Okay, let's review my current situation now that I've got the time.
After a mission for the ever-trustworthy Foundation went to Hell in a hand-basket, all my teammates died in a helicopter crash and I've been stranded in another world that seems to hold a sort of fantasy-ish feeling to it. There's no modern technology or advanced medicinal practices, but instead, there's magic, elves, dwarves and monsters.
Not just any monsters, though, of course it couldn't be that simple. If they were regular old fantasy monsters I probably wouldn't have as much trouble...I think. Instead, the fucking monsters here are, well, just that. Sex-crazed, superhuman women who want to screw every man in a ten mile radius. At least, that's how most of them are.
I managed to make it to Lutemarch after a long journey, and am finally alone with my thoughts and able to actually take action on the various pieces of intel I've learned during my time here.
Taking out my rifle and handgun, I went about taking the weapons apart in a field strip and used the rags provided by the inn to clean my weapons. While I did so, I thought about a couple things. Firstly, I really need to be more careful when it comes to monsters in this world. I've only had three encounters with them, and of those three, I lost two of them. Obviously, there wasn't much I could do about the one with Elizabeth given that I had to remain non-lethal, something she also struggled with apparently, but the encounter in the fields outside Lutemarch really put my stupidity in the spotlight.
Yes, I'm still mad at myself about running instead of shooting.
Whatever, at least I was able to get here and I was even healed in the end. After taking a look over my cleaned weapon's parts, I began to reassemble them, but left the magazines out. After that, I took the ammo I looted from my squadmate's corpses and began to reload the mags. I still had four handgun mags and rifle mags full in my vest, but those were saved for active combat situations. Besides, I've got plenty of ammo now, so it's not like I'll run out anytime soon unless I go completely trigger happy.
Thinking back to the crash, my mind drifted to thoughts about the piece of the arch we took before everything went to shit. Apparently, the denizens of this world were able to recognize the magic in the thing, and if that's true, then I may have a ticket back home. I'll have to inquire about it another time and see if I can't find someone to reverse-engineer it.
Well, I guess now I need to figure out what I'm going to do from here. Putting the now full mags back into my weapons, I made sure the safety was on and didn't pull back the slides. I got a lot of good intel, but I need more. Specifically, on Lutemarch and the Guild itself. From what I've heard, the Guild is one of the better nations that will neither crucify me nor rape me to death. If I can find out more about it, then I'll be better equipped to hide my true origins and I may even be able to secure myself a source of income.
Speaking of which, I went ahead and pulled the looted coin purses out of my bag and poured them out onto the table in the room with me, which was lit only by a small candlelight on the desk. I began counting the gold and silver pieces that came out. After I was finished, I found that I had 164 gold coins and 73 silver coins. I have no idea about currency rates in this place, so I'll have to research that as well when I can. My best bet for getting the intel I need is probably a library, if this town even has one. Then that settles it. First thing in the morning, I'm hunting down a library. With that thought, I collected the gold coins into one, big coin purse and the silver into another and put them back into my bag.
The only other thing I can think of that I may need to get checked out were those potions I found in the merchant's wagon. I still have no idea what they are or if they possibly expire, so I'll have to look into that as well.
After a bit of stretching, I sniffed my armpits and found that I reeked. I'll need to find a way for me to get myself clean as well. I looked to my bed and found that I wasn't tired thanks to my power nap in the barracks, so I instead decided to do something else.
Reaching into my bag, I pulled out the Monster Girl Encyclopedia and brought it close to the light and began to read until I began to feel drowsy. I'd been meaning to start on reading this for info on the monsters I could encounter, and was happy I was actually getting around to it.
I read into the night, getting through a sizable chunk of the book before I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, and I hid the book in my bag before crawling into bed as sleep took me.
I woke up without much issue. I had a small nightmare, but nothing on the scale of the previous night's. I sat up in bed and saw that I hadn't taken anything off before I went to sleep, not even my helmet.
Packing up my shit, I made my way to the window to see that the sun has just peaked over the horizon, and the streets were not too busy just yet. Seeing as I didn't want to waste any time, I headed downstairs and bought a quick breakfast from the barkeep for free since my 4 gold from yesterday apparently included a room and basic food and drink for 24 hours, which was just some old hunk of bread that I took with me and ate as I hunted for a library.
After a bit of asking around, I managed to find it. It was nothing too fancy, and I probably would have missed it were it not for the slightly hidden sign by a couple of untrimmed bushes. Walking in, I was greeted by a librarian at a small desk not to far from the entrance who I approached.
"Hello, welcome to the Lutemarch Library, if you need help finding anything, please let me know and I'd be happy to assist you." the woman said. She was covered in what looked like wool and was clearly not human. I was able to recognize her as a weresheep thanks to my reading session last night. From what I remember, they don't have any remarkable abilities other than the fact that their wool contains sleep magic or some shit, making anyone who comes in contact with them drowsy and weak.
"I'm new here, do you happen to have any books on Lutemarch or the Guild in general?" I respond in as polite a tone I can muster."Also, would you happen to have any books on economics, potion appraisal, and magic?"
She takes a second to comprehend my request before nodding and standing up, motioning for me to follow. As I did, she began to speak again,"I believe we do have books on all those subjects. Though I need to ask which magic in particular you'd want a book on?"
"Teleportation magic." I responded without giving anything else away.
"Ah, unfortunately, we do not have any books on that field in particular. You may be better off trying a bigger library, like the Grand Library in Norwich, or you could seek professional counsel from a mage." she answered.
"Damn, okay, I'll take a look at everything else you have, then." I responded.
After a bit more walking and silence, I soon had four books with me as I sat at a desk and began to go through them. The first I went through was the potion appraisal, since it was short and easy to skim in order to find the correct description for the ones I had. Turns out, they are Regeneration potions, which use magic imbued in the ingredients to make my wounds heal over a much faster period of time. That would have been useful to know.
Next, I looked into the two books on Lutemarch. Even skimming through them, it took me much longer than it did for the potion book. After a good few hours, or at least it felt like a few hours, I had finished them both and come out with a very satisfying hunk of information.
History wise, the Guild used to be Order territory. However, as time went on and the Order became increasingly more and more hostile and corrupt, a collection of merchant settlements that would soon come to be the Guild started to question their leaders down South. This led to brutal suppression by the Order in a series of "demonstrations". They had hoped this would make the settlements just roll over, and while it worked for the Nobles and Clergy, everyone else became furious and even began to conspire for independence.
Eventually, this led to a full-scale revolution similar to the one for American Independence, only replace Great Britain with a genocidal cult. This revolution was made possible not by militiamen, but rather the Adventurer's Guilds that had been established all across the territory. See, the Order didn't much care for the Guilds, which were independent businesses, since they didn't rely on "Blessings from the Chief God" or "Holy Cause" which made the Guilds much more efficient. The Guilds were showing the Order's own armies and champions up and was seemingly more liked by the general populace, so they have been trying to run Guild business into the ground through a series of unfair laws.
Obviously, the Order isn't stupid and took the opportunity given by the civil unrest of the people to unite themselves under one banner and strip control from the Nobility and Clergy, forming the new Nation simply called "The Guild", run by, you guessed it, the Unified Adventurer's Guild, or UAG for short.
Now, normally this would've been the part where the Order and the Guild go to war, but given that things between the Demon Realm and the Order were just starting to heat up around this time, the Order really didn't want to fight a war on two fronts, even if they could beat the Guild. So, they excommunicated the leaders and citizens of the Guild and closed off all exports from the other Order territories as well as trade routes going through said territories. This came back to bite them in the ass, though, as the Guild responded in kind. Since almost all of the Order's food came from farms now owned by the Guild, the Order was starving and their armies were running on empty, leading to their first major loss of the war between the Order and the Demon Realm at the Battle of Swordbreak Keep. The first of many, but that's for another time.
As a result, trade routes and exports opened back up begrudgingly, and things stayed cold between the Order and the Guild from then. It's around this point that the Guild begins taking in mamono citizens as they are in desperate need of manpower in order to push back any invading nations or marauders that may occur. It stayed like this for a while as the Guild tried to get itself back on it's feet, and eventually, mamono citizens started to be welcome with open arms, surprisingly.
Moving on to basic government, the UAG is comprised of a council of three representatives from five subguilds, fifteen people in total. The first was the Warrior's Guild, who handled military decisions and helped take care of invading marauders as well as guard towns. Second was the Scholar's Guild, which was made up of mages and nobles who handled research, magic, and various politics. Third was the Merchant's Guild, composed of, surprise surprise, merchants who handled everything economic in nature, be they state money or imports and exports. Fourth was the Laborer's Guild, which was by far the biggest subguild composed of almost everything else not yet stated, from farming to construction. Finally, there's the Thieve's Guild, which is composed of thieves, who would've thought. However, their job is to maintain the criminal underworld to an extent and ensure that crime is kept to a minimum by negotiating with the other subguilds in order to placate crime lords. It's not perfect, but it seems to work.
On top of that, every citizen is placed into a specific subguild based on their own merits and are given ranks to start out. There are sixteen ranks in total, with five rank titles and three grades per title, plus a final title. It goes as follows: Initiate Grades C-A, Apprentice Grades C-A, Adept Grades C-A, Expert Grades C-A, Master Grades C-A, and Grandmaster. I guess even in a fantasy world, they'll still find a way to incorporate the chain of command, even if it is like a goddamn video game. I also was able to learn that the capital of the Guild is Norwich, which I remember the librarian telling me about.
Other than that, I wasn't able to gleam much else. At that, my stomach started to rumble and I decided I wouldn't be able to get through the book on economics just yet. After checking with the librarian to see if it was okay for me to borrow the book, to which she affirmed with a sleepy nod, I put the other three books back on the shelf, packed up the economics book and left the library.
Looking to the sky, I saw that it looked like it was just passed noon and began to look around for somewhere to eat. I supposed that best place would be the tavern, as I already knew where it was and I wouldn't have to waste time looking around. Heading back to the tavern for a quick bite to eat, not much else happened, but I did confirm with the barkeep, whose name is Rick, I learned, that there was a bathhouse closer to the center of town, right by the old Order church which was apparently still in use.
I thanked him for the info and left a tip of 10 silver on the counter as I made my way to the bathhouse. It was a pretty easy to find place given that it was garish as all hell, but I'm not about to complain about a warm bath. Walking in, I was greeted by a receptionist who was a human woman with red hair tied into a bun and wearing a white silk robe.
"Hello, welcome to the Lutemarch Bathhouse." she greeted in a bubbly manner."We offer the standard bath admittance at three gold pieces and clothes freshening for another three gold pieces."
"I'll take both, these rags are about as smelly as I am." I joked with her as I pulled out the required coins and placed them on the counter, to which she giggled and handed me a basket with a shiny, silver finish on the handles.
"Indeed, just enter the men's room on the right and leave the clothes you want cleaned in this basket, and we'll take care of it for you." she said gesturing to the door with the men's sign on it.
I nodded to her and walked into the room to see a couple other guys either undressing or redressing for the baths. There was also one guy standing by the door to the baths keeping a watch on everything. My guess was he is here to keep people from stealing anything. After taking off all my gear and clothing, which earned me a few curious glances, I slid my basket full of shit into one of the wooden shelves and entered the bath with a towel.
The baths looked nice and warm and I could see many others guys washing themselves or just relaxing in them. There was another guard watching the room and there was also a door at the other end of the room that had sign on it with both and man and women, leading me to believe it lead to a mixed bathing room.
My cheeks reddened slightly, but I quickly shook that from my mind since it's not why I came here. Nope, I'm just here for a nice bath and clean body. Without further ado, I submerged myself into one of the baths and began washing, while also relishing the pleasant feeling of the warm water relaxing my muscles. Goddamn, that felt good. I stewed for a bit of time before my fingers began to wrinkle and I began to head out.
After drying myself off, I made my way back to the dressing room and redressed myself in my now clean and pleasant smelling clothes. I also went through my belongings real quick making sure nothing was missing. After concluding that all my stuff was very much still there, I left the room and waved goodbye to the receptionist on the way out.
As I exited the bathhouse, I came across the town square which bordered the bathhouse and the old church. I saw that a commotion was brewing in the square and a crowd had gathered around it. I let curiosity get the better of me and I pushed my way forward to see what was happening, all while listening to what the crowd was murmuring.
"Oh boy, looks like the maniacs are back…"
"They're probably more active now that Lescatie has fallen."
"This used to be such a peaceful town…"
Reaching near the front of the crowd, I could see what everyone was staring at. It was an old man followed up by a large group of armed individuals extending into the church. The old man was wearing a large, gaudy robe and was yelling at the crowd of people while occasionally reading from a blue and gold book.
"Insolent wretches! Do you not see what has come to pass?" he yelled,"Lescatie, the great Kingdom under the Order of the Chief God, has fallen, and with it, several blessed heroes! Who do we have to blame for this tragedy but yourselves?"
"Um, the Demon Lord's armies?" one person in the crowd asked.
"Indeed, while the devil's armies are the root cause of the problem, it is because of your inaction and inclination towards debauchery that Lescatie fell! It is your fault!" he said while pointing to the crowd. Oh boy, another firebrand preacher come to spread the good word of mass homicide in the name of God.
"What do you mean by that?" one angry person in the crowd asked.
"I mean exactly what I said!" he snarled back at them,"Denying the Order military support, harboring monsters, the list goes on and on, and now that Lescatie has fallen, Lutemarch may be next. No, Lutemarch WILL be next!"
That may be true, but from what I've gathered from my stint in the library, the Demon Lord's armies tend to take time settling into their new conquests in order to convert them into Demon Realms. Not only that, but the Demon Lord's armies invading a neutral nation is unprecedented. I'll still see if I can't get myself assigned to a subguild, and if the worst does come to pass, I can always just GTFO. As he said that, the followers behind him started to get restless and even began calling for violence. The crowd I was in was getting bad, too, as they were worried they would do something drastic. I was about to leave, thinking I wasn't getting any new intel out of this when I heard a voice shout from behind the crowd.
"That's enough, everyone disperse!" the voice I recognized as Roland shouted. The crowd didn't so much disperse as it did spread out enough to allow the town guards to approach the preacher and his followers. They consisted of Roland, Elizabeth, the dwarf from the duel and a couple other guards.
"Samuel, cease your fear mongering at once." Roland commanded,"This is the third time I've had to tell you, if it happens again, I'll be forced to place you under arrest."
"You know as much as I, Roland, that what I preach is the truth, and you will address me by my proper title as Fath-"Samuel started before he was interrupted.
"Your title with the Order means nothing here, Samuel, I've already told you that as well." Roland responded with a sigh."What you're doing has already incited two terrorist attacks at the hands of your own followers, and if you don't stop, I won't hesitate to put you and all you followers behind bars."
"Terrorist attacks? As if anyone cares about the lives of a few monsters." he stated which riled up both sides even more to the point where a couple stones were even thrown.
"Samuel, I'm not going to ask you again. Leave. Now." Roland slowly spoke in a commanding tone."Talk back again, and I'll arrest you right here and now."
"Tch" Samuel grunted before motioning for his followers to, well, follow him away from the town square. As they passed, though, one of the followers took out what looked to be an iron dagger of shoddy quality and ran at Elizabeth from behind.
"DIE, MONSTER!" he shouted as he attempted to stab the dagger into her back.
The exchange lasted a whopping two seconds. One moment the man had the dagger a few inches from her back, and the next he was disarmed and thrown over her shoulder and onto his back. He hit the ground hard and the next thing anyone knew, Elizabeth's sword was at the man's throat. I could see Elizabeth scowling at the man as Roland came over and had the guards pick the man up and walk him to prison. The followers stopped to watch and beheld Elizabeth with a look of pure disdain before turning and continuing their game of follow the leader.
"Alright, everyone out of here." Roland said turning to the crowd which began to disperse for real this time. "Geez, this is really starting to get out of hand. Sorry about that Liz." he said turning to Elizabeth.
"It's fine, an idiot like him wasn't much of a threat anyways." she said nonchalantly as she sheathed her sword.
Wait a minute, I'm willing to bet that those guards, Roland and Elizabeth included, are all part of the Warrior's Guild. Maybe I could ask the how I get myself signed up. That was my thought as I approached them.