After settling their affairs, the two left Alissa with Clara and Zoan. During the short moment with each other, they considered talking about Zoan’s circumstances.

  After a bit, it was decided that it was better to keep it a secret, at least for now. It was already bad enough that their identities as otherworlders was going to be revealed at some point, but it might be even more complicated if angels are involved–especially angels that have lost their power and have taken a twin-like form of a little girl.

  So far, Zoan still has no clue about the towers here despite knowing about it in the biodome a year ago. It was possible that her transition into a little girl’s body affected her divine abilities, so in the end, they left her with Clara to ensure her safety along with Brucey the bat.

  Traveling around the district, they noticed that the area was composed of the higher-end spectrum of society. Not quite on the noble level, but enough that the area they were in had some fancy stores catering towards the wealthy and a very few that were suited for the not-so-wealthy.

  More importantly, there were a lot more Experts and Half-Journey than Journeymen. A surprising amount, jumping towards the eighty percentile compared to the noble district. On that side, it was around half and half, so it was surprising to find so many Experts as well.

  Still, contrary to his beliefs, these Experts looked more… defined, if that was the right word. It was different from the Experts back in Eve Glade, almost like the retinue after consuming the enhanced attribute fruits.

  “Do you think these guys got a good hold on the fruits?” Mikella asked, her eyes swiveling left and right at the crowd.

  “We shouldn’t be surprised,” Zeke shrugged. “This country is a lot more prosperous than Eve Glade.”

  Despite his words, attribute fruits were considered valuable all over for a reason. They were difficult to find, hard to acquire, and expensive to purchase from other lands. It’s also clear that since exporting attribute fruits was nigh impossible in this pocket dimension, that meant that there were less fruits than a normal country would.

  But at the same time, Zeke still wasn’t sure how this country operated on a daily basis. Perhaps there were ways to replicate the attribute fruit’s effects, just at a controlled distribution.

  “Zeke, look,” Mikella pointed out, getting him to spot the building that they were supposed to head towards.

  The section where the higher end of the social ladder resided looked similar to a downtown location. There were plenty of stores and shops necessary for all kinds of folks, and the building in front of them explained why. What stood before them was the adventurer’s guild, a large building shaped with other smaller buildings connected together by the sides. The roof was tiled with crimson red and golden yellow, making the store stand out. To top it off, there was a large shield-shaped insignia with a sword and spear crossed together, a small beast-like monster at the center appearing to be impaled by the two weapons.

  “Ya think this might be the place?” Mikella grinned, amusement in her tone.

  “If it isn’t, I’ll eat my boot,” Zeke said with his own grin. It was times like these that helped them relax a little.

  Seeing such a cliched building meant entirely for adventurers, who were known to pick on troublesome jobs like extermination and guard duty, helped them be at ease a little. It still doesn’t change their situation, but they still enjoyed the rather obvious marking of a building practically screaming ‘we’re adventurers, hire us!’.

  Still, it wasn’t as though the education level of the city, much like the town of Eve Glade, was as advanced as their old world. There are still folks that didn’t learn how to read or write, and some adventurers most likely weren't able to understand such things either, hence why they took up those dangerous adventurer quests rather than a decent inside-job.

  It was the reality of these people, and it made perfect sense that the building is easy to pick out compared to the rest, because it wasn’t just the nobles and the educated that had trouble. The commoners can also spend gold for an adventurer’s service.

  But that wasn’t why they were here. If anything, it didn’t feel like they were going to join the guild for gold or benefits. It was to proclaim their reasoning for traveling across the country to find the towers responsible for the recent troubles. The towers that, unfortunately, only they can enter.

  Along with the few others, which Zeke still dreaded to see.

  “You think those guys might be bad for us?” Zeke asked Mikella, his chest thumping with nervous energy.

  “You mean our ‘allies’?” Mikella sounded out the word as though it was funky. She then shrugged. “Well, if anything, I trust you. As long as you’re with me, it doesn’t matter who else is with us.”

  Zeke nodded. “Same here. I can take on the world with you by my side.”

  Mikella smiled back, making Zeke copy her.

  In the end, that won’t change. As long as they have each other, they can handle everything thrown at them. Still, he hoped that they were at least amicable.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “Come on, let’s not keep them waiting,” Mikella pulled Zeke’s wrist to bring him along to the building. Once he settled himself, the two entered through the large double-door that were also painted red with golden edges on the side.

  Once inside, it wasn’t as… noisy as Zeke expected. He imagined entering into something like a giant hub of boisterous adventurers making fun and delight on their tables, being waited on by skimpily-dressed barmaids holding giant jugs of ale.

  No, it wasn’t anything like that, especially the barmaids part to Zeke’s regret. To his defense, however, there’s nothing wrong with expecting something nice once in a while.

  Instead, what appeared before them was a solemn looking hall filled to the brim with people covered in either armor or robes, depending on their builds. Some looked like your average warrior, wearing leather armor with iron-plating on their vital parts and a sword at the hip and some looked extravagantly wealthy. One such adventurer had leather armor dyed in a cyan blue, carrying a rather unique looking battlestaff that also might as well be a mage’s staff with the hunter-green colored gem affixed to the top.

  All of them were either waiting around in groups, discussing one thing or another, waiting in front of what looked like counters with professionally-dressed staff talking to them amicably, and finally some that were waiting in front of the very same gilded plate where they can access the system for quests, just like how it was in Eve Glade.

  It beggars belief as to how massive the hall was. It was possible that it reached football field size, but he wasn’t quite sure. It was only thanks to his good senses that he managed to even take a glance at the counters with the receptionists, which at least still followed the cliched stereotype that each receptionist was a beautiful woman of renown beauty. There were some guys there too, and some that were also too good looking for their own good as most of them were filled to the brim with the lines of female adventurers.

  At least they were diversifying their staff for everyone’s enjoyment.

  “Holy shit, just where are we supposed to go?” Mikella whispered, despite that the hall was so massive and everyone was still speaking that it wasn’t possible for her to be heard. Still, it was the kind of atmosphere that requires professionalism, so Mikella followed through. “Do we just… I don’t know, go up to the counters?”

  “I don’t know, those lines are massive,” Zeke said in disbelief. He knew there wasn’t supposed to be that many adventurers, but after seeing this, he was starting to doubt the books he read on the subject. “Alissa didn’t even give us a description of them.”

  She only told them that they would meet their allies at the guild and had to explain things to them, but they forgot to add the simple question of what the hell they looked like.

  “Hey! You two, come over here.”

  A voice called out to them, nearly surprising them. Everyone didn’t bother looking over at them since they were busy with their own thing, so when the otherworlders looked at the cause, they saw a tall man with brown hair styled in a way that covered one eye of his face.

  He had a business-like smile on his face, with a slight stubble on his chin. He looked like the kind of man that has been on the job for a while now, and showed competence from the armor he wore. Plated armor covering his limbs and digits, but there was some purple leather across his chest and under the armor. With a careful eye, one can spot what looked like a wand holstered to the side. If the man wanted to, he could also hide the wand away, showing as though he had no weapon at all with how small it looked.

  The otherworlders hesitated on going towards this man, but his next words got to them easily.

  “If Alissa found out we’re wasting time, she’s gonna have our asses for dinner!”

  That quickly dissuaded their hesitation, figuring that no adventurer would suddenly mention her name. Still, it was possible that she was rather famous, but they put that thought to the side as they faced the man. He was tall, at least taller than Zeke even with his increase in height, especially after his Journeymen transformation.

  He took a good look at them, another careful eye as if already checking their capabilities. “You two certainly look young. But I can tell that you’ve been through some shit, huh? At least the feeling is there.”

  “You can tell we’re true Journeymen, right?” Mikella asked as the man himself was also a true Journeymen. That was rare even among every single adventurer here, mostly consisting of Half-Journey and a very few Experts.

  “Yeah. You’d be surprised how many feel like true Journeys, but not really. Spends more time looking the part when they should, you know, be the part, right? Name’s Hamil. Been an adventurer for about… uuh, 12 years or so.”

  Hamil tilted his head up as he thought about the time, which was considerably a lot longer than Zeke or Mikella could ever expect. Despite his older appearance, he actually looked closer to his older twenties or younger thirties.

  Zeke decided to introduce himself, wanting to give a good impression by lending a hand to him. “My name’s Zeke. Nice to meet you.”

  “Mikella,” Mikella was next, offering a smile. “Same here.”

  “Well!” Hamil huffed a laugh. “At least you got good heads on your shoulders. Are you sure you really want to be an adventurer?”

  Zeke and Mikella smiled, though there was clear strain on their faces.

  “Ugh, yeah,” Hamil seemingly realized a second later. “Never mind. Stupid question. When Alissa asks, you can never deny her… ah well, come on over. We’ve only just got started and been waiting for you two.”

  “Just checking, but how did you know it was us?” Mikella asked. “Did they give you an explanation?”

  “Watch out for two recently born Journeymen. One of them is a gods-dammed Draconian,” Hamil explained, even pointing a finger at Mikella respectfully, causing her to feel a light flush on her cheeks. “I don’t mean to be an ass, but that’s kinda hard to miss.”

  Zele finally noticed what Hamil was talking about. After being overwhelmed, he realized that some of the adventurers were staring pretty hard at them, especially at Mikella. Rather than being a beautiful woman like Zeke expected, they were staring at her as though they were looking at an exotic creature.

  “I hope that won’t bring us any trouble…” Mikella grimaced at the idea of being persecuted.

  “Ah, don’t worry about it. Anyone with brains can tell that someone like you is someone that should be avoided at all costs. They’ll probably ask how you got that race available to you, but nothing to worry about. Though I did hear that there were some that tried to change their race ‘artificially’...” Hamil actually shivered at the mention of it. “Nasty stuff there.”

  That significantly raised Zeke’s curiosity on the matter. He heard of artificial advancement, but artificial race-change was definitely new. And just like how Hamil reacted, it must definitely be terrifying to go through.

  “Anyways, here we are! Meet our great adventuring party, known as the almighty Tempest Winds!”