After that short visit with Gerald, Kron helped me navigate the city to reach the Adventurer’s Guild. The place was filled with twenty-year-olds like me and the rare younger teen like Murr. In one small corner of the vast hall, a human fighter sat at a table with his arms crossed. In front of him was the sign, ‘Recruiting for the White Empire’s Army.’
I pointed to him. “What’s that about?”
“Oh? There are rumors going around that the Red Empress is finally going insane. She sent small units to attack settlements at our borders so the army has been recruiting extra hard.”
That wasn’t good. When Emperors went insane, they started wars with their peers in hopes that one of them will kill them. It was a bit fucked up, but it was what it was. The fae were so powerful that nobody could do anything about it.
In fact, this world was called Faeruled because a few dozen immortal fae controlled vast empires across the globe. They restricted the size of each settlement and forced people to find their resources in various dungeons. There were even non-combat dungeons set up for farming, so most of the land available could be used for housing and manufacturing.
They even restricted where my father could build things in his fort way out on the outskirts of civilization. It got to the point where we had to save our land for manufacturing and commerce. Everyone built houses in the trees that we weren’t allowed to cut down.
Did we elves like living in trees? No! We had no choice.
Did dwarves like living underground? No! According to the few who I’d talked to. But they’d gotten used to it since they could only build underground.
Just thinking about the lack of horizontal space had me itching to create plans for skyscrapers, now that I remembered them and how to do it. But creating plans was pointless if this world lacked the materials to build them. I’d need some kind of cement and a lot of really good steel.
Maybe I could find that something somewhere.
Of course, that would only be if I even survived the next four years.
My friends still didn’t know. I couldn’t break it to them while they were so excited after their destiny reveals. It would ruin the mood.
A twenty-year-old man walked up to the table. The recruiter scowled at him and pointed to the sign that said, ‘We’re not recruiting New Adults. Only Tested Adults.’
“That is how we know our emperor is still sane,” Kron said. “Only insane emperors recruited untested New Adults.”
And yet, the military in my previous world preferred them. It was always young men fighting rich men’s wars.
I, for one, was uninterested in PVP... war. Especially after what happened in that alley earlier. If Murr hadn’t shown up, the two of us would have died once that fourth guy killed Kron.
If I were taking part in a war. Ha!
I noticed Brad and Kimmi at the front of the line. Kron queued at the back.
Moral dilemma, do I cut in front of all these people, angering the shit out of them to be with my friends who’d said that they’d hold my spot? Or do I hang out with the guy who messed up, almost got me killed, and then brought me to someone who actually gave me good advice?
There was only one option, really.
I stood in line behind Kron and waited. Fortunately, the guild had around twenty people just taking in new applicants. It didn’t take long before I had my Rank K token. With it, I could form a party and enter any of the bunny dungeons that were scattered around the city.