Visiting The City

"You said you would buy me some fancy food to eat!"

This was the first thing that Tony heard when he knocked and entered the cottage the next day.

Confused for a moment, he didn't know what was happening. But then remembered that he really had promised Agatha that he would buy her some food.

"Okay, okay, I will head into the village and buy you some nice food."

Backing up quickly, Tony went back to the barn and then spent the next two hours figuring out how to put the horse back into the reins so he could take the cart. 

It really wasn't his fault that it took so long. This might be easy for the locals, but he had never even touched a horse before yesterday.

He was halfway back to the city before he realized that he didn't have any money to buy any food!

Smacking his forehead he had automatically checked his pocket for his wallet and then realized that he didn't have a wallet. Tony was so used to paying for everything with his credit card.

'Ha! This is funny...'

Walking beside the cart Tony pulled the cart to a stop. In his defense he had just been transmigrated, met a vampire, and now had an old woman as a room mate. Things were a little crazy. Plus he missed his family.

'I am not going to go back. I want to find my own income anyways!'

Resolving anew Tony began his journey to the city again.

Arriving just before noon, he was allowed entry through the city gates easily. The city did have guards, but there wasn't any check or questions. After talking to one of the guards Tony found that they were mostly there in case of beast attacks. This happened rarely, but it was always a possibility.

Chatting with the guards Tony soon found that they turned a blind eye towards any human mischief. Further they did this because they were paid not to take any interest. Shocked that the city guards were run this way Tony talked with them a lot more.

Eventually the guard Tony was talking to even tried to get Tony to join. But when the guard found out that Tony was a mortal human without any mana core much less training it was all the guard could do not to laugh.

"You have an E ranked mana core to even start as a guard. Go to the adventurer's guild and register. They will offer training and quests you can do to level up. You can even make good money doing so. When you are at least at E come find me again. The life of a guard is great!"

Said the guard who obviously would benefit somehow from having Tony join.

"Okay, that sounds great. I will do it."

Tony said back before taking his leave to head in the direction that the guard had pointed out.

It sounded like a good plan to get started at any rate. Making money doing something for others sounded like a good plan.

After walking down the designated road for a few blocks, Tony saw a large three story building. Where the rest of the buildings around it all had cornices, the guild building was basically just a box. No style or grace it was basically just a brick.

Out in front there was a hitch and room to tie up horses or any other beast of burden. From what it looked like horses were in the minority next to large flightless birds, Lizards the size of semi's, and wolves the size of a motor bike.

Tony left the cart connected and headed into the building.

Inside the first thing that Tony registered was a wall of sound. The sound of hundreds of people talking and laughing. It was overwhelming after the relatively polite sedate experience that Tony had had in the city so far.

Eventually he realized that he was showing off the fact that he was new and went ahead to push his way through to a reception area and got in line.

There was one line, but multiple attendants. The adventurers all stood in this line that wrapped around a few times and when an attendants was ready they would call the next in line. 

While standing in line Tony tried to look and listen as much as he could. It seemed that most of the adventurers were here to either register for a quest or claim their reward after finishing a quest. So a lot of the men and women wore blood spattered and broken equipment. 

But clean or filthy they all wore their armor and weapons with pride. 

With over a dozen attendants helping adventurers it didn't take long for Tony's turn to come.

"Next!"

A gorgeous young woman called out and instantly a few of the men just behind him cursed under their breath.

"F_CK, why does gramps here get Eurasia!"

"Damn, I was hoping I would get a chance to talk to her!"

Freezing at the comments he heard from behind he felt a little weird, he had absolutely no interest in this girl.

"Why don't you go ahead of me. Go ahead, go."

Tony said turning to the man behind him, one of the ones who had made a stink.

"Next!"

Eurasia called again.

"You better go ahead, buddy. I don't want to cause any problems."

But the man behind Tony shrunk back now that he was being given an opportunity.

"...Okay..."

Saying something to be polite Tony shrugged and went up to Eurasia at the counter. There were no desks, stalls, or booths. Instead the attendants just spaced themselves out along an open counter.

"Hi, what was that? You know we have to keep the line moving."

She asked in a slightly exasperated tone.

"Oh, the guy in line behind me was just disappointed that he didn't get an opportunity to talk with you."

Being upfront, Tony explained himself.

"Strider? That skirt chaser? No, he can dream on!"

With a laugh Eurasia swept her hair over one shoulder and adjusted the fit of her shirt.

"Uhhh, okay."

Was all Tony could say to that.

"Well, what can I do for you?"

She asked once she got the situation resolved.

"I want to become an adventurer."

Tony came right out and said what he wanted. But the response that he received back was not anything like what he expected.

"Okay, are you sure?"

"Of course, I am sure."

Not being used to being questioned, Tony was put off immediately.

"Well, I just want to make you aware that adventuring is a demanding job. And..."

Eurasia trailed off.

"Yes?"

"Well, if you don't even have a mana core yet it might be too late..."

She explained quickly.

"I can't form a mana core after a certain age?"

This was news for Tony.

"I am sorry! I have to provide this information to anyone over twenty. Of course you can still become an adventurer, but the quests that you can apply for will be strictly limited. Is that okay?"

Seeing that Tony didn't seem to be too upset, Eurasia went ahead and explained some more.

"Oh, I see, well I would still like to become an adventurer."

"Sure!"

This time Eurasia responded promptly and even a little enthusiastically to Tony's request. Now that the awkward part of the conversation was done it was easy for her to process the request.

The guild only needed a few bits of information, the rest they somehow magically received after Tony placed his palm on a crystal sphere. 

"Okay, that is it! Here is your token. Welcome to our guild, Twilight Avengers!"

"Thanks."

Tony smiled at her antics and then headed to the side when she motioned for him to move.

"Next!"

She called out, but watched him go as he walked away thinking that that had been a very unusual encounter.