Chapter 2 - The First Quest

Before long, Oz found himself successfully registered at the Adventurer's Guild.

Guild card, butterfly and money pouch in hand he sunk tiredly into a sofa to look over his brand new belongings.

"Ugh, the registration sheets took so long to fill out, yet here it is all summarised onto a diddy little card."

He frowned unhappily, bringing the card up to the light and reading both sides.

This card was proof of identity and membership of the guild, which he reeeally shouldn't lose. If he could help it.

Next up was the weird floating butterfly following him around.

"A magical sprite huh... allowing the user to communicate with the Adventurer's Guild as well as other Butterfly users... and powered by The Queen's magic."

Oz recited to himself calmly, playing with the soft golden butterfly on his fingertips.

The Queen referred to the mysterious ruler of this cluster of floating islands he currently inhabited, the Sky Archipelago.

The entire group of hundreds of islands was recently sucked into a portal, and teleported to another world... hence all the damages and rubble around the area. This event was known as the 'Worldshift'.

This new world was called Terra Nova, or the 'Lower World'. Whereas the old one, where the Sky Archipelago originated from, was called the 'Old World'.

But what about him... he was also from a world different to these two! He couldn't remember the name but...

So many worlds! Too many!

It hurt his brain trying to wrap his mind around three different worlds that all existed somehow, he was 100% certain that later on, he was going to confuse locations from all these different planes of existence.

"What a headache..."

He grumbled, as he felt his stomach rumble uneasily.

Picking up his last new item, the money pouch, he opened it up to find 20 pieces of glittering silver. Since he was a foreigner, he was able to take out a loan to help get started with his new life here. There was no deadline or interest on the repayment, buuut he'd rather not stay in debt too long if he could help it.

Still, it was mighty generous of the guild to do so. Weren't they worried that people would just run off with the money? I mean, there was nothing stopping them to!

As his stomach rumbled painfully once again, he was forced out of his speculative thoughts as he stood up.

"Ugh... where does one find food around here?"

He thought out loud, feeling a little dizzy from not having eaten for so long. Oz awoke just before dawn, and now it was nearly noon, he really had been hungry for a long time! He was also rather spoiled, never needing to go out and get his own food, at least, from his memories. He faintly felt as if he knew how to cook though... somehow.

After asking the little guild receptionist where to find food, he left the tall building in search of it.

---

The small cafe nearly next-door to the adventurer's guild, was very petite and cutesy, decorated in soft pinks and floral stars. Fortunately, Oz couldn't care less about appearances right now, as he munched on a big plate of tiny bite-sized sandwiches.

He was very tempted to just grab a spoon and scoop them up like cereal, but it was somewhat satisfying using his own small fingers to pick up equally small foods. Ham, cheese and lettuce fillings, topped off with a light-savory sauce. Oz felt very satisfied with his meal.

It was a far cry from the luxurious dishes he ate at home, but at the same time, he felt incredibly content after eating. Had he not eaten like this for a long time? What had he been doing for the last few years?

Such questions clouded his mind, but now was not the time for such things.

He really wanted to do his first quest!

The little guild receptionist had sufficiently hyped up the pros of adventuring to him, as he felt rather motivated to do well in this new job of his.

After all, all the 'jobs' he had at home involved big mechanical companies asking him to repair or improve some of their already terrible products. It was terribly boring the first few times, hence he refused all future 'jobs' from then onwards.

Those businesses never particularly had good connections with the royal family from then onwards, but who cares! The royal family had him, and he, not to brag, was a much better magic engineer than any of them could ever be.

Having successfully inflated his ego, he called over his wandering golden butterfly.

"Project, Adventurer's Guild, Quest Board, Sky Harbour."

Oz commanded quietly, as a translucent screen materialized before him.

Very quickly adjusting to the touchscreen controls, he scrolled through the available quests for a bit before making his decision.

"What... all I need to do is bring back something from the archipelago?"

He mumbled in slight disbelief.

The quest was rather vague afterall, couldn't he just... bring a rock from outside the guild's door? And bam, quest done, and he'd get rewarded?

Ah, quest rewards were not listed though, it seems that they would vary based on the quest report... and what he would bring back.

"Well, it's about time I did some exploring anyway. Wonder which island I should pick~"

He hummed to himself excitedly, totally treating his first quest as a holiday trip rather than an actually serious 'quest'.

Returning to the adventurer's guild to gather more information, he took out a guidebook for the Sky Archipelago and flipped through it casually.

He was vaguely tempted by the description of Conshire Isles, pictured to be tropical, filled with beautiful places and the perfect place to vacation, but after all, he wasn't actually going on a vacation. He actually rarely enjoyed things like vacations and rest times, there was just... so many other things to do and create!

The description that truly intrigued him was Aerelieth.

Though small, it is a well-known island, famous for developing magical applicances such as teacup heaters. Formally, it is run by a noble family of elves who specialize in rune magic, known as the House of Aerieth.

Magical Appliances! Teacup Heaters! It would be incomparably valuable to see what kind of magical technology exists here in this strange new world, and what better place to go to than an island famous for it!

The destination has been set... Oz is going to Aerelieth!