Finn came out of the bathroom, hundreds of questions running through his mind, questions that he would probably never be able to answer. Walking over to a small mirrored vanity, which was right in front of Finn's bed, he looked through the drawers for some clothes so he could get out of his room. As he searched through the clothes he found several women's clothes which only ended up confusing Finn more, looking around his room, nothing indicated to him that there was any other resident in this room but him, let alone a woman.
'God, these things are huge, who do they belong to, a giant?... Did the other Finn have that kind of taste?' thought Finn in confusion then put he the clothes back where he found them.
A short time later Finn found a white shirt made of soft fabric with a V-neck, and a pair of brown pants that were a bit baggy. Finn dressed quickly, grabbed his guild card, and put it into his pants pocket, then walked towards the exit door where he saw some black boots lying next to the exit door and next to the boots was a pair of brown sandals of a smaller shoe.
"A pair of sandals. They are very similar to those worn by the ancient soldiers in rome... But they are very small, definitely not mine, and they look like a women's shoes" said Finn taking the sandal, seeing a strange floral decoration on the sandal.
Finn got curios again and turned to examine his room again to look for any other indication that someone else lived here with him, but his small room of only two rooms: a bathroom and a room with a kitchen indicated that no one else, besides himself, could live here.
"Maybe a friend who was visiting me...? Do I even have any friends? And why would she leave her clothes here?" Finn wondered before shrugging it off and turning toward the exit.
Finn left the room, seeing a long, narrow wooden corridor that led only in one direction to his left. Walking down the somewhat poorly kept corridor, Finn surveyed the various rooms, the conditions were a little poor and he could even notice dampness on the walls and a little mould in some of the rooms.
When he reached the end of the corridor there were wooden stairs that only led to the lower levels. Finn went down carefully to not make too much noise until he reached the first floor where he saw a huge room with a reception desk that was just next to the stairs and in front of the exit door of the Inn. The old man, manning the front desk, looked up and saw Finn on the stairs, then raised his hand in a slight greeting before returning to reading the newspaper. Finn simply nodded in response and exited through the glass doors of the old inn.
Finn looked around the vast city in fascination; he had only seen cities like this in the fantasy series and films of his previous world. Seeing the Victorian-style buses and carriages moving on their own, without any engines or horses, he knew that the technology there was not powered by electricity, but by pure magic that powered everything, making it an inexhaustible source of energy for any device.
Will I be in the same era as the protagonists of the third and fourth books? I hope not, I don't want to live through a war, I'm barely fifteen. I want to meet Cristel and Silia, though. In the novel they are said to be very powerful and brave women, and they are also described as very beautiful, especially Cristel. I also wonder what Vana is like. According to the novel, she and Silia were two of the few women who carried Valkyrie blood and that's why they had white hair' thought Finn.
Finn began to walk through the streets of the huge, tangled city. As he walked he noticed that the people around him were dressed very differently from one another, just as it were specified in the novels. Finn noticed that there was no predominant style in the city, some people were dressed in Victorian era clothing, showing elegance wherever they walked; others were dressed in long white robes or light shades, seeming to be a style inspired by ancient Greece; many people were dressed in clothing from different cultures, be it Chinese, Japanese, European, and even what he considered to be modern clothing from his old world.
Finn looked around in fascination until he reached the center of the city where a square was located with all kinds of stalls, whether food, stores and hotels for visitors from other cities. After walking around and browsing the shops in the centre he made his way to the centre of the square where a large map of the entire city was floating on a strange device that Finn had never seen before.
'It's some kind of 3D projection' Finn thought in wonder, touching the map with his hand and discovering that it reacted to his hand movements.
The map showed absolutely every shop that was in the city and the exact location of the 4 largest guilds in the kingdom and the capital, as well as showing every district scattered around the huge city, set in different cultures. Each guild was located at the gates of the city, in order to protect the capital from any invasion or enemy attack.
'Unfortunately that didn't work so well in the novels, the enemy kingdom ended up infiltrating anyway' thought Finn.
Finn checked the exact position of the guilds, although he already knew where the Freewalker guild was, for some reason the previous Finn knew nothing about the other guilds or even the people in his own guild. His memories were nothing more than the most important places to the previous Finn and the people were nothing more than blurs that moved and sometimes spoke, only when he was given a mission or received an order. After looking at the map for a few more seconds, Finn headed towards the Freewalker guild without wanting to delay any longer, being an adventurer was currently his only job and if he wanted to survive in this world then he would have to do missions like the previous Finn did, even if he only had to do missions of the lowest and safest kind.
Finn walked for a few minutes then got on a bus, but this one didn't have wheels, or a mechanical engine like the one in his world, this one was powered by a large magical orb that was kept in the chest and used a magic unknown to Finn to keep it floating in the air, behind the bus was a small exhaust from which air came out and pushed the bus.
Finn waited on the bus for a few minutes until he finally arrived at the bus station which was a few meters away from the guild. Finn got off and walked towards the guild, seeing several adventurers coming and going from the guild, they all looked very flashy, using staffs, swords, shields or any kind of accessory that made them stand out from the normal civilians, after a few moments, Finn arrived at a large staircase which led to the guild door, which was a few meters above him. Standing right in front of the huge wooden doors of the guild, Finn sighed calmly and entered, observing an environment that left him amazed.
The guild was huge on the inside, Finn swore it was even bigger than it was on the outside. It was divided into various sections that were decorated in different cultures, which Finn could recognise from his previous world, as well as the people or guild members who dressed in different ways; some were dressed in Roman dress, others in a more Asian or European style, and so on.
'In the novel it was mentioned that there were several cultures from around the world gathered in each realm, but I never thought it was like this, I thought there were only a few decorations not that each floor was completely set in different cultures; it's as if you were entering a fantasy world of each culture, it's amazing, I can't wait to see the different districts of each culture that are in the city' thought Finn marvelling as he remembered the districts he had seen on the map 'today I only walked the tourist path which are several streets that lead to the same square, so I missed a lot of the city'.
Finn walked up to a large mural that stood in the centre of the guild. The mural extended to the ceiling and had several floating walkways that allowed all members to access it from any level. Although the mural was exposed to the public, everyone knew that it had nothing but low-ranking missions, from class E to C. The high-ranking missions, from B onwards, were on the top floor, which could only be accessed by a few people.
'Well, what mission will I take? I don't want to take a mission too hard since I'm only supposed to be a D rank... that's right, my rank! How was I supposed to look at it!?' Finn searched through his clothes trying to locate a specific object 'according to the novel, members of a guild could see their information on a status screen that popped up when they pressed a golden card that everyone has, the same one that was in my room...'
After a few seconds Finn found the card in his pocket and without hesitation pressed it causing a screen to appear in front of him.
[
Name: Finn
race: human
Class: D
Gifts: none
Blessings: none
Strength: D
Agility: D+
Durability: C
Magic: D
U.P.: none
]
'UP?... UP! How could I forget it!? Unlocked potential is one of an adventurer's most important resources,' Finn thought. 'UP is a way to temporarily acquire more power, like a power-up. It's an invention of alchemists who managed to access more power through the anima. The more attuned someone is to their anima, the more UP they'll have… the fact that I don't have one means that my attunement is really bad.'
Before Finn could further examine his status screen a young man with a dark complexion, dense curly hair, wearing what appeared to be a typical adventurer's outfit rushed up to Finn, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and dragging him quickly towards the reception room where jobs were accepted, groups formed and new adventurers were checked in.
"Back off, you bunch of bitches! I asked for Finn first and you know it, now he will be my team!" exclaimed Darwin drawing his sword threatening them and turning to look at the receptionist "Damian, hurry up and confirm our group. I don't know how long I can keep these beasts away!"
'what's going on!?' thought Finn panicked watching as several people in the guild approached them, looking at Finn as an object to be won.
Damian let out a slight sigh and just did as Darwin asked, while the other adventurers shouted at him not to, turning a deaf ear within seconds Damian held up a piece of paper showing everyone that Finn and Darwin were now a team. With the confirmation of the team, the other adventurers quickly dispersed, though they were still clearly angry.
"Sigh, you know Amelia's going to be pretty pissed about this, right? You should have waited for her to come back from her vacations," Damian said leaning on his elbows on the bar where he stood and looking seriously at Darwin.
"And what was I supposed to do...I didn't know those assholes would kick Finn out yesterday" replied darwin "Besides you know how it is...If I waited, someone else was going to put him on their team and then amelia would scold me anyway."
"Sigh... You're right, whatever, I'll give her the group anyway so there shouldn't be any problems... At least not that many" said Damian remembering Amelia's volatile temperament.
"See, it's a win-win in the end, right Finn?" asked Darwin still grabbing Finn by the neck and putting his sword on Finn.
"Yeah..." Finn nodded quickly not knowing what exactly to say, seeing the sword pointed at his neck.
Damian nodded slightly before showing a slightly confused look, he knew something weird had just happened but he didn't know exactly what.
"Anyway, what will your first mission be? you know you have to accept a mission within 3 days to confirm your group and not be separated" stated damian making darwin think.
"Shit, I hadn't thought of that before..." confessed darwin still not letting go of Finn "Give us any mission, an easy one to start with!"
"Sigh, an easy mission huh?..." with a tired sigh, Damian started looking behind the counter until he pulled out a large red notebook with several sheets of paper in it. Damian swore that notebook only got heavier as the years went by, each time there were more and more missions.
Damian flipped through the pages, looking for the right mission for a few seconds. Finn noticed the yellowed pages of the notebook and the red paste something battered, at first glance he could tell it was quite old.
"How about cleaning the stables in the capital? It's a pretty simple and good mission for the beginning of an unoccupied D-class group like yourselves," Damian recommended, but Darwin didn't look very convinced and with a grimace denied the idea.
"I don't know, I'm not really into cleaning horse shit" said darwin causing damian to nod and turn over a new page.
"How about helping a farmer in the suburbs harvest his potatoes?" asked Damian.
"Mmmm... that's better, we'll take that one," said Darwin.
"Right, show me your cards, I'll log your mission," said Damian.
Darwin showed his brown leather armband with a slot that had his card in it, while Finn simply extended the card towards Damian. Damian swiped a white card over the top of the cards and then inserted it into a kind of wheel with several rims that spun around the wheel. The wheel projected a sort of semi-transparent window and in the window were the pictures of Finn and Darwin with a small rectangle underneath them saying: mission accepted.
"Well, that's all done, you can go on your mission now," said Damian putting his card away again.
"Thank you very much Damian, I promise I'll say good things about you around town as compensation!" said Darwin saying goodbye and pulling Finn out of the guild quickly.
As Damian watched them leave he sighed tiredly again, this job was draining him of a lot of energy, especially when dealing with credulous adventurers. After placing the red notebook back where it was, he went back to work arranging documents, but after a few seconds Damian's face turned to confusion and disbelief, turning to quickly look where Finn and Darwin left.
'Finn just spoke a few moments ago...? No... maybe I'm just too tired, I've been working over 20 hours of overtime this week... yeah that must be it' thought Damian going back to work.
___
Finn and Darwin left the city heading east, their mission was to a small farmhouse just past a small part of the forest that stretched from the south and west.
"Can you believe it Finn? we're finally going on missions together!" said Darwin excitedly.
"Yeah... no way" replied Finn, he didn't know how it all happened so fast, but he had no choice but to move on.
"Don't worry Finn. I won't abandon you like those ungrateful people in your old..." As he was talking, Darwin began to suspect that something was not right, something did not fit in this moment "What did you say Finn?
"Me? Nothing," Finn replied.
"YOU'RE TALKING!?" Darwin shouted in astonishment.
Finn looked at him in confusion, he didn't know why Darwin was so surprised.
"So what? Aren't you too?" asked Finn.
"But... but you're not supposed to be able to talk!" replied Darwin, even more surprised.
'Shit, the Finn of this world was mute before I came?' wondered Finn confused and not knowing what to do, now he knew why he had never denied a mission before, they took advantage of the mute. "I was cured" he replied.
"Curses can't be cured!" exclaimed Darwin.
'Shit' thought Finn again "I uncursed myself" he responded confidently.
"What? Is that even possible?" asked Darwin "How?"
"With faith" replied Finn again, waiting for Darwin to believe it.
"...Unbelievable" replied Darwin in amazement "Amelia is not going to believe this".
"I don't know who you're talking about," said Finn.
"What? You don't remember Amelia? but you do remember me, don't you?" asked Darwin again.
"I'm sorry, I only remember a few places and voices, but other than that everything else is dark" revealed Finn 'although I'm not lying, I don't remember them and most of my memories of this world are dark and blurry'.
"Wow, that must be a side effect of your curse" guessed Darwin "Amelia once told me that Merlin checked you out before I came to the guild and he said you had been cursed by a demon or something like that"
"I see... the curse must have consumed my memories then" Finn quickly proposed a theory hoping darwin would buy it and move on.
"That would be most likely... But don't worry!" said Darwin smiling "With me here, as your new partner those memories are useless, everything will be fine you'll see!" said darwin trying to comfort Finn
Finn nodded slightly, although he didn't know Darwin at all, Darwin did seem to know him which led him to think that maybe he was one of the voices he had heard earlier. After walking for a few seconds, another question crossed Finn's mind and curious he couldn't help but ask.
"This girl... Amelia. Was she close to me?" asked Finn curiously.
"Certainly she was, why do you ask?" asked Darwin back.
"Well, It's a bit embarrassing, but I found some huge women's panties in my room when I woke up today and I didn't know whose they could be, is Amelia a giant or something?" asked Finn curiously, he liked the idea of meeting a giant, as he knew from the novel that in this world giants and magical creatures did exist.
"Ohhh... no, she just has a huge ass," revealed Darwin, shattering Finn's dreams.
"Excuse me?" asked Finn thinking he hadn't heard correctly.
"Yeah, those panties are probably Amelia's, she got a huge ass," Darwin revealed as if it was the most normal thing to do.
Finn nodded not knowing what to say, on the one hand he wanted to know more about Amelia and on the other hand he didn't want to look like a pervert. Finn decided better to keep quiet and so the two continued on their way to the farm, Darwin was talking more animatedly now, talking about all sorts of things that had happened to him on his missions and about how long he had been waiting to team up with him.
___
A day had passed since Finn and Darwin's departure, it was currently 5:30 in the morning and the guild was just opening its doors. Damian, as receptionist and keymaster, had been in charge of opening the guild officially for the adventurers and then went to his personal office to organize the documents that the master had given him the day before.
"Hey damian, I'm back!" called an animated voice from the entrance to the receptionists' offices.
"Oh, Amelia, are your vacations days over already?" asked Damian seeing a young woman standing at the entrance to his office.
Amelia was a young woman with a dark complexion, wavy white hair, hazel eyes and two lamb's horns wrapped around her head. Amelia arrived at Damian's office wearing a long Roman dress as her uniform, chosen by the women of the guild themselves as their official uniform.
"Sigh, that's right, I thought this week would be good for me to get some rest" said Amelia arranging a leather bag in which she carried the things she used to work. "Besides it's not like I'm going to miss much by missing a week, these idiots never change for better or worse, they're always going to make the same mistakes."
"Oh, that's what you think..." said Damian with a mocking smile, damian searched through his office drawers until he pulled out a piece of paper extending it to Amelia.
"What is this?..." Amelia take it and looked at the paper seeing two pictures of two people she knew very well "HUH? That jerk. I'm gone for a week and now he teams up with Finn and just one day before I get back!!!? When I see him I'll rip the bastard's balls off!" said Amelia angrily.
"Come on, come on, calm down Amelia. It all happened so suddenly, on Saturday the Spots team kicked Finn out of their group to get another C class adventurer in and early Sunday Darwin arrived at the guild to wait for Finn to arrive to form a group with him. Actually there were a lot of adventurers waiting for Finn as well," revealed Damian causing Amelia to get angrier.
Amelia looked away in disgust and blew out the lock of hair covering her left eye, the mention of Finn's old team brought back a lot of bad memories and made her angry immediately.
"That bunch of shit... I always knew Finn was too much for them!" said amelia angrily "Tsk, the only good thing about this is that at least Darwin will be the one with Finn, and not some other adventurer who wants to take advantage of him because of his curse" said amelia a little calmer.
"Speaking of which… I may have imagined it, but I'm pretty sure I heard Finn speak for a moment," Damian said.
Amelia looked at him again, examining him from head to toe for a few seconds before speaking.
"Are you an idiot or do you eat rocks?" Amelia asked, not believing him.
"What's the need to insult?" Damian wondered, scratching his head.
"Everyone who knows Finn knows he has a curse that took over 90% of his soul when he was just a newborn. Merlin himself told us this when he brought Finn to the guild three years ago," Amelia affirmed. This was a somewhat sensitive subject for her, as she had been looking after Finn since she met him.
Many people had taken advantage of Finn's condition, forcing him to do missions beyond his level and putting him at risk multiple times. At the end of each mission, she was the one who had to take Finn's body to the guild nurses for treatment.
"Calm down, Amelia, I'm just saying what I thought I heard," Damian said, trying to calm her down.
"Sigh, anyway, just make sure you keep a close eye on them. With that idiot of Darwin in the group, they'll most likely get into a lot of trouble. He's such an idiot that he once got into a fight with the prostitutes a few blocks from here and ended up losing," Amelia said, laughing at Darwin. But Damian could tell Amelia was a little sad because she was the one who wanted to be in charge of supervising them and had been working hard for the last year to achieve it.
"You can keep them," Damian said with a smile.
"Wait, are you serious?" Amelia asked.
"Sure, you're the one who keeps track of them separately. It would be easier if you also kept track of the group," Damian stated. 'Truthfully, I already have a lot on my plate right now. One more group to oversee would drive me crazy. Besides, she always wanted to have those two on the same team under her supervision,' Damian thought.
"Kyaa, thank you so much!" Amelia said, hugging Damian, who accepted the hug with some difficulty.
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, that's enough, you'll dirty my suit" Damian said patting Amelia on the back, damian had always been very detailed about how his clothes looked, poise is what defines a person, that was damian's thinking.
"I promise I'll make it up to you!" Amelia said, jumping for joy. "If you want, I'll suck you off!"
Damian laughed lightly at Amelia's enthusiasm and said, "No, you know how my girlfriend is; she's very picky about these things. Just take them and let me work. I have a lot of work ahead of me; the master's degree doesn't give me a single break..."
"Thank you so much, really!" Amelia said happily before leaving to do all the paperwork for the supervisor transfer.