Even with the directions from the merchant, finding my way to the Exterminator’s Guild was proving to be a challenge. I was currently sitting in the town center, a big circular road with several roads feeding into and out of it. Carts and people milled around, and I sat there, lost. I’d tried to find my way to the Exterminator’s Guild several times, but I always end up back in the town center. I’m beginning to realize that my sense of direction might be absolutely terrible.

“Ya look a little crestfallen, how're ya farin'?”

I’d been looking down at the pavement, so all I saw were the man’s boots, but when I looked up I was greeted by a warm-looking smile on a handsome, bearded face. He’s tall and lean. What little weight he has appears to all be muscle.

“Ah, I’m just a little lost.”

“Where are ya lookin’ ta go?”

“I’m trying to find the Exterminator’s Guild.”

“As luck may have it, I’m headin there m’self. Would you like to come with?”

“That would be a godsend. I’ve been lost for a while.”

He sticks his hand out towards me, “M’name’s Bernard, what's yours?”

“Vin.”

“Well then Vin,” He gestures for me to follow him, and we begin to walk.

“So, what’re ya doin’ in Arindet?”

“I’m looking to become an exterminator”

“Not many people lookin’ to get into that anymore, most people fancy just burnin’ the whole forest to the ground and bein’ done with it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, Humanistic church and all’em crazies don’t want monsters so close ta town. I tell ‘em we need the wood, but they don’t care.”

Humanistic church? I’ve never heard of that before.

“Humanistic Church? What’s that?”

“Oh, never heard of ‘em? Good. Buncha racists, that lot. Started out as just hatin monsters, now they hate everything that ain’t human.”

That sounds… troublesome. I can’t imagine they’d take kindly to having a monster tamer in town. I should definitely keep a lookout for them.

Bernard cuts into a narrow alley I hadn’t even seen, and after a few steps opens a door to a small building.

We’re now inside a small, cozy-looking room with a few people milling about. There are chairs and tables scattered about, giving it the feeling of a mini-tavern, despite most of the chairs being empty. There’s an empty desk that Bernard steps behind and yells “My break’s over!”

A distant voice yells “Welcome back!”

He looks back at me “So if you want to become an Exterminator you’ll need to pass a little physical exam. Nothing too strenuous, just an assessment of your fitness and combat abilities.” His accent is completely gone.

“Oh? That shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Before we even consider you, we’ll need to ask you a few questions. Firstly, what’s your name?”

“Vin.”

“Full name.”

“Vin.”

“That’s your entire name?”

“Yeah, I got disowned.”

He gives me a pitying look, then continues

“What’s your class?”

That was the question I’d been dreading. I have a plan, but I have no idea how well it’s going to work.

“Black Mage.”

I plan to have Ashirra cast spells while I pretend to in order to pass as a Black Mage. It's a pretty hare-brained plan, but it was all I could think of in our current situation.

“A mage? I guess it makes sense, seeing as you don’t exactly look the warrior type.”

“I get that a lot.”

I’m tall and skinny, but not in the same way Bernard is. He’s lean and gives off the impression that he knows his way around a fight. I’m the opposite of that. My body is lightly muscled, but mostly, it’s soft. I’ve also never won a fight before.

“Ever fought a monster before?”

“Once.”

“What kind was it?”

“A hobgoblin.”

“How’d it go?”

“She cast a spell and I lost in an instant. To put it simply, I got fucked.”

“Damn, a shaman? Now that’s just bad luck.”

“I’ll say.”

I get the feeling Ashirra would want to hit me if she heard our conversation.

“Alright, I’ve got you scheduled with a proctor for tomorrow at 8 in the morning. Her name’s Tanya and she’s a beast of a woman, but she’ll get your career started right.”

“Thank you, is there anything else I need to do?”

“That’s it. Have a nice rest of your day!”

I wave goodbye and step outside of the guild. It hasn’t been a moment before I’m back in the town center, with most of the day left ahead of me. Now what? I want to spend time with Ashirra, and maybe ask her a few of my unanswered questions, but I also have a few things I want to check out in the town.

Ultimately, I think exploring the town is more important. I’d spent most of my life in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, so everything’s exciting. I also intend on spending quite a bit of time here working as an exterminator and taming monsters, so getting locations down seems like a good idea. The first place I head to is the markets. I’m broke as fuck, so I’m not going to buy anything, but I still want to see them.

The markets are open-air and bustling with people. Merely being able to move in the throng is a victory. The air is filled with shouts of various merchants trying to peddle their wares. As much as I wish Ashirra was by my side, it was definitely a good idea to leave her in The Bestiary. Even though she can hide her features well, the sheer volume of people present here would make it impossible for her to stay hidden.

The markets are exactly how I was expecting, and nothing more. Next up, I want to check out the Traveler’s Guild. The Traveler’s Guild is far more widespread than the Exterminator’s Guild and has branches in most major cities in not just the country, but in the entire world. Their sole purpose is to aid travel in all manner of ways. They’re most well known for their guides to various countries and cities scattered around the world, but also employ most of the transport mages in the world. Magical transportation is incredibly expensive, but the ability to teleport across hundreds of miles in an instant is one of the most valuable commodities in the entire world.

The Traveler’s Guild building is a large wooden structure, much larger than the Exterminator’s Guild. It’s also much busier, having people entering and leaving every few seconds. I step inside and… yep, that’s a building full of people. There’s occasionally a portal opening on one of the walls, but nothing too exciting other than that.

Finally, I head to the library. Where I’m from, books are hard to come by. When I was younger I combed every book I had access to, and did as much research as I could into my class, but ultimately, that was just a few books and a child’s understanding.

The library completely blows me away. So. Many. Books. In my entire life I’d seen like… maybe 50? This place is filled with thousands. I intend to do a lot more research into what it really means to be a monster tamer here, but for now, I’m very tired. I take my bag, stash it in one of the many hidden cubbies in this place, and enter The Bestiary.

I’m once again in the sanctuary. Ashirra’s laying on a table bored out of her mind.

“Hey Ashirra, I’m back.”

She looks up from the table and jumps up when she sees me. “Master!  You’re here!” She envelops me in a hug. It’s nice to have someone waiting for you.

She continues, “It’s so boring in here all alone, I thought you would be way faster!”

“Sorry, I had a few errands I needed to run.”

“A few errands? that took forever!”

“Sorry...”

“Eh... it’s fine as long as you make it up to me.” She throws a lewd look my way to make sure I know what she means. “So, how’d it go with the Exterminator’s Guild?”

I catch her up with what happened and go back through the plan. I spend the rest of the day with Ashirra doing… well… all manner of things.