I enter my room and close the door behind me, not caring in this situation what the girls want to do. I want some time to myself to think things over and plan. The room itself is fairly plain. With a small wooden chest, a single bed, and a wardrobe. Beyond that, the room is small, but workable. Now, I need to think about my situation.
I'm stuck in a world full of magic, with a looming threat over it, and I've lied to the country that summoned me about what my unique magic is. Worse yet, they're paying for my room and board for the time being. Tomorrow, I'm supposed to meet up with a new party selected to go adventuring with me, with that I'll hopefully gain some levels. I only hope they have crossbows, because I have no practice with an actual bow, so something closer to a gun would probably be best.
I take a while getting my room situated how I want, and put on a cloak that was provided in the wardrobe, along with a set of leather armor. I put the hood on the cloak up, head downstairs, and use the meal ticket provided to me to get some food and bring it back up to my room to eat. After eating, I double check that I can still pull up the status window, and then lay down to get some rest. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a long day.
I wake up to the sounds of birds and sunlight hitting my face. If I didn't know I was likely off to go fight today, it would be quite the idyllic morning. Given that is the case however, I don the cloak and get food again and bring it to my room to eat. Despite some nerves this morning about the nature of my circumstances, I find a way to pass the time until I hear a knock on my door. I open it, and see Garm standing there.
"Hey there James. As promised, here is your guild ID." He says, as he hands me a small piece of metal with my name, general info about my appearance, and an ID code stamped into it, with two small holes on either side. As he watches me look over the card he speaks again, "A lot of people like to attach the id to a chain, necklace, or bracelet, so we started adding those holes in. If you want one, talk to me or a receptionist, and we'll recommend you a blacksmith to do it for you."
"That sounds like a good idea, I'll think about it and get back to you on that." I reply.
"Sounds good, don't be shy either. If there is anything else you need, feel free to ask. With that, I'm also here to inform you that I'll be back in 30 minutes get you to introduce you to your new party. There should be some leather armor in your wardrobe, if you haven't spotted it already. Its mostly just protective over vital areas, and secured with straps, so its close to a one size fits all. At this time, I'd also like to ask you if you are familiar with any weapons. If so we'll try to get you them." Garm explains.
"I'm assuming you don't have guns." I say.
"Nope, none of them. The short miss, Amy, asked for that too, and explained what they are. I'm hoping it'll save us the discussion here, but would you prefer a crossbow? A lot of people here prefer to use bows over them due to their versatility, but if you can't use a bow now, its probably your best bet." Garm replies.
"Yeah, that saves us the trouble, I'll take a crossbow. If I could get a large knife for self defense as well, that would be good. The faster I can pull it out, the better." I respond.
"Sure thing. I'll get you your weapons by after lunch. Its my policy that people learn best by doing, so after you get introduced to your party and you get your weapons, I'm sending you all out on your first mission. Don't worry, its nothing too dangerous, but it should get you some combat experience." Garm says before he heads out.
I head back into my room and begin putting on the leather armor. After struggling with it for a bit, I get it on just a few minutes before Garm returns to introduce me to my new party members.
He brings me down to the general meeting area of the guild. To the side I see two of the summoned girls conversing with what I assume are their new parties, and two sets of 3 people idly chatting among themselves. On the other side of the hall there seem to be a lot of adventurers watching on, probably to get an eye at the summoned heroes who will be adventurers. They seem to all be having conversations and glancing over at the groups.
Garm leads me to a group of 2 girls an a guy and speaks up, "This is James Adams. Overall stat wise he's decent, and will make an alright backline. Once his magic levels up, he might get healing magic as well. He'll be using a crossbow as his primary weapon."
Garm's attitude seems a little more cold than usual. Maybe this is the face he puts on in public to the other adventurers, either that, or he's not good at public speaking, which wouldn't be surprising given that this is an adventurer's guild.
Garm continues around the group, "This lad is Varris Alton. He's stat heavy on endurance, and will be your party's vanguard. His magic syncs well with that, being earth type. The lady next to him is Calliope Nester. She's decent with a spear, and her magic will benefit that with it being wind type. The last lady is Elys Parietta. For now she'll be using a bow, but her magic is fire, and her intelligence is high, so she'll hopefully make a good mage down the road. Now that basic introductions are complete, you all should get to know each other better."
With that, Garm turns to leave, probably to go get the last of us to introduce to our group. I turn back to my new party and look over them quickly.
They all appear to be roughly the same age as me if not slightly younger, although its hard to tell with people from this world, as their hair and eye colors are a bit different. Varris is a bit taller than me, with short yellowish hair, and bluish eyes. He's also built like a truck. The man has some serious mass about him, and not in a fat way, he's just big.
Calliope has pale blue hair, bordering on white, with golden eyes. She's got an athletic build and is only slightly shorter than me.
Elys has a deep purple hair, with crimson eyes. She's the shortest in the party, but what she lacks in height, she makes up for in breasts.
"Well, as Garm said, I'm James, and I was summoned her as part of a hero summoning ritual. My magic is empathy, so I'm not sure what to expect yet. I'll be relying on you three a lot to teach me common sense of this world." I say.
"No problem!" Varris says. "First bit of common sense: In this world, we've grown up hearing stories about summoned heroes, so to us, this is like living a fairy tale. Of course, we understand the danger involved, but you've probably noticed the adventurers on the other side of the room are looking over, its likely for that reason as well."
"As far as our background's are concerned, Calliope and myself grew up on the edge of the Capitol here and have known each other for a long time." Varris explains further.
"Everyone has only referred to where we are as the Capitol, not by a city name. Why is that?" I ask.
"Oh, the city is also called Godren, the same as the country name, so most people refer to it as the Capitol instead." Calliope answers.
"Makes sense, otherwise things could get confusing. Garm was introduced as the head of Godren's adventurer's guild, is that the city or country?" I ask again.
"There isn't really a central structure to the adventurer's guild, Garm's the head of the branch is the Capitol here, but he sort of functions as the go between for the royal family as well, so a bit of both I suppose." Calliope again answers.
"Thanks. Sorry for interrupting as well." I say.
All four of us pause for a moment, and then Elys speaks up, "I'm Elys. I grew up near the edge of the country, and moved here to become an adventurer so I can help my village. Since we're on the edge of the country near a wildland, a lot of strong monsters appear, and everyone has to work hard together to fight them off. With the Demon Lord revived, its only going to get harder, so I came here to try to find comrades to help."
We continue talking through our meal and not long after Garm walks in with 4 sheets of paper and the weapons that I presume are for us summoned heroes.