After drinking and talking to Hogan for hours I finally stumbled to my room for the night. The room was pretty bare. It had a queen size bed which dominated a majority of the room, a dresser and a set of cabinets. There were no decorations on the walls or any of the bells and whistles one would expect from a hotel room back on earth. Hogan did tell me that each floor had a communal bathroom/washroom. He also said that there were bigger and more expensive rooms if I wanted to spend more money. There were even ones with built in kitchens and bathrooms. I ultimately decided to see how things went with the adventures guild before I decided to upgrade. I needed to see what kind of cash flow I would be working with to decide on a budget for myself.
One thing that I decided on was that as far as money was concerned, the adventures guild was pretty much the only option I had. Hogan had told me that if I just settled down and tried to get an entry level job in the city that I wouldn't make enough money to be able to make my payment for not being a citizen. After the initial three months I would have to pay the government a total of fifty gold coins every month to be able to stay in the city. The only way that was doable when I don't have any relevant skills is to take on E rank missions. E rank missions paid anywhere between ten to twenty gold coins. You would gain additional money for selling the beasts corpse to the adventurers guild, well assuming the job you had taken was a beast slaying job and that the job didn't specify wanting the corpse. A beasts corpse would get you anywhere from Five to ten gold coins, at least if it was an E rank beast. So on the high end you'd be receiving thirty gold coins from one hunting job, without taking into account other factors.
The time you spent in the wilderness also only counted as half the amount of time towards your next fee payment. So if you were in the wilderness for a month, then the time that would be added towards the next payment would only be two weeks.
That sounded good to me until Hogan told me that some jobs required an entire month just to complete. Even if everything went right, between traveling to the beast's general location and then tracking the beast, you're looking at a considerable amount of time in the wilderness. Luckily all E rank beast jobs only had you traveling at most a week out from the city, not including tracking. This was because any beast hunting missions that required you to travel further than a week was automatically bumped up to at least a D rank job even if it was only to kill an E rank monster. The further you went from the city the higher tier the job would become.
This was because the danger you experienced was greatly increased based on your distance from the cities. The government had high level adventurers culling all the beasts higher than E level within a weeks travel of the city. This was not only to keep E rank adventurers safe but also to promote a higher population of E rank monsters. The less high rank monsters there were in the area the more lower rank monsters there were in said area, because the only predators they had to deal with were also at an E rank.
The Government also promoted this by issuing every adventurer a certain amount of tags that were attached to their adventurer I.D. Tags refer to the number of beasts you're allowed to hunt that are your rank while inside of the same ranked hunting ground. Beasts that you hunt for a job are not counted toward your tags. Only beasts that are your own rank are counted towards your tags. That also means that higher ranked Adventurers can't sell the corpses or beast cores of lower ranked beasts to the guild. Now lets say you run into a D rank or higher ranked beast inside of an E rank hunting ground, would that beast be counted towards your tags. The answer is no. This is to incentivise adventurers to take the risk and challenge these beasts keeping the population of E rank beasts high within the E ranked hunting grounds. This rule didn't count though if there was a D ranker in your party though, that way the rule couldn't be abused as easily. There were still ways to get around these rules but the cost for getting caught doing so would be just as severe as the poachers would receive if caught.
Each adventurer at E rank only got one tag a month. Even if you were attacked by a beast at E rank and killed it in self defense you still wouldn't be able to turn the beast into the adventurers guild for gold if you had already used your one tag for the month. That was also why most adventurers prioritized taking jobs that required you to hunt more than one beast at a time, that way they could maximize the amount of corpses they could legally turn into the guild.
There were ways to sell beast corpses and beast cores on the black market. Being caught doing so though would result in extreme consequences. People have even been executed depending on how rare the beast they poached was. A majority of the consequences for poachers though were extreme fines and regardless of your adventurer rank, the loss of your citizenship. If the loss of your citizenship was due to poaching then the fee you would have to pay each month was increased drastically as well, basically forcing you off Andorra.
When I awoke from a drunken slumber I felt surprisingly good. For the amount I drank that night I figured I'd be nursing one hell of a hangover. After I went and used the bathroom and washed up I headed downstairs to have breakfast. I sat at the bar and ate, this time it wasn't Hogan behind the bar but an elfish woman named Mina. I was amused to find out that a typical breakfast in world game was the equivalent to bacon, eggs and hashbrowns. The hashbrowns and bacon were slightly different in appearance while tasting pretty much the same, while the fried egg looked just the same only much richer in taste. Mina was just as helpful as Hogan, providing me with directions to the nearest Adventure guild building, while also telling me more about the city.
After saying goodbye to Mina I made my way towards the Adventurers guild building which was only a few blocks away. The walk there was just as eye opening as it had been the previous night, if not more so. With it being daylight out I could really see all the ways that made this city different from a city on earth. The level of nature that was integrated into it while still being functional was more than impressive, it sometimes seemed impractical as well as impossible. Some buildings had slanted ceilings that led to the buildings next level they had small forests growing across them, complete with ecosystems and everything. The most surprising thing though was how different the smell was compared to a city back on earth, Andorra actually still smelled of nature despite probably housing millions of people. I guess it wasn't too surprising when you took into account there was no pollution coming from the vehicles. All the vehicles were built using beast cores while their fuel source was actually the energy of the driver.There are a lot more people riding on a variety of beasts though compared to vehicles but the majority of people were walking to their destinations on foot.
It only took me about ten minutes to navigate to my destination, Minas directions were very detailed, even though I had to leave the ground floor and make my way across all the raised walkways that were used to travel between floors, I still had no problem finding the place. It was situated a few floors off the ground level and had a large sign that had the symbol of the Adventurers guild etched into, which was a large kite shield set behind a sword that was pointed blade down while going across the shields middle vertically. There was a lot of traffic going to and from it despite it being so early in the morning. After walking inside I found out why.
Inside of the guild was a fully functioning bar/restaurant as well as different stores which catered to the various needs of adventures. There are places to buy weapons, armor, potions, there was even a small store selling small beasts that were kept in cages. There were so many things going on while not having a comfortable amount of equivalent space that I began to feel overwhelmed.
It was at this point that I had a person grab my arm and make a gesture for me to follow them to the side where there were people sitting at tables eating. This person who ended up being another elfish woman flashed me a bright smile and said "I take it this is your first visit to one of Andoras guild halls? You can always tell by how overwhelmed they look and by the fact they all freeze up right through the door" she said the last bit with a slight chuckle "I'm told that the other Guild halls on other planets don't have nearly as much stuff going on, they're mostly just a bar with a job board."
"This is actually my first time in an Adventures guild in general. I"''m here to acquire my E rank I.D card so that I can start the countdown on my three month grace period." I say with a nervous smile, distracted by the people shouting not far away about looking to fill up spots in their hunting party.
"Oh well no wonder you looked especially distraught by all the commotion, this must be a lot for you to take in. Even finding the job board and reception desks proves to be a challenge for even seasoned adventurers who are visiting for the first time. Allow me to show you to the reception desks, that's where you will register for your I.D card." the woman says, then begins leading me to the reception desks.
She leads me to a place at the very back right of the space, where there were ten booths built into the wall, each of which holds a desk and receptionist, all of which looked completely in their element despite the crowd of people in front of them each wanting there attention. The guild employee leads me to the far left of the crowd where there is one receptionist who has a surprisingly short line in front of her.
"That man to the left is in charge of issuing new I.D's. You're actually here at the best time of the day, usually this line is twice as long as the others once the warp gate opens for the day. Well good luck and try not to die" the elfish woman says as she departs with what I read into being a pitying smile, as though she didn't think highly of my chances of survival on Andora.
I wait in line for about an hour before it is my turn at the desk. The man behind it is another elf-like species which I now assume is the native species of Andora, since every employee of a business that I've encountered has been of this specific race. That includes all of the receptionists as well. They all have the same pointed ears, high/sharp cheekbones and shimmering silver hair as the others iv encountered.
The man passes me a blood red crystal in the shape of a sphere and what appears to be a sewing needle. "Use the needle to create a drop of blood, then smear it onto the sphere while holding your current adventures I.D against it, this will record the start of your three month grace period to your I.D. You'll be able to check how much time you have until it ends by checking the status of your I.D." the man says in a hardly suppressed bored tone.
"I actually don't have an Adventures I.D as this is my first time even being in one of your buildings. I'm here to register as an Adventurer." I responded nervously.