It took three hours to get to Starter Town, and just as Maria had indicated, while not an easy route it was a safe route. They had to climb some hills, traverse some rough terrain, and climb some rocks. At the end of the journey, they were all sweaty and dusty, but they could see the gates to Starter Town. Guards were posted at the entrance; it was late afternoon when they arrived at the gate.

The guards were not human, but were humanoid, one had the face of a cute bunny with white fur. Even though the bunny person was cute his friend the second guard was anything but. His head was that of a horned lizard.

Horned Lizard head looked at the new arrivals, “Hewmans, intaresting.” The way he pronounced the words was very strange and not necessarily happy that they were there, “Rules.” And with that he pointed at a sign by the gate with his spear, “Follow them.” And waved them through.

They looked at the rules, they made sense. No fighting, no gambling, no this, no that, check in at the Inn. Normally rules were up because something had happened, some of them were a little worrisome. But they would follow the rules, not like it was not standard in school to follow rules. They went in once they had all read them.

The place was clean, very clean which made sense one of the rules was no littering and it looked like people followed the rules at least in that regards. There were houses, warehouses, stores, what looked like stables, and various other buildings. They made their way to one of these buildings, a sign indicated that it was the town inn. They entered, the main room had a large fire going though it was a blue flame and instead of heat, it emitted cold, which made it cooler inside then outside. They went to the counter and ringed a bell that was there.

From a door which one could assume were the kitchens since the smell of food wafted out to them as it was opened a smallish humanoid came out. It looked somewhat human, but the ears were off, they were pointed and instead of hair it seemed that it had feathers. The rest of the person’s body was average size, “Oh, guest very nice.” His voice had a sing song quality to it. He looked at the five newcomers, “Younger than usual but who am I to complain about guest?”

“Good afternoon. We would like a room.” As the chosen leader Josh was the one who spoke.

“Yes, yes, will you all be staying in the same room, or should I assign rooms to each of you?” The smallish man got on a stool as the desk had been built for someone taller than he was. He opened a book that was on the desk and picked up a quill and dipped it in ink, “Party of five, to stay for an indeterminate duration. How will you be paying for your stay?”

They looked at each other, how were they going to pay indeed? None of them had brought money with them, well maybe a few dollars and some change, “Actually sir, we are not from these parts, and we do not have actual money.”

“Oh, well not to worry I am sure we can come to an agreement and there is always plenty to do in town and outside for your type. I would check with the Adventurers Guild first and foremost they have plenty of work. One room or five?” He had his quill ready to write.

“Thank you, Sir. One room will be fine.” This would be no different than when they slept over at each other’s houses, they all slept in the same room.

“But where are my manners, welcome to my inn my name is Mr. Rowen.” He made a small bow to them, “Crooss, Croos where are you!? My apologies my son is probably not doing his work as usual.” At this he got off his stool and opened the door to the kitchen, “Table and food for five please. And someone send for Crooss.” He shook his head and came around the desk, “If you would follow me, we will have some drink and food brought out for you.” He led them to one of the tables in the room and bowed again as he saw another customer raise their hand for his attention.

They had not really paid attention to the rest of the room; the other person was sitting at a far table by a corner. He or she for they could not tell what they were was dressed in very dark clothes with a large hat that hid their face. The person raised hand they had seem was covered by a glove no skin was exposed at all that they could see.

They sat in silence and waited for the promised food. They were quite hungry; of the snacks they had brought they did not have much left. They had not planned to be gone longer than six or seven hours while swimming and fishing. The promised food had come at last; the server was a younger humanoid that looked like the inn keeper. Maybe this was the inn keeper wayward son Crooss, but who knew maybe they all looked similar. The food had been brought out in a small cart, and the server was quick to put food in front of them.

“Thank you for your stay at Rowen’s Inn, we hope your stay is pleasurable and that you tell all your friends about our wonderful little place.” The speech seemed rehearsed, but it was good little speech. They thanked him and he left them to their food.

They poked at their food, it seemed to be some form of stew with vegetables on the side what looked like a tortilla and a drink that had a sweet smell.

“Maria is this food safe to eat?”

“Analyzing…” Beep, beep, boop.

Nutritional Facts

Serving Size 1 Bowl

Health: 30 HP Mana: 5 MP Action Points: 5 AP

Extra Benefits: Unknown

“The food has high nutritional content, and your physiology will be able to process it, therefore it is deemed safe to eat by your kind. Would you like to know additional information like Calories?”

At least one of them had asked, before she even finished Pepe had already started to eat, for the most part he was an eating machine. You would think as skinny as he was where did he put all the food away at? “Taste great to me.” This was said in between spoonsfuls, “This tortilla is really good too, not as good as my mom’s but still good.”

So, they dug into their food, it was wonderfully rich and as hungry as they were made it even better. The drink was a fruity drink, it had the taste of apple and something else that they could not identify.

They finished their food, the inn staff removed the plates, picked up their belongings and brought them up to their shared room. They followed and were left alone, there was a bed for each of them and a sixth that would stay empty.

None of them wanted to lay down as they were sweaty and dirty from the walk, they could really use a bath or shower. They put their things away at least what they could, they still needed to bring their clothes with them to change, the dirty ones not sure how they were going to wash. This world was so different, and they doubted they had washing machines and dryers. They would either need to wash them themselves or pay someone to do it. So many things that they needed to learn, they had been here less than twelve hours. How were they going to get home? What were the rules of this place? How, how, how? So many questions and no answers.

The innkeeper provided a guide to lead them to the bath house and informed them that their clothes could be washed while they bathed. The bath house was two streets over, so it was a short walk. The guide spoke to the owner, and they were led into a changing room where they were handed towels. They all felt awkward walking out with just a towel wrapped around their waist. They were led to an area divided by a wall with a sign on the entrance, the other entrance had a different sign. They paid attention to the signs; they would need to remember to make sure they did not go into the wrong place.

After finishing their bath, they felt refreshed. There were simple clothes waiting for them, while they were not a perfect fit the clothes were clean and felt good. They made their way back to the inn. They paid attention to their surroundings; the place was so different than where they had come from. At the same time, it was no different than any town, it had it stored, houses, and the people, there were very few humans walking around this place.

The people were so different, short, tall, and broader than what they were used to, all shades and colors, and all sorts of beast people, lizards, birds, rabbits, squirrels the list went on and on. But if you looked closely, they were just people, a giant standing at about eight feet carried a basket with what could only be identified as some form of fruit or vegetable. Some kids played together; they were younger than their group. They all wished that it was them playing, the day before it had been them, now they needed to figure out why they were here and how they could get home.

While they were worried about how they were going to survive here they knew they had to stick together the same way they had done these past years. No one would be left behind; they were a team, and they were friends first and foremost. As long as they had each other, they could handle anything that came at them. They returned to the inn and fell asleep exhausted.

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The following morning came too soon, outside the sun was out and there were birds singing, something very different than what they were used to. The previous night Crooss had dropped off their clean clothes, now they had what had been given to them at the bath house and their old clothes. They went downstairs rested from the stress of the previous day and ate a simple breakfast.

“Maria how do we get work? the inn keeper said that there was plenty of work.”

“Bobby the Adventurers Guild would have all request. You need to sign up to access the work they have. These are commonly known as quest.” There was another game term they knew well.

The Inn Keeper came to greet them, “Good morning, did you sleep well? Is there anything I can help with?”

“How can we get to the Adventurers guild?”

“That’s an easy one, it is three buildings across and to the left, when you are ready, I can point it out outside.” He returned to his desk in case any of his other customers needed help. Once they were done, they waved Mr. Rowen over. He led them outside and pointed out the building they needed to go to.

The group found themselves in a small building, there was not much to it, one person was there behind a desk. She seemed to be very tall and thin, for all purposes she looked like a schoolteacher in her mid to late twenties and wore glasses. Her clothes, while not what you would see in their school, seemed conservative.

She was busy working on some paper and was writing away and did not notice the group come up to the desk, “No, no that can't be right. That won’t do at all.” There was a nameplate on her desk, but they could not really read the language.

Translation in progress...... Translation Complete: Miss. Hoysver

Updating Translation Program…. Update complete.

Any future writings in this language will appear as if writing in your native tongue.

Pepe cleared his throat to get her attention. And she jumped as she was not expecting anyone to come in. There were an endless number of requests on a board behind her. She looked up and was surprised to see someone there, “Oh my, oh my your, your adventurers? Please tell me, your adventurers.” She sounded excited at the possibility.

“Well, we are trying to be. How do we sign up?” Obviously, they had not signed up to work for the summer, the plan was to have fun. But they had ended up here, wherever ‘here’ was.

“Oh yes, I have the application somewhere here, one second.” She started to go through the drawers of the desk then what could only be described as a filing cabinet behind her, “Here they are!” She took them out then blew off the dust that had settled on them.

Bobby and Erin were the better writers in the group, so it fell to them to fill out the form.

“Party Name? Any ideas?”

“Bombardiers!”

“The Packers!”

“I am not going to be a Cheese Head!”

“Pirates Inc?”

“Cats?

“Wolfpack!”

“Alright calm down, Wolfpack works for me, everyone good with that one?” this was from Josh and the rest agreed by nodding their heads, it was better than The Packers that was for sure.

Bobby and Erin filed out the rest of the form. And had the rest of the group sign their names.

The guild manager was excited when she received the form, she even kissed the piece of paper, “Wolfpack Party is entered into the records at Adventurer Guild Chapter 125. Thank you for registering. This is so exciting; my teacher retired a year ago and we have not had anyone sign up in such a long time. So, if you are looking for work, we have plenty.”

Congratulations for Registering at the Adventurers Guild. You receive 25 XP.

Updating Records: Wolfpack Party

Perk Accessed: [We Are a Party]

[We Are a Party] Gain +5% XP when in Party, this is only in effect when doing activities in party. All solo missions will not have access to this perk.

“We wanted to look into the roles training first. Is there any quest for that?” Since Bobby had been the lead for this, he was the one doing the asking.

Miss. Hoysver looked at the form then back at her board and picked up five quests and handed them over, “Of course, sorry should have known that you would need those. It has been so long. Please come back when you are done. I have so many quests that could use your help. Very rare that we get back veterans coming by to take care of them.”

Congratulations for picking up your first quest, entering quest in the records.

Healer Quest I

Warrior Quest I

Thief Quest I

Ranger Quest I

Wizard Quest I

Class Quest are solo quests you will not receive the [We Are a Party] perk. Map has been updated.

Requesting additional maps.... Request granted. Maps can be found in your inventory.

Each had been updated, while they did not all see the quest for their friends, they saw their own quest and the warning.

“Thank you, Miss. Hoysver.” This came from each of them.

“So polite, I love it. You will need these to show you are an official member of the Adventurers Guild.” She handed a pin to each it was in the shape of an A and a small dash next to it.

She bowed with a smile on her lips. They bowed at her as this seemed to be a custom and left the building.

“Looks like we will need to go solo on these boys. Let's see where the maps point to.” Each took out their individual maps and looked at them. The locations seemed to be outside of town but not very far. They would need to go and find out what these quests were about.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In another place and time, different groups like our intrepid adventures find themselves in another place. A place they had not fallen asleep to. Some had been by themselves, others in duos or groups. The previous night they had been at home or camping or staying at a friend’s house. This morning they found themselves in a forest. Some groups are close to each other, others are not. And like our friends they are met by Regi and welcomed to this different world, the world of Reladur were magic and what one would consider monsters walk in the daylight.

Why are these people here? Is there perhaps an ancient evil that has awaken and the world is yet again in peril. No one yet knows. The one thing that the world knows is that it has been eighteen years since the last group of new adventurers has been seen. How will they make their way in this new place? Will they be friend or foe, good or evil?

Josh and his group are not the only ones worried about being here against their wills. But they will not only have to worry about what they will find in this world but also what these other strangers will bring. Not all are sugar and spice and everything nice, how will our group deal with this new threat?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Regi disappears after registering the newcomers his flashy exit leaves the groups more confused then ever. But there is a purpose to this, they can only help so much, the rest they will need to figure out on their own.

“Is it done?” His Master seated at his desk with his hands in a triangle position as he sees Regi return.

“Yes Master, that may be the last of them, but we will continue to check for any stragglers.” At least he hoped so, he did not really want to go out there again, but it was his job.

“Are your brothers ready? How is the dungeon team coming along?”

“Last I checked they are coming along nicely. They seem to really enjoy their work. Some maybe too much, will see what they come up with.” Saying they enjoyed their job was probably an understatement, but not DungeonNodeY56, he even wanted a transfer.

“Are your sisters ready to assist their groups?” Those girls, always giving him a rough time about his duties it is not his fault that he was the best node.

“Yes, sir HelpNodeX223 is assisting the first team already. Oh, and a request from DungeonNodeY56 to transfer to the HelpNode division came in. But I will handle that request.” This was still confusing to Regi, why would he want to transfer from the Dungeon Team?

His master waves him away, more pressing matters need to be attended to.