“I’m sorry,” I interrupted the back and forth between Polly and the lawyers. “I don’t think we’ve been introduced yet.”
“Oh, I’m Jorm,” the snake used the end of his tail to give me a salute. “Vice-guild master of Tier 0.”
The little exchange seemed to remind the others that I was still in the room as well, and that they should probably focus on me instead of verbally assaulting each other in obtuse ways.
“I’d assume you know all about their guild, then,” I gestured toward the lawyers. “What do you think of it?”
“They suck,” Jorm smiled. “Big time.”
“Hey, that’s slander,” Alandril immediately rebuffed him. “We don’t appreciate you devaluing our guild in front of a potential new recruit.”
“And why do they suck?” I asked the snake, completely ignoring the elf, much to his chagrin.
“They’re a massive guild, and they treat everyone below tier ten like garbage, which is reflected in their contracts,” Jorm seemed to relish in the opportunity to disparage the Remnant guild. “I’m pretty sure they have a clause in there somewhere that allows their guildmaster to kill any member, for no reason, with no warning. Helps get around the system restrictions whenever he “accidentally” kills one of them.”
“Is that true?” I pointedly asked Alandril, who looked like he swallowed a lemon.
“It… is included in some of the contracts, yes,” Alandril said slowly. “But rest assured, your contract would be much more advantageous.”
“Uh-huh,” I said, the last bit of enthusiasm leaving my voice. Even if that wasn’t going to be in my contract, I wasn’t too keen on being in a guild that had no issues doing something like that. I may have become a lean, mean, killing machine, but I had standards.
“Well, Tier 0 discriminates!” Alandril suddenly pointed an accusing finger at Polly. “They won’t let anybody join that didn’t start out as a tier zero monster. They hoard all the resources that come with having one of the Nineteen as their guild master and won’t share with anybody that doesn’t fit their perfect little club. They would never recruit you under normal circumstances, which means all their after monopolizing you and your abilities!”
I didn’t even dignify that statement with an answer, wondering if inviting these guys in here had been a good idea after all. Putting aside the fact that I fit their recruitment specifications, I was fairly certain that every guild on every hub had some sort of requirements to join them. Tier 0 simply had more specific demands to let people join, which was why it was fairly small, from what I’d seen.
“While we do want to make use of your services, Gary,” Polly gave Alandril an incredulous look. “We wouldn’t restrict you in any way.”
“Thanks, I guess…” I muttered. It would seem like Polly was smart enough to see that the Remnant guys were digging their own graves and decided to let them do so. “Alright, I’m getting tired of this. I assume you have some kind of contract ready, Polly?”
“I do,” Polly nodded.
“Okay, so here’s what we’re going to do,” I put my hand tentacles on the table to drive home that I was done. “Both of you can give me a copy of your contract, which I will read through at my leisure. I will also take a look around the hub by myself and get a few more contracts from other guilds to compare, and I’ll let you know about my decision once I’m ready. Everybody okay with that?”
“Certainly,” Alandril said, grabbing a folder from his inventory and sliding it across the table with practiced ease and shooting me his smarmiest of smiles. “We’re more than certain that you won’t get a more favorable contract anywhere else.”
“That’s fine with us as well,” another folder, this one decidedly smaller, floated up from below Polly’s desk and joined the offer from Remnant in front of me. “We probably can’t match the benefits that Remnant is promising, but we can offer a less… restrictive environment.”
“Thank you,” I nodded at both parties, storing both contracts in my inventory. “Now, it was nice talking to you, but I would like to go and explore for a bit.”
“We look forward to receiving a positive response,” Alandril said, standing up, flanked by his silent flunkies.
The three of them shuffled out of the room, leaving me with Polly and Jorm, who offered to accompany me to the door. We walked through the colorful hallways, eventually arriving at the elevator, when Jorm decided to speak up.
“You know, Remnant has been pretty desperate to get a voidling into their guild for quite a while,” Jorm spoke without looking at me. “They may have backed off for now, because you took their contract, but don’t think you’ve seen the last of them. They really, really want you to join.”
“Noted,” I said after taking a while to mull this information over. It would seem like there might be trouble brewing on the horizon, making me feel tired. I had hoped that I’d get to take a break after leaving Suigoss, that I might be able to relax for a bit without a main quest goal dangling over me like a ticking time bomb. But apparently it wasn’t meant to be. “For what it’s worth, you guys made a better first impression than they did.”
“Happy to hear it,” Polly spoke as we arrived at the large doors leading outside. “I hope you’ll consider us once you decide on joining a guild. We’d be happy to have you, as a fellow tier zero monster, rather than a voidling, of course.”
I simply nodded at Polly after mulling the offer over for a bit. I had to admit that the Tiero 0 guild seemed to be a good fit for me, at first glance, and I’d definitely keep them in mind. After all, associating with others who had gone through a similar experience would be nice, while being in the same guild as one of the Nineteen seemed like a huge boon. After some empty pleasantries, I turned away from the two and made my way down the street. I, of course, had no clue where I was going, but that didn’t matter.
========================================================================
I had half expected to be swarmed by recruiters as soon as I moved about alone for more than a minute. Yet they didn’t come. It went against my expectations, but at least I finally got some proper time to look around. I idly wandered the streets of the hub, taking in the way hundreds, probably thousands of cultures clashed with each other, while somehow working out. I suppose the threat of the system made sure that the travelers played nice with each other, at least on the surface.
As far as I could tell, while they weren’t literally at each other's throats, they were still constantly battling it out. Like some weird capitalistic endgame, the real warriors were the lawyers. At least as far as the hubs were concerned.
Strolling along the roads, walking wherever I fancied, I saw a lot of different things. Just like when I was walking with Liam, no two buildings were the same. It really felt like there was an unspoken contest going on, where every traveler tried to show off their origins as best as they could. I saw a multitude of building shapes, made out of materials I’d never seen before. A ton of varying humanoids, which were most likely known as the “intelligent races”, interspersed with the occasional monster.
Seeing how many different races were represented here made me think of the Asphons once again. They wouldn’t be out of place at all among the travelers, which meant they should have a place in the larger expanse as well. It hurt me to think that they were stuck on that one planet, not knowing how to fix their problem. Surely, there was a ton of knowledge to be found on the hub and experts to be consulted. With my newfound status as an individual of heightened interest, I should be able to eventually pull some strings and get them some help.
“Hello, excuse me!” A voice cut through the noise of the crowd and I turned to find a lanky monkey with grey fur approaching me. “You’re Gary, right? I’m Housty, and I represent the Knights of Kalandar guild. Could you spare a moment of your time?”
“Trying to recruit me?” I had been ready for this moment ever since I left Tier 0. That didn’t mean I was in the mood for any more meetings, though. “I’m afraid I don’t feel like listening to a sales pitch right now. If you have a contract draft, feel free to leave one with me, and I’ll read over it later.”
“Of course, of course, I wouldn’t want to impose,” the monkey grabbed a folder from his inventory, and another contract joined the two I’d already gotten.
I thought that was the end of it, but apparently, other recruiters had been hanging around me as I moved about. They’d overheard our short conversation and decided they wanted in on the action. A short while later, I had a good thirty contracts sitting in my inventory. When I was finally left alone again, I let out a deep sigh. I guess I should at least take a look at some of these to figure out what I was getting into.