Rivamar smelled like salt, water, and saltwater.

  All three of those also smelled like fish.

  Stone arches framed the harbor, their pale stone worn smooth by centuries of tide and traffic. Cranes creaked overhead, ropes groaning as cargo shifted from ship to shore. Mana lamps swayed in the ocean breeze, casting soft, drifting light across vessels sliding in and out of their berths like massive wooden and metal beasts taking turns at a trough. Banners of every color snapped above the masts, announcing guilds, merchants, nations, and more than a few private ventures that probably paid well to avoid being questioned.

  Emil stepped off the docks and took a long breath.

  Luna made a delighted, almost musical humming noise as she hovered beside him, rotating slowly to take it all in.

  Sica, already moving, swept her gaze across rooftops, balconies, and shadows with practiced ease.

  “Okay,” Luna said, spinning to address her companions, “we need lodging, food for the flesh havers, and true meaningful relationships. Luna’s hierarchy of needs.”

  “We can probably afford those,” Emil muttered.

  “Those kinds of relationships are priceless, Emil,” Luna scolded.

  Sica huffed a quiet laugh. “What was the grand total we ended up with, Luna?”

  Luna brightened and lifted a tendril of mana, tracing glowing figures into the air between them. The numbers hung there, hovering and adjusting themselves as she talked through them.

  She started with herself, naturally.

  One point two mana per second. Seven days~604,800 seconds.

  “725,760 mana,” Luna announced proudly. “Which converts to seven silver and twenty five copper. Lucky Penny procs not included. Great for gains, terrible for money math.”

  Emil followed, squinting slightly as his own numbers appeared.

  “One mana per second,” Luna continued, “six silver, four copper.”

  Then Sica’s.

  “Roughly two hours a day for four days at point seven mana per second resulting in roughly twenty copper.”

  The numbers shifted and consolidated to resolved into a single total.

  “Party total,” Luna declared, “thirteen silver, fifty copper.”

  She paused, then added brightly, “Which is like a forty hour work week at thirty three dollars and seventy five cents an hour before taxes!”

  Emil blinked. “I… still don’t know what dollars are.”

  “We have gone over this before Emil,” Luna insisted. “A dollar used to get you a fried chicken burger but now it gets you like a third of a small fry. Heartbreaking decline of civilization stuff really.”

  He did unfortunately recall the many discussions they have had on this topic before, but he still had not gotten a straight answer out of Luna regarding what an actual “dollar” was. For all he knew it was some kind of animal pelt that her previous civilization traded for fried chicken burgers. He also realized he’d made more money in a week relaxing on a boat and feeding Luna mana than he had at his old job.

  “Top of the leaderboard, scrubs!” Luna cheered.

  “It’s not really fair when your entire class is about making money,” Emil said. “And Sica barely broke even after drinks.”

  “Hey,” Luna replied, “in a throuple not everyone is the breadwinner. Sica makes our houseparty a homeparty.”

  Sica winked. Emil sputtered.

  Luna did not acknowledge how the flavor of flustered that Emil got by Sica had changed over the last few days.

  “Thirteen silver isn’t a fortune,” Emil said once he recovered. “But it’s a respectable ‘not sleeping in an alley’ fund.”

  “Solidly middle class,” Sica added. “If you count me as a dependent.”

  Their first stop was the nearest inn, a tidy stone front building with polished brass handles and a clerk who smiled just a little too professionally.

  …

  “Weekly lodging?” the man repeated Emil’s words back to him while glancing at them over thin spectacles. “I’ll need to see your guild badges.”

  “We’re… not currently registered,” Emil said carefully.

  The smile vanished. “I’m afraid we only offer lodging to those registered with the guild. City ordinance.”

  “Even if we pay up front?” Emil tried.

  The clerk shook his head. “Liability. Also, before you get into trouble trying to throw money around, you can forget about renting your own place until reaching silver… gold rank if you want to buy.”

  The clerk's statement cut off Emil’s next plan before it had been fully realized.

  “Maybe we can find the Calder equivalent of innkeepers,” Emil said as they left, hopeful but not optimistic.

  Inn number two was much nicer. Too nice.

  The receptionist barely looked up before saying, “Guild certified guests only.”

  “Not even for the night?” Sica asked.

  “Especially not for the night,” the woman replied, already turning back to her ledger.

  Inn number three was smaller, warmer, and smelled like soup.

  A grandmotherly dwarf with steel piercings and a whiskey rough voice listened patiently as Emil explained their situation, citing that they didn’t have guild certification and just needed somewhere to stay. She leaned on the counter, pipe tucked into the corner of her mouth, eyes sharp but kind.

  “Oh, I don’t care about paperwork,” she said at last, causing the party to perk up. “But they do.”

  She nodded down the street toward a large, round building that was impossible to mistake for anything else.

  The party immediately perked back down.

  “Register at the Guild,” she continued, puffing her pipe. “Come back and I'll have lodging for you, hurry back, I’ve got a soup on.”

  The Adventurer’s Guild lobby was a tide of bodies and noise. Mercenaries, mages, scholars, fishermen with their gear still dripping seawater, and one floating metal cylinder radiating the energy of a fantasy combustion engine let loose in a fantasy gas factory.

  “Just play it cool Emil” Luna whispered quickly. “We can’t seem too eager to become real life adventurers” She had to really focus to not discharge her barely contained excitement.

  The receptionist, a young woman with sapphire studded glasses, looked up with a practiced smile.

  “What can I help you with?”

  “We would like to register a party please” Emil said, shakily.

  She slid a form across the counter. “Names, any previous guild IDs, levels, and political affiliations.”

  Emil froze.

  Sica’s eyebrow twitched.

  Luna hummed innocently.

  The receptionist glanced at the form as Sica took it, her gaze flicking briefly over the three of them. “Level eight… level ten… and… fourteen.”

  She paused, lowered her voice. “I’m legally required to inform you that newly formed parties with this kind of level spread usually fall into one of two categories.”

  Emil braced.

  “One: Childhood friends dramatically reuniting after years apart.”

  “Two: A party forming to exploit the lower level member for a rare skill or political leverage.”

  “She is not exploited,” Emil said quickly.

  “If anything,” Luna added, “I exploited him for legs until very recently.”

  The receptionist nodded, clearly having decided not to unpack that.

  Party members:________,

  Sica beautifully filled out the blanks with their new names.

  “Lime?” Emil whispered.

  “I was on the spot,” Sica whispered back.

  “Any previous identifications?” the receptionist asked pointedly.

  “Boating accident,” Sica said flatly.

  “My artificer was on sleeping pills and moonshine,” Luna added.

  “Artificer boating accident,” Emil agreed, sweating.

  “…Right then,” the receptionist said crisply. “You’ll start at Iron.”

  She produced three badges and slid them beneath a device that looked like a mix of a hydraulic press and magical printer.

  “One silver to register the party,” she said. “Then please place an appendage here.” She gestured to the device.

  Emil produced a silver before the trio placed their hands, Luna an end of her casing, on the badge printing device.

  The badges clinked out one by one.

  Lime — Earth Mage — The Lunantics

  Luna — Unrecognized Mage Type — The Lunantics

  Amicus — Stealth Rogue — The Lunantics

  “Wonderful,” the receptionist said. “You are now a registered party with full Iron-rank privileges.”

  “Go team!” Luna cheered. “Great party name, Si—Ami.”

  “I don’t want to be called Lime,” Emil muttered.

  “You may now access the job board, amenities, and guild shop,” the receptionist finished.

  “Shopping?” Luna gasped. “Fantasy adventurer shopping?!”

  They barely made it ten steps away from the counter before passing a heavy iron-banded door marked BARRACKS – AUTHORIZED ADVENTURERS ONLY. A man in a neatly pressed tunic leaned beside it, arms folded.

  “Morning! First week?” he asked cheerfully, eyeing their fresh badges.

  Emil nodded. “We were heading to the shops, but… what’s in there?”

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  “Barracks,” the man said, tapping the door. “Free lodging for Iron rank and above. Communal bunks, communal showers, breakfast.”

  “Free as in free-free?” Luna asked.

  “Free-free,” he confirmed. “Porridge. Sometimes with raisins.”

  He opened the door.

  It looked exactly like a hostel truck-stop hybrid that had been dropped into a stone fortress. Rows of stacked bunks. Steaming curtained showers. A massive cauldron of beige, aggressively unseasoned porridge. Exhausted adventurers staring into bowls like they were negotiating with the concept of hope.

  Emil recoiled. “Absolutely not.”

  “In a pinch,” Sica allowed, then glanced at Luna.

  “I need my party at peak performance,” Luna said solemnly. “Athlete’s foot and fantasy kennel cough would devastate our long term projections.”

  The man chuckled. “Most newcomers stay here their first year. Save on necessities to focus on getting better gear.” He gestured toward Sica. “Though you don’t seem short on equipment.”

  Sica turned and walked toward the shopping hall.

  Emil followed. “Thank you for the information.”

  “Shopping time!” Luna declared, spinning after them.

  “Good luck out there,” The man said, waving them on. The shadow of sadness flickered across the man’s face as he watched the new party set forth towards adventures unknown.

  …

  The corridor widened, brightened, and then exploded into color.

  The Guild Marketplace stretched out before them in a broad half moon, equal parts medieval bazaar, magic academy, and 90’s era mall before all shopping went online and teenagers started hanging out on Discord instead of in front of an Orange Julius. Mana lamps floated in clustered constellations overhead, each humming in a slightly different key, their glow reflecting off polished steel, enchanted glass, and rune etched signage. The air was thick with the scents of leather oil, potion fumes, hot metal, and something unmistakably fried.

  Luna rose half a meter unconsciously.

  “Yes. Yes. This is everything I wanted,” she breathed. “I am ready to economically stimulate.”

  “At least it’s all under one roof,” Sica said, giving the space an approving scan.

  Emil tilted his head back to read the hovering signboards drifting above the stalls.

  Weapons & Blades.

  Mana Potions & Alchemy.

  Armor Fitting & Repair.

  General Adventuring Supplies.

  Books, Maps, & Identification Scrolls.

  It was overwhelming.

  But in a good way.

  Luna zipped ahead, spinning excitedly. “Which one of these stalls has fantasy motorcycles with mounted grenade launchers? There has to be some kind of alcheficer around here.”

  “I’m checking the weapons counter,” Sica said, already moving.

  “Right behind you,” Emil replied, scrambling to keep up.

  The weapons stall was staffed by a bored looking dwarf whose beard was braided into the shape of a hammer. He didn’t bother looking up as they approached.

  “Lookin’ to browse or buy?”

  “Just browsing,” Sica said immediately.

  “Got the full spread,” the dwarf grunted, gesturing behind the glass.

  Daggers, shortswords, throwing knives, enchanted blades, and a handful of longbows lined the display, each locked into rune bars or resting on velvet lined mounts. The dwarf’s eyes flicked over Sica’s existing gear with a professional appreciation before he pointed toward the top shelf.

  “Need a ranged option?” he said, indicating a sleek bow etched with glowing runes. “True masterpiece. Enchanted draw assist, release acceleration, reinforcement runes throughout. One gold.”

  Emil choked. “O…one gold?!”

  Luna whispered reverently, “That bow costs a used car.”

  “Come again?” the dwarf asked.

  “I didn’t even come the first time,” Luna mumbled, rotating innocently. “We’ll just… circle back someday when we’re ocean royalty.”

  “Moon royalty,” Emil corrected. “The day gold rains from the sky is the day we’re buying that.”

  Sica stepped away before temptation could set in. She rarely carried a bow unless the mission demanded it…too obvious, too slow to draw compared to a palmed blade…nevertheless, during the boat games, she’d certainly demonstrated she had spent many many hours slinging arrows.

  The potion stall was run by a gnome perched atop a stack of books, beaming as they approached.

  “Health potions? Mana restoratives? Bug repellent? Snake repellent? Snake attractant?”

  Emil pointed at the red vials. “How much for health potions?”

  “One silver each!” the gnome said cheerfully. “Guaranteed to patch up anything short of death or the loss of more than ninety percent of your internal fluids!”

  Emil leaned closer to Sica. “Should we…?”

  “Absolutely,” she whispered back. “I don’t have any healing abilities. Let’s grab a few each.”

  “Excellent!” the gnome chirped. “And mana potions?”

  “Those might come in…” Emil began.

  “No mana potions,” Luna cut in, swooping between them. “Zero. Denied.”

  “What if we run out mid fight?” Emil argued.

  “Then eat a coin,” Luna said, genuinely offended. “Mine are more potent anyway.”

  “How much do mana potions cost?” Luna demanded.

  “One silver per dose,” the gnome replied. “Restores up to one thousand mana.”

  Luna recoiled. “That’s a terrible conversion. It costs a hundred thousand mana to make the silver to buy a potion that gives up to a thousand mana. Emil, your full mana pool is only two hundred. That’s a scam.”

  “Humans can’t eat coins,” Emil said. “We have to process them.”

  “Oh yeah?” Luna produced a copper coin from storage.

  Copper mana coin

  Consume for up to 110 mana (human food grade)

  “You just added the food grade tag,” Emil accused.

  “Well yeah, I made the whole coin too.” Luna contested. “Was keeping it right here in my magical pocket dimension coin purse inside a magic floating cylinder that a magic war artificer made Emil. It’s human food grade if I say it is”

  “That’s not something that you can just do.” He complained. “Do you know how that would change the whole basis of…”

  Sica snatched the coin and popped it into her mouth.

  *+110 mana

  “…I’ll be damned,” she muttered.

  Emil received the shared notification and fell silent.

  “Don’t ever doubt me again,” Luna growled telepathically. “I am a magical creature of whimsy and wonder.”

  “No mana potions,” Emil told the gnome, who nodded cheerfully and rang up the health vials.

  They moved on to general supplies, where a woman with arms like steel barrels acknowledged them with a nod. Rope, bedrolls, climbing hooks, mana lanterns, waterproof pouches, cooking kits, fishing gear, and several suspicious survival snacks filled the shelves.

  Sica tested a climbing hook.

  Emil examined a rune compass he did not need.

  Luna stared at a collapsible tent and gasped softly. “Y’all don’t know about s’mores.”

  They left with a coil of rope, a city and coastline map, and a small spatial pouch. Expensive at two silver, but worth it.

  Around them, adventurers argued and bragged. Dwarves boasting about capturing a runaway sheep. Two mages debating lightning versus fire in wet climates. A pair of archers getting scolded mid great bow draw as they compared muscle strength.

  Sica watched the crowd.

  Emil guarded his coin pouch.

  Luna vibrated with delight at every spark of mana.

  “We have… six silver left?” Luna whispered.

  “Roughly,” Emil confirmed. “But we’re stocked.”

  “Worth it,” Sica said.

  “And soon,” Luna added dramatically, “we will enter the minimum wage grindset phase of our careers.”

  “Entry level again…,” Emil said shaking his head.

  They left the marketplace heavier with gear and lighter in coin, heading back toward the inn that smelled like soup.

  …

  The sun was sinking when they reached The Tide’s Rest, lanterns glowing amber against the dusk. The dwarf looked up from her cauldron and smiled.

  “You look registered and well shopped,” she said. “Means the Guild treated you fair.”

  “We survived,” Emil said with a chuckle.

  Sica nodded in agreement. “You mentioned having rooms available?”

  “Aye.” The dwarf tapped ash from her pipe and sized them up with the practiced eye of someone who’d seen every possible variety of adventurer, from the bright eyed to the crispy, soot covered kind. “How many?”

  “Two,” Sica answered before Emil or Luna could speak.

  Emil nodded politely, while Luna’s glow dimmed in theatrical disappointment.

  “Still no sleepover,” she whispered dramatically.

  “I’m a light sleeper,” Sica muttered, “and you don’t sleep.”

  “Uuggghhhh, I guess I’ll have to get Emil to paint my nails then.” Luna grumbled.

  “How…,” Emil started before deciding to give up.

  The dwarf chuckled, amused but unsurprised. “Two rooms it is.”

  She slid them a small ledger along with two keys.

  “Rooms are 5 copper each per night,” she said reading over the paper with them. “70 copper for the week. The rest is just statements regarding liability and reassertion of guild affiliation.”

  Luna popped the needed coins into existence on the counter in a neat stack.

  “We will take the week in full. And a bowl of soup for these two please.”

  “Of course lass,” the dwarf said with a calming smile. “It’s seaweed stew with smoked haddock tonight.”

  Emil’s stomach growled loudly and without shame despite the mention of seaweed.

  The trio quickly checked out their rooms, simple but comfortable. Twin sized beds with a single night stand that held a small rune lamp glowing ocean blue. The table sat in front of a small window that faced the still bustling main road that led to the guild in one direction and then ocean in the other. No private toilet facilities, but there was a wash basin with warm water available in room.

  “Not bad.” Sica mused as she flipped the lamp on and off with a gentle touch.

  Emil flopped onto his mattress and sighed with absolute ease.

  “It’s so soft. We need to find out what these are made of.”

  Luna drifted in a satisfied circle.

  “I approve. The ambiance is restful. The location is perfect. And the pillows are fluffy enough to smother a mid level foe.”

  “Now you’re thinking like a rogue Luna.” Sica said teasingly, squinting her eyes at the vulnerable Emil. “Come on. Let’s get dinner before Luna can practice taking out sleeping mages.”

  …

  The common room was lively but cozy. Long wooden tables, lanterns swaying from the rafters, and the low murmur of adventurers decompressing after quests. Bowls of steaming stew lined the counters as the dwarven innkeeper ladled servings with the authority of a woman who had absolutely wrestled a sea monster at least once in her youth.

  The Lunantics took a corner table, Sica with her back to the wall, Emil and Luna facing in off to either side of her.

  Luna hovered proudly at eye level.

  “First meal as registered adventurers!”

  She thumped her casing into a wooden mug in a toast. “To loosely monitored gig work!”

  Sica clinked her spoon against her bowl.

  Emil raised his mug with a smile.

  The stew was rich and smoky, warming them from the inside out.

  Of course, the peace couldn’t last.

  A table of four copper rank adventurers sat nearby. Their chatter faded as they noticed the three newcomers wearing fresh Iron badges.

  One of them, a tall muscular man with a bow that looked as big as his ego, leaned over.

  “Well, well,” he drawled. “Look who’s newly registered.”

  His buddy snorted. “Iron rank, huh? Welcome to the absolute bottom.”

  Sica didn’t look up from her stew. “Mm.”

  The archer smirked, mistaking her lack of reaction for timidity. “Just remember, if you pull a good quest, you give us a heads up, yeah? We’ll take it off your hands. Don’t want the little rookies getting hurt.”

  Luna started laughing internally. “This is so cool!” She projected telepathically.

  “What’s cool?” Emil said pulling his head up from cowering from the confrontation.

  “This would be the start of our rivalry with a stronger party,” Luna explained. “We would go neck and neck with them by completing harder and harder quests as we grew in power until a quest that was too hard to complete alone came about and we would have to join forces for the greater good causing our two parties to realize that we aren’t so different after all and we would be friends after!”

  “What’s wrong with your lamp?” The archer asked at Emil as he chuckled at Luna’s rant.

  “Too bad they wouldn’t be good rivals since they stink and are bad at everything.” Luna projected sadly. “I can’t imagine being stuck at copper rank and taking it out on others instead of facing my own inadequacies. SMshake my head” This time Luna projected her statements to include the other party.

  “Watch your mouth newbie!” The archer yelled getting right up close to Luna.

  Emil bristled, ready to react to the copper party, but Sica placed one quiet hand on his arm.

  She finally lifted her eyes, calm and sharp.

  “Luna’s right, they’re not worth our time.”

  The table of copper adventurers froze feeling the power behind her words.

  Sica had identified the archer long before he had approached.

  *Archer Lvl 6.

  She had 8 levels on him and all the extra skills and power that entailed.

  Sica quick cast a spell she loved to use in close range like this.

  *Blindness- All foes within 20ft lose their sense of vision for 1 second. Cost: 10 mana per second.

  Normally she would have started dashing around and cutting throats, but that would surely get them in trouble.

  Once regaining his sight after a disorienting second of blindness the archer backed away from their table slowly.

  “S…sorry”.

  “Sorry is right, ” Luna scolded. “We are trying to plan our day for tomorrow and you are being annoying.”

  Sica stood, taking her empty bowl. “We’ll see you around.”

  Emil followed, tense. Luna floated after them, glowing smugly.

  Behind them, the rude group muttered irritably but didn’t pursue. The innkeeper shot the copper adventurers a warning glance, and they sank back into silence.

  …

  When true night was finally settling over Rivamar, waves whispering through the open window, Emil stretched and sighed.

  “Tomorrow we start quests.”

  “Tomorrow we get paid,” Luna said.

  Sica was busy checking the lock on Emil and Luna’s door. “Tomorrow we will progress.”

  They eventually settled into their chosen spaces,

  Emil into his bed,

  Sica into her rituals in her own room,

  and Luna in a gentle float beside her and Emil’s window silently cranking out coins using their combined regen.

  The trio seemed to feel ready for whatever the morning would bring. They seemed even relaxed, well as relaxed as one could be while on the run.