5 First Contac

Everything is fine. Don't freak out. Jin told himself as he stood outside, staring at wooden gates. He tried not to let the sight in front of him shake his resolve, but he couldn't get his legs to start moving again. So many different kinds of people walked to and from the village, carrying large objects, wearing all sorts of clothing. It was astonishing. In his life he had seen two other beings like himself, his mother and that bandit. But here he was, surrounded by them.

It didn't help that none seemed particularly pleased to see him. They all casted sideways looks at him, and groaned as they maneuvered around him. Had he already done something wrong?

"Citizen." Someone wearing a sword around his waist spoke to him. He appeared to be middle-aged, and wore a grey suit of armor, made of a strange metal that rattled as he moved. What was a "citizen" again!? He thought back to the lessons Elizabeth had given him regarding outsider culture, and the storybooks he'd read. He breathed and replied.

"Y-Yes?" He couldn't keep his throat from straining.

"You're standing in the middle of the road." The man said with an arched eyebrow. Jin simply looked at him.

"Uh, yeah?" He said, pressing the man to continue. The guard arched his eyebrow higher, and Jin had the sneaking suspicion that his intelligence was being questioned.

"So, get off the road." The man replied, a little more annoyed than he was earlier.

"Why?" The question escaped Jin's lips before he could hold himself back.

"Because you're making it harder for the carts and the servants to move around, now are you going to get off the road, or am I going to have to drag you?" Even Jin could identify a threat when he heard one. He decided to follow this strange person's orders, but his pride almost had him yelling back. The man sniffed the air, and shielded his nose. "By Charlotte man, you stink!" The man said.

"Hm?" Jin put a finger to his chin, and then raised his eyebrows. "Oh, you must be referring to my anti-thunder-bear nature ward!"

"Your what?" The man asked, stupefied.

"This." Jin held up a careth kidney. But, to the guard, it just looked like some indistinct, decrepit animal organ. As soon as Jin brought it out, the man gagged. He reached for the object, grabbed it, and threw it far away. "Hey!" Jin watched the object sail through the air.

"Fucking looney." The man said as he walked away. "I don't get paid enough for this sh…"

Jin breathed in, trying to resist his urge to go find the object. M-Maybe anti-thunder-bear wards aren't necessary here? He said to himself.

His face quickly became unnerved once more, as he realized he'd have to step through those gates. If the outside was this confusing, how would the inside be? He tried not to think about it, and simply walked in.

His breath caught in his throat. If you asked him how many people he was expecting, he wouldn't have been able to say. The storybooks always featured around four or five people, and so he thought the population of this place would be in that realm. Right now, however, he was seeing what had to be at least a hundred.

Men, women, children all of different shapes, sizes, and even colors. He felt overwhelmed. How had this existed so close to him, all these years, and yet that one bandit was the only person he'd ever seen. Not only that, but the buildings were impressive as well.

From the outside, it seemed like the village's structures were made of wood, but he could see now that while a few places were, most were not that simple. Metal framing lined the structure's edges, and some buildings seemed to be made entirely out of metal. The only metals Jin had ever seen were cutlery and weapons, he wouldn't have imagined people could make houses and the like out of them!

He had no idea where to go, what to do. He was at a complete loss. Then he thought of something. He decided to connect his experience in the forest, with what he was seeing now. Years of hunting had taught him how to predict animals' behaviors. Maybe he could do the same here.

He saw a large number of people, dressed not much unlike himself, wandering inside of a tall structure. Probably the tallest place around him. He decided this must be a place of food, maybe water? He walked to the side of them. Each one stood behind the other, none of them moved forwards even though the building's doors were definitely wide enough to account for at least five people entering at a time.

"Ey! Don't try to skip or something, back of the line pal!" Someone yelled at him, while pointing at the person behind them all.

"S-Sorry." Jin replied and walked over where the person had pointed to. Already, Jin had messed up twice. He understood it would take some time to acclimate to these new rules and learn the ones he couldn't pick up from storybooks, but this was a lot worse than he had thought it'd be.

The person in front of him didn't speak. No one spoke, outside of that angry bystander. Were people always this quiet? It was a little uncomfortable. Usually, not a minute passed by when Jin and Elizabeth weren't either arguing or she was teaching him something. Over time, the people paced forwards, and Jin decided he should do the same.

Eventually, he ended up inside the building. He was shocked once more. The walls were painted black, and the floor felt odd. There was no water, there was no food anywhere. Instead, there were several tables placed throughout the area, and a few desks to the back of the room. At the moment, due to the sheer mass of those standing in the line, Jin couldn't see what was behind those desks. He waited, deciding to stay in the line and see what would happen. He didn't really have anywhere else to go, and this place was as good as any to start with.

Later on, he found himself at the front, but couldn't take a step forwards to speak to the person behind the desk, for one simple reason. He was too shocked to move. Behind the desk, was a woman, he guessed, who was of a child's size, and had bright pink hair tied into pigtails. What shocked him, were the glittery wings that fluttered behind her, and her shining blue eyes that held no pupils. Her lips were scaled, and her skin seemed thicker than that of anyone else he'd seen, but she still looked incredibly thin. It was as if her skin were made of bone and not flesh. She was writing on a piece of paper, she hadn't even looked up to see Jin yet.

"Next." She said, with what Jin perceived to be a bored voice.

"What is this place?" Jin asked.

"Sign here, here, and… Wait, what did you say?" The woman looked up now and tilted her head.

"I… Uh, just wanna know what this place is for." Jin said, putting a hand behind his head.

"Oh well, sir, this is the Adventurer's Guild." Her voice perked up slightly.

"Adventurer?" Jin asked. The woman smiled. She seemed amused.

"You must… not be from around here, huh? Yes, an adventurer is someone who performs jobs for the citizens of Azeria. They do some tasks here and there, collect compensation and fame while they do it."

"Tasks like what?" Jin asked.

"Blacksmithing, assistant work, fishing, menial labor, hunting and such. There's a lot to do, and adventurer's are people who decide to get things done. We have charters in all three of Azeria's kingdoms, you must have us at some point?" Jin wasn't even paying attention. His eyes had already lit up when he heard the last option. "Hunting".

"I want to be an adventurer."

"S-So quickly?" She pulled back and chuckled. "Okay, if you wish. But I'll need some information from you, is that alright?"

"Uh, sure." He shrugged.

She shuffled a few papers around and pulled a black pen from a container inside of her desk. She signed something on her own, before handing the paper over to Jin.

"I'll need your name, place of birth, your house, lesser houses are acceptable, don't worry, and your age."

Place of birth? Jin thought. He nodded to himself and wrote down an answer. House? That's like… Last name, family, right? He remembered more of the lessons Elizabeth had taught him. Only now did he understand that this entire time, she was preparing him for outside interactions. Age… Easy enough.

"Done." He handed back the paper.

"Wonderful, well, let's take a look shall we." Her eyes scanned over the paper's contents, but stopped when she wrinkled her nose, pulled back, and looked up. "In 'place of birth', do you mean the Jessen Village of the Western Forests?"

"Uh… No." Jin replied.

"So… Why did you write 'forest'?" She asked.

"I… I was born in the forest. West."

As Jin said this, things seemed to click inside of the woman's mind. She gave a satisfied nod and continued.

"Yes, that would explain why you wrote "none" under house, as well. For a moment there, I thought you may have been a Griffin, even though you're no beast." She chuckled. "Alright, I understand, by the way, my name is Ricca." She wrote a few things and handed the paper over to a woman who was standing nearby. Jin noticed that a few pairs of eyes were locked on him, seemingly interested in the conversation he was having. He looked to his side, and saw the woman who took the paper, tapping some sort of object on a wall. That object glowed for a moment, and a card materialized out of thin air. She paced back towards them and handed the paper over to the woman Jin spoke to.

"Here you go, Jin." She said with a smile. He took the paper and returned the smile in kind. "Do you have any family here?" She asked. Jin shook his head. "Then you'll be needing a place to stay. Well, there's a brown building just down the street, biggest building aside from this one, can't miss it. That place is an 'inn', a place where you can sleep for some silver. It would do you well to head there. Also, over there, see those papers on the wall? Those are jobs. You do them, bring evidence that you did, and collect. Every adventurer has a rank, and a tier. As you do more jobs, and improve your reputation, that rank goes up. There are four tiers. Tiers, 3, 2, 1, and Z, from worst to best. The ranks follow school grading, with them going from F to A. Right now, you're Tier 3, Rank F. Everyone starts off at this rank, don't worry. Normally, I'd give you some weapon to start you out, but you seem to be well-equipped. Oh, of course if you mess up too many jobs, we'll revoke your card." She eyed his sword, and the bow peeking from his back. "Try a job out, take a paper, and bring it over, so you can pay for your stay."

"Thank you." As he replied, a thought came to him. Money. Right, that's that silver and gold stuff? This was one of the more confusing concepts Elizabeth had taught him. He simply couldn't grasp the value in trading coins for objects. Whoever was giving away the objects was clearly getting screwed, but still, even in the storybooks they insisted on this system. It was weird to him. And now, he was hearing that "money" was used to buy places as well?

"Have a nice day." She replied.

Jin bowed, as he remembered people did in the books he read and paced away. For good or for worse, as he didn't know what he had gotten himself into, he'd just became an adventurer. If it meant he could spend time hunting, he didn't mind what that entailed. At least now he had kept some link to his past life.

He began walking over to the board, where the jobs were listed. As he approached, he saw a small group standing in front of it. They seemed nervous, indecisive. Jin decided not to speak to them. He had gotten lucky, that woman he'd spoken to earlier turned out to be kind, but not everyone was going to be that way. He had to be wary.

He gazed over the board and read through some of the jobs available.

"Assistance: Need secretary. Duration: 1 day. Pay: 4 silvers an hour."

"Support: Need an escort to take me to the nearest village. Duration: 1 week. Pay: 9 silvers an hour. Warning: Will be travelling through dangerous roads."

"Asistence: Ned tooter to teech my boi hau to rite. Durachen: 30 menits. Pei: 1 silver en our."

Finally, Jin smiled when he found what he'd hoped for.

"Hunt: A thunder-bear has established itself north of the village and has been attacking travelers. Dispose of it. Pay: Forty silvers." He took the paper down.

As he turned to hand it over to Ricca, he heard some gasps coming from behind him. Disregarding this, he continued.

"Found one." He said with a proud smile.

"Let me see…" Ricca grabbed the paper. Her eyebrows raised slightly. "Oh?" She looked up at him, as if analyzing him for a moment, before nodding. "Okay. Good luck."

Jin walked away, satisfied that he had found something to do. He didn't know what he'd do afterwards, but for now, he had some direction.

He exited the building, and once again, his feet found dirt as he paced through the road, and outside the village.

Serenity filled his heart once more. This was his home, this was what he knew. He placed his hand on his sword hilt, and began walking north.

"Hey, wait!" He heard someone call out from behind. Hm? He turned, and saw that group from earlier behind him. A girl with cinnamon brown hair, like himself, wearing some armor made of animal pelts, and two boys behind her. One was wearing a white cloak, the other was wearing a suit of iron. He saw something like this in a storybook once. Was he about to get 'mugged'? "You're the one who took the thunder-bear job, right?"

"... Yes." Jin tried to be cautious, but something about this girl calmed his nerves. It took him no time at all to realize what it was. She looked like a younger version of Elizabeth. He didn't know whether to be thankful for the familiarity, or distraught by it.

"You can't do a job like that alone! Let us come with you!"

"Yeah, we'll back you up." The man in the iron armor said. He was a short boy, but he carried a large axe at his back.

"You at least need a healer, right?" The man in the white cloak said.

"I'm sorry," Jin said, "but I don't even know you." He used a line he'd read from a book. It was one where a man and a woman had met together at night, for purposes Jin didn't understand.

"Oh, sorry, I guess this is kind of sudden." The girl rubbed her head. "My name is Viscerin." She pointed at the boy in the iron armor. "That's Goljin," she shifted towards the boy in the white cloak. "That's Thompson. Listen, we're new at this, like you! You look like you know what you're doing... We wanted to work together with you. Strength in numbers, right? Maybe we could get some experience together?" She smiled, but it was a weak one.

"I... Uh..." Should he turn them down? He didn't know. He knew he absolutely didn't need their help. He had fought thunder-bears before, and although the first one was responsible for some of the scars that plagued his skin, he was confident he could win in a fight with one now, given that he prepared for it. However, a thought appeared in his mind. Maybe these people could help him settle into this village. They appeared to live here, he could speak to them. Learn about this place. He realized he had as much to gain from this as they did. "Yes." He replied.

"Great!" She nearly lept in the air. Joining this strange group, they continued down the northern road.