Chapter 3: Beastiary
Heading in the direction of BIPs town I stayed to the outside edge of the forest. I didn't know what type of monsters I would run into or how strong those monsters would be if I ventured further into the woods. I did run into a few more beatles and collected some more monster pieces which was great because I knew that I would need to make a good bit more money in town if I was to keep going as an adventurer. Sera (The rainbow cat from the character creation chamber.) had told me that I would need to level up in order to become an immortal, and becoming immortal seemed like as good a goal as any.
The only problem was that I had no clue how far I'd have to level up or what the level cap even was. I tried asking system help but I got no response from it unfortunately. So until I have leveled up enough, I'll need a good bit of money to buy better equipment and face stronger enemies. "I'll also need food and lodgings." I spoke thinking out loud. As I got lost in thought I trotted along on my little goat hooves not paying attention to the map so I was surprised when I saw the silhouette of the town in the distance.
I quickly made my way to the town limit and walked up to the front gate. Just like the last town there were two gaurds at the entrance. One had the upper body of a man and the lower body of a snake. The other was bullheaded to say the least.
"Excuse me?" I addressed the guards. "Is this the BIP town?" At this their faces dropped like I'd just said something mean. The bullheaded gaurd spoke first.
"Didn't you're momma teach you not to use that kind of language?" He asked. The snake man spoke next. "Thisss issss Ssssspecidia, a city ssspecifically mean for Bisssspeciess to trade, live and be sssafe. We are not BIPssss." I finally understood what I'd said and also why the last city had been so unfriendly. Bispecies were discriminated against in this world. "It would have been nice to know about that before making my body." I thought to myself.
"My apologies guardsmen I just learned of that word and didn't know the intent behind it." I paused to look both of them in the eye. "I promise not to use the word again or disrupt the peace of this city. The guards smiled at that realizing I must be a new player just born into this world.
"That's ok." The guard with the head of a bull started. "I should have realised that you were a new child of the gods." This was the second time I had heard that phrase.
"Could I ask you what that means?" I asked. "To be a child of the gods I mean." The guards looked at eachother and then to me. This was part of every guards job in the country after all was to explain what it means to be a COG. The bull man started the explanation.
"To be a Child of the Gods or Cogs as you may hear some people say just means that you were not concieved on this world." The snake man nodded along and continued from there.
"There are the people that were born here, we have strength of coursssse, but it can not grow as much as Cogssss." The bull man took over again.
"The Cogs usually make their living in adventuring for a city because they are more suited to it. They can learn magic skills and techniques that would take us normal people months or years to learn and master, in a matter of seconds. We made the discovery that Cogs were made by the power of the gods years ago just by questioning the people with the ability to there were too many people with matching stories about their origins." Bullhead guy finished his portion of the speech.
The half snake guard takes out a flyer with an address on it and hands it to me. "Take this to the adventurers guild here in the city. It will get you a job with them. A message I hadn't seen before appeared. "QUEST ACCEPTED!" I thanked the two for their information and headed into the city before taking a look at the quest. The quests title was "Join the Adventurers Guild- Specidia edition." The quest was self explanatory honestly. Take the flier to the Adventurers guild, and get a job.
I took a look at the mini map to see if there were any clue for how to get there. Sure enough the quest system had my back. On the map there was a small glowing "X." marking the spot that I was supposed to go to, and small glowing footsteps that lead from where I was to the "X." I headed in that direction hoping to get some money to start my journey off with.
As I walk through the city towards my destination I can't help but take in it's vastness. It didn't look this big from the outside but on the inside there were tall building with smoke coming out of the chimneys, and lots of lights from the street lamps which were a glow with fire. Great smell escaped from many small restaurants along the path and numerous people of all kinds of Bispecies and even some human traversed the city streets. It was the most amazing thing I'd seen up till that point of this world.
I turned the last corner and abruptly stopped in front of what the map called "The Guild House." It was a three story building it's base was made made of some kind of stone with many runes carved into it none of which I had the knowledge to understand. It was made in a gothic style mostly of wood and was black with gold trim, there were some column built upon the entrance of the building and on the top floor they flew a banner. The banner was black with gold trim as well the insignia one it was a pair of ram horns like my own, with a set of upper and lower K-9 fangs in between them and bear paws with claws comin out of them on either side of the horns towards the bottom.
The building was surrounded by a stone wall with iron rods along the top of it in a wave formation. At the tip of every rod there was a small crystal with a defensive spell woven into it. It was a little intimidating to be honest but still I steeled myself and set to my task. I walked straight though the opening in the wall towards the front door, the moment I did that the flier that told of this place quickly appeared in front of me and folded itself so many time that it completely folded itself out of existence. "That's a funny little trick." I chuckled. Walking up to the main door I knocked three times and waited for a response.
Just a few minutes later a well endowed woman with pink hair and feathers on the underside of her arms opened the door and smiled at me.
"You're the new Cog right?" Was the first thing that she said to me. "I'm Lina. I work as a greeter here at the 'Beastiary' the best Bispecies guild in the entire country!" She lifted one leg and smiled warmly at me. "I'm part flamingo. If you were wondering." She said as I eyed her leg.
"Ah that makes sense." I replied returning her smile. "So how do you go about joining the Beastiary?" I asked. Lina told me to follow her and she lead me down the hall at the beggining of the guild hall. We stopped at a large wooden door and she clapped her hands twice. The door opened and suddenly I was staring at a large eatery with rows of tables heading toward a large open kitchen where food was prepared. On one side was a large bar with several beer taps and lots of liquor. On the far opposite end of the hall however was a large booth looking thing with three seperate tellers. We walked up to the one that wasn't already busy helping other Cogs accept jobs, or collect rewards.
"We have a new Cog for the guild Terrence!" Lina said to the teller. He was a very handsome tall man with eight pointed deer antlers resting on top of his head and the blackest eyes you've ever see. He smiled a warm smile and spoke.
"I can see that Lina." He looked me up and down. "and what is your name?"
"Rilec." I responded confidently. It was the first time I'd used my name since Sera helped me pick it out, it was something I was pretty proud of. Terrence the teller nodded his head, his antlers lightly tapping the wooden overhang above him. He pulled out some paperwork and started talking.
"I'm just going to read this out to you ok? It's a fairly standard contract as far as these things go." Terrence looked back down and started reading. "I the undersigned do hereby agree to provide service as an adventurerer to the adventurers guild located in Specidia for the duration of three and a quarter years. I ________ agree to be paid a stipend for living wages twice per month starting on the first and middle days of each month. I _______ do hereby realize that the guild may ask you to undertake difficult and life threatening jobs that are requested of us. I_______ do understand that the guild is not liable for any damages to equipment, injury, or loss of life. _______ agrees to be taken care of by the healers of the guild if desired when able to return from the field with life threatening injuries. I______ am aware that as a member of the guild am able to use the guild store to buy new weapons, armor, potions, and spells. If ______ is a crafter of any of these types of items I ______ shall provide them to the guild store and shall be compensated fairly through monetary means or trading. I _______ do hereby understand and am agreeing to the above mentioned stipulations to join the guild located in Specidia also known as the "Beastiary." Terrence finished reading the contract.
"I don't have to sign it in blood do I?" I joked to the teller.
"Yes." He responded sullenly. I became a few shades paler and upon seeing that Terrence cracked a smile and chuckled at me. "I'm joking. No we have a binding ink to seal the contract that way you can not break it." I figured it all sounded pretty good and it would give me the chance to take jobs and make money while I level up so I decided to sign the contract. As soon as the quill touched the paper with the magic ink all of the spaces for my signature were filled out.
"Would you like to be shown to your room?" Lina said with a smile.
"I get a room?" I asked back. Both Lina and Terrence laughed at that. "We should have probably told you along with the contract. You have the option of staying with the guild in your own room in the hall. It's taken out of your monthly stipened however so the adventurers that agree to this tend to try to take more jobs to make up for the loss of income." Terrence explained to me. "Food is free though!" Lina interjected happily. I decided to make this my base of operations for now and it at least took care of food and lodging.
I agreed to go see my room and Lina happily bound off towards another hallway. We stayed on the ground level as it was explained to me that only level 60 and above can go to the second level and only levels 120 and go to the third floor. We stopped in front of my room and Lina handed me a key. As soon as I took the key the small wooden door started smoking until it burned a replica of my horns into the door.
"That's magic that only allows you into the room unless you state otherwise." Lina said happily. I thanked her and told her that I was very tired which was true. I opened the door and immediately went to bed for the night.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone