The first thing Theo did when they arrived at the inn was to take a long, hot shower. She had been pleasantly surprised when the room had working plumbing via magical means she didn’t really understand. It looked to be some time of rune work, but the square shaped markings barely gave off any hint of mana outside of the normal base levels of the stone around it. It could be purely decorational for all she knew.

  The water was scalding hot and by the time she finished washing herself, she was flushed from the heat and her hands were pruned. Then bed called to her, but she had smelled something wonderful when she had entered the inn behind Vara and decided to go for a meal before she took a long nap in the very soft looking bed.

  The main room of the inn was packed with tables, but at this time of day only a few were occupied, Vara had taken up one of the tables in the corner facing the door and waved Theo over to sit with her and a man she didn’t recognize.

  “Theo, this is Great. Grett, Theo.” Vara introduced the two.

  Grett was a wide man, with an even wider smile. He gave Theo a quiet greeting as he waved down the server and ordered a round of drinks for the table.

  He had a natural friendliness to him that put Theo at ease as he made small talk with her and Vara while they waited for their order. Mels joined them a few minutes later with the fourth member of Vara’s squad. A short man who went by Barns, scanned every corner of the inn before he sat down.

  Theo quietly enjoyed the camaraderie of the group who seemed content to sip at their drinks and eat.

  The food was divine. Theo had had better, but after so long eating dried fish and meat and canned goods, it was everything she needed to unwind after the integration. The tension she had been carrying in her shoulders faded with the warm buzz of hot food and good beer and she even started to participate in the group's conversations more.

  Eventually Mels turned to speak to her directly.

  “Alright Theo! Tell us your story. Where are you from? How did you get here? What kind of sword is that? You’re a wind mage?” Questions upon questions bombarded her, and with Mels leading the charge, the others at the table followed suit.

  Theo recounted her experience, starting from the moment she had first felt the mana enter her world. She had debated hiding who or where she was from, but eventually gave up on the idea. Lies were hard to keep track of and she didn’t see any reason to keep her origins a secret.

  She skirted around a few things, like her changed gender. Instead just talking about how the mirrored star she found rebuilt her body and healed her injuries before she told them about Bruce and her fight with the flower.

  They all listened in rapt attention as she talked about the trial and then showed off her sword. She didn’t mention her feather, but she received the proper amount of “oohs and ahh” from the table as she showed off some of the fading scars from her fight with the wind reaper as the table passed her sword.

  She ended her story at the point where she had met Vara in the forest who took over the story to talk about the rats plaguing the city.

  “It started just after integration. For the last week we’ve had swarms attacking the walls and no one has been able to figure out where they are coming from.” She sighed looking tired. “We know the general area, but the closer the scouts get the more aggressive the rats become. We’ve tried to get help from some of the guild heads, but they’re too busy politicking.”

  Vara explained to Theo that the nobles in the city predominately controlled the two of the three guilds in the city, and were trying to use the situation to gain leverage over the city guard and the third guild was missing their leader. They had been out of the city when the integration had happened and with the change in geography around the kingdom, no one knew where or how to contact them at the moment.

  Theo asked a few questions here and there, learning about how Vara’s world had and most likely hers had been moved around by the System.

  The first two guilds were local branches of the Slayer guild and the Hounds.

  The Slayers guild were a combat focused guild that mainly focused on bounty hunting or mercenary work for nobles, and the current guild head for the local branch was a noble that, according to Barns, was as slimy as they come. More focused on gaining power and influence over actually helping people or the city.

  The Hounds were more focused on hunting monsters and rift clearing. They used their power and influence to poach or outright steal resources from others, and wouldn’t make a move on anything that didn’t benefit the guild directly.

  The last guild in the city was called the Seekers Guild. They were a much more traditional type of adventuring guild, taking requests from the locals to solve various problems and generally speaking had a good reputation with the people and the city guard. But with the guild head missing and the independent nature of the guild members, getting them to mobilize together was a difficult task.

  Vara said that the guard commander had been working on a plan for a big push, but at the moment that’s all it was. A plan. He wanted more information before committing to an offensive that would leave the city walls without defenders for a prolonged period of time.

  Vara shared other rumors that had crept down the grapevine about other issues the integration had caused. Giving Theo a better idea of what had happened to Earth.

  The System had taken an unknown number of worlds and stitched them together with what appeared to be little discernible pattern. The kingdom the city was part of before integration had been split up and it had caused all kinds of logistical problems and the request for reinforcements from the standing army hadn’t gone anywhere.

  Theo tried to absorb all the information Vara was giving to her, but it was a lot and with a belly full of food she was growing sleepy. Theo wanted to help, the essence from the rats would be good for climbing through tier two, and she agreed to meet Vara and her squad tomorrow to see what she could do before Theo retreated to her room. Tired from all the social interaction she slipped into the bed and promptly passed out.

  With plans to meet up with Vara and her squad later, Theo woke the next morning with plans to explore the town some and see what the guilds had to offer. She already planned on going to the Seekers guild to see what they had to offer, but she also wanted to stock up on supplies and see what kind of armor she might be interested in.

  The blight core had sold for a decent bit according to Vara, but it wasn’t going to be nearly enough for a nice set of armor and Theo needed to figure out a way to make money.

  Getting directions from the barkeep in the inn the next morning, she wandered through the city taking in the sights and sounds of it all. There had been another wave of rats that had attacked the walls last night, but Theo had slept so deeply she hadn’t heard the warning bells that Vara had mentioned.

  The Seekers guild building was plain looking on the outside with the exception of banners that showed the guilds coat of arms. A winged eye that was vaguely reminiscent of a biblically accurate angel colored a light blue and white that reminded Theo of a cloudy sky.

  Entering the building she noticed several people lounging around tables, it was set up like a pub, with a bar occupying one wall and a set of clerical service windows opposite to it, with tables strewn about the room in-between the two.

  Theo approached the clerk behind the nearest window, a small woman with large freckles and blond hair.

  “What can I do for you miss?” The woman greeted her politely.

  “Hi, I was wondering about joining the guild?” Theo said simply.

  “Of course! Are you familiar with the process? Registered with any other guilds?” The woman asked as she opened a drawer and pulled out a few sheets of fine looking paper that reminded Theo of generic government forms back on Earth.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Uh no… not really. I’m new in town and was told this was a good place to start. I was planning on visiting the other guilds, but this was my first choice.”

  The woman made a face at the mention of the other guilds, but the look was gone as quickly as it came.

  “I see. Well, do you have any identification?” The woman asked, as she slid the papers across the counter to Theo with an actual pen. “Please fill these out as well.”

  Theo retrieved the small plate she had received from the city the previous day and traded it to the woman for the pen and papers.

  The papers were exactly as Theo imagined. Place of residence, birth place, Etc. Etc. But there was also a section for preferred combat styles and general skill overview. It was shockingly mundane after so much magic and Theo couldn’t help but snort at the ridiculousness of it. Bureaucracy was universal it seemed.

  When she had finished giving her information, the woman returned her identification plate, and gave her a rundown of general guild activities.

  People would place requests or the guild would add their own, and it was up to her to pick and choose which assignments she wanted. Occasionally if the guild deemed it necessary they would call on members for specific tasks and she would be obligated to complete them or assist in their completion. Though according to the woman that was a rare occurrence.

  There was a guideline for guild member behavior as well as a few different benefits such as healing and training at low cost. The cost of healing would also be deferred if a member couldn’t afford it at the time it was needed, and payment would be taken from contracts until it was paid off. It was honestly a really fair deal that Theo wished she had back when she was working a nine to five. Even this fantasy world had better healthcare than most places where she had lived.

  The last thing for her to do was to meet with a prospect examiner. Who would test her combat skills as well as give her an interview to see if she was a good fit for the guild.

  Theo didn’t have to wait long for the examiner to greet her and bring her to a small courtyard with training equipment.

  The man introduced themself as Rikard, he was clean shaven and wearing light leather armor and carrying a quarter staff.

  “Greetings. Theo?” The man had one of the sheets of paper that she had filled out and was reading through it as he gestured for her to stand across from him in the middle of a small arena bordered with round stones.

  Theo nodded.

  “Alright. Nice to meet you. I’ll be your examiner today, please grab a training weapon that suits you and we can get started.” He gestured at a rack of various weapons and Theo walked over to them before setting down her bag and weapon.

  She didn’t find a sword that matched hers, but she really didn’t know what she was doing with one in the first place and after a moment she grabbed a spear.

  “I’ve never really trained with anything…” Theo told him.

  “That’s fine, if you do end up joining the Seekers, we have trainers who you can hire, or you can place a request with the guild. For now use what you’re most comfortable with. We’ll start without using skills, and afterwards I’ll push you to see what you got.” He gave her a smile. Theo appreciated his friendly attitude.

  Squaring off once again he gestured for her to start, raising his staff in a low guard as his eyes sharpened with a serious look.

  Approaching slowly Theo gave a couple of test jabs with the wooden spear that Rikard batted aside easily.

  Theo continued to prod at the man before she got aggressive. He was stronger than her, at least a tier or two higher than she was, he was so quick that none of her attacks even came close to making contact, and as the spar continued he started to return attacks that she had to dodge or simply take. He never hit her hard, but as they both got into the rhythm of their exchange Rikard started to pressure her more and more.

  Theo went from attacking to defending and it wasn’t long before he told her to stop. She had scored one hit on him, and it was still a losing exchange. He had tapped her gut as she lunged, committing to hitting him at least once.

  “Not bad if you’ve never trained with a weapon before. Your instincts are good, but I would highly recommend training. Let’s move on to skills.” He pointed at a training dummy. “I won’t ask for specifics but before we spar again show me what you have. Keep it simple. Don’t worry about breaking it, we have plenty of spares.”

  Theo looked at the dummy before raising a hand to shoot off an [air bullet]. The hardened wood splintered slightly as the blast of air impacted the head of the dummy before she used her other skills to beat her wooden test subject into submission.

  Rikard watched her silently and once she had gone through using her abilities they squared off once again.

  “Alright, feel free to go all out. I have a good feel for your strength and you don’t need to worry too much about hurting me. There’s a healer on standby if things get too exciting.”

  Theo took a deep breath before she mirrored her actions back in the gladiatorial arena. A [geist] flew out from her and she rushed Rikard with [gale heart]. The man used a skill to obliterate her [geist] with a swipe of his weapon, but Theo was already summoning a second one as she used it to enhance her speed and strength further.

  Rikard’s eyes widened slightly as she turned into a blur to strike at his leg with the tip of the wooden spear. Theo grinned when she heard him grunt in pain but her smile vanished as she felt Rikard’s quarterstaff slam into her wrist a heartbeat later.

  Theo lost her grip with that hand and instead of trying to maintain her hold on the weapon she dropped it before closing in close to jab a punch at the man's face with [air strike]. He dodged with a twist of his body, matching her speed he tried to shove her back, but she used her feet to try and trip him up as she grabbed his wrist and used every ounce of her strength twisted to throw him across the small arena.

  He tumbled into a roll that brought him back to his feet and there was a grin on his face as he raised his staff and advanced on her.

  Theo blanched as she scrambled to grab her spear and barely managed to retrieve it in time to help keep him at bay with its tip.

  “Good!” He laughed as his speed picked up, she felt a skill come from him that felt like some kind of enhancement skill and she was quickly overwhelmed with a shower of blows and jabs that left her body aching and she was sure she was going to bruise.

  Theo had to admit this was fun, compared to fighting the mindless beasts in the forest, or the swarm of rats. There was something interesting about exchanging attacks with something smart enough to use strategy when they fought.

  She wasn’t really a match for Rikard, he seemed to balance his strength with hers and was more focused on testing her than actually fighting. But Theo already felt like she was learning something from their exchanges and when they finally finished she was panting and smiling while Rikard stood back not even breathing heavily.

  “Okay, that was much better than before. You clearly rely on your skills and they help you make better use of your body than before. I can safely say you’ll make a good fit for the guild. Come back tomorrow and we will have your tags ready. If you’re looking for a trainer, I’d be happy to work with you. That was a good bit of fun and once you get trained upon I feel like you’ll be a real fighter.” Rickard's compliments made Theo feel giddy inside, and with a sense of pride she collected her bag and made her way out of the guild building.

  She wanted to visit the other guilds, but she really didn’t plan on joining after the scathing review Vara had given them. But she at least wanted to see what they had to offer as well as get an understanding of the layout of the city.

  Rikard watched Theo leave, she was odd. The quality of her skills rivaled most nobles he had met. It had been the first time in years where he had been forced to rely on his own skills to accurately assess the strength of a prospect below him in tier.

  At first he hadn’t thought much of her, she clearly had very little idea on how to use a weapon, her tactics for something as simple as a spear had boiled down to “stick him with the pointy end”. But that had changed the moment she slipped into the flow of battle. She still was inexperienced, she had shown more skills on the dummy than she had used in their spar, completely forgetting to use them moments later. Maybe she had been holding back, that air attack she had shown would have been hard for Rikard to deal with at close range, not to mention the skill she had used at the very start of her spar. Whatever that was felt like the secret technique of a noble house and yet despite that, she had been under utilizing it to an almost offensive degree.

  Rikard was what he would consider a duelist. His skills revolved around handling single opponents, and yet two tiers below him, Theo had easily matched their difference in tier with not one, but two boosting skills. Her mana control was outstanding. If she had any training from a real mage, then she very well could have beaten him in a real fight if she had been fighting dirty. All it would take was one good blow and chances are he would have been unable to keep up afterwards.

  He looked at her registration sheet. She hadn’t given a place of address besides an inn that was popular with the city guard and he had never heard of her place of birth. The name “Earth” felt more like a joke than some place that actually existed. But integration had definitely changed things. The local Seekers had received a missive from one of the higher up branches of the guild that had explained in more detail about the change in geography and some strange new cities and events going around the kingdom.

  King Geralde had issued several orders for the kingdom's army and their main focus right now was establishing routes between separated territories as well as subjugating anything that got in their way. His main orders had been peace and integration of new civilizations into the kingdom. But more than one rumor had floated around about less friendly or more independent populations fighting tooth and nail.

  The city and local nobles had requested help against the rats, and apparently it was on the way. But no one knew exactly when and communications had been spotty with how disturbed the mana was right now.

  He stared at the door Theo had gone through before he wrote up a quick report with a note added at the bottom.

  “I will sponsor Theo Caulders training, and I am requesting a mage trainer as well.”.