{Emperor’s Diary}
My first job was a manual labor one. It was a request to dig a hole. A rich magic5magicstory mechanician had acquired a rare tree and needed a hole dug for it. Considering I got 100 copper as forward payment when I accepted the job, I had to spend ten of it for a wooden spade with a cheap iron edge. I then spent another twelve on a cheap knife, five on food and water, and another ten on some basic materials like a rucksack. The hole didn’t take too long to make either. The hard part was the tree though. After that, there was a pile of grass on the side. Normally, I wouldn’t care about it, but it was slightly glowing. By simply pointing after the job was completed, the magician laughed and said that he didn’t mind the mound being removed as well. I then spread the majority of the dirt around his yard, then I took the grass to a herbalist.
At the herbalist, I will learn the most important ability and skill that I will ever learn. The ability to make money, and the skill to keep those close to me alive…. potion making. Healing comes in three categories in this world; magical, medical and natural. The magical way is by definition using magic. It uses a tool or a spell to use magic to heal ones ailments, it’s the standard practice of the rich or the religious. By the way, that magic ‘grass’ I found is actually a component for making vast amounts of weak magic potions. By simply boiling it in water, you can extract the small amount of magic essence from the grass. One blade of grass is worth one copper as each blade can be used to heal one magic point. In an area of nearly three feet by four, I earned quite the sum. However, I didn’t sell that amount in one trip, as I made it look like I was disposing of the dirt as well. I was tempted to try and sell the soil too, but it was just basic dirt after further examination. By the end of the day, I was in the adventurer’s guild counting the money I made, as the princess came there to drag me to the castle.
The next day, I was sent into town after getting kicked out of the castle in a ‘polite’ manner. The money that I made the day before was taken in bulk. They were amazed that I earned silver coins, then they quickly took them and left me with only the copper. I sighed as I angrily cursed them inside my mind. Maybe it’s for the cost of the translation magic they put on me and my stay at the castle. I do know one thing though, I’m not going to be staying here for much longer. I treat the silver coins being taken as services paid, then I ran away. It wasn’t hard for me to figure out that I was nothing more than a slave to them. I was a work mule to be used then discarded. Maybe if I was actually asked, I would have been more willing, but my nature is inherently lazy. I only want to do a minimum amount to get by. I then bought some basic things with my leftover money, a small stone pot and a wooden ladle for example, then I escaped.
A sensible man would’ve noticed that the wilds were dangerous. Like any environment, there are laws of nature. The first being, the weak get prayed on by the strong. A free willed man would have ran away anyways. I know I was being hunted. In three days, the same party almost found me in the woods four different times, I was even almost caught once. It was pretty scary that I didn’t even have a full days head start, but by using my evasion and stealth skills, I avoided them until I got to a new, higher level area. I assume that even more people went searching for me, but since I was several weeks ahead at this point, and I had a basic affinity of surviving in the wild due to my rugged hunting trip experience, I was able to make do. I had a lot of time to think and consider that as well. Would I chose to live as a slave, but with a good life? Or, will I be free, but always being pursued by the kingdom and in pain due to the slave mark? The latter seemed like a harder choice, but the only thing I value more than my laziness is my own actual choice to be lazy.
{Narrator}
The adventurer’s guild. In truth, it’s nothing more than an employment office. For a fee, the adventurer’s guild connects clients with other workers, benefiting from both ends of each. From the client for upcharging, and the adventurers for dues and fees. The concept has been as old as time, but in more recent years, less powerful individuals have been staying in the guild. The promises of wealth and resources from the guild has been outstripped by the offers of safer kingdoms, but equally rich proposals. Naturally, this has made the adventurer’s guild position weaker in human society. It still had a few cards left to play, but instead, it chose to endure the current era. When the empire was founded and stabilized, a spike unseen before in past generations of adventurers occurred. This is due to the fact that after the wars between humans, the empire opened its borders to trade and allow high level adventurers with respectable records to enter. Many people that were greedy for the wealth of dragon1dragonspeciess applied for entry, but only a select few actually managed to enter the empire that was surrounded by the beast men and the dragonkin of the north. Those that visited the empire wished to lived there, even if it’s to give up all the pleasures they have been accustomed to.
At the apex of the revival of the adventurer’s guild, the first beast man guildmaster came to be. With his training in the empires secret martial arts and a peek physical form, he inspired many adventurers and built many bridges between the humans and non human races.
