“Can I help you?” I asked in an annoyed tone, watching him squirm under my gaze like a kid getting caught doing something naughty.
“No?” Garbl replied, awkwardly gesturing to some food on the table in front of him. “Just enjoying some food before diving back into quest acquisition.”
“Uh-huh,” I looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Of course, I didn’t have eyebrows, but I achieved the same effect by having one eye higher than the other. “Care to explain to me what quest acquisition is? I’m new and don’t know anything.”
“I’d gladly help you out in any way I can,” the fish man perked up, seizing a chance to put Remnant into a good light by graciously answering my questions. “One of the possible tasks assigned to a guild member is quest acquisition. It is possible to accept a quest on behalf of a guild, which can then assign it to its members. So there’s always at least a few members present in the quest halls, fighting for the best quests.”
He smiled a toothy smile which was no doubt intended to be friendly, but came across as predatory, mostly due to the fact that he had sharp teeth. I had to admit that this was a sound argument for his presence here and was happy to have learnt something new. Yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that a valued lawyer who was important enough to get sent to deal with a voidling would be exempt from doing such a low-level task. Everything pointed to him being here to monitor me.
“Right,” I nodded, unconvinced. “Well, since you’re here already, may I borrow you for a second? I have read through your contract, and I have some questions.”
“Absolutely, I helped write up your contract, so I know it inside and out.” he happily stood up and gestured to where I was sitting earlier, the contract left behind on the table. “Should we move over there?”
“Sure.”
We moved over to “my” table and sat down opposite each other. I pulled the contract for Remnant over from where I’d carelessly abandoned it earlier, also pulling out a random contract from my inventory and setting it down as well.
“I couldn’t help but notice that something is missing from your contract, compared to other contracts I looked at.” I flipped through the other contract until I found what I was looking for and set it before Garbl, pointing at a specific section. “Section twelve, leaving the guild. It clearly outlines the steps to take when leaving the guild for another. Your contract doesn’t have that. Why?”
“My apologies,” Garbl put his hands on the table and bowed as far as he could. “We didn’t get a lot of time to draft this contract, due to the time pressure. This clause is usually present in our contracts as well, but due to the heavy editing this specific contract has gone through to make it more favorable for you, the error must have slipped past. I’d happily draft a new contract that properly includes this clause and ask for your forgiveness for our mistake.”
Another plausible explanation, presented with humility while accepting fault of his own. I’d have believed it as well if I wasn’t aware that I was dealing with a slimy lawyer. Again, these guys had to be top of the line, so making a mistake like that wasn’t feasible. Remnant was a top-tier guild, and according to my info, they really, really wanted a voidling in their guild. Sending anything less than their top guys to convince me would be counter-productive at worst. I even had reason to believe that they were doing some shady manipulation behind my back to get other guilds to back down.
There was no way in hell that I’d join Remnant at this point. Their whole shtick screamed bad news, and I wanted nothing to do with that. But while I had this guy here, I may as well use him to get some free information.
“Okay, fair enough,” I lied as naturally as I breathed. “Moving on then. I’m curious about credits. I have no clue how much credits are worth, so I’m struggling to wrap my head around how much I’d be getting paid. The offer from your guild looks juicy, since it seems higher than what the other guilds are offering, but I have no idea what any of it really means.”
“Ah, yes, credits,” Garbl had a dreamy look in his eyes as he said it. “The beating heart of traveler society. There is almost nothing you can’t buy with credits in a traveler hub, since products from all over the expanse make their way here. And if it isn’t to be found on our hub, you can easily access thousands of others to find what you’re looking for.”
“Sounds nice,” I was actually impressed by that statement. I hadn’t considered that a traveler hub would also be a massive hub for intergalactic trade, but it made sense. “But how do credits actually work?”
“You’ve probably figured out that there are several tiers of credits, yes?” Garbl waited for me to confirm before continuing. “There are five tiers total. First-tier credits are used as the base for everything. Normal food, renting a low-tier house, low-tier items, hiring low-tier guards, everything you could possibly need can be paid for with tier one credits. One thousand tier one credits make a single tier two credit. They’re mostly used for larger transactions, and for most travelers below tier ten, that will be all they ever use.
“Once you’re above tier ten, you’ll need to start buying more powerful items to help you grow. These items are highly valued due to their rarity and high demand, which is where tier three credits start being used. Again, a thousand tier two credits make up one tier three credit. You could technically buy these things with millions of tier one credits, but that’s generally frowned upon.
“Things escalate from there,” Garbl trailed off for a bit, probably considering what to say. “Most travelers will never get to see a tier four credit, much less a tier five. It’s always a thousand-to-one ratio, so tiers four and five represent massive amounts of wealth. These are spent mostly at a guild level and by the Nineteen to purchase items from each other. For people like you and me, the most we’ll use are tier three credits… usually. I’d wager that by virtue of being a voidling, you’ll use the bigger credits eventually…”
Garbl seemed genuinely jealous of that little tidbit. He seemed oddly attached to money, which wasn’t entirely surprising. I flipped through the contract for Remnant, pointing out a specific line in it.
“And you’re prepared to pay me a monthly salary of two-hundred tier two credits, before factoring in my services as a voidling, and any merit I may accrue?”
“Quite generous, I admit.” For a split second, Garbl looked like he bit into a lemon, but he immediately schooled his expression. “But that’s just how much you are worth. Any offer below that is… insulting.”
I mentally went through the numbers I’d seen in other contracts. While a lot of them worked with different systems, quite a few of them didn’t even offer a single tier two credit, expecting you to make up the difference with contributions. Tier 0 was quite generous by offering a monthly salary of two tier two credits, before merit, yet still fell short by a mile compared to Remnant. There was a small part of me that wanted to be greedy. To dismiss all of my concerns and join Remnant for the paycheck. But I did my best to smother that instinct.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I nodded, flipping the contract to yet another section I was interested in. “This talks about the payment I can expect in return for providing attribute shuffling services. I have no way to compare this to standard rates. Would you say they are fair?”
Of course, I wouldn’t trust the guy who wrote the contract to honestly answer a question like that, but I was still curious to see what he’d say.
“The rates are a fair bit below market rate,” Garbl admitted willingly, causing me to do a double-take. The compensation listed was paid for in tier two credits, which was a lot, as I’d learned. Did that mean that these services were usually bought with tier three credits? “This is due to several factors. Of course, you’d be receiving a salary, which is already calculated while keeping your services in mind. I’m sure you noticed that your salary is a lot higher than any other offer on the table, and this is exactly why. Of course, you’ll provide your services at a lower rate for fellow guild members, while the guild will take an administrative cut when finding clients for you.”
“I see…” I tapped the table with my tentacle a few times, deep in thought.
On the surface, all of this looked fair. I stood to gain a ton of money by signing with Remnant, and there was no doubt in my mind that the whole contract was designed in a way that would entice me to accept. It was all too good to be true. I was starting to believe that I could make a lot more money eventually by simply offering this coveted service without a guild backing me, and that I’d lock myself into a terrible deal in the long run. This contract had to be a trap, covered up by the promises of riches beyond belief that only a new and naive traveler would fall for.
By offering an irresistible deal, they were hoping to reel me in before I got wise to the bigger picture. Almost as if on cue, my table was approached once again, and another contract by a big player was removed from my options. If there had been any doubt before, I was now certain that Remnant was either paying these guilds off or threatening them in some way. They were doing it so obviously as well, and I couldn’t help but think that they wanted me to know that they were doing it.
As if to flaunt their influence in my face.
If they were able to push around these smaller guilds like that, it stood to reason that any of the smaller guilds wouldn’t be able to protect me from Remnant, even if I joined them. My eyes fell on the contract from Tier 0. A smaller guild, helmed by one of the Nineteen. If there was any guild that didn’t care about Remnants' influence, it would be one that stood on equal footing. It left a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth, since I was essentially forced to pick, but Tier 0 felt like a fantastic fit for me either way.
It may be a rash decision, deciding on a guild to join so soon after arriving in the hub, but at least Tier 0 had a clause about leaving the guild in their contract. In the short term, they should be able to keep Remnant off my back, while I could still leave later on, if I didn’t like it there.
“It is certainly an incredibly tempting offer, I must admit,” I said to Garbl, who was looking at me expectantly. “And I’m heavily considering joining Remnant, right now. But I don’t believe in making rash decisions, so if you could give me a day to properly think this through, I’d appreciate it. Where should I go if I decide to join up?”
“Remnant headquarters isn’t too far away from here, and it is quite well known,” Garbl looked like he had hit the jackpot and was actually rubbing his hands together in glee. “Ask anyone on the street, and they’ll be able to give you directions.”
“Thank you. That’ll be all.”
I gathered up the contracts on the table into my inventory, giving the contract for Remnant one last, dramatic look. After exchanging some more pleasantries with Garbl, I left the guild hall, picked a random direction, and started walking. I was fairly certain that I was still being watched, even if it wasn’t by Garbl. I’d need to wander about aimlessly for a while before making my way over to Tier 0.
I had to join them before things escalated.