, the second of which was added to the system hundreds of years after the adventurer guilds were founded.

The first type of quest was the typical quest that people from outside the guild or even the guild itself commissioned and gave coins or items as a reward, in addition to the experience that the system gave out upon successful completion, depending on the difficulty and your own participation in the task.

The second type of quest, however, was much more interesting for Avan, because it came from the system of the world itself and provided a kind of balance in the environment of the respective adventurer guild. This type of quest existed only a few hundred years and came with a variety of extras but also disadvantages.

The disadvantages were relatively simple, since this type of quests did not give any currency. Instead, it gave you much more experience upon completion, and a different kind of currency in the form of system tokens, which you could then redeem in any adventurer guild in the world in a system store, or even trade with other adventurers.

The tokens were stored in the small name tag, which each adventurer received upon registration and which also served as proof of identification or, in the event of death, as proof of death.

Avan's own name tag hung in a necklace and rested under his robe on his chest.

Adventurer

Name: Avan Leaf

Rank: Silver

Tokens: 0

Very simple, but all the more clear for it. This adventurer's token also served as proof and entry to most cities on Aorus, as it came from the system and could not be forged. As soon as an adventurer was considered renegade or evil, for example, if he went murdering through the area or had carried out a number of thefts, the top part of the certificate was crossed out, thus removing the person as an adventurer, but all other characteristics remained.

A simple will and the touch of two badges to each other was enough to perform a trade in tokens.

And so the adventurers were a relatively welcome bunch, and always verifiable by the badge.

"We have been able to get hold of a system quest, and are supposed to kill the red wolves in the area, and if possible, as an optional reward, clarify the origin of the sudden appearance of the red wolves." Jen explained the quest, for which they needed Avan as an extra damage dealer. "And depending on the wolves we kill, and whether we find out the origin, we get a bunch of tokens, and maybe even extra items! System quests, you must know, are highly sought after, and bring by far the best rewards!" She beamed at him with red cheeks as she realized that catching her breath between sentences wasn't such a bad idea.

"Ohhh, ohh. Sorry! We hadn't introduced ourselves yet, hahaha..." She noticed only now how strange the whole thing really was, and all the others present at the table, even her guard, just shook their heads, while all of them showed different kinds of grins on their faces.

"So, my name is Jen! The scowling one over there is our slayer and her name is Dani, and her boyfriend is Patris. You can ignore my guard Linob though, hehe." At the description and introduction of the young ranger, Jen caught a nasty look, and her friend the warrior could no longer suppress a howl and laughed out loud, while he lightly spilled the already brought ale on the table, as the foam dripped over.

"Ahahaha, Jen is just always the best when it comes to entertainment!" Laughed the young man shamelessly, catching a slap from his girlfriend, which only elicited a short grunt and more laughter.

The four, not counting the stoically standing guard, continued to talk through the evening, drinking a few rounds of ale after Avan had finished his tea.

He learned that the three had joined forces in Haipu a little over a month ago, and had since been heading south while taking quests and exploring part of the continent together.

Avan himself had revealed little of himself and had dodged most questions, well in his opinion, describing his magic as a kind of manifestation. Much to the surprise of everyone else at the table, he had, without any incantation, invoked one of his forms, which, in a dark black with small golden stars, had earned some admiration.

Apparently, the invocation of any magic without any kind of formula or pronunciation was known only by master mages, since all aspiring mages actually first learned the basics and worked with the incantations. Chantless invocation of magic required a lot of skill, inner strength, and a lot of practice, as the pronunciation helped with accuracy and was supposed to guide the magic.

So the evening ended soon, and the others also retired to their rooms, since this inn was the only one in the small town, but had almost a hundred rooms on several floors.

Avan found himself on his mattress at midnight, staring at the ceiling. The past week had flown by, and if the whole dilemma with him as a slave hadn't happened, he would have thought he was incredibly lucky. Just as he had made it to Tria without incident and had found this friendly group on the very first day.

With a sigh, he effortlessly pushed away any rising memories and locked his dark thoughts and emotions away in the back of his mind.

He closed his eyes and fell into a dreamless sleep.