The party was covered in black blood and dirt by the time they finally got back to the academy under the setting suns, yet even as filthy and exhausted as they were they all shared a sense of pride and excitement. They had made it back in time to pass their exam, and due to this the day after tomorrow they would be given the title of adventurer's.
This meant that they would get a chip to show their stats and skills, enabling them to link together to see their party members' vitals and allow them to take on bounties and quests. The group sent Daylor and Inarus to go talk to the examiner and hand in the quest while they went to get refreshed.They had agreed to meet up after a few hours to head into the town and get a hot meal.
Inarus knocked loudly on the door of the lecturer's office and waited for a response.
"Come in!" yelled a gravelly voice with a hint of annoyance. When they entered the office a small man with grey eyes and hair long ago turned white looked at them. His true mood was shown when the look of sheer irritation that came onto his wrinkled face when the two entered his office.
"Oh you made it back, did any of your party fall?" he said, trying to mask the hope in his question.
"No sir, they are just cleaning up sir" Daylor said, swallowing down his anger when the old man tusked in annoyance. "We have come to hand in the goblet sir!"
Daylor tried to hide his amusement as he pulled out the filthy, foul smelling goblet from his bag and placed it on the man's desk. However the man's grumpy look showed Daylor that he had not hidden it well.
"I thought you had to find the chieftains prized goblet" the man said with a smile, Obviously happy that he may be able to fail the group "This looks like trash"
"Well sir if you would look at the gems on it and where to wipe away the grime you would see that it is indeed the prized item, it's just covered in the chieftains… gunk to claim it as his."
Daylor replied. However both Daylor and the old man turned to look at Inarus with puzzled expressions as he hid a laugh behind a cough. But Daylor cut back in before the man could stir the conversation away. "Seems we have completed the mission sir can we get the papers"
The old man tutted at them as he wrote down on the scroll, writing the team name as "Degenerates". This was because the group had yet to settle on a party name they agreed with. The man then begrudgingly wrote passed on the bottom line of the paper before signing it with his signature. Daylor happily took the paper from the old man before he could change his mind and with a wave they both left the office before the man could say a word.
They both erupted into laughter when they were only a little down the hall. Even though they knew he could hear it as they had 'Accidently' forgot to close the door behind them.
"Jesus that old man is in such a mood," Inarus said with an entertained voice "It must be killing him that we passed."
"Well he was one of the main people going against the new Headmasters choice to bring in so called impures" Daylor replied with a smile "Now we have passed and showed that many of the lesser races are capable they won't have much ground to stop it over the next few years"
The two casually spoke about the last few years and the racism and hardships they had gone through from some of the lectures on the way back to their dorm. Happy to be in a place where they didn't have to be on guard.
It didn't take them long to get back to the dorm the two shared, once inside Inarus removed his helmet to show that he was missing a face, or any skin at all. Instead he had a skull that was engraved with elegant yet fierce carvings and two rubies were slotted into his eye sockets. He then removed his gauntlets to show his skeltal hands before starting to remove the rest of the plate mail. Daylor long used to the site instead headed towards the washroom, the sound of the shower running starting not long after he closed the door, the heat runes making the water warm up as it ran through the bronze pipes. While Inarus used this time to polish his armour and make sure to remove any dirt from it.
After a couple of hours the group met up outside the large oak academy gates. Daylor wore a purple shirt, black trousers and a formal black jacket, His golden hilted rapier strapped to his hip. Inarus wore a black robe with silver trimmings, a hood over his engraved skull and black silk gloves over his hand. Umla shocked the group by turning up in leather trousers and a tight top instead of the pelt bra and underwear she usually wore, an axe on each hip. Khurda wore a silver top with golden cuffs in a dwarven style with his hair combed down, without his usual hat. Aimo had swapped her red Kimono with a purple one, and a black hakama over it. Amber per usual had decided not to join the group in their evening out.
At first they decided to eat, they went to the noble quarters walking past the guards on the gate. When one tried to halt them Daylor just flicked him a golden coin, the coin glittering through the moonlight. The man grabbed it and halted his charge, a look of confusion on his face as he inspected the coin biting it to see if it was fake. By the time he realised it was real the group was far past them.
People watched the group with a measure of disgust and shock as they walked into one of the most popular restaurants in the upper district. However what was inside shocked the group. The building itself was grand and overly well decorated, golden braziers lit the room and pillars of marble held the roof, golden decor around the pillars. But the staff were all female non-humans in semi revealing clothes, on entry they could already see a demon girl in tight trousers and a high cut shirt being verbally abused by a customer. Daylor looked around to ensure that no eyes were on him before he pulled a rock from his pocket and flicked it, bouncing it off a pillar as it then hit the man in the back of the head. Cutting the mans yelling short as he angrily looked around, rubbing the back of his head. The man then paled as Daylor gave him a hungry grin showing his sharp canines and revealed a dagger hidden in his sleeve, the man then sank into his seat hiding.
It took a few minutes before one of the servers managed to come to the stand, a moon elven woman with red eyes, white hair and grey skin came to greet them with a confused smile. "Greetings sir's and lady's what can I do for you?" she asked with confusion
"We would like a table" Daylor answered her with a kind smile.
"O-of course please follow me" she said after a moment of shock and then took them to a table to sit with the group. A few of the humans and high elves in the area looked upon the group with disgust as they sat down ignoring them all.
"A bottle of elven champaign please if you have it" Daylor said with a smile passing her a gold coin as she nodded and left to retrieve it while she was still in obvious shock.
The group started to look through the menu, the average cost for each item was at least a gold piece, more than a guard would earn in three months. The reason that everyone was shocked to see them was due to the fact that most of the "lesser races" were barely paid if paid at all, slavery of the lesser races was common after all, even as the king was trying to remove it.
The races had a hiracey, the highest races are the angels, high elves and the Ushata. The high races are the noble blood humans, half angels and aasimar. The standard races were the rest of the humans, all other elves but moon elves, and gnomes. Any other race is treated with disdain or enslaved.
The group ordered a feast, trying everything on the menu which shocked people who could hear them order. However the moon elf apologised as she returned back to the table, her cheeks slightly flushed and a concerned look on her face.
"I am sorry sir but my manager has asked to speak to you" she said to Daylor, he just gave her an understanding nod as he followed her to the corner of the room where a human was looking at him with a disgusted look
"Sir Drata" the manager said to Daylor, using an highly offensive name for demons trying to get a response of anger from Daylor "I don't think you understand how currency works, I know you are not formally educated so let me just explain, you cannot afford this place," the man said in a haughty attitude.
The manager kept speaking in an overbearing voice, but Daylor ignored him as he pulled out his pouch and jiggled it, the manager stopped talking mid sentence with a look of slight confusion, which only grew when Daylor opened the pouch to show it was full of gold coins.
"Im sure your not educated enough to understand that adventurer's are entitled to anything they find on their missions, so in the future I would keep your mouth shut before your prejudices lose you well paying customers" Daylor said in a calm tone as he turned his back to the manager whose face was growing red in embarrassment and fury and returned to his table, waving off any questions about the conversation as he sat down.
The group spent the night drinking and eating, laughing and teasing each other through the night into the early hours of the morning. They were the last ones to leave the restaurant and did so laughing as the staff members followed them out, a furious looking manager yelling at the leaving staff. The group had spent 200 gold, one hundred was spent paying off the food and drink, the other hundred was tipped to the ten staff members who would have no hope of earning that in their lives, so they had decided to quit there and then leave the manager to clean up by himself.
The group then split up outside of the restaurant, some of them had decided to go further into the town to spend more of their coins at any tavern that was still open. Inarus had decided to instead head back to the academy, while Daylor was invited to the moon elves home.