Sydra pushed open the doors of the Guildhall and looked for Robert. The room was filled with people, all of which were focused on a middle-aged man standing on a table.
"Alright, alright, calm down people. If you wish to join up for the exploration quest you need to show your insignia to this person here. You have to be at least at the D-rank to be able to sign up for the quest. This is for your own safety," The middle-aged man said.
Sydra made his way through the crowd of people and up to the table, where he looked at the paperwork for the quest. It turned out that the people who had discovered the Temple Ruins had been part of Robert's Guild, which made it easier for them to set up the quest.
"Sydra?" Sydra turned around at someone calling his name, only to find Robert waving to him from a set of stairs, "Come over here, there is something I wanted to ask you,"
Sydra made his way back out of the crowd and over to Robert, who motioned for Sydra to follow him up the stairs. At the top of the stairs was a walkway that went over the floor below, and led to several doors.
"This is my office here," Robert said as he opened the door in the middle, "It is quieter than below, so we should be able to talk without interruption,"
Robert's office was a spacious room, with a large glass window at the back that overlooked the entire town. In front of the window was a wooden desk, covered in paperwork, as well as items from quests Robert did.
"My most prized item is there right here," Robert said, pointing towards a long jagged tooth, dyed red and giving off a sense of heat on one of the bookcases that surrounded the room. The tooth was resting on a stone pedestal encased behind a glass panel, and there were runes engraved into the glass to keep people from breaking it.
"What is it from?" Sydra asked as he admired the tooth, "From the aura it is giving off, it must have been a creature at least at the King Rank,"
"That's right, it was a King Rank Molten Gyrone, and it took me several days to track it back to its layer in the Magma Sea. That tooth is actually one of its front teeth that I knocked out with my war hammer while crushing its skull. The beast kept trying to dive back into the magma, but I ended up beating it," Robert said proudly as he sat behind the desk.
Sydra sat down in a chair across from him and glanced at some of the paperwork. It was a mix between guild requests, quest requests, as well as several rough drafts of the contract he had seen downstairs.
"So what is it that you wanted to ask me?" Sydra asked, "I'm assuming it has something to do with the Temple Ruins that your guild discovered?'
"That's right, but I also wanted to give you the rest of the gold that you earned by completing the Sunset Fortune quest," Robert said, setting a pouch of gold down in front of Sydra, "Artisan Orlow was very pleased to receive such a large amount, that he even threw in a bit of a bonus,"
"Really?" Sydra asked, glancing at the contents of the pouch, "That was quite nice of him, I'm also glad to hear that he managed to break through to the Artisan Rank,"
"I am as well," Robert said as he glanced at his paperwork, "Now, onto the real reason I brought you in here, the quest to explore the Temple Ruins. I am willing to make a different contract from the one people are signing downstairs, one that will be more beneficial to you in the long run,"
"Okay, so what is in the contract that I would be signing?" Sydra inquired as Robert pulled out another document from his desk and handed it to him.
The contract said that Sydra would be in charge of exploring the Burial Chambers found, and search for the blacksmithing manuscript created by the Plasma Warriors. If he did this, then Sydra would be allowed to keep ninety percent of anything else he found, only having to give up ten percent of his findings for the supplies that the Guard Guild would give him.
"So you want me to search for this manuscript, and if I'm able to find it, you want me to let your blacksmith be the only person who ever sees it?" Sydra asked, reading through the rest of the contract, "But why do you think the manuscript is in the burial chambers, and not somewhere like the forge?"
"We already checked the forge, but all we found were several weapons," Robert explained, "We expect the next place it could be would be in the burial chambers, as it was most likely buried with its created,"
"I see... So you want to monopolize the plasma weapons by being the first group to discover how they are forged? I must say that is quite ingenious," Sydra said, "But what if I'm unable to find the manuscript? Will the contract stay valid?"
"It will, we're just hoping to find the manuscript before the Elven and Dwarven Kingdoms send their people over," Robert said, "For now, my guild members are strong enough to keep people who have not signed the contracts from storming the ruins, but once the Elven and Dwarven Guilds show up, our guild won't have much choice but to move out of the way,"
Sydra looked towards a map that was on the wall between two bookcases, which showed the two main continents within the barriers of the edge. The two continents were named Alstopia and Arkendol, and there were a total of six major kingdoms on them. Three were the Elven Kingdoms, and the other three were Dwarven Kingdoms, and they were equally spread out over the two continents.
"Although it looks like there is a wide distance between our town and the closest kingdom, they have probably already heard of our discovery, and sent news overseas to the other three kingdoms," Robert explained.
"Which means there isn't much time before they show up," Sydra said as he pondered the details of the contract, "Alright, I'll sign the contract, but I don't there is much equipment that your guild could give me,"
"If you want to choose your own equipment, then we could just give you a few gold to buy some stuff," Robert said, "I'll give you a list of things you'll probably need though,"
Sydra nodded his head and signed the contract, causing a flash of light to go off as the runes on the back activated. The runes were used to make sure both parties signing the contract kept to its contents, and if either person was to break it, then they would suffer a pre-agreed upon amount of damage to their aura core.
Sydra handed the contract back from Robert, before standing up and collecting the gold and list Robert had written out for him. The items on the list were things such as rope, lanterns, and backpacks, as well as a few other items Robert thought Sydra could use.
"Once your done preparing, come back here and I'll lead you over to the ruins myself," Robert said, showing Sydra out of his office.
"Will do," Sydra responded, "It will probably take me about an hour to get all of this stuff,"
After Sydra had left, a man came up to Robert and handed him a pile of contracts that people had signed. The man was one of the few people who was close to Robert, and also his right-hand man in the guild.
"Are you sure that giving him a different contract from the rest was really the best idea?" The man asked, "I thought you just met him the other day, but you seem to trust him a lot,"
"You worry too much, Tian," Robert said, "I may have just met Sydra yesterday, but I'm sure he wouldn't try anything. Even if he did, there is no way he could escape from our guild with the strength he has,"
"If you say so," Tian said, his eyes following Sydra through a window, "I just hope he is able to find that manuscript. It would bring us a huge increase in profits,"
...
Sydra walked down the street in search of shops that sold the items listed, the first one being a backpack. Although Sydra had the Arbor Sanctum to hold things, he didn't want to be solely reliant on it, in case there were times it didn't work.
'Ah, I bet a tailor would sell backpacks,' Sydra thought as his eyes caught onto a store sign called Weaver Thread. Sydra entered the store and glanced around, his eyes wandering past the different types of clothes until they reached a section that had backpacks.
'Great, they do have some,' Sydra thought as he made his way over and started searching through the backpacks. There were multiple kinds, and several even had runes engraved in them for different effects, "Hmm, I think this one will do,"
Sydra picked up a large backpack that could hold several days' worth of rations, as well as the other things Sydra needed, and made his way up to the counter. Behind the counter was a young man with short blonde hair, and a wide smile on his face.
"I'll take this one," Sydra said, handing the man the backpack as he pulled out a gold piece. The backpack was only three silver pieces, but so far Sydra had only acquired gold from everyone he met.
"Alright, you can take it." The young man said, handing the backpack back to Sydra without accepting the gold.
Sydra's eyes narrowed as he took back the backpack, "Are you saying I can have this for free?"
"That's right, after what you did for me yesterday, I don't see why not," responded the young man, causing Sydra to become even more confused.
"What I did for you?" Sydra inquired as he examined the man more closely. Although he seemed familiar, Sydra wasn't sure why that was, or where he had seen him before, "Just to be clear, what exactly did I do for you yesterday?"
"Haha, I guess I do look different. I'm the person you gave the Life Fulfillment Potion to yesterday, which is the cause for my young appearance," said the young man, "So are you also going to explore the temple ruins?"
"Yeah, it's the reason I'm buying this backpack," Sydra said, his eyes being drawn to the wall behind the young man, "Do you mind grabbing me that rope?"
"Certainly, you can have it for free as well," The young man said as he grabbed the rope and handed it to Sydra, "I hope your exploration goes well, my great-grandson is also going to be there, so you might run into him. Anyway, if you need anything else my store sells, feel free to just come pick it up,"
"I'll be sure to do that," Sydra said, walking out of the store with both the backpack and the rope. Back on the street, Sydra searched for a place that sold dried meat and water pouches, 'I'll probably be exploring for a few days, so it would be smart to get at least a weeks worth of rations,'
Sydra entered a store that sold persevered meat and other goods, most of which had been packaged inside rune inscribed containers to keep them fresh. Walking through the store, Sydra picked up some Grison Jerky, as well as a few other items.
'I guess the use of runes is endless,' Sydra thought as he studied the rune on the back while heading towards the counter. Completely focused on the runes, Sydra didn't notice the young man squatting down in his path, and accidentally bumped into him.
Picking himself up from the ground, the man looked at Sydra apologetically, "Sorry about that, I didn't see you approaching,"
The man was a few inches taller than Sydra, with long red hair and a pair of spectacles. He was also incredibly lean and looked like he spent most of his time outside in the sun.
"It's fine, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going," Sydra said, "To much meat in my hands,"
"Haha, okay," the man said as he squatted back down to continue looking at the meat. Sydra stepped around the man and made his way up to the counter, where he paid for the food before heading back to the Guildhall to meet up with Robert.