As Jack enters the Black Talon Mercenary Guild, he is instantly greeted by the smell of beer, sweat and smoked meat. He notices that almost the entire guild hall is covered in different people, most of them are rugged and scarred men.
However, some are leaner or smaller, carrying weapons which require a lot more finesse than strength.
There are even a few women mixed in among the crowd, also wielding everything from two-handed battleaxes to daggers.
The atmosphere is cheery, a bard is playing an upbeat tune in the background, and the entire room is filled with rowdy people eating and drinking.
As Jack walks in, Baldric takes notice of him and stands up from his spot to wave him over.
"Hey, Jack!" Baldric shouts over the noise. Jack hears him exceptionally well, being able to filter out all the surrounding noise with ease and quickly begins walking towards Baldric.
As he approaches, he notices the other group members from before, sitting at the same table as Baldric.
Dianne and Felix, both bandaged and somewhat tired, but apart from that, they look as excited as they can be. Felix, of course, isn't talking, but he nods his head a few times when someone talks to him before continuing to eat.
Garrick, on the other hand, fits in a bit better. He looks like an older mercenary already, being more talkative, easily conversing with the other Talons in the guild while drinking beer and eating smoked meat.
Jack greets them and sits down, claiming a spot opposite Baldric. They exchange a quick look, acknowledging each other, before continuing to eat and drink. Jack joins in.
As the evening continues, Baldric eventually stands up and starts banging his sword against a metal shield, producing a high-pitched clanging noise.
The others in the room quickly quiet down. Only a few who are already drunk need some time before realising they should be quiet.
"Fellow Talons, today we have some recruits joining us. These four have proved their valour in combat, demonstrated care and compassion for each other, while also overcoming great odds." Baldric loudly proclaims in the now silent hall.
"Today I would like to initiate, Jack, Garrick, Dianne and Felix into our nest as true Talons." Baldric continues.
"Does anyone wish to challenge my initiation?" Baldric hollers towards the rest of the guild.
"That new lad' only been ere a day, ain't he?" A man stands up from his seat, towering over the others. He has an ugly face and barely any teeth. He looks like a giant.
"He has, but he has also proven himself a capable warrior and taken part in a true battle. Does that not give him the right to be initiated?" Baldric counters back.
"I ain't see him yet." The giant man says back. "Lemme see 'em fight." He continues.
Before Baldric can say anything, Jack stands up from his spot and starts talking to the giant man.
"Isn't Baldric a veteran member, what you refer to as a Claw? Why would you not trust his words then?" Jack says, directly aimed at the giant man.
Everyone in the room sort of sways a little bit, not expecting Jack himself to retort, but they all itch for a fight and make that visible by shouting.
The giant man becomes visibly angry, he looks at Jack and starts badly explaining how he appreciates Baldric training new recruits and vouching for people. Then he tries to counteract it by saying he could be wrong. The whole ordeal feels a bit awkward as the man fumbles on his own words.
Jack takes this opportunity to sit down again and look at Baldric, impressed by his own ability to persuade someone so easily.
'It must be due to intelligence. That man does not seem to be the smartest in the room, so maybe my persuasion works a bit better against him?' Jack thinks to himself, happy that he could try out his persuasion a bit more.
Baldric silences the crowd and once more continues speaking, explaining how he vouches for Jack and the other three, and this time no one challenges his recommendation.
He then proceeds to tell Jack and the others to follow him to the front, upon which they have to take a dagger, slice a small wound in their hand and spill a drop of blood on the skull of a raven.
'Is this really necessary? Maybe there is some binding effect related to magic?' Jack thinks to himself before he decides to ask Dianne about it.
"Hey, Dianne, is this some magic ritual we are doing?" He asks Dianne just before her turn to perform the ritual.
"No, there is nothing magic about this. However, I-it could be more like an oath, you know, like a social contract." Dianne answers the part about magic quite fiercely, but stutters a bit when guessing about the reasoning. Jack notices this.
"Alright, just curious, I don't want to accidentally give away my blood to some weird magic ritual." Jack says jokingly while wrapping up his hand in a bandage given to him.
After the four of them, Jack, Dianne, Garrick and Felix has done the ritual, they all get a round of cheering before going back to the feast.
The music continues, and it feels like a party. People are drinking, eating good food, and that, combined with the music, reminds Jack of a lively bar on a Friday evening.
'I could definitely get used to this.' Jack reflects while looking around.
He then looks down at his palm where he performed the slice. He gently lifts the bandage a little to see the wound, but it has already healed completely without leaving a scar. So he puts the bandage back to hide his extraordinary healing.
Afterwards he decides to enjoy the night and do some partying, eating good food and drinking beer. He spends a lot of his time talking to different people in the guild and generally making a few drunken friends.
Jack also notices how easy it is to make friends with his newfound persuasion abilities, his general charisma seem to be off the charts as he finds it really easy to get people to open up and share stories.
He eats and drinks well into the night, being one of the last people to go to bed.
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In another part of Greenwood Forest, a dark, bloated and disfigured creature lurks around.
A long trail of dead bushes, leaves and trees can be found behind it, showing no signs of life left.
The creature is currently shaped like a big quadrupedal creature, black and skin which reminds one of tar.
It has a sort of big mouth, which is currently being stuffed with body parts of what seems to be two humans. Bows are lying around the area, as well as arrows sticking out of the creature.
It looks like the humans tried to put up a fight, but were quickly dismembered and are being consumed instead.
After finishing the two hunters, the creature simply continues moving, searching for whatever is next to consume.
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When Jack wakes up in the morning, he is surprisingly energetic and seems immune to the effects of alcohol. Even though he drank plenty last night, he feels nothing today.
He does his new morning routine of exercises, followed by some stretching, before heading downstairs.
As he reaches the great hall again, he inspects it and barely finds any of the partying from yesterday left. It looks like people cleaned well, or someone woke up early to do it.
Either way, Jack finds something to eat, consumes a large portion of breakfast before deciding what to do today.
He walks over to the contract board, looking around and deciding on what contracts exist.
'There sure are a lot of different things to choose from...' Jack mutters to himself.
'This one wants me to hunt down wolves, paid in the number of wolves' carcases. Another one is made for a team to hunt down more goblins.' Jack observes the different jobs.
Finally, he sees one he likes and decides to pull it down and read it a bit more carefully.
"Tusk Charger - Giant Boar: In the northern parts above Rivermouth, there are a few open plots of land way before you reach the Rolling Fields. These open plots of land are great fields for farming. However, recently, a giant boar has been spotted roaming around. The big boar has also attracted some more normal boars, making the whole area unfarmable. Whoever can kill the big boar and bring either of its tusks for proof will receive 100 gold pieces. Tusks must be brought to Hammoud for inspection before any reward is given."
Jack reads the notice and finds some more intricate instructions written on the back, such as a roughly estimated location, where to expect the boar to roam and other things which might be useful to know.
'This one looks pretty good, a decent reward and especially if I can do it solo. It also allows me to test my strength for real, as I only need to bring a tusk back for proof, I can really bludgeon the whole boar.' Jack thinks to himself while smiling.
He checks the area where Hammoud was, but he is currently unavailable, so Jack simply grabs the paper and takes it with him.
He goes back to his room, grabs all his gear as well as a backpack, before heading downstairs to the armoury and storage. He takes a small amount of healing salves, some bandages and otherwise useful things, but he decides to rely mostly on his own physical prowess.
After grabbing a small amount of healing supplies, he also gets some rations and inspects his equipment one last time before he decides to leave.
He spends a few of his gold pieces to buy the supplies, rations and such, but the cost is very cheap in comparison to real vendors, as he is a Talon now.
After inspecting and confirming his equipment, he heads back upstairs and moves towards the entrance, where he immediately sees Dianne.
"H-hello, Jack." Dianne says quickly as she notices Jack with full armour, gear and supplies.
"Hello, Dianne." Jack answers shortly.
"Are you already going out on another contract?" Dianne says.
Jack nods and slowly moves towards the door, but Dianne seems incessant in stopping him from leaving. Her leg is still wounded, but she looks a lot healthier today.
"I-I understand you are strong, Jack, but are you sure you should be going solo? Which contract did you choose?" Dianne asks.
'I don't really care about her. She should just rest today.' Jack thinks while staring back at Dianne.
"I am going to hunt some boar. I am going to be safe and only be away for the day. So you don't need to worry about me." Jack says while trying to cut her off.
For some reason, his inhuman persuasion just doesn't work now, as Dianne still tries to follow him.
"I-I want to come along. I want to earn combat experience, and today I am feeling much better. I can definitely cast spells again without a problem." Dianne confidently proclaims while following Jack to the door.
'Why is she so persistent? She could have died yesterday, did that really increase her motivation?' Jack mentally questions her.
"Can you even walk today?" He asks.
"Yes! I can walk just fine, maybe not at full speed, but just a little bit slower than normal. I-I won't be a burden." She answers.
"I-I also saw the way you fought those goblins. No one mentioned it, and I thought you kind of wanted to keep it a secret, b-but I would like to see you fight again." Dianne continues.
'Damn it, I wanted to keep sort of a low profile, but I did in fact go all out yesterday, and obviously they all noticed. At least Baldric understood it quite clearly.' Jack thinks to himself.
'I guess she can follow along. I still want to learn about magic, and I think she could be of some help as I still don't really know anything about this world.' Jack reasons to himself.
"Sure, are you ready to move now?" Jack answers her.
"Yes! I am ready." She answers promptly.
Jack takes one look at her before he opens the door for her and heads out. They begin walking north, following the instructions on the backside of the contract.