Adventurers are not obliged to take any missions and are free to refuse any mission offered. However, their status within the guild, discounts, and missions available to them depend on the number and difficulty of missions they had completed. In general the higher the number the better.

  A hedge awakened can fund their growth for a long time by completing missions while simultaneously honing their skills. This is a great boon, and you should seriously consider joining.

  — Excerpt from the Overview of Imperial Guilds

  Day 84, 10:30 AM

  “Morning to you, laddie.” The man placed the glass behind the counter, out of sight, with a soft click. “What can I do for you?”

  “I would like to join, but I have some questions.”

  The old man, and he was old, over two centuries, possibly more, answered with the patience of age. I had read an overview of the guilds, and he confirmed everything I knew.

  The annual fee for registering as a knight initiate was a second realm manarium crystal, and it entitled me to the sleeping quarters, guild meals, the mission board, and the training area.

  I paid and followed the old man’s instructions, placing my hand atop a crystalline device, which confirmed I was in the fifth layer of the third realm.

  “The missions are over there.” The old man pointed towards a screened off area. “It should be self-explanatory, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask. Once you select a mission, you can bring it over to me.”

  I thanked him and went to check what was available.

  Most of the list involved moving to dangerous areas and gathering resources various people and organizations needed, but there were also more mundane requests. Healers who would join a noble’s hunting trip, bodyguards for merchants, instructors on various topics, including combat, weapon use, energy gathering, and realm shaping.

  The peaceful jobs were in the minority, but still existed. There were also bounties and missing person posters, with relatives searching for those who had entered the Summersweald and never returned.

  I used my photographic memory and memorized the board, so I could peruse it later, when I had nothing better to do.

  Some of the jobs looked nice and were nice for those with the right skill sets, but were in fact traps for me. At least until I established myself a bit more. I could teach weapon skills and combat for money, but I was supposedly an amnesiac.

  Maybe in half a year.

  I returned empty-handed and the old-timer seemed to have expected it.

  “Feels a bit overwhelming.” He chuckled in good humor. “Go grab a bite to eat, but remember, paying the fee isn’t worthwhile if you don’t complete at least one realm-appropriate mission per year.”

  I smiled and nodded. “Thanks. Is there a place where I can get local information, like what’s happened in the last week or two.”

  “Talking is generally the cheap way of doing it, but if you’re looking for something more specific, you could try the rumor-house.”

  I was hoping for something along the lines of newspapers, local crime and justice section, but I guess this world didn’t have that either.

  With a word of thanks, I sat and enjoyed a decent meal, maybe slightly inferior to Basil’s cooking, then I was off, wandering the city.

  The other guilds were off limits until I entered a loop, so I went to find the rumor-house. The building was a prominent one, but unlike the library, the adventurers’ guild, and other imperial facilities, it wasn’t made of the greenish-gold stone, which marked public institutions. Instead, this was a privately held mansion made of regular stone.

  I wasn’t sure how I felt about limiting people’s building options in favor of imperial amenities, but knowing a building was an institution from afar was handy.

  It also raised the question why guardhouses weren’t made of the same stone. The books I read hinted that maintaining public order was left to each royal family, and possibly even smaller ruling entities.

  I’ll ask Ruby once I return. If I don’t forget.

  I opened the wooden door and walked in. The large chamber was carpeted, with a pair of guards flanking the door, and with three people sitting at their desks, their faces, hands, and the contents of their desks blurred.

  I stared in wonder as none of the three so much as looked in my direction. Their hands moved, they must have been making noise, but I didn’t hear a sound.

  I shifted my gaze towards the guard, he was a giant of a man, a head taller than me, and Dandelion was tall.

  “How may we help you, sir?” the man said in a deep, civil voice.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “I’m new here, and I heard about your establishment for the first time, so I wanted to see what kind of services you provide, how much it costs, and how much time they take.” The final bit was the most important for me. If they could get me books or knowledge which the imperial library doesn’t have, I could spam them during my loops.

  “The answer to all your questions is - it depends, sir.” He motioned towards the wall with his chin. “You can find some of our services listed there, but we do basically everything as long as it's legal. You can contract us for the same type of missions as you would the adventurers’ guild, and we would perform them, discreetly.”

  The way he said it, assassination and blackmail were the first things to come to mind, but one didn’t speak about such matters aloud. Especially since I did all my assassinating and blackmailing personally. Outsourcing almost certainly led to more problems and more deaths than necessary.

  Still, I checked out their prices and services. Other than selling various types of information, rumor-house also ran a pony-express-like delivery system, found missing persons, pets, resources you needed and such.

  While the list of services was more or less clear, ending with, ‘inquire if you have other needs,’ the list of prices was practically nonexistent, and once again encouraged potential clients to speak with the brokers.

  So, I did. I approached the desk, and suddenly I heard the scratching of a quill against paper. The middle-aged man looked up, set aside the papers to the edge of his clean, blurry table, and greeted me with a professional smile.

  I left the building with a clearer idea of what I needed to know. Public incidents for the past two weeks would cost me a gold or two, anything more depended on how secret and dangerous the information was.

  The words left me with the feeling I was being watched as I strolled around the city. The further north I went, the louder the constant thunder grew, until I finally reached the edge of the city. Thunderbluff’s massive walls weren’t quite as massive there, in fact they transformed into a slightly elevated promenade lined with a five-foot-tall metal fence on the farther side. I took the five steps and found myself on a wide, paved walk, the majestic cliff finally visible, with water roaring through the canyon.

  I walked over to the edge and looked down. A hundred feet down, the water frothed, making white foam as a mile-wide river forced its way through a canyon a fifth of its original width.

  It was midday and idlers were few, but not nonexistent. Several well off couples walked their children while a young man pushed a cart which smelled of sweet pastry, trying to entice some of them to a tasty but overpriced treat.

  He and an old lady sitting on the blanket seemed to be the only merchants around, which was odd, since various food stalls and merchants hawking their goods had lined the street closer to the city center.

  The promenade would have been a major tourist attraction on Earth, a canyon, right outside a large city with all the comforts one would expect, but forests and untouched nature on the other side of the raging river.

  The youth wheeled his cart closer to me, trying to tempt me with the smell but no luck. I approached the fence and the old woman’s blanket, stocked with chalk and clay tablets.

  “Care to make a wish good sir?” The wrinkled granny garbed in rags said, staring at me with rheumy eyes. “Three silver a piece.”

  I smiled at her and gave her two gold coins, enough for four tablets, taking only one from the stack. She handed me the chalk, and smiling I wrote, ‘I wish to lead a happy life’.

  “What do I do with it?” I asked her and she pointed at the shorter piece of railing behind her, which was only three feet high.

  “Toss it over.” And I did.

  The old woman picked up another tablet to give me, but I shook my head.

  “I only have one wish. You can keep the money.” I clamped my mouth shut as Blunt nearly said, “You look like you need it.”

  “That’s kind of you, sir. I was told I had a gift for seeing when I was a girl, but I came from a poor family, and we lacked the money to pay for school and the awakening attempt. Still, I can catch glimpses of the future now and then. Maybe I can see if you’re in for a fortune.”

  I held myself back from chuckling. I was in for a fortune of my own making. A book on more mystical arts mentioned seers as people who could make prophecies and pierce the veil of the future under the right circumstances.

  I was about to reject the woman, thinking she would ask for my palm or something but she just stared into my eyes.

  A trickle of blood left her nostril, then the other. Red seeped from her eyes and ears, then gushed out.

  “Hail thee, king beyond death,” she croaked, her grating voice losing humanity and making my skin crawl. Then it grew worse, unearthly, the sound of stone grinding against stone, forming an echo of distant words. “This place is much more dangerous than Everrain, young anarchist. They are already searching for the time-hooper.”

  She slumped over her blanket, blood pouring out from her mouth as I gaped at her, my hands shaking.

  [Name - Dandelion Blackfist

  Class - weaponmaster level 2

  Health 25/25, Strength - 25, Agility - 25, Physique - 25, Wisdom - 25, Intellect - 25, Willpower - 25, Presence - 23, Charisma - 25, Composure - 25

  Abilities - See Abilities for more information.

  Attribute points remaining - 0

  To level up, defeat two combatants with their favored weapons.

  Statuses - none]

  [Abilities - Initial Appraisal, Initial Forest Ambush, Advanced Looting, Literate, Inferior Heartcore, Initial Mana Gathering, Initial Mana Circulation, Initial Black Fist Arts, Advanced Body Reinforcement, Master Rider, Initial Fast Reader, Initial Reference Checker, Advanced Calligraphy, Initial Arithmetics, Initial Persuasion, Initial Photographic Memory, Initial Time Optimization, Initial Logical Deduction, Expert Staffmanship, Advanced Swordsmanship, Initial Spearmanship, Initial Clubmanship, Initial Flailmanship, Initial Knifemanship, Initial Axmanship, Initial Macemanship]

  [Anarchist Level 7

  Abilities - Rage, Redo, Blunt, Heavy Handed, Direct, Insightful, Precise, Amicable, Visionary, Godly ??, Gate Sealer ??, Vengeful ?, Grandmaster Rider ?

  To level up, force the authorities to impose justice upon a party they had previously ignored.]