73 - Guild Outpost

Sunstone’s guild outpost was a tiny thing. This far north, in a land so sparse with latent magic, getting classes in general was an uncommon feat, much less career adventurers. Still, any respectable civilization, even towns much smaller than Sunstone, had a place to host them when they passed through. To Sable’s knowledge, that was doubly necessary for the inevitable situations like surges of monster activity, or a particularly strong monster showing up. Even if a town didn’t have local adventurers, they needed to be ready to host and aid those who came to help them.

Hence, Sunstone’s guild outpost was a quiet, cozy building located a short walk outside of the town center, and, on Sable entering, she was met with a single friendly face: the receptionist, who perked up at the noise, clearly unaccustomed to visitors.

She blinked several times at seeing Sable, a reaction Sable was quickly becoming accustomed to; she had received stares all through the town as she found her way to the guild outpost. At the sheer interest on so many faces, Sable even started to wonder whether Roman’s assurances were true—whether she would go unnoticed on the larger scale. Sable chalked it up to small-town intrigue; she was the first thing of interest in some weeks, so people’s attentions latched to her. Down in Wastehaven, she wouldn’t be a tenth as interesting. But for now, she was the talk of the town.

The receptionist was still orienting herself to Sable’s arrival by the time she made it to the desk. She felt an odd mix of awkwardness and pleasure at that; she liked having a presence that took another person off guard.

“Good morning, miss,” the auburn-haired girl finally got out. “Um. Here on Guild business?”

“No,” Sable said. “I’m not officially registered. But I have a few questions. About the Guild and Sunstone.” As much as a place to rest and congregate, guild outposts were information centers for adventurers. Sable could receive directions and information from guards or even regular townsfolk, but she would rather deal with guild personnel—they were accustomed to this. Well, more accustomed than most. The auburn-haired receptionist certainly seemed a bit out of it; even by a guild official’s standard, Sable was apparently an unexpected sight. Not a regular-looking adventurer in the slightest.

“Of course,” she said. “I’m Liana, by the way.”

“Ivory,” Sable returned. She obviously couldn’t go around using her real name, since that was associated with a dragon currently terrorizing goblin lands—and that information would eventually leak. She hadn’t put much thought into a false one, but it had popped into her head with some amusement. Ivory. White. The opposite of her actual name, Sable. For that matter, what cosmic joke had it been that she had been turned into a white dragon while being named after a shade of black?

“Ivory,” Liana said. Her eyes flicked up and down Sable, taking in her skin, clothing, hair, and horns—all varying shades of white. “That makes sense.”

Sable quirked an eyebrow.

Liana blushed, then laughed. “Because, you know …?” She coughed. “Um. How can I help you, miss?”

Oddly, Sable was enjoying watching the woman squirm. It was a different kind of pleasure than how the leadership of Skatikk stepped fearfully around her—here, the receptionist was disarmed by her appearance and how she held herself. Yes, Sable could get behind her backstory as an adventuring nobleman’s daughter. A more mundane origin would have been far beneath her. Not that she even intended to bring it up.

“I need supplies,” Sable said. “Is there someplace in town I can buy a map?”

“A map?”

“A regional one. Or larger.”

Liana oriented herself to this request, then thought it over, brow furrowing. “Well, we don’t have a cartographer’s shop, but you could find a selection at a book store, I’m sure. Depends on what you’re looking for. Quality. And price. Landon’s probably your best bet. Do you need directions?”

“Please.”

Liana gave them. Sable tucked the information away; it wasn’t long or complicated.

“I also have some questions about the Guild,” Sable said.

Roman hadn’t actually been well informed in regard to the Adventurer’s Guild. She was a mage of some competence, but had been more of a scholar than an adventurer. She knew her way around combat spells, and had even been on a few delves and expeditions, but those in the Adventurer’s Guild tended to make it their career; Roman had not. So, Sable had a few holes in her knowledge for how the Guild worked. Better to ask questions in a far-off outpost, rather than at Wastehaven. Anything odd she said wouldn’t draw meaningful attention. Not that even at Wastehaven it likely would; Sable was probably being overly cautious.

“Sure,” Liana said. “I’d be happy to help.”

“First, how does registration work?”

“Oh,” Liana said. “Well, I’m afraid Sunstone’s not authorized to hold entrance examinations. Rosemoon’s the closest city that can, I believe.”

“But how does it work? What would I need?”

“There’s not much to it,” Liana said. “You’ll need to pay entrance fees, give your name and some background information, then pass an evaluation to earn your ranking.”

Sable assumed the bureaucracy behind the Adventurer’s Guild wasn’t nearly as thorough as modern-day ID and social-security number based systems; faking her way into membership wouldn’t be hard at all. Still, she’d wanted to hear it from Liana. “And those fees would be?”

Liana wrinkled her nose. “Three silver, I believe? It changes. But it’s not cheap. You can also have that waived for some, um, alternative plans.”

“Oh?”

“You’d be an employee of the Guild for a while, effectively,” Liana said. “Which isn’t so terrible an idea, if you’re just getting your feet wet. They’ll task you with some of the less popular quests, but it’s better to start off with easy ones than to bite off more than you can chew. Adventurers are famous for that, yeah? So, it depends on your situation.” She tilted her head curiously, obviously fishing for information.

“Mm,” Sable said. “A fee wouldn’t be an issue. And that reminds me. Can I trade in dungeon coins here?”

Interestingly, the bronze and silver Sable and Aylin had collected from their dungeon explorations were unminted—they were round coins of pure metal. She’d brought them along to trade for Kingdom Auldstone minted currency, as well as a decent amount of gold coins, raided from Skatikk. It was no enormous wealth, but enough to get Sable by.

“We sure can. I’ll need to go grab the scales, though. Should I?”

“Yes, please.”

“Be right back, then.”

Sable waited patiently for her to return. Trading in dungeon-based currency was a staple Guild duty. Roman hadn’t been sure how smaller no-name outposts would work, though, so Sable had been ready for a rejection—to be told she’d need to go someplace else to handle the chore. Fortunately, it seemed this was another errand she would be able to handle in advance of Wastehaven.

“Alright,” Liana said. “Should be good. How much you trying to convert?”

“I’m not sure, exactly,” Sable said. “Here.” Reaching into her robes, she extracted two pouches of coins and set them on the counter.

Liana deftly untied the first of the bags. “We only keep so much on hand for security reasons, just so you know. But that shouldn’t be …”

Liana trailed off, eyes widening as she peeked inside the first bag. She reached in and pulled out a gold coin, raising it up to take a better look. Her expression became more and more incredulous as she looked back down and rummaged through the rest of the bag.

“Miss,” she finally said. “We … can’t trade in an entire bag of gold.”

“You can’t?”

Liana stared disbelievingly at her.

Sable shifted in place. “The other is bronze and silver?”

Frankly, currency hadn’t been a topic she’d talked over with Roman beyond Roman mentioning that a few pouches of gold would ‘get them by’. Maybe Sable had underestimated what that meant, though.

“I suppose I could talk to town hall,” Liana said after a moment more of staring at her. “But I don’t have enough to trade you in on hand. Not even close.”

“The bronze and silver will be fine.” It seemed she would, in fact, have to handle full currency conversions at Wastehaven. She supposed she should’ve known better; a small town like Sunstone wouldn’t be as accustomed to adventurers dragging in bags of gold. Lower level dungeons, which were what these people dealt with, gave rewards in the form of bronze and rarely silver.

“You sure?” Liana asked. “It can be arranged, it’ll just take some time.”

“I don’t plan to stay long. So it’s fine.” More than that, she didn’t want further attention drawn to her by draining the town hall’s currency reserves.

Liana placed the gold coin back into the bag and scooted it over to Sable. She seemed incredulous at having even seen so much gold in one place. She opened the other pouch and, seeing bronze mixed with silver, amusingly looked relieved.

She pulled out a notebook, then started weighing dungeon currency against Auldstone-marked coins. The process didn’t take long; she worked efficiently. Soon, an equivalent weight—with a tiny exchange fee—had been processed, and Sable had the more commonly accepted coins. Liana also processed a few gold coins, though only three; that was the extent she could. Dungeon coins would be accepted in some places, and Sable could haggle with shopkeepers to accept the less-common type, but it was generally looked down on; most people simply dealt in proper coinage.

She made a mental note to earn an understanding of what the varying denomination were really worth. From Liana’s reaction, she intuited gold went a long way. Which, uh, was probably obvious. Gold had been expensive back on Earth, too. Though not to any crazy degree, she thought. Or, had it? She wasn’t sure. And then again, she’d set down a heavy pouch of the material in front of Liana, not just a few coins.

With that done, Sable said, “Thank you. I’m heading for Landon’s, then. I’ll likely be back.”

“See you then,” Liana said cheerfully. “Oh! And if you find a moment, you should check out The Bull and the Bear. Roland there is a [Cook], level six, and you won’t find anything better in town.” She smiled. “Just a friendly suggestion.”

Sable considered that, then nodded. Classes were rare here, so having a classed cook was clearly a point of town pride. And she hadn’t had much in the way of human cuisine for some time besides what Roman offered her. Maybe that wasn’t a horrible idea. “I think I might. Thank you.”

“Of course.”

Sable departed, headed for Landon’s bookstore.