Elwen followed Mary down the stairs, returning to the ground level. Mary led her through a door in the back, entering a long hallway. As they continued down the hall, she glimpsed through the open doors, seeing a number of office-like spaces, although very few were occupied. About halfway down the hall, the rooms seemed to shift more toward small storerooms, with a few people running about inside, sorting items into their proper places or retrieving items to be moved onto the sales floor. As they went on, the rooms seemed to become smaller and more secure, with most of the doors at the end of the hall being closed, save for one that had two men carrying a large box out. There was even a guard at the door, in a full suit of armor and a spear in his hand. The inside of the room looked like one of the vault rooms that she remembered from the old bank heist movies. It was strange seeing the modern imagery mixed with the medieval suit of armor, but they didn’t clash.

They took a turn at the end of the hall, entering a cafeteria. There were a number of guards and other workers loitering around, far more than she thought were even in the building. Several people were in line at a counter with a chef behind it, who was furiously chopping up carrots to add to a stew. Most were in groups of three or four, sitting at circular tables. Mary talked to one of the groups while Elwen was busy soaking in the surroundings. Even though this was one of the backrooms, it was still well-decorated. Numerous paintings were dotting the walls, each in a different style. Sculptures made of twisted wood also seemed to be popular. One in particular stood out to her, a massive dragon made of at least six different types of wood. Or maybe they were just painted. She couldn’t tell. Still, it looked cool.

Of course, this wasn’t their final destination, and Mary beckoned her to continue following. Naturally, she obliged, but only after Mary had come over to gently shake her to get her attention.

Mary led her down another hall, filled with far more doors than the office/storeroom hall. A peek through an open door let her know that they were all rooms for the employees. Mary stopped at one of the doors near the end of the hall, took out a key, and unlocked the door.

She entered the room and quickly set about searching for something. Elwen stayed at the door, not wanting to intrude on her space. The room was rather bare though, she thought that Mary would want to decorate a little bit. It felt too empty, and there was just plain furniture. It was like a college dorm room on move-in day, before it was made home.

“Come in. This is where we’ll have you stay, for now.” Mary said as she briefly paused between closing one drawer and opening another.

“W-what? Isn’t this your room?”

“No.” Mary looked up at her with a look of bafflement. “This is just an unoccupied room. Where else would we have you stay?”

“Ummm…”

“Well, it’s not much, but you have a bed. And a dresser.” Mary paused for a moment. “Not that you’ll get much use out of it. The bed is comfy though.” Mary moved over to the bed.

“Come. Sit.” She patted the spot next to her as she sat down on the bed.

Elwen did so, sinking down into the bed a little. It was soft, much softer than she expected it to be. It was much better than the hard ground she had been sleeping on the past week.

“Now, I know this is… exciting for you, but I have a couple of questions I need to ask you. Is that alright?” Mary took out a notepad and a quill-like pen.

“Um… sure?”

“Do you have any health problems? Injuries or Illness? We’ll have you examined by a doctor later, but it’s important to tell us if there’s anything urgent now.” Mary began her barrage of questions.

“No? I feel fine.”

“Any unique dietary needs?” Mary scribbled something down.

“Not that I know of…”

 “Do you have any outstanding warrants, active bounties, or anyone looking for you?”
“Um… No? I don’t think so?”

“Do you have membership in any organization, whether official or unofficial?
“No.”

“Do you have any combat experience?”
“I guess? Varian did all of the fighting though…”
“Right. I’ll put minimal.” Mary muttered. “Ok. What languages can you speak?”

“Umm… English?”

“What level are you?”
“Eight.” Elwen had to pull up her status screen to answer. She hadn’t been checking it frequently enough to know off the top of her head.

“And you are a player, yes?”
“W-what! Um… yes… but how did you know?” Elwen panicked a little. The only people that should know about players are other players.

“Players appraise differently.” Mary quickly explained, “System recognized age?”
“Umm… Eighteen.” It took her a while to find that row. She didn’t remember putting anything like that into her character sheet, and she thought it was weird that different than her actual age.

“Constitution?”

“Thirty.”

“Ok… That might be a problem… Strength?”

“Umm… Nine.” Even Elwen knew that was pathetically low.

Mary passed for a moment. “Nine?” She cast a confused glance at Elwen. “Ah, you put the minimum numbers of points in, then took a debuff, didn’t you?”

“What’s a debuff?” Elwen asked.

“Oh dear.” Mary let out a sigh, “It’s something that lowers your effective stat level from your baseline. A buff does the opposite.”

“Um… My class lowers my strength, does that count?”

“Oh. No, that is a class multiplier. Debuffs would be perks or feats.” Mary returned her attention to her notebook. “Well, your strength won’t cause us any problems, but we’ll have to work on it later. Agility and Dexterity?”

“Thirty and Nineteen.”

“You really didn’t go for the physical stats, did you?”

“Um… No, I put them mostly into magic.”

“Right. You’re a mage. What’s your Magic?”

“Seven-hundred fifty!” Elwen finally had something to be proud of. A stat that wasn’t below average! Or at least, wasn’t below what she was told was average.

There was complete silence as Mary froze at Elwen’s words. “Well, that's definitely a problem,” She muttered. She flipped through a few pages of her notebook, searching for a specific page. She quickly scribbled a few things down, before flipping to a different page and writing something else down. “We should be able to deal with it…”

“What type of magic do you know? Any offensive magic?”
“Um… Well, I can shoot out a stream of water… Ooh! And I can light things on fire!” Strictly speaking, Varian told her not to learn any fire magic, because of her history with accidental fires. Still, she needed fire magic for a spell that would heat water, so she naturally, and stealthily, learned a little.

“Anything else?” Mary asked while she wrote down Elwen’s response.

“Well, I can manipulate water! And conjure a little bit too. Um… that’s pretty much all I know so far.”
“That's good. Nothing too dangerous. We should be able to handle that… Alright, that should be everything.”

“Huh? Don’t you need to know my other stats?” Elwen asked.

“Hmm? No. This was just to make sure you weren’t dangerous, or if we needed to have extra guards around, or if there was something we needed to urgently address. And to determine how we are going to transport you.”

“Oh… ok.”

“Well, now that that’s done…” Mary closed her notebook and it disappeared somewhere under her coat. “How are you feeling?”
“Um… a little nervous.” A little was an understatement. She was lucky she could still answer questions.

“That’s to be expected. It’s perfectly normal, I would be a little worried if you weren’t. Just remember, everything that happens from here on out is for your own good. It might be difficult, but it will better prepare you for the future.” Mary gave her a bright smile.

“Are you… um… also a player?” Elwen asked.

“Oh, yes! I’ve been here for a few years now. Didn’t think I’d end up working an office job again, though. Oh well, it’s a lot more fun here.”

“D-do you know a lot of girls who… um…” Elwen couldn’t get the question out.

“Sold themselves into slavery? Hmm… I’ve seen a lot, but I didn’t really get to know any of them. But don’t worry about them, or about what other people are doing, or what’s normal. The path you're on is perfectly ok. Besides, you’re going to have a handsome hottie taking care of you, aren’t you? I know some girls that would kill to have someone like him.”

Elwen giggled a little. “Yeah. He did a good job making his character, didn’t he?”

“Did he have to spend extra to get his muscles to look that good?” Mary laughed.

“I think he did! And to make himself taller too!” Elwen joined her.

They continued to chat for a few minutes before Mary had to go.

“I’ll come back to check on you in a few hours. Were you getting hungry?”

Elwen's stomach responded first and she nodded.

“Ok,” Mary laughed, “I’ll grab something really quick.”

As soon as Mary left, Elwen fell back on the bed, exhausted. She almost instantly started to nap, exhausted from the day's activities. She didn’t hear Mary lock the door behind her, nor when she quietly knocked on the door.

“I guess she really is that tired,” Mary whispered at the door. She decided to let her sleep for the rest of the day, but made a note to make sure she had a large breakfast.

After he left the building, Varian immediately went to the local branch of the Adventurer’s Guild. He needed to start earning money, fast. If he was lucky, he could start on some big-ticket quest that would pay for half the contract’s price by itself. He knew that was unlikely, and was instead planning on picking up a few smaller quests on his way south.

There was a special region in the south-east of the Lionheart Kingdom, called the ‘Greenwood,’ which was supposedly an enchanted forest. Which meant high(er) level monsters and the potential for valuable loot. More importantly, the eastern half of the forest seemed to have died. Something that was concerning enough to the local lords that they had apparently issued a long-standing investigation quest. The reward wasn’t that great, barely making it worth it to make the trip. However, if he was right, there was probably something big causing the decay. Something powerful. Something valuable.

After picking up a couple of easy quests, he went to the town’s stables a bought a horse. He needed to be fast.