"Thank you, Geralt. The food was amazing."
Waving to the bartender, whom I discovered was also the owner of this inn, I leaned back in my chair. The quiet night had allowed to sleep without difficulty; it seed I was more tired than I had expected.
It was almost noon, if what my phone says is true. I woke up early but took my ti getting out of bed; I was studying everything I could on the app, and the summary I can give is:
I'm an idiot, and I'm probably screwed.
Let's start from the beginning, the first point. For this, I bla stress and my years on the internet. I confused Red with a guy, even though her nickna literally had 'Huntress' in it, but as I said, I bla the internet; everyone is a guy until proven otherwise.
Second point: After thinking for a bit, I think I know who Red is. If I put together everything I know about her, she's a teenage girl, maybe a student. She has a weapon that's a scythe/rifle, and judging by her nickna, she likes red.
Rose, or Ruby sothing, I can't rember, I didn't watch the series, but I have a friend who talked about it enough for the character's description to stick in my head. A little girl with a giant scythe who kills dark things, if my mory serves right.
Sighing, I take a sip of my drink, alcohol, I think I'm going to need it.
Third point: When they said 'Countless realities,' I thought they could be parallel worlds, aliens, not literally worlds I considered fictional. TV series, ani, gas, books, anyone could enter my stream and see screwing up. No pressure.
This brings to the fourth point: If there are infinite worlds, countless realities, why the hell did I have only one viewer in eight hours? I checked, no one watched sleep; I have a video of the live stream saved in the app, which is good; I can review it and see if I missed anything.
But moving on, there were supposed to be many people, even if they weren't interested in 'infinite worlds,' theoretically there would be 'infinite people.' Well... no, and I found out why.
It was in the beginner's guide; I had read it hastily last ti. I bla those damn eyes; I just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. But after reading it more carefully, I found this part.
[The strear, () needs to achieve fa in his current world, the more famous the strear is, the live stream will appear in more worlds for a longer ti.]
What I took from this was that my stream was like a fly; sotis it landed here, sotis there, but it didn't stay in one place for long, and since it was just ONE fly, it didn't appear in more than one world at a ti.
Sucks if you ask . Anyway, there's another part; it's not all bad news. Fifth point.
[The strear's followers, (In this case, only Red) can access the live stream at any ti when it's online.]
And the part that gave so relief was this.
[The strear's followers can send a unique invitation to soone else and invite them to watch the stream.]
In other words, at least when I open the stream, Red will receive a notification and can join without relying on luck again. She could even invite soone else to the live; she ntioned having a sister, Yang, if I recall correctly. I'll see if I can get Red to invite her; two heads are better than one.
And moving on to the bad news! Well, sixth point: expenses. The store was incredibly expensive, seriously, everything cost in the thousands.
[ Cara models:
First-person cara: 10,000 SP.
Long-distance cara: 7,000 SP.
Angle cara: 4,000 SP.
Omnidirectional cara: 30,000 SP ]
And so on, everything was damn expensive, chat enhancents? Bam! Five thousand SP, unlock the donate button? Bam! Ten thousand SP, and so forth. Finishing my glass, I waved to the only waitress in the tavern. It seems she gets busy only at night; it's less crowded in the morning and afternoon.
"Could you bring another beer, please, actually, make it two, I need to drink." She just nodded and went to the counter to talk to Geralt. At least I had a drink.
Considering that a three-hour stream with Red earned thirteen SP, the future looked bleak...
Seventh, better, and final point: I had privileges, or rather, so of my items did. The map and the inventory, or as it's actually called, the VoidBag.
[Living Map LV1: 100 SP]
[VoidBag LV1: 100 SP]
The tools, sword, pickaxe, and axe didn't have upgrades, so I'll need others in the future, the sa goes for potions. And no, there are no potions for sale in the store, I checked.
Taking the two glasses of drink from the waitress, I thanked her and continued to drink. I also talked to Geralt, seeking information; I made up a story that I was from a distant village and didn't know the 'big city.' I didn't need to lie; I really didn't know anything.
He explained the basics and the main reason I was drinking. I knew the na of the kingdom I was in. Not that I had visited or heard of anyone, but because I had played it. Terraria, the kingdom was called Terraria!
I really hoped it wasn't the ga world, but with my shitty luck, it would be, and my friends, it wasn't a very nice place to live.
On one hand, I had the possibility to beco strong, to enhance myself with godlike equipnt. Of course, if I were a ga character, which I wasn't.
A giant microbe that infects and corrupts everything. A massive flesh blob that devours and causes symbiosis with everything it touches. Ancient gods, beings from other dinsions.
That was Terraria, a place that, if you were immortal and had infinite lives, was a paradise, but for ordinary people? I'd rather go to Red's world. Now I understood why the city had those massive walls.
And I really don't want to even think that the na of the app has sothing to do with this world; that would just increase my headache. I'll leave that for future Devas to figure out.
Finishing my drinks, I got up and paid the bill to Geralt. "Friend, can you point the way to the Guild?"
He took the coins I placed on the counter.
"Just take the main road and keep going straight; you can't miss it, trust ."
Waving, I bid farewell. I already had everything with . Heading to the street, I was still amazed by the scenery. For them, it might be just a city, but for , it was a dieval fantasy world; it felt like I was in one of the gas I used to play. This both fascinated and scared because I knew how dangerous these places could be.
I walked until I found the main street; it was the best-made road, wide enough for several carriages to pass, paved with asphalt, and the gray stone bricks had a unique pattern.
Following the roadside, I walked for a few minutes, and indeed, there was no way to miss it. The Guild building was massive; it looked more like a mansion than a regular building.
"Magic, for sure." I couldn't help but comnt to myself.
The walls were white with huge pillars all around. Each pillar, each wall had small black symbols carved into them, making the place even more exotic. The roof was a dark blue that seed to be made of scales; the scales also bore the sa symbols, but these were silver.
Walking into the Guild hall and entering, the place seed larger on the inside. The pillars that existed outside were also present in here. Massive white pillars supported the ceiling. Around, on the floor. And in the middle of the hall, a giant board with nurous papers stuck to it. A mission board.
Looking around the hall, there were countless people chatting at the tables scattered throughout. Each one different from the other but with a pattern I recognized well.
So wore full suits of iron, steel, what I imagined to be silver, even gold! Others wore long robes and held staffs with gems at the tips. There were also those with more agile, short attire and bows on their backs. Classes, people seed to have classes.
It looked like the center of an MMORPG. It wasn't just the few classes from Terraria. I could think of so that didn't exist, aside from the usual warrior, archer, mage. Those with daggers and cloaks might be rogues or thieves, perhaps.
There were a few who were mounted on animals with small creatures following them. Summoners. There were so with white robes and golden engravings; if I were to follow stereotypes, these would be white mages, or in this case, healers and support.
Not to ntion the weapons, short swords, long swords, halberds, tridents, thick and short bows. Red would have an orgasm just stepping in here, ignoring the fact that so of them literally glead, while others even emitted sparks, both fire and electricity.
Holding back from smiling and looking weird, I walked up to one of the reception desks. Seriously, this world made feel both amazed and stressed at the sa ti.
Approaching one of the vacant receptions, a woman with dark skin caught my eye. She seed to be a bit older, in her twenties or late twenties, with black hair and eyes. What caught my attention most about her weren't the lons she carried on her chest; they were nice, but the two black cat ears on top of her head were more exotic, at least to .
She smiled and greeted with a nod.
"Good afternoon, how can I assist you?"
She looked up and down, judging ; she didn't seem to like what she saw, but she remained courteous. I couldn't bla her; I was dressed simply and not equipped to the teeth like literally everyone else here.
"I'm new in town, ca from afar; I'd like to join the guild, how much would it be?" I already knew how much it would be; Geralt told it was one silver coin. Kind of expensive, if you ask , but who was I but a stranger in this city?
"It's one silver, sir, but in case you don't have that money on hand, you can take a provisional license and pay us as you complete missions."
I nodded and took out so copper coins. Another thing I had learned. Coins were counted in four types, three denominations, and one hundred for one. One silver was worth one hundred coppers, one gold was worth one hundred silvers.
There were copper, silver, gold, and platinum coins. And the denominations were:
Small Coins: The smallest type of coin. Small coins were worth only one piece of their type; a small copper coin was worth only one copper. It was also the most common type of coin.
Large Coins: The type most used by Guild contractors, they didn't have a na; so called them adventurers, others contractors. It was worth ten pieces of their type. A large copper coin was worth ten coppers.
And the 'rarer' type. Royal Coins: As the na suggested, they were only used by really wealthy people. Large rchants, nobility, and especially royalty. It was worth one hundred pieces of their type, but unlike the others, there were only royal coins in gold and platinum.
I handed the woman eight large copper coins and twenty small copper coins. I didn't want to draw attention by using a silver coin; I looked like a peasant, having large coins was already strange.
"Here, I'll pay now, what do I need to do?"
She seed surprised but hid it well; her gaze changed slightly, now she seed to take more seriously. She took sothing from under the counter and placed it on the divider between us.
It was so papers, what appeared to be a black badge. It had a pentagonal shape with a tree carved in the center. And finally, a quill and a small knife.
"I need you to sign here and drop a drop of your blood on your badge."
I just nodded, as if I were going to do this shit without reading.
"Could I read the papers before?" If she denied, I would just leave. I'm not signing anything without reading, especially sothing that could involve magic.
She seed surprised by this and nodded, perhaps expecting that I couldn't read? Just another thing I needed to check, like the level of education in this world.
"Of course, you can, my apologies for that, here you go."
I took the papers from the table and began reading them carefully. I wasn't a lawyer, but as a programr, I needed to pay attention to details; a misplaced comma could ss up, so I knew how to pay attention to details.
After a few minutes of reading, I didn't find anything suspicious. It was just a standard contract. It wasn't the best, it had only one clause I didn't like, but it was fair.
If I signed the contract, I would officially beco a mber of the Guild and could take missions based on my badge level. In my case, it was the lowest possible. They even had a small summary, I guess to encourage people.
In order from lowest to highest:
Copper: This was the level for people who had just joined the Guild; most people would move out of this level in one or two weeks.
Bronze: This was the level where you were considered for 'party' or group invitations.
Silver: The level of most contractors, the most common, and also the level of most of the city's militia.
Steel: This level was a division; here began the Guild's 'Elite,' people who were called for important missions, noble escorts, defense, and monster eliminations, etc.
Gold: The level or equivalent to what the gate guards had. Here you could already be considered a minor noble without titles. The respect of a noble but without everything else.
Platinum: The level or equivalent of the army generals. Here you could be considered soone of respect, already with so power.
And the last one: it was confusing, but in essence, it was 'Gem': Here were truly the strongest that the kingdom and the Guild had to offer. I say confusing because the chosen gem varied from person to person, depending on their class and specialization.
Returning to the contract, as I said, it was common, even advantageous. The Guild would take ten percent of the profit from each mission I completed up to the steel level; then, it would drop to five percent, and at the gold level, I would get all the money.
But the part that made hesitate was:
(In the event of a threat to the kingdom, all contractors must serve in the army until the threat is eliminated; in case of non-compliance, the contract becos null, and you will be expelled from the Guild and placed on the blacklist forever).
Cool, everyone coming together to defend the kingdom and all that, but there was a catch. I wasn't from this kingdom, I couldn't care less if this place blew up or turned to ashes, besides the fact that I would need to find another place to earn money and sleep.
But as people say: beggars can't be choosers. If sothing happened, I'd just grab my stuff and leave.
After rereading the contract to make sure I hadn't missed anything, I signed it. The contract itself didn't seem to be magical, but the next part was.
"Do I just drop a drop of blood here?"
"Yes, that's all, quite simple."
Indeed, it was simple. I pricked my finger with the knife and let a drop of blood drip onto the dallion. Imdiately, nothing happened, then the dallion shimred a bit and began to transform; the color changed to sothing tallic. Copper. Then the tree in the center seed to pulsate, and small grooves appeared just below the root.
(Devas Asura: Copper Rank.)
Explanatory and simple. My na and my rank. This was also explained in the contract. The dallion was linked to your blood, so it was like a fingerprint; each one had a different one, so with more tree roots, others with more leaves, so with animals or weapons. Mine?
"Different, never seen one like this before," the receptionist said.
Mine had what looked like a cellphone on the tree trunk, and in the middle of the cellphone, a button. And if what I was seeing wasn't hallucination, my system connected to it.
(Connection with Guild dallion found: Achievent unlocked - Beginner Adventurer, the beginning of your story: 1000 SP).
(Connection with Guild dallion found: Resource unlocked - mber Missions).
I was happy to get the free SP, but I'd look into it more later. I waved to the receptionist.
"Do you keep the contract, or can I have a copy?" It's better to be safe.
She seed excited about sothing. "Here, I'll get another copy; by the way, my na is Nyssa, nice to et you, Mr. Devas."
She turned and went to get sothing from the shelf behind her, leaning over and giving a view of her plump behind and a black cat tail swaying. I couldn't complain; it was a great view.
But I would be an idiot not to notice the difference in treatnt. Mr.? Maybe she thought I was so nobleman's disguised son or sothing? Shrugging, I enjoyed the view, as I said, I wouldn't complain.
She seed to smile at that and swayed her hips a bit, then turned and grinned.
"Here, for you, do you need anything else?" She winked seductively and ran her fingers over my hand as I took the extra contract.
I smiled back and put the contract in my inventory while shaking my head in denial. This cat's luck was that I had a lot to do, a lot to think about. Work before pleasure, as my late grandfather used to say.
She seed a little sad at the refusal, if the ears flattened on top of her head were anything to go by, but she smiled anyway.
"I understand, good luck then; if you want to pick up a mission or have any questions, co to , I'll personally assist you," she winked and blew a kiss in my direction.
I waved and turned to leave. I had no intention of picking up a mission, at least not today; I needed equipnt, at least a leather armor. I need to see if there's so kind of monster encyclopedia too. I was a Terraria fan, but I'd be crazy not to expect things to be different from the ga.
Here we go, I had plans to make.
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