3 Security checks and the Guild
(General POV)
Orario was the centre of the world. Now whether that was literal in terms of geographical location could still be debated. Cartographers had not yet determined it to be the case because there was no bloodthirsty, power hungry empire going around the world colonizing every country and ruling the seas with a cruel, greedy iron fist.
(Reference, reference...)
But metaphorically, yes it was quite the case. The city of fantasy and wonder, of riches and power. A bright light at the centre of all that was known which attracted the eyes and ears of many across the globe. The closest Earthen comparison you could make to the dungeon city is perhaps Hollywood.
All the famous people living there and the grand luxurious lifestyle they supposedly had as was shown on tv screens. Except replace the profession of acting with adventuring, and actors with adventurers...and take out a lot of the plastic surgery and silicon implants too.
But just like Hollywood obviously, there was a hidden side to Orario that made the city not as glamorous as it would appear. But we won't talk about that for now. The point being made here is that because so much attention was centred on Orario and because there was so much wealth to be had there (many of the major powers in the world would have attempted to seize the place if not for the fact the adventurers within would tear their armies apart), there was always a big que outside the gates of the city.
Which was where Steve now found himself waiting. For the last six hours to check in and gain a permit.
Fortunately though, he was a heavily armoured knight riding atop a great war beast with an intimidating sword hanging at his side. A powerful and wealthy individual who could probably tear you to shreds judging by the look of his armour and how impressive it was.
That was the impression that the immigrants near him were getting. They wouldn't be exactly wrong per say but very few people would want to go near a giant wolf almost twice the size of a lion who kept growling at anybody who came near, much less the person who appeared to have tamed her.
Bathsheba was naturally very protective of her 'papa' and gave the stink eye to anybody who looked like they wanted to approach him. For that, Steve was very grateful as it kept the people out of his business. An added bonus was that if he nudged the Warg forward, the people would get out of the way and allow him to go ahead out of fear and respect. But even with such a large animal, you could only get so far in a congested area and it didn't change the duration of the security checks.
Especially when people like merchants and upper-class guests were given priority. Steve wondered whether he should have spawned in a cart and loaded it with goods just so he could get priority access too. Thankfully though, he was close enough for the city guards to notice and they nervously looked at one another before rushing over to a security office by the gate to talk to someone.
Eventually some three people came out who were not as heavily protected as the fully armoured guards but by their dress, Steve figured out what they were.
Adventurers.
The first he'd seen in this world. A part of the line cleared up ahead him and shifted out of the way to give him vision of the immediate space by the gates. Right by the entrance, there appeared to be some sort of security cubicle where an individual was checking and stamping identification papers one by one as people went by.
A very specific individual with a red elephant mask on his face.
Looking back to the adventurers, Steve now understood. Those adventurers were from the Ganesha Familia and they were well known to be excellent tamers of monsters. The sight of Bathsheba must have prompted the city guards to request that they do his inspection in their stead since an unknown wild animal was involved. And as tamers, those adventurers were seen carrying whips with them.
Bathsheba growled lightly as her lips flared baring her teeth at the sight but Steve rubbed her head in assurance.
"As long as you behave sweetheart, they won't do anything. They're just being responsible for the city and doing their job." Steve whispered. Bathsheba instantly calmed down and went silent as the adventurers approached.
"Good day sir." One of them said as he walked up right by where Steve was perched.
"Good day."
"May I request the reason as to your coming here?" The adventurer asked as he held up a notepad and a quill.
"I'm here to become an adventurer." Steve said simply. There was nothing more to be added.
"I surmised as much." The adventurer said as he looked at the armour the stranger was wearing. It was made of a strange purple metal that had wisps of glowing purple mists floating about giving the appearance that the armour was glowing. A pit formed in the stomach of the adventurer as it dawned on him how ridiculously expensive that armour had to be given the impression it was radiating. Perhaps he was dealing with some noble or secret Prince of another country that wanted to leave high society and become an adventurer.
It wouldn't be the first time royalty did so.
"Usually sir, since you appear to be a one man party, we would have you go through normal procedure." The adventurer said as he nervously looked at Bathsheba who was giving him a side-eye. The adventurer was quite conscious now of the whip tied to his belt. "But it would appear you have an unknown tamed beast with you, so if you would care to step this way with...it?...please."
"Yes." Steve said as he directed Bathsheba to step away from the line and follow the adventurers right up to the city wall near the gate. "May I have your name?"
"It's Modaka." The adventurer said.
'Modaka? Have I heard that name before?' Steve wondered.
"If you could dismount sir, my two colleagues here will inspect your animal and determine her threat level" Modaka said before he hurriedly added " For safety reasons you know? There are civilians here and we cannot let a ....exotic animal such as yours be near them unless we're absolutely sure it won't harm anyone."
"Obviously I will stick up for my little girl here." Steve said as he slipped out of the saddle. "But I assure you she does not do anything except when I tell her to or when she has to defend herself."
"I'm quite sure sir." Modaka said as a bead of sweat rolled down his temple. "We still need to follow procedure. It's my job you know? If you could follow me to our office where we can register you for your permit while my colleagues here check on her."
"Sure." Steve said as he pulled out a bunch of papers from the pack hanging off the saddle before cupping Bathsheba's face with both hands. The giant wolf instantly became a puppy dog as it smiled and began panting. "Daddy's going to go sort a few things out okay? You be good to these nice men here and do as they say." The Warg surprisingly yapped like a dog much to the surprise of others. "If you do something naughty, we won't be able to enter the city, understand? And that would make me unhappy. You wouldn't want to disappoint Daddy now would you?" She closed her mouth and shook her head while whining a little. "That's my girl. Now wait here, I won't be long." Another yap before Bathsheba sat with her paws in front of her.
As dog-like as this was, it actually made her tower even further over the two men and they gulped at each other before shakily approaching her to conduct their appraisal. Meanwhile Steve made his way over to the registration office where he pulled out his documents and they went over them.
Modaka found no signs of any sort of high status or nobility but that was also usually the case when upper class people came to the city, as they wanted to hide their real identities. Steve was registered as a nomad who didn't particularly belong to one place and was born on the road, which was also quite a common form of registration for people in high places who wished for discretion. Eventually, Steve had to fill out a form for Bathsheba as well.
"May I enquire as to what she is exactly sir?" Modaka asked. "I have never seen her breed before."
"She is called a Warg. A giant species of wolf if that wasn't obvious. They're native to extremely cold places in the North and are typically beasts of War that are hard to tame by people. Fortunately I found her when she was but a cub and have raised her like a daughter since." Steve said.
All he had said was technically not a lie. He'd found when he added the Warg mod to his server that they spawned in snowy mountain biomes when he would go North in the game. And he had found her as a little cub which he then tamed and then tagged. Obviously her pixelated form was much different to how she was now but the way he had worded it would hopefully not set off any lie detectors.
"I see." Modaka said as he wrote all that down. "She is indeed a very beautiful creature. Quite terrifying though, haha." Modaka nervously said as he tried to appeal to Steve.
Steve smiled. "Yeah, she does appear like that. But rest assured she won't do anything unless you threaten me or her so fret not."
"Absolutely Mister Stephen." Modaka said. "Okay, and with that all that is left to do is reunite you both together and you can enter the city provided she passed the tests." Modaka held out two pieces of paper. "Fortunately we are the Ganesha Familia and as such we are given full authority over letting in unknown animals into the city because we specialise as tamers. We are also the police force so we can sign certain permits. This document here is one to keep on you for Bathsheba, and down there is the price of her permit. This other permit here is for your entry as well as the entry fee. You must take this to the guild to apply for a citizenship, and only afterwards can you register as an adventurer."
"Understood Mister...?" Steve looked confused for a moment as he tried to remember the guy's name.
"Modaka sir. Don't worry, my Familia members tend to forget my name as well." Modaka said as he rubbed the back of his head.
"Indeed." Steve said as he dropped a few gold coins in the man's hand. After it was all finalized, they went back outside to find Bathsheba waiting patiently with her tail wagging as she finally saw her papa come back out.
"How was it?" Modaka asked his family members.
"She's a killer, there's no doubt about it." One of them whispered back. "Teeth like sickles and as heavy as a young elephant. Her claws are about the size of my head and it looks like she could probably run as fast as the wind. If I were to treat her like a monster, she'd probably be classed as level 3, level 4 if you're really pushing it. She's terrifying but she's surprisingly obedient although I believe it's entirely due to that gentleman's instructions. Rest assured, as long as he tells her to behave I'm sure she will not cause any trouble."
"Yeah. Usually we're not supposed to do this but the Guild Master is very specific in how to treat high class people from outside." Modaka said.
The other member of his Familia snorted.
"That fat greedy bastard is only cared about the money and connections it would make. So he's willing to shirk a few laws. If it were up to me, I would not let a monster like this roam our streets period regardless of how obedient she is or how rich her owner is."
"SHHHHHH!" Hissed Modaka. "He'll hear us. Just drop it and let them in through VIP access."
Unfortunately, Steve had heard everything even as far away as he was but he just shook his head.
'They actually think I'm nobility.' He laughed in silent mirth. Oh whatever, it worked out for him anyways.
He and Bathsheba rode across the inspection area and cut right in front of the line by direction of a normal city guard where he passed by Ganesha who was looking at his Warg with interest.
"I AM GANESHA!" The masked man yelled pompously in not a bad way but one which made him look like a doofus...which he was. "I say young man, you have a mighty fine beast there! How about joining my Familia huh? You'd be right at home with us and we could provide all the care and facilities she would need. What do you say?" Ganesha leaned out of the window and looked at them both as Steve rode past.
As he said this, a lot of people began looking at each other, then the knight astride the great wolf in admiration. It was well known how hard it was to get into a Familia and yet a place in one of the most prominent ones had just been offered to him before he even entered the city by that Familia's very own patron himself.
Having one of the gods of this world actually speak to him for the first time made Steve a little light headed but he recovered an called back in a respectful voice.
"No thank you sir. I'm afraid my aspirations do not fall in line with your standards but I sincerely appreciate the offer."
"Oh well, too bad." Ganesha said before he yelled back. "My offer still remains open if you change your mind. Good luck young man and may you find fortune in this great city of wonder! I AM GANESHA!"
"Yes I know." Steve chuckled as he looked in front of him and pulled out a map. "He's loud but he seems nice that guy. Now then, which way to the guild...?"
---
(Steve POV)
I eventually found the Guild building which was not as impressive as I thought it would be. In most fantasy anime, Guild buildings are usually huge with adventurers crawling everywhere, built with fine architecture.
And not to say that this building was small and ugly but it was a little underwhelming for the centre point of government in this city. Perhaps it was one of those places where most of the space was underground filled with secrets and stuff like that. Either way, the ground floor was all I concerned myself with.
As I approached, a lot of adventurers looked my way and cautiously stepped aside if they were in my path. Although they did that, my hearing caught onto some of their words as I rode past them.
"Tch. Show off!"
"Probably all daddy's money!"
"Who does he think he is?"
"He ought to be taught a lesson."
It's been well established at this point that Bathsheba understood mortal speech perfectly and she didn't like what she was hearing. Her ears laid back as her lips flared in a threatening sneer but she dared not to make any noise. I didn't mind what those idiots were saying.
It was typical isekai cliché which would just get disproven later anyways at some point. What did I care for their opinion? I didn't know exactly where I stood on the power scale but I knew I was above these rag tag miscreants of adventurers. Why stoop to their level of both integrity and intelligence?
I slid off Bathsheba and consoled her by throwing a stack of raw porkchop in her mouth out of my hotbar. This equated to just a big mouthful for her to chew on while I did my business inside. I patted her muzzle and promised I wouldn't be long before entering the building.
It was just as depicted in the anime with the exchange box on the left and the receptionist desk on the right, with seating places built into the wall the entrance was in. I looked for the shortest queue and found it actually right in front of me. I looked for the receptionist working that line and my mood dropped.
Let me make one thing clear. I do NOT like this woman at all. The nagging habit of this woman reminded me of my mother at times and I just could never really see why Danmachi fans found her attractive. Out of all the characters in the franchise, she was as bland as they came and a terrible personality to boot.
Yes, I'm talking about Eina Tulle the half-elf.
I did not find her even remotely attractive whatsoever. But the only reason why I was taking this line was because I was so sick of all the waiting I had to do that day and my patience had run thin. It was late afternoon and the sun looked like it would set at some point.
Didn't change the fact that I had to deal with this person. I momentarily wondered as I looked at my address bar what would happen if I did something like...
/kill
I typed in Eina's first name and sure enough her full name popped as an option in predictive text. It was an available option and I momentarily debated whether or not I should 'execute' the command.
(See what I did there?)
Just as I was in the middle of debating whether or not I should go through with this glorious idea, the line in front of me had suddenly cleared and the half-breed was tilting her head at me confused looking as she stared me up and down.
"Sir?" She called. "Can I help you?" I begrudgingly walked up to her and as I approached I heard her whisper under her breath, "A male Amazon...?" I have no idea why anybody would make such a description of me. It's a well established fact that Amazons are only female and there were plenty of tribes of men around the world just as dark as me. It seemed stupidity couldn't be supressed even if you were a working adult.
"Yes." I replied as I slapped down my documents. "I'm here to ask for a citizenship and register as an adventurer." The tone I used left no room for extra conversation and thankfully she seemed to catch on to that.
"At once sir. Just let me take your case upstairs for a moment, and then I'll come with things for you to sign." She picked up my permits as well as my application and went through some door that I assumed led to stairs.
While I waited, I decided to go and sit down in one of the booths and made my way over there. As I did so, one adventurer childishly stuck his leg out in my path purposefully. From my peripherals, I saw some other adventurers smirking as he did so. I rolled my eyes and kept walking, my leg eventually catching his. But instead of me tripping over like the idiot expected, my leg dragged his along as he was taken by jolt and scrambled while he was ripped out of his seat.
I paid him no mind as he lay on the floor. Some people laughed at him, the same ones that had been encouraging what he was doing. It was funny and cruel how quickly and easy people would turn against you even in the most subtle and pettiest of ways. The adventurer growled in anger, stood up and rushed forwards to block my path.
"Hold it there buddy!" he said as he stuck an arm across the opening of the booth. "You see what you just did to my leg?" He said as he pointed to it and then across all his clothes where there were dust stains and scuff marks from being dragged. "Since you're responsible, you should compensate me properly for it. Just because you're wearing fancy armour, don't think you're a big man I'm afraid of. If you're new here then you've never been to the dungeon and only real men go to the dungeon."
As if he said something smart or sassy, other adventurers around began jeering and whistling which was one of the things that really baffled me about people. Someone could say the most dumb thing ever yet you would have people cheering them on like they found the cure for cancer? How many generations of inbreeding did it take exactly to make people adopt this herd mentality and become so mentally clapped?
"So if you don't mind, I think I'll take that fancy looking sword you have there as recuperation." He grinned while leaning over to take a look at my enchanted netherite sword hanging at my side. I'd turned on a scabbard mod purely for aesthetics so I looked the part. I'm not ashamed to admit that I loved a bit of roleplay now and then. The scabbard was precious enough being encrusted with amethysts and rubies and all. But it still couldn't hide how superb my sword was in terms of quality, if the wisps of magic flowing off of it wasn't a dead giveaway.
My solution in this situation was immediate violence. As he was smiling that stupid toothy smile, I reached forwards and yanked out all of the bottom four front teeth. All everybody else heard was a sickening crunch as I took some gum with it. To his credit, the man had some good pain resistance as he cupped his mouth tightly with both hands and his eyes started watering from no doubt the millions of pain signals shooting up to his brain.
Everybody fell quiet around me and I found it laughable that this guy who I now realised was only about 5'7 while I towered over him with my 6'2 (6'4 with armour on) and he thought it was good idea to mess with someone like me. Even basic male instinct didn't seem to reach his brain. I leaned over and whispered menacingly in his ear.
"You keep this up, I'mma knock you out right here and f*** you till you wake up. So unless you want to become a plaything, I suggest you leave right now." I said only so that he could hear. His eyes widened and met mine through the slits of my helmet, ice cold and hardened. He was so unnerved by it, all he could do was politely take his teeth I offered back to him and walked out of the building without making a sound.
Honest to God, how brain dead could some people be?
I'd like to point out I'm straight through and through but I once heard a story about Mike Tyson saying the same thing to a murderer in prison. Apparently he was so shook, he never bothered the champ ever again. But it's the same kind of idiot that would do something like that. Who in their right mind thinks it's a good idea to mess around with someone like Mike Tyson, especially with how short-tempered he was in his youth?
Nobody. That's the answer. Absolutely nobody.
I sat down in my seat and all those who were expecting some drama to go down grumbled in disappointment before turning back to doing whatever they were doing. How many more times would I have to do this before I got the message across?
I waited patiently in my seat as I looked out of a window at Bathsheba who was snoozing quietly by the Guild entrance. I could see some people on the other end of the street change directions at the sight of her but there were some people inching even closer to get a better look at her. Although I got the impression that some were not too smart about their intentions.
It didn't matter. There were no insurance laws here as this was an adventurer's city. Losing a physical limb was what was considered to be actually hurt so if you go and literally pull on the wolf's tail and then get mauled afterwards, whose fault was it but your own?
Eina eventually came back with quite a pristine looking document in hand that was neatly folded this time and some sort of seal with a ribbon coming out of it. She placed it down in front of me and pointed to an empty space at the bottom of the page.
"If you could sign this right here Mir Hewer, and this will complete your decree of citizenship." I took the quill from her and signed my name right over another signature that read 'Royman Mardeel'. So you couldn't get a citizenship without the Guild Master's approval huh? I'm sure there was plenty of ways of monopolizing a power like this in government. Once I finished signing my name, Eina folded the paper and poured melted wax over the seal which I now realized was some already melted wax which I guessed was supposed to help seal the document better. She stamped it with some sort of symbol and handed it to me which I discreetly discarded into my inventory.
"I have to say, we haven't quite had anybody like you before Mr Hewer." She said cheerily.
"Hm."
"When you came in here, I was a bit surprised. It's the first time anybody has come in so heavily armoured with such good quality armour."
"Hm."
"It must really be valuable, especially that sword of yours."
"Hm."
"That wolf of yours outside as well. She's quite beautiful isn't she?"
"Hm."
"...I'm sure she's wonderful company to have, especially if you go hunting monsters huh?"
"Hm."
"..."
"..."
"..."
Eina laughed nervously a little as sweat rolled down the side of her head before she coughed and assumed a professional air around her. She sat down across from me and laid out a pile of documents.
"I assume that because you're new, you're not part of any Familia, right?" She asked.
"You are correct."
"I'm afraid you cannot register as an adventurer until you join a Familia Mr Hewer. However, if you would be interested, I have a list right here of different Familia you could join." She put a hand on the pile of papers. "I can help you go through them and figure out which one would be bes-"
"Unnecessary." I interrupted her. "I think I'll manage just fine."
"Oh...o-okay." She said, deflating a little. I almost felt bad as she seemed disappointed I didn't want her help. That's a woman who loves her job I suppose. Wasn't enough to make me feel bad though. Nope. I still hated her. "If that's what you wish sir, I'll leave you to it. Please come to me when you find the Familia you wish to join."
"Hm." I responded as I didn't even look at her, too busy sifting through the papers. She just meekly trudged back to her place at the desk while some people gave me the stink-eye for giving her the cold shoulder.
Simps.
---
I flicked through the pages for a while filtering out all the big Familias.
"Freya? Nope. Too many simps." I had nothing against her really but her kids were just toxic.
"Loki? No she's...too hyper." I liked her kids but she herself was just loopy and way too excited sometimes. Not say I didn't like her as well. But underneath that crazy persona was a great deal of cunning and danger. As fitting for the Norse trickster.
"Hephaestus?" I did consider this Familia truly even though Nekros advised against it in his letter to me. But when I remembered how much crap those people gave Welf, I dropped the idea. If that was their attitude to someone who could make magical weapons, what about someone who could make minerals and metals out of thin air as well as create not only magic weapons but magic armour as well that buffed you and gave you status boosts for the duration of you wearing it, as opposed to just simply making blades with different elements infused in them.
Recipe for disaster. Bit of a shame since I kind of liked Hephaestus.
I didn't know much about the Goibniu Familia other than them being Hephaestus's biggest rival and their deity apparently had a Scottish accent. In all honesty, I just didn't want to go to any established Familia period. I began following Nekros's advice, looking for deities that didn't have any followers yet but had made a request to the guild announcing their desire for some adventurers.
During that, I did come across Hestia. Now I had mixed feelings about that. If the MC wanted to come and become a Hero and everything, good on him for doing so. I wasn't going to be into that whole heroics stuff, nor did I really want the spotlight. If he was meant to be her first child, then let him be so. Another thing was that I had a few problems with Hestia.
There was no doubt that all that was good about her outweighed what was bad but her obsessive and possessiveness was almost as bad as Freya's. Not to mention she was way too clingy and as a goddess of Hearth and Home, she was too motherly. It was good to be close to your Familia but that much affection was not good in the long run in my opinion.
I know I sound like someone who thinks they are some bigshot veteran warrior. First thing, I kind of am considering some of the arguments I've had with my own mother. Second, I am well aware of my cheats and everything but I just simply didn't want to be at the frontlines in terms of the plot. I'd much rather be just 'that mysterious guy in the background who is way more powerful than the main character but just never really bothers to show it' kind of guy. I just wanted to get on with my own life. So joining the Hestia Familia was out of the question. Regrettably, I pushed that document aside and began rifling through others.
Another hour went by before I came across a name that I knew quite well. I stared for a couple of seconds at it before this feeling just ballooned in my chest, like I just instinctively knew this was the one for me. It didn't matter if I didn't read what kind of Familia he or she had (some gods had switched genders from their Earthen counterparts in this world).
I don't know if I still had the same DNA as I did in my past life, but I would've called it a compulsion of my heritage and of my blood towards this person. All that mattered to me was that I knew them, I knew what they ruled over in mythology and I knew that at the moment they had no Familia members at all even though they had been descended for quite some time.
I marched to the desk and slammed the paper down in front of Eina, making her jump in surprise as she looked to almost have a heart attack. I paid no mind however and simply said.
"Where are they?"
---
"This is the place sweetheart." I said as I looked away from the map and at our destination. Bathsheba snorted in disapproval but it seemed she agreed with me. I'd been directed to this god's 'house'. Well it wasn't a house but it was called a 'grotto'.
An apparent living space carved into the city wall itself away from the houses and where this god sold their wares. The entrance was sealed by a heavy oak door cast with iron. Bathsheba nudged me with her head, making her displeasure clear before I patted her cheek, shoved open the door and walked inside.
Before I'd even taken a good look at my surroundings inside, I called out.
"Hello? I'm looking to join a Familia! Is there a god called 'Ptah' here?"
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