Sam and Kita had their turn at the receptionist again. Sam’s paperwork was in order and he got his guild badge. The receptionist showed him how he registered his mana into it and it’s functions. 

Afterwards Kita asked about the request from the village and were told that the guild had no new information. Both Sam and Kita sign themself up for the request, which made the receptionist ask if they were going to partner up.

“Does it matter if we are or not?” Sam asked, the receptionist nodded. 

“Yeah, if you two register as a team with the guild, the likelihood that we recommend jobs to you increases as some jobs need adequate teamwork.”

Sam took a peek at Kita, she had been quiet till now. 

“What you think? Want to register as a team?” He asked her, he could see some twitching at Kita’s lips. 

He was sure she tried to hide a smile. ‘She worked alone as a scout, it must be hard. Either no backup or the possibility to work with people like the brothers.’ Sam thought as he waited for Kita to respond.

“Yes!” She burst out, a moment later her face turned red. 

“Let’s register as one.” She mellowed out while looking down. 

Sam tried to act as if nothing had happened and spoke to the receptionist. 

“Ah, well how do we register as a team then?” 

“Fill this form, you can put it in the report box when you are done.” She said as she put forward the form on the desk. Sam picked it up and went back to the tables.

Sam and Kita filled the form, it was nothing more than the names and main occupation of people in the team as well as the team’s name and it’s main trade. They didn’t want a name that stood out, but still something good. 

After a few minutes of contemplating, they came up with a name; ‘The Jacks of All Trades’. It was a name Sam thought was emussing, as the saying didn’t really exist in this world or rather Kita had not heard of it. 

When Sam explained it, Kita had thought it good as it pointed that the party could do anything. As well as tell employers they were no masters of any craft either. As Kita put it, a party to employ if a master of a craft needed extra hands, whatever it was. 

They put the form in the report box as the receptionist had said they could and left the guild. Sam and Kita had to prepare for tomorrow and they had to do it, before their work at the inn would begin. 

For Sam that meant to buy boots and underwear, as for Kita it was rations. Sam still had no money and learned from Kita that used boots went for around five big copper coins. New ones, a few small silvers, as long as it was just normal boots.

As Sam had no idea of any shops of course, so Kita took him to a shop just before the gates they had gone through when they arrived at town. Sam thought it was a nice little shop, it had a good location near the gate. It wasn’t big, but had enough room to have a few tables and shelves with different goods. The shop reminded him about second hand stores a bit or pawn shops, Kita called it a general store though.

Sam and Kita went directly to the desk as they didn’t have the time to search through everything themself. 

“How can I help you?” A small girl with almost black hair asked Sam and Kita. 

Sam first thought that it was the owner's daughter, but the more adult face and body built told another story. ‘Dwarf? Or is she something else? A normal midget?’ Sam knew he stared, but it was weird. 

He had never thought about it before, but in stories he read on earth, it was seldom a question what race someone was. But now he stood here and wondered if she was a real dwarf or something like it as in the stories, or just a midget of the human race. 

His question was answered though as the woman herself gave him the answer just a few moments later. 

“What, never seen a halfling before?” 

“No, can’t say I have, no.” Sam answered back with a grin. 

The woman gave Sam a look that he translated to disbelief. For Sam the woman just looked like a normal human, just short. ‘Maybe four feet at most.’ Sam thought as he tried to judge the woman's height.

“No matter, customers are customers, what ya need?” The woman said with a sign and turned to Kita that probably looked more reasonable for her to deal with. 

“Rations and a pair of boots as well as some underwear for him and two cheap healing potions.” Kita said, Sam thought Kita tried hard not to show any direct emotions on her face. Which in return made her a bit slack faced instead.

“It is a small silver each for the potions, I am guessing cheap rations too?” Kita nodded at the question, which sounded more like a statement from the woman. 

“One small copper for a day’s worth of rations for one person.” She pointed at a shelf with boots. 

“The boots there are all for five big coppers, find a pair you want.” She pointed at a shelf, then turned her finger to a table. “The underwear is on that table, it is three small copper coins a piece. I will go and get the rations and potions.” She looked at Kita as if she wanted something. 

“Seven days, please.” Kita said after a moment. It seemed she had tried to calculate how long they would be gone.

Sam went to the shelf and tried some boots and after a few, he found a pair that fitted well and was not too worn out. He left the boots on and picked up the clogs. He picked up three pairs of underwear at the table, when he went back to the disk.

Kita had gotten all the other items from the woman and paid while Sam went ahead to pick up his items. He had seen that Kita and the hafling put forward their guild tags for a moment when Kita paid.

They walked out and back to the inn. Sam took the moment to ask about how she had paid. Turned out that inside the walls, paying could be done through transactions made through the guild tag. This made it less necessary to carry lots of coins everywhere as it was heavy and some things were really expensive inside the walls. Outside the walls coin was still needed though.

At the inn they were able to inform Maria and her husband that they would be gone from tomorrow. As well as that they plan to be gone around seven days as that was what they had rations for. It was no problem for the inn as they were only extra to ease the workload on their original workforce. Maria told him that they would put his pay into his guild account instead of coins in hand.

Sam and Kita worked the rest of the day as planned, Kita as the barmaid and Sam in the kitchen. Sam told Chef about being gone the coming days as well, but Chef only grunted and after a while told him to come back whole. Even though Sam didn’t have any real cooking skills, only Survival, Chef had told him that he was good enough. If he ever gained a real cooking skill he would be great. This after Sam had a discussion about recipes with Chef, this with his knowledge from Earth in mind.

Sam awoke in the morning, the sun had been up for a while. Sam and Kita had come to the conclusion that they needed a real rest before leaving as none of them had taken or had the time to rest enough from their journey before. It wasn't like he was tired all the time, but be able to sleep in and regain missed sleep. That is enjoyable if nothing else.

Sam went out of his room to wash up in the baths. Afterwards he put on his clothes he had taken from one of the brothers, as well as the short sword and the boots. He went to the dinner hall and found that Kita was waiting for him at the same table as yesterday. She had packed everything neatly in two bags, none of them had backpacks as she had left hers when she ran from his old camp.

They didn’t have a tent or anything, only the clothes they carried and the bought rations as well as a potion each. The rations were hard bread and some sort of dried powder that Kita told him that you put in water to make a soup stock. 

They had a few waterskins each too, it was the heaviest part to carry. Kita pointed out that if they were gonna have a real team, they should aim to get a mage as they could conjure water when needed. That meant much weight could be taken away on trips, as well as what other things could be taken instead. 

That made Sam think he really needed to get some practical use for his mana, as he knew that he as a dragon companion should be able to be a good magician.

They left the inn soon after they had eaten and headed for the gates to the east. Once again Kita paid the toll for both of them, as Sam’s migger three big copper coins was put in his guild account. 

Sam didn’t understand why he couldn’t pay with his guild tag, but Kita told him that it would be a lot of extra work for the guards. Plus you had to be quite close to the guard too to use it and she had heard it could therefore be a security risk.

They walked the main street towards and Sam watched the people and buildings they passed. It was more lively than inside the walls, but he could see that more crime came with it too. Some children tried to pickpocket a guy and a woman stole a fruit that looked like an apple. But as a whole the street gave a nice feeling to Sam.

The sun had risen high, when they passed the last house. As they had slept in a bit before the trip. It had been late morning, when they left the inn. Kita had told Sam that there was a good area to camp half way to their destination. That would be their target for today.

As they traveled Sam noticed that the east road had more traffic than the northern they came before. The road was a lot better too. When he asked Kita about it, it turned out that the northern road was a highway between bigger towns that lay near the northern forest. 

There existed villages and other settlements a day or two north of the towns bordering the forest, but that at most. As the northern forest was a wilderness that monsters of many kinds lived. None want to live too near it. The other roads, as the easten road they were walking on, had not the same problem and had settlements the whole way to the other town. That said monsters still existed, as their request showed.

Many travelers took the west or east roads to travel between the towns that bordered the forest. Though these roads were a bit longer and took more time, they were normally safer from monsters at least. Those that took the northern road were those that had guards and speed was important.

When it came to the southern roads from these towns, they went to this region's main city and then it went on into the kingdom's more settled lands. Kita was born and raised in this part of the kingdom. So she didn’t know more than the towns bordering the forest and how to get to the main city of the region. She hadn’t been there though.

Early afternoon they took out a bit of the hard bread from the rations to eat. Sam thought it tasteless, but the bread was truly made for travelers as it contained many different things. It could be that the taste would be bad and therefore the maker made it tasteless instead. Sam wasn’t sure, but it could be an opportunity to make better tasting rations for the same price, he thought. He hadn’t tried the more expensive ones, but there could be an opportunity there too.

They had walked the whole day and the evening had just begun setting in. It was no problem for him to travel like this, as he could have his body enchantment skill active. Dragon’s Body made it all quite easy for him, though he could see that for Kita it was another matter. 

That made him think that he actually didn’t know her skills. He only knew that she had a skill for scouting and that she had used it to track him when he chased her before.

“Hey Kita, I just thought about a thing...” 

She looked his way when he called out to her. They had walked in silence for a while, as mostly it was he that asked a question and she that answered it. Most of the small talk they had already done the first few hours of traveling, mostly about the area and village they were traveling to.

“I don’t know any of your skills, more than you have a form of detect skill for scouting. Neither do you know a lot about my skills either.” He wouldn’t tell her about his real skills, but go for what he wrote to the guild.

Kita showed a thoughtful expression on her face as she considered his statement. 

“Well that is true, as a real team we need to have a better understanding of what the other can and cannot do.” 

Sam felt that he had to begin as he was the one that asked to begin with. People's skills were a bit of a secret. They often wrote them to the guild, but if anyone had an extra skill as a triumph card to play or a rare skill. They often didn’t write about at all or, as Sam, wrote a more normal skill that had similar function.

“I have three skills...” Sam began as he thought he couldn't explain them well, Kita probably knew his fake skills better than himself. “... First one is Survival at level 3. I don’t have to explain that one right?” 

Kita shook her head. “No I have it too, at level 4, so I know it.” 

Sam felt that it wasn’t surprising as it was one of the more basic skills you gained easily if you traveled a lot. As it helped finding edible stuff and other helpful things in nature. 

“Then I have Physical Enchant level 2 and Mana Control level 2. I have no real detection skill, as of now.”

Kita looked at him a bit weirdly, as if something he said was wrong or hard to understand.

 “You have Mana Control and Physical Enchant? Do you have any practical magic then?” 

Sam shook his head. “I don’t for now as I do not know how to gain those skills.” 

Sam saw Kita’s face and guessed that Physical Enchant and Mana Control was still not normal or that you had both. He wasn’t sure how those were gained for others. He only knew those were similar to his own skills from Eskil.

“I have Detect Essence level 2 as my scouting skill.” Kita said, looking proud. 

‘Got to sound impressed, though I have no idea if the skill is rare or something.’ Sam thought to himself, “cool! What does it do?” 

Kita again looked at him, this time with a more solemn expression. “It does more or less what it says it does. It can detect anything that has an essence, the higher level the further it reaches and I gain more control over it.” 

It sounded like a radar for anything more or less, for Sam. 

“Now at a low level I can’t really control it. That means I can’t set what essence to detect or know how strong an essence is. For now it's lower range is small critters and the higher range is not known, at a distance of fifty meters.”

‘That is far!’ Sam thought as he listened to the explanation of her skill. 

‘Better check with her at what level she gains such control that she may detect the difference of my essence. I get a feeling I have a rather special essence as a Dragon Companion.’ 

“So at which level do you gain enough control that you can start to guess folks' strength?” 

Kita was quiet for a moment as she seemed to think it over. 

“Well at level 3, I will start to be able to change the strength of essence I want to detect.” As if she felt she needed a deeper explanation for it she continued. 

“It doesn’t tell how strong someone is, more the potential. It is like this, I can set to detect the strength of a deer and no upper limit. I will detect everything, but can’t tell the strength of anything. But I can put a high limit and low limit to a degree and then zoom in to a range of the target and get an approximate of it.”

‘That can be a problem, I have no idea on the scale I fall in. But if it even detects the potential of my essence I am probably even more weird than my actual self right now.’ Sam considered for a while to tell Kita the truth, but she probably wouldn’t gain level 3 in the near future so he didn’t.

That was something he had been thinking about, though he didn't know her actual skills or their levels before he had guessed and now got confirmation. That her skills level was around the same as his, but he had been here for under a month and she has been living here all her life. She should have more skills and higher levels, he thought. 

“Any restriction on that skill you have, like mana use or so?” Sam said as he was thinking about why that could be.

“Yea, it drains a bit of mana, maybe five minutes of constant use. Though I usually just activate it long enough to get a feel of what is around and then deactivate it again. So if I use it smartly I can have a good grasp of my surroundings in maybe fifteen to twenty minutes.” 

Kita nodded as she agreed to her own statement, before she continued.

“I have two other skills too, Hide Essence level 3 and Agility Enchant level 5. Hide Essence is, well, hide my existence, any detect skill or enchantment will have a hard time to register me at all. Though at level 3 I just barely can move around without losing it’s effect. Drains a lot of mana, so at the moment only good at passing by traps or patrols.” 

She paused as she took a look at him with a smug face. He guessed she was rather proud of her two skills and she was right that those were some nice scout skills.

“Agility Enchant is less mana drain then your Body Enchant, but only my Agility is boosted. Before you ask, I had almost no mana when you chased me when we met, so I couldn’t activate it as I had more use of Detect Essence to get away.”

Sam thought those were pretty good skills, he couldn’t get away from thinking about game concepts and thought of Kita as a rogue type. The only problem she had was that she had no offence or defence skills, only utility skills. Agility Enchant could help her dodge and maybe use enemies openings, but that’s it.

Sam didn’t have to tell Kita about his skills as they were pretty well known, though she asked him about how he could have Mana Control if he didn’t have any practical magic. He didn’t know how to answer that, so he just kept quiet as that seemed the best solution, without digging himself a deeper pit.

They arrived a bit later at the rest area they had planned to stay at for the night. There were a few other travelers, a small caravan with guards that had built a small camp. Then there were some others around, a few small groups of travelers. Some looked their way only to look away a moment later. Sam and Kita were as little of interest to them as they were of them.

Kita found a tree with a nice tilt to sleep against. They made a small fireplace nearby the tree to cook up the soup powder from the rations. As they ate, they agreed that Sam would sleep first and Kita second.

There was nothing they needed to do besides rest, so Sam went to sleep directly after had eaten his ration. Before he fell asleep he saw Kita poke at the embers with a stick. He thought that if he was Kita he would try to meditate over his skills instead of playing with the fire. He yawned and looked up towards the sky and saw the first stars of the night as he fell asleep.