If there was one thing I’d learned over the past hour, it was that I was way out of my depth. With the help of a skill called “asking for directions,” I managed to make my way to one of the quest halls that were dotted around the hub. When I arrived here, I was asked to make my way to one of the quest halls to get more information, so going to one felt like a natural thing to do to get some intel that didn’t have a ton of strings attached to it.
Similar to the arrival hub, the quest hall was a domed building with lots of glass that let in the natural light. There was a counter in the center of the building, while the walls were lined with screens, displaying quests like it was a weird kind of stock market. Travelers swarmed around the displays, fighting for the best quests, which often got accepted within seconds. It was all a bit much for me, watching a throng of people shouting over each other, pushing and pulling, interspersed with the occasional shout of joy or despair.
I did manage to find a small area with benches and tables where exhausted travelers went to rest after fighting for quests and took up a free table, spreading a few of the contracts out in front of me to study. The next hour felt like hell, as I slogged through contract after contract consisting of walls of legalese. Looking back at what little I’d learned about the hub, I should have really expected that the guild contracts would be… unreadable to a normal person. Still, I powered through to gleam as much knowledge about this place as possible.
One of the easiest things to learn was that money did, in fact, exist. The travelers used a currency called credits to trade with each other. Whether or not credits were accepted in the wider expanse was unclear, but I also learned that there were different tiers of credits. I wasn’t certain about the exact exchange rate between tier one credits and tier two credits, for example, but it was a fact that they were a thing. So, as one does, I immediately started sorting the contracts by how much they paid.
One issue was that the compensation wildly differed from guild to guild. Some of them gave out a monthly amount of credits, which could be supplemented by doing tasks for the guild. Some worked entirely on a merit system. Some did both. Others offered an astronomical amount of credits up front, with the expectation that you exclusively did what you were told by the guild. Those I unceremoniously threw in a nearby trashcan.
I had no idea which system would be the best for me, so for now I simply ordered them by how big the funny number was in the salary section. Next, I ordered them by perceived freedoms. I didn’t want to get suckered into some kind of roundabout slavery, so I tried to read between the lines as best as I could to eliminate the contracts that expected too much from me, without giving back an appropriate amount.
I continued shuffling around the contracts, arbitrarily eliminating the ones I didn’t like, until I was left with five contracts arrayed before me. Unsurprisingly, both the contracts from Remnant and Tier 0 had made the cut. Of course, I wasn’t even remotely considering joining Remnant, but if the lawyers were to be believed, the conditions in the contract should be way above average, which made it an odd kind of baseline I could reference.
I was just about to dive into the five contracts in more detail when I was interrupted.
“Hi, there, sorry for disturbing you, we met earlier,” I looked up, and a dwarf stood at the end of my table. I vaguely recognized him as one of the scouts I’d met earlier. “I’m incredibly sorry to spring this on you, but the guildmaster has decided to retract the offer to join our guild, and I’ve been sent to retrieve the contract you’ve been given.”
I stared at him incredulously for a few seconds before properly processing what he had said. Try as I might, I couldn’t remember which guild he was from.
“Which guild were you from again?” I asked warily.
“Dungeon Delvers.”
“Right, give me a second,” I looked down at the five contracts I had before me, one of them being from a guild called Dungeon Delvers. I picked it up and held it out for the dwarf to see. “This one?”
“That’s the one, terribly sorry, again,” the dwarf indicated a small bow before turning around and marching off.
Well, that was weird.
And suspicious.
Trying not to put too much stock in it, I resumed my contract reading. That may have been weird, but there were a million possible reasons for why they would rescind their invitation. Even then, I had plenty of offers to go through, still. So, since I was planning to use Remnants contract as a baseline, I started with theirs.
Compared to the other folders, this one was thick. I dreaded having to even so much as skim through the damn thing, but some sacrifices needed to be made. I had to tell myself that life wasn’t just about life or death battles, the thrill of combat, and killing hordes of monsters. Sometimes you needed to sit down and be an adult. Like filling out your taxes. Not like I ever did any of that properly, but now was as good a place to start as any. New year, new me. All that jazz.
I sighed and started reading. As expected, it was a dry experience and actually hurt my brain to wrap my head around what the legalese was trying to tell me, to the point where I wondered if I should mutate my brain to do taxes instead of spells. I had to read it through twice to get a working theory on what it was trying to tell me, but when I finally did, I was proud of myself. And tired.
What it boiled down to was that I’d be getting a stupid amount of credits on a fixed salary, got any and all imaginable benefits while working for the guild, even a direct line to the guildmaster was included. It seemed designed to give me the maximum amount of freedom and income, and all I had to do was provide my services as an attribute peddler for free, whenever called upon. It seemed like a solid deal, fantastic even. Yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was some stuff hidden in all the fancy language I couldn’t quite wrap my head around. I may not know a lot about lawyers, but I did know that they were not my friends.
They first and foremost worked for Remnant, and they were not my friends.
And, if there was one truth that should hold true even in my new alien life, it was that if something sounded too good to be true… it probably was. As if fate was trying to prove a point, I was approached once again. A short conversation later, I had lost yet another contract, apparently recalled by their guildmaster. Not one of the four I had on the table, but still another one gone. One of the better ones.
Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence…
I curiously looked at some guy getting a drink from a vending machine, wondering what kind of drinks the hub had on offer. There had to be a whole new culinary world for me to explore. But sadly, even with how popular I seemed to be, my current purchasing power was zero. I did need a bit of a break, though, so I took one of my prized possessions out of my inventory. A lungus skewer! I’d bought as many of them as I possibly could after the asphon tournament, which, due to their rarity, wasn’t all that much. After eating this one, I’d only have eight left, so I’d need to ration them.
I slowly enjoyed my treat, recharging my brain to dive back into the horrible world of contracts, and spent some time watching the travelers get their quests. Something I hadn’t realized at first was that the displays were ordered by tier. Although, as far as I could tell, they only went up to tier ten. Considering what I’d been told about being below tier ten, I suspected that there had to be separate quest halls for those above. Maybe there was less of a commotion over there. Or, on second thought, things might be even wilder over there. The higher-tier quests should be rarer, which would drive up competition even more.
While I did enjoy my time people watching, the contracts in front of me refused to leave my mind, and I sadly glanced down at them. There was no time like the present, so I dove back in, this time reading the contract for Tier 0.
Compared to the contract from Remnant, the one from Tier 0 read like it was intended for a regular Joe to understand. Of course, it wasn’t entirely devoid of overdetailed definitions, but overall, it was a lot easier to wrap my head around what it was trying to tell me. Which also meant that there was close to nothing in it that was trying to take advantage of me. Considering that Polly hadn’t had time to prepare something specifically for me, I suspected that this was the bog-standard contract given to everybody there.
It was fairly lenient, promising a decent salary and a lot of freedom. There was a section about needing to help out with guild-quests, whatever those were, and respecting your fellow guildmembers. Aside from that, a good chunk of the contract was related to the rules about sharing the housing opportunity at the guild. It genuinely looked like Tier 0’s main focus was on gathering travelers that started out in the same shitty position, and providing a nurturing environment for them.
Which was a big plus in my book. Maybe I could even renegotiate a better salary by offering my coveted services.
I wasn’t certain yet, but Tier 0 was definitely on top of my list for now. Not only did the few people I met seem nice, but their contract also seemed fair. Plus, I technically fit the guild like a glove.
My mood improved, I put the contract to the side and picked up the next one, only to be interrupted once again.
“I’m gonna need that back,” a gruff voice said as the shadow of a tall lizard person fell over me, his hand reaching down to pluck the contract from my tentacles, before unceremoniously walking away. “Boss’s orders, nothing personal.”
Alright, something was fishy here.
While I knew close to nothing about traveler culture, there was no way in hell that it was normal to rescind guild invites like it was nothing. Especially if the invite was for a highly coveted voidling. It wasn’t that long ago that the recruiters practically fell over themselves for a chance to hand me an invite, yet three of the best offers were called back? I wasn’t buying it.
I retracted my eyes and completely focused on the feedback from my void feelers. The range had improved a lot since I got them, as had the quality of the feedback I got from them. I had mostly blocked them out since it was chaos all around me, and this place was considered safe, but now I carefully looked over everything going on around me. I carefully looked over everyone present, and sure enough, I spotted someone familiar. Grumbling to myself, I teleported over to the lawyer who had been introduced to me as Garbl, currently sitting a few tables over and trying his best to seem unassuming.
“Can I help you?” I asked in an annoyed tone, watching him squirm under my gaze like a kid getting caught doing something naughty.