After telling Gibnic to meet at the Adventurer’s Guild, I quickly started to look for the rest of my party members. It doesn’t take long since there aren’t that many places I needed to look. Within 30 minutes, I had gathered everyone, and we went inside to register.

  Approaching the desk again, Ophiel is standing there. This time, there isn’t much more I can explain to shock them. “Hello, Ophiel,” I greet.

  “Welcome back, Lord Drake,” their voice not so much a robotic monotone as before, since the revelation that we are part of a Hamlet with an Adventurer’s Guild. “How might I be of assistance?”

  “I would like to register myself and my companions,” I gesture behind my back, “as a new adventuring party so we can start to accept missions.”

  Nodding in acknowledgement, they quickly pull out a couple of forms. “To be more organized, we at the Adventurer’s Guild would like you to fill out these forms. They are just some basic protocols that will help us to understand what kind of party you and your group are.”

  “I thought we would just register and then be on our way; I didn’t realize there was so much involved,” I stated, neither upset nor pleased with the situation. I had already been waiting to get onto another adventure since we came back with Koto.

  “Again, it shouldn’t take you too long. You technically don’t even have to write anything, as PUN will do all the writing for you. You will need to sign that everything is correct, but as is life.” Ophiel motions for us towards one of the tables nearby. “If you have any questions, I will be more than willing to help you, but for this moment, I would ask that you take a seat and look over the information.”

  Following their suggestion, I head towards one of the tables with my companions and sister in tow. I set the forms down and began to review them. The first one is your typical information about what classes and what our group composition will entail, as well as what name our party will go by. Some of the forms are there for more information about what our group will be handling and what we should be able to accomplish. Finally, there is one last page, and this one gives me pause.

  - Document 4B Lord’s Party:

  Will this group be involved in any political negotiations or diplomatic missions?

  Should the party be involved with any missions of a diplomatic nature that are outside of the Adventurer’s Guild’s purview, the Adventurer’s Guild will not take any responsibility for problems that might arise from this party's actions.

  Will this group be splitting all experience gained or funneling all experience from monsters slain into the Lord of the settlement?

  How often will this group be able to perform missions for the guild, and will this party be available to be called upon for any urgent missions the guild receives?

  If the Lord of the settlement is not a part of the party, will this group be allowed to perform missions on their own? -

  These questions are concerning in my eyes as I hadn’t thought of taking advantage of my party to funnel experience into myself. I can see other people doing this to try to get ahead of the rest of their settlers, or even to level their power so they aren’t run over roughshod by their subordinates.

  As we fill out the three forms, we are all asked if we want to register as part of the Adventurers’ Guild. We all agree, and another notification appears in my vision.

  - Welcome to the Adventurer’s Guild. As a new member, please approach the desk and receive your Adventurer’s Guild token to represent your level. -

  Nobody gets up just yet, and we continue filling out the documents. It doesn’t take us long, thankfully, but we get stuck on one item. What name should we call ourselves?

  We bounce several ideas back and forth, from something involving a dragon, to something like ‘Gnomes Rule.’ While this idea is amusing, I can’t help but think that there may be groups out there that already use this name, and I don’t want to get confused. My sister offers the name ‘Flaming Heart,’ Strauvana recommends something like ‘Void Ascent.’ Finally, Muiress abstains from offering anything and just looks at everyone, hoping that they will finally make a decision.

  I keep thinking about what to do, there are four people from different worlds in my party, I as the lord want to represent all of them so they don’t feel like I am picking one side over another, but it shouldn’t be that big of a deal since they aren’t arguing over which one is better thankfully. That is when I think of my coat of arms, which has four different colors with a dragon wrapped around a heart. I can’t help but think of something else as well. From a particular perspective, the four worlds that I have pulled people from represent the different affinities that I have.

  My world is full of life through our bloodlines; we can grow and become more than ourselves. Gibnic comes from a world rich in nature. From what I can tell, they are more prone to nature and the magics of a more natural order. Muiress is from a world that has been corrupted, and any life that remains is slowly being snuffed out by an uncontrolled mass of zombies, which leaves Strauvana, where they have a world full of undeath. While this means they also coexist with the living, from what I can tell, there aren’t many living beings left, and all that exists is the undead.

  Thinking further about what my bloodline and affinities offer, and now my evolved class, I can only think of one name. The Four-Phased Dragons.

  While the name gives off a flair in its own right, I can envision my party expanding to go further than just the five of us, and I can only hope that we can make this party a guild someday. It also sets a good precedent for other parties to show that we can all work together.

  When the others hear the name, they stop and think about it. “Why that name?” Gibnic asks.

  Explaining my thought process behind the name, I can see him nodding his head in understanding.

  Seeing that everyone agrees, we put that as our name. Walking up to the desk, I hand the paperwork over to Ophiel. “Here you go, is there anything else we need to finish before we are allowed to take our first mission?” I asked them.

  Checking over the paperwork, they nod their head at the first couple of lines, and then look me dead in the eyes. “I don’t see any problems; I am just concerned about what you put down for your class. It says you are an ‘Apprentice Mage of the Cycle.’ I don’t recall that being a class offered at such a low level. I would be careful about who you share this knowledge with.” After this warning, they continued to look over the rest of the paperwork. “Everything seems to be in order.” Reaching down below the desktop, they quickly produce five wooden tokens and present them to each of us. “Make sure you hold onto your tokens well. If you lose them, you can return to retrieve the recommissioned ones, but it will cost you one silver per token. If you lose a higher-ranked token, it could cost you more. So beware of losing it. To have your token bind to yourself, I will need you to inject some of your energy source into it. This will be mana, energy, or rage depending on what your class is.”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Hearing the instruction, we proceeded to inject the resource we used into the tokens. Different colored lights came from each of our own, with my token shining in four different colors briefly before quieting down. With our tokens in hand, we went over to the mission board. There weren’t that many currently listed, but I did see the two that the council voted on hanging there. It was interesting that they were a slightly different color compared to the others. It shimmered with a slight blue tone, the feel of magic covering it.

  Continuing to look at what is available to select from, I found several different missions that seemed like extermination missions for different lower-level monsters, several were for gathering specific monster materials, and there were even a couple of missions to collect materials from monster dens.

  Talking it over with the group, we decided to take some of the monster slaying missions as well as one of the monster den missions.

  Bringing the missions to the desk, Ophiel helped us to register them. One problem arose when we attempted to select a sixth mission.

  “I am sorry to tell you this, but with your current group size and adventurer tier, you are only able to select one mission per person of a similar rank as you are, or one more challenging mission for the entire group. One thing I would like to mention, while you can complete the missions as a group, turning them in is for an individual, so you will not receive the credit for completing all the quests.”

  Shocked at this revelation, I can’t help but ask, “Why is that? I thought we should be able to at least claim credit for completing the missions together.”

  “It is to help prevent larger groups from completing higher-tier quests for someone who isn’t ready for those quests. While it is possible to give credit to the individual, it is better for the guild if we limit them, since we don’t want someone who isn’t ready to complete a silver-tier mission to give them such a mission.”

  “So, while the experience of monsters can be funneled into someone of noble status, other items help to prevent unwanted deaths?” I asked to be sure.

  “Correct, in the early days, we would have nobles coming in and claiming as many missions as they could and then dying on one mission that was out of their range. This led to PUN taking measures to make sure that there were checks and balances. Now we don’t have to worry about someone trying to strongarm us into giving what they don’t rightfully earn since we have the backing of PUN.”

  I can only nod my head in understanding. I had read enough about someone taking on too many quests that were harder for them, only to have what was explained happen to them, and then it gets back to their father or mother, who leads a crusade against the guild that allowed it to happen. “Thank you for the information. We will take these five and return them when we are done.”

  Bowing to us, Ophiel looks behind us and sighs. “Thank you for your understanding. Now, if you don’t mind, it appears I have to deal with someone who thinks they can skirt around the systems in place.”

  Turning around, I can’t help but sigh. There is a group of youths about my age carrying what appears to be a large amount of materials in their arms. Wanting to see what would happen, we move to the side while each of us looks over the mission we have been assigned.

  - Adventurer Mission: Wood-Tier

  They have a Cave Troll:

  There is a group of goblins that have set up a monster den in the hills to the south. Clear this den of all monsters.

  Reward:

  2 Silver -

  Note: There have been rumors of a cave troll roaming with the goblins. Please prepare accordingly. -

  Lifting my head from the sheet of paper in my hands, I overhear the conversation taking place not more than 10 steps away from us.

  “Hello, I would like to turn in my missions.” One of the youths starts to explain.

  “Yes, for which mission are you looking to turn in?” Ophiel asks.

  “Well, I have the materials for the smiths. So that one.”

  “Understood,” Ophiel says, taking the materials behind the counter and providing an updated mission sheet to the youth.

  “I would also like to turn in another mission.” The youth continues.

  “I am sorry, but you can’t,” Ophiel explains.

  “But I have the materials right here. Why can’t I turn it in?” He asks.

  “Because I know who you were with when they accepted this mission, so that mission is in their name, and you are not allowed to turn in their mission for them. Please obtain the person to whom the mission was assigned, and then the mission can be completed.” Ophiel explains.

  “Well, we agreed that I could turn in the mission for them.” The youth is starting to get angry now because he is being blocked.

  “Just because you agreed doesn’t mean that is how it will work. Now, if you were to accept the mission for collecting the materials but already had them on hand, then you could immediately turn it in. Still, there was only one mission for that specific material.” Ophiel keeps a neutral tone as they explain the procedure, stating blandly. “Now, if you don’t mind, could you please get the person that this mission is assigned to to come and complete it?”

  “No, I will just let them know to drop the mission so I can complete it.” He retorts.

  “Sadly, you can’t do that either,” Ophiel shakes their head. “If you were to abandon a mission, your entire party's reputation will go down, and not only will that happen, but you will be barred from accepting any missions for the next week.”

  The youth is seething, and as I look around the room, I notice a skittish member at the back of the group. Slowly approaching this member, they are just a bit younger than the youth at the front and are holding a bow.

  “Hey,” I whispered to the kid, “is he bullying you into being part of the party?” I asked.

  The kid jumps a bit from my presence, appearing beside him, but he quickly shakes his head in denial.

  “Are you sure? I can help if he is.”

  The kid firmly shakes his head again before speaking in a hushed voice, “He is my half-brother, and the only member of my family remaining. We agreed to party together, but the moment he realized that he could get more powerful from leveling up, he became a bit obsessed with trying to increase his level as much as he could. I don’t want anything bad to happen to him, but I can see that with how he is going, something will happen one way or another.”

  “If that is the case, then you better step up, with the way this interaction is going, there won’t be an option for him to salvage,” I state, while turning back to the argument that really isn’t one. The youth is screaming at Ophiel to let him turn in the quest for the reward, but Ophiel is just standing there, repeating that he is unable to do that.

  I hear the kid take a deep breath before heading to the front next to his brother and speaking up, “I would like to turn in the mission, please.” He isn’t loud, but Ophiel looks down at the kid, and I can tell they are smiling.

  “Of course, would you please hand over the materials, and we can get that processed right away.”

  I can see the brother turning and staring daggers at his sibling. “Why? We agreed that I could turn in all the missions.”

  Taking another deep breath, the kid turns to defend himself, “Because at the rate you were going, you were going to get us banned from the Adventurer’s Guild. This way, at least we can continue to gather missions to complete them. The worst-case scenario is that we gather the materials for a mission, only for it to be taken before we can complete it. There will still be a need for the materials, though, so it isn’t a waste of time.” He says all of this in one breath, his face turning red from the embarrassment and shyness while having to respond to his brother's anger.

  I can see his brother take a deep breath, now faced with his younger brother’s courage in facing him. “Alright, we will do it your way since I also don’t want to be banned from doing missions and preventing me from getting stronger.” Then, in a light whisper that I think he thinks only his brother will hear, “I just want to get stronger faster so I can protect you.”

  Replying to the kid I was talking to just as quietly, “I know, but we have to make sure not to burn bridges in that process.”

  Stepping back to my group, I nod to them and we head out of the guild hall, ready for our missions.