Fang had left the Rivington District next day after awakening. He took a carriage to Stoneyes District, then entered the Lower City District Eastway via Basilisk's Gate.

He was astonished noticing how different the place was. It was covered in fog continuously rolled from Chointhar river. The stone streets were damp and slippery, visibility was low though it was daytime. Streets were dotted with oil-lamp light stands which abated some darkness and mist .

He started walking along the street looking for an inn or tavern. It was already noon and he was quite hungry after the long journey.

Soon he came in front of a long, two stories high building. There was a stable attached to it. A sign was hanging displaying a female hand clutching a lightly curved sword, several stars twinkled around it. A wooden board was nailed below it, the carved words were painted :  Starry Sword Inn

He pushed open the wooden door and entered the lobby. There was a young female elf standing behind a wooden desk. The dress she was wearing was bold, exposing most of the skins and highlighting the contours.

"Welcome to Starry Sword Inn, young adventurer ," she bowed revealing a three-quarter view of her bossom.

Fang couldn't move his eyes even after the elf ended the bow.

"Guest," the elf chuckled enchantingly.

Fang came to his sense and looked at her eyes. His ears were red in embarrassment.

"Sorry Miss, my eyes couldn't help . Do you serve meal here ?"

The elf chuckled again, "Its OK.  Our innkeeper , Fatty Shawn, ordered us to follow such dress code to attract you, hot blooded adventurers.

"We do serve meals, but only to guests in their room. We don't have common dining room and no parcel service"

"Oh, I need lodging for few nights too. What's the rent per day ?" Fang asked.

"We have 3 types of room with three renting cost : 5 sp, 8 sp and 2 gp ."

"OK, I'll take the room with 5 sp rent. What's in today's menu ?"

"Here's the menu." The elf took out a wooden board , a scroll was attached to it.

Fang read the menu, there were ale, bread, cheese, egg, fish, meat and wine. The prices were almost similar to Rivington District. Except the meat - it was 3 sp, most of the inns and taverns in Rivington District didn't have it in menu, because most of the guests couldn't afford it.

"OK, give me a mug of ale, bread with egg and fish," he couldn't bear to spend 3 sp in meat alone, though the last meat he ate was 10 years ago. The day his father took him to the orphanage. "Do you have facilities for bath ?"

The elf quickly calculated and told, "That would be 3 sp for the meal. Yeah, we have bath tub facility. It will cost you extra 3 cp."

"Here, rent for one day with and the price of one meal. I'll also take a bath," Fang took out 9 sp and put on the desk .

"Thank you." The elf registered Fang in the inn register. Then she gave him a key and 7 cp, "Your room is in 1st floor, 3rd in the left from stair. The bathing facility is in ground floor. Here go that way, stair in left and bathing facility in right. I'll send someone to fill the bathtub with clean water"

"OK, I'll take the bath first. Send my meal in room 30 minutes later," Fang took the key and walked towards the bathing area.

There was not much to say about bathing facility. Just a barrel reaching about his waist. There was a hearth under it. In cold season, fire could be made there to heat water and keep it warm. To take bath, one had to get in the barrel. There was enough space to fold leg .

The barrel was empty. Soon, a bulky half-orc came, carrying two large buckets of water in two hand . 

Then he poured water in the barrel, "Enjoy your bath, guest." 

Fang nodded to the half-orc, who then left with the empty buckets.

After taking bath, Fang went to his room. The room was small, but tidy and clean. There were a wooden table and chair and a bed in the room. 

Someone knocked, "Your meal is here."

"Oh, thank you, come in"

A cat girl in short black and white apron opened the door. She was holding a wooden tray containing the food he ordered.

She put the tray on table at the corner of the room. Fang shifted his eyes, "Damn, in keeper ." When the girl bent, it didn't leave much to imagine about her curvy butt because of the short apron, the tail made the view more seductive.

"You need anything more?" the catgirl asked.

"No, not for now." 

"OK, if you need anything, pull that rope, it will ring a bell at my work area," she showed her a rope hanging at the wall near the bad. Then she left swinging tail left and right with each step.

Fang started eating his meal quickly. Then took a short nap. 

After waking up in afternoon, he decided to go out.

He walked for 15 minutes and reached the Adventurer's Guild Office after asking several passerbys for the direction.

He could see many adventurers entering and exiting the guild building. He also entered behind a group of adventurers and soon found the registration desk . There was a sturdy middle aged man sitting behind the desk.

"You want to register as adventurer ?" The man asked.

"Yes"

"Are you awakened ?"

"Yes, I was awakened yesterday"

"Ok, here, fill up the form," the man took out a parchment from drawer give him. There was a quill on the table dripped in ink bottle.

Fang took the quill and parchment . A while later , he finished writing and gave it to the man. The man assessed the form :

Then the man went to a room stood up, and entered the room at back. After a few minutes he came out, "You are now registered as an adventurer. Take this badge." He gave Fang a circular ornate metal disk with completely copper hue . Two letter A and G was engraved in it.

"The badge is a magic item and needs attunement. The information you gave in registration form is encoded in it with today's time stamp and this branch as center. You can use this in any branch of the guild . Now drip a blood drop on it," the man gave Fang a sharp long needle to prick.

Fang pricked a finger with the needle and dripped the badge with blood drop. The badged glowed bright and then dimmed.

"OK, your registration is complete. As a fresh awakened and newly registered adventurer, your rank is "F",  the lowest rank . You can increase your rank by completing guild quests. And you can take quests of F and E rank only.

"Do you know all the Adventurer's rank ?" The man asked.

"Please tell me," Fang requested politely. 

"OK, listen and remember. Its for your own benefit. Many adventurers are quite odd tempered, you should stay low in the presence of higher ranked member"

Fang realized that the man conducted his awakening ceremony was a C rank adventurer. "Hope I won't meet him in future, well it's not like I'm gonna attach the badge in chest and show off . Even if we meet, I can pretend as unawakened normal adventurer. Anyone can join the Adventurer Guild, awakened or not."

"Thanks a lot, I'm gonna look for quests that I can complete," Fang was really grateful to this man for giving so much information.

"See you again, always stay vigilant," the man nodded to him.

Fang then strode to and fro in the office ; soon he found the quest desk. A young woman with big spectacles was sitting behind the desk.

"Hi Miss," he greeted.

"Hello there, how can I help you ?" The woman looked over her spectacles.

"I'm newly registered Adventurer, F rank. Is there any suitable quest ? Specially with high rewards ?"

"Hmm, high reward E or F ranked quest, let me check. There are not many quests left for F ranked adventurers. A lots of new adventurers flooded the office after the awakening ceremony. They accepted almost all the available quests" the woman took out two registers, one for E rank quests and another for F ranked quests.

"There is one quest with quite good reward, its E ranked. Actually its collecting dust for a week." the woman told after checking two registers.

"Oh, what's the quest ? And how is the reward ?"

She searched in the rack  behind her for a minute and took out a parchment, "Take a look."

Seeking Adventurer for an easy delivery job. Huge 200 gold reward.

Come to the floating house at the edge of Ulgoths's Beard for more details.

- Yeasir

"Where is Ulgoths's Beard ?" Fang asked, he never heard of this place .

The woman chuckled. "The reason this quest is collecting dust for days because of this location. New or old, no adventurer generally want to go there. Even after this big reward.

"Actually Ulgoths's Beard is not far from here. It's a sleepy hamlet, southwest of our Baldur's Gate. But there are no roads to this place from here. One must traverse over the rolling hills or by boat to reach the town. It is home of mostly poor shepherds and fishermen. There isn't even a tavern or inn in Ulgoths's Beard.

"The only notable person living there is the eccentric wizard, Yeasir. He lives with his three daughters in a floating house just east of the hamlet. And he is our regular customer. He mostly gives weird gathering quests, may be those ingredients were necessary for his study."

"Hmm , I can understand why others don't want to go there . I wouldn't too, if I had enough money . But, I'm in need. I'll accept the quest, Miss." Fang spoke in determined tone.

"OK then, it's your choice. But careful, though it is said an easy delivery job, you can't trust this type of weird people's judgement."

"Thanks Miss, for your kind advice, I'll be careful." Fang took the parchment, and the woman registered his name as the quest acceptor.

He exited the guild office. It was already evening. He then decided to visit the equipment shop.

After a few minutes of walk, he reached the shop. It was a two story building, the signboard hanging outside displayed the name of the shop : Eastway Expedition

He entered the shop, a bell ringed somewhere in the shop. He didn't see anyone inside and stood near the shop counter.

Soon a middle aged bearded man came to the other side of the counter. "Sorry for the wait, I was busy back there organizing the new equipments came today. What do you need ?"

"I need some equipments suitable for level 1 Rogue," Fang told.

"Hmm, starting equipments for Rogue , right ? What's your budget ? Better gears are also a great strength."

"I'm low on budget. I think standard starting equipments are enough, I can't afford special gears"

"OK then, Common equipments." He searched his drawer and took out a parchment, "Here's the list , choose. Every class is limited to equipments that can be used proficiently. Using equipments that you are not proficient will put you in disadvantage.

"Also take a look at this list of adventuring gears too, the starting equipments are not enough for a quest in wild"

Fang took the parchments and read carefully.

Recommended Starting Equipments for Rogue Class :

1. i) A rapier or ii) A short sword

2. i) A shortbow and a quiver of 20 arrows or ii) A short sword

3. i) A Burglar's pack or ii) A dungeoneer's pack or iii) An explorer's pack

He bought a leather armor, two daggers, a shortbow and quiver of 20 arrows, a rapier, an explorer's pack and a set of thieves' tools. All these equipments cost him 100 gp in total.

Fang read the list of adventuring gear too, many gears seemed very helpful such as potion of healing, basic poison , alchemist's fire etc, but he couldn't afford those.

At last he bought a ball bearings, a healer's kit, five roll of bandage, a utility belt, a tent (2 person), and two sets of traveller's clothes. These items cost him extra 30 gold. 

"Thanks." Fang left the shop. It was past evening. He went back to the Inn, took his meal and slept early. 

Next morning, he woke up very early and checked out from the Inn. He took a coach and reached Gray Harbor. The harbor was bustling with activities, a great varieties of cargos were passing through to and from the ships. Dock-hands were operating tens of huge mechanical cranes.

Fang found a boat sailing from the harbor to the Ulgoths's Beard. They reached the hamlet in mid morning.

The town was a small, he found the direction to the Yeasir's flying house from the first inhabitant he asked. After a short walk, he reached at the edge of the hamlet. Above him was a floating house circling lazily in the coastal breeze. 

The house was clearly a ship, converted with a roof and additional rooms to accommodate permanent life anchored to the small village.

He looked up to the house, "How will I get there ?"

As he craned his head up, the magical structure came to a stop in the air. He could hear faint click and rattles from far above, as a mechanism was activated. And a moment later, a rope ladder unravelled itself with the end landing right at his feet. With no spoken invitation, he started to climb up the ladder, hoping to not lose his grasp as he swayed in the wind.

After a climb that stretched for little too long, he finally reached the deck. He pulled himself up on the wooden surface. A pair of foot came into his view. A human man peered down at him through askew half glasses. His eyes were wide and twinkling with manic energy. His long white hair and beard stood on end, as if someone had just zapped him. As he leaned down with a grin, it gave him even wilder look.

"Ah, you must have received my summon, yes ? I was expecting someone days ago, but you will do, you will do," the man said hastily. His words were almost tripping over each other.

"Come along now, no time to waste ! I have a storm to catch shortly," the man turned to head inside the ship, expecting Xiao Fang to follow him.